Worried About A Weyrling

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 31st July 2015

Characters: Kapera, L'pin
Description: Kapera brings concerns about a weyrling to L'pin.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 11 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentioned: Cyradis, Panitath, J'ackt

Kapera

}:Riyanth's wishes to speak to you soon,:{ Chaneth sent to L'pin.

The bluerider looked up from the hides on his desk, wondering what the
goldrider wanted with him. **Tell her I'm in my office and available
any time,** he responded.

By the time the goldrider arrived, the Weyrlingmaster's Third had
cleared the softer chair for her to sit on and had scrounged up a
quick snack from the kitchen. He was pouring himself more klah when
she came in.

Of course Kapera had spoken with the man before. After all, goldriders
should know the men who trained their clutches. She'd spokn with him a
few times since her own clutch had hatched, but for whatever reason,
it had never been in his office. So the goldrider came into his office
and stopped in her tracks to look around with undisguised curiosity.

It was a small office, the main notable feature being a medium sized
desk with a small chair behind it. There were two chairs in front of
it, one a simple wood affair that was now covered with hides, and one
with cushioning that was clean. A small table was shoved into the
corner, with a pot resting on it. There were hides and little
knicknacks scattered around the room. She wondered about some of them.

"Welcome to my office, Weyrwoman's Second. What can I do for you
today?" L'pin asked. He extended a cup towards her in offer.

She took it to be polite and settled into the free chair. "I wanted to
talk to you about the current clutch of senior weyrlings."

"Panitath's clutch, not yours?" L'pin asked with some surprise.

He generally expected junior goldriders to only be interested in their
own weyrlings, and so far Kapera had seemed interested only in the
progress of her group. If there was a concern about Panitath's, why
wasn't Cyradis here, he wondered? Unless one of them had done
something wrong... His mind filled with sudden visions of disaster
inflicted upon the goldriders.

"One of the weyrlings spoke to me the other day after the queen's wing
was done. She's very concerned about the Blooding, which you're
planning for this next Fall, correct?"

L'pin nodded. "Most of the class is Blooding in three days."

"Which ones aren't?" the goldrider asked.

"J'ackt is still on restrictions and won't be. N'val is too young to
actually join the fighting wings. R'keh and Lekia won't be for
performance reasons."

"That seems like a lot." Four held back from one clutch? Seemed like a
lot. Of course, J'ackt's case was special, and age was a factor.
Still. Maybe Cyradis was right about them needing to figure out how to
prepare the candidates better...

"What about Satai?" That was the weyrling Kapera had spoken to.

"Talureth is a quick green and she does a very good job of being
perfectly in position. Satai's a little hesitant and prone to
over-thinking until she worries. Once drills begin, she's too busy
reacting to overthink and they do fine. Some paint coverage in the
rope drills, but that happens to every one of them."

Competent in a drill, but nervous outside of it. That tracked with
what Kapera had seen. "She was talking to me about Fall and asking how
much Thread the queen's wing generally sees. I talked a bit about how
our wing differs from the regular wing, and when I mentioned that
injured riders fly with us, she got caught up on the idea of being
badly injured. Like the weyrling who was burned."

L'pin pressed his lips together at the goldrider's words. "I had
thought she was handling it better than that. That drill shook
everyone. Their performance was off for a few days, but they'd been
steadying up."

"You said she does better in drills - she might be pulling on
Talureth's confidence, and when the drill ends she loses it," she
suggested. Threadfall was one of the times when the dragon's instinct
was most strong and their feelings were most likely to subsume their
rider's.

The goldrider's words made sense to L'pin. He wished he'd seen it
earlier. But he'd been so busy focusing on the obvious problem cases
in the class, the ones who were underperforming in drills like R'keh
and Lekiah. Satai might have had those early missteps with her hair
and her panic at the flights lecture, but since then she hadn't stood
out in either direction.

"I'll have to talk to her. If I don't think she's fit, I'll keep her
out of the first firestone delivery." Though he thought that would be
a terrible blow to her confidence. Still, better ashamed than dead...

"If she does fly sacks, have her deliver to my wing. There's much less
risk down there and maybe seeing the less-chaotic version will
stabilize her."

L'pin nodded. "I appreciate your concerns and the fact that you
brought them to me."

"Not a problem," the goldrider said. "Oh, and how's my clutch doing?"

"Very well. There's some very promising youths in it. The mating
flight lecture will be at the beginning of next month, would you be
interested in doing the talk about a female rider's role? Or I could
write down a few other classes you could be involved in."

"Please do send me the list, I'd be curious to participate," she said.

"I'll have that to you before Turnover," he promised.

She set the untouched klah cup down and stood up to take her leave.
"Good luck with this Blooding, L'pin."

Last updated on the August 1st 2015

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Worried About A Weyrling