On Flights - A Goldrider's View (1/2)

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 12th April 2017

Characters: A'vel, Kapera
Description: A'vel talks to Kapera about dragon flights and human relationships.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 7 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: Cyradis, Loseth (N'vanik), Kopth (J'nus)
Notes: Part 5 in the "A'vel's First Flight" sequence

Kapera

As soon as Riyanth had told her that she needed to meet with a senior
weyrling, Kapera had headed to pick up his records from the
weyrlingmasters, then to take up space in the office and wait for him to
arrive. She'd read over his records in the mean time, trying to get a feel
for why he might be coming to see her. Everything L'pin and the other
weyrlingstaff had written about him was high praise. As a former Harper,
he was educated, and reviews marked him as insightful, helpful,
cooperative. A star pupil in a way she'd never been.

It was when she asked Riyanth that she learned why he needed help.
Apparently his green had reached out to her asking about how humans mated
– specifically, how riders chose their mates. Riyanth had provided her
sage wisdom on how dragon flights work, and then had apparently provided
commentary on Kapera's own romantic life, as it related to Riyanth's
opinions of the kinds of partners dragonriders could or should choose.

It took some untangling – the way gold dragons thought could be so _alien
_ sometimes, Kapera thought – but she finally got the impression that the
reason Tsogath was asking was that A'vel was scared about flights, and he
hadn't gotten experience. That gave her a place to start gathering her
thoughts to come up with sage advice to give him.

**Sage advice. From me?** Kapera mentally snorted at the thought. Her own
relationships were a disasterous mess. And her experience with flights had
been throwing herself into them headlong in order to enjoy the enhanced
sex. So really, A'vel was coming to the wrong goldrider. He should be
speaking to Cyradis…

But Tsogath had asked Riyanth. Well, she could give this a shot, and then
talk to Cyradis about it later.

Outside, in the hallway, A'vel took a deep breath before the door to the
goldrider office, then knocked on the office door. "Weyrwoman? It's
weyrling A'vel," he called.

"Come in," Kapera called. "Feel free to take a seat," she added when he
opened the door.

A'vel shuffled in and took the seat. "Thank you for seeing me and my duty
to Riyanth."

"It's not a problem, I didn't have restday plans," the goldrider told him.
"Riyanth is doing well. She told me she was speaking to Tsogath about
something and that you should talk to me?"

"Yes ma'am," A'vel said. "It's embarrassing though and really, I'm sorry
for Tsogath bothering Riyanth. She should have talked to an older green
instead."

"Why is that?" Kapera asked, interested in seeing how the weyrling would
introduce the topic.

"Well… My class is starting to have their mating flights and it's
bothering me," A'vel mumbled. "And Tsogath noticed that it was and she
asked Riyanth about flights. Both in dragons and in humans."

"The chromatic colors tend to look towards the metallics for answers, and
a bronze isn't going to understand rising like a gold. I can't imagine
Loseth or Kopth giving her good advice," Kapera said.

A'vel choked at the idea of Tsogath asking Loseth about flights. He could
picture it, too, given how much the green looked up to the Weyrleader's
bronze. Which made sense – he was the father of her clutch, and A'vel
looked up to N'vanik – but was also horrifying because _ he was her
father_ and also bronzes chased greens, and eugh.

"I can't see it going well either," he managed to say in a strangled tone.

"So you see, it makes sense that she asked Riyanth instead of another
green. An older gold will understand flights well enough. Do you think
Tsogath's curiosity was satisfied?" she asked him.

A'vel took a moment to review the conversation he'd had with Tsogath about
it. "I think she got what she needed to know about her flight from
Riyanth," he said. "But I don't think that she got all of the answers she
wanted about the human part."

Kapera began a laughing fit when he said that, which was not what A'vel
expected. "I'm not laughing at you," the goldrider told him after the
moment had passed.

"It's just that dragons have such a different perspective from us. They
think about it in the simple terms of their own mating. The females rise,
the males chase and one catches. Then it's over until the next rise. Now,
sometimes two dragons have an attachment to each other. If the riders are
weyrmates, maybe they curl together and seek each other out often. Maybe a
female prefers a certain male most of the time. But they don't seem to
establish an affection-based weyrmating in the way that we humans
establish it or a marriage."

"So I'm not sure Riyanth really _ understands _ how human relationships
work. Any advice she gave Tsogath might have made some sense to your
green, from a dragon's perspective. But from ours, it's probably
ridiculous."

}:I am not ridiculous,:{ Riyanth said to her rider and Tsogath with a huff.

**Yes, you are,** Kapera thought, but it was affectionate.

"For example, Riyanth doesn't think about the part where humans may want
to form longer-term attachments. She sees a sex act as a single instance
of mating, like one of her flights. And she prefers swapping males, so she
doesn't understand why some people choose a preferred partner. But she
also looks at things in terms of status. She wouldn't let herself be
caught by a brown, and blues are never going to manage it. And if she's
important, I'm important. So she considers acceptable partners for me
through the level of their status. I can sleep with any bronzerider and
it's fine. But a threesome with two blueriders isn't okay, because blues
are too low in status for a gold to consider acceptable. As you can see,
dragon logic is not quite like ours," she concluded.

Last updated on the April 25th 2017

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On Flights - A Goldrider's View (1/2)