Hands-On Experience

Writers: Corrin, Duskdog, Shawna
Date Posted: 29th April 2024

Characters: H'taysh, R'bain, N'kevyn
Description: Haysh and Rabain get some hands on experience with dragon care
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 11, day 14 of Turn 11

H'taysh

R'bain

N'kevyn

It was Haysh’s idea. Now that they were candidates, he said, it’d be
good to get some hands-on experience with dragons. Rabain refrained
from reminding his friend that they wouldn’t _need_ hands on
experience, because the search dragon never singled them out as having
rider potential. It was fun to pretend. To dream. So when they saw a
shining bronze being bathed in the lake, Rabain ran over, waving
vigorously to catch the rider’s attention.

“Hey! Hey, sir! Do you need any help with your dragon?”

N'kevyn was being very slow and leisurely about bathing said bronze,
confident that if he waited just long enough, surely some eager youth
would appear and help with the tedious task of bathing the giant lump
of bronze that was his dragon. Avicath, for his part, was half
napping.

As he finally resigned himself to actually doing his own work, N'kevyn
heard the greeting. Turning towards the two, he spent a moment looking
them over, as if considering whether they were fit for the job, then
gave a wide smile, "From two strapping young boys like you? Yes, I
think I do. He's very large, you see." On cue and with a silent mental
grumble, Avicath stood up to his full height, shaking off water like a
dog. "It's a lot of work for one person, bathing my Avicath. And you
are?"

"I'm Haysh!" Haysh (obviously) introduced, kicking his boots off so
that he could splash right down into the shallows without hesitation.
"Thanks, sir, we'll definitely do a good job for you and... uh,
Avicath!" He looked up and up and up at the bronze. He'd seen plenty
of dragons around the Weyrhold, of course, but he didn't often get to
see one of the larger dragons so close. "Hi Avicath, _fang_ you for
letting us help. I don't know what I'm doing really, but I'll _wing_
it."

He grinned stupidly, hoping for a reaction from the dragon.

"And I'm Rabain," called Rabain as he ripped off his boots and
splashed in after his friend. "We're candidates." It still felt new
and fancy to say.

Avicath turned to stare down at Haysh, and as N'kevyn explained the
joke to him, he brought his face down level with the youth. Then he
snorted at him.

"He thinks that was very funny," N'kevyn said helpfully. "Have you
done this before, at all? I know when I was a candidate it got to be
almost boring."

Having thoroughly impressed everyone with his size, Avicath settled
back into a lounge in the lake, making him a still large but slightly
more manageable mass to deal with.

Gesturing them both to join in on the scrubbing, N'kevyn said, "and
I'm N'kevyn. Have you been candidates for long?"

"We just started the other day," said Rabain. Rooting through the
ample supplies N'kevyn brought, (conveniently enough for _several_
helpers), he took a rag and tossed one to Haysh.
"The weyrwoman herself said we could stand." It sounded better when he
said it that way.

"Yeah -- we've been here for a while, though," Haysh confirmed. He
patted the dragon with his free hand, catching the rag with the other.
Avicath thought his dumb jokes were funny, and that was the greatest
validation of his suitability to be a rider (or literally anything, to
be honest) that he could possibly ever have -- he'd be on cloud nine
all day, or maybe all month, or all turn. "Working on the Weyr. But
the Weyrwoman could tell we'd make great riders."

Okay, that wasn't _exactly_ how it had gone down, but Haysh thought it
was _implied_.

"How's the best way to do it, bronzerider sir? Does he like a real
hard scrub? His hide's a lot softer than I thought it would be." He
patted Avicath again. "I'm so glad you're moisturized, buddy."

"Well, you did a good job. We just came from High Reaches and my
weyrmate is _very_ impressed with the Weyr. She's particularly
impressed with the lights." N'kevyn started demonstrating proper
scrubbing technique, "You can scrub pretty hard on most of him. You
want to be a little softer around the joints where it's a little more
tender, but he's a lot bigger than you- you don't need to worry about
hurting him. So, what color are you hoping for?" It was a safe enough
question with most candidates.

Haysh lit up like an overfilled glow basket. "Oh, _any_ would be
_amazing_! They're all so pretty. Well, and tough. You can be pretty
and tough at the same time! I mean, just look at me." He tossed his
head, sweeping back imaginary long locks with one hand. "Anyway, yeah.
I'd just be honored to get _anything_. I mean, I know what they say
about... you know... the greens. But, uh..." He trailed off, then
laughed awkwardly. "Whatever is fine. Everything always turns out for
the best!" He glanced at his friend. "I'll bet you could get a bronze,
Rabain. What do you think?"

Rabain was doing his best to scrub with both strength and gentleness
-- as if that would impress the dragon -- and had actually fallen into
rhythm like he was sanding a cabinet for his master. It was a familiar
enough motion, though, wetter and with a far larger surface area. Good
thing dragonhide is strong.

"I'd _like_ a bronze," he agreed, standing a big straighter and trying
to affect how he thought a bronze candidate should look. "I think we'd
_both_ be great on bronze. They're..." He paused, trying to think of
what the songs actually said bronzeriders really were. "They're for
the best and bravest of men, right? That's us!" Privately he thought
he might be a bit _more_ bronze than his buddy, but loyalty forbid
mentioning that. "Do you have any tips, sir? How'd you get your
dragon?"

"They say things about greens?" N'kevyn feigned surprise and
confusion. As they settled into the work, he let his own movements
slow.

"Oh, I just went out there confident, and with a goal. Wasn't my first
hatching, so it wasn't a guarantee, but Avicath liked what he felt in
me, I guess." He gave the bronze's neck an affectionate pat.

Confidence. A goal. Well, anyone could do that! What made this man
stand out to the bronze? Was that really all it took? Rabain peered
skeptically over at the bearded rider from his spot by the dragon's
foreleg. "What'd you do different from the first hatching?" Maybe
there was a trick there.

Haysh scrubbed, thoughts swirling through his head. He had confidence,
sure, in spades. A goal in mind? Well yeah -- Impress a dragon! Rabain
had a good question, though.

"Yeah," he said. "And was _bronze_ your goal? How come a green or blue
or brown didn't like what you were instead?"

"Different? Nothing. Avicath just wasn't in that hatching. Dragons are
all different- not Impressing doesn't mean you did anything wrong, it
just means there wasn't a good match there." He considered for a
minute, "Well, I wanted to impress a girl, and I figured she'd be
impressed by a nice big dragon. There was a big, strapping brown I had
my eye on, but Avicath wasn't having any of that. I wanted a dragon to
show off, and he wanted to be shown off." Lowering his voice as if
there were any way the dragon wouldn't hear him, N'levyn confided, "My
Avi here is a little vain." The dragon snorted. "Of course, it's not
vanity if it's true," he amended.

"So... it's true what they say? That the baby dragons can like... see
inside you? Not your guts, I mean. Your head." It didn't occur to
Haysh for even a second that this was something he should be nervous
about, or afraid of. Why would he? He had nothing to hide, and no
sense of his own thoughts being sacred or even private. "Like, if I
want a... a fun dragon, and there's a fun dragon out on the Sands, it
might see that and pick me?"

"It's true. I'm sure there's traits all dragons look for-- you'll have
to fight Threadfall, so I imagine they all want someone who's brave,
but beyond that, I think so. I've met enough pairs that just make
sense that I think dragons look for a compatible personality," N'kevyn
liked to think that, at least.

Rabain's energetic scrubbing slowed. "So you need to be brave, but
after that... That's it? It's just down to whether there happens to be
a dragon that likes your style that day?" He thought there was some
more trick or magic to it than that. It didn't sound like there was
anything he could _do_ about impressing. Besides getting on the sands.

"I'm sure there's some other traits they look for- you'll want to pay
attention to what they teach the candidates. There's whatever it is
the search dragons can feel, but Avicath doesn't have that talent, so
I can't help you there. But, I think beyond the basics, I think it's
just up to whether a dragon likes what it feels from you.

Aaaand that's why they were friends. Rabain's disappointment lightened
in the face of Haysh's optimism, and he laughed. "Yeah, that'd get me
too!" It still felt weird to hear that dragons were maybe looking for
something relatively mundane, but it was nice to think there was
something he could do. He could definitely think hard about wanting a
dragon and feeding it. He fed a runner beast before. He could also be
Brave and Confident. He could-- He could do all that, but he couldn't
do anything about the fact that no search dragon actually singled him
out.

"What _do_ search dragon feel?" he asked. "And are they ever wrong?"

"Sorry, kid. That's a question for your weyrlingstaff. Like I said,
Avicath has no talent for that kind of thing. Or maybe one of the
Weyr's searchriders? Whoever gave you your tokens would probably be
happy to talk to you."

Haysh's sudden laughter was nervous and awkward. "Oh yeah, that's
probably a good idea! We'll definitely do that!"

He hadn't been ashamed not to be _traditionally_ Searched, until now.
After all, the Weyrwoman said they could Stand, and that said
something, right? Surely she saw something in them! But in this
moment, in front of this bronzerider and taking in all of his advice,
it suddenly seemed like a great barrier to Impression, and something
he'd rather not share. In fact, he'd rather not think about it at all.

"Yeah, we'll do that. Thanks," echoed Rabain more seriously. There may
be no token or search rider to ask, but he resolved then to ask the
weyrlingstaff. He wanted to know what was so different about Arlin and
Lenorin that they got picked out a Turn ago.

"Well, you two are naturals at this. I'm just going to leave you to it
while I go get the supplies for giving him a good oiling, if that's
alright with you?" N'kevyn didn't wait for an answer, backing out of
the water and heading in the direction not of bathing supplies, but of
a nice leisurely snack.

Last updated on the April 30th 2024

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Hands-On Experience