The Duty Talk
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Francesca, Heather, Iluva, Yvonne
Date Posted: 18th February 2025
Characters: K'lvin, F'lin, N'kayden, L'rin, A'radess, Y'var
Description: As the Weyrleader’s Wingsecond, F’lin talks with the bronze and brown Weyrlings about duty.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 3, day 6 of Turn 12
Notes: Notes: N'kayden snickers, "You said _doody_."
“F’lin, thank you again for agreeing to come and talk to the boys. It’s a pretty good group. Well, except for N’kayden. He’s a bit silly, yet, but maybe he’ll grow out of it.” The Weyrlingmaster looked down at his roster and then glanced at the clock, which showed they still had a few minutes before the bronze and brown Weyrlings would show up.
The Wingsecond hid a grin. From the sounds of it, the redfruit hadn’t fallen far from the tree. “I’m looking forward to meeting them.”
Y’var arrived early for the lesson and chose a seat towards the front of the classroom, like he’d been doing all through weyrlinghood. It was very interesting that he’d be seeing F’lin as their teacher. He was a fellow Bluff-er, with a famous grandmother, and who had already achieved a solid rank of his own - he’d be good to learn this lesson from.
N’kayden was a bit jealous. He knew his blue and green Weyrling counterparts were sitting through Search etiquette lessons today. That sounded far more interesting to him than listening to some boring ole talk about “duty.” He’d die if he heard K’lvin say the word “duty” one more time.
}:Duty, duty, duty.:{ Aberath chimed in with a dragonic snicker.
“Weyrlingmaster, Wingsecond,” he said _dutifully_ to the two bronzeriders as he entered the classroom.
For his part, L'rin was excited to be grouped with the bronzeriders and interested to hear what a talk on duty entailed. He nodded to the bronzeriders at the front of the room and took a seat.
A’radess’ hair was in mild disarray when he slid into a seat. Neither he nor Tarvanneth had wanted to end their flight and return to the Weyr when they did, but now that Tarvanneth was somewhere warm and reluctantly surrendering to a nap’s gravity, it was a bit easier to sit and listen to the ever-changing list of expectations ahead. “Good day, sirs,” he greeted. Though the young bronze didn’t see the point in a lot of what A’radess learned in classrooms, at least not at first, A’radess was feeling more optimistic.
“Thank you all for being on time. I’m going to take a seat in the back as Wingsecond F’lin talks to you about the realities of being a bronzerider in the Weyr. Give him your full attention.” The last sentence was directed straight at N’kayden, who was already counting ceiling tiles.
The brown Weyrling straightened in his chair. “Yes, sir,” he murmured.
F’lin stepped forward. “It’s good to meet you all before you join the fighting Wings. K’lvin invited me to talk about what a Wingleader actually does. At some point in your lives any one of you here might be wearing knots, and even if you don’t you need to understand what your Wingleaders do each day to keep the fighting Wings sound and safe.
“And, to be honest with you, what a Wingleader actually does involves a lot of politics, thought and hidework. I’ll start with the obvious one. Who can tell me what a Wingleader considers when they are putting together a trio?”
Y’var raised his hand. “A mixture of skills and personalities. Not pairing together two riders or their dragons who have reasons to be overprotective of each other, or who butt heads too badly. Not pairing weyrmates, not pairing bitter rivals.”
“Correct, although we do our best to make sure that weyrmates are in different Wings. Flying with your weyrmate beside you means that you’re thinking about them and not Thread. I’ll also consider the dragons themselves. Maybe you have a green who tends to drift in high winds, or a brown who forgets to look up as often as he should. How often do you think I shuffle trios around?”
N’kayden wished he knew some answers, but all his father ever talked about was finding a firelizard clutch, or how cute him and Aydhara had been as babies, and sometimes, he talked about Avicath’s weight… In defense of course. N’kayden couldn’t think of a single reason to shuffle trios around unless there were problems. Why mess with a good thing, right?
“Once a month?” N’kayden guessed.
F’lin nodded at N’kayden. “You’re right, although generally I don’t unless I have to, which means that you’ll be likely to be in a new trio about once a month or every few months. Dragon injuries, riders getting sick or pregnant, and new riders joining the Wings all mean that I might need to rebalance the trios and nines. Most Wingleaders do try to keep trios that work well together… together. So for example, if I have a greenrider out because of a wing injury, I’ll reshuffle their trio to cover the injury, but once that green has been cleared to return to the Wing I’ll reshuffle them again to put them back into the trio that they were in before. Sometimes though, I won’t reassign someone to the same trio they were in before an injury. Can you give me one reason for why that might be?”
“Maybe because the new trio works well together?” L’rin didn’t think he’d want to get used to new partners and then have to adjust yet again; even if it was reverting back to a previous trio.
“Sometimes, yes. Sometimes it’s also because after an injury a dragon might need some extra time to get back up to the level that they were flying at before.” F’lin grinned. “So when you get reassigned into a new trio, now you know that it’s not because I hate you. It’s because you and your dragons’ strengths are needed to compliment someone else’s, or because you or your dragon need some more time before you can fly Thread safely.”
N’kayden’s head nearly slid off his hand, where it was propped by his elbow onto the desk. **Faranth’s teeth, this is more boring than I ever imagined possible.**
“Speaking of safety, one of the duties we take very seriously is a post-Threadfall debrief,” F’lin said. “After I visit the Infirmary to check up on every dragon and rider from my Wing that’s been admitted, I’ll meet with D’hol and K’ran to discuss what went right and what we could do better for the next Threadfall under those conditions. We’ll also meet with the entire Wing to do the same thing after some Threadfall days to debrief as a group. Has K’lvin taken you to a Wing debrief yet?”
Here, K’lvin jumped in, “They haven’t been to a debrief yet. Why don’t you tell them what to expect? Then I’ll make sure to get us into one this sevenday.”
“You’re welcome to come to one of Ash Wing’s. Just let me know when to expect you so I can let D’hol know.” F’lin turned back to the weyrling class. “In every debrief we start with a very basic recap of the ‘Fall. Weather, wind speeds, what time it was, who flew which portion of the ‘Fall and who was injured. From there, we’ll discuss what went well, then move on to what didn’t go as well as we’d like and what could be changed to prevent that from occurring next time. It helps us learn from our mistakes and work better together as a fighting Wing.”
K’lvin caught F’lin’s eye and gave him a nod. “Thank you, Wingsecond F’lin, for coming in. We appreciate your input and experience.” The Weyrlingmaster then turned to the brown and bronze Weyrlings. “You’re dismissed, but just know, there will be a pop quiz later on the information we covered today.”
N’kayden nearly groaned out loud but managed to disguise it into a cough.
A'radess, who had listened as attentively as the rather dry nature of the lecture allowed, slowly raised a hand. “F'lin, sir, can I ask how long you've been the Weyrleader's ‘second? Have you ever had to lead a ‘Fall on your own?”
L’rin smiled at N’kayden’s disinterest, then rolled his eyes at A’radess’ question. Didn’t he see that they were about to wrap up? He must be angling for a spot in the Weyrleader’s Wing after graduation.
“I’ve been Weyrleader’s Second since Barrier Lake Weyr started running active Wings in Thread, and I haven’t had the chance to lead a ‘Fall. But there was one time where I led the second half of the ‘Fall when the Weyrleader had to deal with an emergency. It started when…” F’lin started on a story, oblivious to the time and most of the weyrlings’ disinterest in the subject.
Last updated on the February 24th 2025