Weyrling Survivor (4/6)
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: Aaron, Corrin, Duskdog, Estelle, Halyonix, Heather, Iluva, Sia
Date Posted: 13th May 2025
Characters: L'kayric, Sanvi, Katora, Rh'din, Z'renh, A'ris, Halia, E'kirim, Zaphare, S'yen, K'yne, Sybana, M'rhas, A'ten
Description: The first DFW Survivor challenge: the firestone toss!
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 5, day 22 of Turn 12
L’kayric surveyed his team, calculating in his head who he thought the
strongest performers in firestone-tossing were.
“I’m thinking we alternate -- beginning, middle, and end with the best
at the toss, and anyone who’s a little weaker at it right now in
between those three,” he said. “Probably the best in the middle. My
skills are solid -- I’ll go last.”
“I’ll go first,” Katora offered with a determined look on her face.
She might not be as strong as the boys but she wasn’t as weak-muscled
as some of the other girls.
Sanvi shrugged. “Suit yourself.” Firestone tossing was similar enough
to hauling sacks of flour that it was something that she could
actually do. She stepped into line and let the others arrange
themselves around her.
“I’ll go in the middle; that should even out our strength more, and I
can throw more than once, or catch, if we need to.” Rh’din said, and
took his place.
“Looks like you've got it all figured out,” said Z’renh. “I'll go
here. How's that?”
L’kayric looked down the line, nodding. “I think we’ve got it. I feel
good about this!”
Muscled from Turns of manual labor, A’ris looked at his team. “I think
I should be the first toss. Start with momentum? And then maybe S’yen,
Zaphare, Halia, and end with you, E’kirim?”
“Fine by me,” Halia shrugged.
“Sounds fine,” Zaphare agreed. She didn’t really care who took over
and led this show, so long as it wasn’t her. “I promise not to bean
you in the face,” she added, for Halia’s sake.
“Thanks, ‘preciate it.”
“Whatever,” S’yen muttered.
"We can swap if we need to." E'kirim said with a shrug. He wasn't
entirely sure if the best spot for him and A'ris were at the ends, but
he didn't care enough to talk over A'ris. He clapped S'yen hard on the
back again, "C'mon buddy, it'll be harder for us to win if you don't
work that stick out of where you got it lodged."
S’yen scowled. “It’s sharding early, it’s freezing cold, we’re doing
this stupid games thing, I haven’t had sex in sevendays, and you want
to be all sunshine and rainbows,” he snapped in a low, irritated tone.
“Can we get this _over_ with?”
K'yne placed the whistle between his teeth. “Three, two, one!” And a
shrill whistle pierced the air.
Grimacing, Sybana lifted the sack of firestone at the starting line
and did her best to pitch it to M'rhas. It fell short by a few feet,
landing with an undignified thud in the dirt.
M'rhas was expecting speedy efficiency, and the disappointing reality
could be read plainly on his face, his hands and stance still
outstretched to make the catch. He blew an exhale and remembered this
wasn't one of his brothers but the delicate little gold weyrling,
clunkily lobbing it next to her. “Okay, go again!”
Next to her indeed. Sybana made no attempt to catch it and, in fact,
flinched the moment it flew her way. But besides her nonexistent
effort to catch, she did seem to be trying. As soon as it thunked to
the dirt she rushed to pick it up and, after a moment to adjust her
grip, hefted it back. It flew better this time, out of sheer dint of
effort--the technique hadn’t improved--it was catchable with some
effort from M’rhas.
The rest of her throws, barring one more miserable failure, were all
like that. Catchable, if M’rhas worked hard on his end.
M'rhas was not expecting it to go so well the second time and found
himself running before he even really knew why. Amazingly he caught
it, hard and awkward, but too far down his arms to get a decent grip
and it slid clunkily to the ground. “Argh! FLAMING CRACKDUST!” The
yelling, as deafening as it was, did seem to help some, at least in
his eyes, as he caught the next one with the same amount of work but a
much better result.
After that his mood was much improved, finding a groove that made him
work, though honestly he was happy to, as long as they won of course.
“Heads up, A'ten!” M'rhas shouted as the next bag flew out of his
arms" just hopefully not too late.
After watching the first throws, A’ten had not expected anything to
come his way for a while and began idly watching Katora and Sanvi on
the next team over - until he heard his name. He yelped, seeing a
heavy sack descending towards him and just managed to turn into it in
time, staggering backwards under the weight. Still, a catch was a
catch, dignified or not. “Okay, Nosarre!” He swung it back and sent it
sailing towards the next weyrling in line.
Katora used a mixture of strength and inertia to get hers moving,
putting her wiry frame to work. With a soft grunt, she tossed the sack
to Sanvi and then moved to grab the next one.
“Oof.” Sanvi caught the sack then turned and threw it to Rh’din.
Firestone sacks were harder and lumpier than flour sacks, and
generally the Kitchens frowned on throwing anything.
Rh’din didn’t stagger, though it was a near thing. He did quietly oof,
and almost fumbled it, but recovered and tossed it onward to the next
person on their team-- more gently than Sanvi had. “Catch!”
A’ris swiveled, grabbed a heavy sack, and chucked it at S’yen at
breakneck speed. He didn’t even watch to see if the blue Weyrling
caught it, he was already turning to grab another bag from the pile.
“Watch it!” S’yen shouted as he ducked the sack entirely. “Are you
_trying_ to take my head off?!”
“We’ve got to WIN!” The brown Weyrling shouted in return before
hucking another sack of firestone.
“Not at the cost of death!” S’yen shot back. His words were accented
with a grunt as he caught the sack.
“More throw, less whine,” Zaphare called, gesturing for him to toss.
“Think of it this way: the quicker somebody wins, the faster this is
all over. May as well be us, since we can’t control everybody else.”
S’yen didn’t argue with her logic but his displeasure at having to do
it at all still showed on his face as he threw the sack.
Zaphare stumbled, barely hanging onto the sack. Nobody was going to
give her special points for being graceful about it, but at least she
didn’t drop it. “Here it comes!” She took a few seconds to get a good
grip on it before tossing it on to Halia. Without trying to knock her
out with it, just as she promised.
“Oof.” Halia managed the catch alright. It helped that Zaphare gave
her a heads up since her attention had started to drift during S’yen
and A'ris' little spat. Quickly she pivoted and chucked it on towards
E’kirim.
It had taken a bit of time to get the balling rolling, and E'kirim's
thoughts had also drifted off as the other teams started to move.
L'kayric had stepped forward to catch his own firestone sack, and the
muscles in his back and shoulders worked _hard_ to keep the firestone
airborne…and so he didn't see his own sack Halia sent hurtling towards
him. It hit him square in the chest and he flew backwards, landing on
his back with an 'oof' as the breath knocked out of him. He scrambled
back to his feet, dropping the firestone bag next to him. "I'm fine!"
He called, and then added quickly after, "It didn't hit the ground,
keep going!"
“We’re almost there!” A’ris called down his line as he chucked another
sack at S’yen’s head. There was a snarky squawk from the bluerider as
he caught the sack.
Finally, the whistle blew.
“Team Three,” and then K’yne added with an eyeroll, “Daddies’
Favorites, wins the firestone toss! Let’s move on to the next round!”
Last updated on the May 19th 2025