Rather You Than Me

Writers: Jane, Rochelle
Date Posted: 23rd September 2009

Characters: Ariau, T'kanu
Description: Ariau and T'kanu talk as he helps her with her HNO3 tanks.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 12 of Turn 5

"T'kanu? Can you give me a hand with this tank?" Ariau asked the
neighboring brownrider. Around them the rest of the wing was preparing
for Fall in controlled chaos, and T'kanu looked ready enough to give her
a hand while she finished securing her load to Alabieth.

"Sure," the brownrider said amiably, standing by the young gold dragon and her rider. "You want me to hold it up there?"

"Please." She shifted the weight of the tank in her arms to the side, and eased it back down to the ground. She could do this herself of course, but it was _so_ much easier with someone else to help. Grabbing the appropriate strap, she hoisted herself up so the brownrider could hand her the tank.

"Ready?" As with many of the female greenriders the young woman didn't look sturdy enough for the lifting and hauling of dragonrider life, but most of them seemed to manage, not the least his own two daughters both serving in Torrent Wing.

"Ready." She affirmed once she was secure enough she wasn't going to fall in the process of wrestling with the tanks. "Hand them up, please."

He boosted the first tank and waited for her to take it from him. "How hard is it to coordinate the flame and the flight attitude?" he asked curiously. With his own dragon it was fairly basic - and much of it done by the brown's own instincts - but that wasn't how it was for Ariau and her gold.

Ariau waited until she'd secured the tank before answering. "Not that hard, thankfully." She said with a little laugh. "But it did take _lots_ of practice."

"Rather you than me. Ready for the next?" As he hoisted the second tank up to the young woman he noticed again the differences in height between her flameless gold and his brown. Regardless, he was (as he said) glad that Ailinth flamed. It just made more _sense_ to him.

"Yes." She reached down to take the tank he handed up, and wrestled it into place. "Can you hold it steady for just a second...?"

T'kanu waited while the young woman secured the tank. "Would you rather have a dragon that flames?"

"Not if it wasn't Alabieth." She finished the last fastener, and double checked the straps securing it before looking down at him with a embarrassed smile. "But I won't lie. I did wish Ala' could somehow gain the ability to flame _a_lot_ when I was learning how to use these things." She tapped the tank she'd just secured lightly. "It was hard to face the fact that in a weyr full of flaming dragons, I have to get close to Thread with nothing more than a drippy stick. Instead of Ala' attacking Thread from a distance, I have to protect her because sometimes she has to put herself directly under a strand so I can flame it."

T'kanu nodded. "Ailinth protects himself but you have to protect Alabieth." he hadn't really considered how unnatural that was - from the perspective of a fighting dragon's rider. "That's a big responsibility."

"Big enough." Ariau agreed with a weak smile, her gesture taking in the gold's considerable bulk. "And in more ways than one. Now I'm just glad we don't fly the upper levels."

"That would be silly with a flame-thrower, though if a dragon the size of a gold flamed we could certainly cut a swathe through Thread." He made a whooshing noise and grinned.

Ariau laughed a little. "You have no idea how often I've dreamed about that. But can you imagine the amount of firestone we'd go through?"

"I always thought the whole 'flying firestone into Thread' arrangement could be looked at so if we had flaming golds we probably would come up with a better idea."

"Honestly, I'm not sure what would be a better idea than what we have already." Ariau said with a contemplative frown.

"What, all those extra people milling around in Threadfall, throwing heavy sacks that could knock a rider off a dragon or dislocate an arm if they're caught wrong? How about something like dividing the wings into smaller sections and have them return to a base point and feed firestone on the ground where they're safe? When they come back into 'Fall the next lot go, much like our greenriders work now, for different reasons."

"We don't have enough dragons for that yet." Ariau pointed out. "Maybe in another ten turns, but not yet." She grimaced. "I guess that's where Alabieth and I come in."

"That would be about it," he agreed with a grin. "It's not a bad lot in life."

"I'm going to have you tell me that again when Ala's broody over eggs and I'm going crazy because I'm grounded until they hatch." Ariau said wryly, patting the gold's neck when she rumbled.

"I'll come and visit my wingmate on the Hatching Grounds and tell her all about the adventures we're having in the air, shall I?" he offered.

"Why not? If Alabieth doesn't mind, of course. I have no idea how broody she's going to be." Ariau shrugged.

"First clutch." He nodded. "Always an odd time for them. So, are you ready now? Got everything you need?"

"I hope so." She had prepared as well as she could for the flight, and she'd received specialized training of course, but she was still nervous about the whole affair. So much was riding on her ability to control the gold, and she was terrified that they wouldn't be able to live up to expectations. "There's no way to really know until it happens though."

"Don't be so negative. You're both doing well - and now we need to go and do that 'well' in the air. Good luck, weyrwoman."

She tightened her grip on the strap, but smiled. Her nerves always lasted until well after Fall, but she'd gotten used to them. "The same to you, T'kanu. And thanks for the help."

Last updated on the September 27th 2009

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Rather You Than Me