The Why Of It

Writers: Eimi, Noola
Date Posted: 29th March 2010

Characters: M'galec, Elleanna
Description: A weyrling makes a bad decision during training and faces the consequences.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 8, day 22 of Turn 5

"All right, so remember, everyone, follow our instructions exactly,"
M'galec reminded his group of weyrlings with a very severe tone. "You
can injure yourself and your lifemate by trying to do more than you
think you can. If we tell you it is time to land, you land right away.
Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Elleanna and the rest of the Weyrlings preparing to take
their first flight answered as one. The young greenrider was so
excited she could barely stand still beside her green. She'd been
looking forward to this since even before she Impressed and she knew
Seaoth was eager as well.

M'galec pointed to a young bluerider. "Right, well, R'yip, you will be
up first. Elleanna, you be ready to go second."

**Ready, love?** Elleanna asked her green as she climbed aboard in
preparation for their flight. Once she was settled, she watched her
fellow weyrling pair as they took off, rising into the air.

}:I am ready, I have been ready. We could go now!:{ The young green
answered, shifting her wings in anticipation.

**Not just yet, dearest. We'd get in so much trouble! Let's just wait
our turn and then show them how it's done, yeah?** The young
greenrider gave her lifemate a reassuring pat on the neck and then
finished attaching her riding straps while R'yip and his blue soared
overhead.

**That is enough. Tell them to come down, please,:{ M'galec asked his
bronze to relay to the pair.

R'yip did as he was told and brought his blue back down to the ground
amid the cheers of his peers and a grin a dragonslength wide.

"Are you ready, Elleanna?" M'galec asked once the noise had died down
enough to be heard over.

"Ready, sir!" She gripped the straps in front of her as she felt her
dragon's muscles bunch in preparation for the spring which would
launch them skyward. Seaoth announced her own readiness as well, with
a ringing bugle as the pair waited for the signal to go with barely
contained impatience.

M'galec lifted his hand to signal for her to be prepared. Watching for
any other weyrlings who might taking their first leap in the other
group, he saw the sky was clear and dropped his hand.

Seaoth launched into the air with a mighty leap and a downward flap of
her wings. She gained altitude quickly and caught an updraft, soaring
into the air. On her back, Elleanna yelled, "Wooooohoooooo!"

It was just as wonderful as she'd imagined! Of course, she had ridden
dragonback into the air before, as a passenger, but that was nothing
compared to this! She could feel her green's muscles expanding and
contracting with each slow wingbeat as they made a lazy circle around
the Weyr. **It's wonderful, Seaoth!**

}:It is! We fly well together.:{ The green was just as joyful in the
air as her rider. The slow circle they were making was pleasant but
the green had an idea. She presented it to her rider and she could
hear her rider's inner debate. The excitement of the idea overode the
caution though and an instant later she received the gleeful answer
and the green folded her wings, making a sharp dive towards the
ground. Closer and closer it came, her rider's fearJOY filled mental
voice urging her to wait for it, wait for it, Now! And the green
spread her wings only meters above the ground, pulling out of the dive
and soaring back into the air.

Elleanna released another adrenaline fueled yell of approval that was
barely audible next to her dragon's similar roar.

Both, however, were drowned out by the furious bugle of the bronze on
the ground. }:Get down _now_!:{

Seaoth responded to the command by immediately circling to land,
before she even relayed the message to Elleanna. Once she did, in a
subdued tone that the greenrider had never heard her lifemate use
before, the young woman began to feel nervous. If M'galec's dragon was
so angry, how angry must he be? Exactly how much trouble -were- they
in?

"Get off your dragon _now_, weyrling!" M'galec barked, his fists
grinding angrily into his hips as he glared up at her.

For just a moment, Elleanna felt an irrational urge to tell Seaoth to
fly away. For them both to fly far and fast. It was the same urge to
run that she'd feel as a child when her mother had caught her doing
something wrong and she was about to be punished. She knew that Seaoth
would do it too, if she asked. Which was, of course, why should
couldn't do that. Instead, she gathered up her flagging courage and
unsnapped her straps, sliding off her dragon who was cringing before
the angry bronze.

She, herself, was cringing before the angry Weyrlingmaster Second.
Though, hopefully only mentally. She tried to stand straight despite
her shaking knees.

"Line up!" he called to the other weyrlings, who didn't dare dawdle when
M'galec was in such a black mood. When they have finally formed a
straight line in front of the pair of them, the bronzerider pointed a
finger straight at Elleanna. "Look at this girl. Take a good, long
look at her, because you will not be seeing much of her from now on."

Elleanna actually felt dizzy as the line of her fellow weyrlings
stared at her with wide eyes. What in Faranth's name did -that- mean?
Beside her, Seaoth made a small noise of distress and the greenrider
was distracted a bit from her own fear to send soothing thoughts
toward her lifemate. Though she didn't dare move closer to the green
dragon for fear of actually falling over if she tried to take a step.
The worst part was, that a tiny part of her was getting angry about
this. They'd only been having a little fun, after all.

"You have all been warned. Today's exercise was to be taken seriously,
and all instructions were to be obeyed. This girl you see before you
decided she knew better than me or any of her other teachers. Her
dragon could have strained a muscle. Her dragon could have snapped a
wing. Her dragon could have plowed _straight_ into the ground and
broken it's neck. This girl was supposed to be in control and
responsible, and this weyrling could not handle it!" He turned to look
at her directly, his eyes boring holes into hers. "Did you think this
was a joke? Did you think the Weyrlingmasters do not know what we are
talking about? Do you think I have not seen with my own eyes what
irresponsible behavior like yours can do? I have watched weyrlings
_die_ because they thought they knew more than me. What were you
_thinking_? You could have killed your lifemate! How can you justify
that to me?"

And just like that the little flare of defensive anger was gone, swept
away by a tide of truly horrific images that M'galec's words conjured.
Each scenario he mentioned played itself out before her mind's eye,
only with Seaoth as the star of the show. She -saw- her dragon hurt,
she saw her crash into the ground. She couldn't see Seaoth dead,
because that was too much. Her mind quivered and balked at that and
refused, but the idea of it hovered close.

She hadn't thought of that in the air. It was all so fun and she'd
been so excited. She'd known what she was supposed to do, but the
-why- of it had escaped her. The why happened to other people. But,
now the why of it made the fun she'd had pale and weak and shallow
next to the potential harm that could have been done. How could she
justify it? "I can't," the girl answered, her voice barely a whisper.

"In every weyrling class there is a rider who thinks they now best, who
thinks they are in control, and who is foolish enough to think they are
more qualified than their leaders to call the shots. But there is only
ever _one_, and this time, weyrling Elleanna, that fool is _you_." And
she would be made an example of. It had to be done. Training only grew
more dangerous from here on out. Absolute obedience was essential.
There was no leniency since it was their lives and the lives of their
lifemate, and the lives of their classmates, they were risking. "Your
training stops here. Your classmates will continue their flying
lessons. They will go /between/. They will be Blooded, and they will
move up into the fighting wings. But you will not be with them. You
will have to wait until the next Hatching and begin your training
again."

Of all the different sorts of punishments she could have imagined,
this was not even one she had considered. "What?" She asked,
bewildered by her sentence and still reeling from the horrible
thoughts of an injured Seaoth.

"We cannot risk the lives of you, your lifemate, or any of your
clutchmates. You will remain a junior weyrling until you have proven
you can act responsibly and follow direction." There was a chance the
Weyrlingmaster could decide to be merciful. She was not known to be a
screw-up, and chances were she had learned her lesson. If it had been
just ignoring an order and staying in the sky too long, they might have
just scarred her and her classmates with the threat of such a severe
punishment. But she had purposefully sent a dragon who had been flying
a mere sevenday into a dive that could have killed them both. For that
she deserved the harshest punishment.

"Yes, sir," the young greenrider replied softly. There wasn't anything
else she could really say. It was already decided and, really, she
deserved the punishment. She felt horrid that Seaoth was to be
punished with her - no matter that the dive had been the dragon's
idea. It had been drilled into the rider that she was the one in
charge, not her dragon. It had been her call and she'd had the chance
to tell Seaoth no, and instead had encouraged her. And now the green
was going to be punished for her rider's mistake.

}:It was both our mistake,:{ Seaoth interjected, unwilling to let her
rider take on all the blame. }:We'll both be punished and it's alright
because we'll both be together for it.:{

Elleanna had never felt more like crying in her life.

Last updated on the May 3rd 2010

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The Why Of It