Suggestions

Writers: Chelle, JR
Date Posted: 22nd March 2011

Characters: Roana, Rhosyn
Description: Roana and Rhosyn discuss her formation ideas.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 15 of Turn 6

Roana was early to drills for once, the advantage of J'klin being on
sweeps and not around to distract her. Not that she made a habit of
being late, but on more than one recent morning, she'd cut it too close
for her liking. Nursing a mug of klah, she called out a greeting to the
Weyrwoman. "Good morning, Lady Rhosyn."

The goldrider frowned. She really didn't like that Lady nonsense,
since she wasn't Hold Blood. Still, some of the riders insisted upon it
and she didn't want to disgruntle the lot of them with her lack of
manners again. "Morning, Roana. Are you ready for today?" Despite
the fact that the Queens' Wing saw less action than the fighting
wings, Rhosyn still drilled them like a regular wing, with consideration
given to the pregnant and the injured, just returning to duty.

"Sorry, I forgot," Roana said sheepishly, catching the expression on
Rhosyn's face. "Ingrained habit from Dragonsfall." She glanced back at
Phiralith, already harnessed and looking far perkier than her rider
felt. "We're ready for just about anything, I think." As one of the
few fully able greenriders assigned to the Queen's Wing, Roana felt
like she and her green could do the vast majority of the maneuvers in
their sleep. "How are you and Orlaith today?"

"She just got her physical done finally and everything's good. Of course,
we knew that." Rhosyn watched as the others gathered around, ready
for the day's orders. "Now, I get to focus on flying with you guys for
awhile, which I love."

Roana chuckled at that. "I do have to say, the tone of drills have
changed since you've been back with us. Things felt a little odd when
I got here and I wrote it off to being new, but now I get it." She
gave the other woman a grin. "I think we're all happy to have you
running things again."

"What do you mean by odd?" Rhosyn's senses latched onto that. Had Lenala
not been doing what she should have?

She considered the best way to explain without sounding critical or
overstepping her bounds, "Drills felt... like the same thing, everyday.
And the riders were simply going through the motions." Roana
shook her head, "We did everything we were supposed to, but... I don't
know her well enough to say, but Lady Lenala seemed hesitant to change
anything you'd left in place even if it wasn't working well. I
apologize if that sounds presumptuous to say, but that was the
impression I was left with."

Frowning, she digested that, planning to have a talk with Lenala. As it was, the other woman didn't seem like the brightest glow in the basket, but
Rhosyn couldn't exactly replace her on a whim. Ariau was too young. "No..if you ever think something isn't right, tell me. If not, I can't fix it."

"I thought it was just me, until you came back after Orlaith's clutch
hatched," Roana said. "I was at Dragonsfall from the time I impressed
Phiralith until just a couple months ago, so I wasn't sure if that's
just how things were here. Now that I'm more settled and have seen how
you run the wing, I know that it isn't. Thank Faranth," she added, "If
it hadn't improved, I'd have started doubting my decision to transfer."

"You do know if this is..too tame for you that you could always go into a
fighting wing, Roana." She didn't want any of her wingriders to feel like
they were stuck in one place. She could understand if there wasn't enough action in the queens' wing.

"Oh, no. It's not that at all. I'm a firm believer that every Queen's
Wing needs a couple of good, able-bodied chromatic riders, and while
I'd never claim that Phiralith and I are perfect, we're solid. I guess
I just got used to the goldriders counting on us for that and moving
us around within formations accordingly."

"In a perfect world, a Weyr should have four breeding queens at once.
That gives us a core of three golds in the air usually, with one clutching,
though some Weyrs have been known to have five total." Rhosyn frowned,
thinking about how many golds were in the South at present. "This wing is
supposed to be small compared to a fighting wing, so we usually have about
fifteen riders at once in the air which gives you three golds and 12 other
dragons. With the Pass as it is, we have quite a bit of injuries, so out of those twelve, maybe ten are recovering. So actually you are the minority."

Roana nodded. "Exactly my point. There are only a couple of us who are
completely fit and able to do anything you need us to, without
stopping to think if we can go /between/ or if our dragon can handle a
maneuver. If you need us, use us. We're not afraid of work." She
clamped her mouth shut after that, afraid she might have said too
much. Maybe she would end up back with a normal wing, if she'd managed
to offend the other woman.

"So then tell me what you would do with you if you were me." Rhosyn had been under the impression that the formations were making use of the able bodied riders. They were on the edges, where they had the most room to move and chase down escaping thread if need be, leaving the golds spaced out within the wing.

The greenrider looked at the Weyrwoman nervously. Was she really
asking that question or... Faranth, she should have kept her mouth
shut. Now she had to answer, feeling as if she was telling Rhosyn how
to do her job. "In the past, Phiralith and I were usually put into
positions above and slightly behind the queens."

"I understand that. You were serving as a babysitter, Roana. The thing is-
we don't need babysitters. Each queenrider is just as responsible now to
flame the clumps they get as you are. So I want you near the injured riders, that way if they can't get to it, you are there to. Do you understand? I refuse to let the goldriders slack any longer."

Fighting to keep her expression from falling, Roana bit her lip,
feeling as though she'd been smacked. This is exactly why she tended
to keep her mouth shut, because she always ended up feeling like she
was overstepping her bounds. "Yes, ma'am," she said quietly.

She saw the greenrider wilt. Rhosyn had no patience for that sort of thing,
but she held her tongue. The girl would have to learn to take plain speech
if she would succeed as a rider. She would have far worse Wingleaders before her career was over, the queenrider was sure. "I'm not criticizing _you_, only your idea. Now get up there, we have work to do."

Roana resisted making the comment she wanted to, not for herself, but
for the sake of the other Weyrwomen she'd worked with over the turns.
Some of whom had been pretty impressive leaders and what she'd
suggested had been _their_ idea first. "Yes ma'am," she nodded and
turned on her heel to rejoin Phiralith.

Last updated on the April 27th 2011

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Suggestions