Wing Discussions

Writers: AL, Suzee
Date Posted: 10th April 2012

Characters: Cyradis, Meledei
Description: Meledei and Cyradis discuss wing formations.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 19 of Turn 6

Cyradis

Cyradis walked into the wingroom for their meeting and instead of
taking the seat near the front that she normally would have taken as
the Weyrwoman's Second, she stood in the front of the room with a hide
spread out on the table waiting for the others to arrive.

Meledei was not far behind. She had a habit of being places early - in
fact, she loathed being late and preferred to have time to settle
before she got involved in something. She greeted Cyradis with a small
smile before taking her normal seat. "Wing charts?"

Cyradis looked up with a smile for the young rider. "Yes," she said.
"We're going to have to make a couple of adjustments."

So far, from what she'd seen, Meledei had a good head on her shoulders
and was keeping up with both her lessons and her work.

"Well that's putting it mildly." The goldrider sighed after the
bitterness of her statement. "Sorry. Feeling a bit..."

"I know," she said. Cyradis took a deep breath. She didn't want to
inflict her own problems on the younger woman and she knew from some
comments that she and Qorri were rather close. "Everyone is stressed,
but we'll get through it."

"That's another mild statement." But the smile was a little brighter.
"Yeah. We'll get through it. We always do." Dolphin Cove seemed to
have more than its share of problems, but Meledei knew they were strong
and N'vanik was a good leader. He really cared about the Weyr and his
people - even if Janani didn't.

"Yes," she said a little sadly. "We always do." She made her mind up
to put the best face on things she could at the moment. The anger
she'd felt and Panitath had broadcast to the Weyr could easily be
mistaken for feelings about Janani and Angledouth's exit. She pasted a
pleasant smile on her face, " Qorri has offered to help with some of
the domestic duties so I think we'll be able to keep up with the rest.
At least for the time being."

Meledei eyed the goldrider. She wasn't dumb and she got the sense that
there was something more to what was going on than Cyradis was telling
her. "Well...that's good. But...doesn't Qorri have enough on her
plate?"

"You would think," she said carefully. "But it appears that is what
N'vanik wants."

"Why?" It didn't make any sense to Meledei - especially with things
keeping Qorri so busy as it was.

Cyradis wasn't about to undermine N'vanik no matter how unfairly she
was being treated so that question was loaded with pitfalls. "I don't
really understand it any more than you do. I'm willing to take it back
when she decides it's too much. As it is, I had far more to do as the
'second."

"Okay." It still didn't sound right and Meledei still felt like there
was more to it, but she wasn't going to push. "Um. I had an idea. If
you're willing. They may not be any good but..."

"Sure," said Cyradis with a smile. She always liked to encourage young
goldriders to be creative.

"Well...okay. It's sort of a tag team style. I'm not sure if it would
work but..." Meledei stood and moved over to look at the chart with
Cyradis. "I was thinking instead of having the greens where they are,
what if we placed them as shadows of specific other riders."

Cyradis stepped back a little to let Meledei show her with the help of
the diagram what she was thinking. "Ok, show me how you see it
working. Give me an example."

"Well, it would mean a tighter formation. Rather than a specific area,
the greens and other colours would be responsible for a specific
dragon. Kind of like a tag team." Meledei pulled out a blank piece of
parchment from one of the ones she had brought then began to sketch on
it. "You don't stray away from your assigned dragon and you work
together to take care of Thread."

"That could work very well under normal conditions," Cyradis smiled
and nodded. "I probably wouldn't use it in high wind though. The
greens and blues can really get tossed around by the wind and the
formation might shatter." She smiled and nodded at the young woman.
"Good idea!"

"If that's the case, then any formation they would be in would shatter
and that's another problem all in itself." Meledei knew high winds
could be a problem, but she was fortunate that she hadn't had to fly
any particularly bad ones. "But...I thought...you know, it might be
useful."

"It is useful," she said with a genuine smile. "But see here how
closely you'd have them tucked in? That's what would make it difficult
in a high wind." She pointed to the right and left of where a queen
flew in her drawing. "I like the tag team concept though that really
is a good idea."

She looked up as some of the wingriders began to file into the room
for their meeting.

"Tell you what," she looked at Meledei. "Let's talk more about this
after the meeting and maybe we can incorporate your ideas into some
drills next sevenday."

"Okay." Meledei hadn't meant for them to be so close, but she wasn't
really that great at drawing either. She'd explain it later. There
were other things they needed to do with the other riders. At least
Cyradis was open to listening.

Last updated on the May 1st 2012

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