Little Golden Bully

Writers: Chelle, Paula
Date Posted: 21st October 2013

Characters: Lenala, Rhosyn
Description: Lenala has a flashback to her weyrlinghood and her first problems of controlling Vilarth.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 3, day 10 of Turn 7
Notes: Follows "Searing the Skies" and "Do your Duty"

Lenala

"Stop being such a baby, it's just a little Scoring," Lenala scolded her
golden lifemate. Vilarth wasn't used to being Scored and complained a lot
more than the extent of her injury gave her right to. "You're still the
most beautiful gold on Pern. Now, get wet so I can wash off the char."
They were at the Weyrlake's shore. Lenala had a brush in her hand.

These were supposed to be the easy months of pregnancy so Rhosyn was glad
to be back to work for as long as she could. Of course Threadfall was
always stressful and when it was over, she had to tend to Wing duties and
Weyr duties. It took time for all that to be over and when she found
herself alone, she went walking down to the Lake. That's where Orlaith said
they were.

No one liked for a gold to get hurt, even when it was minor. When the Weyr
only had two queens, it was even more of a concern. Of course it wasn't
Lenala's or even Vilarth's fault and the two had done right, but it still
made Rhosyn -and the rest of the Weyr- nervous. Walking up, she saw Lenala
and she tried to stifle a yawn. She was pushing herself, but she didn't
think anything of it. "Has she been seen to?" Of course she had and Rhosyn
knew it, but she wanted Vilarth to know she wanted the queen taken care
of-and Lenala as well.

"Of course she is. She's a queen. She was demanding to be attended," Lenala
rolled her eyes. "She tried to arrange a real queenly fussy fit, like only
she can. This time I didn't need Orlaith to tell her how to
behave..remember?" Lenala's smile was self ironic. She had been just a
weyrling then when Vilarth had first time shown her gold-temper....

~*~ Flashback ~*~

Lenala was standing on shore with the other junior weyrlings, watching the
dragonets frolicking in the water. Vilarth was already larger than any of
her clutchmates, Lenala remarked with pride in her heart. And oh, so
beautiful!

The innocent play among the dragonets got interrupted when one of the
greens accidentally hit Vilarth with her claw, making a scratch. Vilarth
threw a fit, letting the green hear her displeasure, verbally chewing her
to pieces. The green was instantly penitent and tried to apologize, but the
young gold didn't listen. She continued berating the now very upset and
unhappy green.

"Vilarth!" Lenala called, mortified and quite frankly, not sure what she
was supposed to do now. Forbid Vilarth and scold her or just let the
dragonets sort it out among themselves? The words, control your queen-
flashed in her mind. But how? Vilarth was enraged.

Then the green's rider started to cry and appealed to Lenala: "Make her
stop! Dennueth says she is sorry, she didn't mean to! It was an accident.
She's mean to Dennueth, making her feel bad."

"She's a gold, it's her right to scold a misbehaving green," Lenala said,
trying to sound more confident than she felt. Deep down she felt she was
wrong. What Vilarth did wasn't reprimand any longer, it was down right
bullying. They were starting to draw attention.

Nearby, another rider had been dealing with her own dragon. Used to keeping
to herself mostly, Rhosyn was ignoring everyone else around her and hadn't
noticed the byplay between the weyrlings. Orlaith had, though, and the
gold's head twisted around as she listened. Sensing the distress in the
young green and knowing how dangerous it was for young dragonets to become
overemotional, her eyes whirled from blue to showing a tinge of orange.
Then, she discovered her young sister was the cause. }:Stop now. She is
sorry.:{

]: She hurt me! :[ Vilarth insisted with indignant voice.

}:Not _that_ much. You didn't have to attack her like you did. It upset her
far more than the scratch hurt you:{ When her rider finished oiling her,
she brought herself over closer to where the weyrlings were. Rhosyn had
discovered where Orlaith's attention was and followed, curious. The big
gold was full grown and dwarfed most of the dragons in the Weyr, a point
she was quite proud of. She was also very well tended and gleamed, though
her pale hide wasn't quite as rich as some others'.

Even at that age, Vilarth knew better than argue with full grown gold. She
did grumble to her rider though.

** Be nice,** Lenala chided her. **Accidents happen when you play rough.**

Spotting the small golden dragonet and putting two and two together, Rhosyn
picked Lenala out of the crowd. She hadn't been invited to take part in the
girl's training and she doubted she would be, but that suited her. Still,
she supposed she should say hello to the new weyrling since they would have
to work together at some point. Walking up and noting they looked to be
about the same turns, she stopped a few steps from Lenala. "Hi-I'm Rhosyn."
She put a hand out.

"I'm Lenala, nice to meet you," Lenala replied, swallowing nervously. She
had heard so much of Rhosyn (and not all of it good), that she felt nervous
around her.

"You too. So that's your girl? She seems to be quite strong willed. You'll
need to keep her in check. The Weyrlingmaster will help you but I've
learned that sometimes you have to teach them control yourself." It had
been hard with Orlaith but for the first time, Rhosyn had reigned in some
of her own impetuousness in order to teach her queen that she couldn't just
do what she wanted.

"She is willful. Aren't golds supposed to be?" Lenala replied, sounding
uncertain.

"Some are but every dragon is different." Rhosyn knew it depended highly
upon the rider. She had seen some goldriders that didn't live up to their
rank. Without Thread to worry about, other concerns became the priority.
"When the rider does not teach the dragon what it needs to know....both
sides of the pair can suffer. When you're older and travel more, you'll
know what I mean. Suffice it to say-she chose you for a reason and part of
it is to take care of her. And sometimes you have to do what you know is
best, even when she doesn't." The auburn-headed goldrider smiled, though
there was a bit of steel behind it.

Lenala nodded, taking her words to the heart. It would take a long time for
them to grow but they did.

~*~

"You managed her well. See Lenala-you're learning. And as you learn, you
teach her and she learns. As you become better, she'll become better."
Rhosyn knew the bond would strengthen as well and make them a better
dragonpair. Apparently good old Weyrwoman back at Vista Point had slacked
off on Lenala's training, after all.

Lenala nodded. The day was being long and draining but not without it's
rewards. She could controll Vilarth, if she had to and she had proved it
today.

Last updated on the November 2nd 2013

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Little Golden Bully