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 Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 11:06 am
Mercy had been fretting about the way Hekate and her silver had stormed out of the lesson for quite some time, though it was the Silvers words which bothered her the most. Would he really live his life on the ground? From most dragons she'd consider it angry words and brush it off, but the silver was imperious and stubborn enough to actually try and pull it off.
She didn't feel badly for the punishment she'd meted out, she firmly believed that the women and her dragon had put themselves and others in danger with their actions and she certainly believed the pair was far to emotionally driven for their own good, it was even concerning that the silver seemed to pull so many of the strings in the partnership...but there was no way that she'd listen to Mercy now. Mercy was fairly certain that the young women hated her, which bothered her in and of itself, Mercy wasn't sure anyone had ever hated her before...but that also wasn't the problem right now and in the long run it wouldn't matter. As long as she learned from her she could hate her all she wanted.
But the matter of the fact was Mercy needed help and somehow she just knew that going to a goldrider and ordering Hekate and the silver to finish lessons wasn't the right way to go about this so she'd asked around and it hadn't taken many questions to find out that Hekate and Z'fer were close. That would work..Z'fer was from Malvren so Mercy even knew him and he was a Wingleader so he had the clout to back up what he said. So here she was trying to make her way through the crowds and find him on the way to lunch. Was that up ahead? Why did she have to be as bloody small as her dragon?
"Z'fer?, Z'fer!" She called out at what she thought she recognized as the mans back while she tried to elbow her way through the throng of people. 'Aerith, ask his bronze to get him to stop.'
'Mine would like to speak with yours, if he would pause for a moment' Aerith politely asked of Calanoth.
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Posted: Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:52 pm
Z'fer was late in coming to the lunch hour. Hekate would have already been and gone to avoid the rush. No matter, he'd catch up with her later that evening. They both had things to do after all and as much as he'd like to spend the majority of his day with her, duty called. Z'fer wasn't about to cut training short, even for Hekate.
He mused on his wing as he fought the crowd into the dining hall. Their drills were coming along fine as normal. Most of his riders had adapted to the new air conditions and weather patterns without too much hardship. He could suspect Wykla and Kameth missed riding Malvren's coastal storms though. He still wasn't sure on how to handle the shifts of blues and greens though. He'd tried organizing them based on what he'd seen of their stamina but that wasn't going to work. It just fluctuated too much between falls. Where one Fall a pair might tire easily, the next they could last three waves or longer without rest. He still liked the idea of shifts, it was organized, but he'd have to make it more flexible.
~ Mine Aerith requests that you pause for a moment as hers is trying to talk with you. ~ Calanoth relayed the message with curiosity. It wasn't often the whiterider sought out his rider...if she did at all. ~ It is done Aerith. ~ The bronze's attention was sufficiently distracted from his own growling stomach. After Z'fer was done eating they would go out to the feeding grounds together. He could wait to see what Aerith and Hers wanted though.
Z'fer blinked and stopped, scanning the crowd around him. "Mercy?" What could she want with him? ~ I hope we're not in trouble Cal. ~ He chuckled as he got a snort in return. It took him a few moments before he spotted her brunette head dipping in and out of the sea of weyrfolk. "Mercy! Here!" He lifted his arm in salute to his fellow Malvren rider.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 5:05 am
Mercy was quite relieved when the man ahead stopped, it would make it so much easier to catch up with him, she could just let the crowd take her to him rather then trying to fight her way forward. ''Thanks Aerith' Smiling at the warm feelings the white returned as she angled herself towards Z'fer, giving him one of her typical cheerful smiles when she got there.
"Hey, thanks for waiting." She added sincerely "It seems that the thought of food overrides most peoples ability to be polite." She added with a disparaging glance at the crowd, she felt worse for the poor servers inside, ever since the Weyrs had combined she was sure they were all but run ragged at meal times. Of course that had nothing to do with why she was actually here and her attention returned to Z'fer. "I was hoping we could talk? I know you must be busy with your Wing - so I"ll try not to keep you to long." She promised with a hopeful look.
'Mine is most grateful, she was being overrun by the herd.' Aerith responded to the much larger bronze in an amused tone.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 1:40 pm
Z'fer waited till the young assistance weyrlingmaster made it to his side. "Your welcome Mercy." He returned her smile with curiosity then laughed and glanced at the crowd around them. "Worse than hatchlings at Impression!" He agreed. He had to stand very close to Mercy to be able to hear her and not let either get dragged off by the current.
His curiosity intensified. So this wasn't just a social call though he wouldn't have minded just catching up with the young whiterider. "Yeah sure. I've already finished for today. Was just going to get some food for myself and Cal but I have time. What do you need Mercy?" He gestured for them to make their way out of the center flow and get to somewhere where they could talk properly.
Calanoth chuckled. ~ At meal times I believe Mine IS the herd. ~ The bronze gave another mental laugh at the indignant feelings Z'fer suddenly shot at him.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:11 pm
Aerith rumbled mirthfully at the bronzes comment. 'Mine has remarked upon this trait of men now and again, apparently they are capable of eating far more then one would think.'
'Aerith!' Mercy hushed the white before the beast went and said something really embarrassing. 'I'm sure neither Calanoth nor Z'fer care to know what I think of peoples banqueting habits.' She admonished the white, receiving nothing more then the impression of a draconic smirk in return. Heaving a sigh that she was sure many rider's were well in tune with - that of a rider being pestered by their bondmate - she followed Z'fer to the side of the crowd and then a little bit beyond so no one passing by would be able to overhear. No point in feeding the gossipers without making them work for it.
Giving Z'fer a small smile as they drew to a stop. "Thanks, I appreciate it." Of course now that she was here with the intention of going through with her master plan to make sure Hekate and Devith didn't fly off a cliff and die because they tried to do it by themselves she wasn't quite sure how to go about it and wrung her hands slightly as she studied the man before her. Some people said he could be moody..though she herself couldn't recall ever having any such interactions with him. Granted she hadn't had that many of htem to judge by..but still, she wasn't entirely sure how he was actually going to take her request. "Well.." She started out "..It's about Hekate actually, I've heard you two are...close..." She hesitated to see his reaction, she didn't think they were keeping things a secret and if they were they were doing a horrible job of it.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:50 pm
~ You would be surprised. Mine does not always stop when he is full. He always regrets the stomach pains afterwards. ~ Calanoth snorted at the ways of humans. Dragons were perfectly capable of stuffing themselves, especially as youths, but they generally didn't do it to the extent that some humans did.
Z'fer followed Mercy's lead distracted as she was by the dragons' conversation. ~ Is that really necessary Cal? Really? ~
Mercy got a look of empathy as she sighed. "Dragons." He grinned and tucked his thumbs into his belt, taking a casual stance once they were far enough away from prying ears. His brows drew together with concern as Mercy went from relatively cheerful to awkward the moment they were alone. "Mercy?" He fell silent when she started talking. His face fell into a blank mask. He'd had to field questions about himself and Hekate before. It hadn't been bad at first but after the Flight who knows what rumors were circulating. Mercy's hesitation made him wary. "We are." There was no point in denying it. Mercy's suspicions were right in that they hadn't bothered to hide their relationship. He wasn't breaking any rules nor was he forcing her to break her restrictions. He'd hold off on any sort of reaction until he heard Mercy's concerns. "Go on."
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 2:59 pm
It wasn't until afterward she'd said what she'd said that she realized it might be taken out of context and the way his face grew carefully blanked made her think that he had in fact drawn the wrong conclusions and she hurried to correct things before it went any further. "Oh. Oh no." She started, which wasn't how she started in her head so she blundered on past that "I mean, I don't give a Wherry's butt who she's involved with..I'm her teacher not her nanny!" She told him, cheeks coloring a little as she tried to assure him she wasn't here to give him a lecture on being friendly with young ladies.
"It's just that..maybe she'll listen to you? The last lesson went sort of badly at the end and I'm afraid she's going to run off and do something foolish...I don't want anything bad to happen to her because she and her silver are mad at me and the punishment I handed out."
'And they think Hatchlings need looking after.' Aerith replied with her own highly put upon sigh, though it had an amused ring to it.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 3:54 pm
~ Right?! ~ Calanoth snorted giving his rider a mental poke but not explaining the reason behind his outburst.
Z'fer frowned, his eyes distant as Calanoth harassed him. ~ Not the time Cal. ~ He warned, trying to return to Mercy's hurried explanations. It took him a moment to process what she'd been saying but once it clicked he managed a smile, relieved that she wasn't about to try and give him grief. He raised his hands peacefully and shook his head. "Don't worry about it."
Z'fer shifted his weight to the side, his body visibly relaxing back into it's easy pose from before. "Now what happened? She told me that she'd done exactly what you said to do but you punished her anyway? She wouldn't give me details though." His tone wasn't accusatory. Hekate had been very vague about what had happened at her lesson and while he'd seen her racing by on Devith's back he couldn't pry any more information out of her. She hadn't even told him what her punishment had been.
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2012 4:18 pm
Relieved that she had managed to retain the peace by clarifying her stance on things - that being she didn't really care who was with who around here - she couldn't help but just look at him when he explained what he'd been told. "Yes" She finally told him in a bland tone "I am currently trying a new teaching habit where I pick someone from the class and harass them for no reason whatsoever." Like anyone who knew her even remotely could consider such a thing! She was always fair. But he was involved with her and she supposed that made him a little bit more inclined to take her word on things and perhaps that was the way she saw the entire event. It wouldn't surprise her..people had a way of doing that after the fact - finding ways to see themselves in the right.
Sighing slightly she glanced off for a few moments before looking back "I was giving a lesson on putting together and fitting a riding harness, I'd told them that maybe..after that was done I'd let them mount up and ride in the area. However their instructions were to simply put the harness together and fit it to their dragons..I had intended to double check them - the last thing I need it a student falling off due to a bad harness and getting trampled by their own dragon - and then let them walk around the area..but I never got the chance, as soon as Hekate got her harness on she jumped up on Devith and they went careening about the area like a runner bit by a tunnelsnake! Imagine now what you would do if one of your Wingrider's decided to break formation and fly a circle around the wing in the middle of threadfall! I'm supposed to be teaching them the skills to fly in a wing and part of that is teaching them to follow orders. Exactly, to the letter...or else they put everyone in danger" She paused taking a deep breath and blowing it out.
"I understand she was eager, I understand that it was fun and thank everything under the sun that the harness was done properly..but it was still dangerous, so I grounded them from the flying lesson...though I did give her the chance to come up with a way to redeem herself..some sort of understanding that it was dangerous would have been enough - but Devith threw a fit." She paused considering for a few moments "I've never actually had a dragon shout at me in quite a fashion..grumble, roar, glare..but never yell.And they stalked off..so now I'm worried that she'll go and do something equally as foolish and impulsive and it won't end so well. Lessons are important, Weyrling's are taught in a certain way for a reason. I don't think that Silver of her's wants to come back but she's the rider..so if you convince her then he'll come."
Aerith chuckled slightly though she remained quiet as Mercy got to the heart of the matter, it had been bothering her's for quite some time and truth be told Aerith had not been fond of another dragon shouting at her rider either - it was a good thing she was as good tempered as she was really.
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 3:49 pm
The sarcasm in her voice made him laugh. "Might make the rest of them shape up." He joked. Mercy had been a fine teacher so far which was why he'd been shocked to hear Hekate had had a bad experience. He'd even tried to defend Mercy or at least reason with Hekate already but without the full story it wasn't easy. Hekate's vague descriptions and what he'd heard from a few of the more gossipy riders didn't add up together.
He fell silent again as Mercy explained her side, nodding occasionally as she spoke. It obviously bothered the young teacher and from what she said he could understand her concern. Especially where Devith came into play. He knew too well that the silver had an ego larger than Rukbat. It wasn't uncommon among his color but unlike most silvers Devith's self importance ran a much darker, more violent, course. It might not have been as well known that while Z'fer was overly fond of the young rider, he harbored a barely restrained loathing of her dragon.
He thought over his words before he spoke, remembering his conversation with Hekate on the matter. "I don't think you need to worry about her doing something stupid in regards to Devith. She's far too protective of him to do something like that." Especially since she'd barely kiss him despite the fact that Devith is grown enough to not be at risk. "I think... with her we might have to use a different method anyways. As I said she talked with me about this. One thing I remember her saying is that she 'beat out all the other weyrlings and they'd had the benefit of candidate lessons'. I get the feeling she's either already being bullied or just feels inferior because she was a drudge previously and a Stands Impression." That didn't excuse her actions but it might provide a little insight. "She was talking like the rest of the clutch had it out for her."
"As for Devith." Z'fer made a face at his least favorite silver. "You're not the only one he's yelled at and you're lucky that's all he did." He knew Devith instinctively couldn't harm humans but he wasn't sure if the dragon knew it himself. "I think he's the bigger problem here. Hekate can be responsible if she puts her mind to it. She's put a lot of effort towards the salvage attempts. Devith barely listens to anyone though, even her. Calanoth has been able to control him on a couple of occasions but from what I've heard Devith holds contempt for just about any dragon that's not a green. I don't know if that's inspired by Hekate or a trait of his own. All I know is Hekate's got a friend from the same clutch, a greenrider, that Devith dotes upon. The one that almost lost a wing to a wher."
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 4:59 pm
Mercy considered Z'fers words carefully, it was obvious that he knew Hekate far better then she did and his observations rang true with what she had observed. "Well that's a relief." Mercy stated with a relieved smile, she'd been quite worried that the young women would run off and try to take flight off a cliff somewhere - get frightened and blink between forever or crash terribly. It had happened before..not while she was Weyrlingmaster but often enough to invoke whispered warnings.
"She did finish first, and she did do it right." Mercy stated, crossing her arms and playing with a strand og hair in thought. Her abilities to do the task hadn't been why she had gotten in trouble however. "I haven't seen any bullying but I'll keep my eye out now that you've brought it up. As for being a drudge and a stands impression, I didn't know that to be honest but it shouldn't matter...Candidate's come from all walks of life and while uncommon it's not looked down upon as far as I know. Devith chose her..she's a rider now. I think perhaps those are insecurities in her own mind at this point and she's going to have to come to terms with that eventually." Mercy wasn't sure how to make that happen though - she wasn't even sure it was really her responsibility to do so. In any case she thought as she looked sideways at Z'fer. she was dating a Wingleader and if that didn't put some of those insecurities to rest she didn't know what would.
"Aerith was there." She assured the Wingleader "She might be too small to fly in a wing but she's faster and more agile then anything I've seen in the air to date. Devith can yell and he can try to do what he wants..but I'm not about to be bullied around by a headstrong young dragon." She stated firmly. No she wasn't going to be afraid of the beast. "I think your right though, he does seem to take control an awful lot." She agreed, recalling the way he'd torn the riding harness off. "Which is concerning in and of itself. The rider has to control the dragon..not the other way around, I don't want to resort to having a gold order him into submission though..I have a feeling that wouldn't go well either." She responded before nodding to his last remarks.
"Yes, Dizzian and Courath, the green was all riled up by what happened, I had to have Aerith settle her down. I spoke with Dizzian but she was mostly just purturbed that I'd punished her friend. I'm afraid I need someone with a bit more clout then a fellow Weyrling...and as I said I didn't want to bring in the goldrider's. I am sorry..I know this puts you in an awkward position, but you know her best, you care for her..but you also know the dangers of impulsive rider-dragon pairs who don't listen."
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Posted: Tue Nov 13, 2012 5:26 pm
"Yeah." Z'fer rubbed at his stubble with one hand. "I don't know the whole of it but I guess they made quite a scene at their hatching. Not that I'm surprised. That's what I told her too." He had a feeling that it was in fact mostly in her head. He couldn't see her or Devith putting up with any sort of bullying without anyone noticing. Seeing how she'd attacked him twice he was sure anything like that would have made the rumor rounds real fast.
"With how he treats greens I would almost have thought he'd bend head over tail for Aerith. It might be an authority thing." Z'fer sighed with aggravation. "If we can avoid it I'd rather not get the weyrwomen involved...Scorch it." Why did he have to fall for the most difficult weyrling under the red star? She HAD to finish her lessons. There was no way they'd be allowed to shirk them in any way. Z'fer knew that if his efforts didn't work then a gold would have to be called in to force them to work and well... He worried what that might push the pair to do out of desperation. "I REALLY don't want to get the Weyrwomen involved." He repeated. "I know I know... I'll talk to her and see if Cal can't bring Devith around."
~ Cal? You listening? ~
~ Over the sound of my stomach. ~
Z'fer made a face even though Cal wouldn't be able to see it. ~ You think you could help me out? ~
~ If I eat today yes. ~
"Cal's in. I'll give it a shot. If she doesn't listen I'll have him talk to Aerith before we do anything drastic."
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2012 8:10 am
"I have a feeling that silver doesn't like anyone who attempts to give instruction to him or his rider...and I hate to say it but Aerith isn't really part of the whole natural dragon hierarchy so if he doesn't want to listen to what she says there's not even an instinctive drive to do so. I expect he is nice to greens because he knows they are low enough on the totem pole to not really hinder him. " Mercy shrugged slightly. Devith was going to be a problem..not just for her but likely for any wing he found himself in afterwards, unless they got Hekate to take more control and assert herself. She had her problems..but Mercy was sure the girl would rise to the challenge when it was needed.
"I don't either, I just have a feeling that would end very badly. It would just foster resentment and I don't want that, that's why I came to you." She told him honestly. She wanted to fix the issue, not make it worse and was quite relieved to hear both Z'fer and Calanoth were willing to help out. "That would be great...Thank you." She told him again, obviously much relieved as the problem had been praying on her mind since it happened. "Aerith will listen out for Cal...I won't keep you any longer." She started to say good-bye and then suddenly remembered something "Oh! I did have one more thing to ask, I wanted to invite the Wingleaders and Wingseconds to come and talk with the Sr. Weyrlings, give them some information about flying in a wing...let them get to know you guys so that they can make an informed decision when it's time for them to choose. It won't be long now really."
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