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Bondyeth wasn't sure what annoyed him more, being ignored in favor of the meal the green's rider was preparing, or when the large green actually addressed him. He was a bronze, he deserved attention, he deserved all the attention. He deserved all of His attention, at any rate. Grunting, the bronze twisted and gave H'dek a good headbutt, trying to relay his all his irritations and the gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach.

H'dek grunted back at Bondyeth, swatting a little irritably at the young dragon before he caught himself, wondering where on Pern those cross thoughts had come from. He gave the bronze another little nudge, trying to will him over to Isonth. Maybe he'd be less grumpy if he had someone to chat with. It would keep the green from getting Lanakiriene cut, as well, and H'dek very well couldn't have La getting injured, not to mention that might be embarrassing for her.

Bondyeth snorted his displeasure but did not try to express his feelings any further; he had absolutely no interest in making nice with Isonth. H'dek couldn't figure out why for the life of him, La and her green were both very nice people. Or, person and dragon. Nice pair! They were a nice-

"What?" H'dek looked up, blinking owlishly. "It looks brilliant, La."

"We are getting along just fine. I doubt I was the only weyrling up with an itchy, hungry dragonet. And my beauty there thinks she deserves extra attention because she is extra pretty." Kallista chuckled at this. Sawing through the breast and down the stomach area, she managed to get a decent sized chunk. Taking it, she grimaced as the flies started to swarm.

"Your turn. I think we better make it quick. Biting flies love to burrow."

I will flame. And I will get dirty but that means more oiling for me. And I will be shiny and clean. Astarteth replied and went back to cleaning her claws. Her eyes were whirling a calm green that was very similar to her hide color. As far she was concerned, greens were better than golds any day. Slowly, she stretched, making sure to make a show of how perfect her wings were and how long her tail was.

Rolling her eyes, Kallista handed the knife over to Annelie. "Tell Yansanth not to mind Astar. Her ego is much bigger than she is."

"This actually isn't a bad time to also segway into another important lesson: And thats hygiene. I'm sure you've all been briefed, as well as constantly begged, to give your dragon plenty of attention and oil to soothe their skin." S'kagi added, walking around patiently and making sure people were disassembling the wherrys carefully, not simply hacking them apart with wild abandon without regard for what needed removed and what probably shouldn't be fed to a hatchling.
"I'll stress it again, to make sure it's permanently burned into your minds. Keeping them oiled and clean is CRITICAL. It will keep their hides from forming cracks or scars that can hurt them when they're old enough to go Between with you. Keeping them clean is also important, since it helps protect their health... and the same goes for all of YOU.
We're all working quite a bit, we have very little free time and it's probably tempting now and again to pretend that standing out in one of Ista's rainstorms, with which I'm sure you'll all familiar, is enough. Thats not true. I expect you all to make every effort to clean daily if you can, barring an emergency, and keep your barracks, and when you have them your weyrs, in neat order. It will help keep pests out of the weyrs and will make a lot of people very happy. Aside from the fact no one wants to know what your robes smell like after a work of heavy labor and training with a young dragon..." He quirked the corner of his mouth to try and remind them that he knew what they were going through, though he didn't doubt at least one of them would come to the conclusion he couldn't possibly understand. "It will also keep people from being enraged and trying to figure out where that infestation of small itchy biting things came from." This was intended as a joke but it was also serious. There were enough interesting species in the Rainforest around the weyr without inviting a bloodsucking variety into the overcrowded halls.

Lanakirene kept half an ear on S'kagi's lecture as she got to work peeling the skin back from the carcass. Eventually, she'd turn the knife over to H'dek, but she actually didn't mind the task. Also, Isonth's absolute delight at the fact that the carcass was being taken apart and La was working with food made her rather reluctant to release the knife for the time-being. Slicing through connective tissue, she gave S'kagi a brief look to see if he was watching her. His attention didn't seem to be on her for the time-being, and she snicked off a sliver of meat and slipped it to her dragon in the most surreptitious manner possible.

Completely delighted with that turn of events, Isonth renewed her efforts to dive face-first into the carcass, and La yelped, setting the knife aside and grabbing her bodily around the neck. "No, this is not the time for this," she insisted urgently, tugging Isonth aside and exerting as much of her will as she could on her. Isonth, hindquarters finally planted squarely on the sand, gave her an exceptionally mournful look, and La sighed heavily. "Not right now, Isonth," she said. "You can't eat yet."

But Lanamine, you just...

"Yes, I know. But you're not allowed to do that, Isonth. Not until it's actually butchered." She shook her head at the dragonet as she whispered frantically and glanced up at H'dek. "Do you mind doing the rest?" she asked sheepishly, squeaking quietly as Isonth discovered the wonders of bloody hands and cheerily went to work licking her. "Just cutting between the skin and muscle. That whitish filmy stuff." Nodding sagely, she sighed and presented her hands better to a very, very happy Isonth, whose eyes were already starting to flicker red with renewed hunger.

Dragonets...oh dear.

Annelie glanced down at Yansanth once more before returning her attention to Kallista."It's... it's ok. No harm done," Annelie replied, and she went back to carving.

"I don't even want to imagine... I'd rather be ignorant of it and just let it come."

Yansanth continued to watch Astarteth, still confident in her answer but unsure of what to really think of the little green. Though... with all the confidence that the other exuded, she had to be right on some things... right?

With that, the little Queen picked up her wings and looked behind her as she picked her tail off the ground. With minute glances back at Astarteth, she then tried to imitate how the green was positioning herself. ...Which was a lot harder than it looked, and her awkward movements only attracted the eyes of Hers once more.

Yansanth... what are you doing? Annelie asked. She had paused with her knife still in the wherry and was looking down on the dragonet, who paused and proceeded to flop onto her rump... but then bounced right back up again when she remembered keeping herself clean.

Keeping my tail clean!

... That's silly.

But Astarteth said no one wants to look at a dirty dragon!

Well I want to look at a dirty dragon. So don't worry about keeping clean all the time. It's silly

Yansanth gave a tentative nod of her head and sat down once more, but continued to hold her tail up.

Tail down.

'Thud.' Her golden tail fwomped down on the classroom floor to end the discussion. Annelie returned to the wherry and Yansanth looked at Astarteth. Mine says 'it's silly.'

"Yours seems to think very highly of herself after-all," Annelie commented to Kallista, her tone and raised eyebrows expressing genuine surprise indeed.

The young woman gave a nervous smile at Kallista's added reassurance, but didn't do much more on the matter beyond that. Instead, she finished her second cut and then handed the knife back over to the other weyrling.

"Hopefully we'll be done with this soon..." she muttered, audible enough to make it clear that she was still conversing with her partner. She swatted lightly at a fly with her free hand.

Meanwhile, Yansanth kept her faceted eyes on the vain Green, contemplating the comment on how Hers indeed didn't have a tail. ... But... mm...I guess. ...But Mine knows a lot, still. The Queen gave a definite nod to add more umpf to her statement. She lingered for a moment afterward, then leaned her upright body against Annelie's legs and stool.

Mine... I'm bored... and hungrryyy...Can we go? or eat now?

No... not yet.

Yansanth gave a 'hurrumpf.'

The lesson continued in this vein until the Wherrys were butchered, either carefully or not, since with a number of candidates who had probably never had to handle carving up an raw, dead animal before, there were bound to be a certain number of misshaps and bouts of overconfidence before the meat, de-boned and with any questionable bits removed to keep the young dragons from eating something that might make them sick, before he finally indicated everyone back from feeding their dragons with a sigh.
"Once you're done here, we're done for the day. Lessons will resume again tomorrow, be prepared, and if you have any questions feel free to ask either myself or one of the other riders, as long as they aren't busy."