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They were ready.

No doubt about it, there was no fear present in either Miskael or Descanth: the piebald green's eyes were a positively brilliant shade of sapphire blue, whirling rapidly with anticipation. She flexed her wings and forelegs, shaking out the muscles in her deep chest, then turned that jewel-bright gaze onto her rider.

I can do this, Miskael. Shall I go?

He grinned up at her and leaned up to clap her on a sleek shoulder. "You got this. Go show 'em how it's done."

Being small would be a disadvantage in some ways; when it came time for manned flights, even Miskael's lean body would be more of a burden on her than it could ever be on the larger browns and bronzes, who would barely feel their riders' weight. But for today, being the smallest and most agile color could work to her favor. When B'tes called the "go", Descanth stepped up, not bounding forth like an over-eager puppy, but with calm and steady purpose. Like she meant it. The little green bobbed her head in polite acknowledgement to the First Wing bronzes standing by on safety duty, then turned to face forward again.

Then with a little hopskip and a quick surge forward, she was off and over the edge. Miskael momentarily felt his stomach drop in time with hers as gravity kicked in - but her wings were already unfurling, catching the air, holding her. The greenweyrling let out a whoop that was echoed by his dragon's triumphant bugle.

Look! Oh, look! I'm -awk!

The thought was cut off in an ungainly squawk of dismay. Descanth had turned her head unthinkingly to look back up at the ledge and her clutchmates behind her, and in doing so she'd taken her eyes off the Bowl. Overshooting her intended landing spot, she went tumbling headlong into a patch of shrubbery.

Usually Bereck didn't go out to see the weyrlings take their first glide; the physical humour of young dragons flailing around in the air that apparently enthralled so many was lost on him. Oh he always knew when it was of course; he and the other healers who had anything at all to do with dragons were warned just in case of crashes, sprains, scratches and so on.

This clutch however was not like other clutches.

Standing in the weyrbowl in the ragged front rank of the knots of spectators Bereck shielded his eyes with his free hand and peered up at the class, seeking a pair of large solid figures. Somehow he doubted that Kyoth would be at the front of the line.

Kialynka had heard people talking about it all day. The weyrlings were going to practice flying today. All of the weyrfolk were talking about it. It could be fun to go watch the floundering weyrlings. When she finally found out the time she glanced at her remaining work. Nah she wanted to go watch. Setting aside her work tools, the teen slunk off. Not overly hard in the busy Weyr.

She peeked out of the shadows. There they were. A green took off. She looked to be doing well until she tried to look back. Kia snickered as the green went into a bush. Who was next?

Was not the turn of phrase you wanted to hear in mid air, especially not when the subject was We have no idea what we're doing.

The small, enthusiastic blue had launched himself with a zeal that matched Aldrey's level of fear at the entire lesson, his whipping tail taking his partner with him, and if Aldrey himself could be credited with not screaming, it was mostly because he was too busy being locked in frozen terror as 'learning to glide' turned out to be 'falling like squishy bags of fragile meat and bone', and there were several heartbeats of pure unbridled terror and certainty that the two large bronzes waiting to prevent 'accidents' would fail, and then an abrupt change in momentum, which for a moment he thought had to do with the ground, but in fact, was salvation.

Pippith, safe in the grip of the other bronze, was silent for another beat or two as they were winged to safety (where his fears could turn to shaking limbs and humiliation at the giggles of others.) Then the spritely spotted blue burst in with an shaky, adrenaline fueled whoop into his thoughts.

LETSDOITAGAIN.>









< ((whimper)) We're going to have to I'm sure... >

When he saw the familiar pale brown shape drop off the ledge his heart seemed to skip a beat and although he knew that this was not actually the case it didn't made much of a difference until Kyoth's huge wings unfurled to turn the plunge into a glide. An uncharacteristic grin spread across Bereck's face as the young dragon spiralled downward and he raised to fingers to his lips to give a sharp whistle, his contribution to the generalized cheers, applause and laughter generated by the crowd.

When the brown finally landed he winced slightly, not the best ending to a nice glide, but as the weyrling didn't seem to be hurt he stayed where he was and looked back up at the ledge where Rensoua would still be standing. He doubted she would be able to pick him out in the crowd but he had told her that he would be down here, and he trusted that she trusted that.


High up in the sky, above the ledge the weyrlings were dropping off, Berath enjoyed the sight of the youngsters first flight. Unlike her bondmate she did turn out every time to see them but this clutch was indeed special, well every clutch was special but this one was extra special. she sent to the brown once he had recovered from his faceplant.

Hazmath scrambled over the weyrling bowl, wings flapping in pure enthusiasm, radiating glee.

Brishen looked over the side, watching the slopping bowl.

Hazmath wiggled his tail and rear at the rest of the candidates, prancing a bit. That would be scratchy and ooh look people! Hazmath hunkered down, tail flickering and

He was flying, he was flying. Hazmath bulged slightly, excited as his wings held him up and shifted, pointing right towards the spectators.

Brishen fell over laughing as Hazmath thumped nearly ontop of the crowd, look at them move! Move, you better move!! And then gleefully toddled over and was Hazmath licking somone’s face. He could feel mischievous intent coming from his blue.

As the brown settled down near by Bereck (still grinning) observed softly; "You should have seen Berath's first flight." It was one of the few good memories he had from his extended Weyrlinghood, but the memory was no less bright for being surrounded by dull ones.

Berath recalled with a mental laugh once she had located the memory. She didn't really see the need to share the details of the ledge switch with Kyoth - it had just been an observation - but details were important to her healer and so she shared them anyway.

_____________

"I'll take that bet," C'tis replied lazily with a smirk. "How about two more for one of the bronzes to crash impressively?" Ah he did love first fight day! "Just fills you with nostalgia and good will to your fellow man seeing the little precious things soar, doesn't it?" he added in tones that even an especially dense toddler would probably have picked up some sarcasm in. "Oh look, there goes another one," the big rider grinned as Hazmath nearly crashed into the throng a short distance away.