Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a pleasant evening, the day's rain was passed and Trine was bustling with life as the majority of its inhabitants finished their day's work and kicked back to relax.

On the edge of one of the Weyr's many open gathering spaces, just south of the joining point between the trio of lakes, a scarred woman sat cross-legged on the ground with her back to a log - worn smooth by use as a bench - carefully unpicking the stitching on a set of flying straps. Leaning up against the log next to her was a wooden case, it was fiddle shaped and so presumably it contained a fiddle.

Every so often she would pause in her work to look up and out over the water, smiling distantly to herself in the manner of a rider conversing with their dragon.

The dragon in question, as scarred as her bondmate, was enjoying a swim and occasionally snapping lazily at fish as they flashed past her.

"I am sure you're right," Kleos said aloud with a small nod, "Killakeeth has always produced well in the past."

The sound of footsteps approaching caused Kleos to raise her head from her work, being alert to the smallest sounds was a habit she and many others had never got out of after the war. When she took in the identity of the owner of the footsteps however she relaxed and offered a smile. "Good evening Vosin." She had been going to ask if the gold rider wished to join her, but she already had. Well no harm done and beautiful company never went amiss even if she knew that said beauty was unattainable; at least with a gold rider she knew where she stood and couldn't get her hopes up.

"It seems our evening's task is the same," she commented as Vosin gave her straps a very hard stare, making a gesture to her own as she spoke. "After our drill this morning I noticed a crack in the upper right chest strap, it was new only a sevenday ago! I shall have to make a complaint to the tanners if this happens again. What's the trouble with yours?" A little conversation would make the task pass by much more quickly and she was rather pleased it had been Vosin to join her in any case, she still needed to extend her compliments on a good Flight and offer her best wishes for a healthy clutch.

"I suppose a substandard piece is inevitable from time to time," Kleos replied with a wry smile and a small shrug. "It's frustrating, but so long as one does proper checks - as we are - it only leads to a waste of time." Not all riders were so diligent, it had happened more than once that a rider's straps snapped during a Fall because they hadn't been checking their gear thoroughly enough.

"Dauntless flies well," Kleos continued with a slight nod for emphasis. "We have a green and a brown grounded with injuries at present but we are still at a good flying strength." She couldn't imagine not being a part of a flying wing, and Vosin had never been given a choice. It seemed unfair but that was the nature of life she supposed. However.... "I am running an extra drill the day after tomorrow giving the wing various handicaps. Perhaps you'd like to come along to that, fly a bronze's position? I'm sure it can only benefit your work in the Queen's Wing if you've actually been part of a drill or two with a combat wing. With a better understanding of how we work, you will have a better understanding of how things can go wrong and be able to react accordingly." That sounded reasonable to her and it would be a surprise for the wing, the whole point of the handicap drill was to force them to adapt to strange situations on the fly as it were.

"Humm." Kleos pulled out the last of the stitches attaching the faulty piece to the rest of her harness and removed it. "Well the pace will be a lot faster than you're accustomed to I imagine. Do you drill with painted ropes? That's what we will be using in the practice. The location for our drill hasn't been decided as yet, I will be looking for a location experiencing strong winds to make things a little more difficult; prepare for the worst, as it were. Humm. Your flamethrower is smaller than a dragon's flame of course but the aim of the drill is to handicap a few people and make sure that the rest of the wing is able to cover for them, to get them through without major 'injury'." As she spoke Kleos picked up the fresh piece of leather she had brought to replace the defective one.

"You're the reason we're doing this as it happens," she continued with a brief smile over to Vosin before looking back down at her work. "Killakeeth is, I should say. In a turn or so we shall have new riders among us and though Weyrling training is of an excellent standard new riders never perform perfectly their first few Falls with a proper wing and so it's important that their comrades are able to get them through alive until they've gained a little experience."

"Humm, you know I never have seen a flamethrower working up close. If you don't object I should like to be there when you do your safety checks," Kleos said with a smile that turned into a bit of a grin. "Dragonflame may be larger, but there is a lot to be said for wielding fire with your own hands! I look forward to seeing how you can wield the weapon in action too, you must have excellent aim and get rather close to the Thread itself at times."

As Vosin spoke about the upcoming clutch Kleos nodded, her smile softening. "Indeed. They always seem so young when they first graduate, even the riders who are already twenty or twenty one turns. A lot is expected from new wingriders right from takeoff, all we can do is try to support them as they learn to shoulder the burden they have taken on." A great number of them probably wouldn't live even to be as old as Kleos was herself today and she did not feel very old, at least most of the time. Such was the life of a dragonrider however, it was a duty that had to be done no matter the cost.

"Oh, excellent!" Kleos positively beamed at Voisn. "I'm quite certain the rest of the wing would be fascinated to see one working up close too, from behind of course. To my mind at least they have a certain mystique, a touch of the ancient about them. They must be one of the few old devices we remembered how to make and maintain until the recent surge of interest in the ancients' ways." She didn't have the time to learn much of the new discoveries that were coming to light but that they existed still amazed her. What secrets had they lost, and what might they yet recover?

"And thank you, I will remember that," Kleos continued with a nod. "Neither of us can know what they will be like of course, but it could well be that some would benefit from a chance to talk over problems with you that they might feel awkward sharing with me, or with a fighting wing peer- Oh!" At that point Kleos spotted the firelizard and started smiling again. "Well, who is this then? What a handsome fellow he is!"

"Perhaps they are, but we aren't used to them," Kleos pointed out with a smile and a vague genial gesture. "And we are always pleased to learn something new in Dauntless, we have regular sessions dedicated to broadening our minds and skillsets. And Vintage, is it?" Kleos' smile widened a little as the brown approached her and she reached out to tickle him under the chin if he would allow it. "Ah, it has been too long since I had a firelizard," she murmured half to herself, "they are such little darlings! Sweet, playful, and loyal." She still missed Ice, she'd had him before she had even known Moriath and his absence was still a little cold hole in her heart that would never close. Moss too she missed, though in the case of the green she had the comfort of believing that she was alive out there somewhere and perhaps the ruling mother of her own little faire.

"How long have you had him?" Kleos asked, tearing her eyes away from the firelizard to regard Vosin once again.

"Ah, I did," Kleos replied with a small smile for the nostalgia. She did miss him, and Moss too, but it was a little hole that she was well used to by now. "I had a blue named Ice, who fired a green I named Moss. Moss was never all that close to me but Ice was, I found him when I was sixteen.... Unfortunately he died in the final battle at Malvren, distracting Kellask so that I had time to get back onto my feet and fight. When he died Moss went feral, I like to think she might still be alive out there somewhere." Kleos shrugged, still smiling faintly as she stroked Vintage. "He was a brave little fellow, my Ice. Humm, but I think your fellow would like more than attention from me? Is it feeding time?" Some firelizards thought it was always feeding time and ended up almost too fat to fly as a result.