Langley: 18 July 2001

You head northwest, toward the corrals.
Alaida giggles, smiling and looks down at her straps to start yanking on them and testing the leather for obvious strains or possible weak points. "I will admit though, it does help learning all this before hand. " She tilts her head, looking up and over to the barracks then grins. "Amazing. Either he's not paniced, which will surprise me, or Semeth is asleep and didn't relay anything back to him. " She looks over at the brown curiously.
Ardenth heads towards you from the southeast.
Semeth snores loudly. Zzzzzzzz.
U'lyn shrugs as he waves to Langley. "Hey Langley!" he says, brushing his hair out of his face yet again. "Faranth, how glad I'm going to be to be rid of all this extra hair."
Alaida giggles suddenly as she hears Semeth snoring. "That explains that. I get away free this time. " She looks over at Langley, smiling. "Hey, Langley! "
Plodding along gracelessly, Ardenth precedes Langley by a few steps, the weyrling newly washed and dressed. "Of *course* I'm happy you had a good nap. What do you expect? Jumping up and down?" says the girl, making a face as, with her soiled clothes over one arm, she falls in toward the others. "Get away free with what?" she asks, then belatedly remembers to add, "Oh. Hi, U'lyn. Hi, Alaida."
Alaida hmms while holding her straps in her lap and obviously going over them. "Oh.. nothing really. Just Devath and I practicing some maneuvers. " she comments casually.
U'lyn glances at Langley's dirty clothes, chuckling to some personal joke very softly as he fingers his ring with his thumb. "How're you?" he asks cheerfully of Langley.
"What maneuvers?" asks Langley, shoving her hands into her back pockets as she looks between Devath and Alaid a few times. Even Ardenth's interest is piqued, albeit briefly before she pads along to find someplace comfortable to continue her nap. "I'm tired of wearing orange," she tells U'lyn frankly. "How are you? And how's Salva?" Not nearly as casually as Alaida.
U'lyn smiles at Langley, obviously a little surprised at a decently pleasent responce back. "I'm great, and so's Salva! Except she's having a few problems with that little 'lizard she impressed yesterday. I'm helping her out, though."
Alaida smiles, going over her straps still. "Oh... this and that. Devath is just practicing her flying is all. " she still comment casually.
Langley says tartly, "I'm tired of 'lizards. I haven't seen Misato in days and Glamour's been scarce since I Impressed." She can't have people, mostly U'lyn, thinking she's pleasant or anything. "Oh. Okay." She shrugs at Alaida.
U'lyn exhales sharply, but keeps it very quiet. What a surprise, Langley in her usual mood. Glancing over at Alaida, he casually asks, "Want any help with that?"
Alaida sets her helmet out of her lap and nods. "That would be great, U'lyn. Thanks. I need to make sure these didn't get stressed because of that one maneuver. "
U'lyn nods at Alaida, and eyes her straps for a moment. "Should we do that tugging thing that we tried that one time?
"What 'one maneuver'?" Langley repeats, her curiosity tinged with a little frown; she doesn't like missing out on important bits. "What *have* you been practicing that's got you being so arcane?" she asks, sauntering over toward the others and peering at Alaida's straps as if she might glean clues.
Alaida grins and nods. "Yes, please. " she looks over at Langley. "You prepared for tonight's class? " She giggles a bit. "Oh...Devath has just been learning some different ways to fly on her wingtip and such. I was a bit worried when she almost put me upside down.
With a lift of her chin, Langley replies, "We're more than ready." Ardenth accentuates her rider with a certain warble, bordering on auspiciously confident. "We hardly even have to practice most of those wingtip turns." She steps back a moment, once more scrutinizing Devath: "But I can see why you would want to. She's got a lot more bulk than Ardenth does." She means that in the nicest way possible; probably.
Alaida smiles and nods. "Just a little more. You should see some of her maneuvers! I'm just glad Semeth was asleep rather than relaying back what we were doing. "
Langley glances over at that particular brown, then back at Alaida and, with a tilt of her head, asks in her most petulant way, "Well, isn't it a little stupid to be practicing right here where everyone can see you? Really! You ought to at least go down toward the beach or something."
Alaida shakes her head. "We needed the breezes over the bowl to make it a challange. There's a great cross wind up there that makes it difficult to do anything unless you know what you are doing. "
Langley says with a wrinkle of her nose, "If I didn't know better, Alaida, I'd think you were *trying* to get yourself in trouble. But I guess that would be at odds with your wonder-girl attitude the rest of the time, huh? Anyway. Think the lesson tonight is going to be a good one?"
Semeth stirs and stretches, his large mouth dropping open in a yawn.
Alaida blinks, trying to look innocent. "Wonder-girl? " then she giggles. "I hope so! Reye told me that this drill is fun and a challange. Devath and I are prepared. How about you and Ardenth? "
P'tod heads towards you from the southeast.
U'lyn eyes the two girls, mostly Langley. He obviously thinks this could get out of hand pretty easily. "These drills will be...interesting," he comments, softly.
Langley shrugs up both shoulders. "I think it's a pretty fitting name. If there's a weyrlingmaster's pet from our clutch, it really has to be you." Whether that's an insult or a compliment goes unqualified as she goes on to add, with an almost cheerful nod, "Oh, definitely. She thinks we're the readiest." Poor grammar, but it sounds like something Ardenth would say.
P'tod comes striding across the bowl dragging two large sacks behind him. Their contents are obviously heavy because they leave broad trails in the sand.
Alaida tugs on her straps one last time, smiling. "Well, these look good. No strains at all. " then she motions to Devath before pausing. "Naw. Go ahead, girl. Relax for now. "
Alaida snorts and rolls her eyes. "I'm far from that, Langley! "
Kyrola walks out of the Weyrling Barracks to the north.
"Far from what?" P'tod wants to know as he comes to a halt at Semeth's side and starts to fasten the sacks to his brown's riding harness.
U'lyn grins at Alaida, watching as Ondeth whuffles softly into the sand. "That's good. I know I wouldn't want to have to make a new pair of straps," he comments, then eyes Langley. "Not Alaida, oh no. I don't know who it would be, but not her."
U'lyn quickly spins around and salutes P'tod sharply. "Sir."
Flickering a smile so sweet it has to be false, Langley says, "Just what it seems like to me, Alaida." She shrugs again, as if helplessly, and then turns to take note of P'tod. Sigh. Salute. "Hello, sir."
Alaida jumps at P'tod's comment then spins around and quickly salutes sharply, coming to a light attention.
Kyrola comes out of the barracks, saluting P'tod formally.
Zaith emerges through cavernous opening of the Weyrling Barracks.
P'tod looks around with a frown. "Where is everyone, anyway? Seems like it's the same people, always late. Well, those of you who are here now don't have to do the laps after drill." He gestures toward the piles of firestone sacks near the bowl wall. "Everyone get two sacks and start chewing. Kyrola, have you got your flamethrower?"
U'lyn grins at P'tod gratefully, though his expression shows a hint of sympathy for the others. Quickly, he makes his way up to two blue-ribboned sacks, and drags them towards Ondeth, looking like it took less effort than it usualy does.
Muttering briefly under her breath, Langley jogs over to collect one of her sacks and lug it over toward Ardenth. "Chew this one and I'll go get another one," she tells the green, tossing a chunk toward the waiting maw and glancing to see if the others are doing likewise. "At least we don't have to do laps," she offers after U'lyn's sympathetic look.
Alaida grins suddenly then quickly loses it and nods firmly. "Yes, Sir. " She dashes over to the pile of sacks and grabs two, heavier looking bags. She grunts a bit as she turns and hauls them back to Devath, but it hardly looks as it it's a huge effort. That tossing is definitely paying off. She smiles up to Devath, who lowers her head to sniff at the bags. "Yep, that's right, dear. We're going to be flaming again. " Alaida opens a bag and inspects the first piece of stone before offering it to Devath, who takes it. " Remember, love. "
U'lyn opens up one of the bags, and begins tossing pieces of firestone to Ondeth, who chews them with a serious gaze. Of course, U'lyn does a quick check over of each of the pieces to make sure they don't have any missed flaws.
Devath gets a strange, thoughtful look as she crunches down on the stone, mastocating it before she takes another from Alaida. "Sir, how much should we give them? "
P'tod paces up and down, watching as the weyrlings feed their dragons. "Now everyone be careful because I don't want any tongue bites," he says loudly. "We're going to be doing a little rope drill once they get a good bellyful. So don't waste any flame on the ground. Give them as much as they can hold comfortably without flaming," he instructs Alaida. "Then fasten the sacks to your harness so you can give them more, when we're in the air.
Kyrola does indeed have her flamethrower. "Yessir," she replies, as Zaith is already strapped and ready. She checks over the apparatus four times in silence, giving the others a smile.
Audibly crunching through the firestone chunks, Ardenth seems fairly brimming with contained excitment. She can scarce sit still, fluttering now and again with those diminuitive wings as she looks around at her fellow dragons. "Uhm, sir? I can go get my straps, right?" asks Langley tentatively, noting everyone else's state of readiness.
Alaida nods. "Yes, Sir. " She takes out another stone and inspects it before giving it to Devath, who carefully chews it. That's the last before Alaida replaces Devath's straps on her then hauls the two sacks securely to the harness.
Devath lowers her head to allow Alaida to place her flight straps on. She gives a small croon of antisipation.
Ondeth takes a few more pieces from U'lyn before drawing his head back, eyes whirling pretty fast now. U'lyn grins as he does this, then carefully puts on Ondeth's straps on and clips the remainder of the bags to it. Ondeth offers a slight whuffle of excitement, though to anyone other than U'lyn, that might seem like boredom.
Alaida grins and steps up on Devath's forearm that is raised to check the straps a few times, tugging firmly and nods in satisfaction. She hangs her helmet and goggles on a front notch before being lowered again. "Thanks, love. "
and is raised...
P'tod clears his throat. "Is everyone ready?" He doesn't pause for answers before continuing. "Now, the wind's not heavy today, so we're going to use just a regular forward V. Who hasn't been wingleader lately?"
Glancing over at the goldrider, Langley just has to ask, "Haven't you checked that thing enough yet?" She comes out, laden with her straps, and quickly sets about buckling them onto her dragon, who's now rumbling with consumed 'stone.
Kyrola eyes Langley sharply. "Mind your own work," she says coolly. "I'll mind mine." Then she goes back to what she was doing.
P'tod rolls his eyes a little at the exchange between green and goldrider, but doesn't comment. "U'lyn," he decides. "You'll be point. So, everyone form up on Ondeth when we take off. Is anybody /not/ ready yet?"
"Testy, testy," says Langley as she finishes buckling the straps across Ardenth's chest. "I was just *asking*." She steps back then, considering the full effect before she lugs the extra bag toward her lifemate, grunting a little in the process. "You'd - think - they could - make these things - " With a final, triumphant heave, she gets it fastened. " - a little easier to manage."
Alaida moves to stand beside Devath and nods, looking ready herself. "I'm ready, Sir. "
P'tod hears no objections, so he nods sharply. "Good, then let's mount up." He exchanges conspiratorial grins with the riders assigned to help him throw ropes, and walks over to Semeth.
P'tod grasps Semeth's straps firmly and swings himself up to perch atop the brown's neck.
Alaida grabs hold of the flight straps and hoists herself to Devath's back with practiced ease.
Langley takes a strap in one hand and halfway vaults, halfway climbs the distance up to settle herself between Ardenth's neckridges. She gives the anxious green a quick pat before buckling herself securely, peering around at the others from this new - if slightly less vaulted - vantage point. "Don't you dare flame now."
You approach Ardenth just as the dainty green crouches for you, one elegant foreleg bent to allow you an easier mount.
** Devath rumbles even as she takes her position in the Wing just to the right and behind of U'lyn. Alaida looks around, inspecting the rest of the wing before turning to look over at U'lyn, waiting for him.
** Mounted on Devath, Alaida buckles herself into the flight straps securely.
** Perched on Semeth's neck, P'tod hollers, "We're going up now. Follow us and take a position about a length below us, and /stay on your level/."
** Semeth flies up into the air.
** Above you, Semeth climbs higher toward the sky, his wings powerfully beating the air as he gains altitude.
** Ardenth is on the ball today! Up she goes!
You rise into the air.
** Devath flies up from below.
You climb with a powerful downbeat of your wings. The air is moist and scented with the sea, and the constant treacherous updrafts and cross-currents from the ocean blow around you as you climb higher above the bowl.
** Devath soars upward on the changing air currents, her wings powerfully beating the air as she gains altitude.
** A bugle of warning from up above is all that is given to announce the start of the rope drills. May Faranth protect all!
** A long coil of bright orange painted rope is flung downward with a twist of an arm which makes the twisting the winds give the rope even more violent. The coil heads directly at the head of Zaith.
** With surprising speed, a patch of bright orange appears in front of Ondeth.
** Ardenth lacks a little in the way of poise. She's too excited about this prospect - flaming things that are almost just like Thread - to pretend otherwise. A tiny trickle of flame comes out of her unchecked, aimed in the general direction of that mass headed toward the gold, but it's called to order before it can erupt fully. Oops.
** Two handsful of white rope twist lazily through the air, heading in a relatively even movement toward the ground. One of the handfuls has begun to untangle slightly, spreaking its wet ropes out in a fan-like shape. Both the fan-like handful and the tight handful of white rope head at Ondeth.
** Zaith soars upward on the changing air currents, her wings powerfully beating the air as she gains altitude.
** P'tod swings his leg over Semeth's neck and slides to the ground.
** P'tod grasps Semeth's straps firmly and swings himself up to perch atop the brown's neck.
** Knowing how unfair Thread is, cheating is perfectly acceptable in rope drills. The instant one of the dragons reappears from between, it is met with a clump of bright orange rope. The second handful of bright orange rope is sent directly at Devath.
** Mounted on Devath, Alaida reaches quickly into her firestone sack to take out a stone. Only the briefest of glance at it, obviously preparing herself as she keeps herself low against Devath.
** A fistful of bright orange rope whistles toward the ground, breaking up into two evenly sized patches. Both patches are caught by an errant gust of wind which pushes the ropes directly into the face of Ardenth.
** Semeth hovers high above, his watchful gaze upon the weyrlings as P'tod rains rope down upon them.
** A large tangle of bright orange undulates across the upper sky and unravels to shower down upon Devath.
** Well, isn't it a good thing that Ardenth had that burst of flame ready? Without much timing behind the matter, she bellows out a long, orange lick toward one of those divided clumps. She manages to singe parts of it, but her ill-timed flame completely misses the second half. Terrified, the little green utterly fails to do anything about it but, with a wet slap, gets nailed by all those orange ropes. Langley can be seen covering her face with her hands even as Ardenth hiccoughs a gout of flame, *way* too late.
** A large coil of bright orange tunnelsnakes its way down, twisting and turning in a hypnotic movement toward Devath.
** Devath , on the other hand, looks determined with her eyes whirling a fast yellow. She slows herself only briefly, tilting a wing and turns her head to flame the orange rope right in the middle and spiltting it in half with the top half curling black but the lower half dropping down. Alaida on her back winces a bit and reaches around to give another piece of stone to Devath, who snakes her head around, taking it and chews.
** A handful of bright pink rope uncoils on it way down. With each strand unfurling, the simple handful becomes a dangerous tangle of three that heads toward the wing of Devath.
** A streak of white arcs across the skies as a fistful of rope is thrown overhead and across the area. After it reaches the uppermost point in the arc, it begins its quick descend toward Ardenth.
** Zaith holds her place in the line as nothing comes close enough to her for her rider to flame, her wings almost idling as she holds herself in formation.
** Heartbeats apart, small fistful of white and bright orange ropes are sent downward. The fistfuls merge into one large sheet of multi-hued rope that appears to be heading toward the rider and upper back of Devath.
** At the first coil, that is unavoidable, Devath winks out, only to wink back, instantly flaming another orange painted rope though half of it hits her wing and half of Alaida, along with the white rope above it. Devath bugles, practicing hissing as she finally bellows out a flame at another bright orange rope and this time gets the entire thing in char!
Langley picks off a few of the more stubborn ropes, tossing them carelessly off her dragon's orange-splattered hide. "This is so gross," she says; not that anyone is likely to hear it. Sporting a few splashes herself, she sighs as Ardenth veers off to catch a new clump, the girl left clutching for dear life. She may be terrible at this flaming business, but she gives a good chase after those ropes! Angling too sharply, unaware of her own agility, she clips the patch with a wingsail and, in going between to rid herself of the clump, manages to emerge right back in the thick of it. She just bellows flame irritably! Some sears, some clings; either way, she's a very orange green.
** A fistful of white appears out of nowhere! It attempts to tangle itself around the snout of Devath.
** With the rope drill administraightors moving around the upper skies with ease and cunning, the next rope appears out of no where, it seems! The bright pink rope shears toward ground, lifting suddenly during an updraft to head toward Zaith.
** Devath bugles then wink out again then winks back, no doubt an auto reaction. She shakes her head to flick the white rope off then reaches around for more stone, which Alaida supples quickly.
** Instead of a large clump, the next series of bright orange ropes is more of a drizzle of little rope clumplets that fall at irregular intervals. Each clumplet falls sporatically as the winds toss them around, but the majority head directly at Devath.
** One tangle of bright orange falls unhindered through the rank of the wing, followed immediately by a tangle of bright pink. The bright pink ropes head toward Devath.
** Two patches of rope, one a bright pink and the other white, are sent downward. Each patch descends toward the intended areas of the intended victim -- the head _and_ tail of Ardenth.
** Devath doesn't pause as she now seems to be getting the hang of things, but now both Alaida and her are rather coated with paint. She bellows out her flame at the large clump, taking her flame from the bottom, to the top. In one moment, she moves from that, quickly, to the next, flaming another bright orange tangle of rope in her direction.
** A handful of bright pink rope uncoils on it way down. With each strand unfurling, the simple handful becomes a dangerous tangle of three that heads toward the wing of Zaith.
** Ardenth slaps her wings as best she can, managing to dislodge a few errant tangles in the process. Langley, still clinging to the straps as this ungainly maneuver proceeds, has an orange face to match her orange clothes, so maybe that's something to be grateful for? Not that she has time to relish this small victory as, without warning, Ardenth dashes off once more, dodging out of the way of one patch to nail the other with a timely gout. This time, just the flat of her tail takes a licking, those ribbons splattering her white before she can properly wink. Minute improvement.
** Perched on Semeth's neck, P'tod makes some gesture at one of his partners, indistinguishable at this distance. Semeth and the other man's blue close together so that there's barely wingroom between them, and loose a rapid series of ropes directly onto the head of one weyrling who isn't paying much attention. Stinging paint-spattered ropes strike Alsa's hands and face and mark up her blue's wings.
** With surprising speed, a patch of bright orange appears in front of Zaith.
** Devath twists herself, doing one of those same maneuvers she did in the bowl and bellows down a flame to the pink rope that was tangled within the orange rope. She isn't long out of formation and is right back, but now reaching her head around to get more firestone to eat.
** Perched atop Zaith, Kyrola spots the rope heading her way, and she lifts the wand of her flamethrower, getting two of the three in the original tangle, and clumsily swings the wand over to foosh at the new patch... the third slaps into Zaith's wing, much to her lifemate's annoyance.
** A fistful of bright orange rope whistles toward the ground, breaking up into two evenly sized patches. Both patches are caught by an errant gust of wind which pushes the ropes directly into the face of Zaith.
** Heartbeats apart, small fistful of white and bright orange ropes are sent downward. The fistfuls merge into one large sheet of multi-hued rope that appears to be heading toward the rider and upper back of Zaith.
** Zaith flashes between without hesitation, leaving the ropes behind, reappearing in front of them. Kyrola checks her airspace and quickly whips the flamethrower to get the two behind, then turns around to get a faceful of paint. Zaith flicks them both between briefly again.
** One tangle of bright orange falls unhindered through the rank of the wing, followed immediately by a tangle of bright pink. The bright pink ropes head toward Ardenth.
** Instead of a large clump, the next series of bright orange ropes is more of a drizzle of little rope clumplets that fall at irregular intervals. Each clumplet falls sporatically as the winds toss them around, but the majority head directly at Devath.
** And Ardenth heads for the bright pink ropes! Checking her forward motion, whirling all but on the tip of her tail so that Langley reels before she can hunker down close, the green dashes to meet this new (if fake) menace! Just when it seems everything is going perfect, she belches a tiny little trickle of flame. Utterly aghast, she snakes her head around to peer at Langley, who fumbles with the sack, and thus flies right into the path of the faux-thread. "Shards'n'shells!"
** A streak of white arcs across the skies as a fistful of rope is thrown overhead and across the area. After it reaches the uppermost point in the arc, it begins its quick descend toward Ardenth.
** With the rope drill administraightors moving around the upper skies with ease and cunning, the next rope appears out of no where, it seems! The bright pink rope shears toward ground, lifting suddenly during an updraft to head toward Devath.
** Devath swings her head around, finally finishing chomping firestone and instantly hisses, seeming to know just what this rope prepresents as she catches a large clump with a good amount of flame, yet she makes it puff out, catching the other smaller clumps just as quickly, though she does miss one, which hits Alaida in the leg. Alaida shakes her head, frowning, though she looks almost completely coated in paint.
Langley calls rather urgently, "Chew! Chew chew chew!" Ardenth does as she bidden and, crunching through the mouthful, darts just to one side of the white clump. And finally, for once, she lets loose a gout of flame that perfectly sears the ropes! Elated, her rider claps her paint-flecked hands and, just before she loses her balance, clutches the straps as Ardenth dives off to one side beneath a flame from Alsa and her blue. "Watch where you're aiming!"
** A large tangle of bright orange undulates across the upper sky and unravels to shower down upon Zaith.
** Devath easily chars the pink rope caught in an updraft, almost as if the wind was helping her keep it up so it was easier to flame.
** Omfaleth soars upward on the changing air currents, her wings powerfully beating the air as she gains altitude.
** Omfaleth bugles a cheerful, brassy greeting to the weyrlings as her wings beat the air.
** A fistful of white appears out of nowhere! It attempts to tangle itself around the snout of Zaith.
** Omfaleth disappears into Between.
** Perched on Semeth's neck, P'tod waves to Omfaleth and her rider, and hurls another wad of rope.
** A handful of white is sent angling toward the left, immediately followed by a handful of bright pink that is angled toward the right. Both patches meet midway down with a resounding splat before falling straight as an arrow down at Ardenth.
** Zaith blinks between, narrowly missing both patches of ropes which were falling toward her.
** Two handsful of white rope twist lazily through the air, heading in a relatively even movement toward the ground. One of the handfuls has begun to untangle slightly, spreaking its wet ropes out in a fan-like shape. Both the fan-like handful and the tight handful of white rope head at Devath.
** Ardenth would probably bugle to the queen, but she's a bit preoccupied. In fact, it's a wonder she doesn't barrell right into Omfaleth, the way she's darting around all but recklessly. Little patches of green show through her now orange-pink-white hide, which quickly spirals out of the way of that pinkish blob. Too late, the little lets loose her belch of fire, only singeing the trailing edge which falls down to the earth.
** A large coil of bright orange tunnelsnakes its way down, twisting and turning in a hypnotic movement toward Zaith.
** A long coil of bright orange painted rope is flung downward with a twist of an arm which makes the twisting the winds give the rope even more violent. The coil heads directly at the head of Devath.
** A large handful of white rope is released. The ropes fall toward the ground, the winds splitting them into two clumps. One heads toward the middle of the wing and the other flies straight and true at Zaith.
** Knowing how unfair Thread is, cheating is perfectly acceptable in rope drills. The instant one of the dragons reappears from between, it is met with a clump of bright orange rope. The second handful of bright orange rope is sent directly at Zaith.
** Devath reaches around, getting another piece of firestone and quickly chews it before she turns her head. She twists her wings, pulling them in a bit but at the last moment she turns, moving to catch the edge of a white rope and flames it to the center to make sure it carries through to the other end. She banks a bit, moving from the charred rope and flames yet another clump of white that had untangled itself from the other white rope though this time, she flames it differntly, catching the clump in one, large flame. At the moment another coil, a bright orange one, comes toward her head, she pulls up, almost slowing her momentum completely to catch it, charing it with some of it hits her snout. Only a second later, she blinks out into between, only to blink back again while shaking that rope off.
** Two patches of rope, one a bright pink and the other white, are sent downward. Each patch descends toward the intended areas of the intended victim -- the head _and_ tail of Zaith.
** One tangle of bright orange falls unhindered through the rank of the wing, followed immediately by a tangle of bright pink. The bright pink ropes head toward Zaith.
** Zaith blink, blink, blink, and then Kyrola flames the fourth patch with her flamethrower, still a bit clumsy with the wand, but quickly learning, from the way she's now handling it.
** A fistful of bright orange rope whistles toward the ground, breaking up into two evenly sized patches. Both patches are caught by an errant gust of wind which pushes the ropes directly into the face of Devath.
** Knowing how unfair Thread is, cheating is perfectly acceptable in rope drills. The instant one of the dragons reappears from between, it is met with a clump of bright orange rope. The second handful of bright orange rope is sent directly at Devath.
** A large handful of white rope is released. The ropes fall toward the ground, the winds splitting them into two clumps. One heads toward the middle of the wing and the other flies straight and true at Zaith.
** Without any warning, all the remaining white, bright pink and bright orange ropes are let go and head directly at the ENTIRE wing. From the bowl floor, dragonhealers stand ready with numbweed pots to help soothe any singes found.
** Rope Drill Machine grasps Semeth's straps firmly and swings itself up to perch atop the brown's neck.
** Devath bugles, catching only a bit of that orange rope before she blinks between, only to blink back. Strangely, that rope isn't there anymore. She probably shook it off when she blinked. She instantly she comes out she flames another orange rope, meeting the tailend with flame and chars it. She climbs, banking practically on wing tip before charing the rest of the top of the orange rope.
** Semeth glides lower into the bowl, his huge size dwarfed by the immensity of the bowl around him.
** Splattering droplets of paint toward the ground, diffusing as they near the bowl floor, Ardenth looks... well, silly. Even her snort, derisive and frustrated, sends a smattering of paint toward whoever happens to be nearest (duck?). Langley reacts in kind, carelessly scrubbing her painted palms. "*What*?" Dodging clearly out of the question, Ardenth just bellows flame in a wide arc all around herself, getting almost as many as get her. The greenrider shakes her fist irritably upward. "Jerks!"
** Devath acks as she gets hit the face with a large, orange rope. She screams, pushing it away then looks up at the admins and growls before Devath dives down, still staying in formation to land.
** Devath glides lower into the bowl, her huge size dwarfed by the immensity of the bowl around her.
Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Ardenth sends images of buckets and buckets and buckets of multi-hued paint splatters and, right there in the middle of it, one brown dragon who likes a great deal like Semeth. Idle fancy.
** Ardenth shakes off a few errant tendrils and, folding her splattered wings, angles down after the others.
The wind is brisk and feels good under your wings, supporting your wings firmly as you glide lower into the bowl.
You manage the unruly updraft originating from the lower west part of the bowl, and backwing neatly to a landing in the Center of the Bowl.
You head northwest, toward the corrals.
** Alaida grabs hold of the straps and slides down Devath's shoulder to the ground, landing with practiced grace.
Dragon> Ista Weyrling dragons sense that Semeth rumbles with amusement at the image. << My rider and I have been *covered in paint* many times. So you also will be, before you are ready to fight *Thread*. >>
** P'tod swings his leg over Semeth's neck and slides to the ground.
** Alaida wobbly dismounts then groans again, just falling to the ground in exhaustion. Both her and Devath are coated from head to tail in paint, except for a single patch on Alaida's front. "I'm not moving. " she groans.
Slipping more than anything else, Langley hops down from her dragon with an absolute lack of grace. "This is so gross!" she says plaintively, paint speckling the ground around her and Ardenth. "And she just got oiled, too!"
Deftly, you lower yourself to Ardenth's bent foreleg, pausing a moment as your lifemate crouches to allow you easier access to the ground.
"Check 'em over!" P'tod yells as he dismounts and starts walking through the ranks of the weyrlings. "Any wing strains, ash burns, anything like that, and you report directly to the dragonhealer first, then to me. Got that?" He looks around.
Alaida groans and gets to her feet at P'tod's comment. She moves to Devath to start checking her over. She doesn't even notice, that on her cheek is an ash burn, covered in paint. She moves over Devath, quickly checking her out and running her hands over wings, sides, face - expecially face. She murmurs tiredly."How do you feel, dear? Everything alright? " What better one to ask than the one who could possibly be hurt.
Above you, Zaith circles silently down from the sky, and her huge wings hold steady as she rides the air currents below the rim of the bowl.
Zaith banks and wings to a landing below in the northwest side of the bowl.
Langley swipes her hand over her face, smearing more than anything else, as she turns to her dragon. "I don't know how we're supposed to *see* any chars under all this." But she's nonetheless thorough in her consultation with Ardenth, who sits there trying to look proud in the midst of all this. "We look so stupid," she adds after getting a look at Alaida.
Kyrola slithers down Zaith's side to the ground.
Alaida looks over at Langley and smiles lightly, nodding. "Yeah. You do look rather funny with all that paint. " She reaches up to rub her face to get most of the paint off, then gasps when she finally feels that ash burn. "Oh... ow! What in sharding... "
"At least you don't look Threadscored," P'tod points out in a dry tone, to Langley. "Alaida, you'll want some numbweed for that."
Kyrola grimaces as she checks on the flamethrower to make sure the paint didn't get on it or the flight didn't damage it. Then she checks on Zaith, casually, making sure her wings weren't strained. Then, and only then, does she peel off her helmet and goggles.
Alaida growls, wiping her cheek a bit more to get the paint off her. She winces. "Shards, I thought I ducked enough. When did this happen? " she seems to be trying to figure it out mentally even as Devath turns around to croon at her. Alaida sighs. "Alright, dear. Just don't go worrying. I'm fine. It only hurts a bit. "
"There'd be some dignity in that. But this..." Langley mutters under her breath, plucking the shirt away from her skin and sighing as it tries to cling, soaked with paint. "Oh, my poor Ardenth! You look so silly!" She completely misses Alaida's little scoring, stroking a paint-soaked muzzle.
P'tod smirks at Langley. "Maybe not as much dignity as you think. In any case, you'll get better. Provided you work at it. Just be glad we weren't keeping score today, or you'd all owe us more drinks you could pay for in a year."
Kyrola frowns toward P'tod's remarks as she wipes the paint off her face, off the bits under where her goggles had rested.
Alaida wrinkles her nose and sighs. She finishes checking Devath, then turns to P'tod. "Sir, Devath is fine. She says no straining or hurting. She's demanding me to go get some numbweed. May I be excused? " She obviously doesn't look too thrilled that she didn't duck enough. Actually, she looks rather ticked off.
Blinking, Langley looks toward P'tod and asks, "What, sir? Surely you can't expect weyrlings to buy drinks. I haven't even got a mark for ribbons, let alone getting weyrlingmasters drunk." She sniffs disdainfully, peeling some of the more dried paint from her dragon's headknobs as she speaks.
P'tod blinks at Alaida, then waves his hand at her. "Go, go! It's right over there." He points to a station already set up, where X'ander's distributing small jars of numbweed. "That's why we weren't keeping score," P'tod tells Langley. He raises his voice to tell them all, "As soon as you've finished checking your dragons over, you're excused to bathe them."
"Oh, thank our lucky stars!" sighs Langley gratefully, a bit melodramatically but, well, she's dirty. And being dirty is gross. And being gross is just not one of the things Langley does at all well.
Kyrola rolls her eyes at those weyrlings who seem to be upset to be dirty, of all things. "Go jump in the bloody ocean already," she snaps with a hint of temper in her voice.
Scurrying along a ways to try and keep up with her dragon, who's practically bounding off toward the sea, Langley calls, "Wait, wait! You can't get very clean without me, anyway!" She actually runs, a bit ungainly as the paint starts to dry to a crust, to keep up with Ardenth.
P'tod is striding into the barracks to wash the paint off his hands. "Take it easy, Kyrola," he chides her as he passes.
P'tod walks into the huge opening of the Weyrling Barracks.
Alaida grumbles and quickly dashes over to the station even before Devath bugles loudly, watching her lifemate closely. The green? dragon finally shakes herself off, sending a bit of paint everywhere. Alaida salutes to X'ander even as her cheek is tendered to before she comes back, looking just annoyed. Of all places on her now, that cheek is clean to the point of standing out. Alaida glances to P'tod before she picks up her goggles and helmet and motions to Devath. "Off you go! Shards, stop bleeting, you silly thing. I'm fine. See, no more hurt. It wasn't your fault. I don't even know where it came from. " and now she's offer with Devath taking off toward the ocean.
You open the gate and walk into the pens, remembering to close the gate behind you.