This was the point at which H'lee took an active role in the weyrlings' physical training: stretching and sandbag tossing. His leg may have been ravaged by Thread, but his arms sure hadn't been! When the weyrlings reported to the Sands for their exercising, some of them with their dragons in tow, he was ready for them.

"Alright, boys and girls, follow my lead." With that, he began a series of stretching exercises, with T'lon filling in on some of the leg exercises that H'lee was unable to demonstrate effectively. These stretches took about 20 minutes to complete.

Afterward, H'lee instructed them to stand in a circle while T'lon picked up a couple of bags and scooped a dozen double handfuls of sand off the floor into each of the bags. "These weigh about five pounds," H'lee explained as T'lon easily and deftly tossed him one of the two bags. "Alright, CATCH!" he shouted, tossing the bag to the weyrling immediately to his right. T'lon, opposite H'lee in the circle, tossed his bag to his right.

As they tossed, H'lee would periodically shout, "Faster!" or "Change directions!" They did this for another 20 minutes and then H'lee and T'lon collected the sandbags and walked the weyrlings through another set of stretching exercises to cool down.

---

K'so
Qancith roused his rider when it was time for their next task, something K'so wasn't even sure what it would be. However, he wasn't the only one bringing a dragon with him. Once he arrived at the Sands and found out what they'd be doing, though, he wished that the dragons hadn't come with their riders.

K'so was about as flexible as a board. He found most of the exercises excruciatingly painful and didn't stretch even half as much as most of the others. He thought he was more flexible than that. Probably because you napped instead of doing something after your workout this morning, Qancith pointed out sarcastically. While this blue weyrling dragon wouldn't stoop to performing the same exercises, he snorted at his clutchbrother, Spindath, who WAS mimicking the humans as much as a dragon could.

K'so muttered something unflattering in response to his dragon's pointed note. It was true; he probably was stiff because of the morning's workout. However, the heat of the sands and the activity of tossing the five-pound sack of sand around limbered him up so that when the cool-down stretches came, he felt like he was stretching farther than he had at first.

Despite the stretching, though, he could feel the ache in his shoulders and upper arms that were promising to be stiff and sore by the next day. Who would have thought that a five-pound sack of sand could be so flaming heavy?! He was relieved when the workout was over and he was instructed to clean up; even though he could feel the first biting edge of hunger from Qancith (it was almost mealtime again), he took his time cleaning up, trying to soak some of the ache away.

The twins easily watched and then followed as T'lon went through the warm up exercises. Despite the odd little error in movement here or there, they managed to complete that portion of things with relative ease.

It wasn't until they started tossing sandbags that the twins found things a little more difficult. A'lo started out doing well with the tossing and catching. It was five pounds and really that wasn't all that bad for him to toss around... but when they sped things up or changed direction... well, it usually ended with him throwing the bag the way he originally intended or dropping the bag on his toes until he got the hang of the new speed.

Artemis, for her part, took a second longer to get used to tossing the bag. It felt heavier to her than it did her twin, but she managed. While she was slightly better at adapting, she did miss a few tosses, and miss catching more than a few tosses. In fact, one hit her hand before falling to the ground.

When H'lee and T'lon finally called it quits the twins were more than happy to stop and go back to doing stretches so as to cool down.

Kat and Mccoreth rejoined their fellow weyrlings for their next task and it wasn't just Spindath who was mimicking the human exercises as they stretched. Mccoreth, who had been reminded by Kat about H'lee's offering in the morning, did his best to do as the humans did to stretch his joints and ease some of the soreness he'd undoubtedly feel later (he wasn't sore then which he made sure to comment on, of course). At any rate, Kat did fairly well with the stretches and was feeling quite rejuvenated by the time they started the sandbag toss.

Again, Kat did as well as could be expected at first finding it fairly simply to catch and toss the relatively light bag of sand. But as the 'game' went on it got more difficult as they changed directions, sped up and her arms started getting tired (though not to the point she was ready to quit, tending the livestock on her home farm had been more of a workout). She wasn't the only one to have dropped the bag or made a bad toss by the time all was said and done. When they were called to stop, she went through the cool-down stretches with Mccoreth off to the side mimicking them once again.

After feeding their dragons, getting their own lunch and free couple of hours, and another dragon feeding, they weyrlings were to report to the Hatching Sands again, this time with their dragons (no exceptions). They were immediately starting in on their Anatomy & Physiology class.

When the weyrlings arrived, there was a board on the sands with several drawings and diagrams. Seeth was also present with his rider. "So, time to start learning what to call the different parts of your dragon!" the Weyrlingmaster said with a grin. "Most of that is fairly self-explanatory, but one thing that always needs to be clarified with a new batch of weyrlings: your dragons only have two legs, not four. The other two are their arms." Having clarified that, he briefly went over the basic physical anatomy of the dragons, using Seeth as an example. Then he moved on to the next part: organization.

On a table next to the board full of diagrams was a contraption which H'lee said was a microscope. They were instructed to, one at a time, look into the microscope; this is what they saw. While each weyrling rider looked into the microscope, he quizzed the other weyrlings on the basic anatomy, like where the arms, wings, headknobs, and so forth are; they had to point out the body part on their own dragon. "Those are called cells. More specifically, Seeth's skin cells. Now, back to the board here..." he directed their attention back to the board. "Cells are made of molecules of different elements. For example, all of Pern's native creatures, including dragons, require boron, which is a type of molecule that resembles metal, but isn't actually metal; most of Pern's species use it for their bones, the same way we use the calcium from milk to build strong bones. We don't have any microscopes powerful enough to confirm this, but AIVAS' knowledge banks confirm that is the case; they also tell us that molecules are made up of atoms. A common molecule is water, which AIVAS tells us is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom.

"Cells combine to make tissues; different types of tissues make different organs. Skin cells, like you saw in the microscope, make up skin tissue, which is the largest organ in or on the body. Another type of tissue makes muscles, and even muscles have specialized tissues, like the heart muscle. Some of the organs work together, like the nervous system - you have tiny nerves in your skin, which connect to nerves in the muscles and eventually they all come together in your spine and meet in your brain, which controls all the activity; this is called an organ system. All these different organ systems combine to make an organism."

Next H'lee defined anatomical directional terms: anterior, posterior, dorsal, ventral, left lateral, right lateral, medial, proximal, and distal. Each weyrling was given a set of diagrams of a dragon, showing a dragon from the top, front, and right side. Each page contained different information: a circulatory system diagram; a nervous system diagram; digestive system diagram; the skeletal system; the muscular system; other organs not covered in the other diagrams. The only common feature (aside from the presence of the same draconic outline) were the axis marks to match the anatomical directions that H'lee had defined. "Keep these; you'll need them for the next two months."

Then he handed out a similar diagram, only this one was blank, containing only the outline of a dragon. "You will fill these out. Draw everything you can see ON your dragon: eyes, nostrils, ears, any skin blemishes, any injuries from during the Hatching, et cetera. You also need to color them in; I know most of you are necessarily artistically inclined, and I don't expect you to match the colors of your dragon exactly. But get your dragon to pose and then color in the diagram using shade variations that you see when he or she is posed for you. After you've done this, on the back of the page, write down what appears on your dragon and it's anatomical location. For example, with Seeth, on the dorsal side of the anterior proximal left wing, I would list Threadscore. You'll turn these into me on the day before Restday."

---

K'so
After feeding Qancith lunch, K'so got a light lunch for himself from the kitchens, comprised of items left over from the Gather the night before - a slice of roast herdbeast slapped on a piece of bread with a slice of cheese, tomato, and some lettuce. He also filched a bubbly pie; it was cold and a day old, but it was still a bubbly pie!

After he ate, he joined his dragon for a nap. When he awoke, he still had over an hour before he had to report to the Sands for whatever their next class was. Lacking anything better to do, he went down to the greenhouse that contains the various herbs that the kitchens used. Several of them smelled good and, during one of his lessons as a Candidate, he'd read about the mystical (or perhaps mythical) properties of certain such plants. He coaxed one of the Journeymen out of a few small pots and seedlings of certain herbs, namely lavender, peppermint, hops, rosemary, thyme, and chamomile. All four were rumored to help people sleep and he felt he was precious short on that (and got the impression that he was going to feel that way for quite a while). He planted the seedlings in the pots and then got a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme. Then he stopped in the infirmary to get one of the braziers that the healers used to help cover smells and soothe patients. Finally, back in his barracks, he lined the seedlings up on his desk. The brazier he placed near the head of his bed and dropped the adult sprigs into it before lighting the candle underneath it and stretching out on his bed. A great deal of scent was released, and a little smoke, and he soon drifted off again.

Wake up. Wake up! WAKE UP!!! the blue finally resorted to yelling mentally to rouse his rider.

"Yah!" K'so yelped, flailing into an upright position on his bunk. "Huh? What?"

I am hungry. It is time for food. The others are leaving.

Mumbling and bumbling a bit, K'so tried to wake himself up enough to take Qancith down to eat. The chilly late winter air bit at his nose and succeeded where Qancith and stretching had failed and he was wide awake by the time they made it to the Hatching Sands for their next lesson.

He made a face at the skin cells under the microscope. "Those are brown," he pointed out, only to hear that at that level, pigments in the skin weren't visible. Only when many such cells were layered and placed together could color be discerned. The quiz was easy; after all, EVERYONE knew where the wing of a dragon was, or its head, or its feet. He was having a little trouble adjusting to the idea that the front feet - er, hands - were not to be called feet, and that the arms weren't legs. Of course, babies crawled around on all fours, and you didn't call their arms and hands feet, so what was the difference, really?

He gaped at the drawings, and at H'lee when he was given the blank diagram. He wasn't an artist, how was he supposed to draw anything on this? Qancith, however, thoroughly enjoyed the idea of sitting perfectly still while his rider gave him undivided attention to fill out the diagram.

By the time they finished the diagram toward the end of the week, Qancith was less thrilled with it. Sitting still made him want to fall asleep, and he was not at all happy with how K'so had portrayed him in the diagram. My skin is NOT that pocked! he complained.

"Yes, it is, now stop complaining about my artistic skills!" K'so sighted. Or lack thereof, he thought. The most noticeable blemishes were on the left and right lateral sides of the posterior of Qancith's head (better known as his cheeks). At least, K'so hoped that was the right anatomical description for cheeks...

As could be expected, A'lo and Artemis spent lunch together and visited with their respective friends a little in between. Afterwards they went their seperate ways... if only because Artemis wanted to do some sketching and A'lo wanted to go for a quick swim. Although, they did meet up again later on when A'lo was dried off and dressed once more so that they could feed their dragons and head to the hatching grounds.

The twins arrived at the hatching grounds together, their dragons following easily after the two of them. Once they arrived, they waited for the others and then listened to H'lee's instructions. They each took their turns looking into the microscope when it was their respective turns before whispering to themselves much the same conundrum that K'so had pointed out... the cells weren't brown. Although, they learned the answer to that readily enough when someone pointed out that it took a lot of cells together to make the pigments stand out.

As discussion resumed, they listened once more to the weyrlingmaster. When the lesson came to the part where they got their homework, Artemis was rather pleased. She enjoyed sketching her dragon, but had rarely gotten to the point where she could specifically draw and color in the beast. Thus, she readily took up the diagram and had her dragon match the relative pose of the diagram before she set about her work. Carefully she would pause and look at each aspect of the dragon before she filled in the proper place on her beast. All in all... by the time she was only done with the head and neck of her dragon, the little beast was complaining and asking how long it would take.

~Aren't you done yet?~

~Art takes time, dear. I want this to properly show off what makes you unique, and since I can't draw your personality, we have to do this!~ she chuckled as she continued her work.

At the same time, her brother was busily scribbling away all the detail HE could pick up. Sadly, they weren't nearly as in-depth as his twin's but he did manage to place a small area on the dragon's hide where he had stepped on his own tail (don't ask how, it has not been figured out just yet).

~Don't put that!~ the bronze complained when he got the chance to see the picture.

~H'lee said to include everything, Rik, I can't very well ignore a self-inflicted injury,~ he teased in return as he set the drawing supplies down and began coloring with what HE thought was the closest to bronze as he was going to get.

When Artemis finally finished drawing all the little markers on her own dragon, she set the drawing utencils down and began figuring out how best to mix the colors to make the specific shade of green that her own beast was. Regardless of H'lee's instructions... she was STILL an artist and she would NOT be making it look any less perfect than her dragon. After a few minutes of work, she got the correct color and happily set about coloring in the diagram. By this point, her dragon could see the picture and she studied it closely herself before spotting something on the left anterior portion of her shoulder... a blemish of sorts that she scoffed at. Her rider merely chuckled and assured her dragon that it only added to her beauty.

Granted, where it had taken A'lo only a few hours to try and get all the marks HE could see, Artemis didn't finish her drawing and coloring until almost the end of the week and it wasn't until the evening before they needed to turn it in that she set about writing out the list on the back of the page... all while wondering how A'lo had finished so soon.

After their Anatomy and Physiology class, H'lee walked the weyrling riders through the first First Aid lesson: Deciding whether to act and preparing to do so. He described several things to look for before deciding to act, then explained the sort of things to do before starting to act. At the end of the lesson, he quizzed his erstwhile students about what things to look for before deciding to act.

Then he released the two dozen weyrlings to fill their loudly-rumbling stomachs; dragons first, of course. "You have two hours to get food for both your dragons and yourselves and spend some time together. Then the following students will report to the fireplace in the Great Hall; you'll find some Harpers there to help you with your studies." He listed off a handful of weyrlings, including K'so and Fayble. Fayble had it comparatively easy; she only had to go over her letters. K'so was getting lessons in reading, writing, and arithmetic all.

---

K'so
K'so didn't quite understand the point of the First Aid lesson. After all, you see someone who's hurt, you help them, right? But as H'lee described different circumstances, he realized that sometimes, the situation could be too dangerous for a single Good Samaritan to venture into.

For example, the person could be sprawled on ice. If a single person went out to drag the injured party in, that person could fall in himself and become another injured party. It was much safer to send for help and get the right tools to reach the person, tools like rope, boards, grappling hooks, and things like that. Of course, a skilled dragonrider team could also be brought in to lift the person off the ice without anyone having to go out, but not all dragonriders, or dragons, for that matter, were skilled enough at hovering that they could do so close enough to the ground to retrieve someone.

When they were released, K'so and Qancith were about to make a beeline for the slaughterhouse. The former groaned audibly when told he was going to have to report for lessons. He'd managed to skip out on quite a few during his Candidacy, but it looked like he wasn't going to be able to do so now.

Their excited dash turned into a defeated slump off to the feeding grounds. K'so hated lessons. It was Qancith who finally got through to him. What are these lessons Weyrlingmaster H'lee said you need to take?

"Reading, writing and math. I hate them. I don't know why we need those skills anyway; we're dragonriders, people just give us stuff." He didn't notice the few eyerolls from some of the other weyrlings nearby.

Qancith grunted and thought about this for a while as he ate. What if you need to measure out rope to rescue someone on the ice? You'd need to know how big I am so you could let out your riding straps enough to get the person, right? You'd need to be able to measure that. Or you keep thinking about how people are supposed to give us stuff, I think you call it tithing. How are we supposed to know if we're getting everything that the Holdfolk are supposed to be giving us if you can count and read and do all that?

Now it was K'so's turn to think. His first argument was that the Headwoman was in charge of all of that. But then he realized that if they were shorted on anything, it might be the blue and green riders who were sent to retrieve the missing items, and they'd need to know what they were being sent for, and how much. It might not just be one thing, either. He remembered the stories about how the Holds had refused to tithe to Benden Weyr at the beginning of the last Pass; many Holds, not just one, and who was responsible for retrieving the missing articles? Finally, he sighed. "I suppose you're right. Doesn't mean I have to like it, though."

After settling Qancith back in their barrack for the evening, K'so selected some food for dinner and sat with his dragon to eat. After he was done eating, he napped for a bit before reporting to his remedial lessons. Tonight, they were focusing on his reading and he was instructed to read aloud the manuscript they'd first been presented with upon arriving at the Weyr. He read it until his throat was sore and he had finally managed to read through it with a minimum of stumbling and mispronunciations. He was mentally exhausted when the Harper released him to go about whatever he needed or wanted to do: he went back to his barrack and sprawled on the bed, quickly falling asleep.

Artemis and A'lo sat patiently in the class, listening to what H'lee had to say. Being as they were the children of a lord holder, there was the slight chance of them happening upon someone... and as a general rule they had always been taught not to mess with a situation and to just send Zeus to grab the healer. However, now they were riders and so it meant they might actually have to be involved in the rescue. Patiently the two listened before glancing at one another.

They had not considered the situation with the herdbeasts that they had once been asked. Granted, in the situation described, the herdbeasts were already gone and off doing their own thing, but the injured party was still in the field. Without knowing the injuries that the other had sustained, they learned it was safer to not touch them and instead send for a healer who would be able to examine the person for any serious spinal injuries. Although, they would also need their dragons to help keep the herdbeasts away from that person, since (despite their ages and ability to hunt) they were still dragons and perfectly capable of scaring the animals away from the injured person. Not to mention the difficulty that a herdbeast would have trying to trample a 20ft dragon...

Once the lesson was done, they headed off to get their dragons fed and then down to the kitchens to grab some food for themselves. When all was said and done, the twins sat on the beach by the lake while the two dragons played in the water. Simply enjoying the time they had by themselves and taking the time to bond closer to their dragons. After all, now they didn't need to worry about Artemis tutoring those who needed help.

H'lee and the other Weyrlingmasters rounded up the youngsters from their free time and Harper classes to chivy them down to the middens and the slaughterhouse for the dinner meal for their hatchlings. Once they were done eating, they had to wash their hatchlings and then oil them. They were encouraged to wash in the slaughterhouse, but oil in their barracks.

---

K'so
K'so would have been relieved if he'd been retrieved from the lessons. Instead, he was rousted out of bed by his dragon. I. Am. Hungry! It's food time, the others are coming in so we can go get food. K'so muttered and tried to ignore his dragon. I also itch! GET UP! The blue bowled his rider off the bed. K'so yelped as he hit the floor and flung the pillow in his dragon's face. A spurt of anger sent Qancith cowering backward, creeling apologetically. K'so immediately felt bad.

"Shh, I'm sorry, Qanc. I'm just really tired," he crooned as he scrambled over to his dragon to rub the blue's eyeridges reassuringly.

He bundled up so they could go to the middens. Qancith was quite relieved when they arrived and he was able to purge his tail. He greedily gulped down food and could barely hold still long enough for his rider to scrub him down. I ITCH! Let's go back to where the oil is now, please.

"Let me get you clean first. We can't put oil on over any blood smears!" When they got back to their barracks, K'so started with the itchiest parts and then spread the oil to the rest of his dragon's hide. He fell into a dozing trance-like state, breathing in the nutty and spicy aromas of the oil and his dragon, who crooned softly in pleasure, almost like he was purring.

K'so was more than ready for sleep by the time he finished, and so was Qancith. The blue actually had drifted off as his rider finished his oiling. The young rider took long enough to wipe his hands down with a cloth dipped in warm water so they weren't oily before changing into his nightclothes and falling into bed, even though there was still time before lights-out. He forgot to close the glow lamp when he collapsed.

Artemis and A'lo

The twins once more approached at the same time. They had spent the afternoon talking and letting Artemis practice her hobby of drawing. In fact, she had taken the time to draw both of their dragons curled up together in a rather cute pose and both of them complained about it until the drawing was done and Artemis showed it to them. It was a quick way for both to stop complaining before Rik dragged his bonded off to find some other weyrlings who were playing dragon poker. They met back up just before it was time to head to the slaughter house.

Within no time they were busily feeding the hatchlings as they sat next to one another. ~Do you think Artemis will draw Jazz and myself again? Oooo! Maybe she can draw us playing dragon poker? That game is quite fun!~ the hatchling rambled to his bonded who just chuckled.

Artemis gave her brother an odd look as they finished feeding them and started in on cleaning. "He wants you to draw us playing dragon poker, Arty," he chuckled to his twin who couldn't help but smile.

Before long they had their dragons washed and headed back to their barracks, parting ways to go to their seperate weyrs. Once there they each grabbed an oil and began oiling their beasts.

H'lee did not go in to tuck the youngsters into bed and make sure their lights were out on any night other than their very first. For the next ten months or so of their lives, he would be the bane of their existence, the evil Weyrlingmaster, driving taskmaster, the one they'd all hate. But they would also respect him because of it.

The Assistant Weyrlingmasters in charge of this clutch would also be inclined to follow the Weyrlingmaster's example. None of them would be mentors to this clutch. However, some of the Snowflake clutch's Weyrlingmasters were here, and they would be mentors. While the younglings would be expected to respect the older riders and their dragons, they didn't have to vilify themselves; they could afford to be friendly and caring, and were, in fact, encouraged to do so. Those who would mentor this group needed to be seen as approachable and caring.

And so, H'lee walked down the hall outside the barracks, stuck his head in the door and shouted, "LIGHTS OUT AND BEDTIME FOR YOU!" at the top of his lungs. The Snowflake clutch's Weyrlingmasters were the ones to actually go into the rooms and make sure all but the glow lantern by the door were shuttered, and that one partially closed.

---

K'so
K'so started awake for a moment when H'lee bellowed into their barracks, but it wasn't for nothing that he'd taken the barrack at the very end farthest from the door. He was asleep again before the words of the Weyrlingmaster could be processed and understood. Qancith didn't even twitch.

One of the Assistant Weyrlingmasters, perhaps the one who would become his mentor (did he but know it) quietly shuttered his glow lantern and left him sleeping soundly.

A'lo

When he had finished oiling his dragon, A'lo had just lain back and visited with the bronze for a bit. He knew they would have another bout of waking up at midnight before waking up again at some other ungodly hour. However, he didn't argue with it and just chose to "go with the flow." As luck would have it, he was mid way through a chat when he heard H'lee's voice before he nodded his head and laid down once the lights were off. Before long, both he and Rikraketh were sound asleep.

Artemis

Unlike her brother, Arty didn't stay up much longer after she'd finished oiling her beast. Jazz and she were both tired, although Jazz was less so. Artemis, however, was completely and totally passed out by the time the weyrlingmaster yelled into the room, so much so that it was only Jazz who woke up. The little green snorted at him before laying her head down once more and returning to her slumber.

In a reversal of their roles at lights-out, the Weyrlingmasters in charge of the Tundra clutch were the ones who rousted the weyrlings out of bed at midnight. Some of the dragons were already waking with hunger and rousing their riders.

"Alright, we'll stop at the middens first so your dragons can clean out, then we'll go into the butcher house so you can feed them!" H'lee shouted when they were starting to assemble in the hallway. He and the other Weyrlingmasters held lanterns and guided the weyrlings down to the middens in the dark. Then they walked the group to the warm barn where there was food waiting for them to feed their dragons. As each dragon ate his or her fill, one of the Weyrlingmasters would walk them back to the barracks where they'd go back to sleep.

---

K'so
K'so squawked loudly when Qancith knocked him out of bed. I need to relieve myself! And I am hungry. So are some of the others, and I hear Seeth's rider coming to wake us all up. C'mon, c'mon, let's GO already!

K'so stared at his dragon in a sleep-fogged state. "How, by the First Egg, can you POSSIBLY be hungry?" he complained. "You just ate!"

Not "just." That was hours ago. We've been sleeping since then. Let's GO!

Just then, K'so heard H'lee shouting at them to get up. He groaned and pulled on his overcoat and boots. He slogged along behind Qancith who was lurching along as quickly as he could. "C'mon, Qanc, hurry it up, it's freezing out here!" he complained as the blue took his time emptying his tail.

He was relieved when they got into the barn and out of the wind. He tossed Qancith chunks of meat and sat on the edge of the table so he could half doze while Qancith ate. Finally, the blue was satisfied and one of the Weyrlingmasters led them back to the barracks and K'so kicked off her boots and dropped his coat on the floor before face-planting into his bed and falling asleep almost immediately.

Artemis had to admit that she was still rather tired, but she forced her way out of bed and managed to get herself dressed enough to go outside with the rest of the weyrlings. Groggily she followed after Jazz who was certainly complaining of her hunger. Before long, they had arrived at the middens, and Artemis jumped slightly when her twin arrived next to her. A'lo had woken up just as H'lee was getting ready to yell into the room and he didn't hesitate to come get dressed and outside. Instead, he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and let her have some of his warmth while their dragons relieved themselves. Although, neither twin said anything.

When done, they seperated and followed their dragons to the barn where they sat apart from one another and fed the hatchlings in silence. When finally the two dragons were fed, they once more headed back to their beds to get some sleep and enjoy the rest of their night before they would have to start the cycle all over again.