Name: H'lee
Gender: Male
Age: 18
Craft: Dragonhealing
What color of dragon do you think you'll Impress and why?A blue or a brown. I'm not interested in the responsibility of Weyrleadership so a bronze isn't likely, and I'm not interested in other guys, so a green wouldn't suit very well. As a dragonhealer, I'd need a more respectable dragon if I would be working with my dragon to do the healing.
Choose a rank of Weyr inhabitant and describe three things about that rank (e.g., drudge, brownrider, etc.).Wingsecond: one of the common duties of a Wingsecond is handling minor transgressions by the wingriders in his Wing; Wingseconds are usually brown- or bronzeriders; they often assist the Weyrlingmaster with training new weyrlings and integrating weyrlings into the Wings.
As a Candidate and as a weyrling, how would you address a person of this rank?His name preceded with his rank, such as Wingsecond K'rel; when his name isn't appropriate, I would use "sir" instead.
Describe one historical responsibility of either the Holds/Halls to the Weyrs, or the Weyrs to the Holds/Halls. If this responsibility has changed since Thread was eradicated, explain how.The Weavercrafthall frequently provides the materials needed to make and line riding leathers and provide the raw lengths of straps for making and repairing riding straps. While this responsibility has been somewhat mitigated by the eradication of Thread, not every dragonrider is capable of producing quality leathers and straps materials, so like other holders, they'll continue to need to trade with the Weavercrafthall. However, they can no longer demand the supplies as tithe or at a lower price, they will need to barter like anyone else.
Name one thing, besides Impression, that will likely happen during the Hatching and what you should do if it does.An egg may fail to Hatch; if that happens, Candidates should leave it alone and one of the adult riders will take care of the egg.
Name one thing you should do if you or a Candidate standing next to you Impresses.Move aside to give the newly-Impressed pair plenty of room.
Briefly describe one of the lessons the Weyrlingmaster outlined during your Candidacy. Every weyrling should have a kit containing basic supplies (numbweed, hide oil, repair tools and materials for leathers and riding straps, etc.) so that the rider is capable of managing anything while away from the Weyr.
Where will you be standing during the Hatching? At the end nearest the main exit. I've stood at several Hatchings and haven't drawn even the slightest attention from the dragonets; this position puts me out of the way of those more likely to Impress.
What color and age of dragon are you interested in adopting and why?Brown; it best suits my personality and my craft.
0-1 months: Describe (roleplay) a first experience you shared with your dragon (e.g., eating a spicy food, stargazing, bathing, hide cracking, etc.)Hadanelee though his senses were going to explode: the murmurs of the crowds watching the Hatching seemed like shouts, absurdly loud, the light had a peculiar brightness, the sand seemed grainier, but cooler than it had, and he could smell something coppery and alluring. Underlying all of these stimuli was an overwhelming hunger, and overall was a deep sense of love: "SEETH!"
I think food's this way. Are you really this nose-blind? asked the small brown dragonet. The Candidate - no, now he's a weyrling - could only blink dazedly and follow the tottering creature back the direction he had come. He was desperately trying to sort out his feelings and perceptions from Seeth's.
One of the older weyrlings grabbed his shoulders while his dragon nudged the newly hatched brown toward a side table. Hadanelee had never considered himself queasy: he couldn't be queasy as a dragonhealer; he'd dealt with Threadscored dragons for Turns. However, the scent of the chopped herdbeast on the table, as perceived through his dragonet's nose, and the rumbling hunger was enough to make him feel nauseaous, but the brown's desire for the flesh quickly suppressed his own sensations. The older weyrling plucked a fist-sized chunk of meat and tossed it to Seeth and it was Hadanelee's teeth that shredded the stringy, chewy meat and his mouth from which the sweet, raw juices dribbled; he'd never had raw herdbeast before, but it sure tasted good! But he was still so hungry! Without really realizing what he was doing, he started to bring a chunk of meat to his own mouth to eat - he had to stop the hunger!
A sudden sharp pain on his face made him hiss angrily. A second one finally snapped him out of the daze and he stared, startled, into the face of the older weyrling, whose own brown was carefully restraining Seeth who was creeling in a combination of hunger, pain, fear, and anger. "Snap out of it, lad! That's your dragonet's hunger and cravings you're feeling, not your own! Now give him that piece of meat you've got there, watch your fingers!"
1-2 months: Describe one aspect of dragon physiology and how it affects you as a weyrling.The headknobs on a dragon's head are larger and more developed than those of a firelizard's or firedragonet's. These are used to detect sounds, like the earspots of a tunnelsnake. However, unlike earspots, because they protrude from the dragon's head, they pick up sounds from the full 360 degrees. Similarly, though, these make them very sensitive, not only to sounds, but to touch. As a weyrling, you should avoid grabbing or touching these knobs and be very gentle about oiling them. They make for a unique experience when sharing senses between dragon and rider, but harsh treatment not only causes the dragons (and their riders) intense pain, but it can damage their ability to hear.
2-3 months: What was the first meal your dragon caught for him-/herself and how did s/he do it?Well, the first thing Seeth caught was a tunnelsnake that was roaming around our barracks, but he didn't actually eat that, of course. The first meal he caught was a yearling steer. Weyrlingmaster D'fio took us out to the hunting fields and they'd corralled a bunch of the smaller, younger beasts under the glide ramp and we walked up it so Seeth could look at them all and pick out the one he wanted. Seeth's not a risk-taker, but he was also hungry; he picked out one of the larger ones that seemed to be less fiesty than the others, a bald-faced black one. The steer was put out in a small corral, large enough for it to run around and for Seeth to fit in with it, but small enough not to make it a trial for him to catch. Before they let Seeth in, Drenth gave Seeth some advice on how to catch his dinner; he explained that later, when they're allowed to hunt from the air, he'll take the animal from above and break its neck, but that for his first ground hunt at his size, grabbing the herdbeast by the throat was the best way to catch it. Seeth did try to follow that advice, but he found catching the beast harder than he expected. He ended up grabbing it with his front claws and using his weight to pin it against the fence and he had to break its neck; Drenth coached him on how to grab the steer's head in his jaws and twist to accomplish that. He got a small gash on one knee where the herdbeast kicked him that I treated afterward.
3-5 months: Describe one of the ground drills.The triple-vee formation: the wingleader's trio lines up in a V, with the wingleader at the back and his wingmates in front and a wingspan to either side. The primary and secondary wingseconds are in line with these three, lengthening the V, and their wingmates take up similar positions (putting the outer two wingmates in the same V line). The tertiary wingsecond places himself between the wingleader's wingmates, directly in front of the wingleader, and the wingsecond's wingmates place themselves between the wingleader's wingmates and the other wingseconds' inner wingmates. The space in front of the tertiary wingsecond is open to the front of the formation.
5-7 months: Describe (roleplay) your first flight with your dragon.Nervous? Him? Naaaah. Excited? Nah. Suave and ready for anything? Absolutely. Except for this.
H'lee gripped the riding handles tightly as he leaned forward and peered down around Seeth's neck at the Weyrbowl floor 1,500 hundred feet below and gulped. He wasn't afraid of heights, in and of themselves. What was really freaking him out was the fact that he had absolutely no control over his precarious position - on the back of the neck of his dragon, sticking out over the ledge over open air. "Hey, Seeth, buddy, what say we jump up rather than fall down?"
Drenth said we are to glide off the ridge. You'll be fine. I've done this dozens of times. All you have to do is sit there, the brown rumbled, amused at his rider's expense. H'lee muttered under his breath and tightened his grip on the handles and checked all the buckles and fasteners on his straps.
"Okay then. Let's do this on three. One.....two--AAAAAIIIIIEEEEE!!!!" "SEEEEEEETHWHATAREYOUDOING?!?!?!" H'lee's stomach climbed up his throat as a girl-like scream tore from his vocal cords in place of the number "three."
The pair plummeted several hundred feet before Seeth snapped out his wings and changed their dive into a glide. You're still screaming, you know. H'lee also realized that his eyes were closed. However, although he was quite willing to stop screaming, he wasn't ready to open his eyes just yet. You really should. It's a great view from here.
H'lee screwed his eyes tighter while screwing up his courage and finally opened his eyes. For one long moment, he gaped at the view, looking out over the ocean through the gap in the Weyr walls. Then he looked down at the ground passing by underneath him insanely fast and clenched his eyes shut and screamed again. Seeth chuckled in his head. Landing coming up now, hang on tight.
"I can't hold on any tighter..." There was a violent lurch as Seeth mad a running-landing and thudded several strides. H'lee squealed again, in a much higher-pitched voice. "I would like to have a romantic life after this, you know!" Seeth crooned apologetically and turned his head around to peer at his pale-faced rider who was gasping on his neck.
Drenth says we need to move out of the way so the next pair can try, and that we need to climb back up and do our second run. There was a pause and Seeth's head drooped a bit. He says I should have opened my wings sooner and that we were being showoffs.
"WE?!" H'lee squeaked. "There was no 'we' about that! YOU were being a showoff! And I happen to agree with Drenth: next time, less falling, more flying. Now, let's do as he says and get out of the way." He remained mounted on Seeth as they walked over to the ladder that had been set up for the weyrlings to climb to the top of the spires while their dragonets flew up. He unhooked his riding straps, grabbed the rope and started to pull himself up...and promptly fell off Seeth's side. "Owwwww..." he whimpered as he curled up in a ball around his abused crotch. He laid there for several minutes with Seeth crooning anxiously over him before he finally dragged himself up and started the long climb up the ladder - he didn't want the next weyrling to see him looking like a complete ninny. "See you at the top, buddy. Let's do better next time, okay?"
7-8 months: Describe (roleplay) you and your dragon's first experience with firestone."Seeth, I really think you're being overly cautious about this. You could absolutely have started chewing firestone yesterday."
Yeah, well, I didn't feel ready. Besides, we don't really have a choice today. The brown was unusually sullen.
They arrived down by the lake and met Weyrlingmaster D'fio and his brown, Drenth there. "How're you two, this morning? Seeth, hope you're feeling up to the real thing today. We'll go nice and easy, low-grade ore today." the Weyrlingmaster said, handing H'lee a bag of said ore. "Just remember what you learned yesterday and you'll do just fine. Lad, you better stand back here. There's your target, Seeth," he pointed to a stone pillar as he guided H'lee back beside Seeth's shoulder.
Seeth angled his head around and opened his jaws. H'lee withdrew a couple of chunks of firestone and laid them in Seeth's mouth. Seeth carefully maneuvered the pieces around to his back molars and ground them, focusing carefully on the action so as to avoid biting his tongue or swallowing the ore into the wrong stomach. "How much should I give him?" H'lee asked, and D'fie told him a couple more pieces of about the same size.
A few minutes after swallowing the third and fourth chunks, Seeth got a pained look on his face. "Well, don't hold it in, lad, aim at your target and let 'er rip!" the Weyrlingmaster barked, giving Seeth's head a shove in the right direction.
Making a noise that sounded suspiciously like a hiccup, Seeth opened his maw and belched, loudly. And no flame came out, but H'lee suddenly felt a burning in his throat. Coughing, he started to say that he thought Seeth had swallowed the flame instead of letting it out, but Drenth had already given Seeth a shove toward the lake and told him to drink up. "Not the first time that's happened, lad, and won't be the last, I'm sure. Bit o' water and a few chunks of that herdbeast meat over there and he'll be fine. C'mere Seeth, let me have a look. Oh, that's not too bad. Good thing we only started with four pieces, though. H'lee, grab three chunks of meat there and bring them over." D'fio was right, and after another couple gulps of water, Seeth felt fine physically, although he meekly suggested going back to the soft stone. "Oh, no you don't. That soft stone won't teach you how to flame, you can only do that with the real thing."
The second try went better, although Seeth's flame sort of sheeted out and dissipated a couple feet from his nose, rather than being a jet of flame to hit the target. Drenth offered some advice on how to controll it and on the seventh try, his flame finally reached the target.
8-10 months: Describe (roleplay) your first trip between with your dragon.To his surprise, H'lee discovered he had a knack for visualizing places. Weyrlingmaster D'fio was hard to read, but his dragon Drenth was a bit easier, and Seeth concurred with his own assessment: the Weyrlingmaster pair were pleased, maybe even impressed, with H'lee's ability.
So, unlike his first flight on Seeth and their first experience with firestone, both weyrling and dragonet approached the Weyrlingmaster with a certain amount of confidence. "Alright, boys, this is a lot like your first flight and your first flame: only way to learn how to do it, is to do it." The unspoken words, But if you get this wrong, there's no coming back, hung in the air.
They each mounted their respective dragons and took to the air. Hovering over the lake, H'lee focused on the view from over the spire where they'd taken their first flight, gave it to Seeth, who passed it to Drenth, who shared it with D'fio and approved it. "Alright, Seeth, let's do this." H'lee focused, clearing his mind and focusing on the image. "Okay, let's go there." Three more wingbeats of Seeth's wings and then:
Black, blacker, blackest, And cold beyond frozen things, Where is between when there is naught, To life but fragile dragon wings? H'lee had tried so hard not to think of that verse, but he couldn't help it. He struggled to hold the image of their destination in his mind and at the end of the verse...nothing. Still black. "Seeth...?"
And suddenly, light and sound! We're there! Seeth trumpeted loudly over the Weyr.
"Didn't that take longer than it should? Did I almost cause us to get lost because I couldn't get that verse outta my head?"
No, you just thought the verse too fast. We were just fine. A pop of cold air and Drenth and D'fio appeared beside them. Drenth says we did well! Seeth preened ever so slightly. Now he says, 'Jump back.' H'lee focused on the image of where they'd just been and passed the image through to the Weyrlingmaster, who approved it and sent it back and suggested trying to count slowly to 8 instead of recalling the verse. H'lee took his advice and tried that instead and he found that it made it not only less frightening, but that it made it easier to keep the image clear in his mind. They appeared, hovering over roughly the same spot where they'd started. Both weyrling and dragonet felt a sense of elation as the Weyrlingmaster pair appeared and instructed them to pick another point farther out.
10+ months: What Wing do you hope to be picked for and why?I would like to be chosen for Second or Third Wing. Seeth and I are too young and don't yet have the skill or stamina to fly a full Fall and the Weyrleader's Wing is required to be present at and through each one. As we get older and build our strength, stamina, and skill, I hope to be promoted to the Weyrleader's Wing.
Out Of Character
