All the wing exercises and stretching the weyrlings had been doing for the last three months was now about to come to fruition: the young weyrling dragons were about to learn how to fly. This was always one of the most dangerous lessons, second only to going between. Clumsy dragons could hurt themselves and others. Weyrling riders had a tendency to want to get off the ground with their dragons, and young dragons were easily persuaded.

Therefore, when the weyrlings gathered for their first solo flight class, H'lee laid down the ground rules from atop the stone ramp that jutted out of the upper end of the training bowl, looking like a dock over an empty lake bed.

"Get this into your thick heads now. I should not have to repeat this. You will never, I repeat, NEVER fly with your dragon until I have personally given you permission to do so. If you do, you will be held back. You will be doing the dirtiest, least-favorite chores in the Academy for the rest of your stay here. You will stay in the junior weyrling weyrs while your clutchmates move into the senior weyrling weyrs. Do I make myself clear?!"

With that said and, hopefully, firmly planted in the youngster's minds, H'lee waved his volunteer from the Snowflake clutch forward. "This is Sina and her green Danalith. They've volunteered to assist with today's lesson, since Danalith is the smallest of the greens from their clutch."

The Tundra clutch watched as Danalith walked up the ramp and stood at the edge, lowering her neck to peer over it and out at the younger weyrlings below her. The dragon rumbled at her rider, who snorted at some private joke.

"You will walk your dragon up to the edge, like Sina just did with Danalith. I'll be waiting for you right here. You and I will then climb up there," he paused to point at the small platform that stuck out above the main ramp, "and when I tell you," he gave Sina a jaundiced look, "you will instruct your dragon to jump off the edge and open his or her wings to glide to the bottom of the bowl. Down there," he pointed to Roth and Seeth, no more than five dragonlengths down the valley floor, "is your landing zone. Your dragon's feet should touch the ground just after passing them. Now, all of you move to the side."

Once the Tundra weyrlings were well off to the side, he and Sina climbed up the platform. H'lee dramatically gave Sina a signal and she looked at her dragon. The green gave a small jump, mostly pushing herself away from the edge of the ramp, and flared her wings as soon as they were clear of the launch point. She tucked her legs up and, without once flapping her wings, glided down to the Weyrlingmasters' dragons and extended her feet for a running landing, touching down just past the older dragons' noses. H'lee clapped Sina's shoulder and they climbed back down to the ramp.

"That's how you do it. Your dragons won't have to jump quite as much because they're smaller and there's a lot more room between the end of the ramp and the ground underneath. First up, S'nom and Pareilth. Come on up."

---

K'so
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! As if his mental bouncing wasn't enough, the blue was trembling all over with excitement. He was nearly bouncing physically. Not that K'so was any less excited. This was the first step toward proving that he was a real dragonrider!

For a change, H'lee mixed up the order and had the greens go first. Pareilth's flight was really quite good, if a little wobbly at first; almost too good, like he'd been practicing. K'so noticed H'lee giving S'nom and little talking to and the green rider raising his hands and shaking his head vigorously. No doubt H'lee thought the same and the rider was denying that they'd done any illicit practicing. Unfortunately, Basidith's flight was the complete opposite. She crashed to the ground barely two dragonlengths out from the ramp and raised an awful keening. H'lee and her rider rushed over and got them out of the flight path; the green hadn't seriously hurt herself, but she'd sprained one of her forelegs and a wing. She wouldn't be flying again for at least a week.

Although it seemed to take forever to get through the four greens, it was less time than it would have taken for the six bronzes, browns, and blues if it had been the other way around, and K'so and Qancith were soon making their way up the stone ramp. He had to admit, the ramp was an impressive piece of work. It was easily two dragonlengths long and rose at least a dragonlength above the ground at the front.

H'lee met them at the end of the ramp. "Now, remember, no flapping your wings, Qancith. This is just a gentle glide down the valley. Please extend your right wing." The blue obliged; both he and his rider had wondered what H'lee had imparted to the greens during this part of the conversation. It was too quiet for anyone except the trio at the end of the ramp to hear. "You can tip your wings to get extra lift or to descend." The weyrling master demonstrated how, to get extra lift, the wing should be tilted upward at the front and downward along the sail, or down in front and up on the trailing edge to descend. "That's how you'll make it down to Seeth and Roth down there. If you think you're going to land too soon, lift up here in front and tip the sail down; if you think you're going to overshoot them, tilt down in front and up on your sail."

K'so suddenly felt nervous. What if Qancith crashed, like Basidith did? He could also picture the blue picking up too much speed and overshooting, bouncing like a blue rubber ball through the grass beyond the adult dragons. STOP THAT, the blue protested. I am a dragon. Dragons are meant to fly. I will not crash.

With no little trepidation, K'so climbed the spiral steps to the platform above with H'lee. Just remember, nice and easy. Shove off from the end and let your wings do the work, he reminded Qancith, as much to reassure himself as to make sure his dragon wasn't going to try any daredevil stunts. Then H'lee gave him the signal, and after taking a deep breath, Now, Qancith!

The blue shoved off, pushing himself up more than they were really supposed to. He snapped his wings open and gave a wavering sort of bugle of joy at feeling air buoy under the sails. Then he realized he was too high and he was coming up on the landing zone. He dipped his wings to come down and squawked undignifiedly as the ground suddenly shot up at him. He flared his wings to slow his descent and only found himself going up again.

Qancith, tip your wings just a little bit! No, that's too much! There was a pause in his rider's mental communication as H'lee provided instructions to the frantic bluerider. Just raise the trailing edge of your wingsail a little.

I'm running out of valley to land in! the blue wailed.

I know, just-- Another pause. H'lee says dip your right wingtip. The blue did so and screeched as he suddenly spun and was facing back the way he had come, raising his wingtip almost as soon as he'd dropped it. Now, dip down! Just a little bit! That's it!

The blue landed a couple of dragonlengths from the older dragons, who were crouched, ready to snatch the youngster out of the air if he passed them. He hit the ground with a thud and his legs buckled after the first stride and he, well, bounced a little before coming to rest with his wings still spread on the grass. He didn't move, but creeled loudly in fear. K'so scrambled down from the platform and ran to his dragon. Neither of them noticed H'lee for several minutes as the Weyrlingmaster stood over them. "Normally we'd talk about what you did wrong after your dragon landed, but we'll talk after the others have taken their turns. You need to get out of the way."

The blue pair wobbled off to the side and didn't hardly notice how the other six dragons flew, other that none of them overshot the landing zone as badly as Qancith did. Finally, H'lee beckoned them up onto the ramp again. "What did you do wrong?" he asked.

K'so sniffled. He was still shaking, and Qancith had stopped several feet from the edge and sat down, refusing to get any closer for the time being. "H-h-he jumped u-u-up instead of o-o-out," K'so stammered.

"Good. Yes, he did. That gave him too much altitude to make a comfortable, gliding descent toward Roth and Seeth. When he tried to descend, he came in too steep and over-corrected. The next several bumps were over-corrections. However, he did a nice job at getting turned around, and didn't over-correct there, even though it would have been easy to do." At least it wasn't ALL criticism! Qancith perked up a little at that small praise.

"Alright, that's all for today! Your dragons need their lunches!"

The Twins

With Artemis sitting out this particular lesson, A'lo and Rikraketh were anxious to begin. They listened to the words that the weyrlingmaster said before lining up with the rest of the participating weyrlings. Off to the side he could see his sister and Jadziath watching. It was clear that the green was NOT happy that she could not participate... but with her wing damaged, she wasn't able to.

Regardless, he and his bronze waited and slowly moved towards the front of the line. When it was finally their turn, he headed up the ramp with H'lee and waited until he was told that Rik could jump. With a quick signal, the bronze went to leap off... and slipped, doing more of a fall. Luckily he managed to catch himself on his wings and thanks to the height they were at, he was still able to glide across the distance. However, in trying to correct himself for the oops at the beginning, he found himself over shooting the landing point.

The bronze had a moment of panic, knowing that he was supposed to land between the two older dragons, and managed to clip the ground a short distance past before he went tumbling head over tail, accidentally latching onto his tail with his teeth and claws before yelping in pain and releasing as he finally came to a stop on his back, his wings spread out on either side of him.

A'lo blushed at that and rushed down the ramp and over to help his beast. Luckily, X'ryn and his bronze had to go before he would have to talk about what happened, and that gave him time to tend the bite and claw marks on his beast's tail. "You bit down rather hard, Rik..." he whined.

~I was scared, mine. I did not mean to catch my own tail...~ he complained in response.

A'lo sighed and when finally called on he frowned. "He slipped off the get go... and over corrected himself to accomodate for the lack of launching into the air. When he realized it, he panicked and clipped the grouned unsteadily and in such a way that sent him tumbling. While tumbling, he grabbed hold of the wrong thing..." he responded simply, knowing that his dragon wasn't happy about him pointing out THAT part.

Shortly afterwards, they were dismissed and the boy went off with his dragon so that he and Jazzy could hunt. Although, the green was rather awkward with her hunting tactics since her injury.

Fayble squirmed in her spot, ~I'm nervous mine what if I fall and don't actually glide?~ -You'll do fine Dea. I promise you.- Fayble gently touched the nervous green's head. -I'll be here to make sure of it.~ When it was finally their turn the green thought on it for a moment. "Go on." Fayble prodded out loud.

Finally the green headed up the ramp and let out a mighty jump. Perhaps too much for her size and weight, and started falling ~MINE MINE WHAT DO I DO?!~ -Open your wings dumby!- The weyrling opened her wings but in all the confusion landed too short, her rider smiled. "Its okay we'll have next time." She promised gently and led the creature away. After they had been dismissed Dea had some ideas for a story, and the two could be found under a tree discussing something. Fayble kept insisting that something just sounded wrong. It could be assumed the dragon was on the other side, saying it didn't.

--

D'rick rubbed his sweaty palms on his pants. This was it he had to prove he could do it, that he could get his dragon to land PERFECTLY. He kept reminding Haranth -Remember to stretch your wings out when I tell you to and not a moment sooner or later!- ~Mine I know I will~ She sighed softly, they headed up the ramp and she stood there.

~That's a long way down, are you sure I won't just fall and go smush?~ -Well generally you know those wings are supposed to...save you.- He pointed out and she thought on it. Without another word the weyrling jumped and pushed off ~EEK MINE I'M GOING SO FAST HOW DO I STOP MYSELF!?~ -Open your wings, OPEN them!- She did and she began to gracefully glid down, her feet forgot to extend at first and she ended up stumbling at the landing barley missing the Weyrlingmaster's dragon. "Sorry!" D'rick yelped and chased after his bonded.

For the rest of the previous week, they'd expanded on the weyrlings' flight capabilities until they were all able to do, intentionally, what Qancith had done accidentally: fly to one end of the bowl and back. Also, they were trained how to land more gracefully - and without injury.

This week, they were going to start ground launches. After the first couple of days of ramp launches, H'lee had the dragons who weren't flying sit up on their haunches and "bounce" up and down to strengthen their leg muscles in preparation for ground launching.

H'lee instructed the dragons to spread out in a large circle in the bowl. Seeth sat in the middle of the circle. They started with the bronzes and browns, being larger and (theoretically, at least) more powerful in their haunches than the blues and greens. T'lon and Roth provided the demonstration: the bronze dragon crouched low to where his forelimbs balanced him against the ground, then he launched, shoving off from the ground using only his powerful legs; just as he reached the maximum height that his legs could push him, he snapped out his wings and thrust them groundward, pushing himself farther up. Three wingbeats up, then he angled his wings so that their sweeping didn't keep him aloft, yet still kept him from dropping like a stone; this maneuver would stir up a significant amount of dust when performed in a courtyard, but on the grassy expanse of the training grounds, it only stirred up wind and some stray strands of grass. The dragon carefully touched down one rear foot, then the other and settled down on his haunches, finally tucking his wings in and falling forward.

"Alright, you've seen Roth do it. Rikraketh, your turn. Shove off, three wingbeats, then backwing and settle."

---

K'so
Qancith watched the other dragons go their round. When it finally came to his turn, he crouched, like he'd seen Roth do, and shoved off. Unfortunately, he didn't manage to go straight up like the bronze had, and when he snapped his wings out he nearly smacked his rider in the head. He also didn't get any lift out of it and when he tried to beat his wings downward, he bashed the tips of his wings into the ground.

With a squawk, more of surprise than pain, he dropped back to the ground with a thud and slunk back over to K'so. "Go on, Qanc, try again," the young man shoved his dragon's shoulder. "You just need to settle back more toward your tail so when you jump, you go straight up."

Qancith rumbled unhappily, but K'so wasn't having any of it, and the rider moved safely out of range of his dragon's wings. Qancith focused this time on going straight up and on the second try he got cleared of the ground. His wingbeats didn't gain him much elevation, but it was enough for him to try to land. It was a clumsy touchdown, and he thwacked his wingtips on the ground again, but all in all, it wasn't a bad ground launch and land for a first.

Over the previous week, Rikraketh had gotten the hang of controlling his wings. In fact, he'd actually managed a couple perfect glides down to Roth and Seeth had been waiting for them the previous week. Now, he was prepared to try this new idea. Of course, he was happy that the injury to his tail was better. As was A'lo, since his dragon had complained about it constantly until it was healed.

The pair of them watched patiently as Roth demonstrated what to do, their eyes trained on every movement the older dragon made before A'lo looked to his dragon. With H'lee giving the go ahead, A'lo gave the bronze his signal.

Instantly Rik coiled up as he had seen Roth do before launching into the air. When he reached roughly the high point of his jump, he flapped his wings three times, as instructed, before letting himself glide a short distance. He then lowered himself to the ground, got one foot down... and didn't reallize he still had some forward momentum... so his landing wasn't nearly as graceful as Roth's... instead he ended up flopping forth before his wings had closed, barely catching himself before he could do more rolling around the grounds.

~That was great, Rik!~ he announced to his bonded.

~My landing wasn't as graceful as Roth's...~

A'lo chuckled, ~It was better than your first time at gliding and you didn't get any injuries. Now come back over here so the next one can go,~ he responded as his bronze did just that.

Artemis, for her part, had watched all of this take place... and couldn't help but giggle a little when Jazz told her about the bronze's complaint. Which then lead to the green complaining that SHE couldn't practice. "It's alright, dear..."

Only problem was, Jazz was gettin restless.. and Artemis was starting to worry that her green would do something potentially stupid... like try to imitate her siblings... Something she actually did try once she had turned away to sulk.. only she yelped in pain when her wing wouldn't fully extend (between being in a sling and being broken) which caused her to land funny and thwap it into the ground rather hard.

Artemis yelped in pain before running over to her dragon and pulling the hatchling off to the side, hoping that they wouldn't interrupt what H'lee and them were doing. Instead she got Valing to come help her all the while her hatchling was scolded for attempting something like that while her wing was broken...

The weyrling dragons became much more coordinated at running/dropping and standstill launches and landings over the next week. At this point, H'lee encouraged them to start flying everywhere they went within the Academy, although he stressed that they weren't to do anything complicated yet, like hunting.

The third week, there were several items that H'lee had. When the weyrlings arrived at the center of the training bowl, they found several piles of leathers laid out. Thirteen piles, to be exact, even though Jadziath wasn't allowed to fly yet.

"Alright, first off, these are your training riding straps. You'll put them on your dragons in the mornings when you get up, take them off for bathing and meals, and take them off for bedtime. This way, your dragon will get used to wearing them. You may need to do some extra oiling under the straps until they get used to the straps. So, here's how you put them on."

He demonstrated putting the riding straps on their dragons with Seeth. First, two straps were thrown over the dragon's neck between the first and second neck ridges in front of the shoulders. One end of the neck straps are attached to a large leather pad with buckles which would sit under the dragon's neck. Once the neck straps were draped over the dragon's neck, they were buckled to the pad.

The next step was throwing a back strap over the dragon's back between the shoulder and wing joints. One end of this strap is also attached to a leather pad, similar to the one going under the neck, but smaller, which set on the chest. There is also a split strap attached to the middle of the back strap, and another strap attached to the chest pad. Once the back strap was buckled to the pad, the top split strap was connected to the rear neck strap. This strap was tightened to hold the rear neck strap back against the neck ridge. The final strap connected the chest pad to the neck pad; it was left loose enough for the dragon to turn its head around and arch its neck to full extension.

Once all the weyrlings had gotten their straps on, H'lee collected their attention. "X'kim, you and Zhlucarth come over here." H'lee directed the bronze pair to a space separate from the rest of the weyrlings. He then placed A'lo and Rikraketh, Katarina and Mccoreth, and Z'vier and Niocth separate from the other dragons so they formed a square around the greens and blues.

Next, he sent N'sir and S'nom over to X'kim. K'so and Artemis were sent over to A'lo. D'rick and Fayble were assigned to Katarina. And K'let and Ashendel joined Z'vier. "These are your trios. X'kim, A'lo, Katarina, and Z'vier are your trio leaders." He handed the four bronze and brown weyrlings new shoulder knots, which resembled Journeymen knots except for the addition of the colored thread of their dragons. "Don't feel too jealous, they get extra duties and studies, now," H'lee remarked drily.

"Alright, you four are now in charge of the blues and greens you've been assigned. Report to opposite sections of the training bowl and practice ground launches and landings as a trio. Try to avoid colliding with each other while you're taking off and landing. After you've successfully taken off and landed five times in a row, you can start practicing gliding around the bowl in formation. Except for Jadziath, who isn't allowed off the ground yet. But she can sit in position while Qancith and Rikraketh take off and land next to her. Trio leader is in the right rear position; it's up to you to decide where to put your wingmates."

---

K'so
K'so and Qancith arrived at the flight grounds anticipating more flying time. K'so just wished he could ride with Qancith already. The "gift" of training flying straps excited him - one more step toward becoming a full dragonrider!

On the flip side of that, the tangle of lines was confusing. He watched as H'lee casually tossed straps across Seeth's neck and back, as though they weight nothing, and they seemed to just fall out in the order that he needed them. When K'so tried to pick them up, they got all tangled and he spent precious minutes stretching out the straps and figuring out which ones went where. Finally, he got them on, but they were very loose; he started snugging them down a bit, only to be told to leave them loose so that they didn't chafe Qancith's hide and that they'd tighten them gradually as the dragons got used to them.

Then they were assigned to trios, which they would apparently be training with for the rest of their weyrlinghood (barring any unfortunate accidents that reduced their numbers). Happily, he was assigned to a trio with the twins, A'lo and Artemis. Although Jadziath couldn't fly with them, she was at least allowed out on the training field with them today.

He waited for A'lo to decide whether Qancith would be point in their trio or fly to Rikraketh's left while Jadziath represented the point.

The twins had walked to the lesson together, Artemis pausing when she noted that there was a pile of stuff for her and Jazz. A quick glance at her dragon told the green to NOT attempt anything stupid again. After all, the previous week she had caused more damage to the wing, but thankfully... not enough more to extend the length of time before they would be able to fly.

~You're not going to try flying until H'LEE tells us it's safe for you to do so,~ the pregnant weyrling grumbled at her dragon.

~I know.~ Jadziath responded with a snort, her injured wing still bandaged to keep her from using it too much. Regardless, she stood next to her bonded and waited for them to continue.

A moment later, H'lee was explaining what they would do with the pile of leather in front of them. After watching what H'lee did with Seeth, Artemis and her twin both went to work trying to figure out the mess of straps. Artemis carefully laid the straps on Jazz's back before slipping the straps into their respective places to hang over her dragon. Naturally, this was done with plenty of questions to her dragon... especially anytime she had to go near her dragon's healing wing.

A'lo, for his part, continued putting the stuff on his dragon... and grumbled when he couldn't get the one part to attach. ~I think it's on backwards, mine,~ Rik pointed out, turning his head to watch his rider's frustration.

The young man blinked at his work before he shook his head and set about undoing his work, flipping it around and setting back to work with strapping his dragon in. ~How does that feel?~

~It is not too tight... although, I do not like that I will have to wear this so much...~ he commented.

About this point, after bumping the injured wing and getting an disapproving hiss from her dragon, Artemis finally got the straps done up. With that they sat down to listen to H'lee's next step.

A'lo walked over to where H'lee indicated he should, curious as to what was going on. Of course, he had no problems with the idea of leading a trio, after all... if he couldn't lead a trio then what made him think that one day he could lead a hold? Or a weyr? Or whatever he ended up tryin to lead?

A moment later, he was happy to find out his twin and K'so were in his trio, and he accepted the new shoulder knot from the man. When given the go ahead to begin their practice, A'lo took a quick second to decide how he wanted to have them placed. In the end, his decision wasn't really for much more than an easier chance to keep an eye on Jadziath. "Artemis, you and Jadziath get point, K'so and Qancith get to my left," he stated simply. Not that he would have been surprised if his sister were to figure out WHY she was at point.

With that he stood next to his dragon and when ready, gave the command for Rik and Qanc to take off, and then land next to Jazz. The green grumbled and griped about not being able to participate "properly" as she put it.

~Mine, stop staring and just put that one properly.~ Haranth demanded of D'rick who muttered an apology and spent a good ten to twenty minutes fiddling and attempting to put on the new harness before finally having it on right. ~Okay get it off now, I don't like it mine!~ "Har you're a big girl now you have to wear it." He pointed out. "Soon enough you'll be carrying me on your back and I can't just ride you bare back all the time."

Once he was told where to go and how to get there by Katrina he would and waited paitently seeing that Fayble had about as much trouble as he did.

Except Dea was being more annoying about her harness and kept uncooperating. Just as Fay would get one strap set right she'd unset it as Fay worked on the next one. Finally letting out a sigh she glared at the dragon.

"Stop it Dea! You don't wear this and we don't graduate and then what!?" She snapped, "Do you want to sit out on graduation like Art!?" She snapped. The dragon stood still long enough for her to do what was needed. ~Mine I don't like this, I want to write with you. I have a great idea!~ Not right now dear, we have to practice-

Finally once Fayble was in poisition Dea and Har would, with their triomate and Katrina practice. Thankfully both were rather decent by now and there was little wing/body bashing.

Over the previous week, the young dragons had gotten reasonably comfortable with take-offs and landings near other dragons. And the four Wingleaders-in-training had proven which one had earned the right to be Wingleader of the group: X'kim and Zhlucarth.

"This week, we're going to practice taking off and landing as a Flight, all twel--er, eleven of you. Artemis, Jadziath, you'll have to sit in your position while the others take off and land," H'lee started. He then directed Zhlucarth and Rikraketh to their positions. "I want Niocth and Mccoreth in these two positions, but the four of you can discuss and decide which way. Then decide where the blues and greens go."

Once the four bronze- and brownriders decided, he had them practice taking off and landing in formation.

---

K'so
K'so directed Qancith to stand next to Rikraketh when A'lo decided that Jadziath would be on point. The blue hissed at the bronze when they got too close together to be able to take off and sidled away to give them more space. Qancith then squawked when both dragons took off and the conflicting winds stirred up by their wings - especially the more powerful gusts from Rikraketh's larger wings - knocked him off-kilter and sent him careening sideways. He landed half a dragonlength away from where he was supposed to.

How are we supposed to take off like that?! He is bigger than I am and the wind he makes pushes me over!

"I don't know how you're supposed to do it, Qancith, I can't fly, but you're a dragon. We've seen the adults do it, so there must be some trick to it. Look, you've been flying in some winds around here, right? Think of it like that, not like taking off from the ground, maybe."

Qancith hissed unhappily, but lined up to try again. "Hey, A'lo, do you think they should be spaced out the same as the adult dragons? The wind might not cause them as much problems." What he didn't think of was that, when they were adults, they'd be closer together and would have to know how to manage those winds.

A'lo and Artemis

A'lo knew that his sister wasn't going to be happy with another week of sitting out. However, she also knew that she wouldn't be too upset with standing next to her injured (but healing) dragon. Already Jazz was getting to the point where she could move her wing a bit more... but she still couldn't use it to fly... and she was slowly getting into exercises that would allow her at least partial movement of her wing.

Regardless, the young man soon found himself with instructions for where he and X'kim (along with Z'vier and Katarina) would be placed. From there they were given instructions to direct the other weyrlings into their positions within the wing.

For a moment, the group gathered together and discussed things amongst themselves, before deciding that A'lo should be the one to announce positions to everyone. Yay him!

"Alright, we've decided. K'so and Qancith to position 2, just to the left and behind of Katarina, S'nom and Pareilth to your right. We want D'rick and Haranth to Z'vier's left and N'sir and Spindath to his right. Just in front of me to the left will be Artemis and Jadziath, and to their right will be Fayble and Deasirith. To their right will be Ashendel and Basidith, and to her right will be K'let and Shimarkth," he announced to the group, keeping his voice as formal as possible... while also keeping out of it that he had somewhat requested Artemis's position for a couple of reasons... one, with Jazz being unable to participate, it would be safer to keep her out of the way in position 7... while also allowing A'lo a chance to keep an eye on his twin.

K&M
K&Q S&P
D&H Z&N N&S
A&J F&D A&B K&S
A&R X&Z

Artemis knew her brother had wanted her in the position she was given, if only because she knew that he was NOT happy when Jazz had attempted to participate the one day. Regardless, she wasn't about to argue and easily moved into place just in front and to the left of her brother as she waited for the others to get into their places as well.

Once everyone was positioned, the twins waited for X'kim to give the go-ahead for them to take off. Once given, Rik kicked into the air, flapped for a second, and then settled back down in his position while keeping an eye on Jadziath to make certain she didn't join in. Which she didn't. Instead, the green watched the others and complained at her rider about how it wasn't fair that she couldn't learn how to fly with the others.

K'so
K'so's position effectively put him under Katarina's direction. He wasn't too excited about this; he'd always eyed Katarina with a certain...jealousy, perhaps? Why'd he get stuck with a blue when a girl - a GIRL - got a brown? He muttered to himself about being stuck in her Wing for the Flight practice. He had been partnered with A'lo and Artemis, why had his friend stuck him way out here anyway?

Feeling sullen and outcast, they slunk to their position and waited for the signal to lift off. The same as when they'd been practicing in a Wing, the wind currents generated by all the dragons caused him - and others - to veer out of formation and land away from where they were supposed to be. Of course, the two bronzes had no problems, seeing as they were in the back and relatively isolated from the other dragons.

They practiced launching and settling until they could all withstand each others' winds. Over the next few days, they practiced launching and flying as a Flight.

D'rick noted keenly that he was just in front of Arty and twisted to give her a shy smile, still treading on difficult waters with the girl. ~Mine I'm so crowded I'm going to hit someone or somethign~ Stop whining you'll do fine D'rick reassured gently.

Fayble was having much the same talk though it was mostly because Dea felt weird standing in the middle ~I feel like piggie in the middle~ She whined. Hush and jump on three. Of course when everyone took off Dea was wobbling from the currents and almost came crashing down on both Fayble and Jaz.

D'rick's Haranth moved outwards as well and stumbled to catch herself before she confidently puffed otu her chest. She meant to do that!