This was one lesson that H'lee oversaw for every batch of weyrlings. Being a tanner himself, he was intimately familiar with the construction and inspection of riding straps, even more than the average dragonrider. Dragonriders rarely made their straps from scratch. H'lee was the exception, and he insisted on completing the initial steps of strap-making, which most riders never had to do. Namely, that involved picking out the hides and cutting the straps to the proper width, ensuring that the quality his weyrlings received was the best. He also oversaw the purchase of buckles and catches. The rest of the construction was up to them and the training he gave them.

Of course, he inspected the straps thoroughly himself before they were allowed to put them to the test. And he would be spending the next week going over every inch of the straps, approving or disapproving of them. Every time he disapproved, the weyrling had to either start over or make adjustments (depending on the severity of the problem). Once their straps were given a stamp of approval, the weyrling would put them on his or her dragon to wear for the rest of the week.

---

K'so
Some of K'so's arrogance had returned in the form of wondering why he should make his own riding straps when he could buy a set. It was hand-cramping work, stitching the leather straps together, stitching on the padding...

The first day they were to present their straps, he thought he'd done well, until he had to present them alongside his clutchmates' straps. His looked shabby by comparison. When X'kim's failed inspection, he knew his, too, would fail.

And fail they did. In fact, they failed so badly H'lee suggested he should just start over with new leather. "Your stitches are uneven and wandering. These ones that are closer to the edge of the strap will feel more strain than the ones farther in, and they'll fail. And you haven't put anywhere near enough padding here, where the strap passes between the wing and shoulder joints. Qancith with chafe his hide raw without the padding." The only (faint) praise he received was that he had made the straps long enough.

Although he really wanted to skip the next several days of inspections, he decided he should attend and work on the straps there. He begged his friend A'lo for some help with getting the stitching straight, since the bronze rider had passed inspection the first day.

On the fifth day for inspections, he presented his (much better-looking) set of straps to H'lee for inspection. He was still faulted on the padding around the shoulders as well as some sloppy stitches on his belt loops. He redid the stitches and added more padding to the straps that evening, fitting them onto Qancith to see how they felt.

They are tight where you added the extra padding. He loosened that section of straps a notch. Much better.

The sixth day, he and S'nom, whose straps had been abysmally poor the first day, both passed inspection, finally.

A'lo

A'lo had listened to the instructions that he'd been given. He thought about the ideas and then he set about working with the leather. Unlike K'so, he found that he enjoyed the work. He liked the idea of dealing with the leather and creating the straps that would hold him to his beast, that would be his lifeline so that he would never have to fear falling from the bronze's back.

~I would never drop you~ the bronze snorted with indignation at the thought that ran through his rider's mind.

A'lo chuckled to himself as he continued his work, more or less ignoring his dragon. Once he had finished putting together his straps, he handed them off to H'lee (once he'd come around) to be inspected and he waited for a moment until he was given the man's approval.

The young man had to admit that he was rather pleased with the idea of having passed the inspection on his first try. He had instantly thanked the man before turning to his dragon and placing them on the beast. Within moments the dragon was moving around with the straps on and getting used to the feel of them.

Once that was done, he spent the rest of the week keeping an eye on his dragon... and helping his sister understand better what to do. At least until she passed on the third day. The young man didn't help K'so until his friend came to him, and then he happily provided the tips that he had figured out.

Artemis

Artemis had not enjoyed the lesson NEARLY as much as her brother did. She set about making the stitches and the like until things were complete... or somewhat so. One look at them and she knew she wasn't going to pass. With a groan she handed it off to the weyrling master, although she accepted his criticisms about her work with a nod and set about working. It took her until the 3rd day before, with her brother's advice, she finally got it right! A pleased smile touched her face when H'lee finally passed her and she moved about strapping them onto her dragon.

Naturally, Jadziath took a few minutes before she was willing to call them comfortable, but before long she was settled in and had stopped complaining about the feel of it.

The second week of their fifth month, H'lee again assembled the youngsters at the ramp. He watched them fidget and whisper excitedly, even the dragons were excited. This was the first day that the young weyrling pairs would fly together. Okay, well, glide. True flight would come in a week or so.

"Alright, boys and girls, I can tell you all know what this is about. This week is gliding only! You'll get to start really flying next week. We are all a little acrophobic, so you're going to be gliding for several days until your stomachs stop doing flip-flops while you're in the air."

He waved the first weyrling up onto the ramp, walked them to the edge, had the rider mount up, then he climbed up to the observation platform and gave them the signal to take off when they were ready.

---

K'so & Qancith

K'so and Qancith were no exception, they were just as excited as anyone else. Qancith was grumbling a bit because the straps still felt funny; he hadn't had as long as some of the others to get used to them. They watched the others go jump off the ramp and then it was their turn!

Qancith was big enough now that K'so had to jog to keep up with him as they went up the ramp. When they got there, he gave a little running jump to launch off of Qancith's foreleg and hauled himself onto the blue's back. The blue edged forward to the end of the ramp while K'so clipped himself in. H'lee gave them the signal to go when they were ready. As they peered off the edge of the ramp, he suddenly understood what the Weyrlingmaster meant about them all having a small fear of heights in them.

"Ooooh, boy," he murmured. Alright, Qancith, let's do this. Take it easy on our first run, though, huh?

The blue crouched, then lunged off the ramp. K'so clenched his jaw and swallowed hard as his stomach was left behind on the ramp. There was a bit of a drop before the blue's wings powered down to level them off and they glided down the length of the training bowl. Once they leveled off, K'so's stomach caught up with him and he was able to enjoy the wind rushing past him. Laughing, he threw his hands up...only to yelp and grab at the straps as the buffeting forces caused him to slide a bit.

Uh, okay, go easy on the landing, huh? Serious bumping is going to hurt, a lot. There'd been no instructions saying they had to make a running landing, so Qancith backwinged to slow himself down. He didn't have enough height to really fully land that way, but it did make the lurching less prolonged and abrupt. K'so braced his arms against the neckridge in front of him, but he didn't think about the back lash...and he grunted as his tailbone jammed against the neckridge behind him.

Qancith hissed unhappily, feeling his rider's pain through their bond, although K'so tried to keep it from transmitting down the connection. I'm alright, Qanc, let's get a move on and head back up. Walking!

D'rick fidgeted, he was scared. Would his strap hold him? He had, of course, failed the first time. Seeing as he strap under pressure had literally fallen to pieces in his hands. Apparently he wasn't so good. He frowned and shifted again on his feet.

Mine stop worrying, we'll be just fine. Haranth demanded of her bonded. She hissed softly at his nerves. ~Its so high, and I just worry. You're fidgetting again with that strap don't you like it?~ [color=green]It feels weird mine, but none the less we are meant to fly its natural. So come on.[/i]. The green almost pushed D'rick too hard when she nudged him to move forward and he stumbled to regain his balance. Finally as they made their way up the ramp D'rick tried to hide that miscule feeling of fear.

As natural as it felt to now mount up he was more than shocked as H'lee signaled for his turn and actually outwardly yelped as his body and mind seemed to seperate. Feeling the sensation of being inthe air caused him to latch on tighter to the strap. Thankfully he eased up as he came around and smiled brightly as the pair gracefully glided down. The touch down was rough, and D'rick being unsuspecting lurched forward yelping as he caught himself on a ridge. Groaning he held the precious area and almost fell off Haranth, the green grunted in mimic pain.

--

Fayble was squirming, her strap had been beautifully made, and she passed with ease. She waited until her turn. Ready? Of course, this is what you wanted all along isn't it mine? You're right beloved. Just land gently okay? The dragon could neither guarentee that nor would she.

As they walked towards the ramp Dea felt her mine's inside twisting and turning. The last time Fay had been on a dragon flying well..She had been scared out of her wits. Now she was feeling less than confident. The girl mounted her dragon, her slight form moved swiftly and instinctively by now. However, holding her strap as instructed her fingers quaked, and sure enough Fay's stomach was left behind.

The girl didn't get it back until they landed (as gently as possible). And launching herself off her beast she barely had made it away before she wretched up her last meal. Shaking and trembling.

Artemis

Artemis really didn't know what she thought of this idea. She still felt rather huge, but that didn't mean she wouldn't participate and she was bound and determined to help... even when her ankles kept swelling. Perhaps that was why she'd started a ruitine of going to lay down every chance she got. Usually she read a book in her down time, but she was also keeping her mouth shut about any problems she had. After all, if she hadn't fooled around with D'rick then she never would have found herself in this particular situation.

Regardless, she approached the ramp once Fayble and her green were out of the way and took a deep breath to try and steady her nerves. Hopefully her dragon would be okay, they had gotten gliding down pat. She was even able to do lift offs into glides without any real problems. Although, the girl was fairly certain that her dragon was going to have difficulties when it came time to do any real flying. Regardless, the girl mounted her dragon when it was time, and nodded when she got the signal.

~Can we go now? H'lee gave the signal.~ Jadziath questioned her nervous rider. She herself was rather anxious and wanted to leap into the air.

Artemis took a moment before she finally gave her dragon the okay to jump, and within moments she was wishing she had taken another moment to prepare as her stomach seemingly remained behind. However, as she gained enough courage to look around her, the feeling slowly evaporated through the easy glide. ~You have gotten good at compensating for your wing, Jazzy,~ the girl noted when they didn't go off course.

Sadly, the same wasn't true for landings and the woman ended up a little winded as her dragon walked her out of the way. Once at a safe spot, she lowered herself, and amazingly enough Arty didn't lose her breakfast..

A'lo

A'lo watched as the others took their turns at gliding with their dragons. Starting with Fayble, and he winced as the poor girl started to vomit the moment she had landed. His gaze quickly shifted to his twin when Arty took her turn, and gave a relieved sigh when she didn't lose her breakfast. Although, she did look a bit winded and had taken longer than the others to dismount.

His gaze shifted back to watch as D'rick took his turn, and found himself somewhere between feeling sorry for the man and a bit self satisfied that he had gotten canned by his beast. Accidental though it may have been, the idea that his precious area had been injured (and considering how badly A'lo STILL wished the man would lose that area)... well, it was hard for him to feel sorry for the man.

Although, he did get a repremanding nudge from his bronze. ~He is part of your wing, mine. You cannot be happy when he is injured. It is not the atitude of a leader,~ he snorted at his rider, raising his head to watch as others took their turns before noting when it was K'so's turn.

~I didn't laugh at him or show any pleasure outwardly. I can't help it that I don't like the guy,~ he grumped in response as they continued watching.

~Have you tried to talk to him and get to know him? Perhaps figure out where his feelings stand with your sister?~ the bronze asked in response.

A'lo simply grunted in response, giving the bronze all the answer he needed. The rest of the glides were watched in silence until it was finally their turn and easily the two approached. By now A'lo had seen a couple do all sorts of reactions... and he knew what to expect. Instantly he steeled himself, feeling that it was important for them to be the example pair.... or one of them. TECHNICALLY it was up to X'kim to set the example since it was he who was the wingleader.

Regardless, the young man mounted his bronze and watched as H'lee gave the signal. Unlike his sister, he didn't hesitate but sent his bronze off the second he got it and the two were gliding through the air... with A'lo chuckling the second they left the platform. Sure he had felt the momentary drop of his stomach, but the feeling only felt more exhilerating as he held onto his beast.

When they landed, Rik was better able to do a proper landing, although he did jostle his rider a bit. Just enough for him to kinda can his rider in the process. Which left the bronze to walk out of the way with his rider as the man did everything in his power NOT to follow D'rick's example and clutch himself. He wanted to pretend that the flight and landing had gone amazing. Of course, the grimace that touched Rikraketh's face might give something away...

"Well, now you know what it's going to feel like when you leave your new weyrs. Time to get a feel for what it's going to be like to get into them on your own!" was H'lee's announcement for changing flying techniques. "As soon as you pass this lesson, you can move into your new weyr and you're cleared to fly anywhere within an hour of the Academy."

For the next several days, they would be practicing ground launches, going straight up into the air. As the weyrlings already knew from the lesson where their dragons had flapped their wings but stayed on the ground, the angle would be awkward and could result in them being spilled from their seats. "You and your dragon have some feel for how to sit for takeoff so you don't fall off, but that's no substitute for experiencing the inertia of actual takeoff. You've all ridden with an adult rider and know something about it, but this time, you don't have an experienced dragon who knows how to bend his neck, or a solid rider behind you to keep you from bowling over backward!" Seeth snorted in emphasis and H'lee gave him an affectionately exasperated look. "On the plus side, you don't have to worry about your crotches getting jammed."

H'lee waved Artemis and Jadziath to one side before they got started. "Sorry, Artemis, but you'll have to sit this lesson out. Alina would have my hide if you fell off Jadziath during this lesson," he stated, as though unwilling to admit that HE would berate himself if he let that happen. "I've had some of the Carpenters put together a set of stairs to get you into your weyr. It's your choice whether you glide out or take the stairs when leaving it. But no ground launches like the others are doing until after you've had the baby."

H'lee and the other Weyrlingmasters took one weyrling pair aside and, spread out across the valley, had them practice taking off, hovering, and landing. They repeated the exercise for 40 minutes or until the weyrling pair took off successfully five times in a row. When they finished, it was lunch time.

---

K'so & Qancith

K'so and Qancith were very proud of themselves: they were the first dragon pair to take off successfully! And they did it on their very first try! Unfortunately, the cliche, "Pride comes before the fall," held true, and on their second launch, K'so promptly tumbled out of his seat. His riding straps, of course, saved him from landing ingloriously on his rump, but it was still embarrassing.

They successfully completed the next three, then missed one, and nailed two more. "Aw, c'mon, that doesn't count? We only missed one in that set!" Lyam was adamant, though. They bounced around between picture-perfect takeoffs and landings, ultimately not passing that day. The next day, running through a similar lot of successes and failures, before finally getting five in a row near the end of his turn.

Now we can move into our weyr! he grinned. They had plenty of time over the next couple of hours to move.

Napping on that ledge is going to feel so good! the blue responded, equally happy with their final success.

Artemis

Artemis listened to the start of the lesson, and felt more and more like she was going to have a hard time. Quite frankly, she was worried. What if she fell off of her dragon? What if things didn't go as well as they should have? By the time he was done explaining things, she had herself rather worked up. Although she was hididng it.

~I wouldn't drop you...~ the green protested.

~What if you weren't TRYING to drop me? I could lose my grip and fall off!~ the girl protested in return, causing her green to snort at her before they noticed H'lee waving them off to the side.

When they reached him, relief ran through the girl and she nodded her head. "Okay," she agreed before she headed off to look at the steps. Quite frankly, now she was curious about them... even as her dragon went to investigate them.

A'lo

Unlike his sister, A'lo felt anxious and excited to start this lesson. He WANTED to try the ground take offs with his dragon, since he had done so well with previous lessons. In fact, he was finding that he and Rik were picking things up rather fast... and they tended to spend downtime playing dragon poker. A game that A'lo still wasn't a huge fan of... but his dragon demanded it and so they did it when they could.

Once spaced out with the rest of the weyrlings, A'lo prepared or their attemps. Once he had a tight grip, his dragon launched himself into the air, flapped a couple times and then hovered at about that height before landing. A'lo felt his stomach churn at this, but grinned as he felt himself maintain his balance.

They repeated that again until their 3rd attempt left A'lo slipping off to the one side and barely catching himself on the harness (although he was still hanging from the side of his beast. Naturally, his dragon landed instantly and there were no problems.

Once he was resettled, they continued their practices, grumbling anytime they failed at a launch before finally they got it around their 12th attempt and continued to get it right! Both of them were elated when that happened and A'lo patted his drake. ~Good job, Rik! I can't wait till we get our stuff moved to the new weyr!~ he chuckled to the bronze, his beast rumbling his amusement and pleasure at the idea.

When done, he went about moving his things into the new weyr, something his sister had long since started doing for herself... Although, both more than willingly took a break to get some lunch before finishing up.

The weyrlings had gotten plenty of practice at ground launching and gliding over the last week, after moving into their weyrs. The dragons had done plenty of taking off and landing in formation. This week, they'd be combining the two: taking off in Flights and as a Wing.

H'lee did have Jadziath participate in the activity, although he had Artemis sit on the sidelines. First, they practiced in their usual trios, then X'kim and A'lo were put in charge of arranging the Wing for practicing taking off as a Wing.

After they managed three successful launches in a row, the Wing started practicing some aerial drills.

---

K'so & Qancith

The blue pair were bored with their flight practices. He was happy that they got to go places on their own now, but it was boring to fly straight. There wasn't much to see on their little peninsula that held two Holds and the Academy. When H'lee told them they'd be spending the next several days practicing taking off, landing, and flight formations as a group, he sighed and made a face.

The Flight he was in - with A'lo and Jadziath, of course - managed successful take-offs within their first five attempts. However, they then had to wait for X'kim's Flight, which seemed to be having problems, to successfully complete their launches and landings.

Once all the Flights had completed their practice, they assembled as a Wing in the formation that X'kim and A'lo dictated. Amazingly, they managed to take off and land as a Wing three times in succession on their first three tries.

But then they got to start doing some of their aerial drills, and those were kind of fun! Unfortunately, by the time they got through take-off and landing practice, they only had time to attempt four transitions from Flat formation to Point Down formation.

But the next day, it only took them five tries to get through that formation transition. The second transition, from Point Down to Steep Left, took a lot longer. In fact, they didn't even get it right that day. It wasn't until the third day that they got that formation transition right.

But during the third day, they got through the next two transitions with very little trouble. The last transition caused the Wing a lot of grief, though, and they spent most of the day working on it.

They finished that last formation transition the fourth day, and then practiced running through the entire set of transitions until they got it right three times in a row. Thankfully, that didn't take long, as Qancith and K'so were both getting extremely bored with the formation practicing.

What good is this formation practice if there is no Thread to fight? We will be living in a Hold with only a few other dragons, was a common complaint, and probably not limited to just Qancith's and K'so's mental communication.

A'lo, Rikraketh and Jadziath

A'lo was rather enjoying the flight training. Quite frankly, he found it rather interesting... and challenging. Of course, that could be because he was in charge of leading both his flight and helping to lead the entire group of weyrlings as a wing. Regardless, today he knew that the group would be practicing their take offs together.

Spotting Jadziath in his group without Artemis, he frowned for a second. It would be interesting, but he had no doubt that the green would follow his and Rik's directions. ~Rik, ask Jadziath to stand on our left, and have Qanc on our right,~ he told his dragon, wanting to give Jadziath plenty of space.

The first attempt had gone decently well, although Jazz had troubles adjusting when she accidentally forgot about watching her wings and how far they were extended. It had ended with her doing an awkward land and giving a half growl. The second attempt, she had taken off without a problem, but on her descent she had managed to turn around completely and landed off a little ways.

A'lo frowned and had Rik coach the green to calm down and take her time. The third time, after she had calmed herself, A'lo gave them the go-ahead for a 3rd attempt. This time, everything went smoothly and the man grinned. What was more, Jadziath was clearly pleased with herself.

Rikraketh crooned his approval to the green, passing along his rider's praise before they attempted twice more... and were met with succeess at both intervals! When that happened, he let his group get some rest while he visited with his sister while they waited. When it was announced that X'kim's flight had finally passed, the lad left his twin and headed back towards the group and went off to the side with X'kim to decide things.

Before long, the two bronzeriders moved ahead and began announcing who was where.

"We want Katarina and Mccoreth at the head. D'rick and Haranth and S'nom and Pareilth behind her, in that order from left to right. Behind them we want Fayble and Daesirith, Z'vier and Niocth, Ashendel and Basidith. Behind them Jadziath, K'so and Qancith, N'sir and Spindath, and K'let and Shimarkth. I will be behind Jazz and K'so, X'kim will be behind N'sir and K'let," A'lo announced to the group before moving into his position as Jazz did the same. It was clear at this point that the two men were trying their best to try and organize their wing in various ways to learn what suited the group best.

Once the ordering was all set, they attempted launches as a wing, and to A'lo's pleasure... they aced that part! First three attempts were all absolutely perfect and passed them along. He made certain that Rik passed along his praise to the entire group. From there, the group took to the skies and A'lo knew that it was Jadziath's first real test to see how well she would stay in the air for extended periods of times.

The first four attempts went rather interestingly. Their first attempt was a complete fail. The second time went much better and was successful. They continued with much the same pattern until their four attempts for the day were up. At that point, he and Rik went over to Artemis with the green and were quick to question how Jazz was feeling.

The green snorted, but apparently had admitted to being sore and so she and Artemis left to go rest the wing.

The following day they continued on with their attempts, doing much better with only their second attempt of the day being a failure in the first maneuver. From there, they moved to the next attempt, and that one went rather interstingly. They could never seem to get a streak of good attempts the rest of that day. After all attempts were made, it was clear that Jadziath was worn out and sore... and irritable. In fact, the green snapped at him when he tried to walk with her to Artemis.

The third day was much the same, although they had far better luck witht heir drills, moving from one to the next until they were working on the slope right, wide to flat... of which case they broke off and once more Jadziath was sore. It appeared that the length of flights was getting to wear on the green. Regardless, he hoped that the practices would lead to her strengthening up enough to have longer flights.

By the fourth day, they managed to complete the rest of the less, with a few more problems running through the complete sequence. Regardless, he was pleased when it took fewer effort and for once he didn't feel worried with how Jazz was feeling.

Because of this, he managed to walk with the green over to his sister. "Hey, sis, Jazzy is doing well," he smiled.

"Yeah, and today she doesn't feel as sore as she has been. I'm worried about how this will affect her when she starts rising to mate... but maybe she'll be stronger by then?" she suggested to her brother.

"Maybe," he shrugged,"How are you feeling?"

"Like I'm pregnant..." she grumbled, "I can't see my feet anymore, haven't for the last month! And I'm fairly certain my ankles are perminently swollen!"

A'lo chuckled, "Sorry to hear it, sis. Why don't you go rest for a bit? I'm sure I can scrounge up a lunch for us?" he suggested.

"Okay. Jazz and I are going to head back to our weyr then. I think she wants to rest her wing just in case," she responded before heading off.

D'rick had been proud of his Haranth she was progressing well, and if wasn't for the fact that he kept getting distracted they probably would do better! But no, he kept looking over at Arty throughout the lesson. She was now very noticeably pregnant and he couldn't help but be curious as to what was going on with her and how she felt. ~Mine, concentrate!~ The green huffed softly, annoyed that once again they didn't preform awesomely because well...D'rick was off in space. "Sorry." He muttered softly, and once they had been released rushed to go meet up with Artemis, but stopped shortly before A'lo got there. He'd catch her later.

--

Fayble was so proud of herself! She had done so well she felt as though she was going to be the next...well she wasn't sure what. She grinned brightly her and Dea moved swiftly and their bond was strengthening, and with nothing to distract the girl, except cake designs and random poetry floating in that head of hers, it was obvious the girl worked her buttox off to actually succeed.