[PRP] Prepare for the Worst [Lestenna/Z'rik]

[ShinosBee]

The touching had been...exhausting. Not so much for herself, but for Uridith. The gold's heart was bigger and warmer by far than her own, she'd long ago realized, and every note of distress from her babies had made her want to go to them. Lestenna had spent the better part of the day mentally checking the gold, siphoning off her worry to replace it with steady calming thoughts. It'd worked, but Faranth's own shell. What a clutch indeed. Was it the altitude at High Reaches? A poor choice in mate (though her heart mind instantly rejected that idea) perhaps? Or most likely either random chance or the effects of being the first gold to clutch, as far as she knew, since thread had returned to the sky.

Soon enough they'd all hatch, and then it'd be out of her hands. Out of Uridith's as well, though there was one worry remaining. Even peaceful clutches could shell violent dragons. There'd been one such case, turns ago now, that she'd heard tell of. And one of the most severely effected was today one of V'mel's own assistants.

Determined that, as Uridith's first line of defense against her woes, she should see the truth, Lestenna had sought out Z'rik, bidding him join her on the very edge of the hatching grounds, technically in the bowl of the weyr but near enough that she could see her gold, and her gold herself. She'd seen him about before—it was hard to miss someone missing part of an arm after all—but despite his status as a bronze rider, they'd not met more than formally. "Thank you for coming," She led, breaking a silence that teetered between awkward and peaceful. "I've something to discus with you. I'm hoping you might have some insight that could better prepare us—myself and Uridith both—for anything come hatching day." Her voice was steady, and her face betrayed no sign of judgement for the man. He'd recovered when most would fall, after all, and devoted himself to the weyr. He was imperfect, certainly, but what was left was a shining example that appealed to her.

DruidTigeress

 

[DruidTigeress]

ShinosBee

Word traveled fast within the Weyr and already Z'rik had heard news of today's Touching. It seems it had been... eventful. To say the least. So when Lestenna bid him .. he assumed that was what it was about. And as eggs eventually turned into hatchlings, he was of course curious about what kind of group this clutch would be. He was a weyrlingmaster assistant, after all. They were going to be his problem after they were hers.

"Goldrider." he said, nodding his head politely as he approached. Azmodioth had been following close behind, but lingered back a little, not wanting to get too close to the sands and upset the young mother. He might have little more than distrust and contempt for many of his fellow dragons, but golds were of course the exception. As long as they weren't upsetting His. Good evening Uridith. I do hope you are well. he said, with a genuine touch of concern in his voice. Hatching could be terribly stressful, he knew.

"My pleasure." he said, in response to her thanks "What do you need?" He nodded as she began to explain, catching the gist of what she was getting at. "Ah, I'm guessing you mean about this then." he said, lifting his right arm. Well, what was left of it in any case. He'd been on his way to his weyr for the evening when she caught him, so he wasn't wearing any prosthetic. "If so, you might've been better off talking to one of the candidates that didn't get their arm bitten off," he said with a laugh. "But I'll try to help if I can."

He folded his one arm over the other, thoughtfully. "Well, I understand your concern." he said, nodding. "At what point do you intervene, and risk the hatchling going between?" he mused. Certainly, nobody wanted that. Which is exactly why violent hatchlings were typically indulged on the sands.

Someone should have intervened with that nasty, evil blue sooner. Azmodioth practically hissed.
Ah, but, the blue went on to impress, remember?
Don't care. he said, his eyes whirring furiously. I would've between, Mine. I almost betweened. he reminded him, his eyes spinning yellow. His should not be so easy to forgive.
You're right. Z'rik said, relenting. Azmodioth did bring up a good point.

"..On the other hand, Azmodioth points out that if you let a candidate be hurt, you risk losing a potential bondmate of theirs as well."

Now that he thought about, that happened too, as he recalled. A green, they said, whose eyes had gone rainbow just before she went between. But surely she couldn't think her clutch would be as bad as that!

He frowned, more concerned now than he had been at first. "Did something happen at the Touching..?" he asked tentatively. "If you don't mind me asking." He'd heard the talk, of course, but he didn't know the details. Candidates did often exaggerate, he knew.  

[ShinosBee]

Uridith had lingered further back away from the mouth of the hatching sands cavern, and was huddled in among the sandy mounds she'd built up around each egg to keep them warm and safe. Her gem eyes flashed briefly crimson at the sight of a bronze that was not the eggs' sire, then relaxed back to blue. It was only Azmodioth, after all, and she knew him, and he had no interest in harming her clutch. As well as can be expected. Each clutch seems more wild than the last...and my poor heart can't take it. The gold sent a few flashes of moments from the touching, eggs taking off and rolling on their own, eggs lurching away from the touch of a candidate hard enough to make eggs crack dangerously together. It had gone beyond what even she'd expected, and the next time, she promised to herself, she would demand the touching, if it must be done, would be sooner than this one.

Lestenna folded her hands together behind her back, squaring her shoulders like a soldier as they prepared to wade through the potential outcomes of this clutch. "Precisely. If there is risk in not acting, and risk in acting, which is the better to take? Obviously it would be Uridith herself who intervenes, though I'm not sure that a mother simply telling her child 'no' would always work. I'd rather avoid having her force them if I can."

She turned to regard the half-hidden eggs, watching in stony silence as Uridith gently turned one just so. In the end, she realized, it would come down to simply value. As sad and tragic as it was to lose a hatchling, if she had to choose which...A green, of course, or perhaps a blue. If Perh had any sort of religion she would have considered praying to avoid the situation entirely though. Uridith would be inconsolable for days, tendays after. she would understand, and she would always obey her rider if she ordered it done but...Lestenna's heart was tender on this one point, and she hated the very thought of it.

"A number of things." Her voice was curt, business-like in the face of having to own up to the fact that her gold had produced a fine clutch, but one that was not entirely typical. "Some, I think, was more from the late date of the touching than the eggs themselves. They're ready to crack any time, I'd say. More than one started rocking, and a few even began to roll out of their wallows. A number of them were...aware. Enough to be aware of each others' eggs, and to have intent in their thoughts. Apparently a few candidates became rather fixated on one egg, which upset the golden one, and others. To the point that Uridith herself moved the egg to the side."

"We also," she confided almost under her breath, "Had a near crack in one. One of the boys, he touched one, and it leaned away like it'd been burned. It knocked a smaller one loose, and well. Uridith drove them all off the sands after that. I've rarely seen her so furious, poor thing."

DruidTigeress

 

[DruidTigeress]

ShinosBee

All will be well, I'm sure. Azmodioth tried to reassure her, although his mind flashed with worry at the images of the moving eggs. Certainly, that was enough to send anyone's heart racing. Me and Mine will be standing by as well, to assist as soon as they have impressed. The second their eyes turned rainbow, they were their responsibility to protect. And Azmodioth was always doggedly insistent, perhaps more so than at any other time during their training, that every one of the hatchlings (injured, anxious, or distressed) make it through that first hurdle alive and well.

Z'rik nodded his head somberly. "No.. I'm afraid if just that would work, we'd've had a few more weyrlings and a few more limbs in my graduating class."

Z'rik was shocked to hear about the Touching. While he'd heard the rumors, he never would have guessed the truth was as dramatic as that. Glancing back, he shared a worried look with his dragon. Even if he would find most of them insufferable once they had grown, of course Azmodioth didn't want anything happening to the babies.

"Well, that does sound eventful.." Z'rik said, for the understatement of the century. Poor thing, indeed. He imagined it was hard enough for the mothers to deal with a bunch of strangers touching their eggs, even without them rolling around the sands. "Both eggs are fine, I hope?" he asked her quietly, deeply concerned.

"Honestly though, who knows what that could mean." he said, lifting his shoulders as he shook his head. "Like you said, it could just be because of the late Touching date, and nothing more. As I recall, there was nothing especially energetic about my final Touching, and you know how that one went..." He shrugged. "I'm not saying it couldn't happen. But you have to understand, the Weyr was suffering from a serious lack of candidates at the time. I'm sure your hatching will be nothing like that one."
 

[ShinosBee]

Uridith took what comfort she could from the bronze's words, knowing he meant them. The burden her rider had placed upon her to help establish their place, the strangeness of this first clutching experience in their new home, the unusual egg activity, it was all notably wearing on the golden mother. Her children were her treasures, and she'd lost far too many to thread's deadly fall. The thought that the actions of some stupid little human child might risk one...She crooned almost sadly, nosing one or two eggs to turn them ever so gently. You must make them strong. Strong enough to survive, to fight, to serve the weyr. We're counting on you, Azmodioth. Trusting our children to your claws. Do not make us regret it. Any loss, of course, would not be the fault of the weyrling master or his assistants, but Uridith was not so sure she would be able to not blame them for it.

Lestenna took Z'rik's assurances wholeheartedly. There was no reason to think the man would lie to her, and he'd seen and been through enough to certainly know the real risks that could be posed to the hatchlings and candidates alike. "Both are fine, yes, no damage. Uridith refuses to leave them now, of course, but none could blame her. I've wondered if it's thread that's made them so energetic...dragons are drawn to fight it. Golds clutch more and more often when it falls. Perhaps they already know, even in the shells?" It made no real sense, but not even Uridith had been able to explain what she'd been aware of while in the shell when Lestenna had asked one day. Perhaps they already knew the fear of silver rain. Hopefully it would rouse them to fight, not to cowardice. High Reaches needed this clutch, and Lestenna and Uridith did too.

"I'll be honest, I'm less concerned about a candidate or two taking injury." Her eyes dragged over the stump arm again, mild interest the only real expression. "More I worry that a dragon would choose someone on the edge of death, and then we'd lose both. We've plenty candidates to spare, and only so many dragonets. I suppose that seems cold to say, but...if you and V'mel wouldn't mind, of course I'd ask you to prioritize certain pairs over others." Greens and blues were a 1/10th mark a dozen, after all, unlike a good strong brown or bronze.

DruidTigeress

 

[DruidTigeress]

ShinosBee

Of course. We will do everything in our power to protect them. he assured her. And yet.. He didn't wish to upset her, but to conceal the truth seemed worse in the long run. However, I would steel yourself. Weyrling training is difficult. We will do what we can, but invariably, some are lost.

Z'rik nodded. Personally, he felt for the candidates. But he didn't expect a gold rider to value their lives above those of her dragon's precious children. "Well, that's the concern.." he agreed. That was what had happened in their hatching, after all. There was that girl and her green.. Perhaps others. Several dragonets had betweened without a partner. Could their bonded have been among the dead candidates? If it weren't for the quick actions of the healers, Azmodioth might have joined them too. The large bronze leaned his head down towards his rider comfortingly and Z'rik unconsciously patted his neck.

Though her words weren't necessarily directed at them, it still felt like they were being reproached. After so many turns, it was still something he couldn't help but be a little sensitive about. After all, he was essentially one of those 'candidates on the edge'. There were those that said, behind closed doors, that it would have been better if Azmodioth had impressed to someone else. A 'waste of a dragon', they would mutter. Though he soon hoped to prove them wrong.

His brows raised slightly at the weyrwoman's request. He wasn't sure exactly what she was getting at, but he could guess.. Though of course the roles each would play would be different, Z'rik didn't value one weyrling's life greater than any other, nor could he really support that kind of sentiment. "We'll do our best, but in the end, that's up to the weyrlings themselves, I'm afraid. We can only protect them for so long, if they're going to survive, they need to do it themselves."

Their training may be hard, but in the end, it was necessary. Even if they could make it 100% safe, he wouldn't want to. The world wasn't safe. And failing to prepare them for that would only be more dangerous for them in the future. There came a time when they had to stand on their own, and when that day came, he'd do no more to save a brown than a green. "It seems harsh to say, but if they can't survive the training, then they'd not be much use in the wings anyway, whatever their color." And he'd take a tough green over a coddled bronze any day. If anything, it was more important to weed out the weak from the ranks of browns and bronzes. A stupid or inexperienced green could only do so much harm. Stick an unworthy bronze in a position of command and you could lose the whole wing.

The one exception, of course, was golds, who were valuable to the Weyr no matter what their temperament. Wondering if that might be the 'certain pair' she was referring to, he quickly added, "Though... I think it goes without saying, but of course we'll prioritize the safety of a young queen above anything."
 

[ShinosBee]

It was not quite the answer that Lestenna would have wanted, though she found no real fault with Z'rik's statements. She already anticipated her gold's bronze children to comport themselves with dignity, and the thought that they might be weak-willed or failures in any other way was a distant one, at best. They were promised rank and status from birth, and they would not be the ones to rebel, in her mind, or break ranks and fold under pressure. Still, he was right. They would live or die on their own power, she was only asking that, if it came down to a choice, the right one would be made.

And knowing that, above all else, that precious golden child would be guarded and guided...that was enough, she supposed. That egg, out of them all, would be the makings of Uridith's, and Lestenna's, legacy. If every other hatchling failed training or fell, well. It would be a wretched loss, but still less than losing that one egg.

"Hopefully no losses will need ot be recorded. We'll see about having extra healers on hand...though Uridith has never hatched a foul-tempered clutch in the past. I'm hoping her luck holds." The gold was crooning to her eggs, turning and rolling them about to get them set just right. Perhaps they could feel her overflowing love through their shells, and Lestenna wondered if that made any difference. Some golds in her old weyrhold had been indifferent at best, though she'd never paid much mind on if their broods seemed more or less destructive.

As they pondered, one of the eggs wobbled just slightly, making the woman freeze, fixated, and Uridith whip about to eye it. Thankfully after a moment or two it went still, and the lack of a hum from either dragon present meant it would be some time yet. "...Please do reiterate to V'mel when next you see him that it really could be any day now. Honestly, having the touching this late..." She couldn't help but shake her head.

DruidTigeress

 

[DruidTigeress]

ShinosBee

Sorry for the slow reply. I assumed the 'tell V'mel' line was an indication to wrap it up..?

"I'll hope so too." Z'rik said. But he'd been through enough classes of weyrling with V'mel to know that accidents were inevitable. He could only hope that the loss of life would be minimal and, as he'd said, that the precious young gold made it safely through her training. The difficulty of training may seem harsh to outsiders, he knew, especially those who knew or loved someone who went on to impress, but this was the price they paid early to reduce the loss of life overall.

High Reach's dragons were some of the best prepared on all of Pern, and he stood by their training 100%. One weyrling now was a tragedy, but it was better than losing a whole wing down the line..

"And I'm sure she won't this time." Z'rik added to Lestenna's statement, smiling reassuringly. Though he'd been curious about the rumors of the Touching, he wasn't much convinced that the violence there would translate to violence on the sands. Maybe it was better that they got it out now. Better they work out their issues now, while they didn't have claws, after all. His eyes shifted back to the eggs that were just barely visibly over the gold dragon within the Weyr, holding his breath as he watched the one shake and shudder. But all was well.

He let his breath out in a sigh, looking back at the gold rider. "I will." he said, with a short nod. "I'm looking forward to taking some candidates off Gr'del's hands. He'll be grateful for it, I'm sure." he joked. "And my job's rather dull without them." he added with a sigh. For how much longer? Surely now that thread was returned allowance could be made.. Every able bodied dragon, right? Sure they were close enough.. But he was getting ahead of himself now. He'd see this clutch through, at the very least.

"Well, I hope I could help to put your mind at ease. Or at the very least, give you some things to think about." he said, inclining his head politely in farewell. "Good day, Lady Lestenna."