Mini-Candidate Lesson: Bathing Weyrlings

[Rhush]

Srunae :: Gold Danovelith

Alright Srunae, I am ready for my bath.

You had a bath two candlemarks ago, Danovelith.

Yes, but that was with just you. Remember, the candidates are being sent out to help this time.

... Why did I give you a bath earlier then?

Because I asked you nicely, of course.

Srunae put her palm against her face, fingers splaying out over the skin while her eyes closed. Sometimes she wondered how she had impressed such a vain thing, but, she supposed, it wasn't all that bad. The weyrlings needed lots of baths and oilings to help with their nigh constant state of growing and prevent their hides from cracking-- but she was pretty sure Danovelith just liked to be clean and have a sparkling hide to show off.

I am not that vain, as you say. I just simply like to look my best for the Weyr, as should you. Srunae rolled her eyes and rolled up her sleeves, shaking her head as Danovelith slipped daintily into the lake again, diving for a moment before coming back out to the shallows. Srunae put her bag of sweetsand down on the shore and rolled up her pant legs, chuckling a bit as Danovelith impatiently prodded her with her mind.

Patience my love. You want me to look good, yes? And we're expecting more help, so... Danovelith huffed and took that as a decent enough explanation as to why she had to wait, keeping her eyes up the shore for any incoming candidates. Soon, soon... Aha! Here they were! Within a few moments one candidate was over to help, and then another. The rest filed down the line of weyrlings to assist as they saw fit.

Srunae leveled her two assistants with a grin, chuckling. "Hello, I'm Srunae, and this is Danovelith." She introduced them and then gestured down to her feet, where a few brushes, a jar or two of oil, and another two bags of sweetsand waited. "And this is how you bathe a dragon."

---

Zen gave Dance and I the idea of having the candidates assisting with the bathing of the weyrlings dragonets as a lesson/learning exercise; if anyone else has a candidate they want to toss in here as Srunae's second helper, that'd be awesome, otherwise anyone else can post their weyrling and any PC candidates can pop in to help them. :3

Enjoy~

[Deleted]

Three months had gone by since Ledar had been found to be Dragon Rider material, snapped up from his simple farming home, and brought to the Island weyrhold Mavros. In those three short months he had quickly found his routine. Lessons, chores, farm work, sleep. Rinse and repeat. This suited the candidate just fine. In all honesty, his life here was easier than his life back in Woodcreek. Here in Mavros he had help, others did chores and worked. At his old home, he was the only worker and the duties of running both a hearth and farm fell on his shoulders. He was unused to the comparatively light work-load, but grateful of it nonetheless.

Ledar made his way down to the lake where today's lesson was to take place. The candidates had been assigned to a Weyrling to assist in bathing a dragon. The purpose was of course, to get the candidates used to the idea of bathing their own dragon should they impress. Okay, he thought, making sure he remembered the Weyrling pair he was assigned to. I'll be working with... Srunae and... Danovelith. A Gold.He walked down the slope with a little apprehension. He was about to bathe a dragon, and a Gold dragon at that. What if I hurt her? What if I offend them some how? What if I do the wrong thing? Doubts filled his mind as he walked. That's ridiculous, he thought. Dragon's are large and tough. How could I hurt her by washing her? A bark from the large, black and tan canine beside him brought Ledar back to reality. Ah Mishka. The canine had been his only friend so far and hadn't left his side for a moment. She had barked to tell Ledar's day-dreaming self that they were nearing the lake.

As they neared the shore one thing stood out to Ledar. The shuffle of candidates went un-noticed. The bags of sweet-sand, jars of oil, and brushes were disregarded in favour of one thing. The first thing Ledar noticed was the regal queen-in-the-making he was to help bathe. She was only a few months old, but already fairly large. Her pale colouration faded to honey-gold in some areas and she seemed dainty and royal. Ledar was in awe of her beauty. '"Wow," was the simple word breathed out when he was closer to her.

Then he noticed the magnificent dragon's bonded. She was fairly short, a little more than a head shorter than he, with a pleasantly pear-shaped form. Her curves were instantly noticeable but they were lost on Ledar in favour of her eyes. Upon her soft face were two beautiful hazel eyes. Her eyes captured his and drew him in. Her beauty struck the young man. She looked almost more suited to farm work than court life, but that only made her more beautiful. A smile threatened to form on his lips, but he quickly dismissed those thoughts. There is no way she'd go for you Ledar. Look at her, she's a beautiful woman. And a Gold rider to boot. You? You're just a lowly candidate, a farmer. Too young for her interest.

Ledar could've come up with more reasons why the beautiful woman before him would never like him, but his self-deprecate soliloquy was interrupted by her words of greeting. He bowed before Srunae and Danovelith in greeting. "My name is Ledar." He rose and indicated the canine beside him "And this lovely lady here is Mishka." Srunae... No. Stop it Ledar. Focus. "I'm ready miss."

[Rhush]

Srunae :: Gold Danovelith

Oh, I like this one. He's very polite. And he was flattering her in all of his thoughts and even his words, beginning their meeting simply with a 'wow' directed at the young queen. Srunae stifled a laugh as Danovelith lowered her head to whuffle at Ledar's hair, eyes whirling shades of green and blue. Srunae shook her head and grinned at the young man. "Well met Ledar--" And she stooped down to better examine the canine, chuckling. "And hello Mishka. You're very lovely."

Standing, Srunae admired the canine and then gave Ledar a good once over too, eyeing his strong arms and well-formed features before glancing back at Danovelith, who was preoccupied with Mishka.

The gold eyed the canine with some flickers of disdain. It's so dull, Srunae. Can I eat it? No! That would be a bad idea. She shot her dragon a disapproving look before picking up a brush and some sweetsand, handing it to Ledar, and gesturing to Danovelith as she stood in the shallows. "I'm sure you know how to lather a brush, right?" She said conspiratorially, shiftily glancing over at Danovelith, who narrowed a large eye at them. She picked up the other brush and handed it off to their second helper, who seemed less inclined to introduce themselves at this juncture. "Lather 'em up and start scrubbing."

I hope they don't mess up. This ought to be fun. At least it was Danovelith and not Sularenth they were working with.

[Deleted]

Ledar stood stiffly as the Gold before him whuffled his hair. He smiled lightly, interpreting this as a sign he was in the Gold's good books. "Thank you miss Danovelith," he said to her with a smile. Mishka sniffed at the woman examining her, and decided that she liked her. The Gold then examined her and Mishka sniffed at Danovelith as well, not quite sure what to make of the large, gold dragon before her. Little did she know that it wanted to eat her. With introductions out of the way, the black and tan canine decided that she was going to sit on the beach and watch the Ledar as he worked. And that's just what she did.

"Of course miss," replied Ledar simply as he accepted the brush and sack of sweetsands from the beautiful Weyrling. He placed the sack on the sands and paused to roll his trouser legs up to his knees. The downside to wearing the loose clothing he did was that the legs would more than likely fall, but that was a problem for later. He lathered up the brush and waded out to where the lovely Gold dragon was waiting. "I'll get one side and you get the other alright?" he said to his un-introduced assistant. Ledar moved to the side of Danovelith where he would be able to steal glances at Srunae. It was foolish of him to do so, or so he thought. She was a Gold rider, far above the lowly candidate. But hey, he was a youth with a crush, so he did so anyway.

"Ms. Danovelith, let me know if I'm hurting you okay?" Ledar addressed her as if he was talking to a person. But he was, for was a dragon not a collection of independent thoughts and feelings? And being polite to any dragon could never hurt in the long run. Why am I worried about hurting her? She's a dragon. And if I do, I'm sure I'll know. With that, he picked an area to scrub, her front shoulder, and began to scrub the pale gold hide. He scrubbed not hard, but not too gently either, for want of not doing anything to upset Danovelith.

[Deleted]

C'mor, Zardilath
Morry's sky-blue weyrling was nearly twice his size now, with the rate he'd been growing over the sevendays. To the weyrling's dismay, though, Zardilath was faring considerably better with his growth spurt than Morry had with his. Even considering he was a blue, Zardilath seldom tripped on anything or scraped his wings.

Maybe Zardilath was just less prone to Morry's habits of making a small mistake, losing enough composure to make a BIGGER mistake, and freaking out. (Not that either of the two would admit it.) On the other hand, maybe the blue just took it for granted that he was being careful around things. Either way, Morry decided that some help was definitely welcome with the daily bathing Zardilath needed to keep his hide in shape.

And thank Faranth Morry hadn't tripped on anything yet.

[madb]

Vah knew he should cultivate a relationship with the gold weyrlingpair. He really, really should.

But he was going to barf if he had to sit around and watch candidates fawn over her and her pretty, silly dragon. Barf. Sure, that's what he had planned to do -- but not because he was a dolt and believed it, because that's how you curried favor!

Still, he found his feet moving in the direction of the decidedly less well-ranked bluepair out of sheer disgust. If he had to stand another moment, his mask might drop and then where would he be?

Forcing a dull, sweet smile on his face, he met the eyes of the blue's rider, before lowering his gaze in an attempt to seem as timid and unthreatening as possible. He approached the blue carefully, holding back a grimace as he knelt to grab the scrub brush. It was a reminder of his life as a drudge, forced to serve those far less clever than he was, simply because of a fluke of fate. How had C'mor Impressed last clutch, and he hadn't? It simply boggled the mind that people like this stumbling, bumbling boy, or like the silly air-brained Liesol, could have ever turned a draonette's head.

Perhaps it spoke to how awfully stupid most dragons were, themselves.

Reminding himself that dragons could hear thoughts and feelings -- and that blues were exceptionally sensitive -- Vahguel cut that line of thought. When he touched scrub-brush to hide, he was entirely blank, focusing only on the task at hand.

[avon]

I do not want any of these imbeciles to touch my hide. Nadornith's eyes were red as he watched the candidates scrambling around his siblings. In his opinion, only his own rider was good enough to bathe him. He flicked his tail back and forth, hissing when one candidate tried to come near him.

Come on, Nadornith, it'll be less work for me. D'nel sighed and crossed his arms, moving from his position leaning against the bronze's side. The candidate they'd scared off was heading to Danovelith now. See, she's getting all the attention.

Fine. Golds need to look pretty.[/color] Nadornith snorted and lowered his head. D'nel idly scratched his dragon's eye ridges. Sometimes, Nadornith's ruthlessness still took him by surprise. At least get in the water.

Nadornith stood and shook some sand off his hide, then stepped gingerly into the shallows. Pointedly ignoring Zardliath, he settled near Danovelith. D'nel followed him in, rolling up his pant legs. He started scrubbing Nadornith himself. None of the other candidates seemed eager to approach them. D'nel let his gaze roam over them, wondering if any would be worthy of the clutch still on the sands. The seacrafter boy now beside Danovelith seemed a little too peppy to deal with the realities of dragonriding. And Ledar was terribly obedient, probably not very strong mentally. Nadornith was right, they were dimglows. His eyes paused over Vahguel--if anyone Impressed this time, it would be him.

D'nel was a bit surprised to see Vah over by the Blue, but he wasn't going to attempt to figure out the candidate's line of thinking.

He could come up with some better ways to play in the water than washing dragons, though...

Disgusting. Kindly return your attention to scrubbing me.

D'nel smiled and did as he was told.

[Deleted]

Zardilath groaned a bit as the Candidate with red-blonde-brown hair headed up to him. He didn't like the boy's personality, for all he was technically suitable for Impression, and he only seemed more sour when looking at Zardilath's rider. At least, before his mind went completely blank. Why is he helping you if he doesn't like you?

Morry managed to say "Thank you" without stuttering as he took a brush to work on Zardilath's tail. Lots of people don't like me, Zardilath. Or at least, not what I do--I break whatever's closer than a dragonlength away.

You don't break EVERYTHING, you just knock most of it over. Zardilath gave his rider's left shoulder a nudge in response; comforting as it was, it unfortunately messed up that side of the weyrling's hair.

See, that's why people don't like me. Morry sighed and ran a hand through his hair in vain. He wished he had Vahguel's kind of curly hair--the kind that didn't mess up at a wrong look, or somehow looked better when it was messy. Vahguel already had auburn hair and big eyes and fair skin, like someone from a ballad--he didn't need ridiculous curls on top of everything.

C'mor, you stopped scrubbing. Zardilath nudged his arm. And you've been looking at him a lot.

"Ack--sorry, Zardilath! I-I just... wasn't... thinking?"

But you WERE thinking. Mostly about him.

"Not now." Morry doubled his scrubbing efforts.

[Deleted]

Kylixia wasn't particularly thrilled about this lesson; it smacked of drudgery. Though when she realized that D'nel and his handsome bronze would be there, she decided that perhaps it wouldn't be so bad. He wouldn't dare condescend. While the other candidates scurried about, scrambling for a dragon to help, the young woman scanned the weyrlings until she found Nadornith standing, eyes red with anger and annoyance at all the candidates, scaring at least one away. A faint smirk twitched on her lips as she finally moved forward. She was dressed for the task though still managed to look rather put together; she wore a pair of medium brown fitted trousers beneath a long tunic of a rich reddish brown that was belted at the waist with a braided leather belt. Her hair was pulled back in a loose braid that exposed her neck. She was ever conscious about her appearance but had the presence of mind not to put her desire to look good above practicality; both could be achieved of course.

Approaching D'nel and his bronze deliberately, she stooped long enough to roll the legs of her trousers up to expose shapely calves and bare feet. Gathering a scrub brush, she stepped into the water and offered a deceptively sweet smile; a smile he would surely see right through. Her mind worked in a very similar manner as Nadornith's. None of these dragons were good enough for her to attend for they were not hers. However, she would make a concession for the bronze as he was truly a magnificent beast and his rider wasn't a complete and utter idiot. "D'nel. Nadornith. Beautiful day, hmm?"

[madb]

Vahguel started feeling something prickling at the back of his neck. He paused, brush hanging slightly over a spot of the blue dragon's side, and looked over at C'mor. Who was looking at him. Vah smiled back, the instinct ingrained and reflexive, but just as quickly returned to scrubbing hide.

Great. He did not need a blue weyrling's attention.

C'mor was saying something out loud but it made little sense to Vah, so he ignored it entirely, figuring it wasn't a bad guess that he was simply talking to his dragon.

He attempted not to get irritated at it. Letting his emotions get the better of him was the reason why Vahguel wasn't over there, flattering up the golden pair's collective egos and putting his foot in the door towards higher success. Perhaps C'mor's... everything about C'mor... was punishment. At least he hadn't knocked over anything... yet.

With a sigh, Vah looked over in the direction of D'nel and Nadornith. Kylixia was there as well, and he briefly considered walking over in their direction, before waving that thought off. At least C'mor was a new-ish connection. No need to work on what was already strong.

You've made your bed, now lie in it. Which sounded like the opening to an absolutely horrible pillowcrafter joke.

"So," Vahguel asked, looking up at the weyrling pair with his best not-quite-there smile. "We haven't talked in a while," if they ever had, he certainly couldn't remember, "anything interesting happen to you, after Impression? You certainly look much stronger." He allowed his eyes to scan appreciatively, though for the life of him, he couldn't actually tell if he was lying through his teeth or not. Surely C'mor had put on more muscle? Most weyrlings did, even those who were athletic before, or at least as far as Vahguel's attentive studying of weyr culture had shown over his time here.

What was his dragon's name again? Zedayth? Zaydilth? Shards, and his memory was typically quite good. Vah focused, eyes narrowing for a brief moment, before his expression was forcibly softened.

"Zardilath's grown quite well."

[Deleted]

C'mor, Zardilath
Oh shard it, he saw me! But Morry was more baffled than anything when Vahguel gave a brief smile as opposed to something less... welcoming.

Then again, Vahguel did have a reputation floating around in the gossip of the Weyr. Not that Morry was bothered by the sleeping-with-anyone part, it was definitely the sleeping-with part. The smile was probably just a habit, like a lot of... well, pillow-crafters had.

His father had told him very emphatically to avoid those girls, and in the Weyr it was logical that Morry should extend that advice to avoiding the men as well. Which meant pretty much everyone. And Morry was fine with that, especially since one of the weyrlings was sharding pregnant--

"So," Vahguel asked, looking up at the weyrling pair with his best not-quite-there smile. "We haven't talked in a while. Anything interesting happen to you, after Impression? You certainly look much stronger."

"Um... thank you?" Morry took a glance at one arm and gave a half-shrug; his shirts did feel a bit looser, but Morry was mostly relieved that he'd stopped growing for now. "They mostly have us deal with the firestone when we're not learning things or taking care of the dragonets. The sacks are heavy, but at least it doesn't get you covered in dust like sorting does."

"Zardilath's grown quite well."

Morry was startled into a grin at the compliment, but Zardilath gave another neutral-sounding huff. C'mor, he's just saying it because he thinks you like him. Be careful around him.

Wait, what? Oh right, the staring. Shard it. Should he try to fix that situation now, or... no, definitely not in public. He didn't want to get anywhere close to involved with the Candidate who'd gotten into a fight on the Hatching Sands. And had a reputation that most people politely pretended not to know about, because it was that kind of reputation.

No, Morry was definitely just... shrugging this off? Yes, shrugging it off. And never talking about it again. EVER.

He coughed and resumed scrubbing. "Um... thanks, Vahguel. He's been--wait. Why are you being so... NICE?" Oh, shard it. Why did his mouth keep talking against his head's VERY EMPHATIC orders?