'The World of Pern(tm)' and 'The Dragonriders of Pern(r)' are copyright to Anne McCaffrey (c) l967, 2000. This is a recorded online session, by permission of the author but generated on PernWorld MUSH for the benefit of people unable to attend.
Ista Weyr - Northern Bowl
The three remaining walls of the weyr caldera rise upwards towards the tropically hued sky, the tightly packed floor black with the volcanic sand Ista is well known for. This is the quieter end of the bowl, narrower - it's certainly no perfect circle - and somewhat more sheltered, even with one wall missing, the bowl floor spilling out into the plateau. To the west, just at the edge of what is left of the bowl wall, the feeding grounds are located, the braying of animals audible at all times of the night and day, chimed in by the sound of movement from the training grounds to the south west, and the weyrling barracks to the east.
The plateau spreads forward, northwards, greenery reaching the edge of the black-sanded bowl floor, allowing a remarkable view of forest and ocean, spreading as far as the eye can see downwards from the weyr bowl. Above, the Star Stones are visible just behind - towards the west, and far above - as are the pockmarks of ledges and weyrs that line the bowl walls.
Somehow it is still warm out despite the turn creeping into the first vestiges of winter. C'nor is in the process of gathering some of the weyrlings together for the first in a series of classes. "Okay then get yourselves settled and we'll see how this works out."
Coming over from not too far away where Inimeth has been investigating rocks on the Bowl floor (again), D'son salutes as he draws near. "Sir," he says a little gruffly, but not impolitely. And he and the bronze settle between Eliavy and J'ron.
C'nor waits a bit while people get themselves settled before he starts speaking again. When he speaks his voice is a little quiet at times leaving people to pay attention if they want to hear what's being said. "Thank you everyone first of all. Today I'll be going over some of the duties that you can expect once you graduate and join the wings proper, first of all, anyone know how many wings we operate here at Ista?"
From the crowd, a bunch of blank looks and Dels is actually counting on his fingers. Eliavy's hand shoots up with a beaming smile along with P'tah's. There's some eyerolling about Vroliath's rider.
C'nor looks over the group and waves a hand towards Eliavy. "Go on, how many?" He asks her directly.
"Six!" Eliavy pipes up brightly and D'son puts his counting fingers down, frowning briefly. Inimeth's tail twitches a little against the ground and the bronze drops his head to whuffle curiously at the hem of Eliavy's pants. Fascinating.
C'nor nods his head, "Correct." He replies. "Black Diamond for the queens, Tiger's eye is the weyrleaders, and Rhinestone for us Weyrlings." He goes on. "The other three wings are where most of you will end up after graduation depending on what talents we find in you. Bay Pearl, Ocean Sapphire and Star Ruby. Bay Pearl is the transport wing, which is where I started out, Some of it can be dull work at times, but it's active work unless you're carrying passengers, then it can be interspersed with longer periods of idleness while you wait. can anyone think what qualities would get someone placed into Bay Pearl?"
There's some murmuring amongst the Weyrlings and this time Dels pipes up. "Um. Good at knowing a lot of places and at visualizing Between?" he offers up a little hesitantly. "My mother rides transport," he explains further and earns a little poke in the ribs from J'ron which earns the other weyrling a /look/.
C'nor listens to some of the answers and bobs his head in agreement. "That and being strong or a good people person." He adds to the list. "You'll also have to be very good at your leatherwork for additional strapping for packages and passengers." He pauses before moving on. "Ocean Sapphire next, Search and rescue?"
"Umm, agile flyers, keen-eyed?" J'ron tosses out and Eliavy nods. "Patient and really steady, you know not panicking?" D'son echoes his own earlier statement. "Also good at knowing places." There's a few other answers from around the group and then the words peter out. Inimeth's actually paying closer attention now to what the bluerider says.
Again C'nor listens to the answers being fired out at him as he paces slowly back and fro across the front of the group. "All good answers, especially about not panicking. Round Ista we tend to favour those with experience at sea, they make some of the best as they know an awful lot more about the mood of the seas around the island, where all it's coves, cliffs and breakers etc. are. An ability to work within a very closely knit group is essential, as is a good coordination as you may be required to work in very confined areas." He pauses again before he continues onto the last one. "Finally Star Ruby, this should be an easy one, weyr relations."
D'son listens to what C'nor says with great interest and Inimeth himself is perking visibly. "Um - sir? Inimeth'd like to know more about that. The coves and cliffs and stuff and exploring them. Will we … do some of that when they can fly?" And on the heels of his question, Eliavy's firing off answers again, quite the Miss-Knowy-Pants today. "Politics, good with people, you know, smooth."
C'nor smiles at the question, though he acknowledges Eliavy first. "Diplomatic to the core and not easily offended." He explains before going back to answer. "Once we have you up to flying with your riders." He speaks mainly to Inimeth but his gaze flicks over everyone else as well. "We'll start working properly on your stamina, that will likely involve on the clearer days flights round the coastline of the island."
D'son looks quite pleased at that answer. "It'll be interesting to see it all from the air, not just the ground," the Weyrling remarks and lifts a hand to rub against Inimeth's jawline. "He's pretty keen, sir."
C'nor nods his head with a slight grin appearing. "We are all keen for that, but patience is something else that everyone needs to learn, the time will come when you will be ready." He explains gently. "Now that we've covered the very basics of what the wings do, we'll move onto something that all of you will need to know regardless of where you end up being tapped to." He goes on. "That is the art of etiquette, or how to speak to people and how to act respectably."
D'son shakes his head. "No I meant to explore, sir, especially. Not just flying. Because yeah, all of them are!" Two pairs of hands thwack Dels lightly upside the head, Eliavy and J'ron in concert. "Ow!" Dels ducks but he's grinning a little. Speaking of etiquette. This isn't as interesting to Inimeth and he flops his nose down on his forepaws.
"Now this probably isn't the most interesting of subjects." Starts C'nor, "But it's a very important one, every time you speak or meet with someone you are representing the weyr and thus if you mess up then you are bringing disrespect onto the weyr itself and that's something that the weyr leadership takes very seriously." He pauses then asks. "Can anyone think of any quick fire things that you all should know or do?"
D'son looks a little troubled by it being put that way and his shoulders roll a bit, sneaking looks left and right to his neighbors. Eliavy just makes big sweet eyes at him while J'ron shrugs. It's Maira who answers softly: "Don't insult anyone." This earns a guffaw from the back.
C'nor smiles. "I'm pretty sure I just said that." He replies. "Lets start with how you greet people?"
Maira colors hotly red and ducks her head. D'son looks over at her sympathetically and P'tah cuts in with: "Ista's duties, and your name and rank and offer to shake hands." J'ron nods his head and Eliavy's got her hand up again when Inimeth gets a … look to him. Dels suddenly hops to his feet and nudges the bronze away. "Uhhhh 'scuse us, sir. Inimeth needs the uh … midden heap." And the bronze trots away quickly with D'son tagging after to make sure he doesn't make too much of a mess.
C'nor nods his head and waves D'son and Inimeth away, "You should also use thier rank as well, you should all have covered this in harper lessons as children but I need to make sure that you can all identify knots and colours." He explains. "Everyone collect one of the sheets from over there, keep separated, no talking and fill in all the details asked for please."
