Welcome to the Glorious Life

Writers: Miriah, Paula
Date Posted: 9th October 2015

Characters: Lenala, Lanniya
Description: Lenala and Lanniya discuss goldriding.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 18 of Turn 8

Lenala

Lanniya

At least she was clean this time. Well, mostly. She'd been in the
garden for her free time, so she'd had to wash her hands and face, but
her skirts held smudges of soil and grass flecked the bottom of the
material. She'd even slipped on a pair of rope sandals (Thank Faranth,
they were actually comfortable) right before she got to Lenala's weyr.
Taking a quick breath, she knocked.

"Come in," Lenala called. When the girl stepped in, she smiled and
greeted. "Hello Lanniya. Would you like to have a cup of tea?"

"Yes, please." Lanniya nodded and moved to sit in her usual chair.
Kicking off her sandals immediately, she curled her feet under her to
get comfortable.

Lenala restrained herself from making comments about Lanniya's
appearance. As far she was concerned, the girl was lost cause. Some
battles you just couldn't win. She poured them cups and pushed a plate
filled with snack closer to the girl. "Help yourself. Today, we are
talking about special duties a Golderider has. What makes us so
different than other riders."

Lanniya picked up a few slices of cheese and then some crackers before
nibbling. "We went over that in weyrling classes. I get to a lot of
hide work, calm other dragons and Anaeryth lays eggs."

"Yes, those classes cover the basics. I will give you the details, all
the things any non-goldrider wouldn't even think of," Lenala said.
"Like, when one of the Golds Rise to mate, all the rest of us has to
take our golds away from Weyr, far enough to be outside the effects of
the Mating Flight."

"Well, Anaeryth isn't going to be rising for a while." She stopped to
think. "So I'll have to leave." Lanniya's brow furrowed. "Can I go to
another Weyr? I could visit my sister."

"Yes, you can. It's very unlikely they would have gold Rising too, at
the same time. Better safe than sorry is good rule when dealing with
gold dragons," Lenala replied. "Vilarth is due to Rise very soon, so
make sure you have the visualization. Anaeryth may still be so young
that Vilarth's Mating doesn't affect her but I am not willing to test
it."

"She's too young to rise." Lanniya was quick to mention. "But I don't
want to risk it either. I can get a visual from any of the bronzes.
Most of them have been to Dolphin Cove."

Lenala nodded. "There are usually warning signs, sometimes sevenday
before the actually Mating Flight. She can get cranky, or flirty.
She's often possessive of males and seeking out bronzes attention. And
the males _are_ giving her attention. She may have sheen in her hide,
not as bright as during the Flight but more than normally."

Trying to imagine the calm natured, confident gold as cranky was
difficult. She was just so...even tempered. Perhaps it wouldn't be as
bad as some of the greens who were so snappy before their time. " So,
a bit like a green, right?"

"Pretty much, yes. The same principle, the same instincts. The only
real difference is that greens are infertile," Lenala replied.

She had already known that. Lanniya was quickly becoming bored and her
foot boobed rhythmically against her chair. "Okay, what else then?"

"Then the fun begins: you have your hands full of gravid dragon which
leads to Clutching," Lenala said. "Of course, every gold is unique,
so in Vilarth's case it means extra oilings so that her perfect hide
doesn't get stretch marks and eating a lot of more. She'll demand
attention and more egg heavy she gets, more short tempered she
becomes. Especially after she can't fly any longer. During the
Clutching, most golds allow their mate and mate's rider to be in
present."

"But that's Vilarth. Anaeryth is going to be different." Lanniya
seemed confident in that. "She's quiet and she's not demanding at all."

"Yes, you're correct, they are all different," Lenala replied.
"Vilarth is demanding and bossy even on her best days. But you really
don't know how your dragon is going to react untill you've lived thru
it," she continued and warned. "Anaeryth might surprise you and act
quite differently...or not. It's wait and see what happens. For
instance, I heard that Lissath from Dragonsfall didn't even allow the
sire of the Clutch to be present when she laid her eggs. While Vilarth
will demand he's there and suitably attentive towards her. She'll get
cross if she thinks she's being ignored."

"So it's like people." Lanniya reasoned easily. "I can't plan on what
to do with her until I get to that point."

"Yes, exactly," Lenala confirmed. "Then you have the hide-work to do.
We all keep records of our own clutches, how many eggs, the colour
distribution and of course, who Impressed who," Lenala continued.
"There's more hide work than that for the goldriders to do, but we get
to that in detail later. As a rider of the gold with eggs, your duty
is also make sure there's enough candidates for the Clutch and screen
those we have. You will receive petitions from weyrbrats to get
permission to Stand. You can also forbid candidates from Standing,
although that's rarely done unless there's a good reason. It's hard
enough to get enough candidates for us to turn them down out of whim.
"

She didn't think she would ever be able to turn someone down who
wanted to Stand. That just sounded far too mean for her tastes. The
mention of hidework, however, made her nose wrinkle. That was
something that she _despised_. It was so boring! "That sounds dull."

"It is. Welcome to the glorious life of a goldrider," Lenala said and
offered her more snacks.

Last updated on the October 25th 2015

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Welcome to the Glorious Life