We March at Midmorning (1/2)

Writers: Aaron, Corrin, Duskdog, Halyonix, Kane, Shawna, Sia, Steel
Date Posted: 5th April 2026

Characters: Viseya, Cirina, M'kadja, T'thalin, P'yanka, Aydhara, S'ros, L'leb, D'ltero, Felorin, E'shren
Description: The dragons join the weyrlings for ground drills, in style
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 2, day 10 of Turn 13

M'kadja

“Alrighty Weyrlings. Today, we will be marching in formation with our dragons. I’m sure they’re excited.” Statistically, some of them would be. “I’ve counted you into groups. You nine will be ‘flying’ with M’kadja leading today. But first, everyone needs to be properly dressed for the occasion. Everyone, you have two minutes to get your dragons into those lovely new straps you’ve been making.”

Her eyes fixed on one pair in particular, “Unless you took the liberty of putting them on already.”

“You said to bring the straps! You didn’t specify who had to carry them!” Cirina’s voice had a playful tone. “And Saejith loves them.”

}:I do love them. Look how shiny the buckles are.:{ The blue gave a little trot in place. }:I don’t know why everyone didn’t want to wear them.:{

“Well, S’ros will be by shortly to make sure you’ve put them on right. Everyone else, line up in formation once you’re ready for your gear inspection.”

“Which formation?” M’kadja asked. She hadn’t specified.

“I don’t know, because group one is flying with M’kadja leading,” Viseya said with a pointed look at the young bronzerider.

His face lit up.

“Alright!” M’kadja turned to look over his nine, all gathering with their dragons and straps. “It’ll be a frontloaded wedge then,” he said, naming a classic formation for aggressive engagement of thickly falling Thread. It relied on bronze and browns initiating with a broad swathe of flame, while the blues and greens protected their flanks and held the opening with more precise fire. The positions were prescribed by color: bronze, backed by two browns, then a trio blues, followed by a trio of greens. They had learned it in class, he didn’t need to say it, except-- they didn’t have a trio of greens.

M’kadja was dully surprised and then deeply amused to see T’thalin and Roxarith in his Nine. Well then. “T’thalin, you’ll take the middle green spot.”

Roxarith snorted, and stepped deliberately into the assigned place, neck arched proudly. }:It would be our honor to help protect and anchor the formation.:{ He said simply. }:Come, Mine.:{

T’thalin ducked his head just a little bit, but went with Roxarith. “Just, um… let us know if we need to change anything.” he offered. “Roxarith is, um, a little big for this position. We probably won’t be… nimble.” He set down the arm full of straps, started to put them onto the bronze.

“We’re just marching today,” M’kadja said, rolling his eyes. “You’ll be fine.”

“He’s right,” Viseya said, walking by T’thalin, “thank you for being flexible. Your chance at the head of the group will come.” She’d intentionally put the more timid boy with his more confident counterpart, hoping it would provide both incentive and example.

P’yanka eyed Roxarith and T’thalin with barely concealed disappointment. That had been the spot he’d hoped for. The safest. The one where he could peek left and right and check which way everyone was turning. Pumoth was excitedly bouncing her way to the left so he followed. She glanced back at him, eyes whirling bright with enthusiasm entirely undeserved by her track record. P’yanka squared his shoulders anyway, hoping desperately that this time, just this once, she might turn the correct direction before tripping over her own feet.

Viseya gave Pumoth a quick once over- this wasn’t the in-depth inspection the weyrlings would be receiving before they were actually trusting the straps with their lives, just the initial inspection of their work. “You’ve done a good job here, nice even stitching close together like that will keep the buckles from jostling around and rubbing against the leather,” she complimented P’yanka.

Saejith, in the spot in front of Pumoth, turned around to inspect her straps with the same level of seriousness Viseya was using. }:Oh, you have shiny buckles, too,:{ he complimented her. }:Aren’t they great?:{

For her part, Cirina wiggled her fingers in a little wave at P’yanka.

Pumoth wriggled her entire body at Saejith’s compliment while P’yanka himself felt heat rise into his cheeks. He couldn’t help wondering if Aydhara had said something to Cirina, about him not noticing the girls on blues in class. He most definitely noticed it now. The blush was furious.

“You ok, P’yanka? You look a little red,” Cirina asked, frowning curiously at her classmate.

Helanth was having none of this orderliness. “Wait, wait, Hel! Helanth! Don’t eat the straps please!” Entreaty could be heard from his rider as the growing blue dragon was running in lazy circles, straps in his mouth like a canine who had just stolen a prized piece of meat to keep away from others.

Cholsinth’s voice was firm when she ordered Helanth, }:Drop your straps, little one. If you chew on your straps, you’re going to drop your rider when it’s time to fly.:{ Not that these straps would be the ones they’d be learning to fly in- not really. Between how fast the dragons were growing and how crude some of the early work was, most of these pieces would be replaced before the dragons graduated.

Melciroth stood poised at attention as Viseya inspected him, radiant from his morning oiling. His straps were properly cinched and adequately made-- the one peculiarity being the broad chest panel. There was a half finished design tooled into the leather there. Sharp and geometric.

“I know he won't be in these long, the way he's growing,” M’kadja said. “But I had some free time.”

“You want to be careful not to let decorative tooling like that compromise the leather strength, but you’ve done really well here. If you’re interested in work like this, there are some leatherworkers at the Weyr I can introduce you to,” Viseya said, inspecting Melciroth. “And you can probably incorporate that piece,” she tapped the bronze’s chest piece, “in your final straps when you graduate. It won’t be structural at that point, with how big he’ll be, but we’ll have some more examples as things progress. Some designs leave room for decoration.”

M'kadja stiffened, his first instinct being to brush off the offer of an introduction. Crafters wouldn't give the likes of him the time of day, and he had no coin besides. He could do it himself, he always did-- or Akadja always did… He was different now, a bronzerider. Melciroth's rider. And they both deserved the best. He started to grin. “Yeah, alright.”

Last updated on the May 1st 2026

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We March at Midmorning (1/2)