Better Balance

Writers: Chelle, Mirren
Date Posted: 8th March 2012

Characters: Elona, P'nal
Description: P'nal almost gets it from Elona but escapes.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 7, day 11 of Turn 6

Elona tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and piled up another empty
plate onto the already heavy tray. Not that she minded picking up after the
Weyrfolk in the lower caverns and not that she had stopped smiling, but her
arms were getting tired. Only a few more plates and she could take them in
to be washed. The never ending chores of the Weyr seemed to be designed to
keep candidates busy, but she preferred that to being idle. She stopped at a table where a wingsecond sat. "Excuse me, have you finished with your
plate?" she asked, her tone both polite and cheerful.

"This one I have, this one I haven't," he replied, pulling back from the
table a bit to let her have room to get the plate.

"Oh, the pie. It was good tonight," she took the empty plate and added it to the teetering pile. "They outdid themselves, whoever baked that!"

"No idea who it was though I'd like to thank them if I could. And thank you
candidate." P'nal didn't really know some of the candidates these days but
he didn't really care until they hit weyrlinghood anyway. He was just glad
he hadn't had to give any of those silly speeches lately.

"You're welcome...woah!" Her tray became off balance for a moment before she managed to right it. The last thing she wanted was to drop a laden tray onto the lap of a ranking rider! "I'll pass on your kind words."

"Careful there," he responded before he instinctively moved to get out of
her way. Turns of dodging thread and firestone sacks lobbed at him made
P'nal pretty quick.

She smiled, but kept one eye on the tray. "I think I shouldn't put any more
on there. I won't be popular if I make a pile of broken crockery on the
floor!"

"Not really no. And you'll probably get punished. Do you get into trouble
often?" P'nal tried to remember himself as a candidate. It had been so long
ago it was hard to really.

"No!" she replied vehemently but with a laugh. Not unless she counted being
excluded from standing for being pregnant. That was trouble but of a
different kind. "I like being here and helping out, so I prefer to stay away from pranks and the like."

"Well maybe you could improve your balance just a little or get less plates. If you ever do impress, you'll need your balance, I promise." The brownrider thought of how many times he'd fallen while trying to climb Jodeth.

"Oh really?" She was always eager to get any little tidbit of information
she could about dragon riding. Her shoulder was starting to hurt but she
knew she should take advantage of the moment because he may not be so
willing to talk later.

"Crawling all over dragons, even greens, is very needful of balance." He
tried to imagine her mounting and then shook his head, moving back into his
seat after dodging her plates.

She wondered at his head shake but said, "Yes, I suppose it would. Is there
anything I can do to help learn to balance better?"

"There are a lot of games that children play that are useful. Climbing on
things, balancing on one leg... Basically you train yourself. No one can
improve their reflexes except by instinct." Reflexes were usually the one
thing between dying and living.

Her mouth formed an 'o' and she nodded. "I've seen babies learning to walk." Including her son. "And the older ones playing on balance beams. So maybe the candidates should practice walking on balance beams while tossing firestone sacks back and forth." She giggled.

"Well the candidates sometimes have to stand on one leg or climb so I suppose there are ways." Her giggle was interesting but he made his mind move away from that. Sometimes those girls were simple.

She nodded. "I suppose so. I'll have to work on it. And carry fewer plates. I just want to do all I can to be a good rider. If I impress." Her face said she understood that it was not a given that she would.

"Aye and if you don't?" It was always good to have a backup plan. P'nal had always worked on his crafting. Then again, he hadn't been in a Pass then either.

That was easy to answer and she did so immediately. "I'll raise my son and be a foster mother. I'm good with children and I like to be useful."

"You have a son? Congratulations then." P'nal didn't ask who he belonged to, since one didn't really do that in a Weyr. Sometimes the women didn't know.

"Oh thank you," she beamed. "He's a turn old now. I share his care with a foster mother so if I do impress he'll be ready. And if I don't, he's ready. Either way, he'll be fine with so many good people around to look after him."

"That's why we have fostering you know. Dragonriders don't have time to raise children and if we are ever threaded..it wouldn't bother the child because they love their fosterparents usually more than they love us." P'nal understood the necessity of such a system, especially in the Weyrs.

Elona nodded. "That's why I want to do it if I don't impress. I know how important it is. Even if I don't then the children I foster might grow up to impress." The idea was appealing. "I feel like either way I can be useful. You have children?"

"It's possible, though I've never been told so," he admitted readily.

She looked startled and then apologetic. "I'll get used to that one day," she promised.

"It's allright, but I ought to let you get back to work." P'nal realized he had been monopolizing her time for much too long.

"Oh yes, I should get these plates in before they start calling for them." Her arm was sore, now that she remembered to pay attention to it. "Good evening."

Last updated on the March 9th 2012

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