HRW:Weyrlings/Month7
Month7
| Weyrling Program | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Month7 | |||
- Month 6 - Month 7
Talk of Mating Flights
By now everyone is settled into their weyrs and flying has become a part of daily life, fully incorporated into drills, sweeps, hunting and exercises. As the dragons become more confident in flight, their riders will need to stay vigilant about their safety, avoiding strains and other injuries while they learn not to surpass their own limits. The growth of the dragons is slowing, particularly for smaller individuals, making new straps a less frequent necessity. However, without having yet learned to go between, they still need to take a trip to the mucking pit after feeding; hopefully no accidents are occuring in anyone's weyr.
With the dragons getting older, they also get closer to the time when they will either rise or chase in a mating flight. In order to make sure that everyone is prepared for that eventuality, the weyrlingmasters will be pulling each weyrling aside to talk to them personally, rather than having a group session to discuss flights. The talk will cover aspects of flights such as how often dragons will rise-three or four times a turn for greens, considerably less for golds-and proper proddy behavior, such as not leaving the weyr when your dragon is near rising. And, as I'daur used to be fond of saying, "Proddy don't mean crazy."
As for flights themselves, the females will not under any circumstances rise before the end of weyrlinghood, though they may be beginning to show more interest in males. Males, however, are more likely to be increasingly enamored with various females, though their advances are often bumbling or awkward, as is the nature of adolescent attraction.
While weyrlings males are not expected to chase and are unlikely to have any serious inclination to do so, they may be watching avidly or growing markedly agitated when a green takes to the sky. There is, occasionally, an early-developing male who will insist on chasing. While there's little anyone can do until the flight is over, weyrlings should expect some repurcussions if they let their dragon chase before they are cleared by the weyrlingmaster. The bulk of the males will not feel the serious inclination to do so until next month or the month after.
