HRW:Weyrlings/Month3
Month3
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| Month3 | |||
- Month 2 - Month 3
It's Glidin' Time!
Finally! This month, your dragons are finally big enough to take one burden off your hands: they will be able to hunt for themselves. Starting the first of this month, they'll be able to hunt on the ground-not in the air-for their own food. A smaller corral off the feeding pens will be set aside for older beasts and those that need culling, and the dragons will be able to stalk these animals themselves and fell them, getting their first tastes of the kill.
You'll be allotted extra time to do this, as the young and clumsy dragons won't be very good at all at catching their meals. They aren't expected to be able to catch one their first try, even on these weaker animals, and there will probably be a lot of fruitless chasing around the pens before they can manage a kill, even after they've had a couple of weeks of practice. Still, it's a blessing, considering the smallest green can eat at least one full animal at a sitting, and the largest dragons will need two. They'll eat twice a day for this month, once in the morning and once at night.
Along with this, your dragons are now largely independent of you, as far as their wake-sleep schedule. You will not be required to be with them every moment they are awake, although some especially clingy dragons might want you to. You're still responsible for whatever mischief they get into when they're alone, though-whether it's accidental, from their growing-too-fast clumsiness, or on purpose, as they explore their world. And even though they can feed themselves now, you still must muck their couches and oil and bathe them at least once every day, and generally more than that.
As for you, the strenuous exercises designed to build your muscles will continue. You'll run and you'll carry loads in the early morning to continue this strength training; late morning will be reserved for rest and lessons on wing formations and ground drills, becoming more complicated as the month progresses. After lunch, you will spend your afternoon practicing these drills outside on most days, and lucky you to get to do this in the lovely summer weather! Your classes will center on more advanced subjects now: politics and diplomacy with the harpers; Threadfall charts with the starcrafters; wing formations with the weyrlingmasters.
And, finally, your dragons will learn to stretch their wings at the end of this month, starting at gliding across the bowl with barely a foot of air beneath them. It's not much, and they'll be rigorously watched to make sure they don't overtax themselves. They aren't strong enough to do more than that little bit of gliding, and certainly not strong enough to carry anyone, but they're getting there. Exercises to strengthen their wings will continue in the afternoons, preparing you for the eventual day when you'll really be able to fly together.
