Did You ...?

Writers: Emma, Jane
Date Posted: 4th December 2007

Characters: K'deren, K'hetah
Description: K'deren meets the new Cyclone Wingleader, K'hetah.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 7, day 9 of Turn 4

K'deren

The tall, dark-haired man knocked on the door of the office as a courtesy in case the Wingsecond was in but it seemed unlikely. It wasn't a restday and most wings drilled at least part of the day. There hadn't been many dragons around the Weyr so the newcomer had theorised that drills were mostly a morning pursuit in a climate that might be uncomfortably hot in the afternoon.

It seemed that was the case. The room, when he opened the door, was empty. For a moment he was tempted to wander in and start work but good manners won out. Instead he just found paper and a pen and wrote a quick note to leave on the desk, asking the Wingsecond to be in the office after the midday meal, or leave word about where he could be found.

Satisfied that he was doing the right thing, K'hetah left the office, closing the door firmly behind him and calling to Loeth to take him back to their new weyr. There was more than enough work there which he could be getting on with.

~ * ~ * ~

The door to the Wingleader's office was open when K'hetah returned, but he still paused in the doorway to tap lightly on the door, extending a courtesy to the brownrider that he would have expected had their positions been reversed.

"Come!" If it was that greenrider again with more questions, thought K'deren... He'd be sending him back to Eleada with a VTOL humming in his ear.

"You must be K'deren," the bronzerider said as he crossed the room and held out his hand, effectively preventing the brownrider from giving a salute as a greeting. "K'hetah, Loeth's rider."

"Well met," was the cautious reply as the brownrider got to his feet.
"Sir." He reached out to meet the bronzerider's hand, not sure what to make of the man just yet.

"Indeed. The Weyrleader tells me you've been doing a good job with Cyclone."

"They're good people."

"I like to think most dragonriders are, but that would be a pretty simplistic view. Did you want the Wingleader position?" the newcomer asked bluntly. He didn't much favour leaving things unsaid, especially in the situation he and K'deren were facing.

He had fancied it, yes. And a previous Weyrleader had let him wear the knots, if only briefly. But J'darin was too hidebound by tradition to allow it to happen. "I did."

The bronzerider nodded, glad of the honesty. "And are you going to be able to work with me as Wingleader instead?"

"I'll do my best, there's nothing more I can say for now." And he meant it as well.

"If it's not working out, I'll tell you that," K'hetah said firmly.
"And I expect you to be as up front. Then we'll deal with it. All right?"

"Sounds fair to me."

"Good." K'hetah's mobile face lit with a smile. "Which is my desk?" he asked, looking around the room.

"The empty one over there, the one just waiting for a stack of hides to land on it."

"I was afraid of that. Do you have any commitments this afternoon?"
K'hetah asked over his shoulder as he crossed the room to the desk designated as his.

"My children, I'm meeting them for supper," explained the brownrider.

"And nothing until then?"

"Nothing until then," confirmed K'deren.

"Good. We'll have some time to get started on this, then." The bronzerider, having inspected the empty desk, pulled out the chair and sat himself down, stretching out long legs to make sure he had adequate foot room. "Let's go through a wing list. Don't bring it over, just read through it and tell me a little about each of them." It would be interesting to hear the Wingsecond's opinions; what he said and what he didn't. "And don't rank them at all. No bronze to green; not oldest to youngest. Just choose them at random."

It took some time, but finally K'deren finished up with, "Niveth is a speedy little green, she suits him well, and O'vig will grow into a fine rider in a turn or so. Maybe even wingthird material one day."

The new Wingleader had asked for clarification once or twice, but otherwise he had let the Wingsecond summarise the Wing's personnel uninterrupted. When K'deren finished speaking he nodded. "Thank you.
There are a couple of points I'd like to go back to -" He got up from the desk and walked back to the brownrider. "Do you have a spare copy of the winglist?"

"In this file."

"Is the file for me? I'm very minimalist when it comes to hidework."

"That is indeed for you." K'deren suppressed a groan, the one thing he'd been hoping for at least was slightly less time with the hides as soon as he'd heard of K'hetah's arrival.

K'hetah took the file and opened it, peering at the winglist as he went back to his desk. He opened a drawer and dropped the file into it, then closed the drawer with an expression that might have been triumph. "I do like a desk with places to put things out of sight," he said with a grin for the other man and then added more seriously, "Shall we disucss the fifteen-Turn-olds being in the Wing. You've obviously got an opinion on the subject; let's hear it."

"It's an unfortunate necessity. We're short on riders and good quality transfers are hard to obtain. Weyrleaders are loath to lose good people."

"Is that it for you? Nothing more to say?"

"I don't have to like it, some 15 turn old riders are still children, and it can't be right to expect them to understand what a decision they are making when they fly in fall."

"Some fifteen Turn old women marry," K'hetah pointed out mildly.
"Especially in the South, here, I understand." He shrugged. "If we're waiting for people to understand the consequences of their decisions we should probably be waiting until they're in their third decade." He paused, then added: "I Impressed as an adult, so I can't bring experience of being a fifteen Turn old dragonrider to bear but I figure we'll just have to work with the young riders as individuals - just as we do any rider. Some will always be better than others; some always more or less reliable."

"As always. But some of them..." K'hetah just hadn't seen the after effects of the storm and the other events that had befallen the weyr yet.

"Something you want to say?" the newcomer prompted, "Or is it something you want me to work out for myself?"

"You'll see for yourself."

K'hetah nodded, comfortable with leaving some things for him to make his own observations about. "I'm sure I will."

Last updated on the December 8th 2007

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