Harping on the same string

Writers: Eimi, Paula
Date Posted: 2nd November 2005

Characters: U'das, M'galec
Description: U'das and M'galec end up arguing about weyrling drills.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 9, day 3 of Turn 3

M'galec shook his head as he finally dismissed the brown weyrling.
T'var just couldn't seem to get it into his head that if he didn't study the drill sheets he wouldn't know where he was supposed to be, and not knowing where you were supposed to be could endanger lives when he finally graduated into a wing. He hated disciplining weyrlings, but sometimes he knew it was the only way they would actually learn, and so
he had the boy walk through his positions on the ground all the drills he should have flown in the sky that day. It was tedious and infuriating standing out in that warm sunshine watching a boy walk back and forth when they both had somewhere else they'd rather be, but in the
end he knew the drills, and that was what really mattered.

The bronzerider wiped the sweat from his brow, cursing the time wasted when he could have been catching up on hidework when he noticed U'das walking towards him. "Good afternoon."

"Afternoon, M'galec. What are you doing?" U'das greeted and asked. He had watched the pair curiously for a moment and hadn't been able to figure out what it was about. Except it looked like punishment.

"T'var keeps popping up in the wrong places during drills. He's going to cause an accident one of these days," M'galec said, shaking his head in frustration. "I know they are already holding him back, but he can do just as much damage in weyrling drills as he could in wing drills if
he doesn't get it through his head that knowing the drill ahead of time is important."

"Okay, I got that part. But how him walking around helps?" the older bronzerider wondered. He had been both weyrleader and weyrlingmaster and this was completely new to him.

M'galec dismissed U'das' confussion with a flip of his hand. It should have been obvious. "I had him walking the drills like they do when they are junior weyrlings."

U'das cocked his head. He could understood why junior weyrlings were walked around, but this boy should had advanced beyond that already.
"There's one disadvantage in this. It lacks one of the dimenssions. It doesn't matter with the junior weyrlings, since they don't fly yet. But senior weyrling must learn to think three dimenssionally" he pointed out helpfully.

"Well, that's just it, U'das. The boy is fine knowing what level he's supposed to be on, it's the position in relation to the other riders."
M'galec really just needed to get inside and have a drink! "If he had problems with level I would have had him in the sky."

"Shouldn't you have the other rider's here then? How can he learn his position to others if he has no reference points?"

M'galec sighed. Teaching U'das was proving as annoying as teaching the boy... "There are reference points, you just have to use your imagination a bit. The cross section of the tree there and the rock there is the leading edge. Halfway between the starting point and the leading edge is the third line. From there it's easy to see where you should be."

"Not everyone has that good imagination" U'das pointed out again. He was wondering how he ended up in this argument.

M'galec was wondering how it was the an experienced bronzerider couldn't see all this for himself. "The boy got it in the end."

U'das decided to cut off this rather pointless discussion. "Whatever, you're the weylingmaster's second, not me. You do as you please, that's between you and J'an."

The weyrlingmaster second nodded. "Well, one thing is for sure, T'var is going to _study_ those drills tonight! Well, I think I better get out of this sun. Have a good afternoon U'das."

"Have a nice day" U'das answered and rolled his eyes. **Geez what a guy, poor J'an **, he thought.

Last updated on the November 2nd 2005

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Harping on the same string