Welcome to Gaia! ::

Faerra looked at where Nae had indicated. "No idea," she replied. As more started to arrive, she studied each carefully, smiling in in sympathy for R'dan and the another male that entered. They must be the only two. Listening in on the conversations around her, she picked up a few words such as "mating," and "flight." Ah, so her guess had been correct, now all they had to do was wait until everyone got here.

Tolara sighed again, pushing curly hair from her face. Glancing around she shook her head. "Allright! I suppose we should get this meeting started... I'm sure many of you have guessed that this is about mating flights. Weyrlings need to have the introductory speech and we older riders need to straighten out when our dragons are next going to ride. " Tolara's eyes drifted over R'dan and she flushed uneasily.

"Rayinte...Do you have anything to say to your werylings before we begin?"

Turning from the male rider from Benden, R'dan looked towards the Fort Weyrwoman as she started the meeting. He blushed as she announced the topic of the meeting. Why oh why would he have to be surrounded by girls when such a topic arose? Sighing, the boy missed Tolara's gaze and subsequent blushing as he wallowed in misery for a moment. At least there was another boy there...

After Rayinte spoke, R'dan stared, eyes wide, at the goldrider from Benden. She also wore the knots of Weyrlingmaster and the boy was very glad that she was not his Weyrlingmaster. Even so, he gulped and mentally promised himself that he would be on his best behavior.

Tolara blinked at Rayinte's incentive to behave. Perhaps we should try her method more often... Glith mused idly watching through her rider. Tolara smiled weakly and took her own moment before plunging into the speech.

"Your dragons' mating flights are one of the few things that a rider is completely bound to the dragon. You are no longer yourself, but instead flying along with your dragon. Most dragons don't rise until sometime after their third turn. A little earlier for greens and a little later for golds. Before your dragon rises you may notice symptoms such as moodiness, not wanting to eat, a certain glow in their hide, or other things." Tolara empasised the next sentence, "Tell your Weyrwoman or another rider in charge. If the symptoms are showing up your dragon is about a day away from rising and if there are other dragons rising at the same time one of you will need to leave the Weyr."

Tolara took a deep breath and reached for a glass of plain water she had someone bring up here. She took a sip, hiding her face behind the glass, faintly watching her fingers tremble. They were freezing and her face felt on fire for all that her voice was steady and calm. Putting the glass down she continued.

"If you're not at your weyr when your dragon rises someone will guide you there or to an open one as you won't be in your right mind. As I said earlier, your dragon will take over, and everything you are will be caught up in taunting the silly males who dare think they might catch the aerial wonder that is your dragon." A small amused smile flashed quickly before dissapearing. "You and the other riders involved in the flight will feel the emotions from their dragons and reenact the flight in human terms." The flames on her face were hotter as she avoided looking at any of the males in the room. "Of course, your dragon's partner does not necessarily have to be your own. You can ask someone else to stand in or you could hide yourself away from everyone. A Flight does not make you and your partner weyrmates. It can help if one of the pair has been reluctant to make a move but you are not under any circumstances required to even give them the time of day after a flight. Anyone that tries to force anything will be dealt with severly. "

Again Tolara took a sip of water. "Any questions?"

Ray listens to the young woman stutter a moment then grasps her question. "Yes, children are conceived from Flights, it happens pretty regularly. The children do usually get fostered to women in the Lower Caverns, dragons really demand too much of our time to give yet more to an infant. You..." Ray's brow wrinkles a moment, talking to Wrath for confirmation, "... have a gold? Then it goes for double; being a weyrwoman, even a Junior Weyrwoman like yourself, takes too much out of a person to have time left for a child." The girl still looks upset, probably embarassed at the topic of conversation... like everyone else.

Ray sighs. "It's been done in the past, but the only time I've seen it work, the junior weyrwoman in question's weyrmate was not a rider. As it was, he did most of the work of taking care of the children. You'd have to find a partner willing to deal with that."

"If you do concieve during a flight," Tolara added, "Your dragon will inform you of it. Probably in the most ingenious way." Her tone turned wry and an irritated grimace passed her face.

I thought you'd enjoy finding out from Kerth and R'ign...

I'd rather you just told me instead of just dancing around it

Sorry mine...I'll tell you right away next time.

I hope there's no next time. The grimace turned into a scowl that was quickly wiped away.

"And should that occur you will be grounded until the child is born. Any other questions?"

Ray glances at Tolara to see if she was ready for the question. Fort's Weyrwoman seems to be having a conversation with her dragon, so Ray steps in with an answer. "Usually, two Queens at the same Weyr will not naturally rise at the exact same time; it's only when their cycles are very close and one of them rises that the other will rise in response. Sending all of the non-brooding Queens away once the Bronzes start blooding their kills is enough time to ensure that any golds close to their time won't rise up in challenge."

Myyth blinked as the boy standing a few feet away from herself spoke."I wonder how much redder he can get?" she wondered, a smile braking out accorss her face. Sure this was embaressing for her, but how much worse it must be for him and the other guys?
Myyth looked over at the Weyrwomen waiting for her to react to the question, thinking "This is the most important part of the meeting, after all. If we know what to do, everything should be fine............" For a moment a few horror stories passed through her mind. Everyone had heard them. "I wonder how much truth there is to those stories. They always seem to involve golds, there aren't many about greens. I wonder if its because gold's are more territorial over their weyrs..................."