"J'ren, my wings are a little tired. I'm coming back," Trofasth announced to his rider. J'ren nodded and replied, "Alright. Come back to the weyr. I'm by the entrance." J'ren jogged to the large mouth of the cave to watch as his dragon flew in and landed. He looked the blue over intently and saw no obvious strains on the muscles. The dragon was breathing a little heavily, though that was understandable. He was still new to flying.
Trofasth looked back over his shoulder as he waddled in to his couch. His eyes were whirling blue as he said, "I'm getting better at landing. That one wasn't as clumsy." J'ren laughed proudly and followed the dragon. He picked up the brush and bottle of oil to oil Trofasth's hide. The dragon was growing slower than he had when he was still a hatchling, but he was still growing. He seemed to have more itchy places. Trofasth hummed happily as he caught sight of the bottle and turned his left wing to J'ren.
"You're wings itching you now?" J'ren asked as Trofasth looked pleadingly at him. The dragon nodded his head and dipped his wing further, asking to be oiled. J'ren laughed and set to, trading jokes with Trofasth as he worked. When he was about halfway done with oiling the blue, a voice said behind him, "What's so funny?" J'ren turned to see Bri'onie standing in the doorway, another brush held in her hand. J'ren explained the most recent joke, motioning Bri'onie to move over to Trofasth's other side.
The two continued to oil Trofasth as they traded jokes back and forth. After J'ren and Bri'onie finished oiling down the dragon, Trofasth laid down on the couch and started to nap. J'ren and Bri'onie smiled at each other and walked quietly to the table in J'ren's study. Bri'onie looked over the papers on the desk and noticed that they had become more involved than the last she had seen.
"We've progressed to the more difficult flight formations," J'ren said wryly, looking at the papers in Bri'onie's hand. He sat down gingerly and explained, "R'vfen's decided that mornings are taken up with marching formations and an hour after lunch is for the dragons to practice flying. Then, we get a few hours to study flight drills. After that, we eat dinner and then work on firestone tossing." Bri'onie nodded at each point, remembering a similar schedule when she was a weyrling. When J'ren was finished explaining, she asked, "And how goes your training?"
J'ren smiled tiredly and replied, "It goes. I'm very tired and I fall into bed at night half-asleep. Trofasth seems to be thriving on the work, but I think he's just excited to be flying. I've the drills almost by heart." J'ren shrugged as he yawned then took the papers out of Bri'onie's hand. He looked at them and traced one line slowly with a finger. Bri'onie let J'ren study the drills a little longer then cleared her throat to draw him out of his trance.
J'ren jumped slightly then looked sheepishly at Bri'onie. He shook his head and said, "I've been working so hard lately that my brain's been spacing out. Sorry about that." Bri'onie patted his shoulder and picked up more of the diagrams. They were both surprised when Trofasth commented from his couch, "Soon, training will be over, J'ren. Then you can catch up on sleep. And time with Bri'onie." The dragon rumbled smugly then went back to sleep. Bri'onie turned large, shocked eyes to J'ren.
"He does that sometimes," J'ren said, smiling. "Sometimes when he naps, I think I can worry about anything. Then, he surprises me by commenting on whatever I'm thinking or talking about." Bri'onie was still surprised at the insight of Trofasth and couldn't talk. J'ren laughed and went back to studying his drills. He had this last one almost memorized, he just needed to remember that last pattern. Finally committing the diagram to memory, J'ren turned to Bri'onie and asked, "How's Praeth?" Bri'onie put down the papers and started to talk about the newest candidates they had found. She added Praeth's comments on each candidate.
Not too much later, Trofasth waddled out of his weyr and said to J'ren, "We are called to the firestone practice." He continued on his way to the entrance and flew the short way down to the courtyard. J'ren stood up and said to Bri'onie, "Well, the weyrlingmaster calls. See you later." Bri'onie nodded and surprised J'ren by hugging and kissing him. She looked him in the eyes and said, "Good luck and have fun." J'ren smiled and followed his dragon down to the courtyard.
