Chap. 96 Around the Fire Pit

Chap. 96 Around the firepit

"I really like this firepit structure, D'nis," M'rvin, the Weyrleader said. "It serves a lot of purposes." He was sitting with his feet up on a footstool. Siena, his weyrmate, was next to him.

The weyrfolk were sitting in a large circle around a large firepit. The fire crackled and danced, its light dancing on their faces as they talked. Overhead, the thatched roof kept the rain from hitting them…well, most of it. 

After the hurricane had flattened everything outside of the cliff weyrs, D'nis had taken the opportunity to rebuild and re-arrange facilities to include building a community gathering place centered on a covered fire pit. The high roofed, partially rockwalled pole structure had been an instant hit. The weyrfolk had taken to it immediately, using it to congregate when it was raining, like now, or too warm to stay inside the cliff weyr. 

They were discussing the problem of fire lizards. K'ndar had brought up the possibility of teaching the weyr's children how to manage them.

"The problem is, Francie, is I'm no teacher. I've turned and twisted this concept around and over and come to the realization that I just…don't have the personality that can teach. Kids, I mean. Animals, I seem to have all the patience one needs," K'ndar said. 

Francie set down her mug. "I can understand that. Training dragons and horses is easy once you understand what drives their behavior. But kids-well, we were kids, once, and I can remember thinking, no, mum, I refuse. Out of obstinacy, not out of misunderstanding. It was 'she said No so I'll say no."

Siena ran her hand through her hair. "We need to do something. The kids have allowed the fire lizards to run amok in the weyr. I like fire lizards, don't get me wrong, and the idea of using them as couriers is incredibly valuable. But I've had staff, like Salish, there, being interrupted by the lizards, and parents! Oh, my boots, the parents are constantly in my office, asking what can be done."

Lindea was there. "I feel a lot of-well, embarrassment and even a bit of shame, in allowing this to happen in the first place. It was my queen, after all, that laid the clutch," she said.

"That takes a lot of courage to say that, Lindea," M'rvin said, "and thank you for admitting it. But I don't think you can take all the blame. It was bound to happen, honestly, and if it hadn't been your queen, it might have been someone else's, or even a wild clutch. The kids have been actively searching for them. Why we didn't have fire lizards in the vicinity before and do now, I don't know. I do know, though, that we're seeing wild ones where we never did before."

Feeling very subordinate to the rest, K'ndar said, "I think I know why. The hurricane. It did an awful lot of rearranging of things. It built a lot of new beach and tore out a lot of vegetation. Fire lizards like to nest in sandy areas, close to where there is sufficient prey for their hatchlings. It's like this firepit. The minute it was declared finished we all started using it. I don't think there's been a time that it's been unused. The kids play here when it's raining, like now. If it's there, people will use it. Same things go for animals. If there's habitat suitable for their needs, the fire lizards will use it."

B'rant spoke up. "Since we no longer are needed to fight Thread, we've all been wondering what to do with ourselves, how to keep dragonriders and weyrfolk relevant, to the rest of Pern. We don't want to return to the situation that forced Lessa to jump four hundred years into the past to bring forward the Oldtimers. It goes for inner weyr workings as well as outer."

He sipped his ale. "My boots, M'rvin, but this is outstanding stuff," he said, appreciatively.

"Thank you, sir, it's my pleasure," M'rvin nodded.

"With this Weyrling class I have now, I find that I'm, well, lost at what to do with them. There's no need to teach formation flying, or drilling," B'rant said, and was interrupted by groans. Everyone had hated drilling.

"Here's to THAT," someone said.

"Cutting the curriculum to the bone, cutting out unnecessary training, like firestone useage, was a good thing, but on the other hand, the weyrlings still need a LOT of flight time. Right now, if you consider all the things you learned for the sole purpose of fighting thread, it's no longer needed, and if you count that out, it means, Weyrling training is a mere, oh, ten weeks."

The dragonriders gasped. Some of it was due to envy, all of them having endured a year of training-and some was amazement that so much time had been spent solely on training to fight Thread.

"That's not enough time, in my opinion, to properly train a rider to fly on a dragon. I'm sure you all remember how long it took to get comfortable with going between, or gauging how far to fly before allowing your dragon to rest, all that comes without thinking after a year of training."

"But…why waste all that time if it's not necessary?" asked Hariko, who'd brought out a tray of pastries.

"Well, Hariko, on the face of it, it's not.  But, thinking this through a bit more deeply, drilling, by which I mean flying in formation, wasn't meant to just piss off a bunch of weyrlings. All that flying instilled an instinctual muscle memory in the riders, AND it built up the dragons themselves. You don't grow muscles you don't use. The dragonets NEED a lot of supervised and structured flying time, to build up muscle, strengthen wings, and develop stamina and endurance. 

It was like riding a horse, just because you rode it successfully three times doesn't make you a rider," B'rant said.

"Just a passenger at the sufferance of the horse," Francie said, and the horsemen in the group laughed.

"So, what I propose is that I, being Weyrlingmaster, take on 'fire lizard school", and not in the way you might think. I propose that we let the Weyrlings teach the kids," B'rant said.

"What?"

"Think of it. The weyrlings are much closer in age to the children than we are. They can talk to the kids on a level that we outgrew a long time ago. The kids look up to the Weyrlings, whereas we're..we're adults. We're Mum and Dad, we're the Weyr Staff, people they know will say "No," as our first response. Look how tightly they kept the secret that Lindea's queen's clutch had been found. Not one of those kids said a word to any grownup. They all knew that if WE knew they'd found the clutch, we'd intervene, and say no. We would have because we could forsee the problems that we have right now. They couldn't see that far ahead because they're, well, kids."

"I like the concept, but I wonder how it would work?" Siena said.

"I'm not sure, but I see that the Weyrlings would take it on as a responsibility that they are going to have to take on in the future. We're going to die off, us dragonriders who grew up fighting thread. The weyrlings of NOW, when thread is no longer a threat, are going to have to find something to do, something to remain relevant to Pern. Teaching kids to manage fire lizards, and eventually, dragons, can be part of that."

Francie got up and poured another goblet of wine. Hariko jumped up, saying "I could have done that!"

"Sit, madam, sit and enjoy the fire," Francie said to the headwoman. 

"I could teach the weyrlings, using my own fire lizards," Francie said, settling back down. "Once they have their lizards trained, they train the next batch of kids with lizards, and the next, like links in a chain."

This firepit, she thought, was so attractive she might just convince Raylan, her husband, to relocate back to the weyr. But no…they had three horses, a nice roomy weyr with furniture! and Raylan was a vital part of Landing, now. 

"We could use Siskin," K'ndar said, and Lindea chimed in with "Zeta, too."

"It's easier to teach a person how to train an animal when the one you're using to teach already knows what to do. Although this might eventually put my lizard show out of business," Francie said, rather regretfully.

"We can build a training plan, and then, starting with this class of Weyrlings, we can mentor them as they mentor the kids."

"It also," Siena brought in, "teaches the kids how to manage dragons. We're going to need that in the future. I was afraid we weren't going to have enough candidates for Impression this last hatching," she said.

M'rvin nodded. "I was, too. The Searching dragonriders had to beat the bushes to find enough kids interested or suitable for Impression. As it was, everyone, to include the three who DIDN'T impress from Elanath's last clutch, impressed…but it was touch and go there. I wondered what would happen if there was a situation where there were more eggs than candidates."

That thought sobered everyone. No one could contemplate what an unimpressed hatchling dragon would do, or how to handle one. You couldn't very well impress TWO, could you?

"We're going to have to bring more emphasis to bear on bringing up our weyrkids to be dragonriders," Siena finished. 

"That's so, and I'm not sure I understand why it's suddenly become difficult to find teenagers interested in becoming dragonriders. It's as if, suddenly, it's not…not 'glamorous' anymore," D'nis said.

"I think I do," Francie said, " when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was ride two things: horses and dragons. Being a dragonrider was exciting. Dangerous. You went to places your family had never and would never ever see. You could go anywhere, anytime you wanted, just hop aboard your dragon and go. People looked up to dragonriders when Thread was about to destroy their homes. We were 'important'. Now, we're not. At least to those who never had the need to fight thread.  And there's so much more, now, that kids can do, with all the wonders Aivas introduced. There's a lot of work to keeping a dragon in proper health, and why bother, when someone else is willing to do it?"

Everyone nodded, appreciating the logic of it. K'ndar was grateful beyond words. He'd been stumped on how to even begin creating a curriculum or a plan, never mind actually putting it into action. And, he had to admit, it relieved him of the duties when his life had become one of freely pursuing his own interests.

"I'll admit I'm all for that idea, sir, and not just because it takes me out of the role of a teacher who doesn't know how to teach," he said. "I'll be honest, I came up with the idea but didn't want to do the work. I think I'd rather clean a latrine," he said, ruefully.

The others roared. "You do that VERY WELL, K'ndar," B'rant said.