Of all the lakes in all the world... (J'fel)

[Omnia Munda]

I assume so, replied Jordeth, plainly amused. But he stayed in relatively shallow waters, where his back feet often dragged the bottom of the lake. He was attentive to the brown in a more physical way, now, watching for signs of sinkage - or strain.

"Sorry," said J'fel on shore, grin twisted suddenly wry on his mouth. "Thinks he's got the upper paw on you, hasn't he?"

[Invisible]

Volsteath was clumsy in the water. Young limbs were only mostly steady on the ground and in the water he was learning those limbs needed to move in a different way entirely. Swimming to Volsteath was a whole new thing and he reveled in the newness of it. Someone would sleep well tonight with the workout he was getting. I am swimming[/color] Volsteath told Jordeth with pride. He did more splashing and trying to stay afloat than swimming, but it was close enough. For now he was ok, but at the frantic pace he went surely he would not last long.

On the shore K’mar tried to not spend all his time watching Volsteath. He would be ok he told himself. The weyrleader’s bronze was out there with him. He would let nothing bad happen. When J’fel spoke he forced himself to turn and face the weyrleader. K’mar was aware he let Volsteath get away with too much. It was hard to be too hard on him when he had waited so very long for him. “We, umm. We’re still working it all out, sir. He’s-“ He’s any number of things, but all K’mar said was, “I guess you’re never as prepared as you think you are, sir.”

[Omnia Munda]

So you are, replied Jordeth, keeping enough of the drollness out of his tone that it might come off as merely unsurprised - of course his offspring was swimming. Naturally. Go slow, he advised. Test your paddling, and paddle as slowly as you can without sinking. It is all right if you sink a little; just paddle, and you will come back up. Just attend to the feeling so you know if you begin to be heavy.

J'fel did not share K'mar's conflicted concern. He neither felt need to look away from Volsteath to prove himself unworried, nor did he in fact worry; perhaps his faith in Jordeth - or in the brown's capacity for learning this trick - was unshakable. "I imagine not," he said, still wry and grinning, knowing better than to try to imply he understood K'mar. Still, what he could not understand he could certainly imagine.

"They do like to think that way, all the same." The weyrleader cast off this statement with a little shrug, though Jordeth in the water took it quite seriously - there was even a telling jerk of his sleek head, turning a sharp eye toward his rider, before he subsided and focused anew on demonstrating methods of staying afloat. "I imagine," again, "you've both got an eye on the end of your training."

[Invisible]

In water that was barely deep enough to swim instead of walk Volsteath dared to go. Even with Jordeth’s words he had a hard time not flailing about. Progress was going to be slow going on getting the hang of swimming about as well as his teacher. It is hard to sink and not want to come up fast[/color] he told the bronze. I will practice until I’ve the hang of it. Although I think I feel nothing but heavy.[/color] The young brown wondered how the older bronze did not sink. He was quite large after all being full grown.

K’mar did his best not to watch Volsteath although each time the little brown seemed to sink even part of an inch he had to resist the urge to wade in after him. As if he could help Volsteath. It is ok. I am with Jordeth.[/color] With those words to seek comfort from the weyrling tried to come up with an answer to J’fel. “It is still early yet, sir,” he began slowly. “Although it would be a lie to say we did not often think what we might do once we were graduated.” K’mar wondered if he should have started the way he did.

It’s not as if J’fel did not know they were still but babes in the woods as far as riding went. He could not take the words back so he just had to let them stand. “I hope to do well enough in our training to be considered useful by someone, sir. But I am sure I share that trait with all of my classmates.” Of that he was not sure of at all, but to say otherwise would look bad.

[Omnia Munda]

Innocent of all thoughts anyone could ever have about how such large creatures might swim (let alone fly), Jordeth attended only to doing it, natural as a beast could be. As long as you sink you'll feel heavy, he agreed, But when you get the knack of floating, you'll feel almost as light as on air.

"Somehow, K'mar, it's my guess that you've been thinking about what you'd do after graduation longer than Volsteath's been alive." J'fel had not stopped smiling; that lazy curve still bent his mouth and lent his casual, hipshot posture credence. Nevertheless, there was a serious note in his voice, a distinctive solemnity older than his turns. His eyes slid to their corners, taking a sidelong look at the weyrling. "Didn't think as much about the training itself, I bet."

[Invisible]

Maybe when I have been in the air it will make more sense[/color] Volsteath said with a thoughtful tone as he paddled more. What is it like to fly? Is it like this?[/color] The brown did not think flying could be like swimming but as he had no experience with it he was not sure. Since Jordeth seemed willing to talk he thought it a good chance to ask.

The words of the younger man had K’mar considering exactly how long he had been thinking of post graduation. A lot longer than he cared to think of really. “I wanted to be a rider, sir,” he answered truthfully. “The details of it changed as I grew older I guess. A boy’s dreams change as he grows up.” He certainly had not thought about the training, but he thought most people did not. It was something to endure. “I thought I would be-“ Younger. He changed midsentence however. “I never imagined I would have nothing in common with the rest of my class.” After all he had recalled the weyrleader was younger than him.

[Omnia Munda]

Jordeth slithered across the lake in a loose, wide arc around the brown, letting himself rest low on its surface, wings trailing through the water. A little bit, he thoughtfully allowed. In the water wings are largely useless. They trail, drag, slow you down - though you can extend them against the surface to steady yourself in waves, like on the ocean. There was an image of such a thing, though it was a hazy one; the weyrleader was not well known for his travels outside the Weyr's own coverage, and Telgar's territory was quite landlocked. In the sky I am whole, every part with a purpose.

The bronze shut down words, then, and shared the briefest of tastes. There was wind streaming hard past his snout, making him a streamlined arrow in flight. Clouds kissed his stretched to straining wingsails, cooling membranes warmed by the sun. It did not feel light exactly, but with every beat of his wings he was buoyed, raised, elevated - ever climbing, ever reaching higher.

Then he spoke again, letting the sensations slip away. Usually it's just duty, what we were made to do. Yet sometimes it is - inspiration.

Perhaps J'fel was in part aware of what his beast was up to, now; he was watching the dragons, expression less lazy than before. "You have quite a bit in common - weyrlinghood itself to start - but I understand your meaning." He had no proof to offer; K'mar would have to take him at his word, or not. You could have been in my class, J'fel thought, or before me.

But what he said was, "I'm going to have you put into the politics sessions." His gaze cornered, gauging the weyrling's response. "With Salina and the bronzeriders."

[Invisible]

Volsteath listened with an almost physical intensity to the description of the differences between flying and swimming. Like any dragon that had yet to do so he itched to be in the sky for the first time. Hearing it described was not as good, but it would do. My wings do get in the way[/color] he allowed as he paddled some more.

The rhythm of his paddling faltered as he was allowed to feel even through someone else what it was like to be in the air. The brown sank a little into the water he was so distracted, but the sensation did not last so long as to make him drown. Volsteath may not have even heard the last words uttered to him by Jordeth he was so intent on staring up overhead. Duty and inspiration[/color] he finally shared with the bronze. Yes, it would be both.[/color]

On the shore K’mar had been given just a peek at what Jordeth had shared with Volsteath. A little bit of flying was shared with the weyrling and his gaze strayed from the lake to the sky overhead. We will fly better than anyone he promised Volsteath. It was this thought that was still in his head when J’fel let the latest bomb drop.

Before he could school his features into something suitably neutral there was a moment of a combined exhilaration and panic. The weyrleader thought he might be something and that thought crept into corners of his brain where he had always feared he would let someone down who thought something of him. The neutral expression concealed most of this and by the time he responded there was no tremor in his voice. “I will not let you down, sir.” The hesitation that came between that sentence and the next was almost long enough to make it seem K’mar had nothing else to say. “But why?” finally slipped out.

[Omnia Munda]

Jordeth lifted his head and lowered it again, a ponderous nod. Apparently he had no more to say, though as he swam and watched the younger dragon, he did from time to time offer the smallest of mental nudges: a vision of raised wings here, the sensation of paddling with one's feet tucked closer to one's body there - suggestions for expanding the experience of swimming. Most of his attention was drawn now to what their riders discussed - and he was not shy of letting the brown know it.

J'fel turned his head, letting his face catch up with his gaze, while K'mar replied. There was a nod for the answer and a smile for the question, and then a long pause as though the weyrleader wished to take care with his words. They were sparing when they came. "I want to be able to make use of your abilities, K'mar." That part was nice enough. "Not suffer from them."

[Invisible]

Thankful for the occasional nudge to do things correctly Volsteath was content to paddle in silence. His wings continued to get in the way, but his paddling did improve some. The wing issue was going to be an issue for awhile yet. When the bronze’s attention turned to the conversation on the shore the brown’s did as well although he was more circumspect about it. Maybe that was just because he had to continue trying to not drown.

“I don’t understand,” K’mar said before he could stop himself. Immediately he regretted his words thinking they made him sound dumb. But what could J’fel have meant? What abilities? He was a former storeroom clerk turned weyrling. There was nothing to concern the weyrleader. “I would not do anything intentionally to cause harm to you or the Weyr, sir.” These words he could say easily, almost over earnestly.

[Omnia Munda]

"Yes. Well. I'm glad to hear that," said J'fel. He ducked his head a little as he spoke, as though the weyrling's assurance was actually a little embarrassing. Nevertheless, the weyrleader did seem strangely reassured.

"Let me put that another way," he said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He strolled down to the edge of the water, just a few steps, and there kicked at a stone, watching it leap into the drink and leave ripples behind. "I want to be able to make use of your ambition, K'mar."

He looked back over his shoulder, grinning. "Not suffer from it."

[Invisible]

Rather than look at the weyrleader K’mar studied his brown in the lake. Volsteath was slowing down and with a little nudge from his rider began to move closer to the shore. Did he have ambitions? K’mar thought he had none now that what he’d always wanted was his. Volsteath may be another story, but surely he could keep his dragon in line and see to it no trouble was caused.

The words of J’fel would need more thinking on when he could do so alone. When trading thoughts with his brown would go faster since neither of them would be doing something. Ambitions? No, not really. But it was something to think on. Maybe he should have more.

Even if it still made little sense to him he found a smile for the weyrleader that was easy enough. “You’re the one in charge, sir,” he said with a nod of his head. “I trust you to make use of our abilities however you see best.” K’mar could allow that after all J’fel was weyrleader. It was easier to accept the young man as such now that he had his own dragon. Before he may not have wanted anything to do with him, but now? Now everything was different.

[Omnia Munda]

J'fel observed that K'mar's line of sight passed right by him, and held back most but not all of a smirk. He stooped to pick up a rock, choosing the flattest within easy reach, and straightened again. "Very good," he approved, though there was the smallest wry note in that approval, as though he recognized the weyrling's words as a kind of improvisational speech - not quite rote, but close. Backing up a few steps, he wound back his arm, the stone poised on thumbtip above his fingers. One eye narrowed. "You have my word I won't abuse them."

The weyrleader tossed the rock. It skipped three times and sank several yards from where Volsteath paddled. We depart now, noted Jordeth, though he held his position in the water and waited to see the brown with some paws on the muddy bottom again before he'd start the heavy wade out onto shore. It was good to swim with you.

[Invisible]

There was more than one new concern this conversation had brought up to K’mar, but he shoved them aside for now to deal with later. He just had to get out of the conversation without making a huge mistake. How hard could that be? “You have my word I won’t let you, sir.” Was it a joke? Well, maaaaybe, but the talk of ambition had trickled to Volsteath now who had all sorts of ideas running around in his baby head. Until he forgot them the next day or so. Well, K’mar meant it as a joke anyway even if it was poorly delivered.

There were worse things to be than someone close to the weyrleader. He was older than the boy, but he was not as seasoned a rider. Maybe he could work with something in those definitions that would help him. Volsteath allowed K’mar whatever thoughts he wanted just pleased that his rider was thinking at all of things he could approve of. His feet touched mud soon enough and he heaved himself up and out of the water to the shore. Thank you for your words of assistance[/color] the brown told Jordeth. It was a pleasure to learn from you.[/color] He would not shake himself off like a dog onto the riders he stood near.

[Omnia Munda]

You are welcome. Jordeth at last waded to dry land, though wet as he was his rider showed no particular hurry to mount up. K'mar's risky remark, joke or not, paid off. J'fel cracked a grin, then flicked off a salute. "Excellent. See you around, K'mar."

Both bronze and rider walked off, the former occasionally stopping to wait for the shorter paces of the latter.