Order in the world (tag the spiffster)

[maggie]

Kaydian stood back, observing his new little corner in the barracks. Log looked around, then gave his owner a long, disappointed look. There was no nice perch for him. He had seen that other flitts had nice perches and he wanted one. Empirith glanced around from behind his new rider, his eyes whirling in green approval. He liked how neat and ordered Kaydian had made their living space. He was tired, though, after having eaten, bathed, and been oiled since he insisted on being clean after eating. He curled up on the couch that had been provided for him, dozing off quietly, letting Kaydian have a little time off.

Kaydian sat down on his bed, pulling out one of his only possessions. Jessan had promised him reading lessons, but with the breakout and all the insanity, it had never quite gone past a lesson or two. He stared at the scroll, trying hard to recognise the letters that he had learned. His lips moved silently as he tried to work out syllables with the letters that he did know, just to guess the word. Log looked up with an indignant chirp as someone entered the barracks.

[Spiffy]

Sh'lon clicked the door to the barracks open quietly, poking his head through to make sure that everything was ok before he stepped i. L'vey had introduced him to them all already, and they'd all been given a few ours of 'adjustment' time with their new dragonets and to get their new homes in order. But still better to be safe than sorry, he didn't want to startle anyone with his usual manner or bursting into places.

The Glitter Flitter peered around the door also, quickly deciding it was safe enough, and jumped off into the air inside, gliding around for a second before hearing an irritated chirp from a corner. Curious, he glided over to hover in front of Log, looking at the fellow flitter curiously, chirping back before peeping in apology, realising that he (or His) had somehow irritated the brown.

Shea entered shortly after his frosty flitt, following the blue with his eyes to the bunk he'd approached. He walked over, running through the images f the hatching in his mind and trying to sort out which new Weyrling he was now approaching. He soon recognised the pink when the dragon couch came into view. That made this Kaydien then, right? He didn't know the pink's name as yet, though he was sure he would soon learn it. Kinda essential when you were potentially the new assistant Weyrlingmaster and all.

"Hey," he said in greeting, quieter than usual, as he came to a stop at the end of the bunk, Glitter settling onto his shoulder. "What're you reading?" he asked curiously, seeing the scroll that Kaydian was clutching in his hands.

[maggie]

Log glared at the other flitt in disappointment. He had entered unannounced! Flitts these days had no manners. He was disappoint. He settled on Kaydian's shoulder, a possessive tail around his owner's neck. Empirith lifted his head, looking first at his rider, who had frozen in fear when he heard Sh'lon speak since he hadn't heard the man enter, then to the greenrider. It is disrespectful not to greet a visitor, Kaydian, he reproached, before turning to the other man. Greetings. I am Empirith, that is my Kaydian and the little one is Log. Who might you and yours be?[/color]

Kaydian blushed a bit at this dragon's admonition. "I... I don't know," he admitted in response to the question. "I'm not very good at letters yet." He grinned at the flitt that was hovering in front of him. "I'm sorry, Log's not all that social, sometimes. But he's always like that, he's not mad at you." He looked over at Empirith. "You can tell him that Log's not mad, right? So that he understands?" He smiled shyly at Sh'lon. "What's his name?"

[Spiffy]

If a flit could frown at a less than chipper greeting, Glitter frowned. Then seemed to lose interest, settling to preen himself on Sh'lon's shoulder. Obviously he was not wanted there. He'd not pick bones about it.

Shea frowned to, but his expression had a slightly more worried edge to it than his blue's. Oh dear, he hadn't meant to scare him! He jumped hugely however as a voice that was not Kitath's entered his head.

"Oh, uh, hi, Empirith, and err, Kaydian..." he said uncertainly, feeling Kitath snort in offence at another speaking directly to her rider. How rude!

"I'm Sh'lon, rider of green Kitath," he said, brightening up. "I'm the new assistant Weyrlingmaster" he added proudly, puffing himself up only slightly.

He peered closer at the writing as Kaydian said he couldn't read it very well, but it wasn't this that he spoke of first.

"Really? Ah well, some are like that. Animals are the same. His name's Glitter, or Glitter Flitter if you want the full. He's shiny in the light, like a bronze, but blue!" he said, as if this was still the best thing since sliced bread. Does Pern even have sliced bread?

"Nice to meet you, Log," he said to the brown, hoping that it would improve his mood somewhat. Might work, may not,. You could always try.

[maggie]

My apologies, Kitath, I was unsure, since you sent your rider on alone, if you were too busy to speak or not. I meant no offense. The weyrling pink sounded very sheepish as he spoke to the green.

Kaydian smiled when Sh'lon spoke of his flitt. It was easier to relate to the intimidating, at least to him, Assistant Weyrling Master when he saw how the man spoke of his pet. Kaydian felt much the same about Log, even when the flitt was being rude. "He's very shiny," he agreed. "Ah, congratulations on your promotion?" He was unsure, but if Sh'lon still was referring to it as new... He put the scroll down, trying not to look as nervous as he felt. He smoothed his yellow clothes, making sure they were perfectly neat.

[Spiffy]

Kitath softened when the pink apologised directly. Really, the little one was still only little and young, so did probably not know better. She hoped the others had better manners though. Apology accepted. I think my rider is responsible enough to let out of my sight occasionally. Just. Besides, I cannot fit into the stone barracks.

You may have to get used to them speaking to me directly, you know, Kitath. What if they need help and their rider's not there to speak for them?

Then they may contact me.

And if you're asleep?

Then it is serious and an emergency, in which case I do not mind so. And I would wake if one should call me, she replied primly.

Sh'lon was glad to see Kaydian smile. Oh good, so he wasn't scared if him! That would be bad. He'd have to try harder to be friendlier.

"Thank you!" he replied brightly. Yes, the promotion was ideed new, if only on a trial basis to see if he was suitable. "It was Kitath's idea that we apply. She wants to look after the new babies and make sure they're safe and happy. A-and I'd like to be helpful too!" he added fervently. "Is there anything you need help with?" he added, hopefully. That was why he was there, after all.

"Reading, maybe?" he suggested, remembering that Kaydian said he wasn't so good with letters. "I can read well, the Beast Hall taught me that," he added for clarification.

[maggie]

"Kitath likes babies?" He smiled at that. Until he had really bonded to Empirith, he hadn't even realised to what point dragons had true personalities. He had always kind of assumed that they took on traits their riders had. It was reassuring in a lot of ways that the Weyrling Master had decided to choose a maternal green as an assistant. He petted Log. "Log is a baby too. He's still itchy all the time, like Empirith. He gets really cranky when he's itchy."

His smile brightened a bit at the idea of reading. Jessan had promised, but it hadn't quite happened. Well it had, but then she had become scary and left... He shut down that particular train of thought. That was a bad train of thought. He showed Sh'lon the scroll. It was a children's story about an adventurous brown flitt named Mischief. "Jessan told me it was a fun story, but... I can only read a bit."

[Spiffy]

"Oh yeah!" he said, slightly OTT on the enthusiasm front. "Anything small or fluffy she fawns over like a mother hen. You should see her, it's completely unlike her normally," he added brightly, Kitath giving him another mental hmph.

"I thought so, he looks about the same age as Glitter here. Were we at the same hatching? I can't remember," he asked, genuinely curious. Maybe they were. That would be cool, Glit having a brother! Although of course every male flit from that clutch would be his brother, but knowing one of them made it special.

"Jessan? Hmm," he said, taking the scroll and giving it a skim read. He gigglesnorted at the end. "Haha yeah, that is quite funny actually. Aw, I haven't heard this one before. I like it. So, uhh, how much of it can you make out then?" he asked. He supposed that he had to know how god Kaydian's reading was as it stood, if he was to help him. He didn't want to seem patronising by starting with things that Kaydian found easy.

[maggie]

Kaydian smiled, but shook his head. "No, Log only had three clutchsibs and they were all mean. Your Glitter Flitter is too pretty and nice. Log is the nicest of all of them." He stroked his flitt's eyeridges. Log crooned at him quietly. He really did like his human, even when he was disappointing and talking about Log being itchy and cranky.

He looked up at the scroll in Sh'lon's hands, blushing a bit. "Well I can recognise most of the letters," he said. "But I the words..." He shook his head. "I can't make out most of the words."

Kitath?[/color] Empirith asked. I have a question. I know that our riders do adopt honorifics, but... when do they pick that? My rider has not chosen his yet and I am concerned that it is improper for him to be still known by his candidate name.[/color]

[Spiffy]

"Aww that's a shame. maybe they just look the same age and they're not. Glitter is quite small." He honestly couldn't remember how long ago Glitter had hatched, he was just happy that he had him.

"Ah! Well that's a good start." He looked at the first line. It said 'Once upon a time, there lived a young firelizard called Mischief.' He pointed to 'upon'. This is a fairly simple one, can you read that one? Try splitting it into two halves if you're struggling," he suggested.

Yes? inquired Kitath. I do not think it is all that improper to be known by your name. My Sh'lon still goes by Shea a lot. But it is good to have an honorific for being formal. Most candidates I think pick theirs early. Quite a few of the candidates who touched my egg already knew which name they wanted to take if they Impressed. They were thinking about it a lot. Others didn't. Yours is not unusual, Little One. Mine didn't know his either. Maybe you could help him think of one he likes? It doesn't have to be based off of his candidate name, he can chose whatever name he likes. She hoped that was helpful. She wanted to get her new role off to a good start, after all.

[maggie]

"And Log is pretty big." Which was true. He had seen Rage and a few other young flitts around and none were quite as big as the ugly, surly brown. He kind of resembled his namesake, if the truth be told... It made him special, though, which made Kaydian proud of him.

Kaydian looked at the word and frowned. He recognised the letters O, P and N, but he wasn't absolutely sure what sound the U made. He tried to sound out what he knew. "Pown?" he tried, blushing furiously in embarrassment at not being able to sound out such an easy word.

Empirith seemed to think about this. I will discuss it with him,[/color] he decided. But perhaps you could ask your rider to assist mine? I am not sure I will be able to give him adequate advice and he might appreciate the input of one who has gone through the process before.[/color]

[Spiffy]

Sh'lon waited patiently for Kaydian to figure out the letters. Ah, he remembered his own days of learning to read. He'd bloody hated it. But then he had discovered that writing could actually contain some very interesting stuff, not like the boring crap they were given to read in reading classes, and that had somehow made it all worthwhile. It had given him a reason to try, and trying made him better and better. It was good. Once you found something that you wanted to read, things just got easier.

It was good that Jessan had started Kaydian on something interesting, or at the very least fun.

"That's a good attempt! You got the P and the N right, and almost got the O. See, when it's in the middle of a word like this-" he pointed to the word again, "- it's usually pronounced more like an oh sound. And the U - that's this one here - is an uh sound. So this would be uh-puh-oh-nuh - upon. Get it?" he finished hopefully. He hoped Kaydian had understood that, so often he said things and people didn't.

I could ask him to give Yours a few pointers, that is not a problem. It will probably distract him from the reading though, she added, debating which was the more important. Then she had an idea. SheaMine... and she told Sh'lon her idea.

He frowned at first, thinking, then brightened. "Have you ever tried writing your name? That's a good place to start, because then you know exactly how it's supposed to sound, then you just gotta work out the letters, but I can help you with that." He whipped out a piece of hide and a pencil from his pocked (Shea, always prepared, not).

"Any ideas?" he asked, holding the pencil out to Kaydian. "You shouldn't feel embarrassed if you don't, you know. Everyone has to start somewhere."

[maggie]

Kaydian nodded, listening to Sh'lon's explanations. He touched the letters, tracing them with his fingers. "Upon," he murmured. He tried to memorise the U, tracing its shape again, then trying to look for it in other words. He suddenly beamed, poking the scroll excitedly. "Up!" he declared as he saw a word he could recognise.

He blushed a bit when asked to write his name. He took the pencil, painstakingly scribbling his name down. The letters were perfectly square and evenly spaced, true to the writer's finicky personality. "I can write Jessan's name too," he said. "And Log. I learned to write Log first because it's easy. Kaydian is long."

Empirith sent Kitath a wave of gratitude. She was smart, he decided. Thank you, Kitath. You are very good at being the assistant Weyrling MMistress,[/color]

[Spiffy]

"Yes, up! Well done," Sh'lon beamed too as he saw the word Kaydian was pointing to. This was a good start.

And being able to write his name was a great start too! "You're writing is very good Kaydian," he said, memorising how the lad had been taught to spell his own name. "It's much neater than mine," he added with a grin. Shea's writing was much as you'd expect from a rather chaotic-minded beastcrafter: chaotic. Nothing like the very precise figures of Kaydian.

"Have you thought of what you'd like to shorten your name to yet, now that you're a dragonrider?" he asked suddenly, trying to make it seem like he'd only just thought of that and had totally not been given the idea by Kitath.

Kitath, in turn, preened. Well thank you, Litle One Empirith. I think you and yours will make very good students, too.

[maggie]

Kaydian blinked, thinking about this. "I... I should, shouldn't I," he murmured. He looked down at his name and the way it was written. "I... I don't know how to choose. I've never had another name." He looked down at the letters, not sure which ones to erase and which ones were important. He had chosen Log's name, but Log wasn't himself and Log hadn't had his own name, before. And he looked like a log. Kaydian didn't know that he looked like anything other than a Kaydian. "How do you choose a new name?"

Many riders choose to simply shorten the names that they have,[/color] Empirith suggested helpfully. Most do, in fact. Kitath says that you can either choose something new or use some of your old name. She says that it is not improper to be known by your name. But you should choose an honorific.[/color]