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Writers: Aaron, Duskdog
Date Posted: 25th March 2025

Characters: T'lonas, Z'renh
Description: T'lonas speaks with Z'renh about the weyrling's struggles with Adamanth.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 4, day 7 of Turn 12

T'lonas

The first few sevendays of a weyrling pair's partnership was always a little chaotic, in T'lonas's experience. The human half was dealing with a life-altering change in status, as well as sharing their headspace with another being, learning how to care for a demanding and very large and intelligent baby, and keeping up with a new and rigorous schedule. The dragon half was... well, eating and sleeping and pooping, and somewhere in the middle also dealing with the stress and confusion their chosen riders were feeling.

He preferred to guide them gently at first, letting them settle into the bond for a while before making judgments about which issues truly needed to be addressed. Sometimes they sorted themselves out quickly, after all. Other times... not so much.

It was storming out all afternoon, complete with wind and thunder and lightning and sheets of rain, but things had calmed slightly for now, so that the wind had died down, the lightning flashed only faintly through the heavy fog and cloudcover, and the thunder was merely distant rumbles. The rain still came down heavily, but in fat drops rather than the near-sideways pelting assault from before.

"Z'renh," he said brightly, poking his head into the young man's barracks wallow. "Come and watch the rain with me, will you?"

Z'renh's heart sank. There was only one thing this could possibly be about. He had been dreading someone, anyone -- especially T'lonas -- asking him to explain what had happened. He could not admit that he had absolutely zero control over Adamanth, but he also could not possibly justify his refusal to obey Fianwyth.

"Of course, sir." He had to at least try to pretend that he was just as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as T'lonas himself was pretending to be. But he was not anywhere near as good at it as he thought he was.

If T'lonas noticed Z'renh's failed attempt at pep, he didn't comment on it. Instead, he led Z'renh out to stand just inside the wide stone entrance leading out into the Weyrbowl, safe from the rain that pattered not far in front of them. "There we are. Nice, isn't it? I do love a sunny day, of course, but I can't deny that I also enjoy the occasional good thunderstorm. If all our days were sunny, we'd stop appreciating them properly, I think." He watched the rain for a moment more, hands clasped behind his back, then turned a bit to regard Z'renh. "You've had a couple of sevendays to settle into your new status now. How are you feeling about being a Dragonsfall bronzerider?"

"I'm still not used to the cold, sir." Z'renh was grateful for the phrasing. A _Dragonsfall_ bronzerider left room for him to comment on how he felt about the location rather than focusing on the 'bronzerider' part. "I lived my whole life down by the sea before this, and well. This place definitely makes me appreciate the sun."

"Ah, that's right, you transferred in, didn't you? A new home is always a bit of an adjustment, and differing weather just makes the adjustment take even longer, I think." He smiled. "And how is Adamanth? Asleep now, I would assume?"

He could have easily asked Domorth, but asking Z'renh directly was a deliberate gesture of respect.

Adamanth was asleep, which to Z'renh was a great relief. All of the love remained without any of the strong, angry pride that made it so hard for him to know exactly which feelings were his own. Even as he had begun to learn how to separate the knowledge of whose feelings were whose, it was still not so easy to stop Adamanth's feelings from influencing his own.

"Yes, sir. He is asleep."

T'lonas nodded. He had suspected so, of course, but it was good to have confirmation. This conversation would go much better without Adamanth distracting and influencing his rider's feelings. "All bronzes are strong-willed to an extent -- some in very different ways. But Adamanth seems extraordinarily so. How would _you_ describe his personality?"

"His... personality?" Z'renh was a bit stunned to find he did not have much of a good answer for that. Did he even _have_ a personality underneath all that pride and self importance? Well, pride was a good start, he supposed. Bronzes were supposed to be proud.

"He's proud. And he knows what he wants."

"That sounds like my impression of him is accurate, then," T'lonas agreed. "And... it seems as if he won't be deterred from what he wants, once he's decided he wants it?"

Z'renh was no less loath than he had ever been to admit that he had so far been unable to deter Adamanth from anything. So he merely shrugged and refused to look T'lonas in the eye.

T'lonas felt a little squeeze in his heart. Struggling couldn't have been easy for the young man, being a proud son of a proud ranking bronzerider. "If it helps at all, Z'renh, I'm not sure that _anyone_ could easily corral such a willful dragon. Particularly not at your age, nor with the relationship still so new. I was very lucky that Domorth, while headstrong, was mostly an agreeable sort of dragon. The fact that such a strong dragon chose you is a testament to your own strength. I imagine he'd not have been able to tolerate someone he believed was weak of spirit."

It was precisely the opposite of what Z'renh had assumed. That Adamanth had chosen him because he knew he was weak. That he would never lose a contest of wills.

But there was some amount of hope in Z'renh that T'lonas knew what he was talking about. That a bronze dragon would not tolerate a weak rider. But only some. He was still not sure he believed it.

"Thanks." He shrugged again. "So... do I get extra latrine duty, then?" There had to be some kind of punishment at the end of this pep talk.

T'lonas' eyebrows raised. "What? Oh, no. I wouldn't punish a weyrling for struggling, Z'renh. Weyrlinghood is _hard_, and you're not deliberately acting out, shirking off, or refusing to try. I think you're merely overwhelmed. Temporarily." He paused. "Can you explain to me what happened at the feeding buckets, and with Fianwyth? Not what outwardly happened, but what happened inside your head and your heart, with Adamanth?"

Z'renh crossed his arms and grimaced. T'lonas had _just_ said he would not punish him, and then he went and ask about what was in his _heart_? Ugh.

"When M'rhas touched Adamanth, it made me so angry," he said. "I've never felt so angry in my life. I had already hit him before I even realized what I was doing. But I guess I didn't feel quite as angry as he did, considering I didn't go straight for the f-- er, the flaming kill." He rubbed his throat.

"It's not unusual to feel that way when your dragon is newly-hatched. It's normal to feel protective of one another, and have intense emotions -- it's part of the reason you're restricted from intimate contact for so long," T'lonas said kindly. "And everything got to that point because Adamanth didn't listen to you about the buckets?"

"I didn't tell him not to take the other bowls," Z'renh insisted. "I told him I would go get him more." It was much easier to admit to saying the wrong thing and having been misunderstood than it was to admit that Adamanth did not want to listen to him. "I shouldn't have left him on his own."

"Hmm, maybe not. But you weren't wrong. Your solution was perfectly valid and diplomatic, and he rejected it in favor of taking what was right in front of him instead. It's easy to underestimate their lack of impulse control when they're just babies, because they speak so intelligently despite their age, and you're so full of love for them. You're hardly the first weyrling to misjudge!" T'lonas pondered for a moment, frowning. "I'm more concerned about what happened with Fianwyth. I know he doesn't seem to believe he needs to defer to her. Is there anyone he _does_ believe he should defer to? And, more importantly, do _you_ think he should?"

This was more difficult to work around. His best bet was to go on the offensive.

"He's just a baby, isn't he? She bullied him. Pinned him to the ground to try to force him to say what she wanted him to say," said Z'renh. "I was terrified he was going to hurt himself!" A good enough excuse for why he had physically assaulted Fianwyth himself. At least, it seemed so himself.

Hmm, that was an interesting reaction. T'lonas considered for a moment. "Yes, he is just a baby. But that's exactly why he has to realize that he's required to listen. If he isn't willing to listen and learn and obey sometimes, he'll eventually get truly hurt, far beyond just his pride. And if you feel as if Fianwyth was bullying him, and that hurt and frightened you -- which is fair -- how do you think the other weyrlings feel when Adamanth bullies _them_? You don't strike me as someone who's unfair."

"I'm not a weyrlingmaster, either." Z'renh actually felt remorse for going after M'thos like that. But what was he supposed to do? Just admit his dragon was out of control?

"You're not," T'lonas acknowledged. "But you _are_ Adamanth's rider, and none of us are going to be able to influence him the way that you can. Our job is to help teach you how to do that. But we can't help you if you're working against us. You need to get your head on straight, and we can help you do that. I think you could use some extra work on keeping the dragon and rider bond distinct when necessary, because I think that his emotions are influencing yours a bit too much."

"I'm not against you." Z'renh most definitely did not want T'lonas to think they were not all on the same side. The contrition in his tone was easier to show than to put it into words. He was glad T'lonas was finally ready to just get it over with and punish him.

"Not intentionally," T'lonas said gently. "But we do have things we need to work on in order to get you and Adamanth into a good balance. I'm going to have you do some extra work on your bond, and controlling emotions. There isn't much time in the day for extra lessons, unfortunately, so it will just have to be during your evening barracks-cleaning time for now." He patted Z'renh's shoulder. "Don't worry, lad, you're doing fine."

"Thank you, sir." Good. Punishment was good. It did not require Z'renh to admit anything.

"I'll set you free now. We'll start tomorrow -- just report to my office at cleaning time." T'lonas patted his shoulder again. "In the meantime, if you have any difficulties, don't be ashamed to ask us for help. Being bronze doesn't mean you're expected to know exactly what you're doing from day one!"

Last updated on the March 26th 2025

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