. practice makes perfect [Jackie]

[Sketchy]

D'cien had his hands on his hips, watching as Hiarth, his very enthusiastic blue dragonet (stuck in that half baby, half adult stage where he was still gangly and almost large) raced around the lake. D'cien has just managed to get the riding gear on him correctly, after four days of working on it in training. He would swear by the egg he saw the process in his dreams as he slept each night, tossing and turning.

Do we have to practice? I want to swim!

D'cien sighed and pushed his hair back, wiping the sweat from his brow. Fine. But you've already got the gear on, let's do a lap to the big rock and back.

Hiarth gave a dragon sigh, a slump of his shoulders, as he watched the water ripple. Shaking off his tail, he crouched by D'cien, letting him mount up. "Almost got the hang of that," he murmured, trying to get seated comfortably. "Okay, big rock and back, and then we can laze."

Hiarth perked back up, galloping off towards the rock, D'cien holding on for dear life. How like the weyrling master to say that it'd be smoother in the air- this was so bumpy, he was surprised he hadn't injured himself yet.

[Sparrow]

After several failed attempts at strapping Quip to Finth's back, Jackie was trying to ride Finth herself while carrying the squirmy kagen. If she could just get onto her dragon's back, it would work. She was sure of it.

But she couldn't get on easily while holding Quip, and if she tried to mount and then pick Quip up, the creature was gone. She tried getting Finth to hold on to her, but that only make everything more awkward since, while crouching to allow Jackie on, the only thing she really had to hold a kagen with was her mouth.

Not tasty.

"I think we better just leave her behind."

I said that forever ago.

"Did not."

Did too.

"Well, I bet Quip said it before you did." There was little proving or disproving that, although it was probably very likely. Jackie considered the argument won and hopped on her dragon's back. Finth bolted forward with an extra jolt, figuring that if she could knock Jackie down then she would be the winner, but that plan failed just as badly as all the attempts to give Quip a ride.

Besides, Finth was pretty sure she saw Hiarth over by the lake and if they could finally get going she could go talk to him. Jackie clinging a little awkwardly to her back- her seat had been upset a little- they jogged across the bowl and Jackie waved to D'cien. "Hiarth's looking pretty speedy there!"

But Finth was faster, no doubt.

[Sketchy]

D'cien was managing pretty well. Hiarth wasn't the smoothest ride, but the blue was intent on what he wanted- and what he wanted was to get into that lake and roll in the murky bottom that would scratch all the places that the riding gear was making him itch. Then he'd get out and have a nice rubdown and laze in the sun...

Finth and Jackie are here! Hiarth's excitement caused him to veer sharply towards them. At Jackie's comment of appreciation, Hiarth puffed his chest a little, while D'cien held on for dear life. I'm glad to see them too, but if you're not careful, you'll dump me.

I don't want you on me anyways, Hiarth snorted, stopping sharply to roll D'cien off him. D'cien managed to grab onto straps and parts of the gear as he rolled foward, but he still made a nice thumping noise as he hit the hard packed dirt. "Oof." Not exactly the way to impress a girl, but, he would work with. Grinning gamely, he pushed his hair back from his face, smearing dust and dirt over his nose and cheek, glaring off his scar.

"Hey Jackie. How goes it?" He stood slowly, dusting himself off and ignoring Hiarth, who was leaping about, shaking the riding gear as if he'd be able to get it off himself.

[Sparrow]

Finth felt she ought to try the same trick Hiarth had just pulled, but it wasn't hard for Jackie to guess her dragon's intentions and she gripped her a little tighter. Deciding she didn't want to risk looking bad by failing mimicking him, she didn't, and stopped nicely. It gave Jackie a false sense of security though, and as she dismounted Finth gave a little jump and made her fall too.

"Thanks Finth." Annoying beanpole of a dragon.

I'm just more clever than you. She rumbled a little, eyes whirling.

Jackie gave Finth a sour look. I'm gonna make you keep wearing those straps. That got her attention, and Finth stuck her nose under Jackie's arm, trying to help her up. She wanted the straps off. So itchy!

"I think you can see how it's been going," Jackie laughed, shoving Finth's not-all-that-helpful head away and getting to her feet herself.

In truth, she was really enjoying herself and having Finth. But the dragon could be a pain sometimes. Especially when she was making her look bad in front of boys.

[Sketchy]

Jackie shouldn't worry about looking bad in front of boys; especially not when they had Hiarth as their bonded. Hiarth was rolling on his back, wiggling like a dog with an itch he couldn't reach. You promised!

D'cien offered Jackie a hand to help her up, but was beated by Finth (who wasn't very helpful afterall). "Aren't dragons just so much fun?" His tone was joking, a grin on his face. There was no way he'd trade his lot for anything- Hiarth was such a part of him, and he'd been waiting for so very long.

Giving in to Hiarth's pleas, he untied the straps, folding the riding gear neatly and wrapping them around his waist, tied loosely as a belt. He didn't want to loose them and explain to the training master about that. "Get outta here," he shoved at Hiarth who shook out his wings, spraying dust and bits of grass all over as he dashed off for the water, flopping into it, eyes a joyful blue as he trilled happily.

The water is wonderful, mine.

D'cien snorted. He was sure the water was wonderful. He turned his attention back to Jackie. "Finally catch up on all those extra chores you had?" His eyes shared the smile, as he knew as well as she did that doing extra chores was where they both spent most of their time.

[Sparrow]

"Oh, loads." Jackie laughed and then got to work helping her wriggling dragon out of her straps. Finth, you're being anything but helpful.

I want to go play in the water too! She squirmed, having the intention of getting out of her straps faster, but really doing the opposite. After some struggle, Jackie got her free, and Finth dashed for the lake.

Jackie dropped her straps unceremoniously to the ground. If she forgot them, which she decided was extremely unlikely, Finth wouldn't. As much as the green disliked wearing them, she knew they were important.

"Extra chores? I don't know what you're talking about!" Jackie grinned innocently. "Why would anyone give those to little old me?" Actually, if she got caught out here she would probably end up with more. There were limited people to catch her though... only those who would have looked to see that she hadn't done her last job.

[Sketchy]

D'cien turned, fingers twined together behind his neck as he watched the dragons play in the water. Hiarth was scratching himself along the bottom, surely mucking up his powdery blue colour. He flipped his wings as well as he could in the water, creating waves that flowed out in a circle around him.

D'cien, feeling a little dirty from his fall, envied him. But he had things to do that didn't involve being wet, and knowing Hiarth, he'd drown with the two dragonets splashing about.

"Ha, you get almost as many extra chores as I do." He grinned. "That's impressive, by the way. My brother always seems amazed by how much trouble I can manage to get into."

[Sparrow]

Finth watched Hiarth, decided that getting all muddy wasn't something she wanted to mimic, and started running around in tight circles through the water instead. She liked being in water and splashing it around; she didn't like getting all dirty in it.

Instead she got dizzy, and dropped into the mud anyway, shaking her head a little to try and clear it. Jackie watched her, grinning, but not about to join her to help or join in the fun. Not unless D'cien did anyway, and it didn't look like he was. Swimming might be fun though.

"That's pretty impressive that you can amaze your brother." From what Jackie had seen of him, he didn't seem easily fazed. Granted, she hadn't seen a lot of T'ien... there were plenty of more exciting people to keep company with around than him. People like his twin brother.

[Sketchy]

Told you the mud would feel wonderful on the itchy parts, Hiarth directed to Finth, shaking under the water to wash away the mud that had tried to surface with him.

"Oh, he's not that hard to amaze, if he thinks you're doing something beyond dimglow, that is." He fluffed the back of his hair a little self-conciously. "While I'll admit sometimes I don't think everything through, I think most of the time things turn out well." But then again, D'cien always thought of himself as flexible, supple, able to bend and not break. His brother, however, reminded him of a badly made hide: likely to snap under the pressure and fling back to hit somebody unsuspecting in the face.

"He's not that bad, once you get to know him. He's just... stiff." Stiff was a good word for T'ien's cool demeanor when he didn't know someone. Glad to have thought of something suitable, D'cien gave a little cat-grin. It was hard to explain twinness to someone who wasn't a twin, but maybe Jackie would understand a little.

[Sparrow]

Finth had no recollection of Hiarth telling her that, but she did not have near as much a drive to argue with him as she did with her rider. Jackie liked that. Hiarth apparently liked mud. She still... didn't, even if it maybe did feel good, and stood to shake herself off.

"Well. Those are unimpressive expectations." Jackie laughed. "And you gotta admit, the less you think something through, the less likely you are to mess up, right?" The more details one had worked out, the more likely one or more of them would go wrong. That was a place where Jackie kept her expectations low.

The little grin that accompanied D'cien's words made Jackie wonder if he was implying something else with that, but couldn't come up with anything suitable. "I'll take your word for it." Even if he wasn't that bad to get to know, she felt getting to know him was still probably a little unlikely. From what she had seen, there was a bit of a difference in the lives of a bronzerider and a greenrider.

[Sketchy]

"Yes, I think that's how it usually goes, especially for me. T'cien doesn't usually believe me." He knew that his brother was a detail-type, so he would let him be- but he would continue with his own sort of style, going as he had since he could remember. Dive in headfirst, and fix problems as they came up.

"We used to be closer, you know. But he... changed, a lot, on his travels." D'cien was thoughtful with his tone. He didn't think his brother had changed in a bad way, just that he had changed. But things like that would cause a person to grow up. EVen though he knew that, another part of him missed the closeness that had once been so apparent.

"Now he's a weyrling like me, though. So maybe we'll be close again." If his voice was a little hopeful, he couldn't help it. Sometimes when things got stressful and busy, one longed for things to be the way they had been.

[Sparrow]

T'cien had probably just never tried it out. But she had known a few of those detail-oriented types before, and was well aware that giving the 'just go' method it's first try was pretty terrifying. Terrifying enough to never actually happen. Eh. They just didn't know what they were missing out on.

"Was he out traveling for a while?" The twins didn't seem that much older than herself- older, definitely, but not so much that they could have had much opportunity for considerable wanderings. Maybe he had managed it... some people were more efficient than others. But Jackie wasn't sure rapid travelings led to memorable experiences either.

Not that she really knew much on the subject at all, but she felt that such assumptions ought to be correct.

"Chances seem good, right?" Jackie smiled a little. "Although I guess I'm not helping." Not only did D'cien spending time with her detract from time he could spend with his brother, the one time Jackie had talked to T'cien, she hadn't felt like he was all that impressed with her. Apparently that was normal though, so she wouldn't worry too much about it.