The Trouble with Straps

Jenna talks a bit to J'radin, and gives him some tips on stitching with hide.

Jenna - Friday, May 24, 2002, 6:55 PM
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Your location's current time: 19:07 on day 26, month 5, Turn 40, of the Tenth Pass. It is a spring evening.

Niyath> Fort Weyr Bowl, by the weyrling barracks
Niyath> The Bowl of Fort Weyr, a large, nearly featureless plain surrounded by steep mountain cliffs, stretches out before you. It is vaguely oval in shape, long from the southwest to the northeast; you are standing near the wall northwest of its center. To the west is a cavern, carved into the cliffside, where newly-Impressed dragonriders live with their young dragons before they have been fully trained. When they join a regular fighting Wing, the young riders are ready to inhabit weyrs of their own.
Niyath> To the south is the fenced off area where the Weyr's herds are kept. Along the north rim of the bowl, to the east of here, are the junior queens and weyrleaders weyrs, and the entrance to the Hatching ground. The center of the bowl, off which is the entrance to the large living caverns, stretches out to the southeast.
Niyath> Contents:
Niyath> J'radin
Niyath> Neilluth(#11373IJep$)

Niyath> Neilluth is sitting still, watching the Bowl with his great, whirling blue eyes. Every so often, his tail flicks restlessly.

Niyath> Niyath yawns rather indolently. SHe half rises, stretching and unfurling wings, much like a sleepy feline. It is, however, much to much trouble to get up, because she settles right back down in the same spot, wings refolding and then drooping slightly from their coiled position on her back. Neilluth is given a long look, and then she absently nudges a ball of straps out of the way. Hers, by the length on them. Jenna is nowhere in sight. But a small piece of metal gleams before her, right where her head had been resting before.

Dragon> Niyath senses that Neilluth's mindvoice is lush darkness with amber undertones, with a tiny speck of curiosity peeking out all golden warm. <What is that *image of metal glint* you lie upon, Niyath?>

Niyath> Neilluth senses that Niyath's tones are cool, a refreshing trickle of a mountain stream. << I do not know. It is strange. I do not remember it before I napped. >> Of course, that was hours ago. << Perhaps you should ask your rider? Mine is still playing with- >> an image of a flamethrower is given, and then exploded into tons of tiny metal pieces, not unlike the one before her.

Dragon> Neilluth bespoke Niyath with << Ah. My rider hopes all is well with yours? >>

Niyath> Neilluth senses that Niyath sounds faintly amused. << She is... irritated. She cannot get it back together. >> A brief image is flashed of Jenna sitting on her cot, surrounded by bits of a flamethrower assembly. << I told her to be more careful taking it apart. >> A pause and she asks, << Would your rider know how to fix it? >>

Niyath> J'radin looks up from the straps he's repairing and shakes his head at Neilluth, then goes back to his work.

Dragon> Niyath senses that Neilluth sends blue-tinged disappointment. <He does not know. It is not his way to keep things together well. He claims to have been trained a Healer, but feels much better being a rider.>

Niyath> Neilluth senses that Niyath sounds surprised. << I did not know he was a Healer. Aisheth's rider says that my Jenna is to be a Healer for us. But I do not think she likes it much. >>

You step out through the cavern's arch into the open space of the bowl.
Fort Weyr Bowl, by the weyrling barracks
The Bowl of Fort Weyr, a large, nearly featureless plain surrounded by steep mountain cliffs, stretches out before you. It is vaguely oval in shape, long from the southwest to the northeast; you are standing near the wall northwest of its center. To the west is a cavern, carved into the cliffside, where newly-Impressed dragonriders live with their young dragons before they have been fully trained. When they join a regular fighting Wing, the young riders are ready to inhabit weyrs of their own.
To the south is the fenced off area where the Weyr's herds are kept. Along the north rim of the bowl, to the east of here, are the junior queens and weyrleaders weyrs, and the entrance to the Hatching ground. The center of the bowl, off which is the entrance to the large living caverns, stretches out to the southeast.
Contents:
J'radin
Neilluth(#11373IJep$)
Niyath(#999Oaep)

J'radin looks up and smiles at Jenna before jabbing his finger with the awl as he adjusts Neilluth's new set of riding straps. "It may help you put the flamethrower back together if you have all the pieces." He nods to where Niyath was laying.

Jenna comes out, saying absently, "Niyath, please. I'm quite well aware that you're awake. But I have to find -" She blinks a bit, catching sight of the large bronze, a salute going up, but not quite landing as she brightens. "You found it? Where?"

J'radin says "Oh, it's amazing what you find when you flip over a few gold dragons now and then. At ease, goldrider. I'm too busy in straps to salute you."

Jenna's snappy mood seems to be evaporating rapidly as she heads to Niyath's head. The queen is looking down at the bit of metal in question. "They'd have my ears if I didn't salute, sir. - And *yes* Niyath, that's the bit I've been looking for for the last, oh, half /day/." She snatches it up, looking amused. "Well, I couldn't tell you what it looked like, Because I didn't know myself." She turns back to J'radin, bemused, "Looking for it all day and she was sleeping on it. Didn't think to tell me - and of course that I was fiddling with things just like it never entered her mind. How are you this evening, J'radin? Have you and Raeche stopped hissing at each other? Or is that why you're out here?"

J'radin frowns. "Hissing at each other? Nah. We're above that sort of thing." Just then his stomach rumbles. Could it be that he's been avoiding the areas near the Records Rooms, including the Living Caverns? "How's your training going? Niyath looks nice and big now. Almost as big as Neilluth."

Jenna gives the bronzerider a candid look, but lets the topic be steered. "It's going well enough. Or will be, once I can get that flamethrower together. Just about everyone's in the air, and the others are flaming - well, half of 'em. Hang on a second and let me put this up so I don't lose it again." She ducks back into the barracks. She isn't gone long, and her cot is right by the entrance. Back in a moment, she's also bearing a skin of juice and some meatrolls. "Snack. Want one?"

J'radin looks over and grins. "Certainly. Thank you." He accepts gratefully, but seems to be content with just one. Then he turns back to the straps. "I'm lousy at this. And to think I was trying to be a Healer when I got Searched. Just look at this stitching." He holds up a rather pathetic attempt of interlacing XXXX patterns, with some pulled too tightly, others too loosely. "I'm just no good at it. And I wondered why I was the oldest Junior Apprentice at the Hall."

Jenna grins a bit. "Well, I could offer you some pointers? I don't know about stitching cloth, or skin, but I'm not half bad at stitching hide. You kinda had to learn - runner make their own shoes, see. I could teach you a better whip stitch, if you like? Tons faster and it might even be, well..." She stops short of the word 'neater'.

J'radin arches an eyebrow. "All right then, let the Weyrling teach the Rider. Almost-rider, at any rate."

The napkin wrapped food is settled out of the way, and Jenna settles next to him, after retrieving her own straps. They're impossibly neatly sewn, with a peculiar whip-stitch design common to Fort Sea. "'Kay. You know that it's much easier to sew if you punch the holes through with an awl first, right? And it's just a simple half loop stitch. Easy to keep at the right tension."

J'radin points at the somewhat jagged line of holes already punched, both in the strap leather and in his thumb. "Yeah, I've got that part down pretty well."

Jenna asks, "Ever used a guide before?"

J'radin blinks. "A guide? You mean like, someone who brings you to the next hold, and knows when the Thread is going to fall, and how far you can make it 'till you have to take shelter?"

Jenna grins and shakes her head. "No. Like a guide to keep your holes straight?" She reaches over to touch his leather. "That's why your stitches are off. Your holes are all wonky." Wonky. Technical term that.

J'radin laughs. "I suppose this is why the Surgery masters never let me do much more than observe and clean up afterwards. So you mean I should actually lay out the hides and punch holes along a line. Well, it looks like P'tod wasn't just making me do things for the sake of telling me what to do. Thanks. You said you were a runner?"

Jenna nods. "Yeah. Made my first pair of running shoees when I was ten. And bore the blisters after for sevendays." She grins wryly. "What I'd suggest? Get a bit of leather - oh, about yay long." She holds out her arms to demonstrate, about a meter apart. "Thin, mind you, not like the stuff we use. *Carefully* do the holes in it, up and down each side, and spaced right. Use a spacer and measure if you need to. Then, you can keep that as a guide, and use it until it becomes second nature."

J'radin nods. "Neilluth thanks you. Well, not yet, but he will when I get these fitting better. I rubbed him raw around the neck with my first botched attempt. I finally traded off chores with Brees and she made me a set that worked." He looks slyly at the young goldrider. "I don't suppose you've got any chores that you'd like to trade for, eh? No, I know, it'd be too much of a scandal."

Jenna grins. "No, but in the interest of a queen keeping her bronzes happy, I'll make the guide for you." She flushes slightly and clears her throat. "The whip stitch is easy. Just bring the needle up through, then around over the two bits of leather, and back through the same way, pulling it through the loop you just made. Gets the stitches off the leather face, and makes it smoother for you and Neilluth."

J'radin gives an oh, and tries his hand at it for a little bit, catching on enough to make a slight difference, but he's never going to win any prizes for his riding straps. "Ah well. So have you had your first flight yet together? How about between training?"

Jenna doesn't kibbitz on his sewing, just watching in silence for a moment or two. "Oh, yes. We've been flying together for, oh, a little over a month now. Maybe a little more. But not between yet. And we're still not allowed to leave the weyr. *That* was something I didn't count on. Getting restless staying here day in and day out."

J'radin says "Must be difficult for a runner. Well, former runner. But the freedom of flying will soon outweigh that. 'Specially once you get *between* training. Let me know when that is, and I'll see about taking you out of the Weyr on a supervised 'location learning' flight."

Jenna brightens. "I'd like that. Thank you. More than 'pays' for that guide, which'll take me all of about ten minutes to make. You'll have to put up with Niyath and I for far longer."

J'radin mutters for a moment, something about better company and Raeche in there. "Well, thanks for your help, Jenna. I've got to see if I can catch P'ter. I still need to get my wing assignment."

Neilluth whuffles his rider and croons for a moment, then goes back to watching Niyath watching Jenna.

Jenna's lips quirk in a wry smile. "And I should pop that flamethrower back together." Her tone is optomistic. "I'd imagine he's hiding from his hide work. Did you know he has a secret store of wines?" She heads back into the barracks with a little wave.