"Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir."

Weyrlinghood

Madelynda's past illnesses causing her to be one of the weakest weyrlings in the bunch, strength activities like bag-tossing and firestone-bashing gave Madelynda a great deal of difficulty at the onset of weyrlinghood. As a result, the weyrlingmasters instructed her to spend extra time on such chores so that her body could catch up. With a lot of hard work and concerted effort -- as well as encouragement from Phediath, whose expectations for her rider were extremely high from the moment of Impression -- Madelynda became almost as strong as the bulk of the weyrlings. Indeed, by the time the weyrlings flew their first Threadfall on the cusp of graduation, Madelynda proved worth her salt.

In the first month of weyrlinghood, Madelynda acquired the habit of taking full responsibility for all of Phediath's and her actions, always trying to do so with a strong heart and serious attitude. It is rumored that this behavior emerged after an early instruction/confrontation with Weyrlingmaster Merien, when she was criticized for sitting idly by when other weyrlings were creating a mess of the living cavern during a food fight.

One of the hardest challenges of Madelynda's weyrlinghood proved to be the control and separation of her and Phediath's emotions. Though her ability to do so improved over time, it is something of which she must always be conscious. Phediath's first mating flight, and the fact that her control over her lifemate would be of critical importance then for Phediath's sake, was Madelynda's inspiration to develop this skill.

Phediath proved to be a careful, rather even-tempered dragonet, more prone to watch and observe other dragons before attempting any training activities, such as gliding and flying. At times, this embarrassed her rider, especially in front of the weyrlingmasters. Hold-bred and completely unschooled in all things draconic, Madelynda found herself hoping that some sort of instinctive knowledge within the young queen would prevail in such situations. Of course, the opposite usually occured, with Phediath requiring copious information and encouragement from her rider. Incidentally, Phediath's laborious and analytical nature as well as her complete commitment to "looking before leaping" created conflict between the young queen and her eager clutchmate, M'hryn's bronze Talibenth. Madelynda, luckily, had less trouble with her own lessons, such as flamethrower operation.

Phediath's almost clinical curiosity did not always serve her well; indeed, on occasion it veered the pair into trouble. A case in point was the night when Marina's brown Channeth asked Phediath to take a look at his rider, Marina, who was (inconveniently) in the living cavern at the time. Liz's blue Dioth, Phediath's clutchmate, followed along and when the curious queen pushed her head into the cavern -- and when Dioth simultaneously did the same -- she promptly got stuck. The resulting chaos, enhanced by the fact that Talibenth accidentally impeded the dragons' efforts to free themselves, ended in Assistant Weyrlingmaster Rykel's punishment: no visits to the living cavern for M'hryn, Liz, and Madelynda for a sevenday.

On the other hand, Phediath's curious nature inspired in the young queen a strong aesthetic sense, resulting in an appreciative and awe-struck view of the world and its objects. VTOLs, sunlight refracting off her hide, Belior, the sky, the eighth set of light-blue straps Madelynda made (the beauty-hungry queen would not settle for the ugliness of the first seven), and everything else around her -- excluding Ista's obsidian sand, which she has hated from the moment she broke shell -- she observes and examines with admiring respect. It is often the best way to distract her, and her rider has often diverted Phediath's attention by pointing out some beautiful thing for Phediath to investigate and consider.

After two long, life-altering Turns, the newly-strong Madelynda and her even-tempered queen joined the Queens Wing. She and the other weyrlings of Neith's clutch joined together to honor the Weyrleaders and weyrlingmasters at the graduation ceremony with a well-intentioned (if ill-sounding) song.

From that moment until the end of her days -- she realized with a serious and sinking feeling -- she was weyrwoman.

• Madelynda learns firestone bashing and bag tossing (logs)
• The weyrlings fly their first Threadfall (log)
• Phediath and Talibenth glide across the bowl (log)
• Phediath flies for the first time (log)
• Madelynda's flamethrower lesson (log)
• Weyrling-pairs in the living cavern (log)
• Phediath's first mating flight (log)