Learning from Firelizard Failures.

[Zhaymaius / Rivos]

Depending on the morning, K'ivan would be out of his dragonrider weyr and beat either of his personal apprentices to the dragons' section of the infirmary; other mornings, it would be Zhaymaius, much accustomed to the drudge's schedule, that would actually beat even K'ivan!

This would be one of those mornings. The mute apprentice found himself at the dragonhealer's unit well before K'ivan, well before even Rukbat was timed to rise for the day. He would have began mopping the floor, or even reorganizing the shelves; but he quickly realized those duties were done again and again by the new resident drudges, Adite and Rivos. The young pair were asleep in their little nook that they had set aside for them; the little nook that K'ivan had once set aside for Zhaymaius himself to sleep in! He smiled at the memory, and quickly remembered the pet project that he had been working up.

Also asleep in the ward were his firelizards; Joy and Friend were curled up against each other, enjoying each other's warmth, and enjoying the peace that sleep brought. It was something that the young Dragonhealer apprentice worked on every morning he got here early: trying to train one of his firelizards to send a letter. Today, Joy would be the trainee; a fact which came to the green as a surprise as Zhaymaius had to stifle the little green's indignant SQUAWK! as she was awakened by her humanpet.

However, this morning, like many other mornings, would follow a routine of failures. Zhay would try many different formulas just to deliver a message to K'ivan (who else?), and each time Joy would just stare back at him, awkwardly confused. One time, he thought he was making progress when the green firelizard went between. However, she came back with the letter; well, half of it, at least.

By the time the Master Dragonhealer himself came in to check on his ward and charges, he would find Zhaymaius slumped in a chair, frustrated and sulking.

[K'ivan]

Despite his ability to rise in the early morning, Zhaymaius would be hard pressed to beat K'ivan being awake. He knew by now his master often awoken before the sun to go jogging, or rock climbing along the high cliffs of the mountains bordering the Weyr or even to scale the walls of the Weyrbowl itself. For a man who was so paranoid he occasionally had to sit in a room so brightly lit with glows there were no shadows at all, and drew deep concern from random unknown fire-lizards, he spent a lot of time alone. K'ivan invited the former drudge a few times in the past; however their work schedules being as they were, often K'ivan simply forgot. He hoped his apprentice knew it was an open invitation if he ever sought to come with him on one of the bronze rider's forays.

This day was no exception. He had spent the dawn hours jogging through the Rashidi Forest, which was his reason for not being in the dragonhealer's half of the healers' cavern. That and K'ivan had many other duties to attend to while Zhaymaius focused solely on his apprenticeship. To keep him busy K'ivan told him a list of things to do each morning that he hoped would extend to the following day but the industrious student often had done them all before K'ivan could come up with more.

He would have been glad to know Zhaymaius was finally training his fire-lizards. Messengers were highly useful and incredibly important. In fact he had some encouraging news to tell Zhaymaius as he strode toward the ward, brushing back his continuously messed up hair in an effort to straighten it out. He was tying it back into its customary runner's tail when he arrived to see the drudges still asleep and Zhaymaius slumped in miserable frustration. "Hey, Adite, Rivos! Get up you two and get us some Klah... why is there no fresh water here? C'mon."

K'ivan clapped his hands to awaken them. His voice was stern but held no anger, the same tone he used with any drudge or worker that did not do their job. It was not one he used often with Zhaymaius, but then his apprentice had always been diligent and efficient. Waiting until the drudges scrambled up and scurried off to get the dragonhealers some breakfast, K'ivan crossed his arms over his chest and sighed.

Then he turned toward Zhaymaius and produced from the pocket of his tunic a torn piece of parchment. Walking over to the apprentice he presented the other half of the missing message. "You wanted to see me?" K'ivan laughed and winked at his apprentice as he handed the torn message over. "She made it to me but refused to give it up, then when we ripped it, disappeared."

Pulling up a chair to match Zhaymaius' he turned it around so he could lean his arms on the back of it. "Do you remember what you did that time? We can try from there if you do..."

[Zhaymaius / Rivos]

Zhaymaius glowered a little as he heard approaching footsteps; a part of him felt like that he was in trouble for something (it was probably more a side effect of low self-esteem than anything). However, when K'ivan shooed their two drudges off to fetch food and water, it seemed like he wasn't the one "in trouble," so to speak.

And wait, what was that parchment that the Dragonhealer had produced out of his pocket? He leered at it; it was torn, whatever it had been. Wait, that was...! By the egg! Zhaymaius turned a little red as K'ivan retold his accounts of his struggle with the former drudge's firelizard; Zhaymaius nearly glared at the green, who was currently preening on a nearby ledge.

He tilted his head at K'ivan, and began doing a series of peculiar whistles - at the end of the sequence, however, the firelizard merely glared at her humanpet and continued to preen herself. Zhaymaius gave an exaggerated shrug, and looked at K'ivan - of course, it probably didn't help that the green had nothing in her grasp to deliver!

[K'ivan]

Hopefully K'ivan's persistent friendship and willingness to work around his apprentice's inability to speak would eventually stir Zhaymaius' self-esteem. Having the patience of any who have had difficult students (and Zhay was difficult in his own way), K'ivan encouraged the young man as much as he would any who were under him. He treated Zhaymaius different only as much as was necessary to foster communication.

Noticing the attention Zhaymaius paid to the tattered parchment, K'ivan anticipated his apprentice's reaction and waved off any anger he might have toward his green. Zhay might not show it; however K'ivan was a good enough judge of character to guess the other would be embarrassed or frustrated that his fire-lizard failed... sort of... again. "No matter, at least she is trying this time. Better than leaving it in the Weyrlake like she did but a few sevendays ago."

While K'ivan had heard the whistles before, he hadn't quite figured out what they meant. K'ivan licked his lips. Experimentally, he held up his hand toward the green and repeated the whistles. Hopefully it wasn't Zhaymaius' version of an insult.

[rivos]

Rivos, apparently, had worked himself overmuch the day before; of course, that wasn't saying much, seeing as how the lamed young man had an awful tendency to work himself to pain and exhaustion. He didn't even know just how sharding late he had slept in until K'ivan's voice, unusually stern, split the peaceful air. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Rivos apologized profusely as he whirled around from his bed and to his feet, still dressed in yesterday's sweat-stained work clothes. The sharp landing caused a jab of pain up his foot and through his leg; a jab of pain that Rivos had to work through!

He couldn't believe it; he had shirked his duties for extra sleep! Shame on him! He could only hope the Master Dragonhealer, his idol of idols, could forgive his uselessness that morning.
And secretly, he hoped that K'ivan would invite him to whatever adventures they had ahead of him - even though, out of outright fear of rejection and embarrassment, he kept these sky-high wants to himself. After all, his ultimate dream of being just like the honorable man before him most was, well, just that - a silly, passing dream. Still, it gave him something to work for, and he was definitely proud of being able to work with the Master Dragonhealer.

He quickly brewed the klah from the materials that were on hand in the caverns for such an on-the-spot occasion, while his cohort stumbled off to find some fresh water. After the klah was done, he found a meal had been shuttled down from the kitchens already - perhaps one of the dragonhealers had ordered it before he woke up. He grabbed it (the plate and food were still warm, thank Faranth!), and scurried back towards K'ivan and Zhaymaius, almost out of breath already. Fardles, he couldn't be so out of breath, he had a full day ahead of him! "H-here you go! I'm s-sorry for sleeping in..." he bowed his head shamefully towards the dragonhealers as he offered the klah and foodstuffs on the platter. "I-if there's anything else I can do, please tell me! I am at your service, s-sirs." And secretly he hoped they would take the warm tray away from him now, as he could feel his hands begin to ache again, the warmth making him "remember" the pain of the burns through muscle memory.

[K'ivan]

As K'ivan waited to see what the results of his whistles and gesture were, he noticed Rivos come back laden with drink and food. He glanced at the drudge, noting not for the first time that he was limping rather badly. K'ivan made a mental note to talk to the new healer about Rivos' limp. He wasn't sure how old the injury was because he hadn't had time to ask Rivos. However, even if it was an old injury, maybe they could still do something about it. Had he known how much pain Rivos lived in daily, he could have recommended something. Unfortunately, the drudge was rather good at hiding that aspect from K'ivan. If Zhaymarius knew or noticed, he had not communicated this with his master.

At least one of Rivos' secret hopes was achieved as K'ivan took the tray from the drudge. "Thank you." Despite his initial reaction to the workers, now that they were doing their job, he did not reprimand them again. "Save your apologies Rivos, just be more aware of the time from now on. Fresh water and klah are imperative. Be sure to tell Adite that as well." K'ivan gave the drudge a stern glance as he set the platter down. Then he gestured Rivos away. "Best to get cleaned up, quick bath, clean clothes... then come back when you're done." As soon as Adite arrived with the water, K'ivan intended to tell him the same thing. In his opinion, no matter what their position, anyone who was assisting in the healers' caverns should be as clean as possible to avoid possible infection to the patients.

All that being said, he turned away from Rivos and the food then and repeated both his gesture and the set of whistles to Zhaymarius' green fire-lizard. He held up the scrap of hide again as well.

[Zhaymaius / Rivos]

Zhaymaius gave a quick smile toward Rivos; it hadn't been too long ago that he himself was in the drudge's footsteps (and looking rather scraggly himself, at that! K'ivan had more or less taken it upon himself to make sure the former drudge lopped off all that excess hair!). The apprentice dragonhealer watched as Rivos, with a wince in his eye, handed the tray over to the Master. Zhay was confused, since he had never noticed such looks of pain before. Even as Rivos limped off to go bathe himself, Zhaymaius could only wonder how long he had been like that!

His gaze returned to K'ivan and the firelizard. At the first series of whistles from the Master Dragonhealer, the firelizard did nothing, looking rather confused in the process. However, when K'ivan repeated the series of whistles with the tore up note-scrap in his hand, the firelizard flew into action: she did a loop-de-loop in the air, before snatching the tore-up note from K'ivan's hand and finally blinking between, only to reappear an instant later, chittering angrily at the Dragonhealing pair, and holding the parchment very tightly in her mouth, slobbering all over it.

[K'ivan]

"Whoa, easy there Joy. Take it gently." K'ivan said, snatching his hand in surprise at the green's rather vicious attack on the paper. K'ivan kept his hand out as he watched the fire-lizard's reaction. It didn't take long for her to figure out what he wanted and that was good. Ignoring her angry 'words', he gestured to her again and repeated the whistles that had brought her to him in the first place. "Give it to me now, Joy." Forgetting for an instant she was not Impressed to him, he created an image of her bringing the message to him and placing it in his hand.

Aridron responded to his owner's imagery by appearing in front of K'ivan, confused at being summoned. He squawked and looked from K'ivan to Zhaymaius as he circled the room once, then landed on the table near the food. Though he eyed it, he settled in place, sitting on his haunches as he waited.

"Oh! Perfect, Aridron can be our demonstrator." K'ivan grinned and repeated the whistles, showing the imagery of Aridron landing on his out-stretched arm to his fire-lizard. "Zhaymaius, one of the important things to remember is to keep the image of what you want Joy ... or Friend ... to do securely in your mind while training them. Eventually they'll understand the whistles without the need for images; however fire-lizards are telepathic creatures. They rely on both emotions and imagery for their communication."

While K'ivan was speaking, Aridron hopped off the table and glided toward his owner, responding to the non-verbal communication. He landed on K'ivan's arm and looked quite pleased with himself. Though he was older than Joy and Friend, his health had been such for the first Turn of his life that K'ivan couldn't begin training him until a few months ago. His color was darkening too though it remained an odd yellow-ish hue that gave little indication whether he was a brown or bronze fire-lizard.

"Good job Ari." K'ivan scratched his fire-lizard on the ridges and Aridron responded by bumping his head eagerly against the dragonhealer's hand. "Some people reward them with treats; however I've found that rewarding them with praise and a good scratch is enough... at least for Aridron. He's not as stomach-oriented as some fire-lizards are and I think that may be one of the reasons."

He paused scratching the fire-lizard long enough to pull out a small scrap of hide. It was scribbled on and well used. "Can you get Joy to simply come to you? Lets work on that first. Then we can work on her taking this from you without drooling all over it." He ended his statement in a soft laugh.

[Zhaymaius / Rivos]

Zhaymaius also seemed startled at Joy's eagerness to gripping and slobbering the scrap of hide she had been requested to fetch; was it really that hard? The apprentice looked on in bemusement, and then watched as an equally confused Aridron floated around the room, as if surprised he were here. The mute's eyes widened at K'ivan explained training a firelizard to him; so that's what he had been doing wrong? He was fairly certain that he hadn't experimented with the imagery before!

Zhaymaius, taking the Master Dragonhealer's instructions, looked straight at the green firelizard in question, and made a different set of whistles; this time, he made sure to send a firm image of her flying toward him. To Zhaymaius's astonishment, it worked; Joy calmly glided across the room to meet her humanpet. She then settled on his shoulders and nudged the side of his face, as if begging for attention as her reward. Smiling, Zhaymaius scratched the firelizard's headknobs as a reward for a job well done.

[K'ivan]

((Wow, how embarrassing and sad... you've been waiting a turn for me to post on this thread. Fortunately, this is an easy thread to continue whenever.))



K'ivan nodded and smiled as he saw Joy respond to the whistles. She was fast learner it seemed. "That's great." The Dragonhealer paused a moment, and then added: "Another note about treats, you'll run out of treats fairly fast if you're giving one to every fire-lizard that comes your way... you'd be surprised how much the word travels and suddenly they all want one." K'ivan rocked back on his heels as he winked at Zhaymaius.

"All right, lets see if we can get her to come three times in a row. Then we'll work on getting her to come to me." Once Joy got the hang of going from one person to another, they'd have to figure out how to convince her not to drool on the parchment. K'ivan had never seen a fire-lizard slobber on their messages before, it was quite amusing. He'd seen them bite through the hide, tear it with their claws and even eat it (that had required quite a bit of explanation!), but drooling was new. Nevertheless, they'd figure out how to prevent her from doing that, he had confidence in his apprentice.