Dragon Rider Play

Lucious looked at Mark and nodded. "As you wish. Pass on the homework information, please. And tell your comrade, Blade, that he will be doing twice the work tomorrow as he chose to skip out." He picked up the stack of supplies and handed it to Mark. "Good afternoon."

Tithenor stood and walked out, cradling Mellon gently. He didn't return the smile, distracted by his thoughts.

Blade made his way straight to the blacksmiths for the next class. He didn't want to talk to anyone, and the idea of beating up inanimate objects seemed really appealing right now.

Mark nodded a thanks and went straight to the medical wing and asked to see Pat.

Mellon whined softly in Tithenor's arms. What was wrong? Was it something Mellon did?

Krudd started to say something then paused, staring at Blade's head. "Ya know ya got a hedgehog on yer head, boy?"

The dragon considered then chuffed in approval, moving off to let Mark go in to see Pat.

Pat was feeling better, though not ready to get out of bed yet. She sat against the headboard finger grooming her dragon's feathers and trying out different names. The dragon didn't like any of them, and some of them she was shaking her head as soon as it left her mouth.

Tithenor sighed, rubbing the back of Mellon's neck. "It's not your fault, little one. You are not to blame."

"Huh?" Blade put a hand to his head and felt his dragon. "Oh. There you are, Erika."

Mark cleared his throat as he neared Pat. "Hey man, I got something for you to do..." He explained what the homework was, as well as what Lucious expected of them, and lastly gave Pat his notes to look over that highlighted what was said at the lecture.

Mellon rubbed his head against his rider. Could he help? He didn't want his rider to feel bad. He wanted him to feel happy.

Erika grumbled, shifting her perched to get more comfortable.
Krudd watched, honestly curious. "Can I see the tyke?" he asked gruffly. "Never tried to saddle a Blade before." He held out a gloved hand hopefully. New breeds to outfit made him act like a kid in a candy shop.

"Thank you, mark," Pat smiled, taking everything and looking through it all. "What's the teacher like?"

Tithenor smiled faintly at his dragon. "/No, little one. This is something I must discover myself./'

Blade crouched down so Krudd could have a good view. "Go right ahead. I just don't think she's going to get off my head anytime soon without scalping half my head with her."

Mark shrugged. "I thought he was all right. He tried to make it somewhat interesting, and seemed more than willing to answer questions and have some related discussions to the topic."

Mellon purred and licked Tithenor's cheek comfortingly.

The half-dwarf leaned over, studying the dragon. Gently he picked the hair from her spines, getting a better look at her. Erika didn't like the foreign touch and whipped her head around, locking her fangs on the dwarf's gloved finger. Krudd wasn't bothered, he just lifted his hand, and the hatchling came with, still growling and trying to chew through the glove.

"That sounds better than I expected," Pat smiled. "You aren't going o be late for the next class, right?"

"Thank you," Tithenor sighed. He noticed Blade in the forge with the teacher and chose to wait outside.

Blade frowned. "Erika, please be nice. Let the nice man admire you. He wants to see about how to make a saddle so I can actually ride you when you're bigger. He's now going to hurt you in the slightest."

"I still have a few minutes." Mark assured Pat. "I mostly wanted to make sure you didn't fall behind." He said with a smile.

Mellon licked Tithenor's hand in an attempt to comfort his rider.

Erika growled but released the man's finger. She wasn't worried about getting hurt, she didn't like him touching her!
"It's okay, lad, a lot of the wee ones are obstinate," Krudd chuckled. "They want to make sure their opinion is known but don't know how to do it small like the grown blokes do, so they go big." He held the Blade dragon in one hand, muttering to himself as he gently nudged her wings apart, examined her legs, her back her tail, her head. "This'll be a challenge, fer sure."

Pat returned the smile. Mark was sweet. She liked that. "Thank you, Mark, I appreciate it. I am sure you enjoyed the class immensely?"

Tithenor looked down then touched his nose to Mellon's without really thinking about it.

Blade sighed a little. This was still assuming he would even be allowed to ride. "I get the feeling Erika will always be spunky." He stroked her head a little in an attempt to calm her a little. He knew she didn't like it, but if she wanted Blade to be her rider, that meant she needed a saddle, and he had no clue where to even start to make one. Krudd did.

Mark smiled. "I did like it a lot. The history is very interesting." He looked at the time. "I have to get to the forge for class now. Do you want me to stop by during my free period and make sure that my notes were understandable?" He offered. Mark stood and picked up his Frillback.

Mellon crooned affectionately at his rider. The little dragon nuzzled his rider lovingly.

Erika chittered, but stopped moving because that's what Blade wanted, and that was better than his fear and worry. He was still worried, but not as sickly afraid. She didn't like that.
Krudd snorted and handed the little dragon back. "There ya go. That wasn't so horrible, was it?"
The dragon glared at him and snorted.
"Apparently it was." The dwarf waved a hand, indicating the numerous anvils lined up throughout the room. "You get first pick. You'll be sharing it with yer mates sometimes"

"I'd like that, thank you," Pat said quietly. "Don't be late!"
The Frillback purred happily.

Tithenor smiled faintly then drew away. The others were coming. He pulled on his mask once more and walked into the classroom.

Blade stroked Erika as he picked an anvil. His keen eye found what he deemed to be the best one. Maybe not the prettiest or least worn, but this one was good quality with good metal.

Mark smiled and waved as he left for the forges. He was glad Pat seemed to be recovering well enough.

Mellon climbed up to ride on Tithenor's shoulder for a little bit. He wanted a good view at least for the start of this class.

Eika sniffed then jumped out of Blade's arms onto the anvil. She circled around on the top, sniffing and licking it. What was this? Was it eatable? Nope, not eatable, and too big to move, so what were they supposed to do with it?

Tithenor touched Mellon as he walked in, looking around.

"Find a forge, two to a forge, get together with yer mates," Krudd grumbled at the trainees.

Blade smiled. "It's an anvil, Erika. It's used to help shape hot metal into things like swords and knives."

Mark walked in just in time to hear Krudd and asked the half-dwarf a question. "May I have a forge alone for today? One of my comrades was injured earlier today, and is recovering. He will be back tomorrow, but may I share a forge with him?"

Erika thought about this. Knife? She reached up, tugging at Blade's sleeve where the no-no knife was hidden. Like this knife? That was what the word "knife" meant, right?

Krudd considered then nodded. "Aye, long as yer other two mates don't care. Keep 'em side by side. Hop to it, ladies!"

Tithenor made no outward reaction, but inwardly his stomach clenched. That meant partnering up with Blade, who had been angry with him. Elves tended to hold grudges. Did humans? He started moving toward Blade slowly.

Blade saw Tithenor and looked down at his dragon. "Yup. That's a knife. We will be learning how to make them, I think." He was still a little hurt by the elf, but it appeared they had to get along at least for this class. Blade was usually pretty slow to trust, and slower to forgive. "Hey." He say unenthusiastically as Blue came over.

Mark got the anvil next to Blade and Tithenor and awaited further instruction.

Blue dipped his head to Blade, his face a mask. He stood properly, waiting to hear what they must do. He couldn't help watching Erika scratch at the metal a bit like a chicken on the ground looking for food. What was she after?

Mark's dragon didn't like the anvil. It was cold! So he sat on Mark's shoulders primly.

Krudd gave them a moment to get settled then started talking, sounding bored. "As Riders, yer going to be travelin' a lot. Most towns you go to will have a blacksmith. Not all blacksmiths will have the first idea of how to make or mend dragon gear. You are going to learn how to make your gear from scratch, how to mend it in the field, along with any other useful items I can teach you. Yer starting now rather than when yer dragons get bigger because it's going to take you as long as it takes your dragons to grow just to get the basics right. You'll be practicing on other rider's dragons, other animals, things like that, and you don't have to wait for your dragons to grow up before learning how to get yourselves outfitted. Questions?"

Blade raised his hand. "Will we be learning to make and mend weapons too? Alterrion at least mentioned if we break the ones he let us use, we would have to make or mend replacements."

Mellon tilted his head down at the anvil. What a weird thing! Erika seemed to like it. He crawled down and stepped on it. Oh! It was nice and cool! He started to lick the cold metal happily.

"Aye," Krudd grunted. "First things first, ya gotta learn to work a forge, and saddles are easier step by step than weapons, but take a hell of a lot longer to make. Unless you're a real arse to yer weapons, they'll last you a good while, so I'll be starting you out on saddles, then we'll be takin' a break to work weapons, then back to saddles. Otherwise, you'll get bored of 'em."

Erika gave Mellon an indignant look and chirped. That was her anvil! Wait... She leaned over to look. When Mellon licked i it was shiny for a minute!

Blade nodded. He knew a very little bit of crafting, but never knew the full process. He was interested to learn how to make stuff out of metal.

Mellon ignored Erika and kept licking the cold metal. He liked the taste and the coolness of it.

Erika tried licking it again, but it wasn't as shiny when she did it, so she just watched Mellon.

"Now, let's get you pretty little ladies smelting!" the half-breed roared then began walking them through the process from beginning to end of how to work a forge. Once they'd mastered - more or less - that process, he started them out making little things. Buckles, tacks, and even a few horse shoes.

Blade seemed to pick it up pretty fast. His sharp eye on things shiny and metal allowed him to smelt to the right temperature, and his clever hands were smooth and steady. The only thing he messed up some was remembering which tools to use, but otherwise seemed to get the hang of it.

Tithenor didn't like the forge. It was too hot and stuffy! But he did his best, and he didn't do too badly. The problem was he was a perfectionist and took far too long on any single item. When they were finished, they gleamed in the light and were beautiful as well as functional, but Krudd still scolded him soundly for taking an hour just to make three saddle tacks. The elf merely bowed and apologized, showing nothing.

Blade, on the other hand, made a lot more than Tithenor. His weren't nearly as pretty, but actually well made and very sturdy.

Mark did decently. He accidentally overheated his metal to start, so he had to wait for it to cool some before he could work it into several tacks.

Krud looked over Blade's work and nodded in approval, showing him a few tricks in how to improve. He moved on to Mark, showing how to improve, moving from one to another.

The Frillback was fascinated by the hot metal. He kept trying to poke it with his claws and once tried to eat it.