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Weyrlinghood: Month 8
Mating Flights
Now that your dragons are approaching maturity, you may find that they are increasingly interested in the mating flight exploits of older dragons. Soon, your dragons might be interested in participating themselves!
Males often take to the skies in chase before their female siblings are ready to rise. It's common for a male dragon's first chase to go strangely; often the young male loses interest midway through or misses out on blooding and tires too early to have a chance of catching the flying female. These early efforts are part of the 'growing pains' of the maturation process.
A female dragon's first flight can be a trying experience for her rider. Later on, the rider's past experience along with the dragon's full maturity usually offer the pair warning enough of the impending mating flight that they can prepare, but many first flights catch a rider somewhat off guard. It is possible that a green's rider could think her dragon might be rising soon only to realize that the discomfort she and her lifemate had been experiencing was caused by indigestion or some emotional strain. On the other hand, a woman rider might dismiss the early signs of proddiness as her own cycle's emotional and physical effects, only to be a bit surprised when her dragon rises. This kind of 'oops, surprise' becomes increasingly rare after a first few flights - the hallmarks of a female readying to rise and mate become very clear to a rider after one or two experiences.
First flight or fiftieth, the general process is always the same. A few days ahead of time, the female's rider will experience proddiness. This varies from dragon to dragon and from rider to rider. The rider may experience heightened emotions, irritability, slight unusual amorousness, or mild physical discomfort. As befits their station, dragonriders are expected to behave courteously and control themselves at all times - even when proddy. If a female's rider has any extreme reactions to proddiness he or she may even be confined to his or her weyr for the duration. Any sort of explosive or inappropriate behavior will result in additional consequences after the flight, from loss of privileges to extra duties. If a pattern of such behavior emerges the rider may be required to see a healer for therapy to help them handle their emotional state when proddy. In short, extreme behavior is rare and little tolerated.
When a rider knows his or her female will soon rise, he or she typically is excused from duties outside the Weyr. Drills, watchduty, and other work at the Weyr itself is substituted until the flight occurs. This prevents incidents where a bunch of male dragons follow a female to some place outside the Weyr and wind up blooding a Hold's prize herd! As much as a day or as little as minutes before she actually rises to mate, the female dragon's hide will begin to 'glow'. Its color becomes more intense and sometimes the hue changes, as if it's lit from within. Most females take extra sleep during this time and sometimes the female might begin glowing whilst napping, only to awaken with an urge to fly or blood.
Blooding is a matter of special concern. Many greens do not feel any need to blood at all - a green's flight is usually quick and fast, and she doesn't necessarily need the extra energy and stamina provided by a blood meal. Males, however, tend to blood before any flight; when they sense a female is going to rise soon, they'll take to the feeding grounds in preparation.
Whether the female is green or gold, if she bloods, her rider is well-advised to prevent her from eating any meat. Solid food takes longer to process into energy and can make the dragon feel 'weighed down,' inhibiting speed or stamina of flight. With a green, this might just make her flight less satisfying or lead to troubles in the air. With a gold, however, it may result in a short or low flight and compromise the size of the resulting clutch.
Whether she bloods or not, the female will eventually take off into the sky. Her chasers will pursue. Males of all colors chase greens, with the smaller and more agile blues and browns having some advantage over bronzes in catching the acrobatic, trick-flying females. Only browns and bronzes chase golds. Due to the exceptional empathic capacity of golds, a queen's mating flight tends to create an aura of sensuality throughout the area in which she flies - that is, her Weyr - and most people, animals, dragons and their kin will be mildly affected by or aware of this effect. As a result, it is not common for several greenflights or firelizard flights to occur in the days after a queen flies. Queens rarely fly close together so as not to crowd eggs on the sands, but as a special precaution when a gold is ready to rise the other weyrwomen will take their queens away from the Weyr until the flight is over.
The female will fly as long and high as she can. It's usual for her to play aerobatic tricks to try to shake off her pursuers; this is a natural inclination that ensures the strongest, fastest and cleverest male will win. Eventually the female begins to tire and this is usually the time when the males will strike, making attempts to fly close enough to ensnare the female with wings, legs and tail. Whatever male succeeds will twine neck and tail with the female and, while mating with her, support most of her weight on his wings. The pair descends during the mating and will part to land before hitting the ground. After landing it's common for the mates to roost together for a while, recovering from their experience. The whole process takes only minutes.
The power of the mating urge is so strong that, overtaken by their dragons' needs, the riders of the mating dragons will likewise have sex. This is true regardless of their genders and regardless of their opinions of each other. That said, just what happens in the sky can be a nebulous thing. The riders may influence the dragons, the dragons may influence the riders, a female may lean toward or away from certain males for whatever reason just as a male my chase with more or less determination. But anything can happen in the sky and no matter how two dragons or two riders feel about each other, the call of lust and pheramones is a strong one.
In any case, as the dragons couple, so do their riders.
A mating flight is not, in and of itself, cause for a weyrmating - nor is it cause to break up a weyrmating! In fact, as far as general Weyr mentality goes, it is considered poor form for a weyrmate to hold against his or her lover the outcome of a dragon's mating flight. Sure, emotional dramas can occur, but in general when Rider A and Rider B have sex as a result of a flight, Rider B has no right to expect that Rider A's pre-existing relationship with Rider C will change as a result - and Rider C should try to be gracious about the whole thing. Bottom line, flight sex is just that - sex. Both riders are well within their rights to get dressed and go their separate ways when it's over.
OOC Notes
Check out the OOC mating flight guide. This is required reading for anyone who wants to participate in on-camera flights!
Maleriders: Remember that a weyr's dragon population is about half greens and green dragons typically rise at least annually (usually more) - NPC greenflights are happening all the time. Feel free to RP the effects of NPC flights on your young male dragon. Once you graduate to be a senior weyrling, you are welcome chase in PC flights as you wish.
Femaleriders: While young female dragons have less interest in all the NPC flights that go on, she may still be curious or have questions. Female dragons are not expected to rise in their maiden flight until after they are a turn old. Once that happens, feel free to hold one or say they begin happening off-camera.
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