The End, the Beginning [FirebrandPhlox]

[Ignys]

As her weyrlinghood came to an end, F'ayt found herself facing the trepidation of her future. Threadfall seemed so daunting and somehow more real now that she was so close to joining graduating. Sure, she could chose a squad that did less... dangerous... work, but she didn't feel like Ferrugith would be happy if she did. He was a duty-bound kind of dragon, after all.

As she wandered the dining den, looking for a place to sit and eat, she spotted one of the newest weyrlings; what was their name again? It started with a Q, right? Q...Qu... Quentin! That's right. And their dragon was- oh, forsk it, she wasn't going to try and remember that right now! She smiled, sitting down across from them and offering a friendly half-bow.

"Can I join you?" She asked. She would move if the answer was 'no', of course, but a distraction from her thoughts would be nice. She caught the brownrider knots on their robes, eyes brightening. "Oh, you're a brownrider too! How are you liking weyrlinghood so far? It's exciting right?" Was that too much? It felt like too much. Her nerves were making her babble a bit. Maybe she should stop asking so many questions...

[FirebrandPhlox]

Quentin looked up from their plate of food as someone suddenly addressed them. It was one of the older weyrlings they had seen around the barracks, but had never talked to. Panicking, they nodded that she could join them. Dread started to set in as she sat and began barraging them with questions.

"It's...good," they said, carefully thinking about the words they chose as they spoke. Torrigath had been encouraging them to speak to others more, even when he wasn't around, so Quentin was trying their best to do that, for their partner's sake. "It's very busy. More than being a candidate." They tried to think of more to say, but were coming up empty.

They shifted in their seat uncomfortably and took a large bite of meatroll to buy themselves time to think of something else to say. They chewed slowly until they spotted the knots on her shoulder and connected them with one of the things she had said earlier.

"What is your dragon like?" Quentin asked in a stoic voice. Internally, they were relieved they had come up with a topic that they had in common and should hopefully be easy enough to navigate through.

[Ignys]

F'ayt could see the momentary panic on their face, feeling a little bad about bombarding them with questions. She kept her mouth shut while Quentin took their time answering, nodding along. It was busy, especially early on in weyrlinghood. The shift from going to candidate classes to going to weyrling ones, followed by the flight training later on... she had taken some time to adjust to it as well.

"Mine?" She looked surprised, like she hadn't expected them to ask her a question back. Honestly, F'ayt would have been fine eating in silence if Quentin had been too overwhelmed, but it would be rude to do that now. "He's... very dutiful. He sees everything like a job, but doesn't begrudge the need to do it, if that makes sense." She smiled, pushing food around her plate thoughtfully. "I dont think we got along at first. It felt like he tried to undermine what I was doing sometimes, but I think it comes from a good place... It just took some getting used to."

[FirebrandPhlox]

As they continued to eat, Quentin nodded along at F'ayt's words. It sounded like her dragon was perhaps a bit difficult, but wasn't even as bad as some of the ones in his own weyrling class. It made them all the more thankful that they and Torrigath had hit it off so well from the moment he hatched, even if Torrigath still had a bad habit of speaking the things Quentin had on their mind that they didn't necessarily want broadcasted to others.

"How did you get over the disagreements?" Quentin asked curiously. Perhaps she could provide some insight on how to navigate such rough patches. Quentin and Torrigath hadn't had any large fights yet, and Quentin hoped they never would, but some advice from their senior who had recently gone though weyrlinghood couldn't be a bad thing to have in reserve, just in case.