Ryan didn't have any trouble getting up that early, and neither did Yue. They were used to early mornings back home, when the sun didn't set for four months, and didn't rise for four months, either. 'Bright and early' took on a new meaning when it was always bright.

Faith, however, was not a morning person.

Come on, Faith, get up, Lapis urged for the third time, nudging her rider. Faith waved her off half-heartedly.

"Too early," she mumbled. Lapis nudged her again, hard enough to roll her over into the sand. Faith sputtered when she landed on her face, spitting out sand. "Alright, fine, I'm awake!"

Corey and Vyren joined the group outside. Ryan had been invited to join, he saw with a little surprise, and then shrugged. Eh. The weyrleaders probably all thought you could never practice too much.

As soon as everyone had gathered around, the instructor, an older rider he remembered had helped them all as newly bonded, had them fan out so the dragons wouldn't hit each other. This would be interesting...

Faith and Lapis picked a spot just far enough away from the others that they wouldn't be in anyone's way, and then waited for more instructions. Something interesting had to be happening, they'd never done anything like this before.

Ryan wasn't used to working with so many others. There were fewer dragons and riders up north, so there were much smaller groups for these kinds of lessons.

When they were instructed, the dragons all took off, learning how to fly in groups without being in danger of hitting each other or anything. There were only a few minor collisions, luckily, and the dragons soon learned how to talk to each other as a group and avoid hitting each other mid-flight.

It took a bit of doing, but Lapis got the hang of flying with a group pretty quickly. She just had to make sure that she didn't get too close to the others and get clipped by someone's wings.

Yue was having a bit of a rougher time with it. She was much more used to solo flights, so flying with a group was unusual and unfamiliar to her.

Vyren took a little while to get used to flying with others, since he much prefered to fly by himself or with one or two others. Corey never got hit though, luckily.

He saw another rider actually fall off when a dragon got too close and hit the rider with his wing. Corey winced in sympathy as the dragon caught his rider, fluttering down to the ground to let him get oriented again. He really hoped he never fell off.

Faith saw the other rider get knocked off of his dragon and winced a bit. That looked terrifying, even when you knew your dragon would catch you. There are some things that you just never wanted to happen.

Vyren flew a little ways away from the others so he and Corey could sit back and watch. There was a sort of grace to it all, Corey noted. Even as the dragons ducked and dodged and just barely avoided hitting each other, they were still graceful. Much moreso in the air than he'd ever seen them be on land.

Faith laughed and held on as Lapis went into a few dives and rolls. She wasn't sure why she enjoyed it so much, since it wasn't something she would have liked before having a dragon, but now she did.

Ryan and Yue moved out of the group as well to watch. It was clear that the younger dragons and riders were having fun, just enjoying the time to fly.

Corey blinked when he noticed a pair making their way up to the mountain, a dark blue dragon bigger than Vyren and a small person perched atop. The dragon looked lumbering, like it was unused to walking, and he didn't see any wings. The hell?

Xander had gotten bored, after helping Calypso to make her own nest and hide all her shiny glittery things. So the two had decided to go visit the mountain weyr. No problem, right?

Except that it was taking a lot longer than she'd thought, and Calypso was still grumbling about the lack of water. But they knew there was a big lake up at the top near the weyr, so Calypso was headed for that.

Faith didn't notice them right away, but Lapis did.

Faith, look, Lapis said, turning so Faith could see. That's Calypso!

"What?" Faith asked, turning around to look. She could see the massive dragon making its way slowly towards the weyr, and grinned. "Let's go down and see." Lapis nodded and dove down to get closer.

Yue noticed the ocean dragon as well, but didn't comment. Why would an ocean dragon be so very far away from its natural habitat? They couldn't fly, so why would one be in the mountains? Well, it wasn't any of her business.

"I think that's Xander and Calypso," Ryan commented. Before he could ask Yue to get closer, the dragon heaved a sigh and did so anyways.

Xander noticed the other three heading over to come take a look and she shook her head. The phrase 'fish out of water' sprang to mind, but she didn't say anything about it, just patted Calypso's side.

"Missed us already?" Corey teased with a grin, since he arrived first.

"No, we got bored." Xander shrugged. "All the good stuff's been taken from around the weyr, so we decided to ocme see what we could find on your lake floors."

"You get massive kudos for even getting here," Faith said as Lapis landed next to Calypso. "I don't think any ocean dragons have ever gotten all the way to the mountains before." She glanced at Corey. "Though I could be wrong?" She didn't remember seeing any ocean dragons in the mountain weyr, and it would have been hard to miss them.

Ryan and Yue were impressed as well, albeit Yue was grudgingly impressed. She hadn't thought any ocean pair would be persistent enough to get all the way to the mountains.

"No. I asked." Xander couldn't help but smirk. "We're the first to get this far inland, this far up, and go for this long. Three records in one trip." She patted Calypso's side. "Not bad for a first try."

Corey had to laugh. "Only you would think so," he said with a grin. "You're almost there, by the way. Maybe another half mile and you'll be at the weyr."

"And from there Cal's going straight into the nearest body of water."

"There's a lake not far from the weyr," Faith said. "It's in the other direction from the eyries, but it's still not far. I can't say it's a really big lake, but it's there."

"Well, now that you've made it this far, you may as well keep going down the other side of the mountain range and keep heading north," Ryan suggested. "On the next rotation. I think it would be worth it for you all to visit the far north." He ignored Yue's faint displeasure. She wasn't a social creature, and didn't like being so crowded, but the thought of going home tempered that a little. At least at home it was cold and less crowded, even with 'southern' visitors.

"Yeah, that's on our list," Xander said with a shrug. "She wants to see if you get anything different in your oceans. Different fishes, and different shinies." She couldn't help but grin and pat Calypso's neck affectionately.

Corey snorted. "If you two keep this up you'll have more things than most dragons," he teased with a grin.

"We wouldn't mind that. We might even be nice and share." Xander grinned briefly.

"You won't find a lot of big fish up north," Ryan said. "Well, depending on how far from shore you want to go. But a lot of what our dragons find is seal and whale, maybe the occasional walrus." Yue hummed a little when he mentioned walrus. It wasn't something she was able to get often, but when she could, she enjoyed it very much.

"It sounds fascinating," Faith said. Lapis nodded her agreement. She really wanted to see the far north now. She wanted to see what seal and whale and walrus were, and if they were tasty. She also wanted to see what kind of shiny things she could get her claws on.

Xander nodded. She'd seen seals and whales before, but never walrus. She hadn't gone that far north. "Well, it'll be an interesting experience, then. Next rotation I guess we'll go. Or a few days beforehand, so we can get off this bloody mountain."

Corey snickered. He couldn't help it. "Hey, you wanted to come up," he said.

"Yes. But we do have to get back down. And I can still kick your skinny white butt if I have to." She gave him a look.

Corey held his hands up placatingly.

"I'm still impressed that you even got here," Faith said. "It couldn't have been an easy trip, and the air is thinner here than it is at sea level." She'd noticed the change in air quality when they got back to the mountain weyr, but it hadn't taken her all that long to re-adjust to it.

"We've been taking our time, so it hasn't been that bad for us," Xander said, shooting her a quick smile for her concern. "We haven't had much trouble. It'll be better once Calypso gets into water, though."

"Well, you don't have far to go," Corey said. "Just up over that ridge is a lake, maybe five hundred feet from the ridge."

"If you want, I can see about grabbing you a spare sleeping bag," Faith offered. "They're usually kept in the hatchling eyrie, but they're insulated and everything, so it should be warm enough for out by the lake." Clearly, the sleeping bags were kept there for the riders who slept out in the eyries with their dragons. Faith had one of her own, stashed in Lapis's eyrie.

"That would be very helpful. Thanks." Xander grinned briefly. "And if you see random piles of gold and metal, they're probably up for grabs."

Corey snorted. "You think you'll find some at the bottom of the lake?"

"Pretty sure I will. Some, at least." She shrugged. "We'll see."

Faith shrugged.

"It's possible, on the mountain," she said. "There are veins of metal everywhere. Gold is more likely in the streams, though, I think. Running water and all." She at least knew that much.

Ryan was still a little surprised at how lightly they talked about precious metals like that. He didn't know what it was like to have such things so readily available, but he supposed that they were just used to seeing things like gold and silver all the time.

"Like I said, we'll see what we find. Here and up north." Xander shot a sidelong glance at Ryan as Calypso continued up the mountain, taking her time, like a very large lizard.

"Your dragons don't go diving, do they?" She looked at Yue, so as not to seem rude.

"No," Ryan replied. "I think there are a few feral ocean dragons that nest outside of weyr boundary lines, but snow dragons don't swim much." He looked at Yue, to see if she had anything else to add.

Wings are not advantageous in water, as you know, Yue said. Swimming is more trouble than it is worth.