Post by Topaz on Feb 1, 2010 2:49:32 GMT -5
Mating and the New Life It Brings
When gold and green dragons Rise to mate, it is a very important time for the Weyr. It means that the lineage of dragons will be continued and new life will be brought into the Weyr in a few months time.
The Flight
When a female comes into estrus, she begins to glow. Her rider may know she is close to Rising even a day or so before this because she will become agitated and snippy with nearly everyone, including her bonded. The males will notice her coloration and prepare themselves by blooding their kills and staying nearby the female.
As soon as she feels the time is right the female will shoot into the air, bugling her challenge to the males around her arrogantly. She will go to the feeding grounds and look to feast upon the flesh of the animals, however the rider must mentally hold her back. A belly filled with flesh will result in a short Flight, and the Pernese believe the longer and higher the Flight is, the better the clutch. Therefore, the rider must restrain her dragon to only blood her kills. The warm blood energizes the female as it did her suitors, and she shoots up into the air immediately after her drink.
At this point is where golds and greens differ. Gold Flights are incredibly long tests of endurance and stamina, making sure that only the fittest of males can win. They sometimes last hours and take the competitors high up over the clouds. A gold dragon will want her suitors to be clever as well, so she will often try to trick them in some way, making them work for their prize. Green Flights in contrast are quite short, at most a half an hour down to even just a few minutes for the least experienced greens. They stay low to the ground as well, because of their smaller frames and low stamina. Green dragons are the least intelligent of all the colors, and therefore do not bother to take much blood from their kills or to save their energy. They are the fastest and most erratic of flyers, however, so their quick turns and numerous obstacles they use prove to be quite tricky to follow for bulkier dragons.
Once Caught, willingly or not, a female will be entwined with the male and they will plummet to the ground. The actual mating occurs during this ‘suicide dive’ and just before the pair hits the earth they separate, pushing off of each other in opposite directions. If they are so inclined, the pair will often sleep together afterwards as their bonded’s consummate the event as well.
Dragon and rider are one during the mating Flight. The female rider and her suitors congregate in the same area, usually with a view of the Flight. Each rider moves about and acts as their dragon does, in a trance-like state, imitating the interactions of the dragons with their human counterparts. Once the mating pair of dragons begin to plummet, the respective riders will begin to have sex. Wether they make it to a private room or not is up to them and the strength of their willpower to fight the intense urges of their dragons. It is recommended that female riders loose their virginity before their dragon reaches sexual maturity, otherwise the rough, animalistic experience with the male rider can often be quite traumatizing. It is thought of as rude for the rider not to have prepared in such a way, for if he or she is traumatized during the experience, many feel it diminishes the dragon’s experience, which is supposed to be one of elation and pride. The morning after is often filled with awkwardness, especially if the pair were relative strangers beforehand. There is also the chance of unmatched sexual preferences during a mating Flight romp, since the dragons do not take into account the riders’ preferences when making their choice. So, for instance, a homosexual female’s green could be Caught by a heterosexual male’s blue, and the combinations continue from there depending on the gender of the dragons and sexual orientation of their riders.
If there is a male-female pairing of riders, there is always a chance that a pregnancy could occur. On Pern this was quite likely as they did not have any contraceptives, and abortion by between was the only way to get rid of a Flight-induced pregnancy. However, on Earth, there are many ways to prevent a pregnancy, however, aside from hormonal shots or pills, there's no telling if the riders will be in their right minds enough to remember to use other external contraceptives. Of course, Earth also gives riders access to things like the morning after pill, so unwanted pregnancies should not be too common here.
The Clutch, Touching & Hatching
Once egg heavy, it takes three months gestation until the female dragon lays her clutch in the hatching grounds. From there, it takes an additional five weeks for the shells to harden before they are ready to hatch. Golds are fiercely protective of their clutches and will physically harm any who come near their eggs without permission. Because of this they also tend to only leave the hatching grounds to eat. Greens have much less of a mothering instinct and will probably leave their clutches for long periods of time, letting the hot sands of the hatching grounds do all the work. More than halfway through the hardening process, Candidates will be escorted into the hatching grounds to touch the eggs. If the clutchmother is a gold, they will have to ask permission from her politely, often encouraged to compliment the queen on her clutch. If the gold feels the Candidate is sincere, she will allow them to gently touch her eggs. If she does not approve, she will demand they be thrown out of the grounds and will not allow them to come to the hatching. None of this will probably be necessary with a green clutchmother, as she wouldn't care too much who it is touching her eggs, as long as they don't harm them.
The hatching date and time are unpredictable, however once it begins, the entire Weyr is alerted by both the mother’s broadcast and the instinctual humming of every dragon in the area. The entire Weyr is gathered to watch, especially the all important Candidates, while raw meat is cut up in the kitchens in preparation for the hungry dragonets. Candidates are made to wear white flowing robes and sandals, half because of tradition and half because of the near burning hot Sands they must stand on to wait for the hatchlings. Female Candidates are clustered around the large, golden-hued queen egg, if there happens to be one present.
Once the first egg cracks, the hatching could take anywhere from mere minutes to several hours to finish. The hatchlings that emerge are unpredictable and more often than not, very clumsy. Dragonets have been known to injure and even kill candidates while looking for Theirs, wether accidentally or on purpose. A least one healer is always kept on the grounds for this very reason. Once they find Theirs, the dragonet’s eyes swirl with the colors of the rainbow and the connection is made as the dragon bespeaks His or Hers, tells them their name, and pleads for food. The new weyrling pair are then led quickly out of the arena and into a side chamber where bowls filled with raw meat chunks await them.
The dragonets, once satiated, will be taken to their new weyr to sleep. Their bonded may wish to sleep as well, but if they are up to it there is a Hatching Feast being held in their honor that they are encouraged to attend. This feast usually lasts into the night.
Finding Your Dates
Real Life Time(RLT) | In Character Time(ICT)
1 week RLT = 2 weeks ICT
ICT
3 months = 91 days/13 weeks (on average)
5 weeks = 35 days
Total = 126 days/18 weeks
13 weeks ICT / 2 weeks RLT = 6 weeks, 4 days (rounded) RLT
18 weeks ICT / 2 weeks RLT = 9 weeks RLT
All that math simply means that to find your female dragon/wher/flit's clutching date, you need to count 6 weeks and 4 days from the Flight/Run date(RLT, on the calendar).
To find the hatching date of your female dragon/wher/flit's clutch, you need to count 9 weeks from the Flight/Run date(RLT, on the calendar).
