Fort Weyr

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. This kind of ‘oops, surprise’ becomes increasingly rare after a first flight – 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 day or two ahead of time, the female’s rider will experience proddiness. 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. Any sort of explosive or inappropriate behavior will result in additional consequences after the flight, from loss of privileges to extra duties. 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.

Blooding is a matter of special concern. Many greens do not blood at all – a green’s flight is usually high 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. 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.

The female will fly as long and high as she can. It’s not uncommon 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 not uncommon 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. It’s not unheard of for a flying female to do everything in her power to avoid being caught by a male whose rider her rider dislikes – if the rider’s aversion to someone is strong enough, it can affect the outcome of the flight. Most of the time, however, the dragon’s desire overtakes the rider’s concerns. Most riders so love their dragons that they want what’s best for the flying female, even above their own aversions, anyway!

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. Riders are expected to be gracious and tolerant of the results of mating flights. 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.

Adapted from istaweyr.com with permission.