Adelie

"One minute thirty-four point seven one," Petunia's voice came crisply over the radio as Soot came through the first ring. "Seventh on raw time."

"I think that's the best I can do." To Adelie's ear, Phoebe sounded exhausted in a way she hadn't all year. It was a little alarming to hear her so beaten.

"This is nowhere near Soot's pace," Stefan butted in. Adelie looked up at him, noticing the stiffness in his shoulders and elbows as he leaned over his workstation. "He's cold, Phoebe, can you really not push any harder?"

Adelie covered the mic of her headset and said "Stefan," but the big man gave no indication that he'd heard. He wasn't wrong about Soot's condition; on his monitor, the readouts on the diagram of the dragon were shading slightly bluish from green, except for the points of his outer wing joints where the wind was plucking at his sails. Soot probably wasn't having much more fun out there than his rider.

"Come on, Phoebe," Stefan insisted. "Can't you go for one more good attempt?"

"Hey, if she's not comfortable, let her take it easy." It took Adelie a moment to recognise the honeyed tones of Vermilia, Phoebe's new personal trainer. She hadn't had much chance to speak to Vermilia yet, and wasn't sure what to say to her, but she probably shouldn't be participating in radio chatter during the session. Should she?

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

"This is a serious event. At this rate Phoebe will be spending tomorrow following the Rossorts around!" Stefan's voice rose a touch as he turned to look over to where Vermilia and Dr Arden were sitting. The team he mentioned were permanent back-markers, seldom finishing out of the bottom five. It wasn't fair to throw that at Phoebe while she was struggling.

"Better that than spending it in the medical centre because she threw her back again." Vermilia didn't relent. Adelie snuck a glance at Petunia. Shouldn't she or Phoebe be reining this in in the name of radio discipline?

"There's just no reason to be this slow, Soot's easily strong enough for the top five on pace." Why was Stefan so agitated about this?

Vermilia's tone sharpened. "It's not about the dragon, it's about Phoebe taking care of herself. Do we have to put a harness and sensors on her for you to listen, you-" She stopped, but it wasn't hard to tell what she'd been about to say.

Into the gap before Stefan could respond, Adelie managed, "Hey, shouldn't we not talk about this over the radio? Radio discipline, right guys?"

"I'll come back in, we can talk about it in the stable," Phoebe said, and Adelie's headset was good enough to betray the groan underlying her voice.

"Won't you go for one more run first? Half the session is still left." Stefan said, a little softer. "You could do one more lap, and then come back in, and still have time to go out again."

Phoebe didn't answer. Petra watched Stefan wait, glancing over occasionally at Vermilia who was staring daggers at his back. She felt she ought to say something – officially, she was Stefan's line manager – but she didn't understand what her relationship to Vermilia ought to be. Or how to actually get Stefan to listen to her, either, for that matter.