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Post by min on Aug 13, 2008 15:54:44 GMT -5
The buzzing vibrations of the continuous humming sent the sound waves spiraling and sky rocketing into the air above the beach area, as the hum was picked up by others farther away. Relin had been giving a rather displeased grimace as he was being pushed away from the eggs, struggling every so often after realizing it was a futile attempt each time. Giving a good smack in the general direction of the closest set of arms, there was an answering yelp, and satisfied that he had make contact at least once with one of his ‘attackers’, Relin huffily shoved his way out of the mythical Candidate Stream, that had increased its current now that something had happened.
Catching sight of the weyrleader for the first time upon entering the Touching, that had now miraculously turned into a hatching, the young man gave the older rider a body sweep, up and down the length, as if sizing him up. Scoffing, he confidently asserted to himself the, he, Relin was much more appealing, and that he, would and could one day rival this man. Grinning with delight, he was startled out of his clearly imaginative session by the barked orders of the Weyrleader.
Shrugging as he felt that he looked much better with his regular attire then the traditional robes, Relin eagerly pushed along with the other male candidates, as they streamed to fill their semi-circle. Although, he placed himself as new to the eggs as he could, there was this innate feeling that he really wanted to be with his back against the waves, somewhere really close to the calm soothing backdrop of glistening blue. The young man was quite tense afterall, this was the HATCHING by Faranth’s sake! He would leave here with his bonded! His own partner that no woman would ever manage to come between them.
Exhaling a sigh of contentment, the thought that he might not even impress never reached the confident young man’s mind. For some reason he was just so confident he knew he was going to impress, and not only that, he would impress something great. After all, only greatness could match up with his godlike self.
Once again another arrogant smile stretched across his face as he watched the large eggs before him rock back and forth, with the occasional violent twitch that sent shivers of excitement down his spine.
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Aurelie had just edged herself rather reluctantly from the clutch, when the humming started, filling the expanse of sandy beach with excitement and surprise. Although a weyrbrat, she had never heard of a instance where the Touching and the Hatching would occur on the same day. This was…something new. Surprised but delighted the young woman felt her eyes crinkle as a very wide grin spread across her face that almost appeared like a flit baring its fangs.
Today would be the day! The day that she would attempt to find her own mine! The bonded creature that wouldn’t leave her suddenly by being a accidental snack for some swooping dragon! Instead she would be the one that was proudly standing on the ledge watching her bonded sweep low and daintily pick up a herdsbeast. The pain of losing something she so carefully doted on each and every time would disappear, once and for all.
Brimming with eager excitement, she shuffled toward the other girls, the largest conglomeration being still near the Queen egg, even as they were supposed to move toward their mandatory positions. Passing this group she lined up with the other more sensible females, hoping that she could somehow manage to fit in with this group. Looking down the lines at the solemn and serious faces that gravitated toward calm, grave and neutral, Aurelie felt a awkward and quite uncomfortable feeling that maybe this wasn’t where she belonged. But as she had no where else to go, as this was supposed to be where she was at, the girl ended up breaking the frown that had appeared on her face into that of an imitation of the others; emotionless, but somehow radiating excitement, happiness, and hope as they stood there.
Although the expression the truly appeared on the girls face was a funny little upturn of the lips, and a rather annoying clump of hair that had fallen into her squinted ‘serious’ eyes. And as she was imitating the other emotionless girls, of the line she had chosen, well, she wasn’t allowed to move, and contended herself with inconspicuously trying to blow at the clump.
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Post by Dragon on Aug 15, 2008 22:37:42 GMT -5
Cele wrapped one arm around C'ero, watching the candidates fight for their places as the eggs continued to rock, more and more shaking though some appeared totally immobile. She glanced at C'ero out of the corner of her eye. "Well, this is interesting. I'm just glad the Hatching I impressed Amath at wasn't this... crazy." She laughed, eyes now trailing along the line of female candidates as they all struggled to get to spots they though would be best when the queen and other female dragons hatched. She couldnt help but smile, remembering how eager she had been at her first hatching.
But this hatching... her smile faded as she glanced at the eggs, eyes lingering on the ones that didnt even appear to be so much as trembling. Something wasn't right... She gave a small shake, trying to throw off the feeling of unease that was now creeping through her. This was the Hatching! She shouldnt feel uneasy! Still, she gave a nervous glance toward Amath before she focused on the clutch again, trying to block out the feelings of unease and enjoy the Hatching.
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Magena muttered to herself as the humming grew louder and candidates rushed for positions closest to the eggs they felt held their bonded, or their best chance at a high rank. Shaking her head in frustration with the others, and completely ignoring Zetairen now that something as important as this was happening, she hurried to take a place among the girls. Her muttered curses were just one more set of words that turned into the white noise that was everyone speaking at once, some with excitement others with worry. Keeping well away from the group of girls fighting to be close to the queen egg, she took a place as close as she could to the group of boys without getting yelled at by the candidate master for being on the wrong side of the hatching grounds.
Glancing about her, she noted that despite the chaos of the candidates and the unexpectedness of the hatching happening so soon, the more important faces of the Weyr seemed to have almost picked up a routine. The Weyrwoman was already surveying the candidates and clutch, but there seemed to be a look of worry on her features. Trying to pass the look on the Weyrwoman's face off as a nervous anticipation for the Hatching, she turned to survey the eggs with a frown of concentration. She'd been told, as she assumed everyone else had been also, that positive thoughts would attract the hatchling meant for her. Well, no matter what they told her she was still going to give unwelcoming thoughts to any female dragon that came close to her. No way would she impress some prissy little Diamond that would drive her insane for the rest of her life!
Setting her mind to the picture she had dreamed up years ago, of herself seated upon a great fighting dragon, though its hide varied all the time from colour to colour as she really didnt care what rank it was as long as it was a fighting dragon, a good strong male dragon. It was a good picture, but her train of thought kept being interrupted. Like when she remembered a couple of the other girls scornful comments about her being against her own gender when she had mentioned she wished more then anything for a male fighting dragon. Mentally shaking herself, she attempted to focus again. 'Forget the Weyr. Forget the other candidates, most of whom she didnt even wish to get to know. Forget everything but the eggs before you, hatching...' She told herself, bringing up her mental image again. This, more then anything else, she was sure would bring her life mate to her. A dragon she could be proud of, no matter what anyone said of it.
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Post by Femisis on Aug 15, 2008 23:42:07 GMT -5
"Considering that Sephiroth is the sire, things are going to get QUITE crazy. " C'ero commented much to the Onyx's annoyance. Honestly, why did His have to make a passing jab at him every time he spoke about his wonderful, spectacular, amazing clutch. His Amath had given birth to these impressive eggs and nurtured them this long, and there could be absolutely nothing wrong with them at all. There wouldn't be a single hide out of place, not a single betweening, nothing at all. This clutch was going to be so sharding normal it was going to put people to sleep. Sadly, things weren't going to be as perfect as Sephiroth had planned in his mind.
The massive jade egg had begun to rock much more furiously now as hairline cracks began to appear across the shell. There was much hope for whatever was in this egg and it seemed as though it wasn't going to disappoint. Back and forth it rocked as chips of shell fell to the ground at a painstakingly slow pace as though the dragon inside was trying to make a dramatic enterance. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the egg fell apart to reveal the massive hatchling, but all was not well.
The dragon, though a good size, was skin and bones, even while still covered in the stinking, greenish birthing fluids that smelled like rotting garbage left open in the sun too long. The worst part was that this poor hatchling's skin was crawling with tiny little maggot-like creatures that were eating away at the dragon's flesh where he stood, letting out a rasping creel as though His would save him from what this pestelence had done since the day he had been concieved. Still creeling, he staggered about weakly, maggots and rotting fluids trailing after him as he searched desparately for His, for His would certainly save him, even if, in truth, nothing could save this poor hatchling from the grim death that faced him. Not even half way across the sands he collapsed, dead where he lay as the maggots continued to devour his rotting flesh.
Candidates screamed, shouted, cried out and even gawked at the sight even as a look of horror crossed C'ero's face. "By Faranth..." He breathed, eyes widened at the horrific sight that lay in front of him. Instinctively, he pulled Celestia closer as he tried to tear his eyes away at the sight, but found that he simply couldn't. It was too terrible to watch this, but it was such a curious sight from a healer's point of view that he had to look.
Sephiroth, too, was horrified, horrified to the point of madness. How could this have happened?! How could something have attacked, RUINED, the hatchling even before entering the world?! It was impossible! Torn between a furious rage and simply keening at the sight, he stood still, wings half furled as he hissed and snapped at the crowd. It was the only way he could vent his frustration at feeling so helpless...
Crescentia had been quite excited when the eggs had started to rock, though she was good at masking her excitement. It woudn't do to run around like a wherry with it's head cut off screaming hatching at the top of her lungs, after all, so she settled for shifting her weight a bit every so often from one foot to the other instead. Now there was the waiting period, the time between the inital hum and the time the first egg hatched. That would give people time to get down here, her family included, possibly, if it wasn't too late in Telgar, not that something as trivial as the time of day would keep them away. Well, Reren, maybe, but the rest... they would come. Maybe even her bastard of a father, R'una, would show up if he got the message and he could get that lazy ass of a Bronze Savath up... Fat chance.
With a snort, she turned to Niora who seemed to have her panties in a bunch over this. Poor girl, didn't she know that dragons did whatever they wanted? "Well, the dragons must think it a good time to hatch, otherwise they wouldn't be shaking." She said sagely, though not unkindly. She really did like Niora despite her opposite nature and merely wanted to inform her friend of the situation. Friend... awesome, she had a friend! having friends was fun...
"Look, it's hatching!" She breathed as the jade egg opened to reveal the stinking, rotting mass, causing her to reel back in disgust. Her hands instantly flew up to cover her nose as the stench reached even to the candidates, strong enough to make them vomit. Crescentia nearly did, even if she had to fight back the nausea that had her doubled over. Oh Faranth, what WAS that...? When she finally looked up, she wished she hadn't. The dragon was rotting and being eaten alive even as it searched for it's rider, then died... It was all too much for her to bear at once...
It was there, amidst the unfortunate chaos of the Weyrleader attempting to calm his dragon and the candidates trying not to be sick that the Purple hatched relatively quitely with little fuss. About the size of a small brown, she tumbled out of the egg and onto the ground with a chirp of surprise. Blinking, she stood and shook off the birth fluids to allow the crowd to see her lovely lilac hide, darkening to a deep violet on her wings and her attractively pointed ridges, or spikes, rather, not that anyone was watching... Despite this, she started for the candidates, the females in particular, making sure to give the rotting corpse a wide berth.
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Post by Sintarith on Aug 16, 2008 8:33:44 GMT -5
Zetairen raised his eyebrows and returned the crushing handshake Magena had given him. He did not smile, nor did he say anything else – it was obvious she didn’t care for any company. If people wouldn’t learn to get over their bitterness, then they should be left to wallow in it, on their own. Because no amount of human contact - if unwanted - would help the person in question. Not that it mattered anyway, for at that exact moment, the eggs began rocking and almost simultaneously, Luatyrr exploded before his face from between. The little copper flitter added her beautiful soprano hum to that of the larger dragons, her eyes whirling in encouragement for whichever of the eggs hatched first. The fire lizard wouldn’t settle, but kept flittering about his shoulders in an almost swaying motion; it was almost in time to the rise and fall of the dragon-hum.
Shaking his head in fierce amusement at his fire lizard, he looked around and then Zetairen flashed a ‘good luck’ grin towards Aurelie. She had seemed really nice when he’d met her the other day, and his flit had taken to her with an enormous shine!! It seemed almost uncanny, but he let it fly over his head, after all the machinations of a fire lizard can’t really be machinations, can they? The lad knew that his friend wasn’t exactly intelligent, but still, he had to doubt sometimes. It seemed there were times when she would organise for something to happen; for example, a friend to drop by when he was really sad. Whenever the person finally came round, the copper creature would look almost smug and chirp in a rather self satisfied way. But now, she was being such a darling – her hum was a brilliant counter-point to that of the dragons, the pitches verging on almost far to high for the human ear, but it still sounded as sweet as anything.
He moved almost gracefully to the area where the boys were standing, yet unlike most of the others, he didn’t jostle for a position closer to the eggs. He merely stood serenely towards the back of the group, although closer to the outer edges as more boys flocked about. Because of his height, Tairen had a perfect view of all of the eggs, and watched in amazement as more and more began to rock. It was true that as a harper he had been to hatchings before at the request of the masterharper – to make records – but he’d never actually stood on the sands, felt the heat beneath his feet. But more oddly than that strange elation, he wondered why the eggs were beginning to hatch now, when they weren’t due for probably an extra month or so? It was unprecedented in the all the records he had ever read, and certainly, he’d never heard it mentioned by anyone before. The boy couldn’t help but worry that the mutation that had caused the beautiful array of new hide colours had changed into something else, causing the dragons to change in some other, significant way.
In the middle of his musings, the jade and black coloured egg began to crack. He waited with anticipation, but slowly, that feeling turned to nausea as he realised that this egg was taking far too long in its cracking, and emitted a rather pungent rotting odour. Stifling the urge to cover his nose with the hem of his sleeve, Tair refused to move, and made himself watch the gruesome thing emerge. The poor little creature was sick, that was for certain. And until it got closer, Tairen didn’t realise the thing had maggots crawling all over it. Still he stood unperturbed. It was perhaps one of the worst spectacles he had ever seen in his life, but his duty as a harper commanded him to watch.
Luatyrr emitted a shrill keening as the poor creature collapsed, evidently dead. It was slathered with its amniotic fluids that the boy could barely see what colour its hide was. The smell overwhelmed him and he had to gag back the reflex to puke. It was overwhelming! Choking the noxious feeling back, he stood resolute, his sea green eyes watching the scene. Other candidates had screamed, some had actually lost their breakfast. All in all it wasn’t a pleasant sight. But most heart-wrenching of all was Sephiroth’s confusions and evident pain. It was bad enough being linked to Luatyrr, who’s keening was shrill enough to make the boy want to cover his ears. He grabbed her attention with a firm mental call. She stopped her swooping and diving long enough to catch his, gaze, chirruped sadly then disappeared. It wouldn’t do to have her aggravating the dragons.
Almost despondently Zetairen surveyed the scene. He quickly caught himself moping though and struggled to stand upright. The fact that the dragonet didn’t have the energy to even go between before dying was even more worrying, because now its clutch brothers and sisters would have the bear the pain of seeing the corpse laying there. Whilst trying to regain and maintain what little was left of his composure, he missed the little purple that had hatched, and that she was headed towards the candidates. The boy just had his eyes on the rest of the eggs, hoping with all of his might that this might be the only case of this strange disease that had ravaged the poor baby dragon so badly.
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When the large, dark egg that he had only just touched began to hatch, Mikyran’s face almost burst into a grin. But it quickly fell, when the creature that burst out of it was a mass of rotting flesh and crawling insects. The boy felt cursed. That was the egg he had touched last! Was it anything to do with him? Logic quickly overrode this line of thought, telling his brain that evidently it couldn’t have been him, this form of pestilence looked as though it had been going on ever since the eggs had been laid.
Despite all of his earlier joy at standing on the hatching sands, the disease made him think of his father, laying in a cot at Southern weyr, holding onto life, if already he hadn’t passed on. Sure, he’d receive the news fast enough, but it seemed like an entire different universe that his father was in at the moment. This was just… surreal.
Mikyran felt something well up inside him when the poor dragon departed, leaving its corpse on the sand. It grew too unbearable and a huge wracking sob escaped him, attracting the attention of the boys around him. One or two offered him a pat on the shoulder in consolation. They didn’t know him, how could they? Maybe he’d experienced a hatchling’s death before, maybe he hadn’t. Whatever the cause, it affected him badly and left him to collapse to his knees, all the while huge shudders ran through his body, accompanying the tears that rolled down his face.
It seemed that all the boy knew was death. His mother. His father on the verge. Even the fire lizard he had once had died. Wild wherries had eaten it. And now this dragonet. Was this weyr so different and bizarre that the hatchlings succumbed to this weird affliction? His thoughts ran along the same lines as those of Zetairen’s though neither lad knew it. Maybe it was something to do with a mutation. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it wasn’t anything that a boys mind could conceive. Especially not this one anyway. So led by his emotions, Mikyran was smart yes, but not enough to figure out why this had happened. As the last of his sobs shook him, the boy brushed away hands that tried to help him to his feet. He could stand on his own, he wasn’t an invalid. His tearstained face looked resolutely out to the rest of the eggs, then his attention was caught by the little purple dragon that had hatched. She was a beauty, and he was sad that the first , HEALTHY, dragonet seemed to be heading towards the girls. ‘Patience,’ he reminded himself ‘is a great virtue in a dragonrider.’
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Nwalme had finished touching all of the eggs, and so she had sat down. Watching the proceedings had been relatively funny, although she had kept her chuckles to herself. She was glad that she had arrived so early, she had avoided the stampede. Why were the other candidates so much like animals? Even the herd beast had been more polite, she thought. Well, unless a dragon was chasing after a rather lively buck, in which case the beast had no manners at all, shoving and pushing all in its way until it could escape. Maybe that’s how the other candidates felt, like herd beast being picked out for dinner by the three huge dragons present. Not all of them were so enthralled by the eggs that they couldn’t spare her a glance or a smile or two. That made her blush and feel all warm and fuzzy inside at the same time. Perhaps she was making friends. Finally, she might even have people to talk to! Well, if she felt like it. Big groups still weren’t her thing, and the encounter with Relin hadn’t gone at all swimmingly. She had made a self-conscious fool out of herself and had fluffed up most any chance of talking to him again. Oh well, she thought, he was a bit too gushing anyway.
She’d almost fallen asleep when a commotion began. To her credit though, she didn’t flap and get all in a fuss like many girls would have. Instead, she calmly stood, glancing about her. It seemed that the eggs were starting to hatch. She’d never heard of this at High Reaches, nor even so much as experienced it, and wondered what on Pern was happening. The touching usually happened a while before the hatching. Okay, so there’d been one hatching she’d been at where the candidates had only been allowed to touch the eggs four days before, but that’s because the queen was the most proddy, overprotective beast on the whole of the continent, if not, the whole of Pern. But no, this was certainly, completely unheard of. And this girl had stood at several hatchings before. All had gone swimmingly normal, even when one of the eggs had refused to hatch. But still, that was to be expected in an interval. Some eggs just didn’t hatch anyway.
Slowly, almost hesitantly, she made her way over to where the majority of the other girls were, but positioned herself far away from the queen egg. No self respecting silver dragon would ever want to look at her, she had decide. She knew from experience that gold’s would only choose a girl who was completely heterosexual, and guessing it was the same for silver’s. She inched her way to the edge of the group, taking care not to stand in front of anyone too much shorter than she was, and definitely avoiding Magena. She had seen the conversation – if it was anywhere near long enough to call it that – with Zetairen and how he’d walked away without his usual smile. This was not someone she needed on her case.
She smiled to herself as she heard the trilling of Zetairen’s fire lizard. She was so pretty, her hide reminded her of the larger bronze fire lizards she had been accustomed to, but somehow, prettier and definitely more feminine. She imagined the colouring on one of the larger dragons. She’d never actually seen a copper dragon, although she’d heard of a few weyrlings who had bonded a copper dragon at the previous clutch, but as usual, she’d not actually met these girls.
Tension began to brim inside of her, showing in her grey blue eyes. She was all worry and stress, and it was obvious in the way she held her body. All the other hatchings she’d attended had been at her home, this was the first one she’d ever been at without her parents cheering her on. And with the onset of the hatching so sudden and unexpected, there wasn’t much of a way of letting them know. Unless she could talk to Sh’ven and get his Minth to contact Kyetmarth, her father’s brown. But unfortunately she was current too far away to even catch his attention.
But about then, when Nwalme was just beginning to get upset because her parents weren’t meant to be there, the rotting dragonet tumbled onto the sands. The smell got caught in her nose and the poor girl retched. And she didn’t stop, heaving until nothing remained in her stomach. Her throat was burned by the juices that had just passed that way. Other girls looked at her and stepped surreptitiously away, despite a few other of them just having done the same. Shame burned Nwalme’s face, but another look at the piteous creature that stumbled around to land in a lifeless heap made her want to retch again. What, by the shell, was going on!? The poor creature looked as though it had been devoured from the moment the spark of life had entered it, and she was almost glad that the poor thing died. If it had found it’s Mine, the grief would have been tenfold. Not that losing a dragonet wasn’t dire enough. Especially the first to hatch. This was a bad omen.
Nwalme frowned, although the wrinkles didn’t crease her ace unpleasantly. How many more were afflicted with this disease? Was it a plague that the elder dragons could catch? Such tings ran through her head because her healer’s knowledge involved that of the very few diseases that dragons had succumbed to in the past. And that wasn’t many. But it didn’t look like anything she’d ever seen, and by the first queen, she hoped it wasn’t contagious. The last thing this small weyr needed was an epidemic.
In spite of all of the commotion, a little purple dragon was brave enough to come out of her shell. Nwalme almost shied away when she saw it come towards the girls. She hadn’t seen which egg it had hatched from, and she knew for a fact she hadn’t lingered over some as long as she should have; there was always the chance it would decide to start mauling. However much she shied away though, she was still intrigued. A purple dragon was another colour she’d never so much as caught a glimpse of before, and this particular little one was very pretty in her own right. Still, Nwalme herself wasn’t anywhere near brave enough to try and make herself known to the dragonet. Besides, she thought. It probably wouldn’t choose her. She’d not been seen fit to be chosen before, so why should this hatching be any different? She shook her head. This was not the way to think at a hatching, even one so macabre in the beginning. Depressive thoughts were definitely a no-no, so Nwalme stood up and fluffed her hair out from sticking to her neck in the heat. It didn’t stop her being any less visible to the crowd that gathered in the stands as soon as they realised what was happening, but it boosted her self confidence.
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Tekah had been caressing the plae blue egg again when he realized that it was starting to move. He swore to himself then got up and scrambled over to where the boys were assembling. Stopping before the queen again, he bowed deeply, unsure whether it was noticed. Very few other people had done so, but it was always a good thing to show your respect, just in case. He didn’t bother even trying to get to the front, he’d see alright from wherever was. He knew that his Bonded would find him no matter where he stood. Being the charmer he is though, he stood closer to the girls, offering the worried looking ones that were closest to him a wink or a smile. They were scared enough without having to bear the fear on their own. He noticed that a lot of them refused to touch the others, even for comfort from the nerve wracking worry that a dragon wouldn’t pick them.
He sighed and turned his head back towards the sands. Why were all the weyr girls like that? So cold towards each other, they wouldn’t even offer a little comfort to each other. Maybe he was just seeing what he wanted to see. Or probably he’d just got the wrong side of the crowd and the warmer, more caring girls were round the other side. Or huddled by the queen egg. Tekah drank in the sight of the glorious egg again, the subtle shifts in colour, from silver to black and then to purple back to silver. It was brilliant. Then the sound of a large crack attracted Tekah’s attention. The big egg he’d seen was beginning to hatch!
He hadn’t even started to cross his fingers in hope that he’d be one of the first few to Impress when the smell of rotting hit him. His years aboard a fishing vessel was all that stopped the boy from reeling with revulsion – he’d smelt rot often enough. True, it was fish-rot, not this slightly different, more distinct smell. The maggots bore that smell, it was always about them. But Tekah had little time to think about maggots, his face set into a grim frown as he realized the dragonet was dying. It would die before it even reached the candidates. And when it did, all the boy could do was look away, the pitifully thin form bringing tears to the corners of his eyes. The boy steeled himself. He was tougher than that! He closed his ears from the reaction of the queen and her mate, the noise both terrible and distressing. He couldn’t begin to imagine their pain at their first child dying like that. And looking about him at the confused or nauseated faces told him that no one else knew what had happened either. Tekah had never seen anything like it. Well, nor had anyone really. Unless they’d seen it and forgotten to record it, but that was highly doubtful.
The heat made him obviously uncomfortable, as did the suspense of waiting. He watched the wobbling eggs, and then frowned at the ones that seemed refused to move, almost defiantly. His heart twinged – would they stay like that forever, or were they just waiting until there might be better chance of finding their mine?
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Post by Pheonix on Aug 16, 2008 13:28:12 GMT -5
Niora still didn't really like what was going on, it seemed wrong to her. Even if the Touching had been OVER and they had just left and THEN the eggs had started hatching, it would have been okay. Because the Touching would have been over and done. Some people still hadn't touched the eggs! And they were still in their normal clothes, instead of the robes. Hopefully the dragons liked pink. Niora hadn't even had time to go back to her room and take off her many bracelets and necklace... but that wasn't really important right now. Perhaps the shiny sparkle of the jewelery would make the dragons notice her more. Which could also be a very, very bad thing. Everything had it's ups and downs, and right now this Hatching seemed to have more downs than ups.
Turning her attention away from the eggs and back to Cresce when she spoke, Niora's brow furrowed in thought. Well, she did have a point. If they dragons hadn't thought it was a good time to Hatch, they probably wouldn't have started Hatching! That was an obvious detail that Niora had aparently missed, but still.... She couldn't help but think that perhaps the dragons had accidently thought they were supposed to Hatch due to the fact that the Candidates were there. The dragons felt that the Candidates had gathered and decided they had to Hatch. Okay, that was a bit of a stretch, but anything was possible. Glancing down the semi-circle of girls to see what the others looked like, for a fleating moment she wished she could read minds. Just to see if anyone else was as... obsessed over the fact that this was the Touching. They all had varying expressions on their faces, so... she really doubted it.
Taking a deep breath, she looked back at the eggs, trying to relax. It was okay, this was just a normal Hatching. The fact that she was wearing her normal clothing didn't mean much. Taking another deep breath, she scanned her gaze over all the eggs, checking to make sure they were really Hatching. It would be okay. It would just be another normal Hatching.
Don't you just hate being proved wrong?
Niora's worst fears came to life just as she was beginning to accept the fact that perhaps some Hatchings could begin when the Touching was still going on. They didn't used to have Touchings, afterall. But... her calming thoughts were interupted as Cresce pointed out that one of the eggs was Hatching. Watching it with wide green eyes, she waited patiently for the dragon to come out of it's shell. Gasping, she looked around wildly. The horrible smell.... it smelled like death. Rotting death. She swallowed hard to keep herself from throwing up, and forced herself to look down the Candidate line. Which one of the Candidates had died? Which one of them had some sort of horrible disease that made them smell like... death? Judging by the looks of her fellow Candidates, it seemed they could all smell it too. But who had died?
It wasn't really a matter of the Candidates, though... as Niora soon realized when she looked back at the eggs. A rather large green egg had Hatched, and for a moment her eyes skimmed over the "dragonet" searching for what had come forward. She held back her scream as she realized what exactly had hatched and what that horrible death-smell was at the same time. It wasn't any of the Candidates, it was the little dragon. If it could still be called that. Her eyes were fixed on the dragonet and she couldn't look away. Why had this happened? Was the Hatching really all wrong like she had predicted at first? Could Touchings never turn into Hatchings, and this was the dragon's way of showing them their wrong?
No... that couldn't be. The dragons wouldn't sacrifice one of their own just to show the others that starting Hatchings early was horribly wrong. They weren't that cruel. But what had done it? Some sort of higher force, something that disliked what the dragons had done and wanted to punish them? That couldn't be either. There surely was nothing that cruel in the world, even an omnipotent being. Her little heart went out to the poor, rotting dragon, but she willed herself not to cry. She would get through this, they would all get through this. And she had to be strong for her unborn dragonet somewhere in this clutch. She could just feel it!
However, in the midst of all the chaos, people screaming... throwing up... (it made Niora have to hold back a wave of vomit) another egg Hatched. Her eyes immediately snapped towards that egg, watching it carefully. No... what if this egg was also... bad? What if this dragon turned out just like that poor unfortunate one over there? But she didn't look away, she wasn't going to shy away from the dragons now. That... that had just been one case! It was just one... maybe the others would hatch perfectly healthy. And that it did. A little Purple had hatched, and she looked... perfectly fine. She even attempted to show off her pretty, lilac hide to everyone... but unfortunately for her no one was really paying attention. Most were still focused on the rotting dragon. Niora shuddered as she glanced over at it, but kept her gaze on the Purple. This dragon was fine! Maybe the rest of the clutch would be okay, too!
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Post by min on Aug 17, 2008 16:40:01 GMT -5
Brimming with excitement that would burst out of her pores in a few seconds, Aurelie was having a rather hard time trying to control these emotions of hers. The urge to run just a few feet forward so that she was closer to the eggs was drilling holes in the back of her head, while the faint notion that she really shouldn’t do such a thing was barely holding her back. Shifting her weight between her feet, the young woman distracted herself, hoping that it would leave her in a calm and ready state for when the first egg burst open.
She took in the bright sky with wide eyes, trying to soak in as much of the blueness as possible. Although the light itself was rather blinding and a shielding hand did come up to shade her poor burning eyeballs, her gaze was not shaken from the peaceful cloudy sky until she was completely satisfied. Feeling calm and only slight excitement, Aurelie turned her attention back to the rocking and humming of the Hatching before her.
At the sudden tremendous rocking of the enormous jade egg, one that she had only briefly associated with, Aurelie flinched mentally wishing that she had been in contact with this specimen more. What if the first thing that happened to her during the Hatching was her being mauled to death by lax of participation in the Touching? Shuddering slightly the young woman, imagined her own desecrated body gushing out blood on the hot sands with the trail of her internal fluid leading down toward the waves, mixing in with the crystalline clearness of the ocean.
With a surprised gasp of the crowd, the enormous jade egg hatched, revealing its contents. The screams, horrified screeches, and sounds or retching filled the beachside and Aurelie had been one of those to let out a terrified chirp, taken completely off guard at the sight of maggots slipping and sliding over the dull, dying hide. However the chirp was stuck in her throat as her saliva managed to travel down the wrong tube. Coughing and choking on both saliva and the reeking stench, Aurelie was distracted by the sight of the pitiful sounds the little beast was making through her tear filled eyes. A tear leaked out of her eye and left a trail of wetness down her cheek, although it was questionable if it was due to the choking that was finally subsiding or out of pity when the hatchling fell over and died.
The little creature hadn’t even been able to go between, perhaps if it had it would’ve died with the satisfaction of freezing those maggots to death.
As the tears flooded her red eyes, the young woman was too busy trying to wipe them away to notice the hatching of the dainty little purple, the way that many others hadn’t noticed either, too busy entranced by the carcass of the dead hatchling.
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Kisana
Candidate
Vyrzen's Panda
Posts: 63
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Post by Kisana on Aug 17, 2008 16:48:56 GMT -5
Derrok rushed onto the Hatching Sands, breathing heavily. He had overslept, today of all days! And it was the Touching, for Faranth's sake! Everyone was already there. But strange .... he thought he could hear humming in the air. There were certainly eggs on the Sands, but something .... something was wrong. He looked around quickly, his eyes resting on the pile of green goo rotting on the ground. He didn't recognize it for what it was, at first, but then he realized.
It was a dragon.
A hatchling, that had just struggled out of its egg, covered with maggots and dripping flesh onto the warm sand. Derrok gasped in horror. He thought that this was a Touching! But that poor creature had been brought into this world, only to suffer and die before the entire Weyr. Was the rest of the Clutch as ill-fated as this poor Hatchling, destined to die unbonded in the first moments of life? He could hardly stand it, and was tempted to run as quickly as he had arrived. What a life! Cooped up in an egg, eaten alive by maggots, cracked onto the Sands, a life lost as quickly as it had started. A waste, he thought to himself, shaking his head. Tears dripped off of his face. The entire Hatching couldn't be like this, could it? The eggs of Amath and Sephiroth must be stronger as a whole than the poor lost hatchling.
Fortunately, a violet beacon distracted him from the pile of death being eaten before him. A large Purple, pale lavender with darker wings and ridges - well, more spikes than ridges, really, sharpened to a point like tiny daggers. She headed towards the female Candidates, avoiding her dead clutchmate. This little hopeful hatchling encouraged Derrok to examine the other eggs, at least from afar. The Queen egg was silver, marbled with many colors, set aside in its place of honor. He wondered absentmindedly whether the dragon would look the same, or if it would be a normal Silver. Then again, would there be a single normal dragon in this Clutch? There was a dark grey eggs, flecked with black, that caught his eye for a moment. He pictured a dragon of stone, a statue in miniature falling from the egg, lifeless but beautiful. There was a coppery and scarlet egg. But what would it be? Male or female? Copper or Scarlet, or something else entirely? A tiny blue egg was sitting next to the shards of the jade egg that the .... thing had hatched from, looking insignificant and forgotten next to its clutchmate's remains.
A deep violet-red egg was the most noticeable in a cluster or four set apart from the other eggs. It didn't attract his attention for long, as Derrok spotted a pale, almost white egg near it. It reminded him of clouds fluttering across the sky, a bright burst of hope amidst the grave scene. One near it was brownish black, like freshly turned earth mixed with night. Perhaps an Onyx? He didn't know what would hatch from that one, or whether it would even be viable. The last egg he could see was a vibrant, watery blue, an icy glacial egg. Surely the dragon from that egg would be interesting enough. They would all be interesting, that much was sure. He kept examining and re-examining the eggs, to keep his teary eyes away from the horrible sight that lay just nearby. To die without its Bonded .... but he couldn't think about that. The thing was dead and gone now, off to a better place. He had to believe that.
Belatedly, he realized that he wasn't wearing his robes - of course he wasn't. Nobody was. Touching the eggs would have been nice, he guessed. To have a fonder memory of the poor dragon hatched from the black Jade egg. Curse him for sleeping so late! How could he have forgotten the importance of this day? He was such a dimglow. And the humming woke him too late to meet any of the eggs up close. But at least he was here, and had a chance to meet his one and only Bonded. His, forever.
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Post by min on Aug 17, 2008 20:53:47 GMT -5
Eyes never straying far from the eggs that he so favored due to their manlier coloring, Relin had started to whistle a cheerful little tune whereas the original folksong was about the feelings of a weyrling as his bonded took flight for the first time. Although Relin wasn’t quite at the stage yet, he was already focusing on goals he would achieve with his bonded. They would have to be the first to reach the flight stage. The first to make a kill. The first to…. A smirk appeared across the young man’s tanned face, to catch a female dragon in flight. There were many other ‘firsts’ that Relin wanted to do, and number one, the first was always what he wanted to be. As competitive as he was, Relin felt a tiny voice inside him, urging him to drop the confidence and arrogant smirk for just this Hatching. Urging him to drop his self- belief and self- assurance just for these few hours. The slinking and oozing thought that maybe, just maybe he wasn’t good enough. That maybe none of these hatchlings would deem him worthy. That none of them would see that he was truly a human being underneath his womanizing exterior.
The dumping of the green ooze shattered his thoughts, and he sucked in his breath with a shrill whistle, as his eyes widened to the widths of saucers. His sight followed after the path of a group of maggots that consuming all that was within their reach fell off with a plump plop onto the stinking sand. Shuddering in pure disgust and repulsion at the sight, the ounce of pity in his heart was moved by the creature before him, although that too was covered up by the sheer aversion he felt to the creature. Watching it lurch away from its egg, and fall with a thump, not even able to raise a cloud of loose sand around it as it was all suffocated within the ooze it was leaving a trail of.
Feeling a shiver crawl up his spine as his breakfast was rushing up the back of his throat, Relin retched as nothing came out, the sour acid of his stomach filling his taste buds with a feeling of revulsion. Hurriedly he proceeded to swallow as fast as he could. No matter how much the stench was clinging to the air or the carcass of the dead hatchling revolting, he would not puke. It simply would not do.
Tearing his eyes away from the daze inducing sight, the blonde’s eyes immediately perked up with excitement. The sight of the perfectly fine looking purple made the young man think that perhaps this Hatching would be all right after all. That perhaps the other hatchlings would be perfectly fine.
Grinning at as the lilac beauty flaunted herself, his eyes followed after her as she made her way toward the female Candidates toward the opposite end of the beach. Watching the spiky ridges get farther and farther away, Relin almost laughed, returning back into his cheerful optimism, as he watched the winding trail left by the dragging thick dark purple tail.
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Post by Dragon on Aug 17, 2008 21:38:26 GMT -5
Sh'ven's eyes followed Derrok as he entered the sands. What a day to be late! He shook his head, eyes drifting back to the eggs. The scarlet and copper egg seemed to be cracking, a thin line trailing down the bright shell. With a crack, it split in two to reveal the dragon inside. Sh'ven gave a sigh of relief as he noted that this one was noticeably healthier then the first one to hatch. So the whole clutch was not doomed to that fate, after all. Certainly, this little one was the picture of health. A copper, or so he assumed. Almost the size of the average Silver, her hide was mostly more Scarlet, really, then copper. Easy to mistake for one at first, what with her size and the strange shading to her hide.
She stretched out her wings a bit, seemingly flexing her muscles experimentally. Rather then preen and show off as your average Copper might, she seemed to almost be testing her strength as she stretched out, digging into the sand as if she were trying to attack a herdbeast. She flexed her wings again, glaring around her at the other eggs. Her gaze fell upon her dead clutch-sibling with what seemed to be distaste, staring only for a moment before settling to the sands and contentedly picking bits of shell off her gleaming hide.
So, she didnt seem to be in too much of a hurry to find Hers right now, Sh'ven thought with amusement, watching the Copper-that-was-a-Scarlet groom herself contentedly. A smal smile appeared on the Candidate Master's face, as he watched. She seemed perfectly normal in her attitude at least, if her hide really wasnt normal. But then, none of the dragons here really were...
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Magena's gaze had been drifting over the eggs, and she watched as the Copper hatched. Well, another healthy egg. She eyed the scarlet shaded hide with interest. That was almost a dragon to respect. Almost. Smiling to herself, a movement in the side of her vision caught her eye. Ah, a late-comer to the would-be Touching. Holding back a laugh as she noted the look of horror on the boy's face at the sight of the dead hatchling, she turned her attention back to the unhatched eggs. While the Copper was an interesting creature, it was also a Copper, and would have a high ranking among the females of the Weyr. So it held no temptation for her.
Her eyes fell upon the rest of the clutch, trying to judge by the size and colour of the shells what would be inside. Would there be more of those half-dead hatchlings? She hoped not, but something told her there were bound to be. Why would just one end up like that? Well, the only thing she could do was wait and see... And hope, desperately hope, that her life-mate was here, whole and healthy and waiting to come find her. Yes, she was sure it would be here.
(Short, sorry)
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Post by Femisis on Aug 17, 2008 22:12:48 GMT -5
With the Purple stumbling aimlessly about the sands in complete ignorance of the world, other eggs began to crack, some more quickly than others. Two in particular began to hatch with some degree of urgency, rocking furiously back and forth. The first one to hatch shattered into a heap of shells, allowing the healthy Scarlet emerge from his egg. As he shook the egg goop from his gleaming hide, a bright scarlet with a lighter heart shaped patch of hide, funnily enough, on his chest, he stumbled and crashed into the other cracking egg, causing the shell to splinter further. He cheeped in surprise and scrambled away toward the male candidates, leaving the new hatchling to it's own devices. The other dragon wasn't his concern any more, even if he was the reason the other was hatching a bit ahead of schedule.
The second egg broke to a gasp through the crowd as another thin, sickly, maggot-covered hatchling collapsed in a heap in the shells of her egg, too tired to even get up. It was all she could do to keep her lungs filling with air as the maggots continued to eat her colorless hide away from her living body. Her wing membranes were completly gone, eaten or never formed no one could tell, her tail was bare to the bone as well as her left foreleg. She was a pitiful sight, but she wasn't bleeing and her heart was still beating, thus keeping her alive far past her time. She creeled pitifully as though begging Hers to come save her even though she hadn't chosen. She just couldn't take the pain anymore...
C'ero felt his heart wrench in pity, but it was Sephiroth who acted. Before he could say anything, the great Onyx was speeding across the sands to hover above his dying daughter. He crooned comfortingly to her before lifting a paw and bringing it down, effectively snapping the hatchling's neck and putting her out of her misery. Keening sadly for her departure, he turned and, once clear of the clutch, took wing and left the sands, unable to continue watching.
In the meantime, the ever oblivious purple had staggered up to the girls and was nosing through them, trying to find Hers in this mess. Oh dear, where was she? She knew Hers was around here somewhere... Oh, there she was! NioraMine, your Faereth found you at last, you silly girl. Why are Faereth's clutchsiblings taking a nap, though? Shouldn't they be finding their Mines? She asked, and it became apparent that she didn't know they were dead.
The Scarlet hatchling was completly lost on Crescentia as she couldn't help but watch the second maggot covered dragon. Oh, that poor thing... She swallowed the bile in her throat as he watched the poor thing crying piteously for relief, but recieving none, not until the clutch's sire came out onto the sands and... broke her neck.
"Faranth..." She breathed, hand coming up to cover her mouth. She may be a gruff and silghtly rude girl, but sad spectacles like this were not lost on her. She could feel pity and sorrow, which was what she was feeling now, especially when the Onyx actually left the Sands. Oh, he must feel terrible, but it had to be done... the poor thing was going to die anyway, so maybe it was best that she be put out of her misery now. Even so, it was still difficult to watch.
She nearly began to cry, if it hadn't been for the lilac snout that bumped against her leg. She had completly forgotten about the Purple, but that was alright, since the creature wasn't for her. She was for Niora. "Congratulations." She said, trying to keep her voice even. This was supposed to be a happy event, but so far, there were two dead, diseases hatchlings. What if there were more?
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Post by Pheonix on Aug 17, 2008 23:01:41 GMT -5
Niora kept watching the Hatching, though with everyone else she turned to look at the late-arrival, and her bright optomism was shot again when she saw the look of horror on his face. It brought back her memories of the maggot-infested hatchling that she had been trying to force out of her mind by focusing on the Purple. It was hard to ignore the smell... but the purple was a cute little thing, and it was easy to focus on her. She seemed to be looking at the girls, trying to make up her mind....
Forcing herself to look back at the rest of the eggs, Niora tried not to be too innocently optomistic as she watched the next egg hatch. But this didn't seem to be worth worrying over. The dragonet that emerged from this egg looked like a healthy little scarlet. No wait, a copper. No... scarlet! And it certainly wasn't little. She felt herself release a breath she didn't know she was holding. At least this dragonet was okay. That made two out of the... twenty-odd eggs Amath had laid. Oh... poor Amath. Niora glanced over at the Silver, biting her lip in thought. Was it either of the parent's fault that this tragedy had happened? No... there was no way.... but still, poor Amath....
Another egg looked like it was going to hatch, no wait, two did. A pretty Scarlet. This one was obviously a scarlet, even with the lighter patch that looked strangely like a heart, unlike the other dragonet on the sands. The copper? She thought it was a Copper... oh, well, she'd see who the strange dragons would Impress. It would be easy to tell that way if it was a copper or a scarlet. But her thoughts were rather rudely interupted... by another wave of that horrible, vomit-inducing scent. Her eyes went small at the thought, and she forced herself to look at the egg that had just hatched. .... not again....
Another one. Another one had died due to that horrible disease. Wait... no, this one was still alive. Niora could feel her heart breaking as she watched the poor thing creel for Hers as the maggots ate away at her flesh. It was awful. It was too awful to watch. But she couldn't look away. She couldn't even look away as Sephiroth put the poor thing out of her misery. Her bright green eyes almost filled up with tears, but she stopped herself. It would be okay. There were plenty of healthy dragons that had come from this clutch. All was not lost.
Niora wasn't really paying attention to anything except the dead little dragon on the Sands, and she didn't even notice the Purple coming towards her... well, not until the last minute. Forcing her gaze away from the maggot-strewn carcass she spotted the Purple and then.... rainbows, rainbows, rainbows.... what was this feeling? It was like nothing she'd ever felt before. It... it almost made her happy, even with the horrible sadness of the maggot-ridden dragon corpses. But she felt... complete. And a sweet voice echoed through her mind, and she blinked away tears, looking at the Purple.
"I.... I don't know," she said seriously and sadly, two things that Niora's emotions that were never in her carefree, innocent tone of voice. She glanced at Cresce and forced a smile. "Thanks," but it was obvious from her voice that she wasn't thinking about Impression. This was supposed to be the happiest moment of her life. But she just couldn't focus on it. NioraMine?[/i] Faereth's voice jolted Niora out of her depressing thoughts, and she looked down at the beautiful Purple. At least her dragon wasn't infected. Her dragon was... perfect. Trying not to cry, she latched her arms around the dragon's neck. "Her... name is Faereth!" she announced, just because she felt like screaming something.
Glancing at Cresce and giving her a sincere smile this time, she began to walk off with Faereth. "Let's go get food!" she said, still in an attempt to remove all images of the maggot-ridden dragons from her mind. Faereth's tail lashed back and forth, sort of like a dog. The two of them started running towards the buckets of food left out for the new Weyrlings, and Niora promptly sat down and began to toss the meat into Faereth's mouth. Still, she glanced back at the eggs every so often, her mind not completely settled.
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Post by Sintarith on Aug 18, 2008 9:09:45 GMT -5
Nwalme had had to finally look away from the grim scene on the sands. And down at herself. Luckily she missed herself when she’d lost her stomach, and so still retained some amount of dignity. Not that it counted for much. The whole atmosphere had turned sickly, tainted by the death of that poor little dragon. The remains of what had been its body were still a writhing mass of maggots, and it had started to attract the sand flies. It was beyond repulsive, because it struck a chord deep within the girl that made her eyes begin to fill once more. But she couldn’t, no matter what, bring herself to look at the corpse again. Sick to her stomach, she questioned why it had happened, and found no answer. The girl almost withdrew into herself, finding herself wondering if it would be easier if she were to pretend that she wasn’t there at all, or that it wasn’t happening. But no, the fact remained that she was there, it had happened. And she would have to deal with it in her own way. She didn’t even notice Derrok enter the hatching grounds, but if she had, she would have paid him no mind. He was just another person she hadn’t really spoken to.
It was all inconsequential, the only thing that she should think about, and would think about, was the clutch. And hope for the rest to be safely hatched and bonded to their life mates.
Well, until she heard Niora’s squeal of delight. The little purple was Hers, it seemed. It was all Nwalme could do to try and smile in congratulations, the death of he dragonet and the grim atmosphere were wearing her down. Her eyes wandered down to the beautiful little thing and this time, a proper smile broken her clouded features. Not all of the clutch was ravaged. This dragonet was strong and healthy. Her fears hadn’t been brought to light; that all the clutch would end up like the dead baby out on the sands right now. She felt a maelstrom of emotions then: relief, for she might even be bonded to a dragon of her own today. Someone who could accept her for who she really was. Happiness for Niora. Despite the girls naivety, she more than deserved to Impress. Jealousy, the conflicting emotion, in that Niora had Impressed such a gorgeous creature and finally, the ever lingering sense of dread and foreboding. No dragon should ever have to die alone, nor so young. It was just…cruel.
As Niora led her young dragon off - Faereth, so the girl had joyously called out - Nwalme started to navigate her way through the small crowd of girls. She wasn’t so distant and aloof as some people had said, that she would stay on her own - no. Nwalme needed someone, a friend. Otherwise she felt as though she would never be able to cope with the days events. She mumbled her apologies as her not-so-graceful footing caused her to knock the elbow of one girl, almost tread on the foot of another. It didn’t matter though. The contact with someone else did, reassurance from someone she knew. That someone was Crescentia. True she’d seen the girl in one of her bad moods, especially the whole episode with Relin, and she hadn’t spoken to her very often, but at the moment, she didn’t care.
After what seemed like an age of weaving in and out of girls, she finally stood next to the one she had been looking for. Grabbing Cresce’s hand, she gave an awkward glance at the girl and very quietly said “Sorry, I just need to be with a friend right now.” It was most likely the most words she had ever put together in front of anyone. But Nwalme didn’t even mind that it wasn’t like her, nor that the other girl was still covered in muck from the morning’s chores. Still was still comforting to be with.
Forcing herself to look back towards the eggs - eyes narrowly avoiding the putrid corpse - she noticed a rather oddly coloured dragonet, just sat there, preening itself. Herself, rather. She was most definitely feminine, but what colour was her hide? It looked as though it could be scarlet, or copper, but yet, she was huge! Nwalme had seen the last hatching as a spectator and reckoned this scarlet-copper dragonet was about the size of the silver that had hatched then, maybe a slight bit smaller. A small ghost of a smile flitted across her face, The creature was as beautiful as she was different and the opinion voiced itself without even realising she had spoken. “So pretty…” Then realising that yes, she had indeed spoken aloud, a pale blush painted her face as she quickly looked about, seeing if anyone had noticed. Her confidence seemed to be increasing after all!
Another crack distracted her from that thought. She missed the hatching of the scarlet and her attention was brought fully to the other egg. When she saw that this dragonet too carried the disease of its sibling, she muffled a cry of anguish. The poor thing was stripped to the bone in places!. At worst, Nwalme’s sight was sharp, and so she could see every joint in the tailbone, where the skin and flesh had been digested away by the filthy maggots that oozed almost lazily over the corroded flesh. It was almost too much to bear when Sephiroth put it out of its misery. The tears that had been building up now flowed freely, and Nwalme had to resist the impulse to bury her face in Crescentia’s shoulder, despite the half a head difference in height. The onyx dragon’s lamenting cry grated on her ears, making the flow of tears cascade down her face like a river. It was almost too hard to stand here and watch. Even when the great dragon left, she didn’t feel any better. In fact, she felt worse.
She couldn’t imagine how Amath felt. She didn’t want to. If Sephiroth had been so distraught, Nwalme didn’t even want to catch a glimpse at the state the queen was in. So she kept her eyes firmly rooted on the copperish dragonet, and the wobbling eggs behind her. She couldn’t leave now, especially if this was the hatching where she finally impressed! Stamping that idea firmly into her mind gave the girl something to hold on to, to hope for. And it allowed her be that little bit stronger, for herself, and for the little dragon out there that was waiting for her.
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Post by Sintarith on Aug 18, 2008 11:14:17 GMT -5
Tekah looked wistfully out onto the sands. The air was thick with tension and not just that, but with fear and worry too. It had only been a short amount of time since the hatchings had started and already one dragonet lay dead. A candidate had ran into the grounds and taken his place within the boys semicircle, the emotions on his face visibly changing from worry because he was late, to horror, then to sadness as he surveyed the other eggs. Tekah said nothing. He just inched his way around the boy standing at the end of the semi-circle so he was closer to the girls. Now was not the time to be flirting, he knew, but he wanted to offer comfort. Well, even from this distance a smile might cheer someone up, even if he couldn’t hug them. And it was the girls he knew that needed the comforting. They liked to know that someone was there for them, if they ever needed it. And there he was. It didn’t so much as irk him that the red headed boy down the line had broken down, if he /was/ a boy. The guy looked like he could even be a girl! Tekah shook his head at the thoughts which entered it. No, he’d had enough trouble before…
Getting back to the matter at hand, he wasn’t looking at the sands, more over at the girls. He grinned as he saw a fluffy haired girl impress the pretty, if odd, purple. They seemed to suit each other perfectly from what he could judge by their body language as they walked away from the group. So, an Impression had been made. The day wasn’t entirely lost to this thing that had attacked the dragons in their eggs. Tekah spared just enough attention to notice a rather large dragon had had, and that it was a weird colour. Something that might be red, or it might be copper. Which was fitting he guessed as he saw fragments of shell scattered around its feet. Oh well, it was definitely headed towards the females, so it wasn’t much to do with him.
The boy didn’t even bat an eyelid when the smell of death reawakened on the air. It was obvious something had got a hold on the dragonets, and that more were going to die that day. For some reason, he was able to block that out. He didn’t so much as cast an eye towards the dying dragon, he only flinched slightly when he heard its neck snap. Causing him to look around was Sephiroth’s keening, and the swift beat of his wings as he flew away. That evoked a twinge of sadness within him. The sire was leaving the clutch, but not because he didn’t care - he cared too much. The pain must be immense for the dragon even when he would probably sire many, many more children. Losing a child, no matter what was always hard. He knew that because even though he had only turned 16, not that long ago in fact, his many liaisons had inevitably led to fatherhood. Luckily only the once. Except the mother of the child had died giving birth to it, and the baby had died soon after. He tried to block this from his mind.
The scarlet that ambled towards the semi circle he was in, was only noticed when it came sloer in proximity. Tekah noticed the small heart shaped patch in his hide and wondered if that was going to grow out when he got older. The shape would probably distort as the dragon grew bigger. But it interested him nonetheless. These dragons were certainly displaying some odd traits - he’d never seen any distinct shape on the hides of dragons that had flown over his hold. And he most certainly had never seen a dragon the colour of the huge scarlet-copper-whatever colour either. And the spines on the purple were a hell of a lot longer than usual. Normally he only saw dragons with pronounced ridges, not spines!
Looking over at the girls again, he called Aurelie, seeing that she was on the verge of tears. If anything, he wanted to walk over there and wrap his arms around her, no matter the consequences. But something made him stay. Instead, he looked over imploring her to look at him. He hated seeing any girl upset, and as she had caught his attention, he just wanted her to know that in the end, everything would be okay. He smiled brightly over at her, a twinkle in his eye, in hopes that she would glance his way.
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Kisana
Candidate
Vyrzen's Panda
Posts: 63
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Post by Kisana on Aug 18, 2008 16:30:21 GMT -5
Derrok watched as the copper-scarlet marbled egg hatched, revealing precious cargo - another viable egg, a Scarlet-Copper that seemed to be a girl. It didn't preen itself, but flexed its claws as if practicing hunting. She hadn't shown a preference between males or females, but it seemed like she could choose either, strange creature that she was. The color of her hide was enticing, distracting him thoroughly from the dead hatchling, its corpse being eaten by the terrible maggots and flies. The CopperScarlet would probably impress to a girl, seeing as it seemed to be a Copper more than a Scarlet, but he could still hope, and that hope pulled his thoughts away from the thought that more eggs could hatch like the poor ... he wouldn't think about that, not now. He had to hope that there would be more normal hatchlings!
His hopes were fulfilled for the moment as a Scarlet hatched out. He was bright red, with a pale heart on his chest. What an interesting creature! It scrambled around before smacking into another shuddering egg, causing it to crack open. The Scarlet shuffled away quickly, but Derrok didn't pay attention as the hatchling hatched out. The smell alerted him, and he waited despairingly as the contents of the egg were revealed.
Yet another pestilent dragon, only this one lasted longer than its clutchmate. She collapsed amidst her egg as the maggots devoured her, but she was still alive. Horribly, unfortunately alive. She creeled and creeled, searching for Hers. The search was in vain, as the hatchling's father Sephiroth mercifully broke her neck. The maggots ate her still, the rotten birthing fluid dripping slowly from the eye and neck ridges. His stomach was unable to hold onto last night's dinner as he vomited all over the sands. He had no chance to feel undignified. Every emotion was spent on the hatchlings - sorrow about the two lost hatchlings, dread that there would be more, curiosity about the cause, relief that there were healthy hatchlings still.
The Purple Impressed, to that girl Niora - the naive, innocent one. At least she had an excuse to leave. He could only pray that he would have that chance - to not have all this sorrow in vain. If he had known, he might just have stayed in bed and waited for another clutch, rather than have to run in and face this.
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Post by min on Aug 18, 2008 21:51:01 GMT -5
Between the sudden hatchings, Relin hadn’t time to really consider what was going on with the correct state of mind. At the sight of the next hatchling, Relin perked up. Appearing to be a scarlet, the young man realized this was something he should take interest in. A scarlet usually impressed males, and he was sure he was one of that gender, and so undivided attention was paid to the preening creature until he realized with closer inspection that it was actually a Copper. The tinge of its hide has completely fooled his eyes, and he felt the adrenaline that had suddenly filled his veins slowly disappate until a minimal level was left. And then it all came rushing back, at the arrival of the second infested hatchling. Surprise and disgust once again ran through the youth’s being, but at a much lesser scale then before. Although the degree of flesh that had been devoured on this hatchling was quite a few levels higher, Relin’s already uneasy stomach had settled in the eye of the storm, and was currently doing all right.
Eyeing the creature with abhorrence the young man simply looked away, preferring to ignore its pitiful existence rather than to watch and mourn as it took its last few feet in its pathetic crawl. The hatching of the two scarlets that would later interest him so, was lost in the whirl of negative emotions that were dancing circles around the young man. Despite this fact a loud cheer suddenly rang out of the crowd. Already tense the young man stiffened, barely containing the urge to jump up in surprise.
“Shards! What-?” he started before wisely looking around before any more language came out. Apparently the ditzy purple had impressed.
Involuntarily he felt a small, but genuine smile spread across his lips at the sight of the happy pair. If he remembered correctly, that Niora girl was one that had brushed his interest earlier. All innocent, naïve, and quite a bit cute with that light cloud like blonde hair. Immediately his grin turned rather wolfish, as he stared down the figure of the other candidate…. Or Weyrling actually. She had impressed a purple, and so he would need at least a Jade to impress her dragon. But shrugging dismally, the thought of why on Pern would he desire a jade when he might as well desire a king ran through his mind. The selection of females to choose from would widen so very much, as one could always go lower, but not higher, and the more to choose from the more he could pick. The logic was simple. The more he chose, the more fun he would have.
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Finally getting in control of her choking fit, Aurelie was blinking the last tears away from her eyes, as the stench of rotting flesh was slowly melting away into the environment, when an egg hatched revealing a beautiful hatchling with a mixed hide. Both scarlet and copper, the girl narrowed her eyes trying to decipher which class this hatchling belonged to. At the excited squeaks of a few other female candidates with perhaps better eyesight or simply keener vision, Aurelie decided that it must be a copper to receive such a response from the girls. Simply because the next to eggs to hatch, a pair of uniquely wonderful scarlets, both with bright healthy sheens to their equally bright hides, did not receive such an ovation.
Almost laughing, she resisted the desire with a light smirk on her face, decided that she really was too wise, too smart. How else would someone had figured something like that out?
Besides studying the hatchling closer, but that was besides the point!
In the midst of her self glorifying cheer, the hatching of the next egg threw her back into a sick state. Immediately the smell that was thrown around reminded her of the sight of the other hatchling, and this one….well… wasn’t any better. If anything it was much worse, with the gleaming shine of white bone seething through the flesh that was almost always moving. Moving with maggots that devoured as much as they could before the accidentally fell off, to slither right back over and slide on once again.
The young woman barely noticed the impression of the purple to a candidate she barely recognized, nor did the cheering of the crowd break the deathly pale expression upon her face. Aurelie was too busy trying not to retch. Last time her accidental choking had burnt the majority of the sight away from her vision, but this time around, free of natural accidents, she took the whole view in. And it felt like everything was about to come shooting upwards that was supposed to go down.
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