SACRIFICE || Ausk's Clutching

The red cared little for the cold, winter night, or for the sleeping human or the pain in her belly. She had been lethargic as of late; Audren knew her as egg-heavy but Ausk refused such logical explanations. She blamed it on her injuries -- her scabbed face and healing gashes, and the missing left fork of her tongue. It took away from her, she insisted, and Audren let her think so. One particular stretch of snowy darkness, though (and it was one of the first few snowfalls of the season), she huffed and lazily stamped at the ground before turning and leaving from their patrol. She trudged back to the Weyr, through the bowl, and to the warm, igneous Sands.

Audren followed. She called Baharl and Bask to cover their abandoned march, and watched her wher descend into the dark cavern of the Hatching Sands. She did not accompany her that far; she reserved the clutching as a private, ungainly matter, and only when Ausk showed mental signs of relief and surrender did Audren enter.

The red mountain laid near four uneven, still-soft eggs. The first and smallest was a creamy, reddish-tan, mottled darker and lighter here and there. The second was a dusty brown, a little larger, and the third was largest and green. It was marked by dark, nearly-black portions, and sat with a measurable gap between itself and the final egg. Lonely, the fourth egg was tipped on its side, displaying a pale gray hue, perhaps a little green, and perhaps with a little brown. This one was similar in size to the humble brown egg. Together, the quartet was uniformly dull in the darkness.

I told you you'd clutch, Audren said to Ausk.

No clutch, said the red, but she remained possessively around her eggs. She let her gleaming eyes drop closed, glad to have been rid of what had consumed so much of her energy, and glad to be able to rest. Audren lingered only a little longer, and then went to set up her makeshift desk in the halls near the Sands.

She trusted Ausk to lay quietly for now, but Audren would never stray far until the eggs were gone.