Choose Your Own Adventure [Unmith Hatching]

Night time had just about fallen and Requezzia had managed to find herself quite hidden from those she would have considered her gaolers. So far she had spent the whole day getting out of chores and now she sat, mirror in hand, organising her mass of bronze locks into some sort of hair style. The candidate had gone through three hair styles so far and all of them wonderful in their own way but she was on a fourth. Half up and half down in tendrils then plaited together in what could only be described as beautifully artistic. Ezzia was about to pull it out when a voice entered her mind. Eggs?

Her time to shine. That queen egg was hers. Soon her life would get infinitely easier with her only duty to sit around and relax whilst others listened to her every order and whim. Her every fancy would be catered to. She was a desert flower and a dragon would shortly see this. Ezzia jumped to her feet and pranced her way lightly down the hallway, getting stopped by one of the workers she had been avoiding.
"Sorry, can't help you now. There's a hatching and you're not invited."

Continuing on her way, ignoring shouts as she pushed her way through the crowds, she eventually made it to the candidate barracks. Grabbing the white robes she donned them. They had once belonged to a larger person and she had since altered them to fit her better, displaying her figure more apparently. Her beauty could not be hidden by a sack of white cloth when there was something as important as this! Hair, wonderful. Face? Beautiful as usual. Clothes. Sexy. Yep, she was awesome.

With the longer than normal robes flowing around her, she pushed and made her way to the hatching cavern. For the first time since she had arrived, Ezzia had a very real reaction when she saw the pink dragonet. She drew in a breath and looked the hatchling right in the eyes, holding back tears of awe. The moment was gone swiftly, however, for she knew this was not hers. It was not the queen she was looking for. Neither was the other on the sands. Bowing to both mothers and riders, she took her place with the candidates, standing as close as she could to the largest egg.

Mine! My candidate will be thtanding. I know she will Impreth.
Z'is made his way to the stands and waited, searching out the candidate they had brought to Dalibor. Aelynn had not yet arrived but when she did he would offer his encouragement. He bought a sweetroll from a trader who seemed to have come from nowhere to ply his wares and started eating, noting the healthy arrival of two dragons already. A purplerider somewhere nearby was already cheering loudly whilst a brownrider and blackrider were watching on patiently.

It had taken a lot of persuading but eventually Rayna had managed to get down to the sands.
They are not even Kalith why am I here. I do not care about them they are taking all the attention away from me with their stupid eggs. They have offended me by having eggs and being the same.
A fact Rayna probably shouldn't have reminded Couineth of in retrospect. The Weyrwoman sighed and entered the hatching sands to more protests on Couineth's end.
They are not even smart or anything. That one says nothing. SO RUDE MIIIINEE
A loud thud was heard from above which could be taken as a dragon landing but Rayna knew Couineth had just moodily struck the wall with her tail.
Hush Couineth. Hum along but this is Mith and Unath's hatching.
The gold simmered down but every now and again her humming was punctuated by an angry, frustrated 'humpf.'

The Hatching came without any proper warning. It was worse than Sam knew, even, for to her it was not the claws of a wandering dragonet but the sudden commandment of Unath's voice that brought it to her attention. It passed through her like a rushing wave, on its way to the farthest reaches of the Weyr and beyond, without any ankle-lapping to precede it. There was no slow easing-in of a hum; no protective mother-dragon's paranoia to rouse her. The Hatching of Naireth's birth had eased up on her like a shiver, as had the birth of Naireth's children, but the hatching of the twins was surprising. She felt as unattentive as the tans themselves; had she missed something?

But there was only action in her body. Her heart clenched, at first, but then it released with a swell of excitement. She flew to her splurge of an armoire and drew from it her event dress. She had only been picky about the style of the neckline - the rest she had left to the weaver or, like the colour of it, insisted that Q'sis choose. When it was barely in her hands, she heard him call her through Unath, and she grinned breathlessly. She wondered, as she made Naireth fly her down to the grand entrance, if she had ever changed into a dress and sandals as quickly as that. She even forwent the ritual rubbing of the burn scars on her arms. For once, she was able to mindlessly accept them as her own appendages without having to feel them.

She was shocked to find the Sands already populated. A cyan, and-- her eyes failed to pick out exactly what was happening at the opposite end of the vast cavern. Granules of burning heat invaded the precious coolness between her skin and her sandals but she hurried on anyways. As she drew nearer, though, she noticed the problem. A dragonet! In his arms? The cycle of warm air stirred the fine fabric of her skirt.

"Q'sis!" she squawked. Her tone was nearly accusatory, but mostly, it held exasperated confusion. This Hatching was very sudden indeed! "What happened?" Because he had either taken the dragonet up by choice, or it was all the little pink's fault. When she stopped, Sam kicked her feet to try and dislodge some of the sand - an ungainly sight under the grace of her dress. She was hesitant to draw any nearer because of Charth, but seemed to want to because of Q'sis.

Naireth, dully, was aware of the pain that seeped up into Samael's feet. Her hum was tentative at first, but purely because she was distracted by her rider's feet. With it catching in the throats of dragons across the Weyr, though, the first tan of Pern clued in subconsciously. From her ledge high above, she radiated a low and sonorous noise, grounded entirely in instinct and traditional. She knew there was a hatching, of course. She was smart. But she did not hum for the welfare of the children; she did not hum to honour the mothers. She hummed because all were meant to hum. It was the way it was.

---

And it was the hum that finally knocked some sense into Hakotep. Unath's voice had nearly stunned him. It washed so swiftly through him that it took a moment for him to fully understand the words and their origin, and a few moments more to wonder when his mind had become so slow. His knife and perpetual carving rested loose in his hands. It occurred to him that he had never properly heard a dragon's voice. They had warned that the dams would call when the eggs began to rock, but he wished now that there had been a little more explanation. Gradually, he came to sit upright on the edge of his cot.

The Hatching.

A sinking feeling burrowed into the desert boy's gut. He stood upon the precipace, finally, staring down into the darkness of the unknown. It swarmed with heat and the smell of sand - close to home and yet very, very far from it. That he was about to understand it all, finally, turned his limbs into stone, but the hum was what freed him. The hum, and Ghris.

His roommate flurried in and he blinked.

"Right," came his restrained voice. Then again, louder, "Right."

Hakotep willed himself to stand and he did, but he swayed. Blood rushed to his head and he heard his pulse pounding in his head. I'm nervous, he thought, which only exascerbated the situation. Shards. Already? But hastily he set his tools aside, and drew open the chest at the foot of his bed. His hands trembled with the clasps and his whole body trembled as he stripped the clothing from it. He felt simultaneously ill and empty from hunger, but entirely energetic in the worst way. It vibrated off of him in waves that made it difficult to stand steady. The robes were donned and his sandles tied, though, and he left. He couldn't even bother to check if Ghris was with him, but he probably was.

His feet carried him swiftly and did not falter when they transitioned from cool stone to hot sand. As he made his way, he pulled his runnertail of hair out of the back of his robes where it had gotten trapped, and adjusted the neck of it so it rested even across his shoulders. Be presentable, be respectful, be open. Lessons from those who claimed to be able to teach him what something like this was supposed to be like. As he came into line his spine curled into a bow and he mouthed thanks with his eyes drilling into the sand.

When he drew back up he had to make an effort to stand still and straight. His eyes took on the movement that he denied his body, though, racing around the cavern. Unath and Mith were there; a cyan was there, and the form of a woman in a dress obstructed his view of the darker twin's rider and... another dragonet? The sight set a sudden pang of sickness in him because he did not know what to make of it. He swallowed and shuttled his eyes back to the rocking eggs.

It was time, then, just like Ghris had said. It was time.

Kai heard the call just as Sian did and his stomach leaped into his throat. There was something inherently wrong about the voice... it seemed different than his Search dragon's for some reason. Whatever it was, it made Sian increasingly angry. Others might take Sian's gruffness for him just being a recluse, but the fire in his eyes was unmistakable to his friend. Anger. Destruction. It doubled the apprehension in the woodcrafter's chest. It was bad enough that he had to be there. It was bad enough that the now "Famous" Searchrider had taken the only three people from Crescent that absolutely did not want to be at Dalibor. What made it all the worse, though, was trying to keep his friend's hatred from boiling over.

Being roommates and all, he had heard much of Sian's mutterings about Q'sis, the male tanrider. Although he himself had no connection to the man, he hated him just for the grumbling and interjections that Sian would shout grumpily as Kaihekoa was getting ready for bed. He hated Q'sis just for the affect he had on his best friend. More importantly, it gave him an outlet for all the hate that he experienced at being at this blasted Weyr.

When Ondine, Healer and Searchrider, with her pink Dilath (he would never forget their names) dropped in out of the gray he thought he had made his stance as perfectly clear as he could be without being offensive. He did not want to go to Dalibor. The only reason he had allowed them to take him was under his expressed condition that they were not to take anyone else who contributed to the Hold... Well, he really only said his brother, but it had been implied. Then, as if to add insult to injury, the dumb pair actually then proceeded to ignore the other hopeful adolescents that had been there in favor of Searching and effectively stealing a future Lady Holder and a future Steward from their positions. If Sian had been livid, Kai was downright peeved and had refused to enjoy himself for his entire duration at Dalibor Weyr. Instead, he focused his energy on his new duties. Most important of those duties was playing big brother to Irohvyne. Equally important was his duty to keep Sian from killing every person that made the smaller man angry...

Speaking of Sian, the man seemed to be very intent on getting Kaihekoa out of them room. In fact, in his brief moment of panic and despair Sian had managed to get Kai's shirt off and thrust a robe over his head, leaving the taller man in a sea of white fabric. "Shardin' between, Si!" Kai barked, trying to find his way through the head hole as his arms groped for the arm holes. Eventually the robes fell over his form and he continued to remove his trousers, knowing it was pointless to fight once Sian got something stuck in his mind. There was the added bonus that Kai was much used to getting kicked out of his own room by now. Sian, being the private man that he was, preferred to change his clothes and bathe in private. While Kai was not as reserved when it came to his dressing and bathing, he had learned to respect Sian's need for solitude. "Just don't take too long," he grumbled as he slammed the door behind him.

Next task, of course, was to find Irohvyne. Over the time the three of them--Kaihekoa, Sian, and Irohvyne--had grown fairly close in their misery of disappointed dreams. There was very rarely a time when at least two of them weren't together; it was the most naturally thing in the world for Kaihekoa to seek the company of Iroh when Sian was not available. They had, in fact, become friends... with Iroh just as closely kept under Kai's protective wing as his best friend Sian. Moving into the common area he waited patiently for Iroh, moving immediately to her side once he saw her. No words were offered to her, just a patient smile that attempted to hide the grumpiness inherent in his eyes. He offered his arm to her, a gesture of formality as much as it was to take some solace in the closeness of a kindred spirit, and then continued his waiting for Sian (the clear and obvious leader of their troupe).

"Huh." Kaihekoa grunted at Sian's greeting; he was just as pleased as any of them to be there (which was not at all). He let Sian start out, then strode after his friend to the tunnel. Irohvyne could still hold his arm if she liked, but if she didn't that was just as well. The relative darkness of the tunnel struck a peculiar brand of horror into his heart. He didn't want to be here. He didn't want to face the prospects of what a dragon might do to his future or to the futures of his two closest friends. None of this was wanted. Yet, here they were... facing the mouth of the beast and tempting fate to dive into its horrible belly.

Sian didn't bow. Irohvyne did bow. Kaihekoa, meanwhile, did some mixture of the two. He gave a curt bow of the briefest formality he could get away with. There were no kind words of thanks spared for either of the clutchmothers. How could there be? Kai could not force himself to pretend he was thankful for an opportunity that he was desperate to pass on to any other soul alive on Pern. For a moment he paused, considering the placement of either of his friends across the dividing line, and he gave a dissatisfied snort. This wasn't going to fly. There was no way, after the oath he had taken upon himself, that he would allow Irohvyne to be separated from himself and from Sian. They had been Searched together. Their dreams for their futures had been shaken together. Therefore, it only made sense that together they would face this new trial. It would never make sense to Kaihekoa for the three of them to ever be apart.

He strode up to Irohvyne and in a gruff gesture he took her hand in his and marched her around the sands. There would be no choice from her in the matter. She was his friend just as much as Sian was and the three of them had to stand together. "Tradition be betweened," he muttered beneath his breath just loud enough that Irohvyne could hear, "I ain't letting you stand by yourself like that." As he approached Sian he gave the man a curt nod, then moved past him and released Irohvyne's hand to let her stand between them. His dark eyes, dark circles beneath them, stared out to meet each person's glance in turn to see if they would try to correct his action. Of course, he wouldn't listen to any correction. The divide between gender lines was a dumb tradition and he didn't give a sharding wherry's tail about whether or not people thought his actions were improper. Sian and Irohvyne were his family now. He'd just as soon get eaten by thread than let anyone take them from him.

Nimara was quiet and reserved, even more-so than usual. She had lost some of her spirit a couple seasons back for reason she was not willing to share with either of her fellow candidatemasters. A good hatching, though, was always nice to brighten up her spirit. A small smile even appeared on her face, a good omen despite the sorrow that still lingered in her eyes. "Indeed," she replied weakly to Jasmine's comment. Waroth, for once, was not in attendance at this Hatching. It had been a blessing that the red didn't care much for the whims of tans, but Nimara hadn't wanted to take any chances with her attendance. Especially as she noted the presence of Couineth looming, she was glad for her decision. Waroth would have a fit about the way the youngest Daliborean gold was behaving... and Nimara hadn't the energy to deal with such a thing at the moment.

There is a hatching, HaneiMine... we must stop what we are doing and attend it! Hanei groaned and slumped against the bed she had been trying to move as a favor to Noveth's strange whims of change. It was a small appeasement to keep the green from constantly contradicting every moral fiber in Hanei's body and it did help build muscle, but sometimes she wanted to kick the green in the chin and tell her to move her own dumb furniture. At the very least the Hatching had provided an excuse to give up on this charade and move on to something more enlightening. "Of course we should." Hanei smiled, already planning on what she was going to do. She quickly changed her clothes to something more formal and then the two headed off to the Hatching Sands.

As stealthily as possible, Hanei moved up the stands (for she and Noveth were not allowed to fly together yet). Her eyes deftly found where her father was sitting and she snuck up one row behind him so that she might catch him off guard. Calmly and patiently she strode toward him, at the last minute stretching her hands out to cover his eyes. "Guess who!" She whispered, her voice telling of the huge grin that had erupted onto her face. Her eyes glanced over to where he had been saving a seat and her smile widened. "Although, I guess you already know, huh?" In a burst of youthfulness she lept over the bench and sat down next to him, beaming up at his taller form before directing her attention to the Hatching Sands down below.

By this time Noveth had come trotting up and was looking for a place to sit. She'd choose one at first, then would become instantly dissatisfied and tried sitting somewhere else. It was all so very unsatisfying to her. The view never seemed to change no matter where she moved. Maybe she could sit on the sands... then she would have the best seat in the house! She moved down the tiers to achieve her goal, but her rider caught wind of her plans and interjected. You should say hello to Hemetath... Tell him he looks handsome today. Noveth grimaced. But he's sooo dulllll. The boredom was obvious in her mindvoice, but Hanei didn't let up. Please, Noveth? For me? The green snorted with disgust, but relented. She walked her little green butt up to where Hemetath had taken a seat and sat next to him, not at all pleased by the proximity.

Hello, Hemetath, she drawled, I see you are the same drab color as you were yesterday...

Sian shoved him and Kai's eyes narrowed into dark slits. No? No?! In an instant testosterone flared up like fire and his eyes held an anger. It was quickly mixed with equal parts confusion, however. Why not? Why couldn't he stand with the two closest people to him in this forsaken land? His jaw clenched shut tightly and his hand not holding Iroh's curled into a fist, his stubs of nails biting into his palm. "Stop it," he growled where he stood several steps away, having been thrown far off-balance by his friend's shove. "This is stupid." For a moment he considered facing down his friend, muscling his way past that stubbornness and pride that equally inhabited them both. They were friends. They were supposed to be best friends. Why, in the name of Faranth and her terrible descendents, was Sian being so sharding crazy? His skin tingled, desperate for a quick romp to bring this dumb disagreement to an end. It wasn't appropriate here, though. And, shardit, he loved Sian like a brother. Brothers shouldn't be fighting like this, especially when they had been nothing but friendly before. This came out of the blue and, although he'd never admit it, it hurt the woodcrafter's feelings.

He gave a gentle squeeze to Iroh's hand, as if to remind himself that she was there. His eyes barely left Sian's face, searching it for any hint as to what on Pern was going on with him. He wouldn't fight Sian. Even as the rage at the injustice of his friend's actions threatened to boil over, his muscles would not move to act in a way that could ever hurt his friend. So he stayed, stagnant and tense, his hand gripping Irohvyne's tightly and his dark eyes speaking volumes. He had put up with a lot from Sian. He had listened to the man's rampaging about the injustice of the system and had even believed in most of it. But this action screamed of hypocrisy. Kaihekoa couldn't understand why Sian was doing this.

Fortunately, another sound managed to penetrate his heart pounding in his ears. It was Irohvyne, giving a gasp he was surprised he heard. He turned to her, his expression softening in an instant and the fight or flight response draining from him. She looked... well, he couldn't rightly tell. Her gaze was set up and away, somewhere in the Stands. His own eyes followed it, where he saw the Lady Holder of Crescent and... someone else. He didn't know who the man was or even if he was the source of Irohvyne's discomfort. All he knew was that there were more important things to worry about than his own injured pride... for now. He could bicker with Sian later. Forcing himself to draw a breath, Kaihekoa returned his attentions to the Sands and renewed his grip on Irohvyne's hand (his own was getting sweaty from the heat of the room).

"It's fine," he grumbled, as much to reassure himself as to quell Iroh's own anxiety, "It'll be... just... fine." The tightening of his jaw suggested otherwise, but the crisis had been averted for now. He would stand her with Iroh, then, if Sian was so keen on being apart from him. It jabbed him in the heart to think that, but there was nothing he could do. There was a swelling in his throat that he fought to swallow away--it was his pride, he told himself, and nothing else. "We'll be home before we know it." He picked Ondine now out of the crowd and forced himself to focus all his ill will on the unwitting pinkrider. It wasn't her fault and part of him knew this, but in this moment she was his scapegoat. It was her fault they were here. It was her fault Sian and he had a misunderstanding. It was her fault that Irohvyne was on edge. All of this was all her fault.

Tesla, having recovered from her illness long ago, was finally allowed back on the Hatching Sands. Tessk was at her side, blindfolded against the brightness of the fires and glows that lit the Sands. Okay? She asked, pressing herself tight against Tesla's side. The girl--now young woman--smiled nervously into the crowd of people in the stands and wrung her hands over her handkerchief. Maybe... For a moment she hazarded to take a step forward, but then she fell back again as a person crossed in front of her. Desperately she searched for any sign of her brother, Edison, or her friend, Ondine. Ondine, the name echoed in her head along with the context in which she commonly heard it spoken these days. It made her uneasy to know that the object of her affections had become such a celebrity. She thought she might be sick...

Want leave? The white crooned softly, tilting her head up blindly to her handler. Tesla paused, considering it, then shook her head. No, no... I just... need... she paused mid-thought, once again searching the Stands for a familiar face. Her mouth pulled into an uneasy frown as the anxiety of being around this many people who could bump into her began to creep up her spine.