Straddle the Line [CalKal Double Hatching!]

[Serah]

Aelynn just stood there, watching. Another wher had hatched, and was already causing havoc among the Candidates. Several were mauled by the Black wher. Then a Blue wher emerged from its crushed egg. It seemed to not like the Black wher that was attacking the Candidates, or at least, that's what it seemed like to Aelynn. She watched as the whers went through the Candidates.

She didn't see the Black dragon hatch from his egg. But she saw the dark wher jump on it. There were several scrapes on his back from the dark wher. She watched as the dragon walked toward the front of the group. But what he did next, she wasn't expecting. Well, she had hoped for this but was sort of resigned to possibly not Impressing this time.

You waited for me, he cooed. Of course, I knew you would. It was fate that left you here for me, and fate that brought me here to you. Let's go, Aelynn, my treasure. I am Eicheleth, and I think together we will do great things - starting with supper. Aelynn stared at the Black dragon for a moment, her dragon. Then she was finally able to speak. "Of course I waited for you. We were meant for each other. Now let's take care of your supper."

She began to lead Eicheleth to the feeding area, looking back only once to the other Candidates. Do not worry about them, my treasure. If their bonded is here, they will find them.[/color] Eicheleth told her, sensing her worry. She nodded to Eicheleth as they reached the feeding area.

Ryiah tried to pay attention to both Clutches. She was hoping that the bump she got from earlier was the worst she would get. But of course, that wasn't going to be the case. The dark wher who hatched earlier was back to the front, crawling up her side. She was stiff, trying not to make it worse for herself. She was kind of glad when the dark wher was off of her.

Though she hated that it jumped onto Newt. She wanted to reach over to get the wher off of him, but before she could, it was already back on the Sands. She stiffened once again, but the wher did not try to maul her again. As a black wher looked her over, she let her muscles relax. She went back to watching the hatching as the black wher went to look at other people

[Kiran]

Jafari's breath caught as the black wher in front started to look at them. First Tius, and then him. His breath caught in desperate hope, wishing... Wishing... But it passed him by. It didn't want him. Jafari's breath left him slowly, making him deflate ever so slightly. That was okay. That was okay, because the blue that had been hatched accidentally by the greens was looking over and coming over and... Going straight for the candidates. Once more his spirits rose. But it was going for the wher and knocked him over in the process. Jafari lost his breath for a few moments, then scrambled back to his feet. The blue wher was tussling with it until the other wher had Impressed. Now what?

Imber in the meanwhile, nursed her head. The black wheret had sprung onto and off of her, and the scratches weren't deep but they stung. Her breath left in a slow exhale. It would be fine. It would simply ache a bit for a few days. She still was fairly hale and whole, all said and done. Htr eyes peered up once more towards the front and saw the black one, the one who had been watching everything, approach. She wondered who it was trying to suss out, but only for a moment. It would be what it would be. She stood up straight, letting her hands fall to her sides once more. But it passed them over, going off to the far right.

Well, that was that. There were still plenty more eggs to hatch, however, and two green dragons right in the midst of the whers.

[Tigersilk]

The attack came faster than any of them could react to it.

The dark wheret - red? brown? (Sunita knew the colors by rote but didn't yet know how to tell the subtle differences by sight) - barreled into Jasjitta; she barely managed to roll with it. The wheret sliced Jas' front torso jumping from her onto Annuziata, clawing her hip and biting her arm. It then jumped onto Sunita, slicing into her shoulder while snapping at her face.

"Get off! Leave us alone!" Sunita didn't know if she actually said it aloud, or how loudly if she did, but she was definitely thinking it quite loudly, as if force of will alone would make wheret stop its attack. If she'd ever had even a bit of combat training in her short life she might've been able to throw her small attacker off her without risking injury to either of them. As it was it was all she could do to keep the thing from biting her face off with her free hand without falling down and leaving herself wide open it the wheret's assault. Suddenly the wheret jumped off her and ran away. It took only a second for her to realize why: the cyan? dragonet was coming for it, with murder clearly written in her? eyes. Either the dark wheret could leave now and live, or stay and die. It didn't take a genius to figure which the wheret would choose.

"Kahnasunita! Are you all right?" Ziata asked worriedly, the shock already starting to wear off from the younger girls.

"Yeah, fine, kiddos," Sunita replied, sinking down to crouch on the sand to rest for a bit, the adrenaline starting to leave her. The whole attack, from start to finish, had taken only a handful of seconds.

A quick inventory of their injuries revealed they could have been far worse than they were; their light leather armor deflected enough of the wheret's attack to not require them to go to the Healers off to the side of the Grounds for treatment. At least not yet. Sunita cut strips from the bottoms of their robes, first putting a makeshift toriquet on Ziata's arm to stop - or at least slow down - her bleeding, then wrapping a bit of makeshift padding into the slices on Jas' torso, before letting the girls see to her shoulder. All the while they kept an eye on the battling wheret and dragonet, aware of when they knocked over some Candidates - two girls and a boy none of them really knew - before heading back into the rest of the white-robed crowd.

They had just gotten done with their patchwork bandaging when a Move ASIDE order filled their heads. Startled, the girls looked up to see Kalask jogging by, intent on punishing her errant child. It was the first time any of them had seen the Wher Queen that close; Sunita guessed her head would about come up to the Queen's shoulders, if she were standing next to Kalask. "At least SOMEONE seems willing to punish a misbehaving child," Ziata said under her breath, soft enough for only her sisters to hear, referring to their hated spoiled half-brother back in their home Hold. The other two could only agree to it.

Sunita slowly got up to her feet, followed by the others. The 'fight' with the wheret had opened the wounds on her back, nullifying the numbweed salve on there to stop the pain, making it ache as fiercely as her shoulder was doing now. But Sunita refused to leave the Sands. They all did. For a chance at survival, all three had risked attack by the bandits and wild whers in the forests surrounding Fort Hold to escape the hell of their birth Hold. For a chance at a better future, they came to Dalibor, whose reputation was far from good with the rest of Pern. If any of them died here, on these Sands, then at least they died in pursuit of a goal, instead of revenge for a bitter man's lost dreams.

"One good thing, at least," Jas said, poking at her bandaged side. "If a wheret does decided to Bond with one of us, we won't need the knife to give it blood."

Sunita and Ziata barked a small laugh at the dark joke.

[Maggie]

Seidon! Kaydian's eyes went wide. Seidon couldn't be injured, not again. It was time for him to Impress, he was one of the best Candidates on the sands! He took a breath to keep himself from rushing to his roommate's side to help him up. That would just make matters worse, he reminded himself. He needed to concentrate on happy thoughts. On thoughts of Seidon Impressing and being a rider. A wonderful, strong, proud rider. Maybe a bronzerider!

***

Saosk try more quiet. Not be want call bad babies, Gennesk admonished, although he didn't sound particularly upset and his eyes were whirling a contented green. Saosk and Lisk are for Mini-Mouse protect. Mini-Mouse is not be listen Saosk language. He was more than pleased with the amount of guards he had corralled for his adopted little human.

[Minute]

And then there was blood.

Well, technically there had already been blood, but now there was blood that directly effected her. Garna watched with a mixture of excitement and not particularly caring what happened to those that got mauled as the dragons and whers tore through people. As one guy joined Tius in the handless club, or so she heard from all the screams and muttering, part of her had to resist the urge to burst into applause. This, now this was chaos and none of the little monsters had been daring enough to maul her. Or Dardra, because even if she wasn't fond of admitting it she didn't like the idea of the hyper girl getting mauled very much.

That changed with one little black demon wher, which made his way out of the pack and bit Dardra's ankle for what appeared to be no reason at all. It was all Garna could do to hold back a screech of fury, instead settling for viciously glaring at the black at it ran off to join the chaos that was currently happening on the sands. "I swear to Faranth," she spat, "if anything else tries to maul either one of us it'll regret that it ever hatched." Her eyes quickly darted to Dardranel's ankle as she muttered in a lower voice, "well, and I'll also drag you away from them before you can get Tius'd as well."

And then another black was moving, making his way to the front and inspecting the candidates. Thankfully this one didn't look like it was going to be mauling anyone, so Garna straightened up and silently allowed it to inspect her. Of course she didn't inspect to bond to it, of all the whers she could impress a black seemed like the least likely in her mind, not to mention that she would be just as bad as her brother if she did. And in the end it was correct, the creature moving on to keep looking at other candidates.

Oh, but it seemed that she was just irresistible for blacks, for from the chaos that she was now ignoring in order to eye Dardra came the demon black again. This time he hid behind her legs as his blue brother chased after him, causing her muscles to tense and a scowl to cross her face. She was going to end it. It had hurt Dardra, and now it was using her as a fecking meat shield! She was going to destroy it. As a matter of face she was starting to twist around when the creature had the nerve to bite her on the leg, causing her to let out a hiss of pain before exclaiming, "THAT'S IT, your rotten fecking hide is DEAD!"

Yet she would never get a chance to go through with her death threat, for the black darted forward and impressed to Dardra. Garna froze, an unsure look on her face, before her finally said, "erm, congrats, I guess. He's a... thing. But, you impressed! So... congrats?" This was followed by an awkward sort of smile, which was really more than most people got from Garna. The fact that she had impressed to a male wher hit her as flat out wrong, but for the girls sake she tried to be happy, not wanting to cause a fight here or with her, quite possibly the closest thing she had to a friend.

Just because Garna was ignoring most of the pain and failing to feel sympathetic didn't mean that it wasn't happening though.

So far Kahrie had been relatively successful in avoiding deep, painful mauling. This was not true for those around her, who appeared to have been gored in almost every way possible. She didn't try to help them though, instead calmly stepping to the side and keeping a fair distance to them. She didn't know them, they didn't have anything she was interested in at the time, and so she really wouldn't bother worrying about their well being. This was a hatching, and things got hurt at hatchings. Although, this seemed a bit more like bloodfest than a hatching.

Kahrie hadn't come looking to impress a wher, and so she paid pretty much no attention to them and they hatched and impressed, or failed to impressed. But she was pretty much forced to when the dark wher made it's way over her and raked it's claws down the back of her leg. She gritted her teeth and let out a muffled curse at the pain, accidentally biting her lip and tasting the metallic tang of blood in her mouth. Part of her guessed that it was kinda fitting, she assumed that many of the other candidates were tasting blood right now. But the dark wher didn't linger by her, instead giving her that scratch before wandering off. Which, she noted, seemed to be a lot less than it was doing to most of the others.

So she did what she was pretty sure no one else at this hatched had done. She glanced at the retreating wher, raised an eyebrow, and commented in a slightly surprised, slightly bored voice, "that's it?"

With that she went back to ignoring the pain of others and gave a small shrug before looking forward again. It wasn't long before another wher was heading her way and inspecting her. This one didn't maul her though, in fact it didn't really interact with her at all other than to look at her. A twinge of a smile crossed her lips at this, despite the blood dripping down her leg and the pain that constantly reminded her of it. All this pain and terror and she had only been touched by the one that seemed determined to kill everyone, and even then it wasn't nearly as bad as the others got.

Maybe the Weyr would be a good place for her after all.

[Reky]

He had been doing well. Grounded, focused, and respectful; he had made Quellyn his purpose, and so, he felt like himself. He felt like the person he wanted to be - mature, responsible, useful. But through the crowd of hopefuls, where candidates bent under pain and were frightened out of the way, he saw the dark wher descend upon Newt. All of the negative association trickled back into Inrahim's head; Newt was beaten for having lost his other half. The whers passed him by one by one.

Inrahim felt blood seeping from the ghostly wound on his leg. No, not his leg - his wher's leg. The phantom extension of himself reared its head and felt the blood rush to it; heard it swirl around in its ears and felt so lightheaded that it got afraid. It felt cold and hot at the same time; felt the pain pulsing in and out of existence. Come on, Inrahisk, we're almost there, we'll carry you, but the cold was creeping in. He felt tired. He wanted to sleep, for a long time. He'd tell Inrahim to wake him up when night set again. If he could find the words...

Inrahim had let go of Quellyn's hand. He sucked in a heavy breath and let it out, and it shook in his throat as it went. Inrahisk had been gone for nearly six Turns, maybe seven. He took his eyes away from the place in the crowd where he'd been able to see Newt before, and cast his eyes down to Quellyn - but only for a moment. He took another breath, and another. The visceral memory came to him sometimes, and he hadn't ever wanted it to come this day - but it had. He pressed his lips together and willed it away, but the sense of halfness persisted. He didn't feel right. He thought of his beloved brother, and the old family farmhouse in Keroon, and it helped a little, but not enough.

---

Risny was passed by again. She was still safe, still in one piece, but still feeling on the verge of splitting into a thousand. In the far recesses of her mind, or in the web it sent out or in the air between hers and her lizards', she wasn't ever sure what it was, she felt Ildn and Lagha waking up again. They sensed her taut nerves. She pretended she was calm and felt them fall asleep again, and stared furiously at the dragon eggs. She didn't want to look at the whers. They scared her. She didn't want to look at Newt, or the blood, or anything, or even Aelynn Impressing beside her. She didn't clap. She just wanted the dragons to hatch, and for one of them to be hers and for it to hurry the shells up and find her before something angry did.

Come on, she demanded in her head. Come on! I can't wait this long! This is all crazy!

---

And Naireth, between Mith and Unath on the ledge, did not care if she was a moon or a cloud or both. She just cared that none of the terrible dragonets and whers came to get her Samael and Samael's child; no one else was of her concern.

[/blockquote]

[Rii]

Norilana sucked a sharp breath as the dark - red? brown? something? - wheret clawed the girl next to Ranthian, then slithered past her and her older brothers. Then it was onto someone else, that poor boy that had lost his wheret at the last hatching, the one she’d snuck into the stands to watch. Oh no, oh noooo… One small hand reached out to hang onto Lanorun’s arm as she peered around him. Crunch went the glasses, which was completely unfair. She lost track of where the creature went after that, and she looked up at Lanorun to inquire if he could see it.

Just in time to see the strange black wheret land on her oldest brother’s shoulder to look right down at her.

Nori’s mouth went dry, every positive thought she’d mustered against the carnage fleeing her mind to be replaced with fear. Fear, and she had the unshakeable feeling in that moment - a heartbeat, an eternity - that the wheret liked it. Liked the way her eyes widened and how she was frozen in place because of him.

It was only for a moment, before the blue wheret that had been pursuing the sinister little black struck, driving Lanorun’s legs from under him just to bring that black to the ground. Then they both whisked away, heedless of what they left behind. “Lanorun!” Her voice wobbled a little. “Are you okay?”

***

It really wasn’t getting any easier to keep track of everything going on around her. If anything, it was rapidly becoming impossible. So much for looking sharp and staying out of trouble. Sora eyed the ichor-dripping wheret with caution; who knew if it was about to go for the ankles?

Trouble came knocking. Or in this case, knocking over, as a black dragonet picking his way through the candidates made his acquaintance with the vicious wheret that had done its level best to claw open her back, only to be foiled by her armor. In trying to free himself of the wheret, he bowled Adelaide over and stepped on her, before fleeing to find the one he’d Impress to.

“Shells and shards,” Sora muttered, then crouched to help her roommate up. She’d been close. She’d heard bone breaking when the dragonet stepped on Adelaide’s hand. Maybe she wasn’t overly fond of the energetic girl she shared a room with, but it didn’t mean she wanted to see her hurt. Or would leave her down for the wherets to rampage over. “C’mon. Up you come,” she kept her voice to barely more than a whisper, catching her by the uninjured arm and pulling strongly to get her to her feet. “You want to get off the Sands, or stay?”

[Tag: Zephyr]

[RhiaBlack]

Lili didn't cover her head or even appear phased at being knocked over. More sharding angry than anything else. She grabbed hold of Seidon's hand, and pulled herself up once the danger had passed. Her voice was kept low, as to not bring attention to either of them - be it from the Hatchlings, or from the Candidatemasters. Worse yet, from Callistath or Kalesk. Though, the latter looked more than busy right now.

Dusting herself off, she sighed, before nodding very, very slightly.

"I know the feeling," she whispered quietly, "This is my last chance to get a Dragon. I don't care how bad they rough me up, I'm not walking off these Sands until the last egg's hatched and Impressed. We'll do it together, you and me, Seidon."

Up in the stands, N'tharon hadn't really noticed he was being looked at. His attention was fully focused on the Sands; if one of those wherets or dragonets came up here, he was prepared to make his exit. The last thing he wanted was a tangle with Avalle or Callistath. That gold was ten times his size and then some. Had teeth to match it, too, he bet. No, he knew. That was probably a much fairer statement.

Leaned on his knees, his attention shifted up towards Sintharith, before turning to look down the stands. A slight nod in greeting, then right back to watching the Hatching. His brows furrowed slightly, and a look up to the ledges with a disapproving scowl, before he shook his head.

[princesal]

Harri couldn't help the smile on his face, there was excitement in the air, almost like a spice, a zing, that got his adrenaline pumping. He had never gone to a hatching, having never been Searched, and not allowed to stand for Whers, and his younger sister hadn't been interested in either... so what was the point of going to hatchings really? He had lived in Holds, and there was never enough time in the day to visit a weyr to watch a dragon hatching.

When he had gotten on Eccolath with Sol, he wished he had. He wished he had just taken the time to go to one hatching. It was thrilling to be atop one. To be able to touch a dragon was something that was very exciting. "This is amazing, Sol!" It was also a long time coming too. When Sol had invited him, had extended an invitation to come get him when it started too... it had been difficult to say no, but there had still been a part that had wanted to.

Not even just because he worried that him being so far away would prompt a streak of bad luck, and he would have missed a vital message, or something important happening, and he needed to be contacted in some way or another. But now that he was here, and everything was beginning, that worry got pushed to the side, and he just found himself grinning.

The best thing was looking down and seeing so many of the Holdless children on the sands. Finding seats, he gave Sol's hand a squeeze, and let go. "This is so exciting. Thank you so much! [We'll try not to crazy up the place too much.] Hand, how about you not use the c-word... not that loud. [Yeah... you really think the word is going to be the thing that weirds people out, and not us talking?] A-... alright, yeah, you have a point. Sorry, Sol."

A sheepish smile, and he looked back to the Sands, over the eggs. Wow... look at them! They were so interesting, and different sizes and colors. The gold dragon... the queen... she was incredible, and huge! The size of her glorious hide was startling to see this close. The size of the gold wher wasn't small either, but compared to the dragon... His breath caught when the first egg hatched.

And he didn't get it back, because everything went to chaos. It was a nightmare! It was something out of his nightmares as the dark wher started tearing through candidates. Harri made a strangled sound, "Oh my... oh Faranth... isn't someone going... isn't someone going to do something. [Shards, throw me in, why are they just st-]" Then the cyan dragon came, and... "Pyrus!" He knew that candidate! Harri was on his feet the moment it started happening, and as he watched the scene unfold, found himself holding Hand to his chest. "" Harri didn't answer, his eyes never left Pyrus.

He wanted to get closer. No. He wanted to take all those children off the sands. He knew he'd be stopped before he even made it near them... knew the danger, and remained still. "[What are they waiting for?]" The answer came as soon as the area was devoid of wher's and dragons, and the healers ran out to try and attend to the injured. Eyes still filled with fear, Harri sat down, face looking a bit pale. The moment he was sitting, he put his head between his knees. "[Some first date, Sol. You bring us to watch a blood bath?]" Harri sat up, frowning at Hand, and then looking apologetic at Sol. "They... they aren't normally like this, are they? Is there anything. I mean... this is scary. [Pyrus got his arm ripped off!] They'll patch it up. [Oh yeah, how is that going to happen, genius? Some unknown magical muscle and skin fairy is going to appear?] No, I mean, the Healers. [Looked like game over to me. I mourn the loss of a fellow brethren. I may have never known your fingers as well as my own, but... but the way he grabbed things. It just- it just gets you choked up. That thumb really knew how to work it's range of motion. Goodnight sweet Prince of Armlandia, good night.]"

Harri's other hand was covering his eyes, as Hand probably just offended everyone around. "I hate you. [May your pathway be parchment cut free, my brother] ..."

tag: Sol (Kila)
----

It was like a great silence had befallen, no, that probably wasn't right, but he couldn't hear anything over the loud pounding of his own heartbeat. It was incredible just how cold it actually could get even when the sands were so hot. It was pretty interesting. The hatching sands kept tilting at strange angles, and Otto was sure it was only pure stubbornness of his stomach that refused to have dinner revisit. What a waste of food that would have been.

The glowstone, the dim lighting, played tricks on Otto's eyes, it felt like he was blinking forever. Sometimes he'd close his eyes, and open them, and something different would be going on. Did another wher just walk past him? Was it the one from before? Was the scared baby alright? Was everyone alright? What about the gold wher that had roared, had she settled down? So many questions flashed through his mind. It was easy to think about a million things when there was only one thing you were trying to focus on.

For him it was standing. But his meatrolls wouldn't co-operate how he wanted them to, and every time he tried to think harder about it, the focus flew away, and he ended up musing about something like how fun it would be to go find wild pillies tomorrow. Tomorrow was going to be a good day, he could feel it. The hatching was starting tomorrow off with a bang. He was happy about all the new pairings that would be created. He hoped one would be for him, but there were a lot of candidates, and he was really new to it. That wasn't a problem, if he didn't Impress, he'd have more time to make friends.

Grabbing a fistful of sand, he was squeezing it tightly, which was when he noticed that his teeth were clenched too. Huh, when had he done that? Weird. Alright, once more with feeling! Shaking out his long arms, he planted them into the sand, planning to pull himself up, not even feeling the heat in his hands at this point. Straining his muscles, he felt something shifting, it was him, he was moving! See, everything w- well, actually, he was sliding wasn't he... oh, not sliding anymore, moving backwards though.

Looking up at the two who were carrying him away from the eggs, Otto's eyes looked back at them. "I'm fine, just a little bit of blood from my meat rolls. The baby wher was scared. It was my fault. Just a bandage, and I'll be right back out. I get hurt all the time anyway. Oh, my name's Otoatavatah, but you can call me Otto, everyone does. Hey, you're a Healer, right? Great! I think there is something going weird, my toes feel numb, I mean. I think they feel numb. Probably just cold feet, right. It's my first Hatching. Is that girl alright? I was next to her." He gave a bit smile to both of them, teeth pulled back far enough to see where he was missing a tooth. He seemed rather chipper right now, but his eyes were still glazed.

[Azhdarchid]

It seemed inevitable that Newtollen would lure the beast. As it tucked around his neck like a noose, L'xon could almost see the Newt of the past instead: fearless, welcoming the bisected talon of his new friend. But visions faded to reality, which pitted a broken boy against a demon. As the bluerider watched it kiss the Candidate's cheek (he could just barely spot the molten bubble of its tongue) his thoughts trailed after it. After death. But it took interest in the inanimate- Newt's glasses -and L'xon recovered his own mind.

Steadfast: was that a blue trait, the rider's responsibility, or interchanged depending on who was to be blamed when something crumpled under pressure? He glanced at Jasmine, who had not abandoned him nor expressed any urgency. Same-old, maybe even a good addition to the record considering none of the Candidates had brought it upon themselves yet. But she had also put Newtollen out there in the first place.

Why doesn't any of this bother you?

The barb did not strike anyone but his dragon. Halventh had been invested in a very secret pondering of his own: a very delicate, very private touch on the mind of the Candidate he had initially foisted on Dalibor only as a trinket. But encouraged by what he found, nothing so nearly weird as most of the non-L'xons, he had even mumbled a little encouragement at her. It came from far off, like the shouting of a boat captain in a rainstorm. Similarly flavorful, as well: Steady as she goes!...hold the sails!... The dragon's untended voice tended to echo: Braele might end up feeling as though she had a whole ship's crew racketing around her head.

But L'xon's demand hit as a surprise, illuminating a gap between them, and all that much more painful to the deeply empathic creature for it. Halventh's head shrank back toward his shoulders, neck curling on itself. His bright eyes twitched around to see if any of the other dragons had noticed, then he slowly extended to about half his normal arch, wingtips up above his head, shading him from a sun that wasn't glaring overhead. The sting had reverberated between him and his rider, and with L'xon now sending up nothing but his thousand regrets, Halventh played the clear-headed one.

I learned from you, he said, sensing the way L'xon shrunk back from his emanation, the surprised one this time. Halventh stretched his head out toward the Sands for his first honest look since he'd landed. He had preferred the diversions, like Shobhaith's grapple with the tan flock that had claimed the ledge not far away, which he'd eyed jealously. All that painted the Sands was red blood and the occasional lucky scrape of joined life. Newborn bonds, barely held together, not very interesting. All this is temporary. The whers- Not "lumpy ones," not "weirds," L'xon thought to himself. -might never change, but once they have a handler they harm no one. Even the Alpha is toothless. The blue dragon snorted. And the dragonets have a lifetime to grow. They are not even half of what they will be. Their actions cannot be taken as representative of anything.

Halve-

You asked. Halventh caught a floating question before L'xon drove it to words. Callistath has nothing to do with it. I have my own opinion. But I cannot do anything about it, can I? So I do not want to listen! There was enough agony in the admission, not guilt but the blue's sudden sensing of everything he had been screening out, that L'xon slipped automatically to soothing thoughts. Repetitive words, images, warmth, as if Halventh had suddenly been zapped by Thread on that shadowy ledge. The dragon responded in kind, as he was trained, calming, chilling in L'xon's hand like a reassured hatchling. He was much more accustomed to this role.

But L'xon could not shake the feeling that he had been talking to himself. Halventh's voice sounded very like his, it was just that the blue's intent was almost never the same, and shined all the brighter for it. His rational tone, though, barely wavered off the rider's own. Halventh didn't like it either. He preferred to be the animal called "dragon."

You could... he started, then drained out till L'xon prompted him. Move away from the wall. The blue's blond half spread his hands against the top of the barrier, shaking his head loosely.

If that is what you think is likely, my absence makes better targets of everyone else.

You could warn them.

You could have warned them. Weslieth is right there. What is it you see, Halventh?

Halventh clipped his jaws together. He had only taken a peek, at L'xon's behest. But he was the best at processing what lay in the minds of a few hundred spectators as well as the new life grubbing around the Sands. That was all it took to deal alterations to lives, apparently: a grub.

You know it is really hard for me to be the one to tell you to take an interest in something other than me, he offered instead of a real answer. Halventh raised his eyes momentarily to Zuccheroth, perched on a ledge across the Sands, then looked down at his own rider. Smaller than infinity, with the distance of the Stands between his ledge and that barrier, and a much shorter gap between L'xon and the other sightseers, and the sights. Halventh's lower jaw quivered, but he did not venture more. You are your own person. ...and I am younger than you, anyway.

The blue's head bobbed, as this was the first response that coaxed a laugh back from his man. He was not sure about its color, though.

This stupid Hatching- has us sentimental, doesn't it? Halventh hesitated, then gaped his jaws in a dragon grin.

Yeah! he chirped.

Where's our new Weyrleader? Maybe I can blame him.

Yeah! the blue continued to agree, sensing the ease in the conversation and diving for the safety of it. L'xon's thoughts turned wordless, soft exchanges of adoration relaxing the blue back into Halventh's hide, and the dragon was content.

[ tag: Braele for a little bit at the beginning ]

[Zephyr]

It was a close call a few times, and Ranthian’s nerves were fried, but they remained unscathed…until a stray where ran into Lanorun’s legs. Ranthian almost hadn’t noticed the blue wher, so focused was he on the dark wher…until his oldest brother went down. Nori was away from Ranthian in an instant, and the boy felt his stomach drop for more than one reason, and he was reaching out, silently offering his brother a hand up.

He didn’t speak though, because Nori had just asked him how he was, and Ranthian didn’t feel like it was needed right now, not when there are so many unknowns out right now.

Lanorun didn’t look like he was too injured, not enough to leave the sands, and Ranthian was relieved. His primitive healing skills were just basics, but he would do whatever the hell he had to to make sure his family was safe. “I think he’s okay.” He hissed to Nori after Lanorun was back on his feet.

There was no room for regrets right now, not when they had to be absolutely alert for any stray babies.

Now, where was that demon wher?

---

She probably should have been paying a little more attention to what was going on around her. To be fair, she was a little busy trying to be strong for those around her. Addy’s blood was hot in her ears, screaming for something to do…anything. Candidates were going down all around her, and the scent of blood was heavy on the air. She didn’t even have to look far to find someone who was bleeding.

Oh, but at least Riocard impressed. “Congratulations!” She hissed at the boy as he started to walk off with his dragon. She didn’t expect him to say anything back…she didn’t think he liked her much. That was his problem, really…it wasn’t like she didn’t try. She really just wanted to be peoples’ friend. Unless someone tells her that they specifically wanted her to stop bothering them, it’s not like she was going to give up on anyone.

She’d talk to him later, maybe. He had more important things to worry about now, so she probably wouldn’t bother. Now she wanted Sora to impress, because even if the girl was grumpier than Rio – Addy didn’t know his new name, so Rio he shall be – she deserved a dragon. Adelaide had the ability to see the best in everyone, even if they didn’t want to be around her.

But her thoughts were erased when the dark wher suddenly appeared again, and so did a black dragonet. Addy froze, not wanting to make any sudden movements in case it made her a target. Instead, she just stared as the wher and dragon got into a fight. She didn’t realize that the dragon was a little too close until it bumped into her and she felt herself going down under the dragon’s weight. He wasn’t big…but he was big enough to knock the tall girl down.

Her first instinct was to scrabble for purchase so that the dragon couldn’t get on top of her, but she remembered her candidate training and stopped moving. Luckily, the dragon didn’t crush her, and she was waiting until the babies left to get up…until the black stepped on her hand. Pain lanced through her wrist and down her arm and she opened her mouth to scream, but bit the scream off. She tried to jerk her hand out from under the dragon’s foot, but her hand was stuck on its claws and she heard the distinctive sound of bones breaking.

The blood was stark red against the sand, but at least the immediate pain was gone as the adrenaline flushed her system. Even the burning sand on her skin wasn’t felt anymore.

Then he was gone, as quickly as he came, and Addy laid in the sand where she’d fallen, hand pressed into the sand and blood. She curled her hand in, the pain returning with the least little movement. The girl hadn’t screamed, but she let out a little whimper as hands were suddenly on her, hauling her to her feet. Not a total dead weight, Adelaide realized that she should probably help here and moved to stand up, clearly broken hand cradled against her chest.

The pain was immense, and she had to bite back the little whimpers, but she was on her feet, half sagging against Sora for a moment until she realized that the other girl might not appreciate it. “Thanks.” She whispered, her voice choked out against the pain. Her eyes widened when the other girl spoke, a hysterical laugh bubbling up in her throat, but she doesn’t let it out. “I wanna stay.” She said, the words coming out a little too fast. She didn’t know how her hand would heal, or if she’d be allowed to stand anymore if it didn’t heal right, but she wasn’t going to risk it. “I mean, I’m okay. I’ll be fine.”

She didn’t know if she’d be fine, but it was just her hand. She could live with it, and Sora didn’t have to know how much pain she was in at the moment…so she just offered the other girl her best smile, the quirking of the corners of her lips only faltering a little.

[Nia]

The wher hit her and she screamed.

Joni screamed louder than she ever remembered screaming before, this tiny little Black wher was on her face and he was clawing, no, he was going to get her eye, no, please, she wanted to be a Dragonrider like Featon and ride an Iron and be a Wingleader and she couldn't lose an eye she couldn't she wouldn't be allowed to Stand anymore they wouldn't let her please someone please help her PLEASE!

Her rescue came in the form of a small Blue wher, who barked a warning at the Black on her face. He still dug his claws in, and she braced for it, tears starting to stream from the eye she was convinced she was about to lose, but it missed. Joni wasn't sure if it was on purpose or if it had accidently missed, but all the Black did was drag a claw down under her eye to her cheek, ripping open the skin and allowing the blood to stream freely, but it wasn't her eye. Blood mixed with tears of relief now as Joni continued to cry silently. The Black wher was on her head now, and then he was gone, and so was the Blue. With shaking hands, Joni reached up to her face, feeling the blood and the deep gash under her eye that would probably form a really cool scar, but she was too upset to think about that right now. Her tears stung the cut and it hurt.

The Blue was back after a rampage that Joni missed in her shell-shocked state, and the feeling of something bumping against her legs made her start momentarily before she realized what was there. That Blue wher from before... the one that had saved her eye. Joni gave a tough little sniffle upon seeing him, and hesitantly leaned down to quickly pet his hide and whisper, "Thank you," through her tears. He hadn't Impressed, and he wasn't her's, but she was thankful to him all the same.

Earlier....

The darker of the two Greens looked a bit bashful at the Blue's flirtations, though his brighter sister merely shook her draconic head back and forth and ignored him. She pushed at her sibling to laugh at him with her, but the darker Green seemed smitten by this tiny Blue wher. Oh my, for a tiny wher, he had quite a way with words, didn't he? Such flattery.... The brighter Green merely huffed at her sister and paced around a bit. It seemed as though she was not exactly content to just sit still, though not like she had to for long. The Blue was soon off, excusing himself from the darker Green to go rescue someone. The Green was even more smitten as he ran off, leaving her brighter sister to nudge her and prod at her in annoyance as she stared after him. Eventually, the brighter Green simply pushed and dragged the darker Green towards the front of the Candidates.

There, the pair of Greens began to sniff and poke at the Candidates with their noses, occassionally looking at each other and seeming to laugh at the results they found in the human minds. The darker Green stopped at Norilana and prodded her with her nose, and seeming to find something utterly hilarious, she almost doubled over in her draconic laughter. The brighter Green glanced at Norilana and gave her sister a very perturbed look, but the Green just wouldn't stop laughing. At least, not until her brighter sister nudged her along, shooting an almost apologetic look back at Norilana and Lanorun, before the pair of Greens moved on.

Seeing the destruction and wher-filled area up ahead, the two Green glanced at each other and instead went the other way around, slipping into the throng of Candidates behind Toreld and infront of Tamren. Both were careful not to get blood on them and to avoid those who seemed particularly injured, weaving past Risny and between Inanna and Kira, around Seidon and Lilianai and back up towards Ahburn and Szene. The darker Green sniffed at Ahburn again and promptly found him hilarious as well, causing her brighter sister to slash at him with her claw and knock him down out of irritation. She didn't know WHAT was wrong with him, but now her sister was having a gigglefit again and it was very annoying!

However, the darker Green suddenly snapped out of her gigglefit and lifted her snout upwards, angling her head towards Carissa and pushing forward towards the girl, nudging Szene out of the way so she could make eye-contact with the girl and Impress her.

Um, CarissaMine,

[/i] she suddenly seemed bashful again, a tiny bit shy as she made the connection with her new Rider, Hello. I'm your Junonth,[/i] she searched through her rider's brain again, sending her emotions of the affection she was too shy to say in words, I hope we can be friends.[/i]

[/blockquote]

SPOILER: Click to show

Green Junonth - The High Priestess - 0D590A
Personality:
Junonth is a somewhat shy dragon. She's not a total stuttering introvert, though, she's just very quiet. Junonth speaks when spoken to and doesn't really go out of her way to talk with anyone but Carissa. Junonth is a very down-to-earth dragon, and as such she's very calm and not a big risk-taker. Who needs to take any risks? She much prefers the familiar, and loves being in the company of her rider. Carissa is the most important person to her, and her best friend. To Carissa, Junonth really shows herself, and can even be considered talkative. She'll burst into gigglefits in Carissa's mind without worrying about how the girl will judge her. She doesn't like to be separated though, or left alone in the company of strange dragons.

Junonth is also very intelligent, and likes to speak with like-minded individuals, if she can get over her shyness. She doesn't like unecessary conversation, however, and unless she has something important to say she likely won't say anything at all. Junonth doesn't enjoy talking just for the sake of it, unless it's with a very close friend or with Carissa. She despises small-talk and will avoid it whenever possible, usually just staying silent. She doesn't mind silences, and nothing is better to her than a comfortable silence between friends.

However, despite the fact that Junonth doesn't like petty conversations or strangers, she is very perceptive. What she choses to use this perception on, however, is judging the relationships that others are in. She's very good at spotting romantic relationships and actively seeks out people and dragons she thinks will make great pairs. She sees herself as a quiet little cupid, matching people up privately to Carissa. She's far too shy to actually go out and tell these strangers that she has them paired up in her head, but she has no problems trying to push some of her closer friends together.

Appearance:
Junonth is an average, dark green color. Her eyes are covered in a lighter color outlined with a darker green, giving her a very feminine appearance. She has little stripes of lighter green along her legs and wings. There is a large dark green stripe that goes along from her neck, to her belly, down to the base of her tail. Her wings also have the same sort of stripe along them, adding variation to her dark green hide.

Adding to her somewhat average appearance, Junonth is average in terms of bulk. She's definitely a Green, and is far more suited for agility than strength. Her proportions are very nice and even, with nothing out of the ordinary, making her a very pretty dragon. She's a decently sized dragon, and will grow to be 28 feet.

The Cyan had abandoned her attempt to weave into the Candidates after watching the madness that was that tiny Black wher and the scary reddishbrown thing, and turned her way back towards her mother and the eggs, intending to go bother her Brown brother as the Purple had before her. She sauntered in a way that definitely looked like she was flirting, and the little Cyan certainly had good control over her body. Her tail swished, her eyes were lidded, but the Brown merely looked at her in quiet amusement. He acknowledged her with a nod of his head, knowing what she wanted him to say, and allowed her to attempt to flirt with him.

Her efforts were not the best, but still the Brown humored her, not wanting to make her upset at him the way she'd been upset at his brother. The Cyan spun away from the conversation looking very satisfied, dragging her tail against the Brown's snout, and he at least had the gal to look mildly embarrassed about it. He'd just been humoring her... they were a bit too young for that, still....

The Brown shifted his glance to look at the medium-sized purple egg next to him, as the egg shook and began to crack and splinter. It looked as though the dragonet inside was trying its hardest to escape the confines of its egg. The Brown watched intently as the egg shook, intending to reach over and help if he needed to. However, at that same moment, the red blue and green mottled egg slightly to the left of them cracked open without much fanfare, revealing a large Blue that blobbed listlessly into the Sands. He was tired. He felt too old for this world, despite being a newborn, and exhausted from the effort of breaking out of his egg. He remained where he flopped into the Sands, but his slightly moving head as he took in his surroundings was a key indicator that he was okay. Just tired.

The egg next to the Brown popped open and a bright, excited little head popped out of the top, crushing the rest of the egg around him. He, well, it was only assumed that he was a he, as the dragonet from the egg was a bright, vibrantly golden Yellow. He lacked the shine, but otherwise, his hide was very similar to the tone of his mother's. He sat up and shook the egg shell off of him, immediately going to his brother and bumping noses with the Brown, who seemed to smile at whatever the Yellow was currently telling him. The Brown nudged his head towards the Blue, knowing that if anyone needed motivation at the moment, it was that Blue.

The Yellow was eager to comply and pushed around the eggs to reach his brother, bouncing around him and seeming to chatter at the Blue about something. Unknown to the Candidates, he was giving the Blue a rather intense motivational speech, and the Blue actually lifted his head to stare intently at the Yellow.

It appeared to work, as the Blue got to his feet and... promptly pushed right past the Yellow, finding his incessant babbling a bit annoying. The Yellow only seemed mildly put off, and bounced around the Blue as he made a very swift, very diligent route towards the Candidates. He was not one to waste time, despite how old and tired he felt, and running around chasing whers and other dragons like his siblings... it was pointless. He wasn't going to do anything like that. He was going to find His and rescue him from this monstrosity he'd been born into. The Blue was quite a large one, with a muscular build, and he had no trouble shrugging off the Yellow as it urged him to come play. Finally, the Yellow gave up and bounded back towards the front of the Candidates, tripping over one of his wings and going tumbling into Ranthian, knocking the boy to the ground but very quickly helping him up with only minor scratches. He settled to happily nuzzle and cuddle the boy, hoping to cheer him even the slightest bit.

With the Yellow gone, the Blue was free to peruse the Candidates at his leisure. He paused between Toreld and Aleksandr, looking each boy over in turn, weighing their minds against his. He hummed to himself, his tail swishing mildly as he stared at them, making up his mind. It seemed to take forever, or perhaps to Toreld and Aleksandr it would, and finally he made his choice. T'reldMine,

[/i] he said simply, locking eyes with His and making the Impression, All of these rambunctious little ones are making your Pontith quite tired,[/i] even his mindvoice sounded more like a tired old man, rather than a young dragon. However it seemed, he'd actually meant "little ones" as in the whers, not his siblings. Let us go eat, and then we can go out and learn about the world.[/i]

[/blockquote]

SPOILER: Click to show

Blue Pontith - The Hierophant - 03497C
Personality:
Pontith wants to be a role-model. He's always seeking to do good and to achieve something, as well as seek out those who walk on the darker side to see if he can bring them into "the light". He is very self-righteous and doesn't like to accept viewpoints that aren't his own, making him very similar to his Iron clutchsibling. Pontith, however, knows his place isn't as a leader, but as a gentle guiding light. He wants to be looked up to, so when he gets older he'd probably oneday aspire to be a Weyrlingmaster or Candidatemaster. He adores little kids and younger dragons, seeing himself as a teacher. Though he only gets on decently with them, as most younger kids tend to think that he's a bit of a stick in the mud.

"Fun" is a bit of a difficult concept for Pontith to grasp, and it's as though he was hatched as an old man rather than a baby dragon. His idea of fun is to sit around and listen to a story being told, or to spend a relaxing evening under the trees by the lake rather than run around. He prides himself on his wisdom over his ability to play, and is always looking for ways to grow as a dragon. He will push T'reld into researching and learning things with him, as Pontith loves to learn and he wants His to learn along with him.

Pontith is something of an introvert, and he doesn't really like to associate with those his own age. He feels uncomfortable socializing with those as old as he is, and the older he gets the more comfortable Pontith will be when it comes to talking with others. He is definitely the definion of an "old soul", and tends to act much like a grandfather to those around him. He has a bit of a gruffness to him that makes him seem world-weary, even as a hatchling.

Appearance:
Bulky and sturdy, Pontith is definitely a strong dragon. His chest is quite barreled and muscular, as well as his legs and even his tail. His wings are somewhat larger than average to support all his bulk. His tail is just average, though, and doesn't seem to fit with his very bulky body. His legs are somewhat short as well, giving him a bit of a squat apperance. His muscle could not be mistaken for fat, however, as he is not round at all. His snout is square and solidly built, with his headknobs somewhat dull and short.

His hide is a very deep blue, looking somewhat like the ocean on a stormy night. His markings are almost tribal in form, with stripes around his ankles and along his back. He has tiger-stripes along his back and what could only be described as gil-like markings on his face. His underbelly is a lighter blue, though still stormy in hue. A bit on the short side, Pontith will grow to be 30 feet.

The brighter Green watched her sister Impress with a tiny bit of sadness evident in her eyes, before turning abruptly and running around the edge of the Candidates, stomping on Caszli's foot as she ran past, way towards the back of the Candidates and near the Healers. She darted behind the Candidates, happy to run around on her long legs, and ended up on the "wher" side of the Sands, intending to do a few laps around the Candidates before she found Her's. Unfortunately for her, the Cyan that had been flirting with the Brown earlier had also decided to go along the "wher" edge of the Candidates, and the two of them collided in a very ungraceful heap of claws and ichor as they fought to untangle themselves.

The Cyan and the Green fought with each other to untangle, and once they were done the Green leapt on to the Cyan, tackling her into the Candidates, knocking her into Awnia. The Cyan growled angrily and clawed Awnia to right herself before she lunged back at the Green, who dodged the Cyan only to crash into Inrahim and barrel over him, knocking into Quellyn as well. She righted herself, luckily without harming either Inrahim or Quellyn too badly, but the Cyan was on her tail again, still growling with "dignified" rage, and the Green quickly tried to hide behind Jaedyn, but the Cyan didn't seem to care and simply tackled Jaedyn anyway, topping him over the Green and into the Sand. The Green scrabbled out from under Jaedyn and continued to dart away from the Cyan, knocking over Randiel and Valasco in an attempt to block the Cyan's path, but she simply jumped over them and landed right on the Green's back.

Even the Green's strong legs were not enough to support both of their weight, and the two came crashing down, rolling over each other in their fight, catching Hulair and rolling over him, and then on to Naim. The fight continued through the Candidates, with a stray claw lashing at Otto, another lashing out to slash Tedaon, and a foot accidently hitting Lilianai. It was only when they both crashed to the ground, with the Green pinning the Cyan, did they notice another prescense nearby. The dark wher was sitting there, watching the two of them with a gleam in his eye that made both dragons suddenly very anxious. The Green jumped off her sister and bolted through the Candidates, making a line up and back towards her Brown clutchbrother, who she crashed into, knocking both of them back and into the largest egg of the clutch.

The Cyan, however, got to her feet and looked around. Her legs were not as fast as the Green's, and there was no way she'd make it into the Candidates in time... she needed another escape. She ran straight ahead instead, skidding to a stop before Davalla.

Your Refugiath apologizes for her most... inelegant entrance, Davalla.

[/i] Using "Mine" was beneath her, and one with her intelligence could merely refer to her bonded by her given name. For she was an elegant little Queen, wasn't she? Come along, now. We must make haste and leave these wretched commoners and their petty fights behind us,[/i] the Cyan appeared to wrinkle her nose at that, with a dirty look sent towards the direction of the Green. She pulled the words she needed straight out of Davalla's brain. Afterall, it was important for a lady to have a very strong vocabulary.

[/blockquote]

SPOILER: Click to show

Cyan Refugiath - The Empress - 1D3932
Personality:
Refugiath is a little Queen in a Cyan's body. She is a touch haughty and quite a bit full of herself, but this Cyan's main goal is to be elgant. She succeeds, of course, simply because she is the best and most beautiful Cyan alive. She tends to see everyone else around her as "commoners", and will look down on anyone she possibly can. However, this is only ever privately to Davalla. Refugiath is a bit two-faced in that matter, as she'll be nice to someone to their face while she's making snide comments towards Davalla. Refugiath is also a terrible gossip, and will jump at any chance to talk about others. She's not very good at keeping secrets, either.

Ambition is a strong driving force for Refugiath, and she strives to be the best and the brightest. Those common dragons don't have anything on her! If a lowly Blue can be a Wingsecond, then she can become a Wingleader! Refugiath is a bit of schemer, and their is no denying that she's very clever. Her vocabulary is top notch, and she won't resist a chance to show off her regal way of speaking. She's constantly plotting for ways to push her way to the top, and she's always pushing Davalla to the top as well. They have to be the best, together! Because of course, she can't get anywhere without Davalla, and Davalla can't get anywhere without her.

There is a bit of a sweet side to Refugiath, and she genuinely does want to obtain power for the sake of doing it right. Haughty as she might be, Refugiath wants to help others, she just doesn't know how to go about it in a way that isn't arrogant or bossy. Always the classy lady, Refugiath will definitely not throw any tantrums or even let anyone besides Davalla know when she's upset. However, when she does get upset, Refugiath tends to withdraw into herself. It'll take some coaxing from Davalla, but she can be convinced to share what's making her so upset. Sometimes all it takes to cheer her up is to show that her rider cares for her, even with all her faults.

Apperance:
Very much on the dark side of the Cyan spectrum, Refugiath is a bit of a dull, dark teal color. The saturation of her hide is not very strong at all, and she is quite easy on the eyes that way. She has lighter cyan markings along her head, neck, tail, wings and feet. The cyan markings are also dotted with lighter specks that could resemble jewels if taken at a glance.

Refugiath is a well-proportioned, daintily built little lady. Of all the dragons in the clutch, she probably looks the most like her regal Gold mother, with her well-proportioned body and her long, elegantly poised tail. She holds herself like a Queen as well, with perfect posture and perfect movements. Her wings are always delicately folded at her sides, unless she needs to use them, of course. No flailing around for this little Cyan, oh no. She's about quite large, and will grow to be 32 feet.

[/size]

[Boo]

At Lili’s words, Seidon nodded his head firmly. At least he still had a short while after this hatching… There would still be a chance for him only a few turns worth of chances but still a while longer.
“I look forward to being a Weyrling with you,” he responded with seriousness.
The doubt in his heart bubbled and welled but he could at least smile for Lili. Hopefully, she would Impress. A thought passed through his mind.
“And Seph too… I’m sure a dragon will find him too.”

He’d kept his voice low and nodded once more before turning to watch the dragonets again. Although he kept an eye on the whers it was the dragons who drew most of his attention, they were the ones he hoped to Impress. More dragonets had now hatched and Impressed including a yellow. Perhaps, maybe, the presence of a yellow on the sands would calm things down slightly. Unlikely.

Tag: Lili

All too well he understood the desire to remain on the sands. Pyrus had no idea how well he knew that desire so he merely nodded his head, hoping that what he had done would be enough to get the boy through to the end of the hatching. If he came to the healers area, he would also be taken completely from the sands with an injury like that…

Tedaon heard the candidate stir and, at the back of the candidates, quickly knelt down beside him.
“You’re sure?”
Even as he spoke, he quickly worked to wrap bandages around the wounds and then tried to assist the candidate back onto his feet.
“She’ll be fine, Otto, don’t worry about that. If your-“
He stopped as a pair of fighting dragonets came tearing through and scratched the candidate he had been presently assisting. He shifted out of the way earning a slash across his shoulder but then immediately staunched Otto's bleeding too, being careful not to contaminate the wound. The candidate who had been helping him, Hulair, was bowled over into the sand.
“If you need to come off the sands, shout.”

Assured that everything was fine, Tedaon then left the sands, dashing as quickly as he could back to the healer’s area.
“They do not wish to leave.”

Hulair got to his feet and felt his hot cheeks where he had been pushed into the sands by a couple of dragons. Spitting sand out of his mouth, he waved a hand to calm his family, hearing his wife's concerned shout from the stands. Brushing himself off, he took his place close to Otto, offering his shoulder to support the candidate and keep him standing.
"Feel free to lean on me Otto. Stick around and I'm sure you'll leave these sands with a dragon."

Tag: Otto

In response to P’ryt’s comments, Rayna nodded her head and then watched the drama of the hatching unfold.
“What are those candidates doing still on the sands,” Rayna muttered to herself, frowning.
She knew the answer of course. There was no way she would have left the sands. It did not make it any easier to watch though. Knowing she would have made the same choices had it been her only seemed to worry her more.

Tag: P'ryt

[/blockquote]

[phantomofthewolves]

Toreld was in pain; his back was bleeding, but he still stood. Several more eggs hatched and a few of them Impressed to other candidates. As a random blue wandered over towards him, his heart raced. He kept thinking that he would Impress to someone else, but that thought was quickly pushed aside when the blue stopped and slowly made his decision between him and another candidate. His eyes widened and he began to sweat. He felt nervous, standing before a dragon, hoping it would choose him.

That was when everything changed for the better. T'reldMine, all of these rambunctious little ones are making your Pontith quite tired. Let us go eat, and then we can go out and learn about the world. the blue, no, HIS blue told him. "Pontith." T'reld whispered and kneeled onto one knee. He stroked his dragon's eyeridges and then hugged him, tears of pure joy starting to build up in his eyes. Pontith was everything he had ever dreamed of, and that dream was now a reality. Oh, Pontith, you are the most perfect blue in all of Pern, and it is a great honor to meet you. he told him. Yes, that is great, but can we please get me something to eat? Pontith replied. T'reld nodded and together, he and Pontith went to where the newly Impressed got food for their bondeds. As T'reld received a bowl of meat chunks for Pontith, he wondered about their future. All boys wanted to be Weyrleader someday, but not him. He wasn't destined for that job. He wanted to be what he was good at: learning. So as he fed Pontith, his mind was now set on what he wanted to be: a Weyrlingmaster.

[Kiran]

Quellyn looked up at Inrahim worriedly when the man let go of his hand. He didn't look okay. There was an expression on his face that said he was a thousand miles away, thinking of something so desperately, and Quellyn didn't know how to make it better. But before he could decide on a course of action, things happened. Dragon eggs, bursting one after another, impressions being made. And two dragonets that decided to come over to the wher side! His eyes widened. Was it... Was it... But the green dragon didn't come over to impress! it just managed to knock into Inrahim and him. Quellyn let out a soft whumph of air as he stumbled, thankfully not too hurt. But his bruises were going to add up tomorrow!

He glanced over at Inrahim as he caught his balance again. Was the man alright. Quellyn went over to his side once more. The dragons were in and about them, and heading towards the other direction. They were safe again, though at this rate, Quellyn didn't trust things to stay that way for long. Not with the tiny scratches and gouges that stung, even if they no longer bled. Not with being knocked over, or almost knocked over, twice. His luck wasn't good - next time it might actually be serious!

Kira had been holding her breath as more eggs broke. There were so many dragons out there now... Including a yellow! The two greens we need their way into the candidates, brushing past her. And they kept going. Kira gave a soft sigh, noticing that they had also passed by Lili. Oh, well. Theirs could still be out there. She desperately wanted it to be so. Impressions were happening quickly now, and that was the best sign of all. Dragons and whers were getting off the sands, out of reach of that dangerous wher that was still loose. Candidates, now Weyrlings, were getting out to safety. This hatching was fairly bloody, fairly harsh, but right now there was a happy lull in the pain. Kira couldn't ask for better than that.

[Gray]

Eggs were now bursting open like over ripe fruits, their contents exploding out onto the world, but for what purpose? To cause chaos? To find the second half of their soul? Truely, Matilda couldn't tell. The scene was so confusing. But each time an impression was made, her heard soared. Relationships being made, souls becoming whole. Friends and partners meeting up for the first time to start a lifelong chain of events. If she closed her eyes, she could almost see the red bits of yarn connecting the tow. And boy were there a lot of red strings!

While Matilda was dreaming, someone else was fuming.
“Hey you scrubby little mongrel! You get away from him!” Aerie shook her fist angrily at the wher which hurt her friend.
He's a tough guy, Aerie. He'll stand. See? Hasith's eyes whirled in amusement, his bonded really was over protective of her friends, not that the black really minded.
“Yea, but. Ugh. I don't like it, ok?”
No one says you have to, but right now this is his battlefield. He will succeed or fail on his own. We have helped as much as we can. Aerie just huffed and crossed her arms over her chest, staring at the eggs. Two of them had to be meant for her friends.

A'til, on the other hand, had caught sight of someone he hadn't seen in a while. Turning from the sands, he stared a bit perplexed. Was that Harri? It had to be, he could tell from the movements of Hand. Lifting hi own hand, he gave the other holdless a wave. He hadn't expected Harri to be there, of all people. But then again, a lot of their friends were on the sand. Ah. A'til's chest felt tight just thinking about it. It wasn't just Matilda, there were so many of them down there.
It's dangerous, but that's how life is, right? You've gotta take the risk to reap the rewards! And they're going to impress, right? The viridian didn't really leave much room for arguing. So A'til just sighed.
“I hope so.”

Back on the sands, Matilda watched the green dragonet make her circle around them. She had silently cheered when the first troublesome black impressed., but so far, he was the only wher of the recent batch. Then the dragons had started. Pyrus' attacker even impressed a girl. Then, he had insisted on staying on the sands.
“Pyrus, you moron!” She had not sighed it loud, not wanting to stir attention, but he had probably been close enough to hear it. If he could even focus on sound at the moment.

But now, now the lighter green was near her. For a moment Matilda tensed, holding her breath, awaiting for claws or teeth. But she was passed. The green continued on, only to land in a tangle with the cyan. They fought, oh they fought, and Matilda wondered if to dragons and whers her fights with her brother seemed just as vicious. People were clawed and knocked over, casualties in a bigger battle. But then they were off. Matilda caught sight of the dried blood color she now associated with the vile imp that had hatched. The green fled as fast as she could, but the Cyan, instead moved slower.

Then it was done. She had impressed and saved herself. Or at least, was safe enough. Matilda couldn't help but smile, though. Davalla had impressed. That was good, the cyan seemed to be a most interesting creature, and she was pretty to boot. She would have many people to congratulate after all was said and done, she was sure of it.

{Mentions of: Seidon, Harri, Pyrus and Davalla}

[turkoizdog]

Zynn watched as the black took the space where Tama-something had once stood. Looking back and forth, either to maul or impress. Zynn hoped the wher was looking to impress; there had been far too much blood and not enough impressions so far. Unfortunately, the black's thoughts were not in tune with his, and he sprang at the face of the girl standing to his left. Though relieved that it hadn't been him, Zynn really didn't like that this wher in particular was so attack-happy. Why weren't there more whers like Kisk on the sands?

He noted the blue wher, happily talking to two green dragons. Well, at least here was a wher who didn't seem bloodthirsty. AND, he could get along with the dragons to boot, which seemed like something others couldn't manage.

But then the blue wher took it upon himself to attack the vicious black, and his tail whipped Kazynn's wounds in the process. He winced, digging his fingertips into the thigh of his wounded leg, leaning on his good leg slightly.

Looking over, the black didn't seem to be attacking anyone for any reason than the fact that it wanted to. It held no personal grudges as the cyan dragon had against Pyrus, and soon moved on to other prey.

Kazynn watched as the dark wher harassed Newt. Between the dark and black wherets, Zynn wasn't sure if there were any Kisk-like whers on the sands tonight. They were all violent, or at least strange.

It was hard for him to see much of the action at this point, since it was either happening at the far end of the dragon's side, or behind him. A yellow and blue had hatched, and it sounded like the blue had impressed, while the yellow he could see was busy cuddling a candidate. Well, at least there were a few happy hatchlings. He noted two greens weaving through the candidates, one of whom impressed quickly, while the other got into a fight with her cyan sister. Once again, the action all happened behind him, and Zynn didn't dare turn around. Instead, he watched the yellow, and how happy it was, a slight smile on his face.

****************************************************

Pyrus nodded to the healer, who seemed stunned, but surprisingly understanding. And as he looked the man over, Pyrus noticed for the first time that the healer was also missing a hand. He wondered if maybe the healer understood his situation more than he had given him credit. After looking over his wounds, the man smartly returned to the healer's area, no longer a target for mauling. If the healer thought he would be alright, then Pyrus felt that he could trust the healer's opinion. However, he still thought that the sooner he impressed, the sooner he could feed his wher and head to the healer's area.

By this point, with Pyrus's bandaged arm, he was coming to enough to notice his surroundings. There was a green dragon fighting with a cyan dragon. Then, the cyan impressed, saving her from her pursuer. Also, he was missing a hand.

Missing a hand. Pyrus swore under his breath, staring down at the bandages. Those dragons would not impress to him, he knew for sure. He would never fly on the back of a cyan. From now on, he would have trouble with even simple tasks, like opening jars, and holding two things at once. Climbing trees would be difficult and dangerous, and everywhere he went, it would be obvious and embarassing.

Pyrus let loose some cross between a cry and a roar, more in anguish than any physical pain. Just when he thought his life was looking up...

[Tigersilk]

For a brief moment Sunita thought one of them might be able to leave the Sands as a wounded black wheret looked her over, before moving on. If the choice was up to her, she'd have had Jas Impress to the creature, even if she was officially too young to stand for whers. Though she and Ziata did their best to keep Jas from seeing the worst of the carnage, they could do little to drown out the screams and bloodsmells that permeated the cavern. Jas was a strong girl, but there were limits to that strength, and Sunita feared she was reaching them.

When the dark wheret returned to attack the blonde girl standing next to them, Jas ran to her biggest sister and protector, burying her face in her robes, trembling, Sunita plugging Jas' ears to shut out as much of the screams as she could. Shaking not so much from the wheret's attack itself, bad as it was, but from the memories it was likely dredging up in Jas. She had witnessed her mother's murder, had seen the remains of her head.....and still went into fits sometimes where she saw it all again in her mind. Sunita had learned to recognize the signs, and this place was bringing an episode on, she was almost sure of it.

Thankfully a black dragonet arrived to distract the wheret, getting a scored back for his troubles before the wheret went somewhere else in the crowd, and the dragonet went back to the front rows to choose his Bonded. All was quiet in their corner of the Candidate crowd, hopefully long enough for Jas to recover herself without going into a fit.

Well, quiet except for the cries of the wounded girl next to them, that is.

[Dragonwher]

From Randiel's left forward in a wide swatch there was a growing patch of Impressions intersected with pain, blood and ichor. The smell of the blood and ichor cooking into the sands was an acrid tang to his nose and in his mouth as he inhaled through his mouth and exhaled through his nose calmly. Well as calmly as one could hearing the bedlam crash about ones head like waves of red agony crashing on a beach of broken glass. But in spite of the terror and pain he was trying only to focus on the Bonds being made. Sure he had yet to bond, but he could be happy for the ones pairing off.

After all he might feel that joy in his heart soon enough, which would help him have something to focus on to try and forget the suffering arisen in this Hatching. When he had seen the black wher latch onto Newt he almost feared the thing would try to end the boy, then almost mistook the things lick as a show of affection. Then it ended up being a ruse to break the boys glasses before the black avoided a thrashing from his blue clutchmate by bonding to a girl after being a bit more of a snot.

Then the noises of a scuffle arose once again and it was approaching him and the boy he stood beside. But just because he heard it coming didn't mean he wasn't knocked flat. Though when he felt his shoulder firmly nudge Valasco he tried to turn so he'd hit the sands right shoulder first instead of being the sole reason Val was flattened. Instead sacrificing his elbow for a moment as he raised his arm to avoid burning his face on the sand. Then looking up in time to see the cyan leap clear over him and if Val was indeed on the sand beside him, trying to move his left arm over Val's shoulder to keep him from rising just to get a tail or foot to the cranium.

When The cyan vaulted over them he tried to get up in a hurry, then offered a hand to Val as he whispered "sorry fer the shoulder grab there; since I fell on my side I just tried to keep you from getting a foot to the skull was all". If Val took the hand to help himself rise or not Randi barely dusted the sand off his side with his not extended hand. Then returned focus on both nests. While also trying to see if that murderous wher that Kalesk wanted to thrash was headed for him or Val. Despite what the Green dragon and her Cyan sister had done, he smiled as they found their other halves. Then he looked to Hulair to see if he was ok. But soon looked away when Hulair offering another candidate a leaning post proved he was still ok.

Looking down for a moment at his now overly tan and overly warm areas of skin where the sand had touched he could hear his mother fussing already. Here was hoping he didn't get cut open like a gutted fish, that would surely be horrible. In his scanning he did catch a flash of yellow as he looked about and saw it hatch then skitter off somewhere.

Tag: mostly Valasco since Randi tried to help him not get toeknuckle to the back of the head or a tail XD but partial tag to Hulair if he feels like spotting Randi looking at him with faint concern.

~~~~

Mir would have screamed if not for Randiel showing he was alright by rising to his feet just as the two dragons who had literally gone over him had Impressed. Though she gave a shaky laugh from nerves "oh dear, I thought Randi was going to be marked up there...did the sand hurt him do you think Andel?". Her husband shook his head and rumbled out "I don't think so; he might have tanned his palm rising to his feet. And tanned his elbow trying to turn so he didn't make that other boy faceplant harder, but it looks to me like he'll be fine". Then he smiled "and I'm sure if Mira saw that she's likely giggling after realizing her brother is fine".

Malinoth by this point had moved one wing at least so Mira could lean to see the hatching, but was quick to stamp down on the fear spike when Randi fell Mine, do not worry; that green only knocked him over with those others, he'll be a little tanned on the skin that hit the sand though. But he is getting up and even offering help to the boy to his right in standing. Worry assuaged, Mira giggled and whispered "least your sister with Fyris didn't tackle me; right Malinoth?". The memory, or rather that thought flicker of memory; caused a mental chuckle and you weren't going to share that with me? I never noticed her pull that stunt. A rather udignified noise issued from his rider making him chuckle again.

When Meridia imitated the razz however, Mira herself would "suffer" a fit of the giggles as she got to watch the hatching finally. Though she hoped nothing REALLY bad happened again, while her flits stayed cuddled to her and continued their humming...though Meridia mixed the razz sound and the giggle noise she heard Mira make into her hum oddly enough. Though the yellow that showed itself then scooted made Mira sit up a lil more "was that a...yellow like Weslieth Mali?". Instantly Mali stretched his neck and hummed more I believe it was Mira, maybe Weslieth and Jasmine won't be the only Yellowpair here now. Of course Mira wasn't willing to call Malinoth on the potential fib this hatching could turn his words into, she just had to hope the yellow would survive.

[Cathaline]

Jazz remained in the stands, though she did rise to her feet, brow wrinkling. But as L'xon so astutely noted, she did not move to go and help; from up here she had a decent top-down view of the Candidates, so she could see any egregious rulebreaking and make any necessary decisions. Nobody had tried to smash an egg yet. Nobody had assaulted one of the babies. Frankly, they were all too terrified to chatter amongst themselves - as well they should be. Even Ausk's hatching not so long ago hadn't contained this level of sustained violence.

It made Weslieth unusually silent; her yellow was too bright a ray of sunshine to cope well with negativity. Though he commented happily on each of their Candidates who Impressed, he had nothing to say about Niorun staggering off the sands with blood pouring from her throat, or about Pyrus's missing hand. It was tragic, of course - either might die, and while Niorun stood a chance of recovery, Pyrus's candidacy (dragon, at least) was over.

Another yellow appeared, and Weslieth said in delight, Look! Someone will be very happy soon.[/i]

I imagine they're all happy,[/i] Jazz said, with mild amusement - though she couldn't help pitying some of the new wherhandlers. And whoever got saddled with that dark mystery wher, if anyone ever did. Time must be running out; a wher couldn't run without a handler forever before it went irrevocably wild.

She flicked her gaze to the black wher by the healers. Apparently he was asking their wherhealer for assistance, and she wondered if it would be a stands Impression...for that man or for Seph, also over there, or for anyone else. There was no shortage of candidates to choose from, but you just never knew what might attract an infant.

---

Delilah remained among the healers, softly giving orders to the apprentices as weyrlings began to stagger in. They couldn't risk going onto the sands, at least not as long as that little monster was at large; Tedaon would take care of Pyrus, Loki would take care of Niorun. "Come help me," she told Seph and N'yn, with a nod toward their first prize, Tamarine. Then the Impressions were made swifter, and everyone who trailed in had at least a mass of bruises incoming, though most were clawed, some quite badly; she moved steadily from weyrling to wherling, cleaning and bandaging and trying not to interfere as they fed their new babies and cemented those bonds.

She worked swiftly, and kept her attention in the feeding pen, eyeing the black wher warily as it begged assistance from Hirman. She was not unaffected by the astonishing levels of violence, but there was no way she could indulge in worry or fear right now. They just had to keep moving.

---

Day'ar was beginning to regret his attendance, beyond all belief. He leaned into G'dan's side, unable to tear his eyes off the nightmare unfolding on the sands. "I am so glad this didn't happen to us," he whispered. Couineth's hatching, where he had Impressed, had been downright sedate; he'd heard many, many stories from his friends about the time before last that Callistath had clutched, but even that was nothing like this.

---

Others watched, but none more keenly than Zucherroth, half through Anima's eyes and half through his own unique senses. He was keeping to himself more than usual, a thin thread of confused dismay winding through their bond. Usually hatchings were happy affairs, but this one had barely begun...

She's gonna get it,[/i] Anima said, watching Kalesk's progress as she continued to slowly circle the candidates. The dark wher, whatever it was, totally had to be doomed.

It?...oh. No,[/i] Zucherroth said. He was gazing fixedly, with gray, unseeing eyes, at the nests. That's pretty terrible, but that's not really what I'm worried about.[/i]

[Gray]

These babies needed a time out! They needed to be grounded and given no treats, because they were bad. Hands covering her mouth, Kidanyr watched one by one as tragedies struck. The green's death made her stomach lurch, and it wasn’t until a few moments after that she noticed she was crying. Quince gave a few low honks, and brushed her cheek with one wing. Kida let the firelizard wind around her hands, nipping and nibbling reassuringly at her fingers. Her greens were safe. Quinzel was probably snoozing, and Quince was here.

The damage done did not make her angry, or scared, as much as it made her heart leap into her throat. As soon as she could, Kidanyr stood, but others had got them. One by one, candidates were felled by tooth and claw. One of the worse had even made her way to the healers, and Kida knew the other girl was brave and strong. The handless boy, though, refused. Teadon had got hurt and he had refused. Kidanyr was confused and upset. Why would he just brush away that help? He was hurt for Egg's sake! But Teadon had let him. They just let him stand there, bloody and hurt.

Placing Quince on one shoulder, he got as close to the healer area as she could with out actually being on the sands.
“Is everything going ok? Are we running out of supplies? I can get more bandaged is needed!” She was about to say more when Quince went ridges and let out one of her warning honks. For a moment, Kida feared a Wher had come into the stands, but no. Turning, she saw it was her mother.

She should have expected it, she and Lyr had always disagreed with how close to the danger Kida was able to get. The girl kept pushing, while her mother pulled her back. But today, Kida could almost feel her mother's worry.
“Kidanyr, it's time to go.” The words made the girl freeze.
“B-but! I've got to help, what if they need something, I can't let them get it. They're all needed here. It's my job momma, I'm a healer!” It was a lie. She wasn't a healer. Not yet. But she would be.

{I have permission from Raven to have Lyr say things!}

[Cathaline]

The dark wher watched with undisguised glee as the two dragon sisters brawled. Clearly they recognised each other's weaknesses and were attempting to beat it out of each other. It might have commended them, except that they spotted it and ran the other way. Cowards.

All this time, Kalesk had been prowling around and behind the Candidates. Through a gap in the white robes, she spotted her wayward child and let out a warning roar; as weyrlings and wherlings began to straggle off the sands, the pack was opening up, and perhaps soon she would have room to muscle her way in without actually maiming anyone by accident. The dark wher fled again, toward the front where it had so recently had some fun.

This time its eye was caught by a girl. A girl whispering anxiously to a boy. A girl without armor. Had she really been fool enough to walk onto these sands unprotected? Short-sighted. An unforgivable flaw, and so the dark wher needed to rip it from her body, a lethal warning. It moved fast and was on Norilana from behind like lightning, scrabbling its way up her back, tearing through robes and skin. If either of her brothers attempted to remove it, they might very well lose a finger, for it snapped and clawed, a whirling demonic force, a powerful hurricane. Anchoring itself with its tail tight around her throat, it hung down her front and ripped violently into her stomach. Its talons were too small, thank Faranth's ghost, to disembowel her, but it certainly tried to. It slashed across her belly, hip to hip, laying her open and leaving the tatters of her white robe to dangle and become soaked with crimson blood.

There was screaming. Did the screaming come from the girl, from her brothers, from a hapless bystander forced to watch? No matter; it did not go unnoticed. It did not go unnoticed by the fiery blue, whose head jerked up; it did not go unnoticed by Kalesk, who broke into a loping run around the right side of the candidates; and it did not go unnoticed by the eggs.

He hatched without fanfare, a second blue, out of the pale crystalline egg at the front of the left side of the nest. He was as icy as the shell, all harsh points, with darker patterns writhing in edged fractals along his hide. Unique, like a snowflake. Dangerous, like a blizzard. At least, he looked like he might be dangerous.

When he moved, it was with cold precision, every paw placed on the sands with care. He picked his way out of the nest and paused beside the lifeless form of his sister, and goggled at her. Ah, the fragility of life. The blue was as interested by an internal musing on death as he was by a clinical examination of the wounds that had killed her.

Meanwhile, the fiery blue quite lost his temper. Nobody should hurt girls! It was wrong to hurt girls! He galloped across the sands and, this time, he didn't mess around with refusing to touch a lady in case he injured her; he used poor hapless Lanorun as leverage to get high enough, digging into the man's hip, reached over, and dug his claws deep into his sibling's side. The dark wher yelped in shock, and the fiery blue all but ripped him off of Norilana's body; they both fell to the ground.

Then Kalesk was there, snarling, and the dark wher absconded - but not far. The fiery blue wasn't about to let it get away with this, and gave chase. They barreled directly into Risny, whose poor body became the site of an unfortunate wrestling match. The dark wher sank its teeth into the blue's shoulder; the blue tried to crush it. But the dark wher was bigger, and as Risny's collection of gashes and bruises grew while they rolled around in a snarling ball of rage and talons on top of her, it slowly started to gain the upper hand.

Kalesk was right there, but it was impossible to get the injured siblings out of her way fast enough, and impossible to reach the dark wher without hurting its brother. The dark wher dodged between Orkia's feet, and the blue followed doggedly, knocking her off-balance and to the ground; Kiaja fell next, shins slashed and harried as the two circled his legs, thrusting and parrying at one another. The dark wher scrabbled back across Orkia's fallen body, and the blue wher followed -

He didn't mean to. He was overcome with temper, and his paw fell where it should not, his talons instinctively bearing down to grip. He thought he'd hit sand or a shoulder; he'd hit her jugular vein.

The dark wher dodged behind the second row and turned back, paw raised; the look on its face or the thoughts in its mind arrested the blue wher in mid tackle, and he turned and stared at the damage he had wrought as Orkia's heart pumped its last few beats, driving blood onto the sand. With a shriek of dismay, the blue tried frantically to staunch the flow, but too late, too late.

The dark wher vanished, into the crowd; Kalesk was thwarted again, but her eyes were on the corpse. The blue looked up at his dam and made a soft sound, utterly despairing, and then fled - not because she would punish him for an accident, but because he could not bear to see what he'd done to an innocent girl a second longer. He pushed past Ahburn and Seidon and came upon yet another horrific, bloody scene, and flung himself into Pyrus's lap.

Pyrusk sorry![/i] he wailed. Pyrusk sorry! Did bad thing! Got here too late! Pyrusk never leave Pyrus again, never again.[/i] It did not matter to him in the least that Pyrus was now missing a hand, that the boy was in shock. Nothing mattered except that Pyrus had waited here for him, and Pyrusk should have come to find him immediately, and then that poor girl would still be alive.

Blue PYRUSK, Impressed to PYRUS

SPOILER: Click to show

Pyrusk is extremely hot-tempered, especially for a blue, but he is more than willing to funnel his rage into appropriate channels; he always burns, be it with fury or passion, and emotional detachment is impossible for him. He is disgusted by bullying or other cruelty, though admittedly, he is not especially bright and tends to read things into situations that simply are not the case. It is not in him to walk away from someone in trouble to go get a superior or a pack, and he has a tendency to fling himself into danger with reckless abandon. He is extremely chivalrous, being extremely fond of the ladies, but...well, his idea of chivalry is to bite someone really hard if he suspects them of mistreating or looking wrong at a lady. An incorrigible flirt, he is nigh-indiscriminate with his crushes and expressive with his sincere affection for them. Although he is loyal in his way, monogamy is a foreign concept to him. His deepest connection is, of course, to Pyrus, who he loves with all the fire of the sun itself; he is quite incapable of withdrawing his adoration from his handler, no matter how frustrated he may become.

On the small side for a blue, Pyrusk is long-limbed, short-tailed, and...unmistakable. His hide is awash in brilliant, flamelike colors, dancing and twisting together in unique markings. (35E1F8)

The dark wher threaded through the candidates, all the way to the back row. Maybe it planned to make a break for it while Kalesk was distracted - run for the entrance to the sands and never look back. Regardless, it collided with Kaydian's legs and looked up at him, and did not like what it saw, not at all. What a ludicrously happy person, and ludicrously distraught, though trying to hide it. How dare he. In fact, how dare any of them? Why did none of them fight back? It would not save them, of course, but it would be appreciated.

Vicious, the dark wher drove his teeth into the softness of Kaydian's thigh, standing on hind legs to reach. Outraged, it moved on to Phaenna, tearing sharp and bloody claws across her legs. Lucky Matilda, daydreaming about beautiful Impressions, got her foot stomped on harshly, with a sick crunch. And Garund nearly lost a foot - the dark wher made a start on trying to gnaw through the ankle, found the bones too difficult at its current age, and moved on.

It leapt at Randiel, so newly on his feet, and dragged him violently down to its level with pulls of claws and teeth. Driven by some inner demon, it tore at him, but it was smart, not senseless; it knew where to pull to undo the ties and straps that bound armor to his soft body, and it kept a paw at his throat while it did so. If he dared try to throw it off, he would die just as Orkia had. Fast and bloody.

Once it had the robe and armor torn away, it raked its claws down his chest. Armor! As if anything could protect them! They were all weak, weak, flawed, horrible, how dare they, how dare they -

It managed to escape the dark wher that it had just attacked Norilana for not wearing armor, and was now angry at Randiel for daring to do so. It bent its head to try to bite the rise of his collarbone, and then froze.

Kalesk thundered around the side of the candidates, hell-bent on tearing the monster to shreds, and the dark wher raised its head and looked her in the eyes, one proprietary paw resting on Randiel's torn chest.

Rask,[/i] the brown said, his voice dark-chocolate and unmistakably masculine, satisfied and victorious.

Kalesk glared, red-eyed, but she would not destroy the poor boy by destroying his wher. Rask lowered his head again and gave a near-delicate lick to one of the wounds he had just inflicted. Knife not needed, in this particular case. It might appear to those around that the brown had only Impressed out of a need to survive, but it just so happened that when the moment of truth came, it turned out he'd been standing on top of the perfect person all along.

Rask hungry,[/i] he rumbled, surprisingly sedate. Because actually, Randiel was really awesome. Actually, he was perfect and he had done everything perfectly. It was amazing that Rask hadn't seen it before, but he'd been sort of busy. No apologies were forthcoming for his cruelty, not now, probably not ever, and he stepped off of the boy's body. Almost as an afterthought, he bit Valasco in the ankle before moving to stick close to Randiel.

Brown RASK, Impressed to RANDIEL

SPOILER: Click to show

Rask hates everything. No, he really hates everything. He is keenly aware of the flaws in every person he meets, every wall he stares at, everything is broken and stupid and hateful. He genuinely wants to fix things, but he believes that the only way this is possible is to completely tear something to pieces and rebuild from the ground up. Stomping, crushing, biting, ripping - he will use any means possible to destroy. Occasionally downright cruel, he is a true force of nature, a demon stuffed into the powerful body of a deadly predator. He considers kindness and compassion a near-sinful weakness; fighting spirit is just about the only thing that can get him on board, though it never blinds him to the problems he can see in everyone. Or...almost everyone. To Rask, Randiel is perfect, without flaw, incapable of error. Rask is a true enabler; where he can make up some issue with even the most perfect object, he sees Randiel through rose-tinted lenses, though he is every bit as gruff with his handler as he is with everyone else. He’ll listen to Randiel...but that will not make him easy to control by any means, as he is harsh, clever, and extremely dangerous.

Such a dark brown that he is nearly black, his hide unmistakably close to the shade of dried blood, Rask has red-tinted markings all over his body, boiling like magma. He is a gigantic, hulking brute, built like a linebacker. (5C4033)

Back in the nest, the lumpy gray egg on the right-hand side hatched, and a green flopped onto the sand, panting a bit from the exertion of getting out. She was thin as a whip, appallingly so for a wher, but her eyes were bright and keen. Just let her rest here for a moment, okay?

The blue wher did not rest. It strolled casually across the sands and went to stare solemnly at Orkia's limp body, like a little creep.

[kireon]

"Alright, here's the plan, we're gonna try and get you to the healers, I'm thinkin' about how right now, but we're gonna do this thing and we're gonna do it together, so you just stay with us and everything's gonna be alright." Kairhi was one hundred percent confident that they could do this; it just needed a little extra something that she hadn't thought of yet. She frowned at the grit on her hand, annoyed because she'd need to have the wounds washed out in case of infection and that'd delay things a whole lot more than she wanted them to. Her injuries could, and would, wait. Mairhi's didn't seem too bad, might need a stitch or two and definitely gonna need disinfecting.

She took stock of what they had available. Mairhi's belt was still there, they could use that to bind the arm to his side in addition to the cloth they'd used to provide a temporary stabilizer. ...they might be able to get him to hold the arm to his side with his other one though, which would free their arms up enough that they, together, might be able to get him out of there with some tricky timing, maybe some help from fellow Candidates and some really, really good fortun-

Everything suddenly fell to rainbows, unexpected and surprising as she stared right into the eyes of the rather healthy cyan who'd been the cause of all this in the first place. Her mind broke and reconstructed itself in a matter of seconds, accepting and making room for someone she hadn't even realized had been missing until that moment. There was the alien sense of discomfort, surprise and unease she could only imagine came from the dragonet herself, her Atenath. Emotions were devestating, tricky and complex; they were not black and white like Justice, and they needed to focus on that right now.

Anger was okay though, because anger fueled the flames to keep them going in the worst of times, and she wasn't sorry that she attacked Pyrus, something that she didn't get why Kairhi's eyes narrowed and disapproval came down on her like a bag of firestone. You are bleeding, Kaihri, and the culprit is still out there. We must get it, right now![/i]

Nope! Kairhi's face finally broke into a smile, the heady rush of Impression finally hitting home at the same time the tiny kernal of sympathy for her feelings came from the cyan. So her dragon wasn't heartless after all, just super single-minded and like her big sister when it came to feelings. That she could handle with super ease!

Atenath, however, wasn't impressed or in the least bit enthused. Wariness filtered in, impatience kicking in- no, no, no! They needed to be focused! What do you mean, no? We have a duty to attend to, and we must see it through! I have plans for that abomination, we must bring it to-[/i] Kairhi's hand, gritty and bloody as it was, reached out for the cyan, and against the dragonet's stubborn will, Atenath found herself meeting that hand halfway. It stank of coppery metal, of gritty sand and pain. She loathed that, and knowing who caused it was even more infuriating than before.

You need to apologize for what you've done, for one. For two, we have to figure out how to transport Pyrus to safety- just in case that wheret comes back for seconds. Kairhi was firm on not leaving her patient behind, yet, ideas already taking shape now that she had a dragonet. Healers were always over there, so she could totally manage to figure something out on that end.

Apologize?[/i] The very idea was abhorrent. He had stood in the way of justice! He had deserved each blow upon his person for aiding the guilty wheret's escape! So had all the others! Her attention was diverted, temporarily, towards Mairhi's exclaimation of her bonded's name. Even their voices were rather identical, how on Pern's name could there be two? Her swaying approval or disapproval was suddenly firmly set into the "approved" catagory once she heard the rest of what her bonded's mirror said.See? Your mirror even says we have higher priorties than this obstructor. You should listen to our good sense, Kairhi.[/i] Clearly this Mairhi knew what was important in life, she would have to claim and punish the attacker of her twins in the girl's honor.

Their eyes met, held, and locked in an obvious battle of wills. Atenath growled. Kairhi continued to stare, her free hand gently patting Pyrus' uninjured shoulder to reassure him. "Py, Atenath has something to say to you before we go."

She drew herself up indignantly, extraordinary wings flaring open to make herself all the more impressive and intimidating- to no effect. The longer they did this, the more she'd lose the trail, and that would be simply unacceptable! Her eyes spun red, and Kairhi's expression darkened considerable in warning. Maybe her dragonet was still a baby yet, but she remembered how Rhikail had dealt with her and Mairhi when they were being naughty, and she had zero qualms about doing the same to teach her new naughty soulmate a lesson or two in manners.

Atenath huffed and looked away. I suppose I used excessive force in my haste to dispense justice. Reluctantly, loathingly spoken to the candidate who was not her bonded, the cyan finally gave the heavily swathed boy a glance with his graying face lined with pain. No. She would not be guilty, she was above that. I will take into consideration another course of action in the future. Do take care not to stand in the way of criminals and their pursuers next time. Her eyes went back to Kairhi, impatient and annoyed. Apology delivered upon request. Now shall we go hunt it down?[/i]

The arrival of another healer to double-check her work was a relief, though her smile at him faltered when he just... left to aid a less injured candidate. What was with that? An impatient head to her rear caught her attention and Atenath pointedly fixed her with a Look. "Be strong, Mai, keep pressure on your side." She looked down to Pyrus. "I'll get someone to come and help you better, don't worry, okay? Your wher or dragon will find you no matter where you are, they're awesome at that."

And where do you think you are going, Kairhi? We have a task to do![/i] Atenath followed, stomping behind her bonded quickly, catching up so that she could reach and seize the girl's wrist in her jaws. Sandy. Bloody. Gritty. Blegh. She spat it out, pawing at her tongue to rid herself of the taste of foul blood.

You need food, right? Kairhi remarked lightly, focusing on her words very carefully. This whole telepathy thing was gonna be hard to get the hang of when she was so used to talking out loud. Her eyes lit on the healers' area, so close, so very close- and screams from behind her caused her to jerk, whirling around. Atenath was instantly in front of her, wings spread to block her bonded from view on instinct.

Ashamed, she lowered them a half second later. Kairhi could be bait, that's why she'd gone to her in the first place. So why had she...? No, she wouldn't think about it right then. Another metallic smell, this one appealing, caught her attention- as did the buckets full of something. Justice does not make time for foolish distractions.[/i] She informed Kairhi, uncertain as her eyes went back and forth from the sands to the buckets and back again.

Kai grinned. This victory would go to her. Can't serve justice on an empty stomach though, what'll happen if that wheret gets stronger because all the blood is feeding it and making it more powerful?

One couldn't dispense proper justice on an empty stomach? Atenath's inner lids flicked closed and back open at the thought. Nutrition did lend a hand to strength, and speed. One burned through sustanance in order to get the energy to pursue... I may see a point, however, I fear I cannot let this-

He has to eat some time, you know. He'll come over this way eventually. You can trap him there.

For the first time, her eyes shaded to the green of pleasure at the words out of her bonded. That is quite true, and rather clever. I knew there was a reason I was right to choose you, my Kairhi. Let us depart then, I shall seek a proper ambush point while regaining my strength- and you shall aid me in this.[/i]

Kairhi grinned to herself. Yup. Totally like her older sister, she thought to herself and followed her cyan to the feeding grounds.

--

While she was displeased her sisters seemed bent on continuing the tradition of being injured that Rhikail herself had started long ago now, the greenrider was overall pleased- and a good deal more envious of the fact Kairhi had gotten one of her favorite colors as her bonded.

A chill went down her spine for no good reason, and Rhikail frowned instantly at it. Trouble, and that shiver usually implied the twins were up to no good.

--

"Hey now, he's got good genes in there somewhere. Not all of them are little bastards." She might have been a little defensive of her boy, just because the idea of having nothing but murderers in his veins was upsetting to the prideful king. "See? Couple of 'em are decent. The cyan's definitely a chip off the blockhead here, no denying that, and- OH! One of those little dark ones, black I think, isn't a complete bastard either- he looks like he wants the healers to follow him to help." Or into a trap, always possible.

Her eyes widened and she loosed a low whistle at the blues who hatched. "Now that's a blue. Brighter than that one Damask threw a while back. Gorgeous coloring on that one." And apparently fond of lady handlers too, she hoped his bonded would treat him right.

...or he had the worst luck ever, as a candidate went down and the blue's lengthy claws hit the wrong place to bear down and tear.

The word that came out of Cilia's mouth was long since disapproved of and rarely used, but she used it right there and then on the spot the way she had a few times in her life. The thin wail from the wheret reached her through Cilisk's entirely superior senses, and despite her sorrow at the candidate's death, her relief at the little one having a heart was clear. At least he'd gotten a bonded, the two would mend each others' wounds that way.

--

Kairhi froze as the massive brown finished his rampage- and Impressed. Sparks and shell shards. She swore, putting herself into position to bodily haul her darling away from him. She hoped Randiel would be able to keep him under control, or things were gonna get uglier from there on out.

He needs to be brought to justice too, and if he is not disciplined for his actions, I shall be more than happy to offer my services. His sibling is a sensible wher, she will aid us in finding a suitable punishment for all the pain he has caused.[/i] Atenath informed her with a vicious satisfaction, moving herself behind her bucket to better observe the surroundings. She wanted the black wheret who'd bitten her charge and the reflection she held so dear.

That one was moved up the list, now that the vicious one running amok had been sort of dealt with.[/size]

[turkoizdog]

Zynn was quite relieved that yet again, much of the action was away from him. However, he realized a spot by the front meant that he couldn't see anything that happened behind him, which was normally not a huge issue in hatchings.

The blue who had been cuddling Joni came to the rescue of another injured girl. This seemed to be a trend, with the blue taking a liking to the girls. Hadn't he been the same blue who was flirting with the green dragons earlier? Well, apparently this little guy didn't discriminate based on species.

When the blue began his pursuit of the dark wher, Kazynn noticed that another egg had started to hatch, revealing what at first appeared to be a white, but he then realized, as it approached the candidates and became more visible, that he was an icy blue. An icy blue to counter the fiery one. How fitting.

Further down the row, he could hear quite a commotion. The brown had scratched up one girl rather badly, and in the chase, the blue had accidentally killed a girl. Finally, in this bloodbath, there had been a death on the sands, and Zynn was only surprised that it was only one death, and that a wher had caused it. He had figured, if there was a death, it would have been caused by the cyan who had dismembered the boy earlier.

As the brown impressed, Zynn's eyes moved back to the eggs at the front. A green had just hatched, only to flop down and decide to rest. She, the icy blue, and the black -- where had he gone? To the sands? -- were the only whers left unimpressed, and while the remaining blue seemed oddly fascinated by the dead girl's body, none looked like they were planning on mauling anyone any time soon.

Then again, there still were five eggs left. While he wanted to think that all the peaceful, nice, and maybe even Kisk-like whers were yet to come, he also couldn't help but wonder if there was a creature, wher or dragon, who would scratch up the remaining handful of uninjured candidates, leaving no blood unshed.

****************************************************

Pyrus did not expect an apology from the cyan that attacked him. In fact, it was the last thing he had expected. So far most candidates rushed off the sands with their bonded as soon as they had impressed, but Kai really cared. She stayed, and didn't leave until hers -- Atenath was her name -- had apologized for what she had done. He had trouble registering the apology at the time, but later, when he was coming out of shock, starting to feel the physical and emotional pain of having lost a hand, the fact that Kai had gotten the cyan to apologize said something about both of them. He'd have to ask her about that later. He may not have known her well before, but her kindness had him on a mental list of people to spend time with.

As he sat, considering this, a small blue wher flung himself into his lap. Pyrusk sorry! Pyrusk sorry! Did bad thing! Got here too late! Pyrusk never leave Pyrus again, never again.[/i]

Eyes in swirls, he felt a surge of positive emotion, exactly what he needed in this moment. The rush he had felt from impressing his pets was multiplied by a hundred, and the unmistakable feeling of a lifelong bond flowed over him. His would never leave him ever again, and for lonely little Pyrus who refused to have bonds with anyone, who feared being abandoned by a friend or loved one, Pyrusk was exactly what he needed.

"It's okay, everything will be fine." All thoughts of his missing hand were forgotten, at least momentarily. Pyrusk licked Pyrus' stump apologetically, sealing the bond. It was so strange to think that this little thing would grow to the size of some of the whers he had seen.

With one broken leg, Pyrus required some help getting back to the feeding and healing area. Of course, the healers would immediately fuss over him, trying to make sure he was alright, and while he had lost his hand, he gained something much greater, much more important. He'd just have to get some sort of attachment to help, anyway, and at least he'd made it away with his life.

Pyrusk come with Pyrus to heal. Want make sure Pyrus get all better.[/i]

[Serah]

Ahburn was just watching. Watching as everything got even crazier than he thought they could. He wasn't sure what Kalesk would do, if she was ever able to catch up to the dark wher. Probably nothing he would want to watch. He tried to keep his eyes forward, towards the eggs, as much as he could. But he couldn't shake the feeling that the dark wher might try to attack him. So he inadvertently kept looking behind him, just to make sure.

He saw the Greens, as they came up to him. For a moment, he thought one of them might Impress to him. But neither did Impress at that moment. One ended up mauling him, knocking him to the ground. He could feel the blood on his legs, but he didn't think it was too bad. The girl next to him, Szene, her legs looked like they were worse. And she was still Standing.

Ahburn saw no reason that he couldn't continue to Stand as well. He kind of wanted to be on the Sands. Maybe not because he thought his dragon might be in this Clutch, but maybe the reason was the excitement of it all. He would definitely be proud to say he was part of the first ever double hatching between a wher and a dragon clutch. He wanted to have it all in his head, and where would be a better place? Certainly not in the Stands.

So he continued to hold his spot on the Sands. He looked down, fresh out of thought, to see the first Blue wher to hatch pushing past him. He watched as the Blue Impressed to Pyrus, the lucky yet unlucky guy right now. He began wondering just how much he would get injured. It could be anywhere from as little as he was now, to losing his life like the girl he didn't know the name of. He did feel sorry for her, and any family she may have.

Awnia, knowing the dangers of a wher hatching, was prepared for a wher to maul her. She wasn't truly prepared for a dragon to knock her off her feet. The Cyan that clawed her, was a bit more foreseeable. Though still not quite expected. She had chosen a spot far away from Callistath's Clutch for this very reason.

She let out a sigh, knowing that even with her careful planning, she wasn't safe from everything. She was wrong to ever assume that she would be safe, that is for sure. So for now, she would keep her eyes on both Clutches. Awnia just hoped that if she Impressed this time, it would be to a Wher, not a dragon. She was already accustomed to the night time schedule.

The dark wher concerned her. Kalesk seemed to be after it, and it was mauling Candidates severely. She wasn't sure when it would stop. Of course, when it did stop, a girl had died. She had hoped that wouldn't happen. But with a Hatching this large and chaotic, that was always a possibility. She gave a sad look toward the area where the dead girl was. She would have to see if she had any family at the Weyr so she could offer condolences in person.

Kiaja just felt excited. Excited about the Hatching, excited that he would have a great story to tell. Pretty much excited about everything except for those who got badly mauled. That one wher was a bit bothersome to him, though he tried his best to put it out of his mind. He just wanted to focus on the positive right now. And there was plenty of positive.

So many Impressions were made! He was just adoring the Purple, and pretty much any Impression that was made. But the Purple was definitely his favorite so far. He was such a pretty color, and with interesting markings as well! He couldn't wait to see what color his dragon would be. Hopefully, no matter the color, it would have an interesting personality. He knew of the stereotypes for each color. Kiaja also knew that not all dragons kept to those stereotypes.

He didn't know if he would prefer a dragon like that or not. Maybe, maybe not, he thought. The dark wher he was trying to put out of his thoughts came to him at that moment. Not to Impress, but to maul. His sister had been attacked by the dark wher first. He turned to try to help her, but it was too late for that. The Blue wher was on Orkia from his jump to try to attack the dark wher.

Kiaja didn't see what happened then, due to his being knocked down. But somehow he knew it wasn't good. He knew it, but he hoped anyway. He hoped that his sister would be okay, that they would continue to Stand through this Hatching together. After the dark wher left, he got himself up. His heart felt heavy as he turned to look at his sister.

When he saw her lifeless body on the Sands, he opened his mouth as if he would scream. But no sound escaped his lips. His eyes were wide, starting to tear up. He just wanted to turn time back at that moment, but he couldn't. He was torn. Should he continue to Stand? Or should he take himself out? What would Orkia have wanted him to do?

Kiaja, after several long moments of trying to decide what to do, finally decided that he would keep Standing. He could always take himself off the Sands later, if he decided that he couldn't continue. He tried to calm his thoughts down, tried to think happier thoughts. But his sister's memory would always live on in his heart and mind.