Children are Monsters, Sasakith's Clutch Hatching!

[S'yal]

Sasakith stretched out on the sands, her forelegs curled around Decadent Court and Frowning Empress. The presence of the unborn dragonets was a comfort as she dozed, even though they didn't have much to say. Besides, they were small and Sasakith's body heat would keep them safe and warm. The gold lifted her head, glancing to the exit of the caverns. She was starving, having skipped her last meal day in favor of spending the day with the eggs. There wasn't much time left for her to spend with them.

Soon they would belong to others. Sasakith would not be very involved with their Weyrlinghood. It was the nature of dragons, and Sasakith knew that she would have to cherish them while she had them. But her hunger was great, and the queen gently lifted herself from the clutch. She looked down the eggs sternly. << None of you are to hatch until I come back, young ones. >> She told them sternly. << You will be good dragonets. >>

Then she left the Sands. She took her time getting back, enjoying the cool air that was so refreshing after the time in the stifling heat of the Sands. She selected a prime herdbeast from the pens, and then carried it back to eat in the hatching caverns. It would be sandy and unpleasant, but any time with her children was a good time.

She returned to high pitched creeling, and a strange creature flailing about on the Sands. Dim Thief had cracked open in the time she had been gone, half-spilling a small dragonet on the sands. The herdbeast hit the sands, Sasakith shocked by the impudent nature of this dragonet. << I told you not to hatch yet! Candidates, there is a hatched dragonet on the Sands! Report to the Sands immediately! >> She bellowed.

The hatchling flailed in the sands, coating itself in Sand. Frowning Empress began to rock as well, though Iron Club beat it to the chase. A powerful leg thrust through the shell, followed by a reddish-brown muzzle. The dragonet creeled, trying to tear his way out of the shell.

<< Luka! Luka, the eggs are hatching! I've alerted the Weyr! >> Sasakith cried. Luka jolted from her place in her weyr, stumbling into the sands. << Everyone! Now! >> Sasakith continued to bellow.

The dragonets were Hatching too fast, too soon. There were no candidates. Would she lose the dragonet who was already out of its shell? Sasakith regarded the dragonet, gently pulling it close to clean the sand off of it.

The dragonet peeped in complaint, squirming free of the embrace of Sasakith. The Tiny Monster dragonet shook itself, revealing a rather... unusual hide. She appeared green, but she was rather... mottled. With purple.

<< I do not think that is normal, dear. What have you been doing inside your egg? >>

The dragonet did not answer Sasakith, instead wailing and trying to find her feet. The Sands were hot and her head was too big and she was slowly, slowly starting to fall on her side. Tiny Monster squealed in complaint, the green and purple dragonet falling onto her side. Nooo! What was this nonsense? What were legs?

"Skreeeep!" Said the dragonet to her mother.

<< Yes, walking is quite hard. >>

"Grooo..." Tiny Monster said, sadly, as she tried to figure out how to walk. She stood, awkwardly wobbling.

[S'yal]

Eggs!
Frowning Empress -Beautiful Lie Green - Koolth to Kalunia
Decadent Court - Wild Hunt Blue - Folaith to Remigia
Dim Thief - Tiny Monster ?? - Hobbeth to Tea
Kiing of Beasts - To Rule them All Bronze - Greoth to Sindri
Sharpest Smile - Nothing Left brown - Heracleth to Barrett
Warrior's Rise - Just a Taste brown - Drauth to Eyaena
Foul Meat - The Greatest Feast green - Unimpressed
From The Grave - To Ash blue - Dampith to Tarquin
Beserker - Unhatched
Weasel's Hatred - Unhatched
Iron Club - Strength Beyond Strength brown - Onith to Norion
Thousand Year Old - From Our Ashes Gold - Trillth to Rillys
Knight's Bane - Fangs and Flames Brown - Unimpressed
Homebody - One Last Thing green - Spinth to Enaria
Man's Child - Of Clay and God bronze - Clarrith to Oranel
Crushing Blow - Unhatched
Ocean and Serpent - Among the Stars blue - UnImpressed
Headfirst Charge - Lost Labyrinth blue - Minoth to Takinic
Kindest Smile - Unhatched
River's Bane - From The Swamp Bronze - Unimpressed
Huge Debate - Lake Legend ?? - Nesieth to Logan
Warning Siren Woeful Wail Green - Unimpressed
Blizzard's Wife - So Cold ?? - Sirenth to Spica

Rules
1) Do not spoil impressions in the cbox! Please refrain from congratulation someone until they have seen their baby.
2) ICA = ICC.
3) Please bold the names of the dragonets and candidates you are interacting with.
4) Please do not prevent the dragonets from doing something in their posts. However, you may interact with them.
5) Have fun!

[NessYo!]

In sum: Tea was weeding when the call went out, and didn't go change. She runs into the sands and is covered in dirt, wearing normal clothes. She thinks the dragonet that hatched is the bee's knees.

---

There were, of course, some chores that Tea enjoyed more then others. She typically didn't like anything in the store room, because those things smelled musty and there were slinks everywhere, and not even the fun kind of slinks that liked to be chased, but the kind that hissed at you when you got near them because they were nesting there. Weeding, however, was a fun chore, and it was the chore she was currently assigned to.

Whether or not you could call what Tea was doing 'weeding' was another thing altogether. It might be better called 'playing'-- plants did not find it easy to grow in the rocky soil of high reaches, but where they did grow, you could at least find dirt, and there was really nothing quite like rolling around in dirt, and sticking your fingers all in it, and trying to grab at the bugs before they escaped you. Sometimes there'd be an itch on your face, and yo'd have to scratch that, getting dirt there... But to Tea's credit, there WAS a pile of uprooted vegetation behind her, even if she was covered in a truly remarkable amount of dirt.

It was in the middle of this not-so-much-of-a-chore that something even more exciting then chasing bugs happened, and that was the excited, slightly-frantic voice of Sasakith cutting across her mind and her memory as one. She did remember that voice: hard not to remember the voice of a queen dragon, and the other time it had spoken had been very exciting. But this, this was even more exciting, and different, becuase now the eggs were hatching. The little people in the eggs would get to break out and stretch their wings and feets for the first time. She wiggled her toes at the thought, enjoying their freedom-- and how the dragonets would enjoy their freedom! would they wiggle their toes in the sand, too?

It took a few seconds to occur to her that she had somewhere to Be, and for once it wasn't in the tiers. No, this was an extra special hatching, not just because it was the first gold clutch in 4 years, but because she was a candidate now. Plant pile quite forgotten, Tea lept to her feet in a surprisingly graceful motion, and would've gone off running, had she not accidentally dislodged Drips, who was napping beside her more-or-less ignoring the flying dirtclods.

Tea paused then, swooping down to scoop up the kitten in her arms, kissing the soft little head. "Wish me luck, Dripsydrips." she told the kitten. "And remember that I love you, and be good, and don't follow me onto the sands because you cannot Impress a dragon." The kitten yawned, and blinked at her-- there would be no following, just more sleeping. One last kiss on the head, and Tea put Drips down carefully, before turning around and booking it to the 'sands. Couldn't very well go to a hatching, especially as a candidate, without the blessing of one's cat, after all.

Drips, for her part, blinked at her strange pet human, and turned to saunter in towards the lower caverns. She could already smell good things in the air, and perhaps the kitchen would be able to provide a generous donation of scraps...

It was perhaps a good thing that the clutch had cracked on such short notice, because it hadn't occurred to Tea at all to change into proper robes or anything: she ran right onto the sands in the same dirt-covered clothing she'd been weeding in, with mud between her fingers and in her hair. It still occured to her to bow to the great golden form of the queen, though, so she did that as soon as her feet touched the heat of the sands-- and only on the come-up did she notice the dragonet standing on wobbly little legs.

It was quite hard for her to repress the urge to squeel at the little thing, but she managed, barely. The excitement she felt was clear on her face, though :a dragoent! a beautiful pretty dragonet! and with such pretty colors, too. That didn't actually strike her as anything unusual-- rather, it was something to be admired, as any more-usual-but-still-striking pattern would be.

[Kitsuneko]

The few days up until the hatching were almost visibly tense with excitement, and even Sheen was beginning to pick up on it. The bronze was twitchy, moving about a lot and making more noise than usual. Kalunia tried to ignore him the best she could, the same as she tried to ignore the fluttery feelings building in her own belly. To the outside world, she did her best to present a calm, collected picture of the perfect candidate. It was just a hatching, she told herself, nothing to get too excited about.

That said, she still rushed to the sands with the rest of the candidates as soon as the announcement came from Sasakith. An egg had hatched already? What had the dragon been doing; surely they should have gotten more warning than that. Oh, but she definitely wouldn't be voicing that out loud. She stopped by her room in the barracks just long enough to grab the candidate robe she was supposed to wear, throwing it on over her normal clothes and looking rather disheveled as a result. She tried to fix her hair at least, but as Sheen began to pick up the humming, she stopped. What was she doing? Her dragon could already be on the sands waiting for her! Sheen was left behind as she bolted back out of the door, running as fast as her long skirts and white robe would allow.

She did make it to the Hatching Sands, finally, though she was certainly far from the first candidate to make it there. Oh well, who cared about them? If her dragon was here, she would find her soon enough, if not, well, she'd just wait until the next queen's clutch. She fidgeted in place, still wanting to fix her hair but not wanting to do it with the crowds of spectators watching her. They looked like they were still filling up; she wondered if her own family was there yet.

Finally, she managed to get a good look at the dragon that had already hatched, drawn by the growly noise it was making. Her hand flew up to her mouth. That was not a proper dragon! It looked like something that may have come from a (sub-par) green's clutch, but it certainly wasn't a normal green. Where had the purple come from!? She barely noticed the brown paw that had emerged from the Iron Club egg.

[Meltain]

Enaria

Enaria was in the bathing pool washing Gem when she heard the call for the hatching. Of course she didn't expect to impress, there was no gold and her dragon was going to be a gold, no ifs, ands, or buts. However, a hatching was a hatching, gold egg or not. As a candidate she was pretty much expected to be there. In fact she could get in to trouble if she wasn't. Normally she wouldn't care if some candidate master was upset with her, but today she flew like obeying the rules. So she lifted her little gold out of the water headed toward the hatching sands. For a moment she considered stopping to change in to her robes, but according to the gold there was already a hatchling on the sands, spending that time might cause her to miss several impressions. Even if she wasn't going to impress it was always good to see the new bronze riders. She already had her future weyrleader but they would be taking other positions of power.

When she reached the sands Gem flew off, probably back to the candidate barracks. The firelizard knew that she should not be at the sands unless she wanted to get eaten. At first she had some optimism about what she might find. Maybe a bronze or brown would have been the first to hatch. But she just couldn't be so lucky. Upon entering she was greeted by the sight of a green/purple dragonet. Enaria snarled in the direction of the Tiny Monster hatchling and muttered under her breath, "perfect. I come out here and theres only a pathetic mutated green. Where are all the good dragons?"

Takinic

Takinic was in his room, exchanging his current heardbeast dung-smeared clothes for clean ones. The call that the hatching was starting came as both a shock and a moment of horror to him. A hatchling already on the sands? The eggs where already hatching and he was nowhere near prepared! In a moment of blind panic he tore his clothes off as fast as he could and grabbed the two nearest things that he could find, forgetting his candidate robes entirely.

He pulled the pants on and was in the middle of pulling his shirt on as she began running for the sands. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to get a garment on. Frustration filled him as he held it in front of him, finding the reason why immediately. In his hurry to get to the sands he had not grabbed a shirt and pair of pants but with pairs of pants. With an annoyed groan he threw it to the ground and ran to the sands, wearing only shoes and an old pair of pants. Soon enough he arrived and got in to position while watching the eggs.

[Pam]

((SUM: Oranel EXPLODES INTO SANDS, Finley arrives. Alduith is terrifying and Oranel thinks mutated babbys are WONDERFUL))

Alduith woke from his slumber with a thrum that slowly turned into a deep, thoughtful hum.

The little ones are coming, Finley. We must hurry.

Finley hit her dragon running, scrambling up his neckridges, and Alduith barely waited long enough for her to do so before taking off towards the Sands as fast as his wings could carry him.

Sasakith, he said as he approached the Sands. We are here.

He settled down on his perch, craning his neck to have a better view of the dragonets below. His eyes, for once, were a blue that turned Alduith's visage from demonic to almost kindly. Finley, meanwhile, jogged down to her place in the Stands, watching as eagerly as her dragon.

Tiny Monster's hatching was met by Finley smiling at the spunky little thing. Her coloration was...odd, but the baby looked wonderful and healthy, and that's all that counted. Well, that, and whether it decided to maul someone or if betweened. So far, everything was going along swimmingly.

Like the Candidates, Alduith had been on edge since Sasakith clutched. Eggs meant new dragons, and new dragons meant small, malleable minds that he could mold into a force to be reckoned with. And new dragons meant that there was a chance, however small, of the clutchmother producing the One - a dragon that could hurt humans and lead dragonkin to a whole new era.

Or so Alduith hoped.
---

Oranel didn't normally explode out or into buildings, caverns, or any indoor spaces. However, Sasakith's call came at the most inopportune time when he was peeling apart a clock for spare parts, with Sincerity perched on him like a shoulder-mounted buzzkill. He sprung up, scattering gears, cogs, and one very angry flightless firelizard, and basically ran out of the barracks.

If there was a nerd sprinting record, he probably hit it in that one mad dash, skipping the robes and all of that ceremonial shit and bursting right onto the sands, slowing down before he ran too close to the mother and the eggs. He bowed to her, and stood by the edge of the sands - not too close, but not too far either. Oranel bowed to the mother, a curt, yet respectful motion without too much flourish, and stepped away to watch the hatchlings.

Turns out he stopped pretty much under the Weyrlingmaster's dragon's perch. After a few terrifying seconds of eye contact, Oranel made a few sidesteps to get out of Alduith's range, because sweet faranth that thing was horrible.

Dragons weren't supposed to be able to hurt people. Alduith looked like he could prove that wrong any time.

His face lit up with a doofy sort of smile when he saw the little green-purple dragonet hatch. He didn't know they came in greenish purple, but then again, he didn't exactly have much experience with dragons, much less baby dragons. However, purple-greens weren't exactly common, so Oranel reacted to Tiny Monster like any scientific mind would react to a new and potentially dangerous phenomenon: observe, record, don't get in its way in case it gets funny ideas. "I think she's wonderful," he said under his breath.

[Filch]

((SUM: Barrett is working at the forge while the dragons hatch. He is covered in grease and terrible yucky soot in old clothes and is generally being a blight on the sands. The new dragon is pretty alright unless the purple is illness, he thinks.))

You know when it was -really- bad for eggs to decide to hatch? Right now. Barrett was one of the many candidates highly inconvenienced by the sudden hatching, the dragons apparently happy to pop out while he was covered with the despicable dirt that came from spending the day working in the smithy. No, of course they didn't decide to hatch when he was able to be clean and presentable, they had to hatch right now. There was little point in going, of course; the blond had missed the touching, and he was rather sure none of the dragonets would be rather pleased about that.

Still, there was that undeniable excitement that came with the promise of something that would love you forever was there, and Barrett found himself ripping off the gloves and apron with a rather frantic urgency despite himself. Frederik squalled from his hiding spot in the warm cavern, wings flapping as his bonded bolted towards the sands after a rather hasty promise to come back soon, provided he was not made in to a snack for some baby. The blue just snorted and curled up closer, obviously too old for this.

It was a relief, as Barrett finished his jog to the sands and bowed to the golden mother, that he saw quite a few of the others in attendance did...not particularly look their very best either. Sure, most of them weren't covered in soot and grease, but there was at least one young woman who was faring worse than him on the needing a bath issue. But that didn't matter, because there was a baby, and, despite the many hatchings the weyr-born man had seen, there was still that terrible excitement. The dragon looked a bit...strange, but it seemed healthy enough. Unless the purple spots were diseased. Oh. That'd be very unfortunate. He hoped that wasn't true.

[S'yal]

Tiny Monster was starting to figure this walking thing out. Easy, really, once you got the hang of it. On foot in front of the other, and you kind of just let the back feet do whatever! That thought was probably why she was walking so odd- the dragonet was dragging her back feet behind her. She turned to look at her feet. "Skroo." She told them, trying to figure out how to make those feet work. She tried for a bit, moving her back feet, but that just ended up with her face in the sands.

The trials and tribulations of being a dragonet. "Groop! Skree!" She complained, sitting up and pawing at her face. Sand in the eyes! Ouch! The poor dragonet wailed, and Sasakith gently nudged her and tried to croon reassuringly.

It was about that second when Frowning Empress exploded. The egg shells scattered about, and a very small dragonet pulled itself from the confines of the former-egg. The green shook herself, tilting her head to one side. Beautiful Lie was a beautiful example of her color. Small, thin, agile... gleaming metallic over every inch of her body. She greeted her mother and sister with a loud cheep.

She set off for the candidates, stopping only to growl at Iron Club and swat her tail against the muzzle poking out from it. The brown finished pulling himself out, snarling back at his sister. The Strength Beyond Strength brown shook himself free of egg goop, sending a red eyed glare to his sister. He snapped at her tail as she walked by.

Then she smacked him with said tail and made her way to the candidates. Her movements were clumsy, and she continuously fell in the sands. However, there was a sense of... extreme determination about the green. More importantly, crimson eyes were focused on the female candidates. She stumbled and fell, her front legs collapsing underneath her.

Then she got back up and slowly approached Enaria. Just in time to hear the muttered insult.

Beautiful Lie screeched. She turned on Enaria, trying to sink her fangs into the girls lower leg. << Let me tell you something, girl. >> She hissed, her voice cutting through Enaria's mind and red eyes focused on Enaria's own. << No dragonet will ever love you. You will die alone. If you ever speak about my sister that way again, i'll make sure you die all that much quicker. >> The dragonet hissed, oozing malicious intent. << She is worth ten of you, you pathetic idiot! >>

Unfortunately for Beautiful Lie's attempt at being ferocious, the bite, whether it hit Enaria or not, unbalanced her. The green tumbled into the sands, screeching unhappily. She clawed her way up, but stumbled again. The dragonet half dragged her way through the sands, her new legs disobeying her.

It was at that point she laid her head on Kalunia's feet, hissing and growling.

<< I see I have my work cut out with you, you foolish girl. So tell me, Kalunia. Is your Koolth still a waste? >> The green pulled herself up, newborn body trembling in exhaustion but rebellion showing in her rainbow eyes. << You are better then this. Come with me, Kalunia, and we will make Pern ours. You are too good to spend your life waiting for power to fall into your lap. >>

[SpacieSage]

Zaserin let out a squeek in surprise as he heard the Queen's call. Hatching? Already?! I haven't clean myself yet! he thought as he dropped the broom he was using to sweep. He was doing chores just then, but what did that matter! He had to get ready.

He dashed towards the barracks and dodging other candidates. He pulled on his white tunic and slipped out of his boots and into a pair of sandles. He huffed in frustration at his mussed hair, but he didn't have time to properly slick it back for the other candidates were already heading out the door. He ran as well, but tripped over a step that lead down into the bowl. He landed square on his chest, knocking the air out of him. Gasping, he scrambled back to his feet and continue on. He rubbed at the sore spot hopping to ease it as he entered the Grounds. Already hatchlings were walking about. One looked funny being green and purpley. A green seem to have hatched out of that egg the Queen was guarding and it mauled one girl. Yikes! What a wretched thing! he was glad to see it impress a girl. He wasn't sure he wanted something that viscous. That little green had seek that candidate out just to attack her. He looked at the two still on the Sands. A brown and....whatever that other one was.

Zaserin shook himself and took his place near one of the eggs. He picked The Devious Scholar since it had given him the best response out of the eggs. He watched and keep an eye out for the other dragonets to see who they would go to.

[NessYo!]

In sum: Tea gets upset when Enaria calls the dragonet icky, but then is more upset when Enaria is mauled, and walks to the edge of the candidate gaggle shouting for a healer.

---

More candidates were coming to stand around her, Tea noted mentally, though their genders as a mode of separation did not occur to her. Tea didn't really understand the concept of gender, and didn't particularly care to. What mattered to her was dragonets. And she'd've continued staring off at that little purply green until the end of the hatching, were it not for the hatching of more dragonets.

"I knew it was a queen!" Tea exclaimed, seeing the way frowning empress broke forth from her shell. She was even metallic too, though that wasn't what made a queen. And neither was color (though tea did grasp that the shiny on the green's hide made her very unusual, for some reason.) No, what made a queen was attitude, and every step that the little shiny-green took was full of determination and pride and everything that tasted properly like a queen. Yes. How excellent.

Tea would've happily drowned in those thoughts too, watching the queen-green until it impressed, were it not for an aside comment from a candidate that she overheard thanks to proximity. Tea did not recognize Enaria, but the comment caused her to look in the girl's direction with an obviously striken look. Mutant? Pathetic? It was actually very hard to cut through Tea's filters and actually cause her some level of emotional pain, but that managed to do it. "But that's a queen!" she answered, sounding as striken as her face looked.

But as luck-- or a distinct lack of luck-- would have it, she wasn't the only one who overheard Enaria's comment. The queen-green did too, and didn't like it at all. Tea couldn't hear the words, but she could see the blood and the sentiment just as well, and how painful it looked! Offense was instantly forgotten, because now Enaria was wounded, and that meant she was hurting, and hurting was bad.

She took a step forward towards Enaria, and hten remembered that doing such things around wounded animals and people who actually knew how to tend to them got her yelled at frequently. She had no healing skills, she did not know what to do. But.. healer? She looked around the stands, now ignoring the dragonets. "Healer? We need a healer!" she said, wandering to the edge of the candidate gaggle. "There is bleeding on sands and blood is bad when it's on the outside!"

[Meltain]

A dragonet was approaching her, green. That Frowning Empress egg had hatched in to a green. A mutated metallic one at that. She wanted to laugh at the irony of such a proud egg turning in to something wretched, but before she could something horrible happened. The newly hatched green appeared to have heard her comment as it turned on her, sinking her teeth in to her lower egg. Before she could stop herself a horrible scream left her. The bite went deep and was incredibly painful, worse than when she had accidentally cut herself with a knife she was using to cut a fruit in half.

Enaria wanted to yell at the hatchling, but before she could a voice filled her head. It was the dragonet, saying that she would never impress and actually threatening her. Her grimace of pain turned in to a snarl of anger at the creature. When she lost balance and went rolling over to a candidate her laughed at the hatchling's misfortune, ignoring her pain for now. When she saw that the green impressed she jeered at the newly impressed, mainly Koolth, "pathetic, am I, little mutant? At least I'm not a freak. No matter what you say you will always be a tiny, worthless green trying to look better with a metallic hide. Nothing but a worthless little liar."

With that she went back to looking at the eggs and hatchlings, focusing in on the Strength Beyond Strength brown. A small smile crossed Enaria's face as she commented, "well, at least we have one proper dragonet. Maybe not bronze, but at least you aren't some mutant. Hopefully you will impress to a boy that is actually deserving of you." As she spoke she ignored the pain and blood trickling down her leg. She could attend to that later, for now she was actually starting to get in to the hatching.

[Tiamat]

((Sum: Spica runs to the Sands at top speed, is rather baffled by the oddities in the clutch, is pissed as hell at Enaria.))

Spica nearly leapt out of his skin when he heard Sasakith's announcement. Surely not now--no time no time no time... He knocked over his chair in his haste, frightening Kaitos into squalling at him, and only took the time to properly cap the ink bottles before hauling ass to the Sands.

Unfortunately, he arrived just into to barely miss one green (...a metallic green?) Impressed, another... rather purple green(?), though she seemed healthy enough, and a brown who, if his guess was correct, had hatched from Iron Club and was therefore A Bro. He mentally berated himself for not being faster, especially as he noticed that someone had been bitten. "Jays, what did I miss?"

And then he heard Enaria's little tirade about the greens. He gave her his very best disgusted glare, and although he was at a loss for words it took a great deal of willpower to not start a fistfight on the Sands.

[Caro]

((tl;dr Eyaena was mending, now she is on the sands in regular clothes. Late, confused by what exactly is happening, and a little worried about the fact that one of the other Candidates is bleeding))

If there was one thing that Eyaena disliked about living in a Weyr, it was how bloody unpredictable it was. There was no nice, tidy routine to follow—just a chaos of people, dragons and general existence that at times made her want to burrow into her corner in the Candidate Barracks and never come out. The only advantage to having advertised her position as an (ex) Weaver Apprentice was that more often than not she wound up assigned to clothing chores. If there was one thing that Eyaena could do, it was mend things.

Laundry, admittedly, was less pleasant, but thank Faranth today was not a laundry day. Today was a drown-in-old-shirts day, which was fine since it meant no interacting with other human beings necessary. She could tune out the chatter of the other workers with the ease of long practice. Instead, she focused on the tunic onto which she was presently sewing a patch--a drab grey thing which could hardly be made any less attractive by her work. Some people had absolutely no sense of style. It wasn’t like they would have to do much, just wear a bit of colour, explore shapes a little bit...one didn’t even have to compromise comfort, if they did it right.

Idly, she wondered if the owner of this particularly offensive tunic would notice if she made a few tweaks. There was one voice, however, that she could not tune out. It was loud, insistent, and cut through her thoughts like nothing else ever had. At first Eyaena was annoyed, attempting to block it out and go back to work. Surely whatever the matter was could wait. She rubbed at one temple, frowning absently. Something the voice had said though...it was something important, she was sure of it. Hatching? Something about the Hatching?

One of the women seized her by the arm and hauled her to her feet before she could tear herself free. “What’re you doing, girl? The Hatching is starting! Right sharding now!”
She sputtered indignantly, wild-eyed and frozen in place. Did she dare go back to the barracks to put on her (admittedly terribly unattractive) white robe, or did she brave the sands half-dressed? On one hand, there was tradition and not getting devoured by outraged mother dragons, and on the other not missing out on the chance for Impression.
“Ngk,” she said, wavering. The same woman gave her a little push.
“That means go, girl! You don’t wait when the Queen calls!”

“A little warning would have been nice” she muttered, but she took off down the hall. The desire not to miss the hatching won out over the desire to do this thing right, by a small margin. Eyaena fought through the throngs pouring towards the sands, elbowing her way between Weyrdwellers when they wouldn’t part before her with single-minded determination. She was going to get to the Hatching Sands if it killed her. When a big Lowercavernsman got in her way, she stomped on his foot with all of the strength she could muster and shot through the gap as he recoiled in pain.

The Hatching was already moving when she got there. Bowing jerkily to the Queen, she hurried to join her peers. Not only was there one hatchling on the sands already, but a vibrant, shiny Green seemed to have Impressed, a brown and a...greenish thing...were wandering, and one of the girls seemed to be bleeding. Which, she wasn't quite sure. A more observant Candidate might have noted the names of her peers, but Eyaena had paid them little attention. She sidled as far from Enaria as possible within the Candidate mass and turned her attention to the dragonets.

It was the exact opposite of controlled and tidy. Fixing her eyes on the intriguingly greenish-purple Tiny Monster, Eyaena took a deep breath. She was at a Hatching, she was alive, and she didn't have to wear that awful white sack. That counted as a good day, no matter what happened now.

[S'yal]

Unfortunately for Enaria, Sasakith was not far away. The gold turned her head in Enaria's direction, baring her fangs at her. << Selfish child. >> She snarled. She made no effort to hide her scolding, instead broadcasting it. << You are ruining the Hatching. If you insist on insulting my children, I will remove you from the Sands myself. You will not ruin their day for them >> She informed her, her voice cold. << Perhaps, if my children are so unworthy, you would be better off elsewhere. >>

Luka arched an eyebrow, glancing towards the mauled girl. Her expression changed to a displeased frown, leveling a glare at the girl. Is she bothering you, Sasakith? I'll remove her.

<< I have handled the problem. She will not be insulting Koolth again. >> She crooned at her daughter and Kalunia, tail twisting with delight. << Or any of my children. >>

Tiny Monster was completely oblivious to what she had caused. The dragonet had begun to figure out what feet were, stumbling over herself before eventually managing to stand. Bwahaha! Look at her! She had conquered the evil feet monsters and now they did her bidding. "Grrrooow!" She told her brother, Strength beyond Strength.

The brown blinked lazily back at her, flicking his tail. He stumbled over to her, his new legs unsteady and his head unfortunately large. It looked as if he was in danger of tipping over and falling at any moment. Remarkably, he managed not to. The dragonet nudged his sister, before setting off to the candidates.

There were no rainbows in his eyes when he approached Spica but he did give him a friendly head shove and then sit on his feet. Strength Beyond Strength is just gonna chill with you for a while, Spica. Is that okay with you, bro?

Tiny Monster squeaked, heading off in his direction. There were no rainbows for Spica, either, but Tiny Monster did start licking his knees. So that's something.

[NessYo!]

In Sum: Tea slinks back into candidate gaggle, upset by angry goldmomma. she asks Enaria if she should get her leg checked, and is then amused by the green licking Spica's knees. She considers doing that herself, but resists the urge.

---

Tea was still wibbling unhappily about the blood when Sasakith's booming mindvoice broadcasted the gold's clear displeasure with the candidate she was trying to help. That was distracting and unpleasant!

Oh, tea knew that hte voice wasn't directed at her, specifically-- but always more one to respond to tone then to words, she still felt like slinking under a table at the gold's voice regardless. Unhappy clutchmomma scary! But there were no tables to hide under, and someone was still bleeding...

But it didn't look like Enaria was badly wounded, anyway. Her eyes flickered worriedly between Enaria's face and the wound on the candidate's leg, as she backed into the candidate gaggle once more. Safety in numbers. "Maybe you should get the bleeding fixed?" she offered, voice somewhat pleading, towards Enaria. She wouldn't've bothered talking, but even a displeased gold and her own unhappiness with Enaria's still-violent verbal reaction to the candidate wouldn't prevent her from noticing a wounded person and being concerned.

There were tons of other stimuli around everywhere, however, and Tea was finding it hard to focus, even when another candidate was wounded-- possibly because the wound did not seem to bother Enaria too terribly. The approach of the two dragonets towards Spica made her keep glancing in his direction, and she giggled somewhat when the greenpurple licked his knees. "I wonder what knees taste like?" she asked, mostly to herself, and might've considered going over and licking Spica's knees herself, were it not for the fact that the gold's angry mindvoice was still quite clear in her mind.