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The day dawned with a commotion about rearranged
eggs that meant no-one really knew which eggs belonged to which dragoness.
The people in power seemed to have argued and dealt with the situation
though. It took several more hours for the eggs to start rocking and the
hum to begin in the Weyr from the dragons. The IGPC Geneticists had given
up trying to put the eggs back in order and were already setting up near
the Barracks to take ichor samples of the hatchlings for testing to make
sure the Records were kept straight.
Candidates were brought in, by foot or by wing. All the eggs that had been
around Flynnth had been moved out on the sands (after a few arguments with
the golden queen), evenly spaced and perfect for candidates to gather
around. Trying to keep eggs with their mothers was pointless and a number
of females left to watch the hatching from the ledges or on the side. As
it was, many of the candidates had no idea where the egg they had touched
and felt a pull toward during the Egg Touching Ceremony was so they all
just formed a semi-circle around the tiny rocking eggs.
The little queen egg which had ‘magically’ appeared, remained cradled
in Flynnth’s front claws. Since she had given the Searchriders no time
to Search proper queen candidates, only a few girls who decided they
wanted to try for the gold made their way toward Flynnth. Some were bolder
than others and others recoiled and rejoined the rest of the candidates
when Flynnth growled and hovered over the egg.
By the time the last stragglers - both candidate and spectator - had made
it to the sands, the first of the eggs had finally broken apart. The
shells, which were still thick but far more breakable than in the past,
shattered and the first hatchling stepped forward on small, dainty legs
while shaking its head as if confused. It was pure white and a mixed
response came from the crowd. If bronze was lucky, what did white mean?
Unfortunately, having the hatchlings break their shells one at a time and
bond in an orderly, easily recorded manner was just...not going to happen.
Within the next few seconds, almost eight hatchlings had finished emerging
from their shells. The chaos of a Hatching began.
One egg, rocking eagerly, tipped in front of the white and she skidded to
a halt with a startled cry. The shells of the egg were already revealing a
pale green hide. The white hissed and scrambled around the egg and then
paused before, with a short yip of delight half rolled, half flailed her
away to Sanne as if the young girl was already flocked by
hatchlings.
Sanne wasn’t but the chaos of the hatching had her a bit stunned.
"Gotcha!"
the white called triumphantly.
Sanne startled at the front talons that were suddenly placed on her knees
and stepped back.
“Oh...Sisanth...I...um...”
The white settled onto her haunches, shimmering wet wings arched at her
side to dry.
"I’m here. Who else were you
looking for?"
“Um...I...” Glancing at her fellow students who cheered for her, Sanne
grinned and looked at Sisanth apologetically. “No one. Are you hungry?”
"Oh, very!"
humorous, innocent white sport dragon Sisanth (f)
Parents: white green Saiath x white Toyshulth
Length: 36'6", Height: 6'7"
A huge number of white dragons
along with dragons of all other possible colourations filled the weyrbowl
while they waited for their instruction for the day. Over 50 dragons had
hatched from the Sport Frenzy so even though the dragons were small in
size, there were just too many to receive education together. Today they'd
be split in groups and the weyrlingmasters would rotate their lessons
between the classes. It was the best they could do because all these new
dragonriders needed lessons on care and health. And that was before the
little runts would even start flight training.
"Hey, we're in the same group." Eryk told the two girls.
"Nice." Renna agreed, because that meant they'd be able to help
each other.
Sanne just smiled and waited for their curriculum to be announced. In her
mind she could hear Sisanth's happy voice "I
get to play with Corunth and Terloth, I get to play..."
"It's learn." Sisanth, she mock-chided but generally enjoyed how
sweet and carefree her little dragon was. Every day had been a
delight despite the hard work because Sisanth just made her happy.
Eryk had noticed the change in the shy girl he'd come to know and was
happy for her.
"The two of them are nice."
Corunth told him and launched in a monologue about happiness needing to be
shared and multiplied and generally a lot of words that made little sense
to Eryk but he just nodded and thought he was quite happy himself. He
might never know silence again, but at least he'd never need to look for
someone to talk to.
Renna meanwhile, picking up the stray thoughts of her two friends, inched
closer to her own white Terloth and privately told her: "I don't
think I could have asked for better friends."
"You didn't, that's why they sent you to
them." Terloth nudged back,
"I can't wait to get back to Remyndal after we finish our training to
see if he's still waiting for you."
"He'd better be." Renna sent out quite loudly, earning herself
some worried looks from her two friends before she composed herself and
followed them to their assigned lesson-place.
"Welcome weyrling dragons and dragonriders. Today we'll focus
on..." the lesson started and all other thoughts were briefly
forgotten.
Sanne took a sip of the
fruit wine they'd been serving at Remyndal. She was 19 and had just
returned to Remyndal where she hoped to continue her studies. Luckily
Sisanth seemed to enjoy swimming and the dolphins were used to dragons and
were happy to make acquaintance with one who was so small and white.
"Can I have some of that?"
Sisanth asked.
"I don't know." Sanne replied honestly, "I don't think I
should have more than one glass."
"Why?"
"I don't want to be drunk, I've seen more than a few drunken
sailors."
Sanne thought about the folk tune and thought of it as a cautionary tale
about what could happen the next day. Sisanth joined her thoughts and
grinned; "Put him in bed with the captain's
daughter?" she asked, "Is
drinking wine like a mating flight?"
"It does loosen up inhibitions." Sanne shrugged.
"Maybe one day you'll be able to
compare." Sisanth mused. |