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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.
An egg tumbled and rocked - it smashed into at least three others still
unhatched before shattering into a undecipherable pile of limbs. A shout
went out in the stands when two white heads poked up from the two white
bodies. One wiggled, trying to escape, and nipped at its twin before
trying again. A few candidates came forward to assist the pair, one of
them being Renna who almost stopped when her mind touched Terloth’s.
"...very stuck!"
the white whimpered.
“Oh...we’ll get you out...how did you two manage this?” the girl
said, sounding more confused than anything. With the help of the other
candidates, the two white twins were separated and Renna led Terloth out
of the sands. First stop was a Healer as baby talons were still quite
sharp and both hatchlings had minor injuries from the entanglement.
exuberant, curious white sport dragon Terloth (f)
Parents: white Syobeth x white Mixuith
Length: 37'1", Height: 7'7"
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.
Renna touched down with
Terloth and breathed in the familiar Remyndal Hall aroma. Just a bit
dusty, with a slight salty smell of seawater because of the sea breeze. It
was home.
"Let's go look for Rogier and Lanth." Terloth
hinted.
Renna had told her dragon plenty about the taciturn and prickly astronomy
student. He'd been the only student to date who'd impressed a dragon
offworld and now that he'd returned to the hall he was still the person
who kept the hall up to date about nexus news.
"I see a brown dragon behind the school
building." Terloth told Renna, her eyes seeing much more
than human ones could.
"I wonder what he'll think." Renna said, a bit nervous despite
her usual bravado.
She'd been only 12 when she'd decided he'd be the one for her. 8 years had
gone by, she was now 20 and Rogier would be 25. 8 years was a long time to
wait for someone. That is if he'd waited for her at all. She remembered
things to have been quite onesided.
Still her stomach did a delightful little tumble when she turned the
corner and came eye to eye with the young man she'd idolised as a girl.
He'd become even more handsome.
"Hi there, remember me?" she asked.
Rogier looked into Renna's intelligent grey eyes and wondered once again
why she always wanted to be around him. After he'd returned from
Lantessama, she'd hovered around him some more, a world-wise 16 year old
with eyes that showed just a glint of sadness. He never felt uncomfortable
looking in her eyes, just intrigued.
"How could I forget my little red-headed nuisance. I see you haven't
died your hair lately?"
"It's a pure coincidence." Renna shrugged though she knew for a
fact Rogier liked the red on her.
"So you're back from Isla." Rogier continued.
"That I am. I'd like you to meet Terloth, my dragon." Renna
introduced.
"Charmed." Terloth spoke to
both Rogier and Lanth.
"Nice to meet you." Lanth
said, instantly infatuated by the exuberant white dragoness with the lithe
build that complimented his own small frame when you compared him to
Pernese dragons.
"Want to go for a drink to catch up?" Renna asked, deciding it
was time to pick up the pace a bit and make her intentions quite plain.
She'd gotten nowhere with hints and they were both adults now.
"A drink?" Rogier asked.
"A date even." Renna nodded, grabbing his arm and dragging the
unsuspecting man toward Marillian Hold where they were sure to have some
kind of establishment where they could drink. |