Records: Hoorn Wild 1
Asrael checked the eggs one more time, excited by the fact that every last one of the four eggs had had a candidate assigned to it. Days had passed with some close contact every day between candidate and egg, quiet time in which some candidates talked, others sang and some just sat beside the egg, feet in the shallow water.
With a pleased smile playing around his lips, Asrael got up from his hunched position and walked out calmly. What he had seen were cracks. spider-web patterns on more than one of the eggs. They were ready.
Half an hour later, all four candidates stood inside the cathedral cave, in a circle around the small pond, water trickling in from above. The crystal pillars rose up, reflecting the bright blue light of the outside afternoon sky.
Asrael smiled when he saw the eggs move, twitch just a little, giving a clear signal that they really were hatching. His eyes quickly moved over the candidates. Three had come from Aslkyr, from a sort of readying camp for people who had a high chance of bonding a dragon. Their names were Marrku, Lalage and Janko, all of them standing confident before the eggs. Eaqually confident was the fourth candidate, Velvet was equally confident. he had been the first to be assigned an egg and he had been with his the longest. Though he had been sent to Dragon Tears on an ambassador mission, he had little wish to return to his own planet where he was only the second son in a system where only the oldest mattered. Asrael liked the man and had gotten to know him better over the weeks he had spent at the Hoorn Cliffs.
It was no surprise that it was Velvet's egg that hatched first. A blue-grey cliff dragon fell out, splashing in the pond where Velvet was standing over it.
"Welcome, little one." the men said.
"Hello Velvet." the hatchling saod, "I know you, do you know me?"
"From the day I first touched your egg, Ubayron."
"That is good."
"That is right."
The second and third egg hatched simultaneous. Cliff dragons spilled from their eggs at the feet of Lalage and Janko. Lalage's cliff dragon was a beautiful pink-grey female, with large expressive eyes and a calm demeanour.
"Hello, Lalage." she said, then remained silent."
"Is something wrong, Liyss?" Lalage asked.
"I love your voice." Liyss answered, "Tell me stories, like when I was in the egg. That always made me so happy."
"I will." Lalage laughed, "Every chance I get."
Janku's cliff dragon, bonding at the same time, was a purple male. The young dragon looked up with a gleam in his eyes and said:
"I've heard what you did at home, but will you still try that here?"
"Why not?" Janku asked.
"We'll see..." the dragon answered, "Who knows, maybe you've changed."
"I'll never change, Gerond."
One egg was left and everyone's eyes were aimed at Marrku and his egg. The egg wobbled and fially shattered at his feet. Unlike the other cliffs, this dragon did not move onto the land. in stead it stayed in the water, watching with it's wet brown eyes.
Marrku bowed down and his eyes widened when the dragon whispered ever so softly: "I cannot approve of your behaviour. I should not even bond you. But I am headstrong and I was given to you. So I will stick with you. But I will not be your underling, you will be mine. Understood?"
Then the dragon did move out, Marrku looking rather shaken about the words of the dragon. With a soft cough the brwn dragon said:
"I'm Rozrik. Hello everyone."
The four pairs filed out of the cathedral cave to the beach where older cliff dragons were waiting with fish and more experienced riders with advise for the new pairs, leaving Asrael to think about the hatching, especially the last had struck him as odd. But the dragon had chosen, it was out of his hands, but maybe not out of his mind. He'd have to keep an eye on that pair.
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Pickup:
Gerond -
Hatchling,
Adult
Liyss - Hatchling,
Adult
Rozrik -
Hatchling,
Adult
Ubayron -
Hatchling,
Adult
