Satchy
HATCHING
Satchy heard a muffled cry and got up. The walls had softened it, but it
had sounded like someone was in pain. She couldn't remember her dream, but
it hadn't felt like a nightmare, so she didn't think the scream had
followed her from dreaming to waking.
"Hello?" she called.
Her door opened and Satchy crawled deeper under the covers. Maybe she was
still dreaming! From the corner of Satchy's room, Naike tried to see his
cousin, but the light that fell in the room was sparse and he couldn't see
much more than that the room was furnshed. Why hadn't he come here more
often so he would have known his way on this crucial moment? Probably
because this was the girl's room and he shouldn't be in here in the first
place.
"Satchy!" he called softly.
"Naike?" he heard the releaved call of his cousin.
"I'm here!"
"Did you hear the scream too?"
"Yeah, the eggs are hatching, apparently the scream came from the
mother's knight, you know that strange girly man?
"I remember him!" Satchy laughed.
"Exactly, he was creepy."
"He seemed to know a lot about people though."
"That only proves that gossiping is a woman thing." Naike said.
"Do I have to remind you that Raf is a guy?" Satchy asked.
"Whatever he is, he sure isn't a man." Naike sighed, "Come
on, get ready, they'll be here soon to pick us up.
Within a minute Satchy stood dressed and ready, though still kind of
sleepy in the hallway waiting for the High Prince and Princess to get
them.
They came and the four aspirants followed them. Down in te hallway, before
they could move into the Pairing Cavern the doors of the Deep Cavern swung
open and the aspirants saw Rain Nelladuar come out, leading her babies.
"Thisss wil be jusst fine." she
said, followed by some high squeeky sounds from Raf and a lot of flapping
hands that made Naike scringe and Satchy smile.
Soon the first drakling, a mud male paired and went off, his chosen being
neither Satchy or Naike they remained in the hallway.
Satchy had trouble looking
at the drak and her draklings since fog was spilling over the walls into
the hallway from the towers.
She could hear a faint hissing, but wasn't sure if that were the draks, or
just the wind through the trees. She peered though the fog and wondered when a drak would speak to her,
or which colours had hatched... She was getting nervous and hopped from one
feet to the other. Her ankle still felt a little painful when she had to
stand on it for too long.
"Hellossss... I want to ssknow you
bettersss." Satchy thought she saw a
grin on the little drak. It seemed that the drak had a little s-problem.
Even more than normal.
"Thisss isss Noulkarni!" Nelladuar added. Satchy and her Desert left to
get some food.
Naike saw his cousin pair and hoped that she had found her match. Now he
needed to find his and all would be ok. The wait on this clutch had almost
made him crazy, and thinking of waiting for yet another didn't look to
good for him if there was so much to do outside the walls. Not that he
would get much done if he had to keep Satchy out of trouble.
Naike missed the plant drak that had come forward, sitting down, waiting
for him to stop his thinking and ready to give attention to him.
"Sssssweetesssst Merlinarni... You can't ssssit their all
night.." said his mother
"But I like sssitting... But I ssence sssome sssarcassm over
there.."
"Are you talking to me?" Naike
asked.
"Yessssss...." Merlinarni said in a low sarcastic voice.
"Ah... I guess you will do." Naike nodded, at leats the company
would be good.
Desert Noulkarni
ADULT
Noulkarni popped his head up from the greenery where he'd lain in hiding.
Though he knew his knight didn't much enjoy wildlife, Noulkarni liked to
play hide and seek and when training requested they hide he was always one
of the best.
Today was different though. Today was real. Today was an actual job where
they'd be monitoring some island around Castle DesCas where they'd joined
the Desert Dawn Armada. Like Naike had once assured her there weren't much
dangerous animals on these tiny islands, but sometimes bandits or pirates
chose them as their hideouts which was why they were patrolling.
Just a little bit further, Merlinarni was doing about the same though
Noulkarni felt like the plant drak might be sleeping.
"Are youss awake?" he asked.
"I am." Merlinarni replied,
"Keep quieth."
Merlinarni returned to his still, almost dormant state of mind and
listened. There were insects scuttling about. The leaves whistled in the
wind. Further away the sound of waves crashing on the beach. But there was
something different in the air. Sneaking sounds around the cliffs. The
flapping of cloth where there should be none.
Signaling Satchy, Merlinarni used the gestures for communicating that
they'd been thought and both knights nodded, getting up to investigate
while their draks would offer support if the need arose.
Naike took up the front, rounding the corner and hugging the cliff with
his back as he scouted the surroundings. Satchy stayed back, listening for
any movement from the other side.
Suddenly the voice of a child could be heard calling for his mother. A
woman walked to the shore and a man sailed in from the sea, his boat
filled with fish.
"They don't really look like bandits." Satchy said.
"Let's go verify." Naike answered.
The island was no longer unoccupied. Satchy and Naike got the names of the
family and promised they would add them to the roster at DesCas so a
knight would visit their little island more regularly to make sure they
were safe. At the same time they notified the people about the appropriate
signals and beacons they could use as a warning or distress signal.
Back to Castle DesCas
Satchy and Naike paired at Chindor
Castle
Background image was found here