Easter Clutch 2003

Lucas tilted his head up at the strange sounds of morning. He looked out and saw that it was way too early. The moon still lit the world and the sun was nowhere to be seen. Only a soft glowing in the Eastern sky alerted him that the day would be dawning soon.
"What is it?" he grumbeled.
"Nothing... sleep..." Cyan mumbeled from the other side of the bed.
Lucas looked down on his love and smiled. Cyan wasn't a morning person. He walked past sleeping Besanth and Zaranyth to the opening in the mountain. At first he didn't see a thing, but then, slowly he started to see shadows lurking around the plains of the isle. Strange shadows with fluffy tails and long ears.
"Cyan!" he hoarsly called.
"What?" she asked, a little upset Lucas hadn't left her alone.
"I'm not sure, but I could swear there are bunnies hopping around the Isle."
"Well, maybe they're out looking for some early grass..."
"No, I mean big bunnies."
Cyan suddenly touched his forehead. It wasn't warm. So he couldn't be ill. He hadn't drunken any wine the day before. Suddenly her eye fell on the reflecting surface of the lake. Mostly it was the dark blue of night with a big white moon in the center. But there had been a shadow jumping to the middle of the lake where a small island bore one weeping willow tree. Cyan waited and soon after she saw it again. The shadow now jumped to the side, one long jump for a bunny.
"What are they doing?" she asked.
"I don't know. Hiding eggs?" Lucas said.
"Better leave them at it. I doubt bunnies will do any harm." Cyan said.
"That's what you said about fish until you met the dragonders." Lucas laughed.
"But these are bunnies! Sweet innocent bunnies."

A few hours later Lucas climbed down from the sleeping cave and made sure he wouldn't step on any misplaced chocolate eggs. He went inside the hatching cave, saluted the two dragonesses who were still waiting for their eggs to hatch and took the back entrance to the Holiday Room. He had decorated it the day before. The eggs were due today ad he could barely contain his excitement to see what his genetic matching had done to these eggs.
When he entered the room he would have dropped everything if he had been holding something. The eggs! They were gone! Harmless bunnies... He would tell Cyan when he saw her.
Lucas ran out and nearly tripped over the young girl laying in front of the normal entrance. Lucas could avoid her, but fell, only inches away from the eggs of Zaranyth. The gold snorted and lashed her tail at him.
"Easy Zaranyth."
This woke the girl up. She screamed.
Lucas turned towards her and said: "The dragons won't hurt you, unless you take their eggs."
"The eggs yesterday weren't protected." she said, still confused.
"The eggs? You know where the eggs are?"
"Yeah, I helped the Easter Bunny hide them for an Egg Hunt."
"The Easter Bunny?"
"Yeah, fun little bunny, snowy white and very pushy." The girl got up, "My name is Pasta and the Easter Bunny said I would get one of the eggs if I helped him."
"The Easter Bunny can't grant you a dragon." Lucas said a bit annoyed about the whole situation.
"Well he did sign me in on the Bonder Board."
"Oh." Lucas said. "Well you can help ME now with the other bonders."

A few minutes later the bonders were all set to go on an egg hunt. As was becoming a tradition at Lantessama, not many candidates were fully human. Some weren't even a bit human. The two normallest candidates probably were the girl Nani Mistle who was waiting to find an egg for Lady Eternal Rose and the young girl Lucas had found only this morning.
The less human, but still humanoid bonders were the majority this clutch. There was Sean, a white-red bunny who was a queen on some distant planet. Lucas' thoughts trailed of for a moment trying to remember if Lantessama had had royal bonders before. Maybe the two unicorn people. He glanced sideways and saw the small christmass dragon of Sean looking at her bond. Lucas knew there hadn't been a bonder with a dragon already, but this was a special clutch and everything was possible he guessed. Next to her was another bunny-humanoid. A male this time. Quiet fellow. Lucas didn't know much about him.
Then there was the bunny-shifter Maira had pulled out of strange planet where she had spotted a Ceadra. Maybe the critters had unknown powers. The little Spring Ceadra Izumi was wrapped around his neck. It's eyes were open, it didn't want to miss a thing on this wonderful day.
Another humanoid candidate, though smaller and winged was an elf. A pastel purple Elf. One who didn't seem to happy about being here at all.
Then there were the two strangest candidates Lucas had ever seen. One was a strange sort of creature. A norn she had told him in the funny language she called nornish. She had long pointy ears and deep blue eyes and reached up to his knees. She was busy talking about her boyfriend michael to the last candidate. A very bored-looking brown bunny with a red bow tie around his ears. Lucas didn't know where this one had come from only that it had had a note saying: "Please let this bunny find a suitable dragon for my sster".
Lucas looked around, all candidates looked excited and ready to start.
"I say we go find those eggs!" he yelled and waved his arms.

Sean looked around. She saw it! An egg, in the middle of the lake. Sean knew the others had seen the egg too, but not many wanted to make their skin or fur wet. Well she didn't have too.
"Aja!" she called and the christmass dragon came closer.
"I need to get to the island in the middle of the lake."
This was a time when the size of her dragon did come in handy. There was just enough room for her to land (without squishing the egg). Sean jumped off and looked at the egg. What was she supposed to do now? The egg solved her problem as it neatly broke in half. From the pale white shell came a warm red dragoness with bouncy bunny ears and a fluffy tail. She was small, her ears ranging just above her knees.
Ajandeykth looked at her new companion, pushing her nose against the smaller dragon. The bunny let out a happy squeal and broadcasted: "I'm Sundai." around the Isle plains.
"Can you fly sundai?" Sean asked.
"Fly?" the answer came.
Sean noted the bunny didn't have wings. Seemed she would get wet after all. Sean was half way over, trying to get the bunny to follow when she suddenly disappeared. A small red bolt of lightning flickered through the air. Sundai appeared on the other side of the lake laughing.
"I can't fly, but I can bolt!" she said.

While Sean was busy swimming Pascha made her way to the first egg she had hidden. Maybe, she thought, she had grabbed that one for a reason. She still remembered where she had hidden it. To the back of the Isle behind some dunes. She started running when she noticed another bonder following her. It was the young boy with brown hair. He shouldn't reach the eggs before her.
Suddenly a small bunny passed her, swift as the wind. What was happening? She looked back. The boy was gone. The bunny? Pasta couldn't really make sense of it but all she cared about was that the bunny was heading away from her egg.
Pasta sat down next to it and waited, looking out to the ocean. Finally it hatched. The nose pierced through first. Glistening orange, then an ear peeped through and soon the whole dragon-bunny was out.
"My name's Pascha." it said, "I want to let you know I'll be taking my task seriously."
"How can you know about your task?"
The bunny pushed up some imaginary glasses and said: "I read your mind."
"Can you do that?"

Lapinus twitched his ears, listening. He had gone to the middle of the three mountain peaks. The place was perfect for a hideaway. No he wasn't a pirate, but that didn't mean he couldn't learn from them. This was a far better hideout than the one of the captain. Of course it was inhabitated, and not by pollen-farmers.
Suddenly a crack reached his ears. Left of him. Lapinus turned left and started looking. The big entrance of the hatching cavern lay next to him. The crack hadn't come from in there. Which meant the egg had to be behind one of the rocks laying around the opening. Lapinus started searching.
Suddenly he was jumped from behind. All he saw before he hit the ground was a yellow tail which wrapped around his eyes.
"Guess who!" he heard.
"Hunt?" he asked after the name had popped up in his mind.
"Yay!" the yellow bunny exclaimed and let go of his bond. Lapinus turned and saw the little fellow busy eating some green grass that was growing between the rocks.
"There is food reserved for us."
"There is? They didn't tell me. Where is it?" Hunt started hopping around excited and hungry.
"Follow me." Lapinus said and let his dragon away.

Nani Mistle was searching really good, but she didn't find an egg. And she wanted to bring Lady Eternal Rose an egg. Maybe Fern would see it being airborn and all. Plus the flitter knew the surroundings.
"Fern!" she called and the flitter appeared in the air above her, "Find an egg for me."
Nani held her breath, hoping the flitter wouldn't lead her to the chicken pen, as she followed Fern with her eyes. The flitter flew around and suddenly squealed. In the passage between two mountain peaks, next to the lake with Cyan's greenhouses in the distance Nani finally found her egg. It was tucked away in a soft hollow filled with grass. As if it was sleeping. Nani stood for a while thinking and then smiled. Sleeping princesses were woken by the kiss of their prince... or eh guardian.
Nani bowed down and kissed the egg.
Delcately as if she had rehearsed this a thousand times the little dragon inside let the shells of her eggs fall away as if from a flower. She looked up, with blue trusting eyes.
"My name is Genvesna." she said.
The green bunny dragoness stepped out of the shell and let Nani lead her to the tables with food.

The brown bunny on a mission sniffed the air. Of course it was an intelligent bunny. It couldn't speak, but it could write and rhyme like the best human around. And why did humans keep insisting they were better? With his nose high in the air it could smell the eggshells. A lot of them were broken. But 4 were still closed. And 1 was even far away from any humans. That would be the one.
Tribute, because that was his name, jumped over the Isle and came to the egg. Tribute grabbed the egg and brought it to the table with food. The overpowering smell of grass (sweet juicy spring grass) made Tribute hungry. He left the egg for a while to eat and when he returned he found a small blue dragon sleeping on the ground. The dragon was still clutching the grass it had been eating, his ears limp on the ground.
Tribute softly nudged the hatchling. One eye opened and the dragon awoke.
"Hi, what's your name?" Tribute asked.
"I'm Eith", it said, "And you're my chosen, why did you leave me?"
"Erm... the grass..." Tribute said embarassed.
"It is good isn't it." The small tail of Eith padded Tribute on the egg and his two small arms grabbed some more of the juicy wonder.

Calais was still bouncing through the dunes looking for eggs. It was no use. He didn't find any. Maybe he'd better return to the main plains and look there. He shifted back to human and stood up. The sea was gently rolling out into the ocean widening the beach. The sun was nearly in it's zenith and the place looked like one of those pictures in travel-magazines. All that was missing were the palms. They'd be right about... Calais turned and stopped. Has his eyes played a trick on him? There was a bump in the sea that wan't natural. The sun reflected on it's curved sides and Calais was almost certain it was an egg.
Calais ran toward it. He reached the egg and grabbed it before the tide could pull it under. He carefully patted the big egg and was glad to see it wans't broken, hatched or bruised.
"Is there anyone in here?" he asked, hoping the dragon had survived some hours under water.
A faint rocking told him the dragon was alive, but a bit shaken. When a little crack appeared Calais helped widening it and finally managed to pull a dark blue dragon out. A deep feeling of awe and gratitude reached him when the indigo-blue lifted his head up and gazed in his eyes.
"Thanks, Calais, My name is Konivan."
"Why were you in the sea?" Calais asked.
The dragon shrugged. He was hungry, cold and happy despite all.

Suzuran looked around. An Egg Hunt. At least there was no deadline on Egg Hunts. Or was there? Would the dragon inside the egg not bond if she wasn't there? In her haste to find an egg she tripped. She could barely remain standing and was already bringing her hands down to pull up her hideous outfit when she remembered she wasn't wearing it anymore. She couldn't have tripped over her clothes. Suzuran looked back.
Dragged out further by her feet, a small egg lay on the ground. Suzuran stepped over to it and touched it. Suddenly it exploded and a very energetic purple bunny dragon came out.
"Hi chosen! I want to meat this Easter Bunny you keep thinking about." it said.
Suzuran, very very irritated looked at the purple dragoness.
"Or not." she said, looking down.
No-one could stay mad at the little cuty so Suzuran stepped over and patted her back.
"What's your name?"
"Azumai." she said.
"I will spoil you with sweets and chocolate."
"Really?" Azumai asked tempted, "And what about the Easter Bunny?"
"I'll get him good when we see him." Suzuran promised.
"Erm... let's stay away from him."

Bunbun, being the smallest was last to get to an egg. But when she did she grabbed a hold of it and wouldn't let it go. Not even when a fluffy pink bunny came out and told her she needed room to hatch. Finally the bunny decided to break out the top. She fell down onto Bunbun.
"Oof." Bunbun said and crawled from under her soft pink bunny dragon.
The bunny gazed into her eyes and finally twitched her nose, moved her ears and thought:
"I'm Poofy. Will you be my rider?"
"Sure."
Suddenly the pink dragon jumped up and ran behind Bunbun, which was of course a silly sight since she was thrice the size of the little norn.
"What is it?" Bunbun asked.
"I'm afraid of these grendels." The bunny said burrying her head in Bunbun's back.
"Then we won't go back."

With all 8 eggs hatched Lucas could relax. It was a lot better than the Valentyne clutch where only 2 had hatched. He followed the new bunny dragons to their vegetarian first meals and joined in the fun of stories about the Easter Bunny and why it had white fur in stead of brown despite common believes. Or why there was no Easter Bunny, even though Pasta claimed she had spoken with him. In fact Suzuran claimed, she was the Easter Fairy and the Easter Bunny was just a rotten amateur stealing her credit. Of course these debates lasted hours into the night.

All alone lay one egg though. An egg no-one had seen. An egg Lucas didn't even remember making. Eight eggs were made. Eight hatched. By all logical calculations that meant none were left. And yet the egg was here. laying at the edge of the forest, blocked from view by Cyan's large greenhouses. Maybe the Easter Bunny did lay eggs...
Midnight came and all people went to sleep. No-one was awake to hear the cackling of the dark winged creature that flew in from the Elsewhere. It's skin was covered with a soft brownish fur. It's birdwings looked pitchblack in the night. And this creature found the dark egg hidden from view.
"Come out precious!" It called.
The egg stirred... it had been waiting so long. No-one had come, but now someone was here. Someone the egg liked. The dragon inside awoke and started breaking through the hard shell of the egg. Gryph leaned closer to see all of the hatching. Suddenly the egg broke and out came a very dark dragon. It had the long ears of the bunny dragons, but also the wings of ceadras. And it was dark. Very dark green like the forest it had been hidden in.
"Luth'ien is my name, Gryph." the dragoness said.
"No more waiting" Gryph said.
"Together..."
Both winged creatures flew up and left through the Elsewhere. Would anyone ever know this dragoness had hatched at Lantessama? Or would she be forgotten for ever and eternity?

Sean and Red Bunny Sundai (f)
Pasta and Orange Bunny Pascha (m)
Lapinus and Yellow Bunny Hunt (m)
Nani Mistle and Green Bunny Genvesna (f)
Gryph and Midnight Green Bunny Luth'ien (f)
Blue Bunny Eith (m)
Calais and Indigo Bunny Konivan (m)
Suzuran and Purple Bunny Azumai (f)
Bunbun and Pink Bunny Poofy (f)