Summer 2003 (2)

A'xes had finished feeding his two and returned to the hatching grounds. Would he get more? Would Miasth get more? He shouldn't forget it was his dragon who had wanted to come here. He wished she'd get at least half a dozen... No wait, then she might be too busy to fly him places. Three would be enough. He grinned.
Z'na followed him and stood beside him. "What's so funny?" he asked.
"I was wondering how many of the little dragons Miasth would get."
At that moment 4 eggs burst with the sound of animated chirping as the dragons that hatched talked to eachother. Finally two dragons, A small white Ice Cream and a Green Kiwi stepped out of the circle and approached Miasth.
"See, two more. already." A'xes said, proud of his dragon.
"My name is Vanilla!" The Ice Cream said, "And I'm Oren." The Kiwi remarked.
"Are you hungry?" Miasth asked, knowing very well what the answer was.
"STARVING!"
Another egg had smashed to pieces, helped a little bit by the 6 others waiting. When they had helped their sibling up two more were ready to find their bonds. A soft red female beauty and a fiery red male made their way towards the Alskyrian riders. The Strawberry chose Daverin while the male Tabasco Sauce chose Brianna.
"My name is Evera." said the Strawberry, "Tell me I'm pretty!"
Daverin giggled at the pose of the small dragonet and said: "You are sweety."
"Don't look at her!" The Tabasco said, "All attention should be directed toward me! Aztec!" he shouted and roared... a very small and modest roar compared to what Blue Byrnth let echo in the cavern.
"eh... I'll be good. I promise." the Tabasco said, losing a lot of his flair.
Suddenly the remaining dragonets decided to stop the charade and just go impress whomever they'd trip over apparently as all dragonets started to move simultaneously. A lot of them did fall, though none got hurt. They didn't pass the opportunity to be cute however.
One in particular, a small purple raspberry sat down, looking sad. He looked around, locked eyes with the one he wanted and cried: "Cyan! Don't you want to help your little Purple!"
"Purple! I already have a dragon and a firelizard!" Cyan said back.
"So what! They don't need your help as much as I do!"
"They'd impress firelizards if any were present here in stead of outside looking at the huge multicoloured screen." Donriven said sarcastic.
"You'll do just as fine." A very female voice sounded from down at his feet.
"And who might you be?" he asked at the small Coffe coloured hatchling.
"I'm Espressa. And you better remember me. I'm not as easy as a flitter." she said making a small female gesture.
While this rather unexpected hatching had taken place another purple hatchling had found it's chosen. It had softly staggered- towards Mora Applebee. There it sat down and said: "Someone spinned my egg around! I'm not drunk! But could you please give me some grapes. They're my favourite! My name is Bachan."
"Fine with me." Mora said and shrugged. Purple was Lady Eternal's favourite colour, she'd be happy.
There were only two more dragons on the sands -and about 38 eggs. One was bright orange while the other was a deeper, richer orange.
"Carrot!" the light orange Carrot said. "My name is Caroteen and if that isn't confusing I'll stop trying."
"No, please continue. Maybe we'll even get good enough to keep Apple out of trouble!" Carrot said, looking resentful at her brother.
The rich orange hatchling, a male, walked over to Engell and said: "I may not be white, but I'm very tasty!"
"I don't mind Bacun." Engell said
Another brief period of rest was due and people shifted their feet, caressed their dragons and winked to one another. Had anyone really expected to get this many dragons? Of course their were still people without, but one 4th of the eggs had hatched so far.
One creature in particular thought this was interesting. Evilness, the Venus Fly Trap who had followed Cyan in looked in around the corner. He wanted an army... these dragons could be an army. They were fast, small, didn't need much care and no-one... No-one ever suspected the cheery flitter from Wai Kiki beach! An evil laugh welled up in his throat but he controlled it. No-one should know he was here until the right creatures hatched.
More eggs cracked and dragons hatched. Trix had long since stopped counting how many and what came out of the eggs. That'd be a work for tonight when the dragons were sleeping. She spotted 3 orangy ones, a brown one and a green-red.
One pastel Orange made her way toward Summera and stated: "I'm Alis. Is Apricot the best fruit in the world or what?"
"Sure it is, along with apples, peaches, bananas, strawberries ..."
The other four headed toward the two boys and their dragons from Darkling Dawn. Two of the small dragonets wound their tails around Z'na's legs and wouldn't let go until he lured them away with some fruit. "Their names are Orange Mandarin and Lime Limoen." he told his brother and then, "That means I've got the most again. As it should be."
The small green-red, a Water Melon, turned toward Michoth and said: "I'm Tim, is your rider always like that?" The answer of the dragon unheard by most as Z'na shouted: "Michoth!" in a loud voice and A'xes chuckled.
The last in the group, a small coconut female placed herself beside Miasth and said: "I'm Atolla. Can I sit on your neck?"
"Of course. There's plenty of room," Miasth crooned as Atolla curled up on Miasth's broad neck.
One egg cracked as the last of the dragons were bonding. Two more dragons came out. One Orange male and One Cranberry female went to the three girls Lucas had picked up on the beach.
"Merel, My name is Juice." said the Orange, "What's an Atcydia and is it big?"
"Gelena! My name is Lihn." said the Cranberry, "Will they crush us?"
"They are quite big," Merel said, "But they won't crush you if you keep flying." continued Gelena.
Three more dragons hatched out of two eggs. Another Strawberry saw the light with gazing eyes. She wandered around, making sure everyone saw her and then ran as fat as she could toward Monique. "Hi Monique!" she crooned, "My name is Beatra. Will you show me the beach?"
"Of course I will. Besides, the beach is where we'll be staying for the after-party tongiht."
At the same moment Lucas was looking down into the eyes of a very spicey tomato. The dragon had pulled his pants and wouldn't let go. "I'm Julianne!" she kept repeating.
Cyan, completely won over for the little red tomato focused all her attention on the Tomato, as most of the others did too. No-one noticed the small golden-orange dragon making her way to the entrance. No-one except the Venus Fly Trap Evilness waiting outside.
"Welcome soldier." he said.
"Private Tia Maria Zia reporting for duty, Sir!" she whispered winking at the great game she was going to play with her chosen one.
Inside the hatching cavern Trix was smiling at the three other Laedrysses. They all had extra work. Maybe they'd get a lot of satisfaction from having another dragon, but Frynoth was enough for her. But some little dragons didn't care for that.
"Trix! Trix! Trix!" an excited yellow Lemon yelled at her jumping up and down.
Trix hit her head. At least the others had gotten some less energetic dragons. Why did she have to get the Lemon?
"Because he likes you. Why else?" another voice spoke to her.
"Say it isn't so." She mumbled and looked up. Right in the broad smiling faces of Cyan, Donriven and Lucas. "You got two!"
"Lemon Trone! Lemon Trone! Lemon Trone!" the Lemon yelled shifting to his name.
"And I am Eris." said the more introvert Ice .
While the Laedrysses were busy tending to their own new dragons more dragins hatched. A purple Prune and a green-yellow Guave hatched and walked their first steps. Or flew their first yards. The guave fluttered his wings as fast as he could to reach Summera. "I'm... Guave...Ser...engi." he puffed as he fell down in front of her forelegs.
The Prune, a much calmer female, walked toward Mora Applebee and pulled her skirt. "Is there still room in the Lands of the Rose?" she asked, "My name is Kari."
"The lands are endless!" the girl said, stretching her arms as far as she could, nearly slapping another candidate in the face. Silver-point white Tehndarinth averted the blow and was instantly placed in the path of a small white female Snowberry. "Tehnny!" she called, "I'm Hagelle, can we do lunch?"
Tehndarinth and Hagelle exchanged grins and went to the food tables. Tehndarinth knew he would only get one out of this clutch. One would be enough, he could still lure in a few other white pets for his rider.
"Sneaky! I like you." Hagelle commented.
Three more eggs sprung open and out raced 5 dragons. One light purple-pink rolled a few turns and stopped right in front of Celiny, the blue stickyweed. "Celiny!" he called, "Right were I wanted to be! My name is Oleo." the Radish said as he got up from his upside down position. Celiny helped him get all the sand from his wings before she led him to the food tables.
Another purple -a Passion Fruit- strode toward the Alskyrian group and bonded to Blue Byrnth without much public conversation, but her eyes radiated love. All she said was "Arian." And that was enough.
Also headed toward the Alskyrians was an orange Grapefruit male. He went to the other blue dragon in the company. "Sixth!" he yelled out happily, "My name is Maz! Which one these humans is yours?"
Sixth pointed to Kalkin. "Oh, well at least that one likes fun."
That left a small green and a pineapple brown on the sands. The apple easily found his match. "Apple!!!" he crooned, glad of knowing both his colour and the name of his bond maybe. In any case the bond was made and Apple shouted out "His name is Jonagold!"
The pineapple found his way to Maira who was starting to wonder how many ingredients there were in a Calypso Cool-Aid, the cocktail she had ordered to celebrate the occasion. But how would these dragons know of it?
"Your breath smells. That's how we know!" the Pineapple said, "My name is Anan."
"Ok Anan, let's go find Siter and look at that list of ingredients."
Half of the eggs had hatched now and almost everyone had a dragon to tend to already. Only Nightwish, the remaining of the three girls was left alone. Was that all? No that wasn't all. On the ceiling still hung the small upside down batwinged Scorpion. It wasn't their alone, but human eyes didn't spot him, nor did dragon's care to tell their riders of the Spirit of Halloween hanging in the cave. What Halloween did in it's spare time was his business, not theirs.
A dark shadow covered the cavern as an unseen hand added a 'Great Pumpkin Punch' to the list. The dragons in the egg needn't know more. One egg popped open reveiling an orange-black and a pitch black dragon. People watched in disbelief as the Pumpkin flew up to the ceiling and talked toward the clearly non-sentient pet that hung there:
"I'm Hollow. Can I get a candle inside me to scare people?"
From nowhere a whisper -or was it the wind?- sounded through the cave, a soft humorless laugh that gave everyone in the room a chill. The pitch black female wasn't impressed at all. She revered only one person in the entire room and that was Nightwish.
"My name is Fuel, Kerosine Fuel and I will make one explosive cocktail when mixed right." she said.
"I'll alert Pagain and Demon to get the fire extinguishers ready and working." Nightwish remarked dryly.
Two more eggs hatched, and then another, but since the shadow hadn't lifted these 4 dragons were also darker, though none as dark as the Kerosine. A rich orange rum and a Red Apple flew to the ceiling where Samhain was waiting for them. The spirit of Halloween had his cocktail.
"I am Punch." The Rum female announced as she sniffed the little Star Dancer pet. "Zwartje will never be able to keep up with us."
"He has ways of finding us..." the wind whispered.
"He has? He's smarter than he looks. My name is Witz." said the Apple.
The other two, a very odd looking couple, approached Nightwish. The female, a white-grey patterned dragon that could only be described as a Short Fuse pushed away her small black-red-orange-yellow sibling and anounced her name was Darla.
The Fire, not very happy to be pushed away interrupted her:
"I'm Lucid and I'm far better than her! Don't nobody forget about that!"
The shadow lifted, not to the relief of everyone since a certain small Venus Fly Trap Evilness would have loved a fire.From behind him however two more dragons popped up. Unnoticed since their egg had been near the wall, covered almost entirely in the shadow.
"Don't worry master Evilness." said the dark sparkling male Coca Cola. "My name is Sprit and I know a thing or two about starting fires."
"It just takes a lot of cool to do it unnoticed and unsuspected, Sir!" the whiter male said. "Ice Cream Spoon ready to take orders sir."
"Ahh..." Evilness said, "My black indulgence is complete. Let us go and wreak havoc onto Lantessama!!" Evilness started.
"Evilness?" Cyan wondered, tuning in on the loud sounds at the entrance. "Get out of here! And don't let me see you sneaking back in! I know a thing or two about fires too!"
Not entirely disapointed Evilness left the cavern. He'd get his 15 minutes of fame soon enough.
"We'll need to get the Isle fireproof and guarded against that lot." Cyan said to Trix who made a note of it. A very urgent note underlined with three stripes and exclamation marks around it.
A dragon cried for attention as he didn't like to have hatched unnoticed. Another hyperactiv Lemon dashed over the sands on a collision course Gelena.
"Protect me!" it screamed as a rather irritated Fuse Darla came up behind him pulling Lucid's tail, which made him flame. Like an experienced flamethrower she used her brother to blast the annoying Lemon. But Gelena was fast as she had seen it coming -Nightwish always meant trouble. She carried the Lemon who had named himself Sitru to the food tables where her cranberry was still stuffing herself.

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