Run 2004 (3)

Konyni, the yellow plush bunny of six that had entered the hatching, was running through the meadows leading to the dunes. From his perspective the meadows were heaven, surely he should find many eggs around there, but either dragon bunnies weren’t fond of meadows, or they buried their eggs deeper than Konyni would think, because he hadn’t had any luck. But luck is a wondrous thing and Konyni’s was about to change.
He was nearing the dunes and a small creek arched inward for a short distance. Konyni waded through and looked surprised to find an egg where he had expected it the least. Near the edge of the other side the current flowed up and around an unseen obstacle, a hidden egg.
Quickly rolling it out, Konyni tapped the shell to see if there was still life inside. To his relief, a soft scratching came from the inside. Minutes later cracks had appeared all over the egg and it was ready to break. Out spilled a blue-siamese indigo bunny male.
"Are you ok?" Konyni asked..
"As good as could be expected." The dragonet answered staring into Konyni’s eyes, "I’m Lynus."
Rini, the chocolate wielding star dancer, was soaring once again to find a dragon for her garden. She could easily take care of another dragon with her skills. Focusing on the ground below her she suddenly called out happily when she saw a small egg in a circle of shards on her path. This was her chance. 
Rini dove down and looked menacingly at a nearby human to make sure he knew this egg was hers. Caressing it lovingly, the star dancer tried to make the egg hatch. Finally, after some coaxing, the hatchling inside responded and scraped the shell from the other side. A crack appeared and soon after, a small nose in green and yellow.
"Estrid." the dragoness panted before she crouched and happily accepted a piece of sugar from Rini Riago.
Gangstath was out again, still a bit wet from the rain. Though he had passed many hydras and shadow dragons, some part bunny, others not, none of them had glanced at him. Most had probably confused him as a bunny-magnet. 
Now that the rain had stopped more people were returning to the tracks and his chances of finding something worthy to take care of were getting slighter again. He sighed. Why didn't the little dragonets come running toward him? Was it the purple?
"I like the purple." a voice with strange echoes told him.
"Echoes..." Gangstath mused, "A hydra!"
Delighted he turned to see...a 3-headed frosting pink bunny with a definite female aura around her.
"Aren't you going to ask me for my name?" she asked innocently.
"No."
"Too bad, You'll have to get to know it when I come with you. It's Harth'ial."
"You're not coming."
"Try and stop me." the hydra bunny skipped behind the purple dragon.
Near the start of the hunt, a small egg waited. It had been overlooked by all those who had passed it, but maybe that was meant to be, because the male bunny within dreamt not of bonding yet. With a big effort the orange bunny was able to break himself free, showing his yellow face to the world for the first time.
"I am Lente." He spoke, "And I shall go unbonded to…"
Lente waited for a while, building a dramatic silence, though he did not know it, "Cy Dragonstake!" he finally called out with a happy raising of his voice.
Beatrice only came out on the tracks in the late afternoon. She had not dared to go sooner, fearing that someone might try to hurt her. Her cycle was slightly of balance. She smirked at the use of slightly, she had barely been able to control herself. The sun was slowly setting, and the edges of the sun were already turning a bright red.
Slowly she made her way through the forest where she hoped no-one would see her. But suddenly she came across two very tensed bunny ears. The bunny was dark and fuzzy, but points of light appeared all on her body, like tiny flames in the night, like stars.
"Beatrice!" the shadow bunny said relieved, "I waited for you all day and you didn't come."
"I.. I'm sorry, Karstazi. I only started now."
"It's ok for once." the bunny said, "I understand, I like the dark more than the light also."
Tessa followed Kaninchen onto the dirt roads around the lake. She looked at the meadows on the right and the forest on the left. She would love to run through either of the areas, but Kaninchen pushed on further. Finally the light blue plush bunny twitched his ears and sniffed the air.
"I know where you should go." He said.
"You do?" the young girl asked.
"You have to walk straight to the meadows and look behind those bushes."
"Are you coming?"
"I have to go that way." The bunny said.
"But…" Tessa stammered thinking that she wasn’t ready to go alone. Even Hannah had her brother. She only had Eamon and she would stay far away from him.
"You are stronger than anyone else I ever met." Kani told her, "It’s not far, and you won’t be alone when you get back."
"If you say so." Tessa said, lowering her head.
With a wave Kani was off and Tessa was left alone. All she could do was go where Kaninchen had told her to go. She pushed away the bushes and looked inside, seeing a bright pink dragon sitting next to eggs.
"Hello." Tessa said, "Kani told me I should come here…"
"Then you must want one of my children." Girth said, "You are welcome to stay."
"She won’t have to, mommy." A tiny voice answered, "I think she’s mine."
Tessa turned surprised and saw a baby pastel red, bunny-eared, heart-winged, chubby dragon look at her. "My name is Mashiara, Tessa."
A shadow bunny rose from it's egg and blended in perfectly with the rest of the world on Isla Klynn. All grey the bunny still had patches of lighter and darker fur, in the darkest fur some very tiny dots of light became visible, making him look as if he was mimicking the night sky. Sitting peacefully the shadow bunny just watched as night progressed and nodded. Yes, Lantessama seemed like a perfect place to be. Tweeduister would stay.
Nani Mistle, followed by her green-blue bunny, was still walking around. She was checking every bush and looked behind every rock, but many people had beat her to the places with the eggs. She could see shards of eggs lying around at places and she knew she had come too late.
"Maybe I won’t find another bunny to bring home." She sighed.
"Don’t give up yet." Vesna told her, "Mother had many eggs."
"Do you think she might show us a few." Nani asked, only half joking.
"I’ll ask."
A little while passed and suddenly Vesna jumped up and grinned with her ears perched up: "Mommy told me we are close, a bit to our right near the lake."
Nani turned and started looking. She didn’t leave a stone unturned, but she didn’t find even a sign of an egg.
"Mommy says to go further." Vesna said before Nani could ask, "Over the water."
"Swim?" Nani asked with big eyes.
"Just wait if you don’t want to make your feet wet." Vesna sighed and bolted to Isla Klynn, returning only a few minutes later with an egg. "Mommy said this was the one."
"Let’s see if it was!" Nani said, tapping the outside of the egg.
The egg shattered and a small, glider-winged orange-yellow bunny jumped out. The hatchling male, Vesna’s half brother, seemed ready to move, to dart and run, but he kept himself calm and looked expectantly at Nani.
"Want some chocolate, don’t you!" Nani giggled, getting out a second bar she had sneaked from the feeding tables.
Kaninchen dashed through the meadows, following the voice that was calling him. He had known where Tessa needed to go, how he didn’t understand, but he knew that it was right. He dashed to the very end of the track and stopped when he saw the eggs in plain sight. Three of them, all rather small but with the gleam of promise.
Kaninchen stepped closer and waited. Yes, this was right, he needed to be here, but why?
"For me of course." A soft feminine voice said.
"It was you…" Kani said startled.
"Let me introduce myself, Nijntje is the name."
"Hiya."
"A man of few words." Nijntje smiled, "But some chocolate might be all you need to get me."
"Ehm, I left my chocolate with Tessa. She was hungry and…"
"I see… well, I guess I should admire you for taking care of the young. I would rather have had the chocolate myself, but I have made my choice."
Releaved, Kani smiled at the orange-yellow glider bunny and followed her back to the start to satisfy her need for chocolate.
Rini had decided to go out one last time. The female bunny star dancer flew toward the setting sun, toward the dunes and gently touched down on an unclaimed egg that had appeared recently. Small bunny footprints walked away from the egg and Rini was certain this egg had been placed there for her. The last time she flew over it had not been there, but now it was.
"Hello?" she called to the bunny within and waited.
"Hi!" a faint reply came back.
"Can you hatch?" Rini asked.
"Ehm... sure." the hatchling inside said with a mental shrug. Apparently this bunny wasn't very active. Rini smiled, perfect, he wouldn't cause trouble. Waiting for the bunny to make his way out, Rini flew a few circles and saw that only a dozen people were still searching for eggs. The run was starting to end, this was going to be her last impression for the day.
"I'm waiting." the call from the bunny came.
"I'm coming." Rini said, turning to see a 2-headed pink-striped red bunny standing on the sand.
"I'm Devonan."
"That's just perfect." Rini said, guiding the bunny to her little tower of chocolate.
Fan'al walked through the forest and found a lonely egg with broken shells around it. A clutch had been here, so whatever dragon was in the egg, it wouldn't be a bunny. This was just a statement, Fan'al had nothing against bunnies... well maybe they were a bit too cute for her taste. Certainly it had not one thing to do with the fact that she had to skin rabbits from the moment people had ran her out of her town.
The egg started wobbling and hatched, spilling another shadow glider twin on the ground. These two, one male and one female, had silver streaks running on their body. The female hatchling turned to Fan'al and said: "I am Loren. My brother Ryttance has to stay here a bit longer, would you mind waiting for his bond to show up?"
"Of course not."
A lonely egg cracked open revealing a black bunny with Siamese green markings. The bunny clawed her way outside to the soft sandy beach at the edge of the lake. With one last shrug the baby female bunny rolled on the sand and quickly withdrew her front paws that were touching the water. Shaking the drops of her fur she looked around wondering. There was no-one around, but she wasn’t looking for a bond just yet.
Scanning the minds of the people around her with a touch so gentle they didn’t even felt her intrusion she said: "I shall go to Enzan Shi"
Diablei walked in the salty air and headed for the beach. The setting sun was just too beautiful to resist. When she got to the beach however, the sun wasn't all she looked at, an egg, rather small compared to the dragons she had come from the eggs, laid in front of her.
"Who left you here?" she wondered, looking around.
The egg couldn't have gotten here on it's own, and out in plain view like this it should have been claimed hours ago. The sea had washed away all tracks around the egg, but Diablei had a suspicion little bunny feet might have brought the egg here.
"Actually, little shadow wings brought me here." something told her.
After thinking it over, Diablei looked at the egg and said: "Can you hear me?"
"Don't shout." the hatchling in side said, "And yes... yes... I'll hatch."
"How..."
"Telepathic, remember."
"But we didn't bond yet."
"I don't have as many limits as regular dragons." the hatchling said a bit too proud.
He punched out the shell from the inside and stuck his head through the whole, two blue-trimmed black pointy ears standing firm erect, "I'm Inayon." 
Milton, having kept well away from Ameran was only now feeling confident enough to look for eggs. Before she had kept looking over her shoulder. She was sure Sookee thought she had stolen something again, but she hadn't. She hadn't at all... She was too stressed. 
It was hard for her to forget what she had seen, but when she saw the light oval shape on the side of the road she called out happily and rushed toward the egg. Touching it lightly she wondered what she should do now. Maybe she had to keep the egg warm, that's how chickens did it. 
Before Milton could figure out how she could best go sit the egg hatched and a blue-green glider bunny stood before her.
"I don't need to keep warm, thank you." Knipoog said, "My mother took care of that."
"Why do chickens do it then?"
"Beats me."
Waylon looked uncomfortable around the unknown scenery. What he would give to turn back time and say no to the bigmouth youth that had invited him and Tharys. He was too old to start anew. Raising an arm to protect his face from low-hanging tree branches, Waylon entered a clearing and stopped. Right in front of him lay a small cluster of eggs. Not knowing what to do, he took a step back and waited.
One of the eggs started rocking, cracked and broke in half. A camouflage beige male rolled from his egg and looked at Waylon with deep blue eyes. "Don’t you want me?" the male asked, "Because you are the only right one for me."
"I… I will, Sletule." Waylon said.
"Thank you."
Saijitsu looked around at the setting sun and sighed. She knew she had needed to be here... but no egg had seemed right though she had found many during the day. After all, dragon bunnies don't do things that much different from humanoid bunnies, certainly not hiding eggs. Saijitsu snickered at the thought of her mother hiding her babies - ok the metaphor wasn't perfect.
"But I still need to find why I'm here."
"I suggest you look to your right." a silver sounding voice, feminine with just a hint of secrecy, said.
"No! No!" A white feminine voice, playful and childish, called, "Look left!"
Not seeing anything Saijitsu wondered if hearing voices was a sign of insanity.
"Just turn around." a male gold voice said, "Mystik and Onschuld won't stop until you do. My name is Hanon."
Saijitsu turned and saw a three-headed bunny dragon. One head was white, the other silver and the middle one was gold. The male gold who had spoken to her, nodded and gently nudged the white to stop trying to go forward in a dash when the other two wanted to walk.
Beaut looked at his two remaining eggs. One of them was ready to hatch and the other would not wait long anymore either. Beaut was rather happy, regular hatchings didn't take this long. He had been standing guard over his eggs for several hours now.
Finally one egg broke in half and a female green camouflage glider dropped onto the sands. Crooning when she saw her father above her she hugged his leg and said: "That Slythernius place sounds fun. Can I go there?"
"Of course Hyiena." Beaut said, "Just saty here until the last egg hatches and I'll take you to get you registered."
"Thanks daddy."
A small egg buried in a rabbit hole on one of the dirt roads started wobbling, causing a cave in that nearly buried it again. But the hatchling inside fought harder and managed to get out of the egg and the hole. The poison male two-headed hydra bunny jumped out of the ground and startled a few searching candidates before it darted toward the finish. It had no intention of bonding anyone. It, Wayvell, wanted to go to Dragon Willow.
Rini Riago just couldn't resist the temptation. FLying once again over the grounds she saw another egg appear where there had been none before. Flying in curiously she saw it hatch right under her eyes. She had to dart out of the flying shards' reach and returned to see a two headed bunny below her. Flying down she suddenly heard the hydra bunny fighting with itself as if it was two dragons in one. But that wasn't normal...
Looking a bit disturbed at the hatchling(s) Rini asked: "What's your name."
"She's asking me!" the blue half spoke, "I'm Ronem."
"No way! She's asking me!" the green half cried out, "I'm Ravell"
Surprised Rini flew up and dropped a few treats to get away. But seeing as the bunnies made no more moves toward her, she flew closer and though that the Lady might like such an odd couple.
"Would you like to come with me?" she asked.
"She's talking to me!" the blue cried.
"To me!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!"
"Quiet!" Rini called, "I'm asking both of you."
"In that case, sure."
"Yeah, sure."
Gambit Lanor passed Rini and smiled, She might have her hands full with the multiple personality hydra bunnies, the fellow star dancer thought, but he needed something equally good to make sure Rini didn't get all the credit. Flying lower toward the dunes he suddenly saw a lonely two legged, two-tailed dragon stand guard over one egg and a hatchling.
The remaining egg was wobbling fiercely and Gambit flew in closer. He reached the dunes when the egg broke and a camouflage brown glider crawled out from under a large piece of egg.
"Hello." the happy hatchling said, "Are you mine?" he prodded the small metallic brown star dancer.
"I'd really like that." Gambit said, flying just a little back before something else could grip him for an involuntary roller coaster ride.
On the shores of Isla Klynn the second to last multiple personality hydra eggs burst open. Light seem to waver for a moment, and maybe it really did, because the hatchling that stepped from the shards of the egg was Dark. With luminescent eyes it scanned the darkness, seeing as clear as if it was bright day and not fading twilight. It had hatched right on time, an hour earlier and it would have died from the bright daylight, but this was almost pleasant for the 4-headed hydra.
It's four heads moved as one, but had different personalities each. The first head was a female by the name of Barais, she was without a doubt the leader. She controlled the body and everyone else knew it, but alone she would be nothing. The second head, another female, Cinais, controlled whoever of the others was in charge of offence and defence. She kept to herself in the background, but she only seemed distracted, she was concentrated to the edge of her being and knew she would never rest until the others were sleeping. The third and fourth head, both male were Morais and Onais. While Morais controlled fire, Onais was more a man for acid spitting. Both weapons were effective, but sometimes one was more effective than the other. 
The four heads looked and the two males squabbled a bit about where they would go, but they both knew that Barais would make the final decision. "To Abri." she said and bolted them over the water toward the finish and then toward the stars, forming a line of darkness between the stars as she passed.
Ebon Shadowfire flew in the twilight and felt in his element. He was a star dancer and naturally drawn to the night to dance above water, and him being a ghost didn't make that any other. He flew to the lake and started circling. From the edges of the lake two black eyes watched him. 
Two-headed burnt blood Alanis couldn't remember ever seeing something as beautiful. Diama, her sister was sure she had seen something as beautiful when she hatched, a falling star. This caused the two to fight a bit and Ebon noticed them.
Flying toward the duo he asked: "Would you like to come with me?"
"Are you going to dance more?" Diama asked.
"Are there stars where you live?" Alanis asked.
"Yes." Ebon said, "To both questions."
Girth looked up surprised when one of her eggs suddenly started rocking. "Are there candidates coming?" she asked Gudrun, the baby sticky weed that was guarding her.
"No. All I see is Evilness’ tail sticking out of the grass."
"You don’t suppose he’s coming…" Girth asked terrified.
"He just lays there."
The egg shattered and two males, one pink and one red appeared. The two looked at each other, shook their heads and struggled to their feet. The baby pink cherubun looked around and said: "there’s no-one around."
"Not one that isn’t taken yet." The red answered.
"Yes, you’re right. I am taken." The pink said, "I’m Ressan of Slyternius."
"And I am Iventam of Sunstone."
The purple plush alien bunny, Berenice, leader of her crew had given up trying to see how her crew was doing and had finally left her son alone to find an egg. Her mother instinct was strong, but she knew she would regret not getting the chance to bond.
Thinking, she nearly fell over a small shuddering mound of dirt. Berenice had found an egg. Cheering inside Berenice jumped up to face the egg. Aiding the dragonet inside by tearing away some of the shell Berenice finally got her reward, a glimpse of dark red.
"Some help." The female hatchling remarked dryly, "I’m stuck."
"Certainly, Juara."
Zara walked with Sookee, her teddy bear huddled close to her body with her free arm. She had been outside on the meadows, followed by a cocktail dragon all afternoon. Until the storm had started anyway. Sookee only now wanted to go with her and Zara was feeling a bit sad. All of her friends had dragons, but she hadn't found even a single egg. She had played more with the summer cocktail - a delightful small lemony yellow critter- than that she had been looking.
"Come on." Sookee said, "I'm sure not many people have looked behind that hill." 
"Why?" Zara asked.
"Because it's too close to the forest."
"Bad things live there. Trone told me. He said I shouldn't go there."
"That's a smart little flitter." Sookee said, "But all the hydras are gone."
"Trone is a dragon, Sookee, he said so himself."
Sookee, about to go into a whole 'size does matter' debate, was cut short by a small 2-headed hydra bunny that looked down from the hill.
"Excuse me." she said, "All hydras have not gone..."
"Why?" Zara asked.
"Well I'm still here." the pink siamese marked yellow hydra said. For a hydra, Sookee mused she didn't look very dangerous.
"What's your name?" Zara asked.
"Madelon."
Gambit Lanor swooped over the area. Night was close by and soon all candidates would be called back. Everyone had bonded and most had returned. But still there was the chance of a hidden egg or two that lured Gambit to the grounds.
When flying over isla Klynn, the star dancer suddenly noticed some movement. A silver head popped up from under the foliage. Flying a short circle above the head, Gambit wondered if the dragon had been taken yet.
"I don't get taken." the silver answered.
"I decide who we take." a darker voice answered as a second head popped up from under the foliage, both of them streaked with a slimy green.
"Well, who have you decided upon?" Gambit asked.
"Seeing as there aren't many contestants..." the black started.
"We'll take you." the silver answered, "I'm Titania."
"Teflon."
A two-headed bunny tiptoed toward the record keepers. The male-male multiple personality bunny was so quiet no-one saw her until she spoke aloud: "Hello." he said, "Anyone now the way to Enzan Shi?" the first half asked, he was bright orange.
"We would really like to go there." the other half said, a soft red mirror image of the first.
Night had finally come and Cyan was out in the new darkness to pick up Gudrun and Evilness and escort them back to Lantessama. She was making her way through the meadows and low bramble bushes when two bright green eyes suddenly lighted in front of her.
"You finally come." Evilness said.
"Indeed, how are your babies?"
"Not entirely what I suspected, but I can mate again."
For a moment Cyan felt sorry for Evilness, after all, he only wanted to be loved even for the wrong reasons. She shook her head and told herself she was getting soft. Evilness would take advantage of her within seconds if he knew what she was thinking.
She pulled back the bushes and saw Girth sitting, looking at one last egg. It would be the only egg that hadn’t hatched. Cyan bowed her head and stroked the dragon’s nose, trying to comfort her.
"Maybe this egg wasn’t meant to be." She said.
"That’s not it." Girth said.
"Huh?" Cyan asked.
"It’s hatching." Gudrun said, her small leaves rustling close to the egg, her own yellow plant runner, laying sleeping beside it. "It’s not used to a shell." She remarked.
Carefully pealing shards away, Cyan and Girth got the hatchling on the ground. The soft green female was more serpentine than any of Girth’s other children and she showed more signs of Evilness’ parentage. Resting her claws on the ground she growled at anyone trying to get close.
Evilness, only now caught up with Cyan, pushed aside Gudrun and looked at his child. Noticing her great potential he sissed happily and added: "I have a son!"
"Ehem." The green plant runner caught attention, "I’m a woman."
"A daughter?" Evilness said as if he had failed.
Raking her claws against his skin, the baby green made her point clear, she wouldn’t be as nice as her siblings, she meant business: "My name is Wickedness."
Cyan looked around and asked: "Do you want to go somewhere."
"No, I’ll stay right here."
"Can I bond her? Can I bond her? Can I, Can I?" Evilness pleaded her, nearly choking Cyan with his body, "Pleasssssse!"
"Not a chance!" Cyan said, getting Evilness from her body, "Wickedness will stay in my care." There just was nothing else she could think of at the time. At least Cyan knew she would be able to keep a close eye on the hatchling and how Evilness would influence her… though Wickedness didn’t seem to really even notice her father.
"Let’s go!" Wickedness urged, dragging her claws over the ground.
Picking up Gudrun in her pot and waking Yellow Happiness, Cyan smiled at the baby Sticky weed: "You aren’t alone anymore I heard."
Smiling, Gudrun closed her eyes and fell asleep whispering: "Not alone."

The End
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