Easter Clutch 2005

The first light dawned on Easter Sunday and once again the eggs for the Easter hatching that had been neatly piled the night before, lay scattered and some buried around the isle. Lucas did not doubt that bunny-shaped figures had been active during the night, relocating the eggs at will.
"I wonder how they do it without waking all the hungry dragons." Cyan said with a grin on her face, "They must be really quiet."
"I think even the dragons know that egghunts are fun." Lucas answered, "I doubt that any of the candidates would object to the hunt if they could." he grinned, "Not that the Easter bunnies can be controlled."
"We can always import huskies."
"I bet they'd bribe them with succulent bones."
"That smart huh."
"They have to be if they survived centuries of stealing eggs and hiding them." looking at his watch, Lucas said: "It's time to go out, Cyan."
"Time for the hunt to begin again."
Candidates had gathered in front of the hatching cavern. Some eggs were hiding out in plain sight, painted in bright colours that clashed with the surroundings. 
"I really don't see a point in holding a great speech or anything." Lucas started, "Everyone knows the rules, you look for eggs and if you find one that hatches, it's yours. Enjoy."
With that said, the candidates set out, while the locals of Lantessama Isle watched carefully, and even some of the isle's youngsters , several only 8 years old, tried their luck at finding eggs on their own. Laughing excited when a bunny hatched, and even though they would not bond, take the chocolate from the hyper kids, making their days.
From the registered candidates, Paashaasje was the first to find his egg. There was no surprise in where he should look because he himself had placed this particular egg the night before. The egg was stashed in a tree, neatly balancing in a nest of leaves that was stronger than it looked.
Getting it down with one calculated jump, Paashaasje gently tapped the shell. 
"Come out, my dear. I know you're in there."
The egg shook a few times and finally, two beige paws pushed through the shell, followed by a light brown nose and two long floppy brown ears. With large brown eyes the bunny looked up at Paashaasje.
"Thanks for keeping me safe."
"Ehm... I hope they don't have any polar bears on Antarctica or I wouldn't be that protective." Paashaasje replied.
"Antarctica? Oooh, I love the ice." the bunny squeaked, "I've been dreaming about these weird birds they have there, I'd love to have one to play with."
"You mean a penguin, Konijntje?"
"That's what they were called!" the brown bunny called, "I can't wait to see it. Do you think I can get one as a pet?"
The next candidate to find an egg was Keyla, the pink rukel who, on four feet, was noticeably faster than the other candidates and even faster than her four firelizard friends who finally just turned circles in the air high above their owner. She left the obvious eggs where they were and headed in the direction of the flower garden. She passed under the fazzle gazebo when she heard a frail voice say: "You want an egg right?"
"Yes." Keyla answered, "Where are you?"
"To your right." the voice said. 
Keyla looked to her right and saw a green fazzle with long lush, leaved arms hanging down from the ceiling.
"Do you know where an egg is?" she asked.
"Look behind my vines." the fazzle said.
Keyla carefully pushed the vines away and sure enough a pale yellow oval was behind them. As soon as took it out from it's hiding place, the egg shook, making Keyla drop it.
The egg shattered and a pink chicken fell from the shards. Keyla nuzzled the strange winged creature and asked: "Aren't you supposed to be a bunny?"
Snorting the female chicken answered: "Bunnies are too sweet and cuddly. Feathers are way better." Sticking out her chest, and sticking up her feathers, the dragoness replied: "I'm Willah."
Meanwhile, two eggs that were in plain sight right at the start of the hunt hatched.
One dragon, a burgundy red female chick, looked up, shook her head and walked of to the Laedryses who were watching the event.
"Excuse me. I don't feel like bonding just yet. No-one here lives up to my expectations. I'd like to go off world to find someone right for me."
The second egg had hatched into a purple female chicken who was only now getting to her feet because her wings had got caught below her legs. Now, with the help of Jenna Underwood, she was able to stand, up. 
Looking into the young woman's eyes the dragoness smiled and said: "Yes you are right for me. My name is Charova."
On the other side of the middle mountain, four candidates were about to get lucky at the same time as crackling sounds rose from all sides, cascading of the mountains. Five eggs burst open, with five dragons falling out. 
The first candidate to reach a dragon was Inez. She had ran for the yellow bunny without hesitation. No way that she was going to get even near a chicken, even if these were of the draconic type.
"Thank God you're a bunny." she said, hugging the bunny female.
"With such a warm welcome I should not look farther for a bond." the bunny smiled, "My name is Lilah, Inez."
"You're great Lilah. I didn't choose you just because you were a bunny. Yellow also happens to be my colour. Besides, I heard you before you hatched."
"I wondered how you got here so fast."
Her husband Zornik had also reached a dragon, a red male chick dragon with an air of pride around him. Standing up as tall ash he could the dragon said: "I guess you will do. My name is Indigo."
"We aim to please." Zornik said, "I hope you'll be happy on the farm."
"As long as I am the only rooster." the red said.
Jenna Underwood, walking with her purple female chick, also got close to one of the dragons. She had been passively searching for another dragon to take home and now, the time seemed to be right. The pink male bunny looked secretly at the purple chick and said:
"Ehm... I'd like to come too. Can I?"
"Of course you can come, Chazrin." Jenna said, "Right Charova?"
The purple chick blinked her eyes, looked again at the bunny and said: "I guess he can."
"See." Jenna smiled, "Now let's get you two some chocolate. In think two is all I should take."
Loneliness, a blue-green plant dragon, one of the dragons from the bunny run the year before, had returned to bond one year later. Looking for eggs she passed the girl with her two dragons, feeling even more alone. Sighing, she sat down, being found by a white-yellow chicken male that hopped from behind her.
"Boo!" he called.
When Loneliness jumped up startled, the chick looked around and then said: "Did I scare you?"
"Yeah, you kind of did."
"I'm sorry." the chick said, "I wanted to surprise you. I'm Marnix. You aren't alone anymore now. Maybe you should change your name."
"To what?" the dragoness asked.
"Loveliness maybe." Marnix said in all seriousness, making Loneliness giggle.
The last dragon still walking alone behind the mountain looked out over the sea and then flew out around the mountain with her fiery orange chicken wings. She landed near the Laedryses saying: "I hear that a person named Phoenix is looking for birds. I am a bird and I'm interested in this person. My name is Ochre."
Iris, the purple-blue female dragon from Starburst Weyr was moving a small boulder near the lake on Lantessama Isle when her brother, red-pink Larkspur let out an excited sound.
"I found eggs!" he called to his sister.
Dropping the boulder back to where it was before, Iris turned her head and saw Larkspur hovering above three small mounds that stuck out of the sandy shore.
"When will they hatch?" Iris whispered.
"Now." Larkspur answered, "I saw them move."
Soon the eggs moved again and cracks appeared in the shells. Twitching, it was the middle one that burst open first, aided by the two others who moved away from the edges of the hollow simultaneously. 
A purple male bunny rolled out, with big blue eyes, that looked straight into Iris'.
"Iris..." he said, "What a pretty name. I am Veeon."
With the middle gone, the egg on the right toppled over and an orange female bunny jumped from the burrow, right in front of Larkspur.
"My name is Daesi."
"Hello Daesi." Larkspur answered, "What do we do with the other egg?"
"Wait for it to hatch of course."
"But we've bonded you."
"But our friend needs you." Veeon said, "She won't take long."
"She?" Iris asked.
"She sounded female anyway." Daesi shrugged.
The four dragons returned to watching the egg in silence. It rocked and deformed at the edges as the dragon inside pushed to get free. Finally a yellow beak pushed through the hard exterior of the egg and the dragon managed to push through.
"Good morning." she said, ruffling her feathers as she got up, "My name is Salia." the female chicken was yellow in colour, but when she moved her feathers showed a whole range of other rainbow colours.
"Did she bond us?" Iris asked.
"It doesn't feel like she did." Larkspur answered.
"She couldn't. You already bonded to us." Veeon said as Daesi nodded, "She'll just be coming with us."
Back to the South of the isle, in the vicinity of the nekrat bay, two eggs cracked open. One hatched a black bunny, the second a green male chick. The black bunny did not linger and took of immediately to the Laedryses to announce that he would not bond today. "My name is Svarzen." Was all he said.
The green chick was lost for a moment, until he saw a robed figure that was just what he wanted.
"Father Frances!" he called, "Do you like me?"
"I like all God's creatures, my ehm, chicken friend."
"Yes, but do you like me more?"
"I don't know, Josey." Frances answered, "I've never met a chick dragon before."
"But you do know my name. At least we bonded now. You better like me more than the others!"
"I guess I'll have to make an exception for you, Josey."
Also near the nekrat bay, but more in the center of the fields and plains, a lone candidate, Marei was searching for eggs. Hiding places were sparse, but Marei was determined to find an egg to take home. Finally, she nearly tripped over one that had been hidden behind the first of the sandy dunes.
Dusting the sand from her clothes, Marei looked at the egg. "Isn't it supposed to hatch?" she wondered. And indeed, it started to rock a bit, remained silent, and then split neatly in half as if the dragon inside knew where to hit the shell to break it in half.
An orange female chick fell out in the sand, her feathers getting sandy and dirty.
"Ivory!" Marei called, "I know your name. How can that be?"
"We bonded, Marei." Ivory said, "Which is good because I need your help now. I can't go back home like this. I need to get the sand off."
"I think you might need to take a bath." Marei smiled, "or let your feathers dry in the sun."
"We don't have much time before the clutch ends." the chick answered knowingly, "I'll bathe."
Another egg hatched a green male bunny that gracefully hopped toward where Anamadra was waiting.
"I'm coming with you." he said, bouncing up and down on his four paws, "I'm Emrald."
Hawe and Lylika, the two Shinack officials were searching around the shadow cavern when lylika suddenly cheered. "I found one!"
A second later she was holding a brown female chick in her arms, trying to avoid the young dragon from poking her nose into Lylika's elaborate curls.
"It will hurt when you get stuck there." she told the hatchling, "Now what is your name?"
"Kima." the chick answered, "Who's that?"
"Oh, that's just a colleague, Hawe. Why do you ask?"
"Because he's about to step on an egg."
"You have good eyesight." turning to Hawe she yelled: "Hey! Watch out, you're going to crush the poor dragon."
Falling in the process of trying to avoid the egg, Hawe did end up breaking the shell, getting an indigo-blue tail caught up between his legs.
"Great." he said, spitting out some sand.
"Do you enjoy to eat sand?" the dragon asked with big innocent eyes, "You'll be easy to please then. And more chocolate for me."
"Quiet Chupo."
"What are you so upset about?" Looking at Lylika and Kima the bunny tried to make sense of the situation. Finally Hawe sighed and handed a big chocolate bunny to his new bond. "Ooooh! Thank you thank you!" the bunny hopped.
"Do you still think bunnies are cute?" Lylika teased, following her chick to the feast.
The two last candidates, the two mortalised gods that had come to Lantessama, walked as if they had always known where the eggs were, toward the island in the center of the lake. Half submerged in the water lay two perfect ovals.
Gently taking the eggs out of the water, Anthol helped Photinae take a step back. They waited for a moment that seemed slowed in time until finally the first lines appeared in the shell. Like a spiderweb pattern, the lines grew more numerous and wider until parts of the two chick dragons inside could be seen.
Not much later the first of them, a male white-copper, stepped out of the remains of his egg and gazed up at Anthol.
"I am yours. My name is Godin."
A fragile looking elegant white-yellow female followed the male, looking equally intense at Photinae. "I am Idole, Photinae." she said, "We've been waiting for you."
The four turned and walked toward the hatching cavern where the others were gathered for the post-hatching feast. Chocolate and sweets were given to everyone who wanted them and many of the dragons were already nibbling on their Easter figurines.

Bunnies
Jenna Underwood and Pink Bunny Chazrin (m) 
Paashaasje and Light Brown Bunny Konijntje (f)
Anamadra and Green Bunny Emrald (m)
Inez and Yellow Bunny Lilah (f)
Hawe and Indigo-Blue Bunny Chupo (m)
Iris and Purple Veeon (m)
Larkspur and Orange Daesi (f)
***
Black Bunny Svarzen (m) to Knux

Chicks
Jenna Underwood and Purple Chick Charova (f)
Anthol and White-Copper Chick Godin (m)
Photinae and White-Yellow Chick Idole (f)
Keyla and Pink Chick Willah (f)
Father Frances and Green Chick Josey (m)
Loneliness and White-Yellow Chick Marnix (m)
Marei and Orange Chick Ivory (f)
Zornik and Red Chick Indigo (m)
Lylika and Brown Chick Kima (f)
Rainbow-Yellow Salia (f) going with Iris and Larkspur
***
Burgundy Chick Scarlet (f) to Knux
Yellow-Orange Chick Ochre (f) to Phoenix