Halloween 2005 (1)

Donriven carefully kept an eye on the small Holiday hatching Cavern while Lucas made the last preparations on the rainy halloween evening. Like always, the weather was bad, but the usual storms had not come this year, making it slightly warmer, a lot less windy, but mostly very very wet on this dark occasion. The time was now 8 in the evening and it was dark. The overcast sky was all black and blue, without even the slightest break in the fabric for the moonlight to shine through. All in all the atmosphere was gloomy. Even in the hatching cavern.
"What's with the light!" Lucas called.
"What about it?" Donriven asked.
"It's too dark suddenly, I can barely see what i'm doing."
Lucas stumbled down from the ladder he had been standing on, fake bad mobile still in his hands. While he walked over to Donriven, he lit some more candles, bringing a bit more light in the darkened shady cave.
"I thought that was the effect you were going for." Donriven shrugged.
"I was, but suddenly the light seems less. I want our candidates to at least see what they'll be impressing. or at least let the dragons see who they can choose from."
"With the candidates we got I think the former won't be a problem, how do you know these are going to be vampires?"
Unlike other years, Lucas had not gengineered these dragons himself. In stead he had bought a dozen of salt or crystal pillars, Donriven wasn't sure which they were made off, that resembled crude sculpture works. Donriven was rather glad the faces of the twisted figures couldn't be made out, he was sure they'd be frightening. 
The sound of dootsteps alerted the two men that they had company. It wasn't long before they also heard the voices of their spouses, and a little later they saw their two, dripping, figures at the base of the stairs.
"It's wet outside." Trix stated the obvious.
"They know." Cyan answered, "It's been raining all day."
She took one of the dark cloths and started wiping off her face and hair. "Oh how I wish I could just poof in like a dragon..." she threw a second cloth at Trix who gratefully accepted it.
"You're messing up my interior decoration, dear." Lucas said.
"We'll put it back." Cyan assured him, "Say will you finally tell me where you got these?" she approached the white, softly pulsating pillars and touched one of them.
"be careful." Lucas said, "I don't know what'll get them to hatch."
"Just where DID you get them?" Trix asked. She had not liked the idea from the start. A lot could go wrong with gengineering, but at least you knew what you had started from.
"I don't know where they came from. The merchant did not tell me."
Before Trix could point out just how dangerous this all was, like potentially threatening the lives of everyone on the isle - well it wouldn't be a first, she looked at Donriven and wondered if it was a trait of all men that they wanted to do dangerous things - when she noticed a fleeting blackness that was not a shadow.
"Evilness... get out!" Trix called at the grey shadow she saw fluttering around the faintly glowing pillars of crystal.
"Do not mistake me with that misfit." a regal voice said, "Though it is to be expected that he pays a visit in the near future."
The glowing red eyes of Ersatz reflected in the crystal, and her face looked more than pleased with the atmosphere in the holiday cavern. Of course the True Chaotic Queen liked dreary places as well, though for other reasons than everyone believed. She had no intentions to ever make anything this drab place her home. Something green and luscious was more fit for a hungry shadow.
"What do you think of them?" Trix asked, "Foresee any problems?"
"Problems? None at all... They're not harmless if that is what you think." Ersatz chuckled
"That is what scares me..." Trix muttered to herself.
With a malignant chuckle the true chaotic seemed to float into the walls and then vanished completely, taking the dark fog that surrounded her with her. The light grew a bit brighter and Lucas frantically put out a few of the candles he had lit.
"I wish she had told us she was in here... this spoils the mood."
Sounds coming from the big hatching cavern alerted the four of them that people were coming. It was now October 31st, 11 pm. They were right on time. 
The candidates, mostly vampires with their respective servants, glided down the stairs. None of the vampires were wet which suggested that they had flown here in bat- (or owl-) form and had made sure their servants had carried an umbrella or something like that to keep them dry, or some had maybe just teleported in. you never knew with whatever candidates appeared at Lantessama. Vampires were no exceptions to the rule that one concept could harbour many forms. First of their were your typicial vampires, the beautiful kind of undead with pale skin and dark hair that seemed to be able to mesmerise people with one look. Haat definately was one of those, or would have been if she hadn't been to busy trying to make her teacher Doortra fall for her beauty, a thing the more experienced vampire seemed to be able to resist, for now. Their servant Mislukkien mostly just hung around Lantessama, wrecking stuff when he didn't mean to. Another unlikely pair of 'old school' vampires were the siblings Lucia and Alexis who had gotten rather close with Haat and Doortra. Though the two of them were related, they fought and competed about everything, except when their servant (or should we say superior babysitter) was involved in which case they had no trouble working together. The 6 of them easily occupied the left hand side of the cavern. It wasn't like vampires to be courteous enough to make room for the others, however it was like them to take up the spaces closest to the pillars to get the best view. 
One not so eager to get close to salt pillars of unknown origin was Kenny, yes Kenny, another 'old school' vampire who had kept away from his kind for the majority of his stay. First of all he could not stand the sight of blood and second he was too busy doing experiments that would cure all of his problems one day. He was soon joined by Mysa, a bounty hunter, who preferred to stick to the shadows anyway, even in an already shady cavern and Roland de Torre, a daywalker vampire (who wouldn't have any trouble with the sunlight, except that there wasn't much anyway in this stormy season) who was also a paladin, a servant of the gods who actually battled his own kind. 
The next persons to stumble from the stairs were a couple that had already bonded, Kell and Weyland each had impressed a dragon already, but had inquired to take on another charge now that their dragons were ready to mate and wanted to know what it was to take care of another of their kind. Seeing as the clutch had unknown origins, none of the Laedrysses had been picky.
The last to enter the cave, or so it was believed, was Constantine Ashe, a ghost who could only be recognised because he was guided around by Madam Fantredala, a fortunetelling lady who had brought the poor ghost here after he had killed his sister, the only one who had protected him from other ghosts wanting to drag him toward the next life. She would make sure he'd bond a dragon to keep him safe, not out of the kindness of her heart, goodness no, just because it was entertaining. No-one had dared to go against her, but frankly Donriven thought she was creepy and to have him react that way, one would really have to have some bodies burried in their closet... or maybe ghosts captured in a jar, Donriven wasn't sure which.
With the last of the candidates entered, nothing kept them from starting the hatching. Everyone seemed to be keeping their breath (of course being undead might have had something to do with it for some of the candidates), but nothing happened. Angry looks were conveyed and more than one vampire seemed ready to lunge at his or her neighbour to release the tension and boredom that was starting to pile up. Donriven foresaw a massacre and quietly nodded for Lucas to keep the emergency exit open should anything 'bad' happen. It was common sense not to get locked up with vampires, how docile some of them might be. Donriven had never been a fighter for equal rights between undead and humans, he had never been stupid either. 
Right when things started looking bleak, the clock struck 11.30 and a strange knocking started to echo over the cavern. Cyan looked around surprised and asked Lucas: "How fun, you got the dragons to bring us a ghost show!"
"I'm afraid I have to point out that this isn't something I had intended." Lucas said looking troubled.

Continue to the actual hatching