Summer 2005

The soft summer breeze gently caressed the trees on tree peak isle, lingered for a moment before dieing down and letting the sun take up her reign again. Cyan let her face bask in the light for a moment before she left her greenhouse and headed for the fazzle garden.
The usually lively garden filled with it's living flowers was bustling with life even more today. Cyan scanned the waiting crowds and headed over for Lucas who was too busy with the last preparations to notice a bomb exploding next to him, let alone her walking in calmly.
"Are you sure you're ok with the eggs hatching here?" she asked. 
It had been her suggestion to leave the holiday cavern once and have the summer hatching outside. Maybe last year's run had influenced her, she couldn't be sure, but somehow summer festivals should be celebrated outside in stead of in a cool shady cavern. She shrugged, besides, butterflies looked great with flowers.
"You were right about the fazzles, they do seem to be interested in these eggs." Lucas said, "If only they'd keep away from the eggs. I don't want any impressing a dragon."
"They won't." Cyan reassured him, "They just want to look at all the pretty colours that are going to hatch." Cyan sighed, "That's one thing they have in common with Trix, the brighter the colours, the prettier she thinks they are. Have you seen what she has done to the records room? That's just too much yellow." Cyan shuddered.
Lucas smiled, "There's nothing we can do about that, so don't get worked up about it. Today at least you're outside among the greenery you love."
"That's true." Cyan sighed, "Zaranyth, how long?"
"They are getting close to hatching." the sun dragoness spoke back to her rider, "It's fun getting to see a holiday hatching again."
Certainly, the holiday cavern would have been cramped again with the candidates that had signed up for this year's clutch. There were two dragons, neither of them the general small size of Lantessaman dragons who would have certainly felt cramped inside the tiny underground cavern. With them inside there would hardly be room for the humans, elves, faes, imp and butterfly shifter to also find a comfortable place to follow the hatching from, let alone enough airspace. 
Out in the open, everyone had plenty of room and none of the candidates had to worry about not being able to see the eggs that were laid out in a casual pattern. In between the smaller and larger eggs, fazzles were indeed crawling, walking or dangling, as if they thought the meadow wasn't colourful enough for these eggs. Flowers in all colours seemed to have sprouted overnight and them moving only made the whole feel more like a magical forest. Maybe the summer imp Ha was responsible for the sudden bloom in flowers, or for the eggs' sudden eagerness to hatch. Maybe it was the elves, or just bad timing. Either way, it didn't seem like Lucas would be able to finish his decorations before the first egg cracked it's shell. 
Pulling Lucas' pants, Cyan whispered: "Get down, it's starting." as the first of the eggs made a sudden lunge. Being a center egg, it's movements caused quite a stir. It had been one of the bigger eggs, making it's shattering strength enough to knock over several smaller ones that had been around it. The first-born purple-orange female butterfly blinked as she was suddenly surrounded with a flock of rainbow-coloured flit-sized butterfly dragons.
Trying to count them, then giving up, Cyan followed the female dragonet's first steps into the world toward one of the humans. A young woman named Mifoby, who was desperately trying to keep from screaming and running. Seeking aid from her lover, Mapappillon, a biologist specialised in the study of butterflies, she tried to not look at the hatchling that clearly was headed her way.
"Mifoby?" the dragonet asked, "Why are you afraid of me... I am hungry, but you don't look tasty to me." 
This well-meant, but wrong-received message had a mixed outcome. First of all there were three smaller dragons, a blue male, a yellow male and a pink female that found the comment amusing and fluttered closer, circling Mifoby's and Mapappillon's heads, and second, Mifoby going down crying and shaking, whispering "Kinagteye... Kinagteye."
"What are you saying?" Mapappillon asked worried, trying to get the smaller flits away from his bethroted although the interesting creatures seemed to have become attached to him, if he stopped his thoughts, three names rang through his head.
"Mastofei!" a cheerful high-pitched squeek.
"Kino." a softer, more hesitant voice.
"Miranda..." a full, almost seductive tone.
Giving Lucas a push, Cyan decided he should help them out of what could become a dangerous situation and help them come to terms. Maybe the idea of a butterfly-phobic candidate hadn't been one of the greatest notions, but a dragon had bonded, no-one could deny that.
She returned her attention to the meadow and saw that another larger dragonet had hatched, while the lingering butterflyts as she had dubbed the smaller dragons, were busy searching for more of their comrads. Apparently these smaller dragons bonded to each other as well as to a 'real' candidate.
The second normal-sized dragonet that had hatched was another female, red-pink in colour with a delicate look to her. Gazing up into the sky, fluttering her wings to dry them and then lashing her tail around one of the butterflyts, a purple male, the dragonet trotted to Ha and exclaimed:
"My name is Rosetta and you shall know it! I have chosen you, rejoice!"
Ha smirked at the sight of her obviously proud and high-strung new dragon before she asked: "And what is that other one you're carrying?"
"This? Oh this just goes great with my colour... I think he said his name was Orachen."
"Hi Orachen." Ha said, waving at the struggling butterflyt, "Do you want to get away?"
Orachen squeeked a set of high tones in rapid sucsession, but was silenced with one look from Rosetta, accepting his fate, yet remaining quiet for the time being.
Soon after Rosetta's noted appearance, a flutter of butterflyts came loose from the glowing flock that were flying above the meadow. Two tiny blue ones, hatched from the same egg lead the fllutter of their brothers and sisters skillfully toward Laeolyja. They were smaller, but they reacted like mirror-images, complementing each other so that not one of their chosen siblings could escape from their pull.
"Nesi." the right one said.
"Resi." the left one added.
The ones behind the two males added their names: 
"Arne." 
"Magdalyn." 
"Erina!" 
"Hanon." 
The six butterflyts easily found a perch on Laeolyja's shoulders, back and tail where they swiftly dozed off, calmed by the warmth of the large purple-green flurry dragon who had come to Lantessama in search of more bonds.
In the meadow the first male butterfly dragon had hatched. The green-brown dragonet walked awkwardly among the eggs of his unhatched clutchmates, trying hard not to trample any of the smaller eggs, or the butterflyts that tried to keep them from harm. Really, he was trying the best he could, but it did not seem that he was going to reach his chosen first at this rate. Better try calling for her, he decided.
"Daeresk!" the baby dragon called, "Come quickly!"
Daeresk, a senior fae that had come from Shadowlith isle, flew over to the hatchling.
"Why did you call me?" she asked, basically the dragon wasn't in any trouble she could see. What did it need from her?
"I am so glad I caught you first." Ardlin sighed.
"So you are ok?"
"Yes." Ardlin nodded vigorously, "But can you help me find a way out? I'm kind of stuck here."
Daeresk looked down and saw a flock of 5 butterflyts flying frantically around Ardlin's paws, making him unable to move.
"Shoo!" she called in a commanding tone after which the five hurriedly flew toward where the candidates were waiting. There they stumbled upon two of the elves that had come from the Coastal Cliffs from Otherforest. Though the four elves were standing close to each other, it were Wire and Podwave who were targeted by the flock of five.
Wire, the light-haired teen elf with a knack for Cold creation suddenly found himself being used as shelter by a blue male, a purple female and a pink male butterflyt. Podwave on the other hand, already cursing and crying insults was trying to get the orange and red females that had latched themselves on her, to loosen up their hold on her hair.
"Calm down you nitwits." she called, "No-one is going to hurt you. Now tell us your names."
Frightened screams followed until Wire, aided by Urchin got hold of the blue male.
"Shhh. There's no danger. So what do we call you?"
The blue blinked away some tears before he squeaked: "Zephyr."
"Amatis." the purple added.
"Quartz." the pink said nuzzling Wire's ear hesitantly, "Really no danger?"
"How about you?" Podwave asked her two another time, "Come on I won't bite."
"Pyrit." the most daring of the two, the orange butterflyt, said.
"And you?" Podwave asked eyeing the red female that tried to crawl away.
"Ruby." she squeaked, her eyes closed as if she was scared that the elf WAS going to eat her.
"Ehem." a gentle cough came from behind them, "My name is Lei."
The elves turned and an orange-brown butterfly dragon stood there.
"Whose is he?" Podwave asked, trying to keep Ruby from crawling under her tunic.
"He's mine, I guess..." Rise answered.
Lykingthoskydsth stood a bit lonely at the far edge of the meadow, hidden partly by the shadows from the first trees of the forest. Though some had approached him at first, his love for cute things was easily misunderstood. He could not help himself but to look longingly at all the hatchlings that were on the meadow and all the eggs that still held promise. But what hatchling would approach him knowing that the larger they got, the less cute they would be, and thus the less desirable in Ly's eyes.
"I think you're pretty cute too." a soft voice hesitantly spoke, "I like your bells."
Ly brought his front paws up to his head, catching a yellow male butterflyt. While the small body felt warm in his clutches, Ly could not stop the bells and horns going of in his heart and mind.
"You are so cute, Haruka." he whispered.
Two more butterflyts, females, one orange, one pink, flew closer. But before Ly could look at them, Haruka squirmed free and fended them off. 
"Away! He's mine."
"Don't you want more friends?" Ly asked, all the other flyts had gone of in pairs, well aside from that one that had been dragged by the pink beauty.
"I don't want you thinking of others." the yellow sobbed, "Only think of me."
Leaving the unlikely couple to talk things over for themselves, the other two butterflyts flew around aimlessly. They had not been too interested in the big dragon, but they had wanted to make friends with their brother. 
"What do we do now, Wetta." the pink one asked.
"Look for another?" the orange asked, "Tewwa, do you see someone you like?"
"Ooooh." the pink butterflyt stopped midair, causing her sister to collide with her. "I see her."
"Who?"
"I think she's meant for us."
Wetta flew ahead of her sister and saw a fairy standing among the trees. When she noticed she was being watched, the fairy tried to flee, turning into a butterfly and flying off.
"I like her too... let's chase her!"
"Yes! Let's chase Colora!"
The butterflyts chasing Colora in butterfly form passed over the meadow again where another two butterfly dragons had hatched. these two, a yellow-orange female and a red-purple male seemed to be a pair. Cyan was ready to pull out the sponsors list when the two trailed of to the candidates. The pair seemed to be headed to Dera and Vliun, a pair of high schoolers that had been in the midst of practicing 'Romeo and Juliet' when they had been transported of to Lantessama. Wormholes and transdimensional passageways were pretty convenient to the average dragon-adopting place.
"Dera," the female said, "I am Shiontrelle, would you take care of me?"
"My name is Skiye, Vliun." the male said, "Please care for me."
The next candidate to be attacked by a bunch of butterflyts was yet unaware of the fact that she had bonded. Or at least she did not know who she had bonded to. Athesk, Daeresk's younger sister was flying at the edge of the circle of rapidly diminishing eggs when she felt danger coming from all directions. Up, Down, Left, Right. There was no escape.
"We Love You Athesk!" the four-coloured phrase resounded in her mind.
"Who are you?"
"We Are Yours Duh."
"My name is Vicodin." a purple male said hastily before the others could run away with the honour of responding first.
"I am Lythia." a clear, self-confident voice followed.
"You can call me Seronin." the red said, "and she is Dopamine though she is a bit shy." pointing at the green butterflyt that tried to stay a bit further from them. Seronin sighed and pulled the green in by grabbing her paw, "She did not dare to come, but you like her too, right?"
"Sure." Athesk nodded, "Why wouldn't I?"
"See, told you she would." Seronin said, "And, I like you too" the blush on his face could not be seen because he was a red butterflyt, but the equally bright blush on Dopamine's green face was all too obvious.
The last large egg shattered on the meadow and Cyan arched her body to take a closer look at the hatchling. The female butterfly was blue-green in colour and seemed rather fragile. With careful elegance she hopped over shards, skipped across the open spaces of grass and finally landed in front of Urchin, the fourth of the elves from Coastal Cliffs.
"Room for one more?" she asked casually.
"Always." Urchin smiled.
Finally, the remaining butterflyts, seven of them, one for each colour of the rainbow, started flying around more agitated. In large circles they flew over the meadow, searching for their bond. All the candidates had bonded, and none of the butterflyts showed interest in any of the bystanders. It took another five minutes before one of them launched a cry that he had found what they had been looking for.
A grumpy head, woken up by the loud melodic tones, rose from the bushes, the bells on top of it jingling softly. "Why me...?" a pitiful sigh came, "I only want to sleep. Why does the world have to be so damn cheerful... it bites!"
Melancholith sighed again, unaware of the lurking doom above his head, not knowing about the hatching and what frightening bright hatchlings it had brought forth, not knowing about the seven who had eagerly been awaiting to find someone with a heart that was big or empty enough for it to take on the care of seven. Melancholith did not know that they had found him.
"Re!" the orange male that had found Melancholith for his troup shouted, followed by a resounding "Si!" from the pink female of the group. "Do!" the red one cried happily, "Mi! Mi! Mi!" the yellow one sang rappidly, serving as the background music for one loud "Sol!" from a blue male butterflyt who followed, dragging his two remaining siblings behind him by their tails as they were snapping at each other in what could only be called a serious philosophical discussion:
"Fa!"
"La!"
"Fa Fa Fa!"
"Laaaaaaaa!!!!"
Melancholith groaned under the sudden bombardment of sounds, felt his world collaps with the single realisation that all these bright little fluttery things would be around him constantly, taking up his time, fighting for his attention, their voices always in his head, like the mechanical alarm clock from DOOM (yes DOOM with all capitals, this is heavy)... Melancholith sighed and asked himself: "Why me?"

the End

Butterfly Dragons
Mifoby and Purple-Orange Kinagteye (f)
Daeresk and Green-Brown Ardlin (m)
Ha and Red-Pink Rosetta (f)
Dera and Yellow-Orange Shiontrelle (f)
Vliun and Red-Purple Skiye (m)
Rise and Orange-Brown Lei (m)
Urchin and Blue-Green Ralde (f)

Butterflyts
Mapappillon and Blue Mastofei (m), Yellow Kino (m) and Pink Miranda (f)
Athesk and Red Seronin (m), Purple Vicodin (m), Yellow Lythia (f) and Green Dopamine (f)
Ha and Purple Orachen (m)
Laeolyja and Blue Resi (m), Blue Nesi (m), Green Arne (m), Yellow Magdalyn (f), Red Erina (f) and Orange Hanon (f)
Wire and Blue Zephyr (m), Purple Amatis (f) and Pink Quartz (m)
Podwave and Orange Pyrit (f) and Red Ruby (f)
Melancholith and Red Do (f), Orange Re (m), Yellow Mi (f), Green Fa (f), Blue Sol (m), Purple La (f) and Pink Si (m)
Colora and Orange Wetta (f) and Pink Tewwa (f)
Lykingthoskydsth and Yellow Haruka (m)