Easter Clutch 2006

Lucas sighed for the 25th time that night and Cyan could take it no longer. If he kept on standing at the drafty entrance of their sleeping chambers he'd surely catch a cold and then she'd have to take care of him again. She didn't mind in particular, Lucas was just far more pleasant when he was healthy than when he was ill.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I just wonder how they do it..."
"Do what?"
"Hide the eggs while we're not looking."
"you mean you planned to stake out the plains the entire night to catch the Easter bunny?" Cyan asked, raising her eyebrows in a way that told Lucas that she would find it quite the achievement if he managed to do just that.
"They have to move sometime." he said stubbornly.
"Let's bet that by tomorrow all the eggs will be hidden where you couldn't see them from here."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because you're advertising your presence by standing there in the full light." Cyan sighed, "Just let the damn bunnies do their work and go to sleep. I don't want to note down names and colours all day tomorrow on my own."
Lucas sighed for the 26th time that night, gave in and turned down the lights. When he turned around to go inside he couldn't help but wonder if the soft breeze he felt was caused by the natural processes of high and low pressure fields, or by a waist-high creature with big ears bolting by.
"Don't you dare look!" Cyan called, "You're as bad as a kid."
"Just one look!" Lucas promised.
Of course nothing was out there. Not even the smallest twitching could be seen in the shadows. Lucas sighed for the 27th time that night, making it a new record for Cyan who had been keeping tabs, and walked inside.
He'd barely closed the door when ears of all shapes and sizes came up from behind, below, beside every possible hiding place on the Lantessaman plains. For the next hours they were as busy as during the days, though the activities were very different indeed.

"Cyan!" Lucas called out excitedly, "I see eggs!"
"Of course you see eggs." Cyan remarked dryly, "It's Easter. It happens every year."
"Don't you ever wonder how they do it?"
"Honey we live in a world where teleportation is daily business. Why would I?"
"Let's just go."
Ok." Cyan smiled and followed Lucas outside to the Candidate Quarters. As usual a bunch of unique weird-looking creatures had gathered for the Easter Egg Hunt at Lantessama, bunnies, chickens, humans -always a minority around this time of year, and guardians. Cyan got a headache when she tried to imagine just how hard to write their names would be and yelled to get the attention of the noisy crowd.
"Listen up! The Egg Hunt is now open, so go find the eggs!"
Cheering erupted and the candidates moved out in small groups, each taking the direction they were sure destiny was in. Cyan closed her eyes and relaxed. Silence was so nice and comfortable after a near sleepless night.
"Wasn't that a bit plain and fast?" Lucas asked.
"Everyone got going, didn't they?" Cyan retorted.
Lucas knew better than to complain more after he'd kept Cyan awake most of the night, tossing, turning and even getting up occasionally to go look at the plains. Nothing had happened when he did that though.

Jenna Underwood, a veteran among the adopters wasted no time looking for hidden eggs. Dragons were dragons and each of these would be special in it's own way. She was a sensible Texan girl after all and she wasted no time doing the unnecessary.
Early in the race Jenna found two eggs tucked away behind a tree near the base of one of the mountains, the path was a bit dusty and had stained the eggs yellowish at certain spots, almost as if they were painted and Jenna decided that she liked how they looked. She took of her cowboy hat, squatted down and tapped on the shells.
"Anybody home?" she asked.
As a reward for her forward question, the two eggs started wobbling and cracking immediately, showing string signs of life. Jenna smiled and waited. Shortly after, the first of the eggs broke in half and a Brown-Yellow Bunny tumbled down into her waiting arms.
"Hello there!" she laughed, "So what's your name?"
"Usagi." The bunny remarked, carefully nuzzling the hand that was extended toward him.
Before Jenna had time to respond, the second egg cracked open, sending tiny specks of shell flying in all directions. Jenna closed her eyes in reflex and felt more than saw another dragon landing on top of her.
Jenna was a tough girl, but two dragons was too much even for her too handle and she fell down, causing the dragons to get caught up in each other.
"Hey!" Usagi called, "What happened!"
"She fell!" the whine of the new dragon came.
Jenna laughed at the unusual sound, raw and stumbling, that the chick dragon produced. Her newest bond was a male, purple in colour with red streaks running over his entire bunny, almost like a tiger or zebra.
"Hi there." she said, "and I'm sorry." she helped the two of them get untangled, "Who're you?"
"My name's Gallus." the chicken told her.

Niall, the brown-haired, brown-eared bunny-shifter who'd gone off on his own as well, soon passed Jenna and her two new friends though he did not see them. His eyes wandered over the more difficult hiding places, the places where he'd hide the important things that eggs were.
That's also why he didn't see the egg that had been plainly put on the field in front of him. Grass surrounded it, keeping it from rolling down the hill, but it also shielded it enough to be less than noticeable. So was the crash when Niall went down in the long strands of weed.
"Hey!" he called, getting up, rubbing his knee and looking around to see what rock he'd tripped on. But in stead of a rock, a bunny sat. It was a large squat brown male with beige streaks and keen eyes that looked at Niall like he was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Hi." the bunny said, "You're funny."
"It wouldn't be funny if you were the one that fell."
The bunny shrugged, "Either way I've taken a liking to you." a brown tail swished around Niall's back and the bunny pulled him closer, "My name's Kabei, what's yours?"

The large group of killer bunnies from Konijntjes gathered around their teacher Meester. They were used to following his lead and in this foreign environment the small cute bunnies had found that even with axes, swords and poison people found them too cute to resist. More than one of them had been ambushed, squeezed silly and shaken toward concussions and broken bones. Maybe it was for this reason that the younger bunnies had come to like the two chickens, Veer and Kuiken who were older, bigger, but sadly also their natural born enemies.
"I want to go with Kuiken!" Elly, a completely pink, and therefore still largely innocent bunny exclaimed, hugging the uncomfortable peaceful chicken.
"Then I'm going too." Gaill, Elly's best friend, squealed, though she was more advanced in the art of war, she was easily influenced by her younger friend and also liked the firey, free chicken that had fled her homeworld because her father had betrothed her to a man she didn't love. Even in little killer bunny heart's there's room for romance after all.
"Then we can go with Veer." Puro and Gry, the two male student bunnies called out. They were both young as well and had overcome their hatred of the chickens in this strange environment. After all, why should they fight each other when they didn't even know where they were? The two chickens were older than them, so they had a better chance of getting home.
Meester nodded, sending a thankful glance towards Veer and Kuiken who grudgingly agreed to take on a bunch of their enemies even if it were only children. Fleur on the other hand, the youngest, but also most vicious and far-advanced, of the bunch looked at her friends in contempt and called out:
"Traitors! How dare you do this. I wouldn't get near a chicken unless to kill it!" and of she went.
Meester sighed and headed after her, knowing that that was easier than trying to convince the young irrational bunny that they needed to cooperate to get home. He easily caught sight of the fully armed, black-tempered bunny as she rampaged across Lantessama.
"An egg!" she suddenly called out and trotted toward it, curiously looking at the egg from all sides. Meester observed and prayed that Fleur'd impress and get it over with. However, Fate wasn't so kind. The egg cracked, hatched and revealed a green-tipped blue chicken female.
Fleur snapped and stampeded toward the little hatchling, sword drawn, calling every ugly chicken name in the book. The chicken, feeling the murderous intent, reading the malice from Fleur's red-hot aura didn't stay to ponder and get stabbed. In stead she fled as fast as her legs could carry her toward safety. Fleur tried to follow it and kill it, or at least hurt it, but she was no match to the chicken, which was larger than her even at birth. Cooling down, she continued her search.
Meanwhile the chicken female screamed and ran. She needed to get away, needed to escape from all the bunnies. Which was hard considering it was Easter and there were more than a few bunny-themed Easter decorations around.
"Help!" the chick called again and again until she finally reached the start of the egg hunt, and the two Laedrysses waiting their to take the records when the candidates came back with their bonds.
Cyan shot up as the blue chick approached and was nearly thrown back down by the force of the panicking hatchling. Lucas caught her in time though and stopped both Cyan's fall and the chicken's approach.
"Calm down, Calm down..." he tried with a soothing tone, "What happened?"
"The bunnies tried to kill me!" the chick said obviously panicking.
"That can't be right, bunnies are usually very docile dragons..." Cyan started and then groaned, "It's those killer bunnies that turned up out of the blue. Most of them got docile, but there's that one..."
"Ah, THAT one." Lucas sighed.
"I want to get away." the chick sobbed, "No more bunnies."
"First we'll need your name." Lucas said, stroking the chick's head.
"Azradesh." the chick whispered, clinging to Cyan's shirt and nodding away now that she felt even a little safer. She'd used up quite the amount of energy.
"She's tired." Cyan said, "What do you think we could do with her."
"Is there anyone who put in a request for a sponsor?"
"Kshau Protectorate." Cyan nodded, "though it's still unconfirmed."
"Confirm it asap. It would work out great if this little chick could go to the protectorate. Even the name would make her feel safe."
"I'll get Trix on it." Cyan shrugged, "I'm not really in the position to move."

Meanwhile, the unlikely group of bunnies and chickens was slowly and steadily heading to the ceadra dunes at the northern side of Lantessama Isle. The dunes were almost like a maze with twisting valleys and dead ends. In short, the perfect hiding places for eggs.
It was no wonder then that all around eggs cracked open and ears popped up. Elly and Gaill giggled while Puro and Gry called out in surprise when the first bunny approached them. The pink female approached with her ears radiating in all directions, trying to pick up more sounds. Finally she moved a bit closer and nudged Elly who promptly fell to the ground. The bunny looked surprised and started licking Elly, which made her giggle.
"Stop!" she called, "It tickles!!"
"You're not hurt?" the bunny asked.
"No... just a bit startled... ehm Unconvee."
A second bunny, a male yellow, ran into the little endearing scene, and grabbed Puro by the neck, "No-one's captured you yet?" the bunny asked after having thoroughly sniffed his desired partner.
"No..." Puro said, just a tad scared.
"Then you're mine!" the bunny squealed, throwing Puro in the air and then bolting around him in a series of intricate patterns, "My name is Liebig, ok?"
"Ok..." Puro answered, hoping the yellow bunny would stop.
Two more bunnies, a blue female and an orange male, were sitting a little distance away, looking on the scene and wondering if they should join in or stay hidden and wait for others to pass.
"Dragna..." the orange male said.
"Yes, Mesh?" she answered.
"We should take this chance. No-one else might come."
"True... but they carry weapons."
"They also walk hand in hand with their enemy. they're not that bad, just misguided."
"You saying we have to teach them the right way?"
"Perhaps."
The two stood up as one, as they had come out of their egg as one, and stepped into the growing circle of bunnies to play with their new friends and steal the chocolate out of the special baskets all candidates had received at the start of the hunt.
While the four killer bunnies were busy, Kuiken carefully arched closer to Veer. As usual the older chicken didn't even notice her arrival and she felt frustrated that he didn't even get that she liked him.
As usual Veer was lost in his own thoughts and he seemed to be following a trail. Well at least they'd be alone together, Kuiken shrugged, and she followed her crush deeper into the dunes. She never did look at the ground, which is why she didn't see the oddly shaped tracks that Veer was following and why the two chick dragons sitting together around the corner came as a complete surprise to her.
"Hello!" Veer called, looking at the chick dragons with reverence, they really were marvellous creatures.
"Are you ours?" the two replied.
Taking a closer look, Kuiken noticed that one was male, spotted a dusty grey and the other was a myriad of oranges, reds and flame-tipped yellow feathers. One was cold, the other hot and both seemed to know just what they wanted.
"They've got to be ours, Daiya." the female remarked, "They found us."
"It is true they found us, Lussi." the male replied, "But was it fate or fluke?"
"Flukes are often fate."
Kuiken got bored of the conversation already and called out, "If you're not sure than we'll just leave and you can think a bit more and wait forever since no-one's going to find you again."
"She has a point." Daiya said.
"I like her." Lussi agreed.
"So now we're yours. What will you do?"
"Feed you?" Veer guessed.
"Such excellent candidates they found this year." Lussi remarked.

The last candidates, Lait, Crème and Fondant didn't even bother to go out to look for eggs. Only half an hour after the other candidates had left the area surrounding the famous chocolatier siblings smelled of delicious molten chocolate and the three were busy crafting the masterpiece that would be tonight's desert. A large egg it was, cracked on both sides with either a chick or a bunny head protruding.
It didn't take long for the nearby hatchlings to gather around the scent. Two bunnies and a chicken had been eagerly watching the three of them while they were making food, and more than that they had been watching the little chunks of leftover chocolate that were thrown in a large bowl.
"You want some?" Fondant called toward them.
A brown to black-coloured male bunny took a few steps forward and eagerly pushed his head in the bowl, reappearing with a snout smeared in liquid chocolate. His eyes closed in bliss and he nearly passed out in Fondant's arms as his full stomach demanded sleep to process the chocolate.
"Hey hey, you can't sleep here. Wake up!"
"Hazel is tired..." the bunny yawned, "Sleep where?"
Fondant sighed and placed the bunny below one of the tables, tucked away in a leftover tablecloth that would keep it warm.
Meanwhile Lait was having a hard time keeping a white-beige chicken female from stealing her chocolate ornaments before she could place them on the master piece.
"Keep away Butter! There's leftover chocolate in the bowl which is just as good as this one."
"But it isn't pretty!" the bunny sulked, "I want pretty chocolate."
"You stop giggling!" Lait called toward Crème, followed by a "Make her something will you!"
"Make me something too!" a yellow-beige bunny begged when Crème passed her and she squeeled happily when Crème motioned for her to follow.
"So what's your name?" he asked.
"I'm Praline." the female announced happily, "And I want to eat like this every day."

Only two candidates were left unbonded, Meester and Fleur who was still roaming around Lantessama. Noon was approaching and with it, the end of the hunt. Fleur new she had to be quick. Meester too knew that the chance for bonding was diminishing, but he could not leave Fleur alone lest she'd wreck something.
A green tail appeared in view along with a leaf-crested head that looked all the more interested.
"Did someone think wrecking?" the dark creature asked.
"I want to kill all chickens." Fleur eagerly announced, "Why, can you help me?"
"Ah, it's just a word..." the snake-like plant-like creature hissed, "Want this egg that I found?"
"Is it a special egg?"
"I've been telling it stories all day. Evilness is my name..."
"I don't need your life story!" Fleur called out, thwapping Evilness away and taking the egg for herself. At the exact moment of her touch, the egg cracked open and a pitch-black bunny fell out, looking oddly malicious for such a fluffy dragon.
"My name is Blayde." she hissed, "And I live to ki... ooh, is that chocolate?"
"It is." Fleur answered dutifully, "What did you say you lived for?"
"Ah I live to kindle a flame of undying love for chocolate in all beings!"
A faint scream could be heard on the background: "Nooooo..."
Meester left Fleur by herself, relieved that she had at least bonded something that would keep her from killing for the moment. Now he could find an egg for himself. But that proved harder than it sounded for very little eggs were left at the moment.
"Any bunnies left?" he called.
There was no answer, but a few steps down the road he tripped over a well-camouflaged tail that faded into the sandy road completely.
"Now what's this?" Meester asked himself, pulling the tail, only to have a completely beige bunny pounce on him from behind the bushes.
"You fell in my trap!" the male exclaimed happily, "So, you are mine now."
"I guess", Meester sighed, any bunny was better than none, and at least his diversionary tactic had worked, "What's your name? I'm Meester."
"Oh, I'm Dango."
"Well, Dango, would you like to go the banquet?"
"As long as there's chocolate, I'll go!" Dango said, tripping over his own feet as he got up.
Meester looked and sighed, maybe he should have looked further.

Bunnies
Jenna Underwood and Brown-Yellow Usagi (m)
Crème and Yellow/Beige Praline (f)
Fondant and Brown/Dark Brown/Black Hazel (m)
Niall and Beige-streaked Brown Kabei (m)
Elly and Pink Unconvee (f)
Gaill and Blue Dragna (f)
Puro and Yellow Liebig (m)
Gry and Orange Mesh (m)
Meester and Beige Dango (m)
Fleur and Black Blayde (f)

Chicks
Jenna Underwoord and Red-streaked Purple Gallus (m)
Lait and White-Yellow/Beige Butter (f)
Kuiken and Orange-Red Flame-tipped Lussi (f)
Veer and Spotted Dusty Grey Daiya (m)
Green-tipped Blue Azradesh (f) to Kshau Protectorate