Halloween 2006

All Hollow's Eve was scraping quietly and sinisterly at the door of the Lantessaman Sky when the last preparations for the large Balle Masquée were being finished. The first stars were already shining in the sky when Lucas finally put down the knife he'd used for carving pumpkins. He looked around pleased and declared the place ready for the festivities. It was 6.30 pm and within an half hour the guests would be entering the ball.
"Can I come in?" Cyan asked.
She tiptoed into the cavern, wearing her disguise, a very stylish long dress in softly shining silver silk. On top of it she wore a short black coat with sleeves that fit tight until her wrists where they widened, covering half of her hands. In her hands she held the small mask that she'd be using to hide her face during the ball. It was an old-fashioned mask that would not be fastened to her head. She'd have to carry it around, but then, what meant being a Laedrys if you couldn't show it off?
Cyan fiddled for a moment with the long, gemstone necklace she was wearing and then looked back at Lucas. "Are you ready?"
"Sure you can come. I missed you when I was decorating."
"I can't be all places at once." She smiled, "It takes time to look this good."
"And my costume?"
"I have it here, though why you have to be so cliché I'll never know."
"You call being an axe-murder cliché?" Lucas asked, fondling the non-cutting edge of his almost-real make-belief double-bladed axe, "I was certain you'd love it."
"I'd thought it was more something for Donriven." Cyan shrugged, "I was sure you'd come as a wandering lute player or something."
"That costume was taken."
"By whom?"
"Beats me."
Footsteps on the secret stairs alerted them to a new arrival and shortly after Trix entered the grounds, dressed in a traditional witch costume which made Cyan sigh again.
"You couldn't be any more original?" Cyan asked.
"Oh but I am." Trix nodded, "I'm a psychic witch. When people irk me I give them mental diseases in stead of cursing them to become frogs. Want to try a little OCD potion?"
Cyan laughed sourly, "Yeah ok, good for you."
"Wait till you see Donriven." Trix gniffled.
"It isn't funny." a more distance voice sounded from the entry way.
"It's your own fault for waiting too long before you secured a costume dear." Trix said, dragging Donriven into the cavern by one long floppy rabbit ear.
"Doesn't he look cute?" She asked.
"Want some blood to go with that?" Lucas asked, "You can be a vampiric crazy lab bunny with a few minor adjustments."
"No thanks." Donriven said with a frown on his face, "I just want this to be over."
"How are the eggs?" Trix asked, eager to predict the outcome of the clutch.
"I'm glad you asked," Lucas answered, "The smaller eggs on the tables are cocktail dragons. I presume they'll hatch today with the others but these ones weren't made with science so nothing is certain. The eggs in the center are the true Halloween dragons," he continued looking all the more proud because he'd made them, "Literally anything could hatch from these. There are eggs only reaching up to my knee, and there's even one reaching up all the way to my shoulder!"
"Yes honey. Quiet now before you hurt anyone with your axe." Cyan said, trying to keep Lucas from bashing in their heads with the axe he was still holding.
"Shall we open the doors then?"

An hour later all guests had gathered, all in costume, some more exotic than others, which of course pleased Cyan. With drinks in hand the gathered crowd stood surrounding the mountain of eggs in varying shapes. Chatting could be heard above the softly playing music, sometimes Screams and laughter sounded. And then, suddenly...

Crack!

The first egg broke and out flew a pale beige runner dragon. The dragoness looked around with her big vibrant eyes, displaying for the first time her brilliant shifting colours. Wave after wave of bright hues streamed over her body's fur, brightening the dimmed cavern as if fireworks had been set off within it.
The dragoness looked around and listened. Cocking her head se finally pushed back to the back of the crowd where a young boy was playing. He wore a troubadour costume, plucking the strings of his violin gently.
"Ruben!" The excited hatchling shouted, licking the boy's face, "I'm Hanabi!"
With the first hatching successful, other eggs started to move more ferociously and soon three more eggs hatched in the main piled, followed by a multitude of bursts from the Cocktail Dragon Eggs. Suddenly dragons were swarming everywhere. Moving colours were all around like the cavern had been turned into a giant living painting.
First of the dragons to finally settle down, was a little Vodka female. The white striped female latched on to Alexia, a highschooler dressed as a queen and soon chittered a fellow tomato cocktail dragoness down. The two of them formed, quite appropriately, a Bloody Mary.
"They say their names are Glaze and Saus!" Alexia called out excitedly before her happiness was pushed back to the sidelines by another dragon impressing. This time the water demon Viverance, who'd stayed behind at Lantessama at this year's Demon Clutch, was the chosen target. A small, eager male water serpent dragon with a mask covering his entire face and a body the colour of pure rapid waters swirled around him, trapping his long serpentine green body effectively.
"You wait!" Taki exclaimed who in his enthusiasm, announced his name to the entire cavern in a wild shriek, "Wait wait. You can't go yet!"
The first two winged masked dragon in the meanwhile had resumed their search after that first burst of sound. One of them was a beautifully pale air dragoness. with an icy mask and an icy glare in her eyes. She hesitated for an instant, but then turned her attention to Laudanum, who'd surely be a good match for her.
"Good day," she said formally, "My name is Koori."
The next to bond was a dry-looking earth winged male. Moving awkwardly, trying to balance his seed-shaped wings and still keep standing upright, the dragon finally moved toward Sharon. Taking a moment to look her into the eye, the Earth finally nodded and then stated simply: "Tane."
Following the small slowing in pace, another serpent male hatched. The bright orange Fire wasted no time getting attention. With a bright outburst of flame coming both from his mouth and skin, nearly burning a few innocent, unsuspecting bystanders, the male grinned, then yawned.
"Don't step on Funka you lowlives!" he looked around, "And you!" he shouted in the direction of Antimony, an anthropomorph dragon and her two bonds, "Pick me up will ya, I'm tired and I need a warm place to sleep."
"I guess we have no choice." Antimony shrugged, not exactly sure if she should be happy with the hatchling. Picking him up however, the hatchling immediately fell asleep, giving her no more trouble than her two adult bonds would have.
While Antimony went back to her place in the audience she was surrounded by a flurry of cocktail dragons. A yellow ice cream male, a white Vodka male, a dark-skinned Blackberry female, a bright red Pomegranate female and a deep-tanned pineapple male fought for her attention. For a minute the air around her was utter chaos with cocktail dragons crashing into each other, swooping past her face, lashing her cheeks until she finally roared: "Bern, Kahter, Ios, Sed, Naru! Calm down!"
Peace returned, but only briefly. Between the shadows, running from quivering darkness to waning light another masked dragon had come forth. The soft tanned, wild-haired male runner was the first Eastern dragon to hatch. He went unseen by most candidates aside from the ones with the sharpest eyes and of course, the one he was headed to, Bleach. The ghost wolf of course saw who approached her and took an inviting pose.
"Mine, " the Eastern Runner spoke, "If it should please you, take me with you. My name is Kaze."
"I accept." Bleach answered.
Cheers sprang up in the distance when another dragoness, a female winged fire, medium in size and warm colour to the eyes hatched and walked toward the candidates. For a moment she stood there, not knowing what to do, but the next a form broke through the crowd. One of the other resident demons, a female Fire demon named Gensterine, walked onto the sands, clearing away any unwanted misfits that would want to take what was hers.
"You are mine." she stated, "Do not forget it Ageha."
Bleach, who was still watching the hatching, suddenly felt a slight tug at her back. Always having the thought of hoodlum and scum in mind she turned, ready to give out a punch only to be smothered in the face by a male white alcohol dragon who was being pursued by two feisty females, a brown liquor and a light-coloured apricot. Before she knew it, these three dragons, who all managed to hit her in the face joined her rapidly growing family.
Four more eggs broke open in the center of the cavern. Two serpent dragons, a Water and an Eastern slithered off into the crowd, while the two winged ones, a Water and an Air, kept their distance a bit.
It was the Eastern serpent, a murky green dragoness with a beaded mask and short stubby feet that reached her target first. The pink demon Aricept. Lashing her tail impatiently she waited for Aricept to bend closer to her. Then with a single, barely audible whisper she stated, "Shitchi." making it sound like she had outed a threat.
The second to bond of this small group of four, was one of the winged dragons. A dark-coloured female with tiny wings and a pointy mask that continued down her spine as a ridge of thorns, moved quietly and calmly through the crowd, going over them all with her eyes as if they were mindless statues. Finally she stood in front of Rauveil, the most strict and severe of the Lantessama Daemons.
"I can see us agreeing over many things." she said, "My name is Ibara."
"I can see us disagreeing as well." Rauveil added, not budging under the pressure of her gaze, "I look forward to hearing your opinions."
"Hear them you shall."
Finally, the large green winged male made his move. His double set of wings trembled in the air as he tried to dry them fasted. Then he jumped, his powerful hind legs to awkward to walk. With small hops, careful not to tip the eggs of his brothers and sisters he reached to the edge of the crowd where Ambergris was standing. The woman vampire hybrid stood to the side, trying to not get squished against the wall and at the same time avoid stepping onto the tail of a nearby dragon. Suffice to say there was no room for Kaeru to place himself down, but he did anyway.
"I like you." he said, "Do you like singing?"
The two of them were interrupted by the high-pitched squeals of Taki the Water serpent again as the last of the foursome, a very shy female water serpent about the same size as Taki, meaning small, approached Viverance.
"You came you came you came!" Taki kept shouting, making both Viverance and the newly arrived hatchling look slightly affronted and almost terrorized.
"It's ok Nori," Viverance said calmly, "He'll shut up, see." she quietly wrapped the other water serpent into her tail, squeezing him until no sound could leave his body. Reassured, Nori cuddled up closely to her bond and fell asleep.
A single egg cracked next and a white-skinned blue-winged dragoness fell out. She too was an Eastern, there was little to doubt about that. She had the tell-tail twisted hair, the slightly pointed simple mask and some strange markings on her body and wings.
Looking lost for a moment, she finally headed for Zvan, his feline heritage attracting her for some unknown reason. Or maybe deeper bonds were tugging at her, she herself did not know, but she knew that even if she could have bonded to others there, that would have been wrong.
"My name is Inago." she stated as she sat down before Zvan.
A wild pursuit went in motion on the feeding tables as two cocktail dragons, an Apple male and a Strawberry female were fighting for the same little piece of orange. As they hissed and nipped at each other, neither of them noticed a third, a male Tequila, sneaking of with it. When they finally realised what had happened, the piece of fruit was long gone and the chase continued. The Apple and Strawberry now allies raced to capture the renegade Tequila. Within seconds they crashed into Gensterine, who, quietly petting Ageha did not wish for any interruptions. The demon hissed and turned to flame, only to find three more dragons bonded to her. Cursing she swatted them away and continued trying to keep from noticing them.
In the middle of the cavern, Two dragons had gotten caught up in each other. Earth-Eastern Runner Ha had gotten his leaf-like wispy extension caught in the elaborate thin body of Air Serpent Ike. Both males were fighting to get loose, pulling and tugging. They took their time, but finally both of them broke free with minimal damage. Knocking past a few eggs that wobbled, but didn't shatter, the two made their way to the candidates.
Ha, having a very large body for a runner, turned to Purpura Cerex for whom he bowed elaborately and then started to recite a poem. Turning bright read, the voodoo costume did not help to make him look one bit cooler than he actually felt.
Ike looked on for a while, baffled by the display before he slithered to Daw Dupree and said:
"Isn't that the stupidest thing you ever saw? Poetry?! bleh."
Next to the two of them, another of the highschoolers from Carramba high was standing. Freddy, who had dressed up as a wolf was busy getting seriously bored with all the dragons going past him, but his boredom wouldn't last long. Four cocktail dragons found him interesting enough to sneak a peek under his costume. Shouting, he tried to get the little claws away from his bare skin, managing to not only catch all four of them, but also impress them at the same time. As he looked in their eyes one after one, he heard they say their names in his mind. the white female alcohol was Elise, the bright yellow Lemon male was Gabe, the Coconut female was called Astrid and lastly, the brown Pineapple male dubbed himself Filip.
Two eggs clashed together and two dragons fell out in the middle area of the cave. Both of them were part fire, but there the comparison stopped. one was male, black with Eastern orange hair and marked butterfly wings. The other was female and pink in colour. Her mask was elaborate as was her tail and her tail had gems encrusted in the skin.
The two took no notice of each other as they each went their own way. The male walked over to Dvrinne who was waiting next to Zvan and his newly impressed Inago. Making a small bow the black dragon looked deep into Dvrinne's eyes and said, "My name is Hataru."
The jewel-clad female meanwhile had gotten no further than a few paces before she ran into the person who she felt was just right for her. With a fast move, she placed herself between other people and Deborah and then asked the only question she could dream up at that moment: "Hi, I'm Houseki ... Wanna go look for burried treasure?"
Blushing after sense returned to her, the dragoness tried to add more, but only stammered.
"I'd be delighted." Deborah answered, taking the outstretched paw of the dragoness and leading her away from the laughing smiles of the surrounding people. When the two of them reached the feeding tables, Deborah reached in and grabbed what seemed to be a juicy drumstick. She noticed something was off when more than just a leg followed and when she looked at her hand, she was holding a cocktail dragon. The green melon male squeaked and two more cocktail dragons, A white alcohol female and white alcohol male joined the party.
Another two eggs hatched and a blue Water runner female stood side by side with a large Air winged male. They looked at each other for a moment, inwardly conversing which way they'd go. Finally the female broke eyecontact first. She stepped lightly, her muscles aching to run, toward one of the Caramba Highschoolers, Celeste.
"I'm Sui." she said, "Could I be a predator?"
"Err... maybe not..." Celeste said, trying to be tactful.
The large blue male with flower-shaped wings and sharp twisted outcrops on his tail waited patiently for his clutchmate to bond. Then he ran, rather fast and careless, toward the Laedryses.
"I would really... I mean really like to see some of the universe before I bond, k? I had thought of some exotic place. Somewhere that'd really be my thing. And wait, I already know where I want to go because I see that's what you want to ask me...."
Speechless Lucas gave up and just waited for the waterfall of sound to end. he managed to pick up the words 'Icarus' and 'Dawn Castle' before the Air Winged literally bolted off.
Only one of the Caramba Highschool students hadn't bonded yet. And that wasn't to Valentine's liking. Tapping his feet in an irritated fashion, his friends knew better than to approach him any time soon. Yet, other creatures were not so knowing. Three cocktail dragons popped up from a nearby table. The leader was definitely a bright red Cherry female. The other two, a female Malibu alcohol and a male Lime followed closely as the Cherry, Kerze, launched an assault on his antlers.
"Quit it!" Valentine called out to no avail, "Stop it Kerze, Sena, Sugij! What are you doing?"
Three more eggs hatched and the first of them get away and slither of the sands was a white serpentine male Water dragon. Standing on awkward paws, his skin contrasted brightly with his ridge of black and orange fins. With some ruckus and a lot of bumping, grabbing and skidding, he reached the Laedryses and - to their relief - indicated he'd rather go offworld to stumble further into the world. He indicated Dawn Castle and waited there, playing with some leftover cocktail dragons.
A brightly, almost fluorescent orange male Earth runner, with dark brown leaves and twisty vines meanwhile, was busy chasing some of the other cocktail dragons. Finally he managed to catch one, a lively Tequila male, carrying her off to Phoenix and placing it in front of her.
"I hope this offering pleases master." he joked, and them more seriously, "Please don't eat me."
More voices squeaked with the mention of 'eat' and soon 4 more cocktail dragons, a Cherry, a Lemon, a Lime and an ice gathered around her, all trying to get her attention.
"What's that drink called?" Cyan asked Lucas.
"I belief it's a Gates of Hell Cocktail."
"Hmm, appropriate..." Cyan mused.
Another serpent finally slithered from in between the eggs. His brown body was covered with leaves that formed a crown on his head. Slithering, sometimes showing the tiniest speck of a long serpentine tongue, the Earth Serpent reached Deniul, the antropomorphic Daemon.
"How nicsse of you to wait for me to eatch." he said.
Deniul smirked and handed his newly arrived bond some meat that he'd been stashing away for later.
Roars sounded as Antimony's two bonds Mingeeth and Mongeeth were surrounded by four little cocktail dragons. Mingeeth, the green dragoness was busy trying to catch the small flittery creatures while Mongeeth, a Blue male dragon tried to avoid them as much as possible. Mingeeth managed to catch one in each of her paws, impressing, or threatening, a Grape male and a Grapefruit male while the other two, an Apple male and a male Kiwi took refuge on Mongeeth.
Next the biggest egg of the clutch, the egg that had truly deserved to be called immense shattered in a shower of sharp fragments. A large, dark-coloured dragoness stepped out, her hair a mess of silver-blue curls, her wings lined with deep blue feathers. The look in her eyes spoke of danger and the swish of her stubbed tail told that no-one would mess with her. She looked around, smirked and finally placed herself in front of the Winter dragon Merydian.
"Hi there." she said, "Now any of the good places around here? My name is Arashi."
Unseen by most, the twin of Arashi, a tiny, pale violet dragoness with an equal mess of silver curly hair (and that's a lot of hair on such a small dragoness) flew, carried by the twin wings on her front and back paws, toward the back of the cavern. She searched and finally found who she sought, Catherine.
"My name is Yuuree." she whispered, her voice sounding like an echo of tiny bells.
The four last eggs of the Halloween eggs hatched all at once when the time of midnight was fast approaching. An Earth-Water Runner with a dark green skin and pale salmon flowers growing down her back was the first to make a move. She quietly tiptoed toward Hayne, one of the duo of witches. With her tail she tapped on her left shoulder and then gave her a light push from the right when the woman turned to her left. Stumbling, the dragoness caught her new bond, steadying her with her tail.
"Are you ok?" she asked, "I didn't think you'd fall. My name is Hana."
Hallows, Hayne's  fellow witch laughed and failed to notice the slowly rising temperature in her vicinity. The sudden cracks of dry air were too loud for her to miss tough and she turned, standing face to face with a large ruby-red female Fire dragoness whose wings looked like molten drops of lava. A transparent veil covered her face and her voice, sounding muffled from behind the veil spoke out loud as well as in her mind, "Greetings Hallows, My name is Shizuku."
That left two dragons on the sand. One of them, a grey-coloured Eastern runner with a ridge of wispy, flowing mists walked, and then suddenly flashed from one side of the room to the other. For a moment he had certainly been invisible.
"Can I join you ladies?" he asked when he'd reached Aricept and Shitchi. "You see I love the swamp and I see we are of the same opinion."
While the clock started to count down to midnight, counting the tolls in the night air, the last of the dragons, a very large, very beautiful Earth Serpent dragoness in the darkest shades of green stood tall. Leaves and vines sprung up all over her body, obscuring her face.
"I see none here that would need me." she said, "I shall head for Dawn Castle with your approval."
The clock had two rings left to sound when she stopped speaking. Silence fell over the party as the countdown completed and yet another Halloween hatching had ended in time (ok not in real life),  before the party first really burst lose.

Riders:
Serpent
Antimony and Fire Serpent Funka (m) - Sponsor
Viverance and Water Serpent Nori (f)
Viverance and Water Serpent Taki (m)
Deniul and Earth Serpent Hebi (m)
Water Serpent Koi (m) - Sponsored by Cyan
Aricept and Eastern Serpent Shitchi (f)
Daw Dupree and Air Serpent Ike (m)
Earth Serpent Razen (f) - Sponsored by Cyan

Runner
Hayne and Earth-Water Runner Hana (f)
Ruben and Fire Runner Hanabi (f)
  Earth Runner Kabocha (m) - Sponsored by Phoenix
Celeste and Water Runner Sui (f)
Bleach and Eastern Runner Kaze (m)
Purpura Cerex and Earth-Eastern Runner Ha (m)
Aricept and Eastern Runner Kiri (m)

Winged
Catharine and Eastern Winged Yuuree (f) - Cyan
Rauveil and Air Winged Ibara (f)
Gensterine and Fire Winged Ageha (f)
Sharon and Earth Winged Tane (m)
Ambergris and Water Winged Kaeru (m)
Drvinne and Eastern-Fire Winged Hataru (m)
Zvan and Eastern-Air Winged Inago (f)
Laudanum and Air Winged Koori (f)
Hallows and Fire Winged Shizuku (f)
Deborah Ann Falken and Air-Fire Winged Houseki (f)
Air Winged Denki (m) - Sponsored by Cyan
Merydian and Air Winged Arashi (f)

Cocktail
Antimony and Black Pom: Vanilla Bern (m), Vodka Kahter (m), Blackberry Ios (f), Pomegranate Sed (f) and Pineapple Naru (m)
Mongeeth and Fruit Juice: Apple Petri (m) and Kiwi Goud (m)
Mingeeth and Fruit Juice: Grape Hern (m) and Grapefruit Iayn (m)
Alexia and Bloody Mary: Vodka Glaze (m) and Tomato Saus (f)
Valentine and Cherry Malibu: Cherry Kerze (f), Malibu Sena (f) and Lime Sugij (m)
Freddy and Royal Chi Chi: Gin Elise (f), Lemon Gabe (m), Coconut Astrid (f), Pineapple Filip (m)
Phoenix and Gates of Hell: Tequila Teki (m), Cherry Azoor (f), Lemon Qu (m), Lime Kif (m), Ice Dri (f)
Gensterine and Eternal Fire Storm: Tequila Gila (m), Apple Shmin (m), Strawberry Yune (f)
Bleach and Victoria: Gin Seg (m), Martini Rae (f), Apricot Canen (f)
Deborah Ann Falken and Green Cookie Monster: Gin Ti (f), Vodka Ame (m), Melon Oro (m)