Flight 4
Green Hydrath and Brown Xhishoth

Hydrath awoke. Her tail twitched and she was hungry. Her bond's three flitters buzzed around her head. She raised her red, her eyes flashing red and made clear her point. Instantly the flitters disappeared in the Elsewhere.  Hydrath got up. walked to the opening of her cave and screamed.
"Hydrath?!" Xasnis yelled, clutching the blanket around her. 
Xasnis hastily shook Zalan awake. Zalan opened his eyes and looked at her with a question in his eyes. It was a miracle he had slept through that scream.
"She's flying!" Xasnis said and stood up.
Zalan shivered and followed her to the edge of the cave they lived in. Outside they could see Hydrath flying around, waiting for her suitors to appear. As was a custom on the old world Hydrath flew through the pen of -very scared- farm animals and grabbed one.
"Remember, only the blood." Xasnis reminded her dragon.
"Yeah, yeah." Hydrath replied and neatly drank the cow's blood.
Quite a crowd had gathered outside. But Xasnis only noticed the chasers and their riders. Three browns, and two familiars that had hatched at Lantessama and returned, glowing green Duivelth and Venus Fly Trap Saelm. Xasnis for a moment wondered what would happen when the Venus Fly Trap won... Something odd probably. The riders were all single in some way. There would be enough willing girls and males to take her place though. Xasnis looked at her dragon. 
Hydrath felt her rider watching and jumped up in the sky. Within seconds she was high above the Isle, waiting for her chasers. The Venus Fly Trap reacted first. Closely followed by the green and the three browns.
Hydrath turned, dived and flew East under her chasers. She raised her speed fast, knowing she'd have to lose at least a few to make a good choice. Hydrath looked back. The glowing green was closest to her, the three browns behind him. But where was the Venus Fly trap?
Suddenly she felt something on her shoulder. Fangs drove into her shoulder and for a second she was stunned. Not long enough for the Venus Fly Trap to secure himself though. Hydrath threw him of her back. The Venus Fly trap fell and injured one of his wings. Xasnis hoped he would find good medical care. Could plants even feel pain? She wasn't sure.
Xasnis' mind drifted to Hydrath again. She was making strange manoeuvres in the sky. Proudly she noticed two of the browns had given up. Brown Xeron, ridden by young Zasri had given up very easily for such a young dragon in his prime. Of course his rider hadn't been too willing to participate. And brown Bonlith had given up after she had done a full U-turn in the sky, followed by a screwdriver and some loops. Bye the time she had stopped her antics, the brown was too far back to ever come close again. That left her with brown Xhishoth and Green Duivelth. The green of course was stunning in all his glowing pride. He was young, very willing and above all his rider was paired of. Hydrath thought as a flash of Xasnis reached her. 
But Xhishoth on the other hand had something the green didn't have. He had lost. Like she had. Not exactly the same... but close enough. She could feel his pain and in that moment all she wanted was to give comfort. Something she knew her rider would have wanted. Like her rider had done for her.
Hydrath made her choice abruptly. She dove down, grabbing the browns tail, dragging him down with all the might she had still in her.
He was speaking to her...
"I will never be able to give you what I gave Lovanith."
Xasnis shook her head... "It's not that what I want from you..." she whispered.
"It is what I can give you now that matters." Hydrath up in the clouds finished.
Xhishoth didn't argue more. As both dragons flew entwined through the sky, Xasnis and Zalan left for their bedchamer... and Fr'dyre waited alone. Painfully alone.

"Xasnis!" Hydrath called.
"What?" Xasnis asked, running in worried about her dragon who had been heavy with eggs the last week.
"The eggs!"
When Xasnis' eyes adjusted to the darker light in the hatching cavern. Around Xasnis there were 4 small ovals of soft orange. They seemed normal. Not big, not small, nothing to worry about. Xasnis had visited a few hatchings since she had bonded the abandoned Hydrath and she felt quite sure about the eggs.
"Have you finished?" Xasnis asked.
"I don't know." Hydrath answered.
"We'll wait another few hours and then we'll see."

A few hours later it was obvious that no more eggs would be laid. 4 eggs for a first clutch wasn't bad and Xasnis was happy for her dragon. Though Hydrath felt otherwise.
"Only four." she sighed.
"You know candidates are getting rarer. See it as a blessing."
"But Xhishoth flew me well."
Xasnis shrugged: "They'll make it up in quality I guess."