Hatching 9
Sun Secarath and Rayant Nasionalth

It was a pleasant, but windy day when Secarath announced her eggs to be ready. The sky outside was filled with bright wispy clouds that hurried past, changing shapes and sizes as they moved past. Now and then a dragon's silhouette could be seen against the blue-white of the sky. Even in the Hatching Cavern Secarath could see that it was a nice day to fly, the wind posing just enough of a thrill to do some acrobatics. 
She had been lost in daydreams when finally her mate, Rayant Nasionalth, had brought her attention upon the eggs. Already they were gently rocking. Not yet hard enough to haul the candidates and spectators in, but ready enough to get her rider.
"Mireille." Secarath said gently in her bond's head, "I am to become a mother today."
"They're hatching?" the excited voice of her rider signalled back.
Secarath replied affirmative, feeling a deep warmth radiate through her skin as she felt proud and heard her rider's silent laugh of caring and celebration. Nasionalth flew down and carefully paced his way toward the entrance. "We will have some fine kids." he said beaming even more than his mate if that was possible.
"Yes, my love. Too bad my daughter will haul attention away from her siblings."
Nasionalth cocked an eyebrow, "A sun? You never told me..." he sounded almost hurt.
Secarath smiled mysteriously, "I've been keeping it a secret. Even from Mireille." Carefully she pointed one of her claws to an egg, not even that big in size only a few metres from her resting body. As they were looking hairline cracks appeared in it.
"It is time." Secarath signalled all over the Isle, starting the ancient Pernese melody she had first heard at her hatching. Nasionalth soon joined in the humming. Within minutes all the dragons presently at Lantessama Isle joined them as humans rushed in to get a good seat for the event.
One by one the 7 candidates for the 7 eggs entered the sands. 
Among the candidates were the second dragon coming to bond to Lantessama, again a female, this one a foliage named Estroth. Even more unusual than the dragoness were the 3 flitters that had come from Cy Dragonstake. Only 1 still had to bond, the brown male that was called Stone. 
Mireille had only heard bits and pieces about Calliente, a place where dragons became humans. It seemed wonderful, but did she really want to see Secarath in her human form? Could she be as pretty a woman as she was a dragoness? Mireille cast a look aside to Ikron... 
Before she could finish that thought a somewhat larger group of Pernese and humans entered the cavern. They were the last to enter. The dragons started to hum louder, urging the hatchlings to break free and see the world. The thoughts were too chaotic to follow, but for some reason Mireille could grasp some of the visions. Fields and water. Rainbows in the sky. 
Smiling she turned to the eggs and closed her mind for the images to better see the impressions. On the benches she could already see the Laedrysses. Trix with a notepad and a pencil busy writing, her sister Cyan right beside her holding hands with Lucas. They were whispering and laughing. Donriven sat on Trix' other side, looking down at the eggs with his dark eyes, probably functioning as a fail-safe if Trix missed something.
A loud crack interrupted her thoughts. Mireille turned to the sands. A bronze hatchling, his hide wet and shining stepped away from his shattered shell. The dragonet let out some cries of hunger. When he noticed no-one was going to come for him, he stood up and walked toward the foliage dragoness Estroth.
"Why didn't you come?" he asked.
"I didn't need to." she told him back, "You didn't need any help."
"Hey! That's right, I didn't." the young rayant said, "My name is Imwell."
"Let's go Imwell... I know where the food is." Estroth winked and led her bond out.
As the rayant left the Sands several other eggs broke. One, no two foliages walked out of their eggs. They ran around a bit, avoiding the eggs of their unhatched siblings, but they were still clumsy. One of the foliages scraped her wing on a rather large egg. The egg toppled over as the darker foliage ran to safety, right in the arms of Nuara, a Pernese girl who was standing next to her brother.
"Nuara!!!! Help!" the little foliage broadcasted to her unaware bond.
"Erith..." the young woman gasped, overcome by the emotion of impending doom that the little dragoness was radiating outward. She stood up and shook of the terror. "Silly dragon, stop and turn around."
"What?" the dragoness asked, grasping Nuara's robe.
"The egg broke when it hit the ground, you were never in danger."
"I wasn't?" The small dragoness looked back and sighed relieved when she saw two new dragons out on the sand.
The large egg had spilled two blue dragons on the sand. The male part of the twin was completely blue, but a darker hue than commonly seen. His sister was lighter, and when she crawled to her feet and fanned her wings, dark nebula wings rose above her head.
While those two were recovering from their rough entry in the world the other foliage, a considerably lighter green female skipped her way to Syve.
"My name is Olpasth." was all she said, but that was enough. Without a fuss she followed her bond out into the sun, only looking up to catch some wind to dry her wings. When Mireille saw her leave she got the feeling that this one would be easy to care for, happy with whatever she got and twice as caring as any other foliage she had met on the isle... 
Another egg sprang open. Out rolled the small sun, Secarath had known was in there. The sun stood up and revelled in the attention of the spectators. There were gasps and whispers and the sun loved every second of it.
One that didn't like the attention taken away from him was the rain male. He had finally recovered his balance and was heading out to the males. With a devious look in his eyes he jumped up and ran in front of his sister. The sun shrieked and promptly fell back on her haunches.
The rain ran on to the males and found who he was looking for.
"Nuramor! Can you believe what a show-off that sister of mine is?"
"I saw it, Terunith... but what if she had gotten hurt?"
"Nah, I didn't hit her that hard." he said smiling.
Suddenly another egg emerged next to the male rain. His twin, the nebula-winged rain had followed her brother. 
"Terunith?" she asked, "Can I stay with you for a while... my bond isn't here and I'm sooo hungry."
She rolled her eyes and rubbed her belly.
"Can she?" Terunith asked his bond. "Only until she can go to her new home?"
"Why not." Nuramor shrugged, "I'll find someone to help me cut food. Nuara might be willing."
"Thanks!" the nebula-rain squeeked, "I won't bother you long. I'm headed for Mythicalae. You can call me Zetath."
While the three of them headed out to the feeding tables the gold struggled back up. She bugled to get the attention back. When all eyes were on her again she showed the dragon equivalent of a smile and headed for Sirila.
"Finally..." she said, "I am Randirith."
"You're beautiful Randirith." Sirila answered.
"Thank you." Randirith said, giving her bond a soft pat on the leg. "I'm rather hungry."
"Then we'll go out. I want you to meet Iralis and her dragon, sunshine Reyan."
"Is Reyan prettier than me?" Randirith asked when they were headed out.
Mireille couldn't help but laugh and look at Secarath. Mother and daughter were so alike it was comical.
"She'll grow up alright as I did." Secarath said.
"Of course she will... and become the second-greatest dragon around."
Secarath lashed her tail toward her rider, making her take a few steps back to not get struck in the face. "I will take that as a yes indeed."
There were still two eggs left. The rhytm of the hatching slowed down a little. The dragons inside the eggs took their time to get out. On the sands Julie looked around sheepishly. She was the only human candidate still standing. The brown flitter stone was busy flying around what he had apparently dubbed as his egg. Julie focused her eyes on the other egg and wondered what was inside. She didn't have to wait long to find out. Slowly a few pieces fell away and a green hide appeared below the shell. A few pushes later the green dragoness fell out. The foliage shook her head and wandered toward Julie. 
"Hello!" she said cheerfully, "I'm Riasiith."
"Hello Riasiith." Julie answered obligatory before she realised she had impressed.
"You have a lovely mind... I can't wait to try these French Fries."
"Well it's all meat for you here." Julie answered, "Besides, you don't want to become so fat that I'd have to roll you through the caverns, right?"
"I can roll myself." the foliage replied know-it-all, "But meat sounds yummy for now."
Those last thoughts were obscured by the sounds of the last egg hatching. The shell nearly exploded away from the dragon within... or dragons. Another twin emerged from the egg. These twins were mostly earth-coloured. But as soon as the first half hit the ground he extended his wings that were a bright foliage green. He bounced back up and then stood before the brown flit. The dragon was small, even by Lantessama standards. He was about the size of a large dog. 
"Stone?" he asked.
"Here." chirped the flit.
"I'm Zeraalth... can I be human too?"
"Agreed."
The small foliage-earth followed his brown bond out, jumping and frolicking, not hindered by his wings and limbs as his siblings seemed to be. He appeared to be a lot lighter than them also.
The last dragon, an earth male sat alone on the sands.
"No-one for me." he sat, only a tad sad.
"What do you want to do, my son?" Secarath asked.
"Enzan shi sounds kind of nice..."
"You can go wherever you want to."
"Nice." he said grinning, "I was planning on seeing a bit of the world before bonding."
Mireille shrugged. Anything was possible it seemed, even an earth with a rain's attitude. Or maybe that was just pose. Maybe it was even sensible enough to be earthly to want to look strong and independent. She felt a bit sorry for the hatchling.
"I'll help you with your food." she offered and led the little earth out.
"Have you been to other worlds?" he asked.
"Oh yes..." Mireille started. 
The rest of their conversation was lost in the wind that was still blowing outside, chasing the clouds through the blue sky. In the distance the sun was already setting, colouring the edges of both sea and air a faint purple. Secarath turned to Nasionalth. 
"Do you think it's too late to go for a little trip?" she asked innocently.
"It's never too late for you." Nasionalth grinned, "Just make sure I'm always around..."
"I will." The sun said, leaping up and running toward the cave entrance, bugling loud as she slapped open her wings and took off.

Sirila and Sun Randirith (f)
Estroth and Rayant Imwell (m)
Stone and Foliage-Earth Zeraalth (m)
Earth Imayon (m) to Enzan Shi
Nebula-Rain Zetath (f) to Mythicalae
Nuramor and Rain Terunith (m)
Julie and Foliage Riasiith (f)
Nuara and Foliage Erith (f)
Syve and Foliage Olpasth (f)