Hatching 19
Foliage Lilimasith and Blood Bleeth

by Mieke and Trix

"Come on... Come to Momma." Lilimasith encouraged her eggs. 
"You'll be so pretty, come on, come on." The foliage dragoness had been uttering sweet nothingnesses for three days now, convinced that the hatching of her eggs was near. It was night now, a bright night, with lots of stars twinkling in the sky.
"They're going to be so pretty." Lili sighed, "My pretty daughters."
"No, they'll be strong!" Bleeth said, "Strong sons."
"Pretty!"
"Strong!"
"Pretty"
"Strong"
...
One of the eggs twitched. The two bickering dragons fell silent. Lili rose to her haunches, took in a deep breath, waited, waited some more and then let out a big cry: "HATCHING!!!!!"
She fell back to her four paws, swooned noticeably before she uttered: "I'm in labour."
Bleeth started running around the hatching sands, "Are you hurt Lili?" the usual cool dragon losing all reason, forgetting to hold up his act, forgetting even that he was supposed to be a blood dragon. "What do you need? Water! Water!"
"Did you hear what I heard?" Darian asked, "Or was it one of my nightmares?"
"I don't think so. Or maybe you shared mine where Lili yelled 'Hatching' at the top of her lungs."
Darian stretched and got up from his sleeping furs and looked around. The sight was more than frighteneing, the green dragon was sprawled on the floor, breathing heavily and muttering: "Not long, it won't be long now." while his own red dragon was stomping all over the place (Richter 3.1) acting completely useless.
"It's official now, they've gone mad."
"What do you mean?" Mike asked.
"Lili thinks she's in labour and Bleeth's running around screaming for water."
"Damn, I should have never let them watch Babyboom." (for non-Belgians: Babyboom is a Belgian televisionshow in which they follow women during their pregnancy and labour)
"But the eggs are rocking." Darian shrugged, "These dragons always had a lousy sense of timing. It's the middle of the night."
"Duh, they're Bleeth's kids. At least your certain they're his."
"Hey aren't I supposed to give the sarcastic remarks here?" Darian asked scowling.
"But you still love me, don't you?" Mike smirked, "I thought you liked it when I'm nasty."
"It's all a dream. I'm dreaming... I'm dreaming, just a dream."
There was no way Mike would say something like that in reality. Nope these were his hormones going crazy from being confined in a cave with two mental, lovey-dovey dragons. Darian was hit in the head by Bleeth's tail.
"Ok, it's not a dream..."
"Even you're not THAT mentally distorted."
The candidates and staff of Lantessama, woken up by Lili's distress call, stumbled upon the unworldly scene and many were thinking of taking a few steps back to end the madness (or not see it at least) when Mike took the initiative to silence her dragon.
"Lili." she whispered calmly close to the dragon's ear, "You are not in labour. Your eggs are breaking, not your water."
"No water?" Bleeth asked in a tiny voice.
"No, food, lots and lots of it."
"I'll get some." Bleeth said, more than happy to have found something to do.
"Shouldn't you stay with your girlfriend?" Darian asked.
"No, leave." Lili said, waving her wings to show Bleeth to the exit, "Bring me a Belgian waffle, will you." she added, "or no, some chocolates."
"Sugar... Chocolate... do you think it's wise to make her even more hyper?" Darian asked Mike.
"She'll be too busy with her children to remember, I'll take care of it. Mmm, Chocolate."
The first egg broke open suddenly, for a moment this hatching went unnoticed, but soon all the eyes focused back on the center event and the hatchling was given all the attention he deserved.
The dragonet was a male rain, like his mother -and seemingly also like his father- this hatchling looked to have an overabundance of energy. He ran over the sands, came to a dead stop and kangaroo-hopped toward Kehedo, the Pernese boy who had once lost a firelizard, and still had not completely gotten over the fact.
"Ding, Ding!" the dragon called, "You have won the lottery. This all wonderful blue stud of a dragon with the strength of at least a rayant, the flight power and agility of an opal and the intelligence of an obsydian is all yours."
Kehedo did not know what to say, so silence fell over the cavern. The blue dragon, Saziuth, came closer, and a bit closer still before he whispered loudly.
"And don't worry, I'm scared of threadfall, so I won't go out then. But don't tell anyone!" Then he hugged Kehedo's legs wih his tail, "I'll be with you forever. Face it you cannot get rid of me."
Another egg shattered and a male foliage stood in it's place. He looked rather cool when he strut down the slight mound toward the group of candidates. Lili watched her son and felt frustrated. Two boys already, where were her daughters? Where were all the pretty dragons that were destined to be her spawn?
The dragonet had reached the bottom of the mound when disaster -again- struck. The male tripped over one of the remaining eggs that had been hidden there. The rest of descent was noisy, far from elegant, and clumsy. The dragonet skidded, hopped, tripped and fell more than he walked toward the candidates. He finally fell down at the legs of a cat-human.
Lili sighed. "Bleeth's genes."
"Urwen," Omuni asked, "Are you sure you are my dragon?"
The cat human from Caramba high, who was one of the better hunters wondered how she would ever explain this dragon to her friends.
"I'm green." Urwen said, "I can hide well in the forest."
"Yess..." the Omuni said, "You go play hide and seek while I hunt."
"Me?"
"Eventually."
The egg Urwen had tripped on had hatched in the mean while and another foliage had crawled her way out of the confining shell. It was a female this time, slim built with pretty wings and a very well-formed face. The hatchling squatted down as if to rest, although she did not really look 
tired. She flapped her wings a bit, extended a paw and then ...
"I just look too pretty in the moonlight, this certainly is my Colour. I'm all shiny."
Bleeth returned from his short hunting trip to find his daughter, Garana, looking at herself, lost in her own beauty.
"Oh no!" he uttered, "They haven't all been like this, have they?"
"I told you they were going to be pretty." Lili smiled sweetly, this surely was only a little white lie, all her kids were pretty.
"Oh look!" Garana squeaked happily, "I can see myself in this puddle... I have the prettiest nose *sigh*."
Thryor approached the foliage hatchling and coughed gently. When that didn't have any effect what so ever, he touched her wing. Garana nearly jumped up and landed in what could only be described as a fighting stance.
"I'll have you know, my daddy can woop your ass with one wing tied to his back."
"Now we're talking!" Bleeth called, "You tell them honey!"
"It's just that you're so pretty and I wondered if you would spend the rest of your life with me..."
Garana returned to teenage-girl mode, "Oh that's so romantic! Love at first sight!!!" *squee* "I'll come with, I'll come with."
Bleeth sighed, "One day they think you're the world, the next day, erm second, they go with the first man who sweettalks them."
"They grow up so fast." Lili added, "My pretty daughter... she'll always be my little girl. And if that dragon dares to lay one paw on her... I'll... I'll... send you to it!"
"Yes dear."
The last dragon broke shell, throwing out an earth dragon, again a male.
"Shoot. Only one daughter." Lili said disappointed, "We'll have to try again."
The dragonet started an unnecessary evasive manoeuvre to trap his prey -the candidate by the name of Rogier who was the only candidate left on the Sands. After some zigzag-motions he finally reached his -perfectly immobile- target.
Then Rogier got a big surprise when the dragon jumped on him with all fours, dragging him down like Shetland-sized things are bound to do when they pound on you.
"Urgh." the young man of Pernese descent said.
"Gotcha! You're mine you're mine you're miiiiine."
"I guess so." the slightly anti-social astrologist said, wondering how he would ever get back his normal quiet life.
"Look at that jump, what great power." Bleeth said, "He's definitely my son. One day he might be leading a group, a gang or maybe even... a troupe... ANARCHY!! yeah."
"He's got cute headknobs though, he's so huggable." Lili added.
Bleeth looked at her with a look of disgust, "No he's tough."
"Cute!"
"Tough!"
...
While new pairs left the sands and the riders went back to sleep, to salvage what was left of the night before they'd have to deal with Lili trying to get another clutch and Bleeth bragging about his 'sons', Bleeth and Lili discussed the hatching.
"Oh yeah, we'll need a bigger cave!"
"Why would we?" Bleeth asked, "You, me, the little things we call riders..."
"We'll have to make to room for all the babies." she sighed happily.
"Lili, didn't our babies just impress? They'll be going with their riders."
"No I meant all the human babies."
"Do you think our riders could take care of babies?"
"Oh come on, I can hear the wedding bells already... do you think they'll let me be flower girl."
"You are too big."
"I'm not big, I'm just bigboned." she nearly sobbed.
"Well, all those waffles..."
"By the way, those chocolates you promised to get me. Where are they?"
"Erm..."
"They're so loud." Darian growled.
"Lili's just suffering from post-partum depression... Give her some chocolates."
"Relatine or Valium, you mean."

**Note: Seeing as who their parents are, all the dragons from this clutch 
would most likely be diagnosed with ADHD or some other behavioural 
dysfunction. We had lots of fun writing the hatching ^_^

Rogier and Earth Lanthun (m)
Kehedo and Rain Saziuth (m)
Thryor and Foliage Garana (f)
Omuni and Foliage Urwen (m)