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Well, the day had finally come. Word went out and candidates were summoned to the hatching grounds. A large sandy area had been created just for those dragonesses who preferred to nest in their warmth, and that was where the hatching was taking place. Now. Multra and three other dragons, Sereseno and Oracle, had been chatting amiably, but they quieted to watched as the candidates appeared. The mother smiled, purring faintly as she listened to the younglings scrabbling to escape their shells. She lay curled up around her brood, sitting up a little so that instead of a full circle, she made a gap, through which candidates and hatchlings alike could pass. The others watching (with the exception of Eikida, who looked as gleeful as allways at the hatching) were fidgeting. This was the first time more candidates had shown up than they had eggs available. The local Saa worried that, if anyone went away emptyhanded, they wouldn't want to come back for a second attempt. Eikida, who always managed to attend the hatchings, seemed blissfully ignorant of the situation, and wandered amongst the eggs chirping to herself. She couldn't wait until she had a clutch of her own. Robin still looked a little confused, and more than a little land-sick, though really, what could anyone expect for having crash-landed after living one's life on floating islands in the sky? Really. She did look better (and less confused) than the first day she'd been escorted to the Valley, though, and that was all to the good. Rahne patted the girl's shoulder and chuckled to herself, moving forward a bit. She would want to be moving again soon. The valley was nice, sure, but so boring. All at once, the first egg burst, and a brilliantly rainbow-colored hatchling tumbled out, silencing the faint murmur of voices chatting idly. The hatchling blinked eyeing all the candidates, before wiggling gleefully and charging right towards one of the two lavendar Danachian dragons in attendance. And then tumbled head over paws right into the fidgeting Kaburenylath's leg. She got up giggling. ~Ren'! Hi-hi! Wanna play?~ The next eggs cracked open simultaneously, revealing a pair of dragons that, while they looked almost nothing alike, bore striking resemblances of their parents. And that was where they went. The red and gold grinned and skipped straight past the candidates, not even giving one a glance, comming to a halt before her mother, who curled a tufted tail around the hatchling possessively. The other, a cloudy multicolored male, ambled over to his father and grinned charmingly. Oh boy, another one. While that happened, another egg burst open, revealing a brilliant gold female, who tumbled out onto the warm ground and eyed the candidates. ~Hmm...~ When she caught sight of Horrid, she grinned and bounded forward, only a little clumsily and chirped up at him. ~Look! You got a gold! aren't you special.~ <3 Rhane was waiting as patiently as she knew how, but soon enough, another egg split, spilling it's dull rainbow female hatchling onto the warm sands. Almost at once, she was on her feet and tumbling head-over-heels towards the waiting wolf anthro. ~Sorry I took so long, shall we go then?~ She wiggled with excitement at the thought of the journies that lay ahead. A moment passed, and then, all at once, four of the five remaining eggs began to hatch. The first out, a cloudy bronze, strode up to the elf, Obalning Greatstealer, and peered up at him. ~Hullo...~ It was a tie between the next two, and the hatchlings bumped into eachother in their hurry to reach their respective bonds. The cloudy blue male made a bee-line for Hasima, grinning the whole way, but managed to slip in the sand not once, but twice on his way to her. He grinned a little sheepishly, but that did nothing to dampen his spirits. ~Hi Hasima! Can I come with you?~ The red and white female siddled up to Zamanin, pretending that she hadn't just gotten tangled up in sibling back there a moment ago, and smiled winningly. ~I hear you like to have fun.~ And then the second to last visible egg cracked open, and a little multicolored male tumbled around on the sands before chirping to himself and trotting over to where the large Suva waited. Oracle nodded to him, and he cheerfully began clambering over and around her claws and tail. The last egg sat there, watched by a total of six anxious candidates. They looked at the egg, and back to eachother, and then returned their attention to the egg. Their focus doubled when a crack appeared, and then more, finally splitting open to reveal a pale blue hatchling. He blinked at all the attention he was recieving, and proceeded to play up the audience, checking out each candidate in turn, and pretending to choose one, before giggling and dancing away. Finally, he settled his attention on Zera. ~I know you're not as unfeling as you seem to everyone else,~ he confided with a wink. ~So I think I'll come with you.~ And with that, all of the eggs had hatched. Eight happy bonds or sponsors cared for their new hatclings, but five disappointed candidates began to move off. Multra, however, grinned impishly. There came a scrabbling sound, and one of the candidates turned back just in time to see a brilliantly multicolored hatchling emerge from the sand. Atisa Talake's eyes widened as the little hatchling shook herself off and bounded right for her, beaming. ~Wait for meeeee!~ ^.^ At that, the other candiates blinked and paused uncertainly. Did that mean that there were more unhatched eggs?! Multra Kiona was practically glowing with pride. One dark hatchling scrambled out of the sand next, and headed for Enshoku, his little vibrant orange wings flapping happily. ~Wait right there, you..! I'm comming too!~ Next came two hatchlings at once, and they had probably been twins, judging from how close they were to eachother. A little white female found herself at the feet of the other lavendar Danachian dragon, and beamed. ~Hai!~ Her dark blue brother paused, before skipping straight for the bronze Nazule. He did a little circle and beamed up at the dragon, so much larger than himself. ~'Ullo Nazule!~ And then it was just Robin standing alone on the hatching sands. It seemed sort of sad that she'd traveled all that waym just to be left alone again. But there didn't seem to be any more hatchlings beneath the sands. One look at Multra and she was certain; the mother was leaving the empty eggshells behind, cradling her new daughter. With a disappointed sigh, Robin turned to get back to her lodging. However, a faint voice called her attention back to the sands. ~Robin!~ she ran forward and almost tripped over the small multi-hued pale blue hatchling, digging his way out of the sand. ~Were you going to leave without me?~ ;.; Multra grinned impishly and nodded. Now that all of her eggs had actually hatched, she could really leave. All in all, it had been quite a surprising hatching, for everyone except Kida, apparently. That Saa was quite happily watching the last of the candidates leave. <3 PICKUP |