Riyanth's Clutch Hatches

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 29th May 2024

Characters: Kapera
Description: Dragons Hatch and Impressions are made.
Location: Barrier Lake Weyr
Date: month 13, day 1 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentioned: J'nus, D'hol, Jayzine

Kapera

It was that quiet hour just before dawn when Kapera woke up. She sat
up, fumbling for the glowbasket to unshield it and see what it was
that had awakened her. The weyr was quiet, J'nus asleep in bed beside
her. Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, she stood and walked to
the weyrledge to look out over the Weyrbowl in case there had been a
sound.

}:The eggs will come soon,:{ Riyanth murmured into her mind softly.

**Are they coming now?** she thought, turning her head as though she
could see her dragon in the cavern below.

}:No. But today.:{

**Then why did you wake me up now?** She could have slept in for a bit longer.

}:Because there is so much to do when they Hatch and find lifemates,
and you always tell me there is not enough time when I tell you
later.:{

Solid logic from a dragon. Kapera sighed and pressed a kiss to J'nus'
forehead. She went to pull on comfortable clothes for the start of
the day, and then set out three dresses to decide between for the
actual Hatching.

**Tell Yumath and Xmrenth and Tymborikath to tell their riders to get
ready.** If she had to be up early, so would they, to get their parts
done. And she'd have to tell Jayzine... It was a good thing Riyanth
had given her so much warning.

----

It was the middle of the afternoon when Riyanth told her, }:They are
coming now.:{ and then began to croon. Kapera felt the rumble as the
other dragons of the Weyr picked up the sound and seemingly the stones
themselves seemed to vibrate their own welcome. She had never been so
thankful for the Weyr's design as now, when she could go from her
office to her weyr, get changed into her finery, and then bolt down to
the Sands to get into the box and be seen as in control of her Weyr as
she mentally controlled her lifemate.

When D'hol joined her, she took his hand and murmured, "Weyrleader.
What a healthy clutch we have." She appreciated one of his rare smiles
as they both looked over the arriving dignitaries.

She loved seeing the white robed Candidates file out onto the Sands.
Kapera always liked seeing the patterns they formed. Of course they
were instructed to form a loose circle around the eggs, roughly sorted
by Candidate gender on each half of the circle at the start. Some
liked to space further apart and be on their own to clearly see if a
dragon was headed for them, and others stood close to their friends as
if to draw comfort, which mixed the groups slightly. She remembered
her own Impression, when she'd stood alone. The ones who had each
other were very lucky.

With the crack of a broken shell, the first dragon hatched. It was a
brown, and this dragon knew exactly who he wanted to find. He set
single-mindedly across the Sands towards Nikhayden, headbutting the
young man in his enthusiasm to make his choice.

"It's Abereth!"

"He wasted no time," Kapera said approvingly. A brown whose mind was
made up was certainly a positive sign. Especially for the first of his
clutch to hatch.

The Weyrling workers came and escorted the new pair from the Sands
toward their waiting first feeding.

The next three eggs took their time, but hatched two greens and a
blue. One green found her lifemate immediately, who cried out, "Her
name is Chordath!" While the other two wandered around creeling as
they looked for theirs. It took no more than three minutes before they
each found their mates.

The little cerulean blue seemed confused at first then found who he
was looking for as he crooned up at a stunned Videryn. }:I'm hungry
mine:{ he sat next to him with a piece of his shell stuck to his back.
Videryn gently removed the shell and patted the little wings back into
place. **We have food for you over here, Zhomoth,** he said.
"Zhomoth," he told the Weyrling worker who came to escort him over to
the side of the cavern.

After those first four, the eggs began rocking frantically and cracked
much faster, and as hard as she tried, she couldn't catch every single
Impression. She caught Lenorin and Rabain Impressing close by each
other, the first to a brown and the latter to a blue. Another girl
walked away with a young green who Riyanth informed her was Varinth.

One green broke free of her shell and stumbled around. She walked up
and down the selection of Candidates, twice, and ignored them all
before stumbling towards Riyanth, crying loudly. Kapera pressed her
hands to her mouth, shades of Riyanth's dead dragonet, of Saibra's
dead dragonet, dancing before her eyes. **Please, no. Please not this
time.**

Riyanth curled her wing over the green dragonet, hiding her from sight
as she pressed her muzzle under her wing to comfort the green. }:I am
telling Selesinath to go look further.:{

The green emerged from under Riyanth's wing and began stepping around
the other Candidates before making a line for the Stands. She aimed
towards a particular section, swung her head to point, and eyes
whirling and wings mantling, _pointed_, very clearly and insistently
calling until a specific girl stumbled out of the crowd and down to
touch her. Very reluctantly, it seemed.

"We'll have to check in on her after this," she murmured to D'hol. He
turned concerned eyes toward his Weyrwoman with a sharp nod of
agreement.

The eggs were more than three quarters done now. She saw Arlin walk
off with a blue, and spotted a beautiful little green Impressing to
Haysh. How many of the builders who'd asked directly to Stand, as well
as the Searched ones, had Impressed? It was a goodly number by now!
She thought it was charming.

Avradess called out his lifemate's name as "Tarvanneth!" The little
bronze made himself known with an attempt at a roar of triumph that
came out more like a growl. Then promptly knocked his new lifemate
over with his enthusiasm.

Kapera saw a blue dragonet who looked up and down at the collection of
the boy Candidates - and then he walked right past them all to a group
of the girls. And then to a specific girl, who he stared at and nosed
at. "What happened at Dragonsfall is happening here with us!" She
clapped her hands delighted at the unique Impression.

The girl turned around and reached for the dragonet. "That's Rasme's
daughter! And a blue! Oh, we'll really have to check on that
afterwards." She looked over to see Rasme doing a fairly good stoic
face, and her bluerider partner C'ris looking substantially more
excited. She couldn't help the smile that lit her eyes.

As the remaining few eggs cracked, the crowd sounds increased in
intensity. Some of it was the sounds of people leaving, as some felt
like the event was already over - perhaps because their friends or
family had Impressed, perhaps because they wanted to leave early to
get the food - while others were riders who were preparing to take
folks home if they couldn't stay for the feast. Some of the noise was
increased cheering or name-calling from the Stands, people celebrating
the last wave of Impressions.

A mid-sized dragonet with large fragments of eggshell still stuck to
his body stumbled around the Sands. His head swung back and forth as
he looked at the few Candidates who remained, assessing them for fit.
The brown made a start towards one boy, then another, before finding
his way towards a third who had already started dejectedly off the
Sands and nudged him in the back. The startled Candidate spun around
and threw his arms around the dragonet.

"Qitanath!" he yelled, tears of joy running down his face.

With the final Impression made, the Hatching was over. But all of the
work afterwards - especially handling the two unusual Impressions -
was just beginning.

**Have the Weyrlingmasters separate the Stand and blue Impressions for
me to speak with while they tend the other Impressed,** she had
Riyanth pass along.

Last updated on the June 1st 2024

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Riyanth's Clutch Hatches