Bouncing Babies
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Aaron, Corrin, Iluva, Kane, Sia, Steel
Date Posted: 28th March 2026
Characters: S'neik, O'rock, R'zen, N'amsa, R'divale, A'garyn, R'kiva, L'rogin
Description: First feeding for Karcalanth and Chioneth's clutch.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 1 of Turn 13
Notes: Mentioned: Lathlani
The feeding area just beyond the Hatching Cavern had been transformed into a carefully organized chaos.
Long wooden tables had been set up, each one crowded with buckets of fresh-cut meat. They were arranged by color-- a necessity learned from generations of frantic first feedings. Smaller pails piled high with bite-sized strips waited for the greens and blues, while deeper tubs held larger chunks for browns and bronzes.
Young L’rogin stood near the entrance to the Sands, doing his best to keep the flow of new weyrlings moving. “Blues and greens to the left!” he called over the noise. “Browns and bronzes to the right! Careful with those talons! And make sure they chew!”
}: Yes, :{ Bhalerith confirmed as Sanneik carried him in. }: Famished. :{
Sanneik hadn't meant to carry him. Bhalerith had trampled his own tail and somehow the next thing he knew was the little bronze in his arms, warm and still damp from the shell. The rush of it all, the bond, the noise, the effervescent feeling of his mind bonding to Bhalerith, the feeling his life had just changed forever, all left him moving almost on instinct.
They reached the table just as Bhalerith began to wriggle, hatching hunger making him impatient, yet the dark-hued little bronze was steady enough to accept the offered meat hunks one by one.
O’rock felt like he was walking on clouds or among the stars themselves. He did not belong here; he was supposed to go back home to the pastures. That was where he and his family always returned. But oh, how beautiful a place this was-- and such an honor to be there, such an honor to be led into a new future.
While others may have led -- or carried -- their new little ones from the Sands, O’rock followed Shaegerith. He seemed to know exactly where to go, and his excitement to show O’rock overflowed into him without the need for words.
The little blue stopped before one of the bowls and then turned to sit and wait for O’rock.
“Yeah, that’s the way.” O’rock smiled and knelt down to feed the extraordinarily patient hatchling one strip at a time.
}:Out of the way!!:{ Ibranth squealed, galumphing onto the scene with more or less full speed ahead, fully confident that R'zen was following.
His rider trotted briskly after him, ignoring the lingering twinge in his chest and the sting of his scratches. It was fine. He was _better_ than fine, he had Ibranth now!
}:That way!:{ Ibranth declared, and launched himself toward the left, maw already open. }:Now feed me!:{
He collided with Shaegerith.
Surely, Shaegerith did not go tumbling end over end with his little legs flailing comically in the air, but he certainly felt as though he did.
“Hey! Careful now!” O’rock protested as he swiped his bowl away from the offending blue and helped to right the suddenly upended Shaegerith.
“_You_ be careful!” R’zen flared, and took a half step forward, even as Ibranth stretched his neck out toward the bowl, eyes whirling faintly orange. “Didn't either of you see Ibranth coming?”
“Come on, Ibranth, you don't want that bowl. I'll get you a better one.” He added. The blue snorted. }:I want _that_ bowl.:{
O’rock had spent little to no time getting to know this Holder boy during his most recent stint as a Candidate. Perhaps, if he had… Well, things might not be so tense now.
Holding in a scoff, he quickly and carefully checked each of Shaegerith’s bones and joints. No breaks, no obvious sprains. And he seemed more or less unperturbed once O’rock continued to feed him.
“We don’t have much of any eyes in the backs of our heads,” he said.
R’zen bristled, but there… wasn’t much to respond to in that, and anyway he could feel Ibranth’s gnawing hunger as if it were his own. It wasn't entirely pleasant.
“You should still be more careful.” He said, and lifted his chin slightly. “Ibranth, c'mere. There's a better bucket right here.”
He stepped toward the bucket, hefted it. And in the next moment, he was suddenly seated on the ground, again, knocked over by his dragon’s bulk as Ibranth applied himself vigorously to try and fit his whole head in said bucket.
That bucket was strictly better, in the sense that Shaegerith had not already eaten some of it. But not so much in the sense of having Ibranth’s head in it.
“You all right?” asked O’rock. He could even feel Shaegerith’s curiosity on the topic, despite the previous gruffness and roughness. “Here.” He fished into the shirt beneath his robe, pulled out a pouch of waxed paper, and from it took a hunk of meat jerky. He always felt better after a snack, and this would hold R’zen over until the ensuing feast.
“Why would I want a snack-- I'm fine, Ibranth, get _off_.” R'zen made a face, but he didn't actually push his blue away from him, continued to sit and hold the bucket in his lap for the blue to eat from.
“Eh, more for me. Lemme know if you change your mind.” O’rock shrugged and popped the jerky into his own mouth. “One for me, and one for you,” he said around the meat as he fed another to Shaegerith. Having always gone back to his family -- crackdust, his _family_ -- after each Hatching, O’rock had never spent much time around actual baby dragons. So he was not entirely sure whether Shaegerith was exceptionally well behaved, or Ibranth was just a monster.
“I hope they still have my hat,” he muttered.
One of the last to Impress, Naskamek and his enormous mahogany brown were among the final pairs to reach the feeding tables. Vhenasith barreled after the young boy with his wings half-spread for balance, having already discovered his legs could move faster than a walk. He lumbered forward like a small avalanche.
"He's going to need at least two tubs!" Naskamek declared with unabashed delight. "Maybe a whole herdbeast!"
}: Yes! :{ came the emphatic agreement from Vhenasith.
For a moment Sanneik simply stared. Bhalerith had nearly eaten his fill and the deep, warm fog of satisfaction drifting through their new bond dulled the edge of his thoughts.
"You Impressed too, huh, " Sanneik said, watching the big-boned brown plunge his entire muzzle into the next tub. The notion of sharing a barracks with his youngest brother was already taking the shine off this new chapter of his life. Great.
Naskamek made no attempt to restrain his brown. Despite the frantic gulping and wet choking noises of a hatchling trying to eat faster than nature intended, Vhenasith surfaced only long enough to gasp before Naskamek guided him straight into the next tub. The feeding resumed with renewed enthusiasm.
Bhalerith, long finished, rumbled with mild disinterest.
Sanneik glanced around, suddenly remembering. What about Lathlani? He jabbed Naskamek in the ribs.
"Did Lathlani Impress? Is he still on the Sands?"
"Oh he's on the Sands all right," Naskamek said cheerfully. “Waiting till the next clutch.”
Sanneik’s mood sank.
He would have much preferred Lathlani beside him, on any dragon at all. Blue, green, even the most sour-tempered brown in the clutch. Anything other than this insufferable wherry turd who pulled off an Impression the day he turned twelve. He shot Naskamek a sideways look.
“Of all the people,” Sanneik muttered.
Naskamek didn’t seem to notice. Vhenasith has just surfaced from the tub again, and finding him another was clearly more important.
Redivale and Gorvagath slipped into the feeding area without fanfare. The brown moved with a light, deliberate grace despite being so small and new, especially compared to the gargantuan brothers. He waited patiently for Redivale to nab a bucket and followed him to an unoccupied space away from the chaos. Gorvagath accepted the pieces from Redivale's hands carefully and calmly.
Not bronze.
The thought came sharp and reflexive, an old expectation reasserting itself in the wake of everything that had just changed.
}: Irrelevant.:{ Gorvagath said, quietly and with an air of finality. It was true, of course-- nothing to be done about it now, and Redivale didn't feel anything but awe and adoration for this weird, wonderful creature.
A'garyn and Talarcheth had settled near the far wall, the large half-filled bucket the only thing permitted between the pair. Still flushed from the hatching heat, because it felt like they hadn’t quite left the Sands, the sheer intensity of each moment was still surreal in just how achingly real it all was. A'garyn looked his dragon in the eye the way his dragon had stared at him on the Sands, stripped of the illusion of separation.
Whatever beliefs he’d had before now were irrelevant. The truth, and the new trail of facts, pointed to one conclusion: He would do anything for Him, a certainty silently burrowing into him the way no notions of Impression ever could. Any notions of what warranted justice or worthiness were never guardrails holding the world at bay, but rather thin veils of logic he'd held around himself. And they were gone.
The feeding room slowly bled in, wet slurping sounds from across the way eventually drawing his attention. Dark brows creased between the other bronze pair of the clutch, the mismatched power of the brown pair near them, and an unnamed heat rose higher inside him.
Talarcheth looked over, too. }:Ignore them.:{ He snorted, chewing diligently, }:He hasn't choked yet.:{
It was not a question of concern for the big brown's feeding habits, but A’garyn said nothing to correct it. He pushed it away, somewhere, for now, and readied another cutlet. “Is that an order?” He grinned.
Talarcheth pressed his bloodied maw to his bloodied hand, insistent and lingering. }:If you like.:{
“Woah. Careful there, buddy,” R'kiva said to Vhenasith, having caught the alarming noises from halfway across the room. Smiling encouragingly at young Naskamek, he said firmly but gently, “I know he's starving, fresh out of his shell. But, for his safety, you need to make sure he chews each piece thoroughly, alright?”
}:We don’t want you to choke, little one.:{ Dalonth rumbled to the big little brown.
Unused to complying with authority, but also unwilling to risk something so precious, Naskamek placed both hands on the sides of Vhenasith’s broad head and tugged upward.
“Slow down,” he said, then added, “A bit.”
With visible reluctance, the brown finally lifted his muzzle. Strings of meat and juice clung to his jaws before dropping with a slurp back into the pail. Very deliberately, he selected a single piece of meat from the tub, one that looked absurdly small in comparison to his massive head, and held it between his teeth. Then, with exaggerated care, he chewed, while staring at Dalonth.
Once.
Twice.
The performance was so theatrical and dramatic it might have impressed a Harper. The brown swallowed, still staring at Dalonth.
}: Too small to chew. :{ Vhenasith complained, and immediately plunged his entire head back into the tub.
}:More.:{ Ibranth demanded, nudging at his rider for a moment before deciding haste was in order and went for the next bucket himself, hissed at the other dragon going for it.
“You’re…. pretty hungry, huh?” R’zen noted, and set the bucket aside. He rose, a little gingerly, back onto his feet, dusted himself off. “Yeah. You’ve got it, Ibranth. Here, I’ll hold this one for you too.” Ibranth. _His_ Ibranth. Who cared if he’d started to feel the scratches and bruises of that knocking over? It didn’t matter. He forgave Ibranth. It wasn’t even a thought anymore, gazing into those whirling eyes, feeling his own resolve echoed back at him. Ibranth was his world now. Nothing else mattered half as much.
Ibranth shoved his head into the new bucket.
Last updated on the April 1st 2026