It's Time to Hatch

Writers: Devin, Paula
Date Posted: 21st December 2012

Characters: Lenala, D'ren
Description: Vilarth's eggs Hatch ...except one.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 10, day 25 of Turn 6
Notes: Mentioned: R'syl, K'reyel, Y'gel

Lenala

The dragons hummed. Lenala inspected herself in the mirror, being
happy of what she saw there. She had new gather dress, a greenrider
friend of hers had done her hair and nails. She was also wearing
tight, high heeled boots. Later she would change them to dancing
shoes. She gave a little twirl, pleased the way the dress flowed
around her. She was expecting D'ren to pick her up. They had agreed to
enter the hatching cavern together.

Impatient, she took a look outside. They weyr was full of activity,
candidates running around to get on their white robes, dragons coming
and going, bringing in family members and visitors. "Do hurry up! I
don't want to be late of my own Hatching!" Lenala murmured.

D'ren arrived on Menanth, but he wasn't alone. He slipped off the
bronze and helped a younger boy and girl down. "Sorry I'm late," he
told Lenala as they approached. "I promised I'd bring them myself.
This is my sister Renil and my brother Dennever." The teenage girl
said a polite hello, and the younger boy muttered a shy greeting.

"Hello, welcome to the River Bluff Weyr," Lenala greeted, her tone bit
too cheery. She wasn't comfortable around children and didn't
generally know how to adress them. "Are you going to Stand?"

Both children looked surprised. Renil said, "No, ma'am. We're only
here to watch. We didn't want to miss D'ren's first clutch."

"My parents are coming, too. I have a brownrider picking them up,"
D'ren said, smiling.

"Oh, good. Shall we go then, so we can get good spots?" Lenala's smile
felt blastered to her face.
She took D'ren's arm.

"Of course." He led the goldrider to the Stands, his siblings
following. Menanth entered behind him, humming along with the other
dragons. He took a prominent place on one of the ledges closest to his
mate.

Vilarth was hovering over the eggs protectively, glaring and growling
at the audience and dragons flying in with visitors. The eggs were
rocking.

"Excuse me, I have to deal with that, or the candidates won't get near
the eggs," Lenala said and nodded towards the nervous Gold.

She walked over to her life-mate. **Back off. It's time to let go of
the eggs. They will Hatch and find their lifemates.**

}: They are mine. I won't let them hurt them. :{

** No one is hurting them. They just want to Impress them. The
Hatchlings will be hurt by _you_ if you don't let the candidates in.
You don't want them die, do you?**

Her reasoning finally broke through and Vilarth calmed down. She moved
back wards and settled down. She was still glaring but at least she
didn't growl any longer. Lenala signaled R'syl and his staff that it
was now safe to bring in the candidates. Just in time, for the first
egg was already showing cracks on it's side. She hurried back to her
seat while the white robed candidates filled in, forming a semicircle
around the eggs. More than few of the cast nervous glances towards the
Gold.

She gave D'ren lopsided grin. "Always somethings, she is such a
drama-queen. Want to bet which colour hatches first?"

A bronze was considered good luck. Statistically, green would be most
likely, but instead he said, "Blue."

"I'll say brown. Look, not long now!" the excitement was rising when
the first egg let out a loud crack and top of it bursted out. A green
crawled out, creening hungrily.

"We were both wrong, so no winner."

"There will be a winner soon," D'ren said, pointing to the group of
Candidates the green was heading toward.

"Isn't that K'reyel's daughter, Reyela? Ooh, she Impressed little
Anibeth!" Lenala was so excited that she hung to D'ren's arm and
leaned forward to see better.

More eggs hatched, blue, two greens and first bronze. "Isn't he a
handsome fellow," Lenala crooned when the bronze Impressed one of the
older male candidates. It wasn't quite clear if she meant the
Hatchling or the new rider.

A brown followed by two blues broke out of their shells. Cheers were
heard from audience when candidates and dragonets found each other.

"I think that boy is from a Hold," D'ren pointed to a youngster
cradling a blue hatchling. "I hope his family won't give him a hard
time." A few more greens hatched, a blue, and then another bronze.
"Two bronzes!" D'ren squeezed Lenala's hand.

"That's such a good sign," Lenala said with an excited smile. The eggs
were hatching such a rate now that it was hard to keep track of all of
them. Little dragonets crawled over the sands to find their riders.
Some of the new riders wept with joy, others seemed bewildered, even
shocked.

D'ren could hardly believe they were Menanth's hatchlings. It didn't
seem all that long ago that D'ren had been one of those Candidates,
finding his bronze on the Sands. }:I knew you were mine.:{ Menanth
sent love across their bond.

"Oh, more bronzes!" Lenala was almost bouncing up and down on her
seat. "Such a good Clutch!" They were getting more bronzes than
usually and good number of greens and blues too. Then suddenly, most
of the eggs had Hatched and only handful reminded.

The Candidates still left looked nervous. The excitement was starting
to fade and now they were worrying that they might be left without a
dragon. D'ren knew that feeling. He hadn't Impressed his first time. A
green hatched and surveyed her choices before making a decision. A
brown found his lifemate right away.

Aribet had waited her lifemate for a long time and this was her last
chance, before she got too old. She was loosing her hope when the last
green to Hatch, Mibanith, found her. Her tears of joytouched Lenala.

And then it was over. New rider-pairs were leaving the Sands, their
family members started dribble out to congratulate them and meet the
new dragons. Only the small, pale egg remained, standing on the sand,
still and cold, It had not rocked or cracked. The unimpressed
candidates gathered around it, hesitant and unsure. One of them
reached to touch it and cried: "It's cold!"

Vilarth got up and started to move out of the Hatching Caverns. Riders
and dragons were also leaving the Stands, they knew. This egg was not
going to Hatch. It was dead.

**Where are you going? There's still one egg left!** Lenala asked her
lifemate.

}: To eat, :{ Vilarth replied. }: They all have come out.:{ She was
totally indifferent towards the last egg.

"What are we supposed to do know? I think it may be dud. Perhaps we
should ask Y'gel to check it out?" Lenala chewed her lip, uncertain
and nervous. This never happened to her before, she didn't know what
to do now. The older Queens had duds, not Vilarth. The
Weyrlingmaster's staff was already directing the candidates, who
didn't Impress, out.

D'ren gripped her hand. "Yes, let's ask Y'gel to look at it." That
poor, sad egg. It was hard to look at it, to imagine a dead little
dragon in there. It must be dead, the other dragons were ignoring it,
even Vilarth.

Last updated on the January 5th 2013

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It's Time to Hatch