Welcome to Gaia! ::

Alright, folks! This is not your typical hatching ground! (You're on a damn island next to a prison, what do you expect?) See that opening on that image up there? That is the entry way to the hatching grounds.

The grounds are located on a low ledge of one of the rocky mountains. (It's not that low. Rather, it's low compared to the rest of it.) Below the grounds are the goldrider and blackrider weyrs (currently occupied by our MYSTERY GOLDRIDER WINNER ~ and the blackrider, Amai of Black Emiristh). To get up to the grounds, people enter an entry way on the bottom and go through the halls around the weyrs, making their way up, up, up to the grassy ledge!

There are stands for the guests (which include observers, wherhandlers and riders) to the right. To the left is where the dragons sit, and the whers unfortunately get forced to sit behind them.

Near the ledge opposite the door is where the wingleaders (ten people total; seven men and the rest women) sit to both sides of the masters. The masters are three men; Guardmaster Sesabal (soutou), Whitemaster J'aro (Hopefolly) and Whermaster Brambel (Hopefolly).

In front of them is the gold and her rider. In front of them sit your lovely bundle of eggs! Just beyond said eggs are the candidates, sorted into two groups depending on gender.

Near the entry is the feeding table for the new dragonets and the healers.

The grounds are trashed from tunnelsnake hunting.

All sides are open except the entry.

Have fun! (And be careful?)

...really? The middle of the night? Iafri had been having such a nice dream, too. But hey, there were worse things to have to wake up for! She rolled herself out of bed, found her robes and pulled them on before before she got moving - with a brief delay to acquire a glowbasket. It turned out to be a pointless effort, though, because someone took it from her.

Oh well. Accepting the theft with nothing more than a sigh, Iafri just stuck close to someone else who had one, and eventually came into possession of another. Once she'd reached the Hatching Grounds and joined the female candidates, she didn't try to push her way to the front. For one, she didn't have even that much aggression in her, and for another, being towards the back was usually safer. Granted, there wouldn't be any white hatchlings this time around - thank goodness! - but even 'normal' dragonets could be angry. She might not have the best view (like she could have seen that much anyway!), but at least she wouldn't be in the front lines if there was trouble.

The braver - and/or more foolish - candidates could take that risk if they really wanted to, but Iafri was content to be where she was.

"Glowbasket? Robe? Most amazing candidate ever? The desire to not get mauled out there?"

YES. YES. YES. YES.

Jerishude was downright jumping in place the moment he recognized the familiar sound of the dragon's humming. He'd nearly leaped with joy the moment everyone was told to get into their robes and get their shardin' selves to the sands. Boys on once side, girls on the other - whatever that was supposed to do in terms of good. If a white got onto the sands everyone ran everywhere screaming anyway so the segregation was more for tradition. Or so Jerishude surmised, not that he was thinking that hard right now. It was all he could do to not push the nearest person into the wall to get past him (he was pretty tempted though) and out onto the sands first.

When he finally made his way out and amongst the rest already scattering onto the hot sands he gave a bob of his head towards the higher ups, not that he cared for their likes or dislikes, and a wide grin spread across his lips as he looked out at the eggs. Jerishude always liked eggs, the whole touching thing was pretty cool. He held the glowbasket down at his side as he took a place with the others, his gaze already hungrily devouring the sight before the group. Oh, how he'd loved touching those eggs. . .

Did she want to move closer? No, not really. A better view was not worth the increased possiblity of being mauled, in Iafri's opinion. Not that she voiced it. Instead, she merely complied with an indifferent, "If you want."

While Kalania was her friend, she was no more likely to get any protest from the older girl than anyone else. Shards, she'd never even told her fellow candidate that she really didn't like to be called anything other than her full name. So, closer to the action it was...as long as Kala forged the way. Iafri was not going to be doing any pushing, or even elbowing.

The hatching of dragons didn't really concern him, but the possibility that tunnelsnakes might make an appearance did. Bekar thought the possibility remote, but he was still in attendance at the hatching. Besides, J'aro was there. He gazed out at the hatching floor from the stands. Bittersweet memories. It had been painful to Stand for hatching after hatching, and be chosen by no dragonet. It had been painful in a more physical way to be slashed by a white dragonet and then not even manage to Impress the damned thing ...

Not that he regretted not having a white dragon, or any dragon at all.

I am short. They should have let me sit in front of the dragons. Beksk's mental voice was clear even from across the sands. Probably I am sitting behind the dragons because my eyesight is better. I can see everything. Those dragons can barely see their own noses. What help will they be if a tunnelsnake attacks? They would be biting their own tails.

Bekar made an effort to tune this out, glancing at the leaders of the Islands and then looking down at the candidates, lit dimly by their glowbaskets. Which ones would find their partners today?

Not that one, Beksk's voice came instantly. I would not Impress that one, if I were a dragon. Not that one either. And that one looks too shy. I don't like that one either. Is he picking his nose? Is he picking his nose, Bekar? That is undignified.

Bekar didn't see anyone picking their nose, but he chose not to respond in any case.

Dragons seemed to enjoy their late night wake ups. First Adetsu's pesky little flit with her crashing pottery and then, equally into the dead quiet of sleep, the eggs. This particular clutch (the one he hoped he'd been waiting for since he was twelve, for quiet selfish reasons, for Adetsu, for other things) rocked him awake without having to face plant into the bed first, sent the young mans eyes flying open with the first resounding hum.

White robes went on. Adetsu hated them. Kaeyne teased him for it before they dressed. They arrived in the traditional garments, Kaeyne's hair bound back even in the rush of the night and the little time for preparation. Crowds. A crowd. Huge assortment of people. One young boy picked his nose (ugh).

They were not chasing a white. They did not have to be in the very front - a hatchling would find or call to them. Maybe. Some just grew tired and sad and- Kaeyne squeezed at Adetsu's elbow, just once, tilted his head in the vague direction of the masses of Candidates. Even if tunnelsnakes attacked and it would be harder to escape if need be (unarmed, all but naked in those robes), there would be more people to go through. Closer to the eggs than the back of the crowd allowed.

"Standing in the back is not fun." Is all he said. An agreement, any sort of neutral not hating the idea thing from Adetsu would be all Kaeyne needed to press into the throng and get them both lost in it.

Mairin was a naturally early riser but the middle of the night was a bit too early even for her. The teen stumbled about as she pulled on her robes and tied her hair back into a loose braid. She rubbed the crusty muck from her eyes while gaining proper feeling in her legs. It seemed that this clutch was going to be memorable all right and not just because it was the first one by a gold in twelve turns. To Mairin though the clutch stood out more as her fourth time standing and what she expected would be a less hectic affair than the last three.

Using a glowbasket to light the way Mairin made her way to the hatching grounds, which from what was illuminated still looked as disheveled as the candidates standing upon them. With waves and nods to those she knew Mairin walked over to stand with the rest of the girls. " Any guesses on which ones will go first?" Not quite her peppy self she shifted from foot to foot more than bounced as she normally might have. Still the girl was awake enough now to talk quietly under the hum of the dragons and curious to see if any of her fellows had gotten particularly strong or eager feelings from the eggs during the touching. Well before those huge tunnelsnakes had shown up anyways and ended it. Mairin herself had got no more than halfway through touching all the eggs before that happened.