Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Mhm. I was beginning to wonder just how much longer she would wander about," the brownrider replied in answer to his friend's remark. That surely was one massive blue though; he had guessed that egg to belong to a brown or a small bronze for sure... S'ren's attention was drawn back away from the Sands down below at E'lai's question. "Hm? Ah, a bit, yes. A recent friendly acquaintance whom I'm curious to see if she will be Impressed or not."

Only an acquaintance? Tereth questioned, having been following along with the conversation through his rider's thoughts. Not a friend?

We still only barely know her, the brownrider pointed out. But fine, yes, a friend. Did the semantics really matter here?

Ah, the little green had finally found Hers. The other green seemed to be looking their way.....another chance? There were now less girls on the sands than the boys, and Melina hoped that there'd be a good enough candidate left for the queen by the time the others got through with them! If the green chose a girl, they'd have six girls left for the queen egg. That would give her enough of a choice, right?

Suddenly, a big pale blue hatched, and shells was he beautiful! She clapped her hands together once in excitement - all of these excess emotions were bubbling over and she wasn't quite acting herself. The hatching was too exciting, even if she was trying not to focus on the fact that she hadn't Impressed yet.

With Lunath finally Impressed, the distant sea blue and guiding light green turned around to inspect the rest of the unhatched eggs. The luminous egg gave another twitch as if reacting to their scrutiny, but it seemed that the young queen still wasn't ready to leave her shell just yet. The scattered stars egg started to move then, and the guiding light green started towards it but was quickly stopped by her brother who gave a reassuring rumble and nudged her back towards the candidates. To this the green dragonet dipped her head gracefully and, turning away, she padded towards the female candidates.

The blue meanwhile kept his eyes on the scattered stars egg, which soon cracked open to reveal a larger than average green. Shaking herself off the dragonet stepped out of the remains of her shell and then lay down in the sand, turning her head slowly this way and that. The distant sea blue gave a questioning chirp, tilting his head and taking a few paces towards her, perhaps meaning to make sure she was alright. Before he got very far the scattered stars green gave an almost inaudible hum, causing the blue to halt and give a satisfied rumble before turning back towards the candidates apparently assured that she was doing just fine. Reaching the boys once more he moved amongst them with confidence until he reached Saykiro. Giving a happy bugle he bumped his head against the boy's knees before looking up into his eyes.

"Alright Saykiro, we can go now, I think the others will be alright without your Neptanth. Can we get some meat? I'm starved!"

Lena was amused to see yet another green--this one was rather large, too! Though nothing so large in comparison to type as the blue still on the sands. She seemed to prefer to lay in the sand to eye the candidates left for her choice, though her hum to her brother seemed to make it clear she wasn't in distress. The guiding light green headed back this way towards the girls was rather a polite little thing--Lena assumed this hatchling was not certainly not interested in her then. Still, there were still plenty of female candidates to choose from; no doubt she'd still find someone suitable.

The blue found his way amongst the boys and a boy Lena knew had stood for at least one other clutch before. Persistence did pay off it seemed...for some, anyway. Lena was never quite sure if hers would or not; not that her end goal was a dragon, exactly. She was here for them if they wanted her? And if not, well, she'd just have to find some other way of making use of herself.

"Recent friendly acquaintance?" E'lai asked, curious as to the circumstances of that sort of address but not so curious as to pry for the information. "I suppose the only way to know is to watch. Which one's she?" he asked, gesturing to the girls still standing. He sort of wondered if S'ren thought the girl might Impress gold (always a good reason to keep an eye on a candidate, really) but there was no telling without knowing the girl in question. Golds had certain requirements for their candidates, after all...

***

"Oh, and another!" Akaya said, eyes widening at the sight of the new, larger green. How many was that? Six greens now, four Impressed with two still on the Sands? Half the clutch in very deed! Surely the rest of the eggs were something else? The smallest of the eggs might even hide atypical dragons: black, crimson, or silver. White, even, though she did doubt that. They were so rare, and there had already been one born into Malvren not that long ago. "After the greens, what do you think we'll see out of the others? Besides the queen, of course."

Balt felt his heart sink as the enormous blue moved past him without so much as a glance. It was a familiar feeling and it got worse every time. With half the clutch now Impressed he was beginning to feel his nerves again. Other candidates had nightmares about being mauled at hatching. Balt had nightmares about moments like this. He knew he wasn't alone in that, but the worst nightmare he ever had was the one where he was the last candidate on the sands. Everyone else in Trine had Impressed, he was the only one left and there was a bronze dragonet on the sands. It looked at him and went between with a horrible cry. He never told anyone about that dream.

No time to think about that now. There were still some eggs left on the sands, still more chances to find His. Even if he failed this turn he would have at least one more chance, maybe two if he was fortunate. After that... he had no idea. He didn't want to plan that far ahead. He knew he had the makings of a great rider. He was smart, brave and ready to face any challenge. That was why he came back turn after turn. It was just a matter of time. No matter how many times the sands disappointed him he would always return for as long as Trine would allow.

At least there was only one green left on the sands now. It seemed she would Impress soon. He guessed they would be seeing some atypicals soon. Balt felt a surge of excitement return at the possibility of Impressing a black, a silver or a crimson. He couldn't wait to see what hatched next!

Just as he thought that he caught sight of another green. This one was larger than usual, but it didn't stop him from feeling disappointed. He still held out some hope for the burning egg.

Mallan sighed, more Impressions, less chances to find His life mate on the sands tonight but.... he felt himself caught up in the excitement, wanting to whoop for those that Impressed already. He gasped as the very large Blue hatched, well .. his egg had been big enough for a Brown or a rather small Bronze so for a Blue to have hatched from it, was more than surprising to him. The Blue soon found His though and it wasn't Mallan, in fact none of the dragons hovering around the male candidates seemed to even glance at him. It made him feel a little small but then again he was more towards the middle than others and might not be visible to a hungry dragonet's first glance. He grimmaced a little though about half of the dragons had already hatched, he'd count but his head was a little too sleep deprived to manage it.

"The short one there with the brown hair," S'ren replied, though as soon as the words came out of his mouth he knew the description was entirely too vague. "Um, I'll point her out to you if I get the chance." Aka, if she at some point stepped away from the group or had a dragon near her. He didn't have any expectations of her Impressing a gold really, but that didn't mean that she wouldn't Impress at all. Dragon personalities ranged far and wide after all; it just depended on what was present in the clutch.

~*~*~*~*~

It was vaguely amusing to see how excited his companion was about each of the new greens on the Sands. Since greens were typically undervalued by those who were not riders, perhaps greenriders had a tendency to over-promote them a touch. Then again, the same could likely be said of most any color, as riders were often the most prideful of the color that their own dragon happened to be. Hm... People were rather interesting.

S'koi blinked as she asked his prediction for the other eggs. "Ah? Hm, perhaps another green and a bronze-- or maybe a brown-- and an atypical," he replied, looking back over the remaining eggs. "It is difficult to tell what exactly though without having felt them." And even then there was never really any 100% certainty, aside from the queen eggs. Already several eggs had proved to be a bit of a surprise.