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S'van leaped to his feet and let out a whoop of joy! He'd cheered for the other new weyrlings, but this one... this one was something special. This one was the Impression of his blood-brother and best friend. When the first bronze had looked at Okassis and then looked away S'van had clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles had been white but now, now...

Now he might as well have been flying! It was almost too much to ask for him to stay still now. He raised his bandaged right hand in a sign of victory, wishing desperately that he could go over and congratulate Kas now. He didn't want to wait, however. He didn't want to stay in the Stands and just watch, he wanted to go over.

... He remained standing. Their plans. They could definitely go ahead with their plans, couldn't they? Mine? What is it? Who has Impressed? A big grin split the brownrider's face and he watched the pair of bronzes and their new riders. Okassis. Okassis Impressed. And that was all that needed to be said.

F'sey hardly had time to think. Two bronzes on the sands? At the same time? Oh, bloody brilliant! Thank you, eggs, for making everyone's hearts stop. If he didn't know better, F'sey would think the small clutch had staged this entire show. Plotted from inside the egg, all of them, the nasty little buggers. And oh, wouldn't they be fun to try to teach? Look at those bronzes now! Hissing and spitting.

The weyrlingmaster groaned softly and shook his head. His head hurt. The heat was making him dizzy. In all his turns, the heat had never bothered him this much! This didn't bode well for the upcoming summer, he decided. No good at all. If it was this hot this early in the season...and at night, nonetheless! It was at night! It shouldn't be this hot after the sun went down. It was even giving him a headache...did he already think that?

You did, said the headache. Your Ialluth, Mine. Not the head pain.

"Right," F'sey mumbled, not paying attention enough to mindspeak. The bronzes had found their riders. Finally, thank god. Now, to get those aggressive little beasts off the sand. "Oi! Get yourselves over here to feed your bronzes!" he called, hoping the boys could hear him over everything else.

Okassis hadn't seen much of the Death Adder dragon yet. Seeing the dragon approach him, he tensed, expecting a nervous and wound-up dragon that would want to barrel through; but then he stopped before the young Candidate. And the bronze looked at him, in the way that the other had not. The hatchling was poised, and graceful. Maybe even, he'd say, regal.

And then the bronze spoke to him. And that thing happened. That thing that he could imagine, but never predict, never understand, not until that second --

He Looked To Okassis. He Impressed. Uktenath was His.

Okassis generally answered surprise with swearing. He answered uncertainty with posturing, joking, he answered success with cheering, he answered happiness with laughter.

But this time, he didn't know how to answer. And in large part, it was because he knew; he didn't need to answer. There was nothing to say, nothing to do. No smiles needed, no plays for the crowd.

This was it. The deal was made. He'd found what he needed, and so had Uktenath, and it was the most natural thing in the world, that he was with His, that Uktenath had his Mine. And from here, they would be able to do the things they both wanted, needed, so badly.

The ex-Trader, ex-Candidate, stepped forward once more, coming right up to the dragon that was now waiting for him. You are Mine, the dragon repeated again, though he needed not to.

"I know," the blonde answered, a radiant smile blossoming suddenly onto his face. "I think I always was."

That seemed to suit the young dragon just fine, and Uktenath relaxed slightly, knowing that he had been accepted, knowing as he'd known from the moment of Impression, that His knew him and understood him and accepted him and was ready for him, just as no one else ever could.

"Uktenath...." It was strange, saying the name aloud for the first time. Not because the name was difficult to pronounce - on the contrary, it tumbled off of his tongue with the ease of his own name, changing as that may now be. "You must be ready to eat."

I am, the dragon confirmed, with an air of calm that suggested he may be hungry, but that didn't mean he was ravenous, desperate, out of control. No, out of control was the last thing that he would ever be....

"Let's go get you something to fix that, then," the new Rider suggested. He felt Uktenath's agreement, as inexplicably as he heard the dragon's words, before the little bronze gave any sign. Without another word, they both began striding away from the rest of the clutch, those that were now made unremarkable and unimpressive to the pair, one beginning a life, one changed forever - the proud and powerful Uktenath, and the determined and triumphant O'asis.

This is it. This is the beginning. This is the difference. Uktenath, we will bring to these Weyrs what they've been desperate for so long, without knowing. You know it and I know it - we can save them, together.

Dorinelic had moved back to stand with the rest of the candidates after he had hissed at the gaggle of boys who made a point to stand out.
And Shards! The one must have done something right! Dorinelic admitted he feared the hatchling would charge or strike out at the group but no...It had impressed to the one he could...vaguely remember. Be damned if he remembered the boy's name, but, the face didn't click until now. All blonds blending in his mind.

Moving further out of both new rider and dragon's way, Dorinelic gave him a sheepish grin. "Guess I'm the farding fool then. Congratulations." It was not a condemnation, but rather admittance. The boy, (Okassis, he remembered. But what to call him now?), had a look of a parched man who had found a spring in a desert. In his own way, he had found his validation, while Dorinelic had none. Later, he thought, I must apologize for my remark. It wasn't exactly polite...or sublet.

He really did lack in manners. Both as a smith, and as a candidate.

Turning back to the nest, he sighed and moved a bit further from the group of boys. Really. He wished he could keep his own mouth shut sometimes.

Two more greens. Ariaen glanced to the remaining eggs. Just the queen and two more left. She was oddly anxious as the greens made their way to the boys. She shouldn't be anxious. It wasn't like she wanted to Impress anyway. Still... Her emerald green eyes flicked back to the last three eggs, their stare hungry and betraying her beliefs.

Hungry...

Gurgle

She cursed under her breath. She'd forgotten to eat before she came here. She was hungry now... Shards.

Oh! Finally, the Bronzes Impressed. ‘Finally’ for one of them anyway that had been wandering around for what felt like hours. Actually, any moment on the Sands felt like hours… but, hey. His thoughts were running away from him now. Oh, hey! Eggs were hatching! Or were they? After the rocking and exploding eggs from earlier, it was hard to tell if the eggs really were hatching or if they were just moving around. Over the noise of the Sands, it was impossible to hear the soft scratching inside the shells until the hatchlings inside finally hatched.

Awwr… more Greens! How adorable. And, even cuter, one was helping the other! Mal could remember the spotted Green from his first Standing, the one that had helped her Bronze brother find His. This very nearly topped that.

After the pair of bronzes were led off the Sands to feed, Firyal's attention reverted to the remaining eggs in plenty of time to observe the dual hatching of two greens. She hoped hard that one of them would be for her. She didn't have any illusions about Impressing the gold. Not really, though it was a pleasant enough daydream. But a green seemed within the realms of possibility. Except they were both making their way toward the male Candidates.

It occurred to her that there had been no Impressions to females yet. Well, they were less common. She shouldn't have gotten her hopes up like she did for this clutch. It wasn't as though it was large enough to offer a bondmate to every hopeful Candidate, and there was no special reason she could see for a dragon to pick her. She found herself wishing, as she had at the previous Hatching, that Numenor had been allowed to accompany her to the Sands, but she gave herself a mental shake. It was unlikely that she would Impress. Yes. But it was more unlikely that she would Impress if she had thoughts of a firelizard occupying her mind.

And so she forced herself to watch the green dragonets' progress toward the male Candidates, even knowing neither of those dragons would be hers. Maybe she was mistaken, and they would change direction and one of them would find her. Maybe.