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Yvoth was one of the many dragons to cry out in wake of the queen’s anger. Rising up on her haunches, the green flared her wings as if preparing for flight, and continued to shift nervously once the great bronze had intervened. Afterward, her eyes whirled swiftly and pale with fear, but she settled once more on the ledge.

It’s alright, she’s calmed down now, K’la offered at the tail end of a string of soothing words. Her own face was blanched and she sat rigidly with her fingers pale from gripping one another, but except for her sudden pallor she appeared otherwise unruffled by the event. Heart thundering, she looped a strand of hair behind her ear, reflexively using the motion that hid her pressing her cool palm to her forehead. She had been somewhat late to the hatching. This wasn’t unusual for the middleaged greenrider, but it had less to do with her usual coifing this evening than sheer reluctance. Knowing the end this hatching would have to witness, she simply hadn’t wanted to come. The last few moment’s events hadn’t assuaged her concern either.

We had to come. It is a hatching, Yvoth repeated for about the hundredth time tonight, though her enthusiasm had waned. The green was usually unendingly cheerful and talkative, but it was hard not to be put off by the queen’s rage. I thought she might step on the eggs though…

K’la shook her head slightly. Even like this, she wouldn’t. Motherhood comes first. At least she liked the reassurance of the proverb. She hadn’t been a particularly great mother herself, but for the sake of the hatchlings and candidates below she liked to think of Yirath in that light. She didn’t know what else could be keeping the gold alive.

Zhac grimaced as the roar washed over the stands, then sighed in relief as the attack was aborted. It wasn’t until the fuss had settled that he glanced over the stands. He wasn’t sure if some people had actually left their seats to flee the hatching grounds or if the commotion had just set some to jostling. Sharing Lukah’s sentiments, he nodded. Like his friend, he had hatched his wher, and Zhask was a mellow and hale enough wher to avoid trouble and live on a good many turns. “If she let’s them. They’ll have to get over her tail if she doesn’t have the wherewithal to let them go.”

The Unpolished Azure Egg wriggled a little more before cracking open, allowing a brown dragonet with strikingly patterned wings to clamber to his feet. Once he had got his balance he raised his head to look around at the new world he found himself thrust into... and came face to face with his mother. Eyes fading from a mixture of alert green and hungry red through to grey he whined and lent up to touch muzzles with her. Something was wrong, very very wrong. Could he do anything to make it okay? Yirath's low mournful keen was his answer, and he didn't like it. Giving a whine of his own he nudged her again, seeming reluctant to go away and leave her when something was so wrong.

For all that she was no longer what she had been however the queen knew her duty: she nudged him gently but firmly towards the candidates before turning her attention back onto the rest of her clutch. For a few moments the young brown stood stock still looking up at the mighty gold, a constant low keen escaping his throat but before long hungry red crept back into his eyes and with head and wings drooping he turned away.

Back amongst the boys the bronze had stopped and reared up on his hind legs to watch the scene play out between his brother and mother, keening in sympathy with them. In doing so however he spotted something he had in fact already registered at the back of his mind when he had been pressing up against her leg, desperately trying to keep her from hurting the girl.

Back. Back. Back.

Stay safe.

Of course!

Eyes lighting up, the bronze bugled a greeting and quickly - but carefully - shoved right back to the front where he'd been to start with.

After watching Yirath nose her bronze son toward the candidates Lukah relaxed a little. "Hopefully, we won't have to worry about that. She seems to want her children to Impress. I wish there was a way we could put her out of her misery sooner."

To be honest he didn't even like to look at her. He much preferred to watch her offspring as they stumbled over the sands to find their bonded. Seeing that little brown try to comfort his mother was both unexpected and heart breaking. There was a kind of beauty in the contrast of life and death, but Lukah would have felt sick to admire it. "Lots of browns and bronzes in this clutch. I think I've seen three bronzes so far. It's about time."

After quite a bit more feeding Stromath's hunger seemed to finally have been satiated. With the task then mostly complete, human and dragonet alike were able to turn their attention more fully on the Hatching. So many browns and bronzes... K'en noticed to himself. He couldn't recall seeing a clutch like this in... a good amount of Turns, if ever. Not that the previous clutches he and his brother had attended didn't produce fine dragons, but this was quite something else. Also, the other clutches hadn't had Stromath and.. his brother's brown in them.

Gneisth, the bronze supplied, noting the brief pause in his thoughts when he couldn't come up with a name.

Thank you. 'Gneisth', hm? That seemed a rather fitting name. Meanwhile, the bronze on the Sands appeared to have finally found His-- always a good thing to see. He did feel badly for the compassionate brown though. There was nothing the other would be able to do to help his mother at this point. No one could help her.

The meeting of mother and son was hard for Winderick to watch. He used to think that standing on the sands at his last Impression was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life, but this was even more difficult. He empathized with the brown, for he knew what it was like to leave his mother, even though she was still alive, but he felt only pity for the Queen. Watching her slowly die somehow made him feel dirty and he soon found himself looking at the sand for relief. He glanced up occasionally if only to keep track of the brown so that he could move out of the way quickly if it came toward him. The last thing he wanted was to startle Yirath a second time.

As the brown headed towards the boys - glancing over his shoulder every so often - more eggs began to sit in Yirath's protective, possessive grasp. This time it was the Bursting Shard Egg and the the Honorable Champion Egg moving, and while the Champion was rocking and twitching more vigorously the Bursting Shard seemed to be making more real progress with cracking its shell.

The brown meanwhile had reached the boys and now sat back on his haunches, peering from face to face as his siblings had before him. He still seemed to be having trouble focusing on the task at hand though; he kept glancing back at his mother helplessly, looking as sad and confused as ever a dragon could. As he watched, the Bursting Shard Egg cracked open to reveal a very vivid blue who quickly scrabbled upright with a happy trill. Just as his brown brother had he then quickly did a double-take at his mother and let out a sad little whine. For a few moments he looked up at her with saddened grey eyes but then - quite unlike his brother - he touched noses with her only briefly and crooning what could be a gentle goodbye he clambered over her foreleg and trotted towards the boys with a flicker of green already returning to his eyes.

Apparently his brother's movement finally reminded the brown of what he ought to be doing and so, tearing his eyes away from Yirath, he scanned the ranks of boys once more. As his brother came up beside him and nudged him playfully, the brown gave a fond rumble and nudged back.... And paused, eyes lighting up as he spotted the one.

Watching with bright eyes, Dezima smiled as the bronze found his and their third bronze pair was formed. Seriously, three bronzes was pretty awesome! And, with the most recent hatchling appearing, that was their second brown too, wasn't it? This clutch truly was impressive! And not just in size! She had to wonder if there would be any other bronzes out of this clutch now too. Three was amazing though! Plus their gold egg as well. Surely this had to be a good sign for the future of the Weyr, right? Dezima wanted to believe this, especially with the tragedy that had occurred and the fact that very soon, they were going to lose their senior Queen.

Oooh and there went the brown finding his! Another smile spread along the weyrbrats lips.