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Ffffffffffff-

X'nar stared dumbly at the scene of chaos before him. Wasn't one disaster enough for the night, his stunned mind wondered?

After only a few moments, however, the white rider recovered himself and sprung out of the stands for the second time that night; the Whitemaster was down there somewhere, and he was damned between if he was going to miss a chance to help him if he needed it. They were the sharding White Guard, and they sharding well stuck together.

He had to shove a few dumb candidates out of his way, but before too long he was standing as close to the collapse as he dared. Had they fallen through into the weyrs below, or were they stuck buried? He'd seen a few dragons vanish between, but as whites weren't allowed at hatchings he couldn't tell by that whether or not J'aro had been killed.

"Shards," X'nar muttered as he stared down into the mess of sunken ground, "now what?"

When all the dust settled, F'sey was out cold somewhere below the earth, only J'aro (hopefully) to keep him company.

F'SEYMINE. MINE! Ialluth screamed. Suddenly, the small green dragon did not care for the rules of Hatching. Hers was missing.

I am coming, dear. Mine! SOMEONE HELP ME! the desperate creature wailed, digging frantically at the the hole that had consumed her boy.

There was no Sharding way Prigdith was going to allow herself to be killed by something as simple as a rockfall.

The massive Gold coiled tighter around her eggs and roared her fury, eyes whirling deep red. This was an outrage! How had this happened to her Clutch? She had kept the rest of the clutch as safe as possible, using her considerable bulk as a shield, but now she raised her head and let her anger be known. First a lowly tunnelsnake had claimed one of HER daughters, and now she was in a pit with her remaining eggs and a bunch of dimglows! Prigdith bared her teeth at the wall of rubble and ignored the keening sense of some of her brethren going between forever, more focused on keeping Hers and her eggs safe throughout all of this.

FELENA. Prigdith growled to her rider, locating the now rather dirtied girl close by. Girl! Get something done about this! I would tear us out of this Sharding pit myself, were it not for my eggs! Felena was still somewhat disoriented from the fall, and wasn't really in the mood to answer her enraged dragon's commands at the moment.


V'di felt his stomach drop along with the ground. No. No no no no no, this couldn't be happening--this was a nightmare, plain and simple. Kinth huddled close by, watching the cloud of dust rising from the new pit. Come on, Mine, we can help! She was on her feet and bounding towards the rubble in a flash, no doubt thinking of some way to make this an adventure. The hatchling began digging near Ialluth, and soon V'di came along and started to assist. Obviously, the Green's rider was still alive under there, but that could change if things stayed the same. V'di paused for a moment and took a deep breath, letting that solid concentration wash over him. He was ready for this now, and he tore into the pile with all his strength alongside his dragon.

...Hu. That was F'sey's dragon, right? F'sey had been pretty close to J'aro... This was a sharding stupid idea. Groaning internally, but remaining outwardly cool, X'nar scrambled down into the pit after the small green. Staying back far enough only to be out of claw range, the white rider waves his arms in an attempt to get her attention. "Careful," he bellowed, "dig carefully! You might hurt somebody!" In her panicked state she probably wouldn't even hear him, let alone listen, but if J'aro came up shredded at least he could say he'd tried to get the poor daft dragon to be sensible...

Shards.

What were they going to do? There was so much earth to dig out, no way of telling where anyone was, and there might well be a living very large very angry queen down there. He was possibly standing right on top of a Queen dragon consumed by fear for her eggs who might well burst out of the earth in a flurry of claws and jaws any moment... Yea, that was certainly her roaring.

He really needed a drink...

Bekar! As the wherhandler (whermaster that was) called to him, he straightened up with a grimace. "I don't know," he admitted, "she's going mad right now, so I doubt she knows anything much. Even if she did know, she wouldn't communicate it to me." Shard it all; this was one of the few times he had ever seriously regretted the nature of white dragons, he wanted to know if he was looking for a breathing man, or just another corpse... Oh, and there was the Queen dragon and the unhatched eggs, and the other people who'd been buried too; it would be good to know something of their status, other than the fact that the Queen was alive and angry.

Ialluth paused momentarily when a bronze wher joined her. She did not recognize him, but that did not matter. Thank you... Resuming her frantic digging, she only pushed a few more rocks away from the edge of the hole when a silly flapping man caught her attention. The dragon hesitated.

Mine? she called, but felt no answer. Nothing.

Keening miserably, she continued to hesitate, shifting anxiously. Mine? Where is Mine?! she asked everyone, and no one in particular.

Ren decided that while the Guardmaster was correct, no one was really stepping up to take charge and direct everyone else. With a green dragon pawing frantically at the rocks, it seemed like someone would have to. The dark-eyed young woman was relieved to hear that whiterider - X'nar? - question what they were supposed to do.

"I'm not a miner, but I can help move stones," she volunteered, indifferent to the potential damage to her carefully shaped and smoothed nails. "Someone just tell me which ones and where to put them. "And should someone maybe try to get in from below?"

Not that asking the whiterider these things would do any good, but maybe someone with actual authority would hear her and direct someone to do that. Or, you know, she could do that on her own, but she was reluctant to leave the hatching ground. All thoughts of Impression had gone from her mind, but this was where all the action was taking place, and she wanted to stay there. Unless there was more action happening elsewhere.

Xanthoth had made damn sure B'lin was alright before anything else. He could never be so mad at His something like this could happen without him worrying. No rank, Wingleader or otherwise, was worth turning a blind eye.

B'lin was fine -- aside from being in a state of panic, demanding he ask Ialluth where F'sey was. As Xanthoth would soon point out, at the very least, he had to still be alive.

The bronze was for once glad to be small since it meant his added weight was minimal compared to his larger brothers. He was still cautious about moving with the ground so unstable, though.

Illauthlovely, he called from a distance. Calm down. You must be calm. Yours must be all right.