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Ruven regarded the scattered stars green curiously when she looked over the males. The male candidates certainly were very popular with the lady hatchlings today, weren’t they? How amusing. Even though the redhead was slightly wary of the small one, he could not help but respect her behavior. She looked all of the dragons in the eye. Then, she firmly fixed her attention to Hers. It was a rather elegant Impression. The last green left the Sands in style.

All that remained was the rocky band egg, the queen, and two more eggs that could either be atypicals or duds. This late into the Hatching, any candidate other than Ruven might have been nervous. Only four more individuals at most would leave today as dragon riders. That truth was ominous. However, Ruven was not afraid or concerned. If he did not Impress, he simply would have to try again. His partner was going to be one of the most magnificent dragons Trine had known – he was sure of it! The Epsilon clutch had already produced many weyrlings with boundless potential. There could only be so much greatness in one batch of eggs. If there was not room left for his this time around, he would understand.

No challenge was too daunting for THIS candidate. Not even overcoming the disappointment of a failed Hatching. Besides, it was still far too early for him to count himself out of this group just yet.

After five long minutes (this pause made Ruven nervous – was something wrong?) the luminous egg slowly began to hatch. Then, accordingly, as though vying for the crowd’s attention the rocky band egg burst into action. Unfortunately, for the most part he had no chance of outshining a gold. The little queen finally made her grand entrance. She was as stunning and proud as Ruven had imagined her to be. Which lucky girl would become a junior weyrwoman?

Although most people’s interest lay with the luminous gold, Ruven shortly turned back to the rocky band egg. He had no chance of Impressing a queen. Besides, he remembered her personality from the Touching. Knowing her, he had upmost faith that whoever she selected as Hers would be worthy and capable.

The future brown (that was what he was wagering – who heard of a clutch with a bronze but no brown?) was making good progress too. A dark colored tail poked out from his shell. When he finally emerged, Ruven gave himself his third mental pat-on-the-back for this Hatching. He had been right. Go figure. Unsurprisingly, the rocky band brown romped after the queen.

Now, now. Who would these two Impress?

A couple more dragons hatched. A couple more dragons Impressed. Aeri was not amused or impressed. Although she smiled and clapped politely for each candidate that bonded to a hatchling, every Impression left her mood sourer and sourer. She was growing impatient. When would one of these creatures finally show some attention to her? The weyrbrat had spent fourteen long years waiting for her first Hatching. Now that she was finally here, she did not want to wait ANY longer.

The egg numbers dwindled until only the rocky band egg, the luminous egg, the burning egg, and the void egg remained. Aeri was beginning to worry. The true prize of the Epsilon clutch remained – the great queen egg – so she still had hope of achieving her wildest dreams today. However, the low numbers unnerved her slightly. Would she be able to bear the shame of walking away from this Hatching empty-handed? To maintain her sweet girl façade she would have to.

No. Stop it. She could not think like that. This was her time. This was her moment. She could still Impress and she would.

When the luminous egg began to shift, all of her doubt disappeared. The gold dragonette elegantly burst from her shell and took in the sight of the female candidates. Most of the weyr now watched her with bated breath. Aeri figured that this was, by far, the tensest moment of the Hatching. For some the emergence and antics of the rocky band brown might have distracted them or help them relax. Aeri all but ignored him. Pitiful creatures like him deserved no attention from her.

What would happen next? She could not wait to find out.

Pipith had watched most of the Hatching with a sort of bored interest. While he certainly didn't remember the Flight by now, he did know he hadn't won, and that result was of utmost importance to the little bronze. They were not his eggs, so why would he care? It was only when the luminous gold egg had begun to crack that he'd started to pay attention. A new Queen was worth paying attention to while a bunch of little greens were nothing special to behold...not that he didn't like greens! He liked them just fine to Chase, but winning those Flights would never improve his rank; they only reinforced (for him, at least) how amazing he was when he won.

Set'al, on the other hand, never ceased to be fascinated by Hatchings, and this one even more so. It was his first since coming to Trine, and he was eager to see the very end of the event, when the Weyrwoman would whack open the unbroken eggs. There was something slightly undignified about hitting an egg with a shovel, but hey, whatever you had to do.

The brown ran ahead of the gold, leading the way, and the young queen didn't seem to mind as he nosed at some of the girls flapping still-wet wings and generally making a spectacle of himself.

His sister, however, lowered her head, the red whirl of hunger tinged with orange and green as she finally broke through the line of girls. Some too bold for their own good reached out when she paused before them and the gold rumbled, shaking her shoulders.

Several someones stood out to her and she swept her gaze over them, a loud croon that summoned the brown with an air of authority that was already strong despite her minutes of age. Fixing on Aeri, the queen padded over, her head held high and sat back on her haunches before the girl, staring hard at her. Appraising and strong willed the gold remained that way long enough that it almost seemed she'd Impressed before she suddenly flared her wings and pushed forward, bearing the girl to the sands with her weight - no injury, simply using her weight to force the girl to move - and stood atop her a moment then huffed and moved on.

Curious, the brown lingered and nosed at Aeri's face almost in a gesture of encouragement, ensuring her safety before he bounded off after the gold who was even now stalking down the lines, pausing every so often to stare at Candidates - though anyone familiar with the girls knew the people she stopped before varied hugely in personality, and the ones she knocked down seemed to be at random, as if she was making sure every person she encountered knew her rank and that they ranked below her.

She couldn't help but gasp when the newly-hatched Queen pushed one of the other girls down, even standing on top of her, but relaxed just a touch when it seemed the other Candidate was uninjured. The brown, though, followed after the larger dragonet and checked on the girl. And then...the gold knocked down another girl? Oh, dear. Did she do it because she didn't like them, or was she just putting them in their place?

Now all but holding her breath, Nawa continued to stand straight, but bowed her head respectfully. Her gaze still tracked after the Queen and her companion, but she didn't want to end up in the sand a second time today. The girl folded her hands behind her back, reserved but watching carefully. She wasn't foolish enough to try and touch the young gold.

Now this, this was interesting. While he disapproved of the brown palling around with the Queen - bronzes were meant to be the companions of golds - he fully approved of the way she went through the Candidates, seeming to put them in their place when necessary. Look at her, Mine, he said, as though Set'al weren't already, Look how she lets them know she is a Queen.

His rider was less convinced that it was the way to behave. It's alright I guess, as long as she doesn't hurt them, but it's still kind of mean. Though his own dragon had gone on a mini-rampage when he hatched, looking for him, Set'al really didn't approve of hatchling hijinx. Not that the dragons could always help it, but...it was unfortunate nonetheless. Still, at least nothing truly terrible had happened today. Yet. Hopefully it would stay that way.

Oh! That's a good idea! It would give us something to do! Halith was already on her feet and with a great deal of the patience that had served her well in the past, Ceta reached a hand out and settled it flat in the space between Halith's eyeridges.

When the Hatching is over, we can leave. Not before, Ceta stated. She was beginning to catch on now. There would be no more chasing run-away hatchlings across the Sands. She turned her eyes back to Eliza, her hand idly moving to scratch Halith's eyeridge where a bit of sand was making it itchy now that Ceta had disturbed it. Halith gave a pleasant little purring sound and settled down for the soothing touch of her rider.

She looked back to the Gold. It would be good to see who she Impressed, if only so she could have first hand knowledge of the Impression.

The way Gauden was distracted into looking back at the female Candidates only showed him yet another hatchling with little regard for the human beings around her. Why were so many hatchlings-- for different reasons, it seemed, but still-- callously disregarding of the humans around them? He frowned slightly. It seemed unnecessary for that Gold to push over every girl in the Candidate group. Another reason, he concluded, that he would never be able to ride a Bronze dragon: the Golds they were meant to chase were too demanding, and the Bronzes, likewise, were purported to be too aloof. Gauden wasn't aloof in the slightest. It had been cemented in his mind and confirmed; no chance at riding Bronze for him. He was clearly ill-suited to them.

At least the Brown seemed to be consoling the girls as the Gold pushed them over, but the way he'd been cheerfully prancing after the Gold made Gauden think that maybe he just liked the attention. Only his rider would know for sure. Gauden reached for pockets that weren't there, but let his hands fall to his side's again when he realized what he was doing and that he still had no pockets in these robes.