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Once the tunnelsnake had been dealt with, Kellon had converged back into a group with the other Candidates. It was unfortunate, really, that Brambel had sacrificed himself for a hatchling that had not even survived. The irony of the situation had not escaped the girl, and she couldn’t help but feel just a little bit sorry for the dead man, and perhaps felt worse over his failure than his death. At least he had allowed the tunnelsnake to be slain and paved the way for the other dragons to arrive safely into the world.

And they did, for the most part. The blue that had briefly entered the female group before blinking between was saddening, but the most she could do was give him a moment of thought before turning her attentions to the other cracking eggs. As the Hatching progressed, however, the girl’s tiredness began to be the forthright problem in her mind, and her grumpiness along with it. Dragon after dragon Impressed, none to her, and it sucked. She was here at b***h o’clock in the morning, probably almost attacked by a tunnelsnake, and without even a new life companion to make up for any of it. What a load of wherry poop. Get the hell out of those eggs, hatchlings, she wanted to go back to bed.

She was mentally urging one of remaining eggs to get a move on and crack, when the ground beneath her shifted. Wha- Kellon automatically began to step backwards, almost tripping over herself as the bodies around her also began to move away from the tremendous hole that was forming in the ground. What.

The horror hit Kellon like the fallen debris had likely hit the unlucky victims of the sinkhole. “Mother! Father,” she cried, surging forward as the other Candidates around her continued to move away from the hole. Both her mother and father had been sitting away from where the ground had given way, they had to have been, but her worry still propelled her forward until she stood on the edge of the sinkhole.

Oh. This was bad. The queen, not to mention the remainder of the clutch, had fallen into the hole, and was buried quite well beneath the rubble. Kellon’s eyes darted quickly to the group of dragons and whers to her right – the largely intact group – before returning to the pit. Yes, mother and father had to be fine. But what to do now?

Sesabal’s words caught her attention, and she looked at the man. Did he believe the queen and her rider were alive, even under all of that? And then a roar, definitely an angry queen roar, came from beneath. Welp. For the first time in her young life, Kellon couldn’t find one damn good reason to be an anti-social little b***h. Instead, she simply nodded at the Guardmaster’s words, and began to work alongside the other helpers.

Jacth had, luckily, been too busy getting his faced stuffed to react too extremely to the bronze's arrival. No doubt sparks would fly, but not immediately. And Adetsu-

A'tsu. Right, well, A'tsu was too busy, as he never did, to hear the rumble of the coming storm.

And then, well, then things literally rumbled, as the ground collapsed, taking the queen and a number of others with it. A'tsu, instinctively, stepped back, his hand snaking out to grab K'yne in case he had any stupid ideas of rushing forward without being given the order to do so.

But it wasn't K'yne he should have worried about.

Jacth lunged forward, projecting panic so loudly it made A'tsu, still new to the bond, dizzy with it. The Whitemaster! He was there. Mine, we have to go! We have to save him. Now, mine!

Jacth was already running, and letting go of K'yne, A'tsu jumped forward to hold the dragon. "Jacth, no! No!"

Too dangerous. A'tsu wasn't going to risk Jacth or K'yne without explicit orders to do so.

But Jacth was still scrambling against A'tsu's grip to get at the collapsed portions of the sands, "K'yne!"

Ash gave an expressive grunt. "Not very," she muttered, far more to herself than to Ren, and without another word she took off across the hatching grounds. Now this she was good at; moving really fast. Scattered here and there were fallen glowbaskets; while the hatching had been vaguely proceeding as normal charging after them hadn't been an option, but now everything had totally gone tits up and they were needed, she wasn't about to stand on ceremony waiting to be told it was fine to fetch them.

Ash managed to grab three baskets from relatively nearby, and deciding that a couple to start with was better than none she turned and sprinted back towards the pit. "Glowbaskets!" she called as she skidded to a halt not far from the whermaster. "Do you want me to go find more?"

Emaleth, neglected, starved, poor glorious Emaleth, gorged himself best he could while (sweet, misguided little) Jacth failed to reply to his well meaning taunts. He allowed His to speak to Jacth's, ignored the taller male as he was a brownrider and, well, who wanted to speak to one of those? Not Emaleth. He had better things to do. Like eat.

Also high on his to-do list was 'Not to die'. So when that rumble ran through and people and dragons (dam and possible brothers included!) collapsed underneath the heap of rock and dirt, Emaleth almost jumped clear from his skin. (Of course he didn't, that was Jacth's job or perhaps that little blue...)

You want to save the whitemaster? Disgust curled itself through the young dragons voice even as he edged himself closer to His. K'yne pressed his hand to Emaleth's head, impassive eyes on the sunken hole. Was that a flinch when the small green began wailing? The name of Hers sounded familier - the redhead? The old one. with the knife. Who'd saved the rest of the hatchlings from the tunnelsnake (that killed the one he compared to a tunnelsnake...). He curled his fingers on the small bronzes headknobs. Jacth, I know you mean well but, really, those whites are horrid beasts and it would be an easy way--

"Shut up." K'yne's soft words quieted the dragonet instantly; not from being scolded but, rather, a shot of pure anger. Emaleth glared Death up at K'yne (perhaps a bit white-dragon looking himself) but sank down closer to the ground. "Letting a man die to rid oneself of a white is deplorable."

Of course, K'yne said all this while he stepped away from Emaleth and began to run towards the others digging on the sunken area. A'tsu struggled against Jacth, called out his name in that desperate sort of tone. Another flicker of guilt. Since when did K'yne start feeling a range of emotions outside of 'rage' and 'Adetsu'?

"I will be alright, 'Tsu!" He yelled back. And - You keep your brown brother in line and stay put, Emaleth!

At least he worded it correctly. Emaleth stared after His. Chase after, help free the greenrider and white master? Run after Curith (where was she going? Come back, pretty!)? Or do as told.

... Being told included bossing around Jacth, as was his right. Emaleth could deal with that. The small dragon rounded off on his brother and Jacth's, his tail swinging in the air. Mine says to stay! Now do as you're told as well you're supposed to.

Xanthoth! The green's head jerked up as she tried to locate her companion. I cannot find him. I cannot hear him. My poor, poor boy...

Ialluth bellowed and started to dig again. I have to find him!

***

Meanwhile, Sesabal could only stare in horror as chaos continued to breed more and more chaos continued to break out. The whiterider was snapping, candidates were digging, weyrlings were running every which way.

"What do you want me to do?" he hissed at the whiterider. "I'm not a miner! Can't you use your dragon to find one or something." Oh, wait. He had one of those monsters. "Someone go fetch a miner, or something."

Not him. He was just going to step back... If X'nar was going to play hero, the Gaurdmaster was going to let him. After all, if it all went to hell and back, he'd not be to blame...

A feminine hand became visible after X'nar moved his next rock. Motionless it was, but -- no. No, wait. There was movement! The motion was pathetic, but any twitch was better than nothing.

Meanwhile, down by Mairin and Curith, a wall of rock almost drowned out the desperate and demanding cries of someone else. A man, this time. Not the Whitemaster -- another Wingleader? "Get me out of here, shard it!"

"Thank you," Bekar managed to tear himself away from digging long enough to speak to Ash and Ren and the other candidates that had brought glows. The light definitely made the job easier. "Hopefully that'll be enough. If you spot any empty baskets, we can use them to help cart out the dirt."

He was immediately distracted from the girls by the sight of a hand. A feminine hand, but a hand nonetheless. Was she wounded? Dying? Leaving the area where he had been concentrating, Bekar moved to aid X'nar. Hopefully J'aro would appear next ...

If that pretty gold would shut up I could listen for people, Beksk complained to Bekar and Ialluth as he continued hauling away rocks from where Prigdith was buried. She is pretty but she is LOUD.

There was someone alive down there other than the raging gold and Mairin was determined to help free the man. "We're working on it," she shouted the words, more to be heard than in frustration at the trapped man.. The braided girl began to kick at the rocks and dirt near the bottom of the rubble. If she could loosen them first the wall might crumble and slide down slowly enough for those trapped behind it to climb out without needing to take the whole wall out. Or there'd be a mini rock slide fifty fifty chance really but at least that slide wouldn't hurt anyone just throw up dust.

I'm going to save you Curith promised to anyone in the area. Following the lead of Hers she pushed her small weight against a chunk of rock. She would save this man, even if the rock hurt to push against she had to help.