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Laenara stood there as candidate after candidate Impressed. She fought back the tears as her walls threatened to crumble. She would disappoint her parents and she would disappoint herself. Feeling thoughts of love from Redd, Lae moved in closer as the gold rider began to crack open eggs.

But she couldn't help but look back at the other candidates, no weyrlings now, interacted with each other. A pit of jealousy and anger formed even as she tried to push it down so.as not to upset the baby dragons. From the first cracked egg came a... BLUE? Laenara laughed at his fooling everyone. What a silly beast! Perhaps, she would work on getting to know his rider as well.

Wherrybrained trickster dragon! She had to give him some (very grudging) credit, as that prank had required not only forethought, but impressive patience and restraint, but his choosing to spend those admirable traits and effort on a joke rendered that credit practically null and void. At the very least, though, he did Impress without fuss, and so she was soon back to the task at hand.

Anali cleared her throat. "Let's try this again, shall we?"

The nearby Hidden Egg became her target, regarded cautiously for a moment before she brought the shovel to bear on its shell. The egg rocked, and tiny cracks formed on its dry-bone surface, but it was apparent that she hadn't hit it quite hard enough. Shards. She struck it again for good measure, and the cracks became larger and deeper. It wobbled precariously, and finally a dark nose punched a hole through the weakened shell. Nostrils flared as the hatchling took deep breaths. Was it gasping for air, or inhaling scents?

The black snout disappeared, and a yellow-green eye peered out the opening.

Was she suppose to do that? Lesex guess so, since no one was making a fuss about it. Still, it seemed a bit traumatic, being brought into the world with the blunt end of a shovel.

Though the occupant of the egg had gone mostly still, staring hard at the people surrounding him, watching him, the damage was already done. Cracks continued to spread, and pieces of shell fell away with every heaving breath he took. There was no helping it now, he could hide in the dark comfort of his egg no longer! With a shuddering of his wings, the black revealed himself at last.

He was none too happy about having to do so, however, and his gaze darted back and forth, searching for a suitable replacement for his lost hiding spot, but there was nothing. Sand littered with broken shells, all open space save for the grouping of candidates and the gold who oversaw it all. He creeled unhappily, tail lashing, and staggered forward.

This would not do! He wanted off these Sands! And creeping up on him, close behind the need for an out, was a gnawing hunger. And cold. It felt so very cold outside his egg, despite the radiant warmth of the sands. Shivering and desperate, he searched with eyes and mind for a savior, and found one.

Jaric and Imbeleth

Imbeleth chirped a greeting as Druith came to sit next to him. Yeah, what a great trick! I wish I'd thought of that one, he replied to the blue. He gulped down some meat then added, Then again, they probably wouldn't have believed my egg was a dud. Mine thinks it was very big.

Jaric was a bit distracted, trying to feed Imbeleth while watching the hatching at the same time. He saw the egg crack to reveal the black hatchling inside before he noticed that he and Imbeleth had a neighbor at the tables. A blue dragon and someone he didn't know from the creche. He didn't interact with her much in Candidate lessons either, so he didn't know her too well. But he probably shouldn't ignore her, even though he didn't know what to say. "Um, hi?" he managed to say to Avalina. Then he busied himself cutting up more meat.

Right. That had worked. One egg cracked, one to go. More importantly, she now had a better idea of the force needed to break the atypicals' shells. Feeling more confident, Anali moved to the Dancing Egg, colorful pieces discarded shell breaking beneath her feet. She took a deep breath to steady herself, readied her shovel one more time, and swung.

Thwack.

This time, the first time was the charm, and as deep cracks spiderwebbed across the surface of the mottled egg, the dragon it housed flared its wings, sending bright fragments of shell flying in all directions to rain down upon the sands (and anyone within the vicinity). A bright, beautiful crimson stood tall and lifted her head to give a clarion call. She had been waiting for this moment, and though some assistance had been required, now that it had arrived she embraced it with style. The shovel suffered a look of disdain, but the woman wielding it received a grateful croon. Though her showy entrance had doubtless consumed valuable energy, the crimson gave no indication that she was anything other than perfectly fine. Anything other than absolutely perfect.

Lesex grinned, looking over the bright red wings. Strange, and odd, but still, he liked red. It was a bright and magnificent color and the gal? was a looker.

Jaric and Imbeleth

And Jaric was too busy being bashful to watch the last egg get smacked with a shovel, but once again Imbeleth was watching out for him. Oh look, she broke open the last egg! the dragon prompted. So Jaric looked up in time to see the egg bits fly everywhere as the hatchling flared her wings.

"Oh, a crimson!" Jaric noted, partly to Imbeleth and maybe also to Avalina. He didn't know much about the atypicals, having grown up in traditional Benden, but he knew those had a unique choice. "I wonder who they'll go to. And whether she and her rider will pick being a fighter or a breeder." He was glad he didn't have to make that kind of a choice, it would be weird to consider. He was happy with his Imbeleth. Imbeleth was perfect. At the thought, he reached out to stroke his dragons's head, and the bronze thrummed in response.