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Lilias was sprawled on her bed. She had had a restless night and her blankets were tangled tightly around her legs. She fell out of bed when the Candidate Master called and she cursed quietly as she struggled out of her blankets. She was rumpled and tired but then the Candidate Master's words sank in and then she became aware of the humming. Lilias donned her robe and scrambled out the door with the others.
On the sands the eggs were rocking rhythmically and some were wiggling lightly. She was so excited but remembered D'lin's warning and eyed the Clouded egg warily. Her gaze roamed over the others and caressed them. Silently she warned them to watch out for their sibling. Then she contented herself with remembering her thoughts about the less angry eggs in the clutch.

Knowing the atmosphere on the eve of a Hatching quite well, Lena had figured the time would come at any point now. Still, only the dragons really knew when things would start up in earnest, so she'd slept like most of the rest of the candidates, unconcerned by dreams until the hums of the dragons reverberated off the stone walls of every building at Trine. That sound only happened when the dragons had something to hum about—the Hatching was starting! She barely had time to start to get out of bed before O'rer's shouts confirmed what she'd already known, and then the dormiories became a bustling chaos as every candidate prepared the night ahead. A Hatching at night—it certainly wasn't unheard of, but Lena thought this was likely the first she'd attend that would stretch on for most of the night. Until the dawn, maybe? Perhaps everyone would shuffle off to take a nap before the feast and celebration would begin!

The advice was the same—speak softly, move quickly, don't hang about if you do Impress—and then they shuffled onto the sands, boys to the left and girls to the right. Lena gave her companions a quick smile—some of them definitely looked sleepier than others, but the excitement of the eggs quivering and rocking would take care of that sooner than later. Given several of the eggs had seemed quite impatient at the Hatching, Lena was sure they would try and relieve themselves of their shells now that they were finally able to. The fun was just about to begin!

***

Mineminemine--

Yes, Sleeth, I know, the eggs! Akaya too had been up past the regular hours one might call “bedtime,” working on the fingering of a particularly complicated piece she'd been trying to master in her free evening hours. Just because she was a dragonrider didn't mean she intended to throw her music by the wayside, Red Star or no Red Star. At any rate, it was proved a wise decision, for now all she and her green had to do was get over to the Hatching grounds. She spied her once-roommate G'brel speaking to F'ren and decided to let them have their fun. Perhaps she'd just find a seat off on her own, the better to observe the events without too much distraction. After all, you never knew when a new song would come...

Sleeth, of course, was not of a similar mind. She'd squeezed herself between two larger dragons, chatting to both of them quite happily in between focusing thoughts and love at the eggs below. You can do it, eggs~! Gogogo! Akaya wasn't surprised. Her dragon had cheered her fellow hatchlings on at her own hatching.

***

E'lai wasn't willing to admit the lengths Eltimioth had gone to in order to rouse him, but at least he was presentable looking (according to Eltimioth's opinion anyway, which was quite a high standard) as he wandered to the Stands with all the other riders and observing weyrfolk, even guests who'd come to watch their children or apprentices down on the sands. Certainly even with the late hour, the stands were filling in quite quickly. Then get in there quicker, Eltimioth advised, as she spied her best draconic friend in the whole of Pern (for this moment, anyway). Tereth! Where is yours? Perhaps he can keep Mine from falling asleep mid-Hatching~

I would not fall asleep in the middle of this-- Though E'lai did wonder if everyone wouldn't get a bit of a day off tomorrow, considering both the hour and the usual celebration. Any day without drills...

Is a day you start to get lazy!

You're hardly one to talk.

There was a pleasant sound entering into her mind, though she hadn't been fully aware of what it was. And it seemed to get louder. Until she was startled awake by the sound of O'rer shouting. Blinking awake and stumbling to get to her feet quickly, Narisa worked through the minor sleep fog until his words penetrated. Oh. OH!

It was time.

Hatching.

Oh shardititwashatchingtime!

Quite awake now, Narisa moved as quickly as she could, removing anything that was not to be on her body. The candidate robe was pulled on and off the vintner went, following after the other girls and guys. Her heart pounded with excitement and made a stupid cheesy grin plaster itself along her face. Hatching time! This would be something amazing to be part of, she was sure. O'rer was speaking and she shook her head to clear it and pay attention. The vintner was pretty sure this was important stuff to hear. Wait...mauled?! O-Oh shards! That had a sobering effect. Right. These were to be dragonets. They would probably be clumsy and not even realize how lethal their teeth and claws were just yet.

Narisa swallowed heavily but as soon as they were ushered out onto the sands, she forgot some of the anxiety. Boys to the left side girls to the right. She followed and stood where she'd been directed, glancing at her fellow candidates and offering them small smiles. And as she watched eggs beginning to rock, very close to hatching indeed, she all but forgot about it that small bit of anxiety all together. The warning was still there, but this was too exhilarating!

Perhaps a couple of minutes had passed since the candidates came onto the sands, and nothing much had happened save a bit more wriggling around from various eggs. After what must have seemed like an eternity, a long crack appeared on the side of the swirling egg. After this promising sign however no more cracks appeared, and certainly no dragonet.

This did not mean that the candidates were left without a hatchling to focus on for long however: an area of fine cracks appeared near the base of the orbiting egg and then, suddenly, a hole appeared and a pale green hind foot poked out. It flailed around vaguely for some moments until the small egg pitched over and rolled a short distance towards the candidates. The egg lay still then - the foot having vanished when the egg fell over – but after a few moments of silence during which the whole crowd held its breath a network of large cracks appeared on the egg and it wriggled a bit more. Only a couple of heartbeats later it broke open, and the mottled green hatchling gave a cry of joy and triumph.

Getting to her feet and looking around she discovered that she was the very first to hatch, which seemed to be a cause for celebration for she gave another happy cry and pranced around the guiding light egg. She seemed to grow bored of this before long, and indeed bored of being around her siblings at all: they weren’t doing anything! Humming to herself the little dragonet cast around for something else to do. One might have thought she’d head over to the candidates, but it was the riders’ stands that caught her attention and with a happy little chirp she gambolled awkwardly towards them. While it might not exactly be usual behaviour it didn’t seem to worry her mother, for the gold made no move to shepherd her towards the candidates.

While the mottled green made for the riders, the swirling egg continued to rock and twitch. There were a lot of cracks on the surface of the shell now; it definitely looked as though this would be the next dragonet to hatch.

Peradan had just crawled into bed, and was slowly drifting off into dreams about dragons. Why had she even stayed up so late? She had been reading about dragons, of course. Her ignorance was increasingly showing, and she was determined not to be that way when the eggs finally hatched. The records room in the Weyr had a great deal of useful information, even though most of it was dry, and all of it had to be rooted out from records that weren't so useful. It had been a good way to spend her evening, even if it did mean crawling into bed late, when most everyone else was already asleep.

She thought the humming was a dream, or an insect in her ear. Half awake, Peradan waved at the general air near her ears, mumbling something into her pillow. It couldn't be morning already. She felt as though she had just laid down in bed. The humming was continuing out of her dream as well. Instead of leaping to the logical conclusion, the fuzzy headed Candidate then sat up, ready to accuse one of her fellow Candidates of doing something annoying- playing some instrument she hadn't heard before, making that noise with their mouth somehow. It was a low noise that she could feel in her chest, which should have ruled out any human noise, but who knew with those crazy Harpers?

The more she woke up, the clearer Peradan's head became. Wait. Humming. Humming that was loud and deep. Humming that clearly couldn't be caused by human beings. That could only mean one thing. The dragons were humming. The eggs were finally hatching.

By the time the greenrider came around, bellowing for them to get into their robes, Peradan had managed to roll out of bed- quite literally. Her legs didn't seem to work properly all of a sudden, tangling with each other so that she fell to the floor with a resounding thump, blanket wound around her body in a tight embrace. "Argh!" Peradan cried out, tossing the blanket aside and stripping down to her skivvies before tossing on a white robe. No shoes, no jewelry, no time to brush her hair, but shard it, this was her big day, she had time to run the brush through once- there, that was better- okay, time to go, time to gather with the other Candidates, all excited, her heart pounding in her chest.

The walk to the Hatching Grounds took no time at all. They were soon standing right on the edge. Peradan could feel the blasting heat from here, while being able to see the stars at the same time. It was a strange feeling. But she had to pay attention to O'rer now. It was critical.

With the rest of the women, Peradan filed in to stand on the right side of the grounds, across from the nervous men. The sand was scorching hot, and she suddenly understood all the jokes about 'dancing' on the sands. It was impossible to stay comfortable standing still. You had to shift your pressure from foot to foot every few minutes, or you would surely get burnt. The discomfort seemed worth it though. There were dragons to be had! But why they couldn't even have some sort of sandal Peradan did not know.

The heat could only occupy Peradan's mind for so long. It was good to think about, something to take her mind off the roiling in her stomach. The eggs were rocking- which would be the first to hatch? Would it Impress to a man or a woman? What would that color hatching first foretell? Okay, prophecy and eggs hatching didn't really determine luck, but even Peradan had heard those tales. The Weyr was allowed to have their superstitions.

Tearing her eyes away from the eggs for just a minute, Peradan looked at the filling stands. Her father would be there somewhere, she knew. He had promised he would find a way to come, and he was important enough that he generally got his way. What if she didn't Impress? He would be disappointed, but his spirit would not be near as crushed as Peradan's. Best not to think about that. Rolling her shoulders back, Peradan tried to relax, filling her mind with happy, confident thoughts, eyes darting between the eggs and her companions. At least they were all familiar now- she was not alone.

Then the first egg actually broke open, revealing a green. A green! That could go either way. Everyone seemed pleased though, and Peradan had to stifle a laugh when the little creature headed towards the already Impressed rider's stands. That wasn't the right way to go at all. But the Queen was a good mother, and she was already on guard. So who would this green go to?

Cetalese inhaled sharply, the only sign other than her slightly wide eyes and the intensity of her gaze that showed she had seen the orbiting egg crack. She missed the color of the flailing foot as the egg very shortly fell over and rolled away, but it was obvious that that could be the first hatchling to emerge. She stood on her tiptoes to get a better look, hoping the dragonet had gotten her foot back inside in time, and was gratified to see just the hole in the eggshell and no ichor-covered appendage.

The egg shattered finally, and spilled out a very excited-- Green, yes, a Green onto the Sands. One who seemed quite gratified to finally be out.

Oh. She was very rambunctious. Cetalese felt her love for things small and young swell in her. There would soon be a huge collection of babies in front of her. The corners of her lips tilted up. How had she not thought of that before? Dragonets were babies. The Hatching suddenly took on a whole new level of awe as she looked from the parading Green back to the rest of the Clutch. They would know soon enough who she would choose. It looked like a few others had begun to crack as well. Ceta's eyes skimmed them until she saw the growing cracks on the swirling egg. Would it be a Brown, as she had guessed? Or a surprise?

Eliza's words reached her, but Ceta could do little more than squeeze Eliza's hand again, her eyes so set on seeing what color and which egg Hatched next.

She spotted Peradan among the girls and offered her fellow vintner an excited smile. The auburn haired vintner sucked in a breath as the first of the eggs gained a large crack...and that was it. Just that large crack. But where that one no longer had a web of crack lines forming, another did. Narisa watched in fascination as an egg cracked and a pale - was that green? - foot stuck out of it before said egg fell over. She blinked, wondering if this one would take a break as well, but they were all rewarded with the first dragonet hatching. Ah, it was a green! A very happy green. It was difficult not to be a little amused by the prancing dragonet. There was a thrill of excitement and then curiosity. The dragonet wasn't looking towards the candidates. She seemed interested in the Riders instead. Annnnd the first egg was rocking again!