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No matter how many times it happened, Elae knew, she would always be amazed at the Candidatemaster’s ability to wake up at the crack of dawn. It was so early that the night’s glimmer had barely worn off. This time of day ought to be outlawed, the girl thought bitterly to herself. Not that she had gotten much sleep the night before anyway. Everyone knew the Touching would happen soon and no one wanted to risk sleeping through it. Elae surreptiously glanced around the Hatching grounds, pleased to see she wasn’t the only one who looked curiously sleepy. Dressed in a simple tunic and pants, Elae felt rather… boring. It wasn’t that she obsessed about pretty things like some girls or anything, but she did enjoy looking pretty.

But today was not about her. It was all about the dragons and their glory. She bowed deeply to the Queens, one bow for each of them, before taking her place with the other Candidates and mingling. Hopefully, she could find Cilyme or at least someone she knew. Her stomach flopped anxiously, a reminder that she hadn’t yet eaten breakfast. Even the night before her appetite had been lacking. Everything just felt so… alive in here. It was breathtaking, looking around at all the shining faces of her fellow Candidates and then glancing at the eggs. Those eggs, she knew, contained the lifemates of the Candidates here. Well, some of them at least.

They were the hope of the future and, for this one brief moment, all thoughts were focused on one thing. The sheer beauty of the moment, the… the poetry of it all. Like most girls, Elae had, at one point in her life, briefly entertained the thought of becoming a Harper. Right then, at that moment, she felt like one. No one was moving at first, although the heterosexual girls----or those who weren’t really sure or were too embarrassed to admit the truth---were separated from the others to touch the Queen egg. Elae watched with some mild jealousy, but she stood her ground. She knew who she was and she would not be ashamed of it. Still, it seemed vaguely unfair that only the straight girls would have a chance at being leaders… ah well. It wasn’t like she would make a good leader anyway.

Even now, even with her past Hatching experiences under her belt, Elae hung back. She didn’t want to make a move until someone else did. Preferably Cilyme, actually. Once again, she looked around for her male friend, wishing that he was here. Or one of her new friends, perhaps, Anne or Raena. Were they Candidates? She couldn’t recall…

Ugh! All of her thoughts were swimming in her brain, never leaving room for much else. Taking a deep breath, the girl stood up straight. She was a Candidate, a possible Dragonrider; she had to be like the dragons, she had to show bravery even when she wanted to melt into the floor. Moving with a bravery she surely didn’t feel, Elae boldly put a hand on the Flamingo Egg, amazed at its bright pink color. Alright, so it was stereotypical, a girl going for pink… but, hey. She was who she was.

And she wasn’t going to hide it, no matter who disapproved of it. Then she turned around, feeling proud of herself for not backing down.

“Murr… I don’t wanna wake up…” Mal grumbled. He temporarily stuck his pillow over his face, idly wondering if a suicide attempt would get him out of waking up this early. It wasn’t like he was actually going to Impress anyway. Dragonriders were all majestic and whatnot, with teeth that went ‘ting’ in the sunlight. He ran his tongue over his own crooked teeth, knowing that they would never ‘ting’ properly, not even if he tried. Still, he supposed that appearances had to be maintained. In his case, the appearance he maintained was ‘scruffy’. No matter what, the Candidate simply emanated a perpetual scruffy-field, as if he had only just woken up. Actually, that was close to the truth this time. Stifling a yawn, he moved onto the Sands and bowed to the Queens.

And then he woke up completely. His eyes simply went wide and his knees tried to shake. Crackdust, but those dragons were huge! He’d thought that the Blue that came to Search him had been big, but that little guy paled next to these golden beauties. He bowed again and backed away quickly, suddenly wondering just what he had gotten himself into. For a moment, the young man’s eyes wandered towards the exit, wondering if it would be worth his time to simply make a break for it. But then he thought of Ennrik; he couldn’t abandon his friend. Not again.

Not even if he couldn’t see Ennrik here, now that he thought about it. How was he doing, Mal wondered. By now, Ennrik had admitted he hadn’t yet gotten over his stage-fright and the luminous eyes of the Queens’ would almost certainly set it off. Well, if Ennrik suddenly collapsed, Mal would notice and be there for his old friend. It was time to stop running away. Or at least be more subtle about it. Moving among the eggs was surreal, like a dream. No. It was more like his first performance, actually. All of those hopes and dreams of his mother riding with him, all of those responsibilities weighing on him… he licked his suddenly dry lips and, once again, glanced towards the egress before he could stop himself. Old habits died hard, really. But then he reminded himself of the good times. All of the glory and applause, the attention… he managed a brief smile at that, calming himself with his thoughts.

In all honesty, he was fairly sure he wouldn’t Impress. These dragons deserved better than him, perhaps better than anyone humanity could design. He was just a coward, one who never really stopped running. The dark-haired Candidate moved away from the others, feeling like an outsider already. For all of his showmanship, he knew the truth: he just wasn’t like them. Plastering a fake smile on his face, Mal attempted to look at least somewhat confident as he moved towards the Crane Egg, admiring its colors. It reminded him a bit of himself, in a twisted way.

He reached out a hand and stroked his fingers down the surface briefly with a butterfly-light touch; his false-confidence didn’t let him use a more powerful hand. Once he realized that the shell wouldn’t break so easily, he relaxed a little, once again petting the shell. Beautiful… absolutely beautiful… his rictus grin slid away, replaced by a look of calm contentment. Briefly, he thought of his mother; she had done everything in her power to secure a better life for her son, a life among the Harpers once she recognized his talent. On some level, Mal felt guilty for running away from that life, but it wasn’t for him.

Perhaps this was where he belonged. Still feeling oddly dream-like, he moved back to the exit.

Ennrik had never been one who was fond of mornings. Oh, he could be awake and something resembling alert relatively quickly, but sudden wakings were not his favorite. Nevertheless, this particular call to consciousness was one he looked on with less irritation than he would most others because this one gave him an opportunity to approach the eggs he had been resisting spying on through any of the viewing holes the Candidates who had been Weyr residents had told him of. It had been an exercise in self-denial and self-control to avoid doing so, especially when he knew many others had indulged themselves, and maybe gained even a slight increase in rapport with some of the eggs, but he had waited. He knew that they would eventually permitted to touch the eggs officially. And today was the day.

He dressed quickly enough that he almost pulled on his trousers backward, but he righted the mistake and followed the others into the hall. He was neither toward the front nor the back of the group, and when they joined the girls' group he moved farther toward the back. Though his upbringing in the hold had bordered on misogynistic, the behavior he learned in Harper Hall was what he generally choe to exhibit. Which meant that he was inclined to allow younger people and women stand before him. He wasn't any sort of giant, but he could see over the heads of most of the younger and female candidates, except the girl who had studied Smithcraft and who had the two firelizards - Tseka, the one he'd met at the Gather and then rudely abandoned to talk to Mal.

That memory brought forth a wince. He moved with the crowd, unconsciously picking up on everyone's excitement and feeding off it, after a fashion, making it all right that he'd missed his morning klah. By the time they reached the hatching grounds the excitement was nearly palpable, and he was reminded fleetingly - terrifyingly - of how it felt to be on stage with an audience waiting expectantly. His heart began to add what felt like an extra flutter to the end of each beat and he deliberately slowed his pace and concentrated on the breathing exercises which were supposed to help him deal with his stage-fright. How could he be experiencing stage-fright, when there would be no one watching him, even?

At a more sedate pace he finished the walk to the sands and only realized once he stepped onto the shifting granules that he had neglected to pull on his shoes. The searing pain was sufficient to distract him from the panic which was edging in on his consciousness, but his feet adjusted before too long. He was belated in making his obeisance to the queens, though, and for that he inwardly chided himself. The queens captured his attention and held it completely, though, for nearly a full minute. He had never seen anything so large in his life, and the depths of their collective gazes were overwhelming, even though he was fairly certain that he was mostly beneath their notices, as there were already girls clustering around what was obviously the queen egg. Naturally that would command the reigning golds' attention.

With a sinking feeling, Ennrik realized that none of the tens of eggs on the sands really called to him. Ashe watched others move with varying levels of certainty toward one egg or another he wondered if, maybe, he just wasn't empathic enough to form a bond with any of these magnificent creatures. With a few more steadying breaths he forced himself to move ginger-footed over the hot sand - the awareness of the heat was beginning to seep back into his brain - toward the majority of the eggs. He was utterly relieved that he wasn't required to go anywhere near the queen egg, which lay uncomfortably close to its (her?) mother. Likewise, he was inclined to avoid the Gorilla egg, which was situated in a similarly unpalatable position.

Instead he walked toward a cluster of eggs, figuring that if he didn't felt drawn to any one egg in particular, perhaps it would be better if he just briefly communed with all of them. If that was the right term for it. And excluding the ones which were too close to the mother dragons for his level of comfort. The cluster he moved toward included the Grey's Zebra, Gembok, and Sable Antelope eggs. He brushed each of them with his fingertips, as though strumming a harp, and then moved on, more aware with each passing moment of the regard, either real or imaginary, of the pair of golden dragons. The cluster he'd chosen was too close to the queens, much too close, he decided, and moved away, unwittingly moving toward the Jackal egg, and nearly bumping into another candidate as his peripheral vision blackened with the onset of stage-fright.

And so it was with a half-stumble and a flung out hand to stop his fall that Ennrik touched the egg with the chaotic coloration. On his hands and knees on the sand he was just able to make out the bloody color on the egg's hidden underside. It didn't seem like a good omen. The bloody color, that is. He absolutely refused to use the egg to pull himself to his feet - he wasn't that light, and so he regained his feet awkwardly and cast his gaze about for Mal, hoping his friend was proceeding with less embarrassment than he was. He also sought the Candidatemaster, expecting to see disapproval written on her face. He couldn't bring himself to look at the queens, and see what color their eyes whirled at his literal faux pas.

Mal, somehow, seemed to have found his element as he caressed the Crane egg, and wore an expression that Ennrik frankly envied. He wished he could have experienced some sort of epiphany of belonging, but all he had felt was self-conscious and stricken with stage-fright. The Candidatemaster, thankfully, had her attention elsewhere, and so Ennrik allowed himself the slight embarrassment of staggering to the wall just outside the entrance to the hatching ground and slouching with undisguised relief, sliding down the rough wall to sit on the floor with his head between his knees. Shards, this was humiliating. Almost as bad as his failed attempts at concert performance.

At least he hadn't thrown up on the sands. He would have to make that his consolation. There'd been instances where he'd thrown up under the pressure of stage-fright, no matter how little he had eaten in advance. Once he'd staved off the worst of the nausea, he peered around the corner once more to watch Mal. He hoped Mal Impressed. The freedom of the skies seemed like something the incurably itinerant young man would enjoy.

Mal had just stepped out of the Hatching Grounds before nearly tripping over his friend who had unwisely chosen that moment to look for him. It was a moment taken straight out of a bad clown skit, only without the humorous parping noises. If Mal felt any anger over it though, it didn’t last long; he broke into a grin at the sight of his friend, although it was a little shaky around the edges. Without a word, he moved to Ennrik’s side and sank down next to him, simply trying to stay steady and recover from the experience. Closing his eyes, he took a few calming breaths before opening his mouth to speak.

“Hey. So… how about those Queens, huh? They looked mad enough to spit nails at anyone who so much as looked at the eggs funny. I’m glad I didn’t have to go near that gold egg…” There had been multiple times in Mal’s life that he was pleased to be a male, but this moment took the cake. Well, at least it took a slice of the cake. The normally talkative young man paused for a moment, unsure of how to broach the subject. Should he ask how Ennrik was doing, or try to ignore it? Well, they were in public… and he knew he hated it when others brought up weaknesses to his face in public. And it had always been a sore spot of Ennrik’s.

Sometimes, silence was the better course. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one that Mal was particularly good at. “…you know, I threw up just after I got here. Just after coming out of between, I mean,” he said quietly, developing an extreme interest in his feet. “Nearly had a repeat performance right in there. The only thing stopping me was the fact that I haven’t eaten this morning and the risk of having my face eaten. I’m very fond of my face, you know. Quite attached to it.”

Again there was that brief awkward silence before Mal decided to break it again. “…Sorry for leaving you.” It probably sounded like something far more scandalous than it was. "I guess I should've wrote a note or something... but you know me and writing."

Riordan moved on from the Elephant Egg to a few of the others, avoiding the ones people were crowding about. He paused at the Gorilla egg and moved onwards towards the Hippo and then Jackal. Finally he ended up at the African Sunrise egg. He spent a bit of time at each egg, stroking its surface, his mind reaching towards the lifeform within.

Greloren only moved away from the African Wild Dog egg when other started to come up. With a sigh, he headed towards Grevy's Zebra and then the Elephant egg, though he spent more time at the first than the second.

Ennrik looked sideways at Mal through the gaps between his fingers as he cradled his head with his hands. The look wasn't quite reproachful, but there was probably a great deal more venom behind it than people were used to seeing from him. It was unfair, of course, to envy Mal because he didn't suffer from stage fright. Utterly unfair. But with a pounding head and a tossing stomach that were just now beginning to recede, it took him too long to dismiss the envy in his eyes and let the weariness he always felt after a bout of stage-fright take its rightful place. He'd probably turn pale and shaky shortly, and this was a bad place to do it, if there was a chance he'd trip more people. Someone would probably view it as an attempt at sabotage. The thought of sabotaging someone else was repugnant to him, because it would be detrimental if a dragon couldn't find his or her ideal rider, he felt, but that wouldn't stop people from speculating. People always speculated.

"The queens..." he agreed weakly. "They were intimidating. And if they'd started spitting anything..." He trailed off. Mal could probably guess.

To distract himself, he clung to the change of topic Mal had proposed, though it wasn't much of an improvement. Hearing about other people's inclination to be sick only reminded him of how close he was to that exact same reaction. His thoughts about what might happen to him if he vomited on the sands mirrored those that Mal expressed, though, and he gave a ghost of a smile. So Mal was only cheering him superficially. The attempt was appreciated, and it would be easier all around if he could convince himself to go with it.

"Y'know, I really can't understand your attachment to your face. As faces go, there're definitely more handsome ones," he teased after too long of a silence. His breathing was still shaky, but with the effort he was exerting on himself to feel better and Mal's assistance his body was finally beginning to believe things might be all right, and that there was no need to panic and self-destruct.

The teasing came just on the heels of Mal's final words about staying in contact. He almost didn't hear them, in fact, except that it had registered in his brain that Mal had started talking again, and some part of him had listened to what was being said.

"I do know about you and writing. If you'd written, I couldn't've read it anyway." He sighed and let his forearms serve as a prop for his forehead. "And you didn't leave me. You left the Harpers. I flatter myself that there is a difference between the two."

His grin still felt forced, and it was directed at the floor, so it was unlikely Mal would have seen it, but perhaps with his trained ears he would have heard it in Ennrik's tone. Just in case, Ennrik forced himself to sit back so that the back of his head touched the wall, and then he looked over at Mal, almost presenting him with a front-on view of his face.

"Not that I didn't have to think very hard for half a second about punching you when I saw you at the Gather."

Abhijanya froze in place, eyes locked on the magnificent gold. The Queen was huge, and yet looked like she were made of silk and steel.. The girl quickly bowed, low and full of respect for such an awe inspiring creature. From the moment that the Candidate Master had called them all to the grounds, Janya's heart had been leaping with anticipation. Her first touching! Still, nothing could have ever prepared her for this. It went without saying that she'd seen dragons before. Everyone spotted them occasionally, landing in the holds, or flying the skies just before blinking 'between.' But to be so close to one even grander than she'd ever seen almost set the girl to shaking.

No matter how hard she tried, the apprentice harper could not keep the stories of hatchings out of her mind. When the hatchlings knew no better, and tore through the Candidates they did not approve of. Still, Janya approached the grand queen egg, admiring it's metallic sparkle enough to momentarily forget the protective mother, whose arm was curled around the egg. Somehow, Abhijanya refused to cringe under the pressing eyes of the Queen mother, and stroked the egg. It's rocky-leather feel sent shivers up her arm, as if she could feel the life inside of it. It was the same feeling she got under the mother's breath--the feeling of dragons.

Janya half danced away, moving like water over the sand, and skirtting away from the Queen with a bow. Now was time for the other eggs.. Normally, the girl would have been far more repressed around so many others, but the dragons set her heart to singing. Janya was careful to be quiet, as allways instructed--she wasn't sure how the queen would feel about too much noise--but it felt as if a song would break out of her as she grazed the very tips of her fingers over a gray, black and white striped egg, and then the two spotted ones. Each sent the wondrous sparks up her hands and arms, the want of dormant life to be free. Her over active imagination could almost see the floppy things squirming under their shells, maybe even watching her as she was watching them!

The melody brimmed in her mind, something just as new and exciting as this experience. Chosen or no, there would be a song from this. She couldn't think of anything better than the warm sands beneath her feet, and even the terrifying glare of an unwilling, but tolerant mother. The thrill of it all, she decided, was probably only topped by flight itself.

Kallista stepped back and allowed the other girls to touch the gold egg. How many candidates were there? A lot more candidates than eggs which would only make sense. After all, there had to plenty of choice for the dragonets. After today's touching session, she would send word to her father that Hatching was to occur anytime now. Sandy Bend was about two days run from Ista Weyr. Hopefully, the little ones did not decided to come in the middle of the night!

Moving towards the only candidate she was truly familiar with, Kallista gave a bold smile. She had watched Tseka go from egg to egg, touching and caressing the different multi-colored shells. The runner herself let her hands hang loose at her sides so that they touched the eggs casually and without purpose. Each egg seemed to have it's own personality. From bold and vibrant, to shy and withdrawn. Stopping shortly before reaching Tseka, Kallista looked at two spotted eggs very similar in color. Upon closer inspection, for a Runner always observed and noted their surroundings, she could see that the spots were different in shape and size. Not too far away, there were two striped eggs... One more plain with just shades of black and white while the other had vibrant strokes of red.

Looking over at Tseka, she gave a little wave. "So many lives ready to burst out. I wonder if they have already decided or if they are just sleeping until it's time to come out?"