Welcome to Gaia! ::

Pendra was lying on her bunk alone with her thoughts when the call came. It was time... yet again. It seemed so sudden. She'd been kept busy in the kitchens, the work constant with so many to feed. Also she suspected ulterior motives among the other workers. They knew it was nearing that time... the time when the young woman would no longer be able to stand. Peira, her mother, had taken to avoiding her pleading her own work load; though Pendra knew it was her mother's own memories that were coming to a head. She'd had such high hopes that her daughter would succeed where she had failed.

The usual excitement of a hatching was subdued by such thoughts. "I vowed to stand as long as allowed," she reminded herself and pulled on her robe and slipped into her sandals. She joined the other candidates running toward the Hatching Grounds. Her hair at her neck was dripping from the heat but her first sight of the eggs brought everything back in perspective. The fact that the most active egg was the queen was a cause for great excitement as well. This was her first sight of the egg since she refused to sneak a peek and there hadn't been a touching. Would this make the hatching more dangerous? Wasn't that the point of the Touching to get the candidates comfortable with the thought of disoriented and eager dragonets emerging?
One could only hope the lessons and warnings of their peers would be enough ... but there was always a chance of things going wrong. The last hatching being a prime example...

E'rik reflexively clutched his gitar closer as the first egg actually cracked. The shimmery-shelled Akhal Teke egg cracked and his face split in a grin. He glanced back toward the Candidates, this time looking for Mal. His grin could hardly get wider but it might have once he saw that Mal was wet. Clearly someone had been pulled from the baths. Poor thing. He sincerely hoped Mal Impressed this time. They were almost of an age, and Mal deserved a dragon, though Aeron had enough personality to pass for one sometimes.

What do you think? he asked Dara.

Watch.

Hugging his gitar protectively against the excited people to either side of him, E'rik obeyed his dragon and watched the eggs.

-----

Firyal barely noticed the second egg crack. The whole of her being was focused on the queen's egg. From her position in the second row of the girls she had a very good view of the Nightmare egg, and she was watching intently, standing very still amid the other Candidates. She hoped this would be the Hatching where she distinguished herself and finally left the ranks of Candidates.

Ooooh, the unbridled thrill of youth in the midst of epiphany! The outpourings of love between man and beast as they formed an unbreakable bond for the ages! It was veritable poetry in Chavel's book and certainly something he never grew tired of, regardless of how many times he'd witnessed it before. Each new hatching brought its own mess of surprises; some bestowed maulings upon the unlucky, others simply near-misses to make the heart jump.

Even Pavo had attended with him in the stands, tucked away within the innards of his shirt and peeking out intently from the collar. And look! There had went the first shell of it already; he could feel both his heart and the little firelizard's start to beat with anticipation!

It never grew old, that thrill. He could only imagine the wild uncertainty and excitement down on the sands themselves.

... Canth certainly felt it: the collective lurch of racing hearts and knotted throats that came with the first shriek of the dragonet who dared upstage that queen egg. Despite her straight face, she felt it too and, almost instinctively, began to search the crowd for other familiar faces, reactions. A shrieking sounded unlike anything she had heard... but she couldn't see where it had come from amidst the chaos.

Which egg? Not the queen was all she knew, still in the throes of its own release, but... oooh, shard it, she felt the need to shuffle her way up more toward the front-- not as a show of bravery, but just to try and see what the shell she was getting herself into.

... With a constant mind to keep her distance from the broody queen, that was.

Alambri took in a sharp breath, excitement bright in his eyes. Look at them go! The one egg was rocking and shaking and rolling about- did eggs usually do that? It seemed an awful lot of motion, so much energy... And then it shattered, but he couldn't make out whatever little figure might be within. Tense and eager, he grinned with anticipation- he couldn't wait to see who it was, who it would go to. Surely for so much energy, it would be a strong little thing!

And the Queen egg was shaking as well, little sounds coming from it. That sent a surge of amazement through him, as well as a note of jealousy- no Queen would ever take a male rider. But they were beautiful, fascinating... Ah, well. Not for him, but that was alright. So long as it went to someone who would care for it as it should be cared for.

Was the Queen really the first one to hatch? Really? The shock of this actually caused Alanna to gasp. Oh god, all of her pride was currently shaking underneath the suspense of everything. She wanted everything to just hatch and impress and djalks;djflk;asdj. Certainly Alanna loved stress -- stress was good for her, made sure her body was in good working order, but suspense wasn't the same thriving factor for her.

However, it seemed the Nightmare egg was to be outdone by one of it's siblings which had decreed a 'ME FIRST!' and immediately thrown itself out into the world..
...
....
In hiding. Oh Faaraaannth. What was it? She couldn't see, especially not from where she was, and it was making her annnxxxiious. No. No, stop fretting, stop worrying. Deep breaths, deep breaths. Compose yourself Alanna -- no dragon would want to impress upon a big worrywart of a woman who couldn't handle the pressure of waiting.

Evvverything would be fine. Right? Riiiiggght? Oh goodness, everybody was just nerves at the given time.

--

Shala was a little more startled by the Gold-egg's rush to be born. Never, in any of the standings she'd been a part of, had it been in such a hurry.. but even so, there was no saying it would hatch as quickly as it was working at doing at the given time.

But...
...

Oh, something was giving her a bad feeling about this hatching.

The Queen egg first, huh? It was no wonder there was so much murmuring. In her years here, she'd yet to see that happen.

Thinking her spot was probably a bit weak, she slipped off through the crowds to get a different view only to spot a familiar blonde hair color through the crowd.

Kess? When she saw who she was standing next to, a grin worked its way over her lips. The girl probably.

They had a good enough spot as any, so she decided to make her way that direction.

She would have made it, too, had she not caught sight of the Akhal Teke egg rocking. It caused her to freeze and stop to watch along with everyone else. When the shriek sounded, Uuni was sure she could feel her whole body jump and her heart rate double speed.

She relaxed quickly thereafter, but warnings of danger were starting to linger on her mind. It was so easy to forget that the Hatching often left people with injuries and that was with a Touching.

-

Bachi was busy enjoying the excitement and the hum of everyone tensed around him when his brother showed up.

Great. He glanced over and gave him a reproachful look. He was sixteen now! His brother didn't need to hang around. He knew it was dangerous, blah, blah. He could take care of himself.

He gave him a glance and then made a very strong point of focusing on the egg that had just made a huge display of itself. Maybe, just maybe this could be the dragon for him!

As always, Xeran took his sweet time. When the call went out, he had gotten into bed. Alone for those who are overly curious and can’t mind their own business. Still, since it had been a long day, he wasn’t eager to get out of it, even when people started to make a racket in the hallways about ‘oh Faranth, the eggs are hatching!’ and ‘Oh… I didn’t know she was your girlfriend!’ and similar epiphanies. Xeran found himself hoping that the eggs would hatch soon, if only so he could get some quiet.

Unfortunately, Vera darted out. With a groan, Xeran sat up and got dressed. It wasn’t exactly a quick operation. Patience was essential in every craft to a certain extent, including Scribing and Harpering. Was that even the right word? Xeran considered this muzzily for a moment before throwing it aside mentally. Once dressed, he hurried onto the Stands.

At least he had an easy time of reaching Vera. People just generally moved out of his way. Covering up a yawn, he nodded at S’van, recognizing him as ‘safe to be nearby Vera as they are related’. “Did I miss anything?”