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Thrarothar

Thrarothar shifted around as he waited. All this waiting was boring. Then the bronze did something unexpected. He stared at the large dragon until he realized the bronze was trying to hum. Quietly. Dragon humming. It rang a bell. It was almost funny as the dragon tried not to hum and only partically succeeded.

But humming meant the eggs were hatching; and he hadn't found them yet. Sharding curse the rider who had called him back! Now he probably wouldn't find the eggs before they hatched. On the other hand, the dragonets once free would come looking for candidates. They just had to make themselves available. He tugged the bronzerider's sleeve.

"Which direction is the pull coming from? Maybe we can work our way closer."



Muburine

Muburine wrinkled his brow. Wait he heard it. Over there? No there. He turned slowly trying to inpoint the noise. Who was it out there making the noise? He had two guesses and one of them wasn't good news.

Hatteth was prowling along behind his rider, worrying about the eggs. What if they hatched before they were found? He did not want any of Hyweth's babies to be unable to find theirs and go between. They had gotten so hard, they could hatch at any time...then he realized that he'd begun humming and stopped himself. They didn't need to give away their position! But in a moment he found he couldn't stop and resumed again, as the reason why suddenly hit him. Mine! They are hatching! We must find them!

"Shards," J'nes swore under his breath. To the Candidates he said, "They're hatching. We have to find them now, and get you and the other Candidates to them." He picked up his pace, not bothering to keep quiet as he headed for the small noises he kept hearing. maybe it was an enemy, maybe it was moving eggs, but at the moment he had to take the chance.

J'nes didn't want to frighten the kid, but at the moment he felt honesty would be more prudent. "No, I'm not sure," he answered frankly, quietly enough that he hoped the sound wouldn't carry. "But finding those eggs is most important at the moment, and I'm willing to take a chance. There are other riders who can come help if needed. Just stay behind me, just in case." He hurried on, eyes peeled.

D'lin frowned slightly, glancing at the candidate that tugged at his sleeve, though the frown wasn't directed at the boys actions so much as the situation. "It's not so much a pull as just simple knowledge I think..I don't know, we can't see more then a few feet in front of us in this mist and scattering all across the meadow might make it harder on the hatchlings, they'll be guided to us by sensing theirs..our best bet might be just to gather in a group and sit tight. I don't know really...but if they can find theirs in the stands back home then certainly they should be able to sense you guys here..." It..made some sense he supposed. It was the best he could do given the situation.

'Plexith call the other groups back, explain the idea.' He told his bronze who momentarily paused in his hunting. 'Mine asks that everyone return, the theory being that having the candidates spread across the meadow might make it harder on the hatchlings then sensing one big group would be..he says they can find theirs in the stands back home which is a fair distance and so they ought to be able to sense theirs here.'

"If we are quiet we might even hear then hatchlings...baby dragons are not always the quietest creatures." He encouraged the others with a hopeful tone.

Hatteth nearly snarled when he got the instruction. Plexith's asks that we go back to the group and wait for the hatchlings to find us. He says hatchlings can find theirs even in the stands, so they should be able to find theirs in the mist. He snorted dismissively at the idea. But I do not like it! I will not go back! We must find the eggs now and protect them!

J'nes had orders now, or at least instructions given by a bronzerider. He should return to the group with the Candidates. But he hesitated, not only because he did not want to proceed without his dragon. If the hatchlings could find theirs anyway, would it make a difference if everyone was together? And what if the thieves tried to hurt the hatchlings, or restrain them or...something else? Not to mention, what if one or both of them was an atypical and needed help breaking out of the shell. It seemed best to him if they found the eggs as quickly as possible and made sure they were OK.

He didn't want to lie to the Candidates, or tell them they were disobeying orders. So he simply didn't tell them. Hopefully if he got in trouble for this, they would be spared because they were ignorant.

"Sharding eggs and their sharding rotten timing," Ralla hissed, her eyes narrowing. Although, if anything, it was Keller's rotten timing, and bad judgement in not letting them return home sooner. "This is sharding-"

The girl cut herself off with a snarl. Focus. Curse later. "It's too late to take the eggs anywhere now. We can try to delay them, maybe take some of them out, but...shells, we don't even know how many there are."

She didn't want to just leave, to run away and abandon their failed mission, but they had a Queen and at least another dragon or two with them, and that would be too much even for Firith. Not to mention if the gold grounded her, they'd be screwed. "It's a lot of risk and a lot of maybes," she admitted finally, the words leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. "We may need to cut our losses while we can."

Hunkered down nearby, Firith rumbled. I am more than a match for any so-called Queen. She, who had faced down a bronze even before she had reached her full growth, and won!

I know, my love, but she's not alone, and neither are we. We risk more than just ourselves if we stay. There was no back-up - if Firith were grounded, they could all be captured. As much as Ralla hated to give up, hated it with every fiber of her being, she wasn't without any sense at all.

Muburine

Muburine wondered as the rider seemed indecisive for a moment. Perhaps he was reconsidering taking candidates into a possible trap. He knew that he'd go anyhow for the eggs. "We don't know where we're going though," he whispered back to Soral. As much as he would have loved to hurry..... Go where? There was hot pools all around, and the mists didn't make spotting them before one splashed into it any easier; at any speed and they'd surely end up soaked before long.

"I know and no doubt Hatteth is putting a great deal of pressure on him, the brown looked as angry as Calanoth was." D'lin stated, giving her a reassuring smile. He wasn't sure if she truly liked being put in charge in these situations but she always came up with the right ideas even if she didn't know it. Not that he wasn't still irked at being ignored, who wouldn't be? But he saw no point in fuming about it now and making a bad situation worse. They had landed somewhat on the outskirts of the meadow if he recalled right.

"Perhaps if we move upwind and closer to the springs, I know the mist might actually be thicker there but hopefully it will be pushed in the other direction before it gets all spread out like it is here...and they have to be keeping the eggs warm and the springs are the warmest spot." Shards he hoped they could find a place where the mist was thinner - all of this haze reminded him of smoke..which reminded him of the gloomy battle they'd fought for Trine. Memories no one wanted to recall. Of course it hadn't been this sharding damp then, it seemed the more time they spent in the mist wetter everything became. "You don't think this dampness with hurt the hatchlings do you? I know they're wet when they hatch but they normally dry so quickly on the sands..I don't see how anything here can dry off." He asked Narisa as they began to circle a bit upwind and closer to the springs.

With Cepheith helping, Plexith had no doubt they would quickly catch enough food for the little ones and his scouting quickly brought results as movement in the bush caught his attention. It was a herd of wild wherries, not his favorite meal and not the choice cuts he would typically elect to feed hatchlings for their first meal but beggers couldn't be choosers and veered off to steer the herd towards Cepheith even as he sent her an image of the herd moving toward her. He'd chase them right into the golds jaws and then he'd nab one of the stragglers.