Welcome to Gaia! ::

It did make him feel a little better, knowing he wasn't the only clumsy one tonight. They'd just chalk it up to people still being half-asleep and let it go at that, right?

Smile widening, he straightened up. He did make a pretty good wind shield, all things considered. "If it helps keeps the sand lit up a little more, I'll pretend to be a rock, and you can hide--"

Sammis jerked and Vessali's gut tightened even more in response. Yep, he'd gotten himself would up and for nothing, right? Of course right. Except Sammis was asking what something was and... "Did you just step on my foot, Sammis?" That had to explain it. The other boy was close enough to have trod on him. Probably.

He could hope. And yet, for preservation's sake, he kind of had to know for sure, didn't he? He peered down into the darkness by his feet, then cleared his throat. "Hey. S-Sammis? You. Could you...aim your basket toward my feet?" He needed to see. He didn't want to see.

Sesabal would have gone the whole evening without seeing J'aro. The fact he'd lost his glowbasket was frustrating enough, having the whiterider leaning over and whispering in his ear like a teenage girl was enough to make the Guardmaster bristle. "Hush, you sharding fool. It can wait, until later."

F'sey practically growled when the Whitemaster waltzed by without so much as a hello. (Though honestly, the greenrider -Wingleader- wanted a little more than a hello. A 'sorry I left you in jail for-sharding-ever and set that insane Amai on you' would have been nice. Shards, he'd even settle for 'hey F'sey, sorry I'm a total dickweed and can't tell my a** from a hole in the ground! I'll stop forcing my delusions on you now'. But what does he get? Nothing.

"J'aro," he hissed, once the Gaurdmaster resumed trying to ignore the younger redhead. "It's good to see you still don't have any manners." He sneered. "I hope you're proud of yourself." Of course, he was probably ignored again, with J'aro yelling at the candidates.

F'sey paused. "...what is wrong with them? Are your candidates always this ill-organized?"

"I'd be more excited if it weren't so d-" Iafri was interrupted by the noise from the crowd of male candidates, and J'aro's shout.

What was...what was going on over there? What was wrong with the boys? She couldn't really see anything, but she could certainly hear the commotion, and it was worrisome. Clutching her basket with one arm now instead of both, she used her free hand to grab onto Kalania's arm and cling. "Oh, Faranth. It's the tunnelsnakes!"

At least they were over there and not over here, but that could certainly change.

Ren frowned toward the boys, who seemed for whatever reason to be engaging in some sort of surreptitious dance. At least, judging by their hasty shuffling, that's what they were doing. She couldn't think of anything else that would have them shifting like they seemed to be, though the illumination in the cavern left much to be desired.

She couldn't clearly see much beyond the ring created by her glowbasket, and the glow itself had a somewhat blinding effect on her, and whenever she tried to look beyond its light it was as if she was staring into total blackness. She doubted very much that her girlfriend would be able to find her on the sands, let alone watch her. That much was a shame, because Ren would have liked to show off.

Nevertheless, it did occur to her that she might be helpful by holding her basket aloft, rather than down at her side. White candidates were trained to be quick thinkers and problem solvers, and this seemed like an obvious solution to her. Keeping a firm hold on the handle of the basket, Ren raised it as high as she could and nudged the girls around her - those who had kept her baskets, anyway - to do likewise in hopes of providing better illumination for the goings-on.

Oh shards and shells, this was getting worse by the second. His search around his and Vessali's feet turned up nothing, but that was probably because whatever -it- was had barged through the rest of the boys. The panic made it hard to tell if anyone had been bitten, or if it was something that would actually bitten.

Connor was right though, they didn't even know exactly what they were trying to crush. He hadn't heard an egg crack, but then again, who could have heard much of anything over the wind and the sound of candidates protesting their glowbaskets sailing away into the dark. What if it was a dragon?

It was a nice thought but it wasn't terribly convincing in the dark, with unknown things moving around. How large HAD the tunnel snake been that had killed the guard?

J'aro was yelling, but in their shoes, he probably wouldn't have heard them either.
"At this rate, we won't be able to tell if there's an hatchling on the sand or not!" He protested trying to stay away from the stomping and flailing, being on the short side made him feel particularly vulnerable to being crushed underfoot... and being bitten by a tunnel snake, or an alarmed hatchling, almost seemed the preferable option to being killed by his fellow candidates.

Things were happening way too fast. First he was sauntering over to bother Adetsu and Kaeyne, and then, J'aro walked by the girls! Without so much as saying hello! If he didn't know better (and he knew better), Roxyn would have thought the Whitemaster was avoiding him! (Good think he suddenly, boys were jumping and stomping and the flailing. Ugh. Really?

What was wrong with these boys? How could they even call themselves candidates? UGH.

The brunette's head whipped around when he heard Jerishude backtalk J'aro. An unpleasant snarl curling across his lips, he skittered a few steps towards the other candidate. There were other boys to avoid and, Faranth forbid, actual snakes on the ground.

"Hey, dickface! Yeah, you with the grin! Don't you dare talk to J'aro that way! He'll have you out on your skinny a** so fast your head will spin, you hear me?" Roxyn planted his hands on his hips and glowered. "Idiot. Seriously."

This was unpleasant, and more than that. Adetsu had been anxious when he'd first arrived on the sands. Now he was bow-string taut, eyes wide and scanning and seeing, nothing, nothing shard-it, but his fellow candidates running about and the resultant chaos. How were they supposed to fight when they couldn't see? When--

Someone bumped into him, throwing him momentarily off balance. And then Kaeyne's back was pressed against his own, a promise that if anything could be seen, he would be guarded from behind. He took a breath, a slow, controlled inhale.

Then another.

Someone else brushed against him, and this time he didn't react. He needed to focus on the moment. Treat it like a fight. Treat it like something he could deal with. What they needed was to see. He held his glow basket near his feet. He and Kaeyne had both succeeded in holding onto them.

Well, the danger was going to come from their feet.

Reaching into his basket, he took out three of the five glows and scattered them carefully in front of him, near his boots, so that the area immediately in front of him was illuminated. He nudged Kaeyne then, not turning his head. "Glows," was all he said.

Jerishude turned and looked at the approaching voice and figure, his eyes squining against the darkness like it would actually help him see better. Instead all it did was bring a saucy little figure into his line of sight and he sighed. He knew this face, the name escaped him, but this boy was one of those who were hellbent on getting a white. Maybe some scarring would actually do his apperance a favor, or so Jerishude's mind played out silently.

"Dickface? I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with that term unless it's being used in reference to boys who enjoy the company of other boys. Perhaps you should enlighten me on the subject then? Since you seem so familiar with it of course."

Jerishude's grin only grew wider at the feminie action of glowering and hands being planted on hips. He would have said something like 'how cute' but he really didn't want to get punched out here on the hatching grounds. Faranth, he didn't want to get punched period. Pain (that was inflected upon himself) hurt, and Jerishude hoped to avoid that at all costs.

"Can't we just stand here in the dark and either wait for the eggs or wait to be attacked by whatever is running around? There's no need to be uncivil to one another."