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As the blue Impressed, the bronze peered over briefly and gave an underwhelmed huff. Was the little one trying to prove something? Well, let it, he had more important things to see to. Rumbling deep in his throat the large dragonet flicked his wings and, fixing his eyes on Nemmol, stalked forward purposefully.

Falawny heard the start of the tell tale hum. He dropped what he was doing and headed quickly for his barrack. The long wait was finally over. For them, the eggs, and poor Yirath. He changed faster than he ever had. However, when he went to cross the weyrbrowl, Falawny stopped short. That great expanse of wide open fading blue. It was almost dark. If he could just pretend the sky wasn't there, and it was just a long dark tunnel he could make it.

Several minutes spent gathering his courage before he made the attempt. By keeping his head down and not looking up it was possible for him to hurry across the bowl to the entrance of the Hatching grounds. Falawny breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped into the grounds. It was short lived though. He was stopped short by the candidate master and directed to the right. Shifting his feet he waited nervously.

Falawny didn't have to wait long. It must have taken him longer to cross than he'd thought. One of the eggs Hatched and produced a large bronze. He wondered what the queen was saying to the first of her last offspring. Wishing him luck maybe? He held his breath as the beast started toward them. Only to wind up blocked by the contents of another egg, a blue. He winced as the bronze shoved aside his sibling. At least the blue gave up before he got hurt.

He tried to watch the bronze and blue. At least until the blue headed to the girls and picked one of them. That left the bronze sitting on the sands. Falawny watched the bronze analizing them. Who would he pick? If someone was in the way between him and his, would the bronze shove them aside like he did the blue? Well he'd be ready for it then. Ah nope, it looked like he picked a rider without problems.


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Emkin knew this would happen. She'd set out her robes just in case they were needed on a moments notice. But then she'd had to look for something else, and the robes had gotten lost in her searching. Now the dragons were humming, candidates getting into their robes and leaving. She was still looking. Frantically she over turned a different pile. Looking for that significant piece of white clothing. Where oh where was it? She pawed through another pile and suddenly her hand touched the fabric. Emkin changed as fast as she could. Late, she was now so so late.

The woman rushed across the weyr to the hatching, frantic not to miss anything. Reaching the entrance she slowed and took a deep breath. Seeing all the candidates there, she realized she was dead last. Having missed anything important the candidate master might say she joined the group of girls on the left. Right away she could tell she'd missed the actual start of the hatching. Already there was a bronze and a blue on the sands. Predictably the bronze had gone for the boys, but the blue was near the girls.

From the back of the group, she saw the blue dragonette pick his rider. She gave a soft clap for the lucky girl, and a fast glance to see how Yirath reacted to it. Shortly after that the bronze appeared to make his choice as well.

Brynja couldn't help herself - she laughed. So that was what it was. She got it now - along with a sudden ravenous feeling. The candidate pushed her way forward, heedless of who she was shoving out of the way to get to him.

"Oh, you're beautiful" she told him - which was not a lie in any way. He was absolutely gorgeous, and the way he showed himself off only highlighted it. Best of all, he loved her. "Beautiful. Of course you're the best" She reached forward, a little gingerly at first, to touch his snout, then grinned widely. Oh, this... this wasn't what she'd been expecting at all. It was far, far better. Whatever else was going on on the sands, Brynja was completely unaware of it - and more then that, she couldn't give a wherry's armpit about it.

Larth agreed happily, the two already heading off of the sands to find something to relieve his growling stomach, which had replaced his growling at his bronze brother.

Brynja giggled again, beginning to work on a list of all the ways in which he was absolutely perfect and wonderful, and wondering if she should maybe write them down somewhere.

Hunched over in the stands, T'go hoped the rest of the Impressions would go as smoothly as the first two. The Queen was in a horrible state, starving and mad with grief. Yirath looked so magnificent when he stood on the sands at the last hatching and seeing her now almost brought tears to his eyes. And poor Kestril, too! He had pleanty of reason to be concerned about the state of Benden and what might be in store for their future, as well as the future of all the weyrs, what with one of the few people who understood the greenhouses missing, but he had always been a sensitive soul and it was so hard for him to see Yirath like this. He felt like he was attending a funeral.

And yet it was also a birth. Seeing the looks of joy on the new weyrlings' faces contrasted with the dying Queen made T'go quiver with emotions he lacked the skill to describe. Stoloth was more stoic. Kestril's murder had brought out a side of Stoloth T'go had never seen before. The young brown had become agitated and suspicious of everyone. "Stoloth, will you please calm down just for today? Now isn't the time to be thinking about that. There will be plenty of time to worry later."

Stoloth rumbled and shifted his massive weight. "What if the killer is here right now? Watching... waiting..."

"Don't think that way! No one is going to let that happen. Just... just try to enjoy the hatching, please." He tried to change the subject. Forcing a smile, he said, "Look at that enormous bronze! Doesn't he remind you of someone?"

"All bronzes are the same. You should know this." Stoloth looked over his shoulder. T'go sighed.

The blue first and then the bronze! Both had eagerly Impressed to theirs and rather swiftly, Persephone couldn’t help but cheer rather verbosely for the two new riders.

Pumping her oddly coloured fist into the air she gave a sort of congratulatory noise towards the two and their dragonets. She was truly completely enveloped in the excitement of the hatching now and the dark shadow of current events trailed miles away from her as she practically danced where she stood. She wanted more to hatch now, she wanted more people to be excited and happy!

Large green hues just for a moment scanned up and down the sands to see if any of the other eggs were giving way to making an entrance however once she saw that none were doing so the girl tilted her head towards Nemmol and grinned a brilliantly warm expression towards the newly Impressed bronze rider. She knew that he would do it, she knew that his would be in this clutch!

There was a short pause then, but before anyone had time to get too restless the Inner Glow Egg started to crack and wriggle. After a little while a brown head thrust out of the pointed end of the egg and called out happily to all and sundry. With 'hello' sorted out the head vanished again, and the dragonet got on with the business of breaking its shell properly. While the brown was busy doing that, the Ancient Strength Egg broke open with one mighty heave of its occupant's body. Stepping carefully away from the large shards of its egg the bronze who had just hatched stretched out beautifully patterned wings and surveyed the boys from where he stood.

Only moments later the brown from the Inner Glow Egg finally shook free, and with a happy cry he trotted over to his brother. Bumping his head against his bronze brother's shoulder he gave another bugle and danced a couple of paces towards the male candidates with his head tilted in question. In response the strip-winged bronze gave a restrained hum, and with that he set off sedately after his more energetic sibling.

This was...an interesting first clutch for Maldryk to stand for, to say the least. Initially it had been impressive - seventeen large eggs - but now it was also remarkable for the tragedy of it all. Kestril had been murdered, and as soon as the dragonets had finished Impressing, Yirath would go between. Being new to the Weyr had been sharding crazy enough to begin with, but that was nothing compared to now. If he didn't leave the Sands as a rider, he wasn't entirely certain he'd come back to them again - not because he'd 'give up,' but because he wasn't so sure this was somewhere he'd want to be, given the developing climate. Was want of a dragon enough to keep him here?

He hadn't decided yet. For now, he watched the dragons hatch with a detached sort of fascination. Two bronzes so far, a blue and a brown. Mal was glad there weren't any greens yet...he was just a little wary of those, thanks to certain stereotypes he believed to be true.