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Wake up, sleepysleepy head! The Hatching, it is here! Mine cannot see hatchlings when she is here and asleep!

No. No, no, no, no. Nice try, Ler, but I just wanna sleep. Burrowing her face even deeper into the soft comfort of the cot beneath her, Nimwae’s eyes refused to roll open - it was all a joke, after all. The green dragon (bless her, she tried so hard) had waited until she knew her rider was nice and comfortable in bed before springing the joke. Lernaeth, though fond of games, jokes, and other such silly things, had yet to learn the fine arts of finesse and tact. Of course the Hatching hadn’t started, there was no humm- The crescendo of dragon thrums suddenly began to rise, neatly hiding Nimwae’s groan of frustration.

Tumbling out of bed, the girl began to pull on suitable clothes, all the while ignoring Lerneath’s excited cajoles and jumps. It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking forward to the Hatching, she was, but why did it have to be so sharding late? Surely the eggs could’ve waited until tomorrow afternoon! After a day full of weyrling lessons, chores, and playing with Lernaeth, she was tired. Oh well, better get used to it now! She had many more turns as a Rider left to go.

Leaving the room, she joined the throng of people heading towards the Sands. Though, as always, the excitement was high, some of the voices reflected a sense of worry for this Hatching - would everything go well, considering all that had happened? The mood was infectious and soon Nimwae was awake and bumbling along with the crowd, Lernaeth beside her. Her first Hatching since her own Impression! It would be nice to sit in the Stands for once and not be on “the spot” on the Sands. She could hardly even remember what life without Lernaeth was like. The thought brought a feeling of guilt over the girl, and she placed a hand on the green as they walked. Sorry I was cross with you earlier.

Turning whirling eyes of blue onto her rider, Lernaeth nudged her head into Nimwae softly. Do not feel sad! Now is the Hatching, so be happy now. The hatchlings will find Theirs, just like I found you.

The two entered the Stands just as the first two eggs hatched, and were greeted with the gasps of the crowd as the little dragons tore through the Candidates. “Look, Lernaeth, a brown! And the gold is already out, too! That's odd." Odd indeed.

WELL THIS WAS AN EXCELLENT START NOW WASN'T IT? Alanna was utterly terrified, and justifiedly so -- the first two the hatch were a very upset little gold and brown... and all Alanna could do was stand, practically paralyzed as the Queen went on a rampage through the girls.

What was she looking for? Was it possible that the Queen's match wasn't among them? Or was it that the Queen didn't know where 'hers' was because there hadn't been a touching? This was horrible! Just horrible! And really, Alanna was just bracing herself in this case -- With the size of both dragons, just moving the hell out of the way wasn't going to save her from being caught by a wing or a lashing tail.

But she at least did have the sense to move the HELL OUT OF THE WAY (not that another of the girls didn't get thrown into her by the barrelling ((NPC GIRL ASSUME IT PLZ)) ) just to stare in horror of the scene.

Yours is here little Queen! Somewhere she's here! Alanna pleaded somewhere in her mind.

Certainly she wasn't expecting the Queen to be able to hear her, but oh god... the rage of the Nightmare-Dragonet was enough to make Alanna question her original desire to impress a gold.

--

Shala, on the other hand, gasped from her place in the sands. Sharddit! This was the first time that she could recall where hatchlings had actually gone on a rampage like this, looking for 'theirs'. It was..
...
....

She was actually grateful she wasn't out in the sands at that time.

Firyal had been determined to stand well at this Hatching, but when the young queen made her fierce advance she was quick to sidestep, hoping to avoid the jaws that bite and the claws that catch. Dragons did not intentionally hurt humans, she recalled forcibly, but Rinfala and Astrisabe were both evidence that accidental injuries did occur, and they could sometimes be quite severe. She turned to watch the gold's progress after she passed and couldn't help thinking that was the worst-behaved dragonet she'd ever seen. It was only later that it occurred to her to be relieved that the queen appeared to have been unharmed by Kyllae's stunt. It was at this point that she noticed the damage the newly hatched brown was doing among the boys, and she gasped involuntarily.

"Stop it," she muttered very softly through gritted to the young dragons, even though she knew she was not supposed to speak while on the sands. "If yours isn't among us they must be somewhere else. There's no need to behave like this."

_____

E'rik watched with wide eyes as Mal was struck by the large brown. Still clutching his gitar in its case he forced his way closer to the sands, shamelessly abusing his authority as a Brownrider to part stubborn knots of people. He didn't think he could be of any help to Mal, but he felt bound to do something. Mal had stood by him at their first Hatching, kept him there until Daramulath could find him. He found himself standing near some people he recognized from Harper Hall, as well as S'van, whose cry of "Mal!" had caught his attention and perhaps been the reason he came in this direction.

Kess, nimble on her feet, though quite greatful for Rin's warning tug [the blonde was, admittedly, the type to observe something as long as possible before getting out of the way], she managed to escape the gold's wrath, eyes shifting between the two dragonets as they barreled their way through Candidates.

Sure, she and Rin were a bit out of the way of the general action, but she had a perfectly good view. "Rin." Her soft, husky voice trembled with excitement. "They're healthy. Strong." A bit of a wry note entered her tone. "A bit crazed."

Hopefully everyone would get out relatively unharmed.

The young man's eyes widened slowly in shock at the size of the brown hatchling, not remembering any of the browns from the last clutch being his size. And and the Queen! His jaws fell slack for a moment as he realized neither dragon was making a move towards people... but wait, the brown? The male surged towards them, knocked two of the other boys aside--and swiped out with powerful claws that ripped straight through his clothes and his legs, the force of the blow sending him sprawling hard on his back.

He choked on a sound for a moment as he felt his legs burning, blood streaming down his skin. Then the sand slipped into the gouges to bite at him, and a more painful cry finally scraped from his throat. He heard the shrieks of the Queen, the thump of the brown as it tripped over itself and landed hard, and twisted himself away with a groan to try and get out of the danger zone.

Shards, it hurt to move, and he knew enough to know that these weren't just shallow scrapes. The dragonet had nicked him good--and now he wasn't sure he could stand up before he got savaged again, struggling hard to get wobbling legs underneath him.

There was certainly no getting to Kess now. Shoving through an angry gold just for the sake of seeing someone was the last thing on her mind. She caught barely a glimpse of Kess's friend pulling her out of the way before she gave up her spot and moved backwards with a few other people.

Pushing the young Queen was not something she thought was advisable now. Instead she slid back a little ways in the crowd - and probably a little with the crowd - to give the large gold her space.

Where she went, however, was not at all the right direction. When she caught sight of the deep gouges in Goran's legs, she had to look away again. If too much blood hit the sands, she was going to have to go to the outskirts no matter if Hers was here waiting or not.

The doctors would have enough to worry about without a blood-sick candidate to fret over as well. Realizing she was between the commotion, Uuni simply froze. As long as the Queen didn't whirl back around, she'd be at least moderately safe in one place with a few people in between her and the upset dragons.

One deep breath to relax her breathing, and another so she could muster the confidence to survey those that had gotten injured. When the Queen Impressed, she was sure this would get a little easier and a little safer. Patience was key, as was not panicking. Scared people would be just as bad as newly hatched dragons, if not worse.

-

"Hey!" Bachi said as Balin dragged him out of the way. He couldn't help the outburst that had come from his mouth. The brown hadn't been that close!

And, for all he knew, Balin could have just ruined his chance at looking at His. By the end of the day, Bachi would probably look back and thank him immensely for the save from having his body potentially mauled, but for now he was all glares and upset.

But his brother seemed to be generally worried, so he settled for now. He contented himself with just looking really upset, but he kept in his position just behind his brother's protection for now.

He still had a good view, and he watched the brown as it traveled with excitement in his eyes. He seemed very undeterred by the amount of danger that it had already brought. When it fell, he looked shocked and stared. Would it get back up? Was this a funny thing they did before they Impressed?

Westren was on time to the Hatching, but that didn’t lessen his nerves. He’d heard about the rogue Candidate who’d touched the eggs early – heck, who hadn’t? When he bowed to the Queen, he had the faint fear that if anything were to go wrong, she’d be likely to vent her rage on anyone unfortunate enough to be near her. It was for that reason that Westren had inserted himself into the side of the group of male candidates furthest from the looming Queen.

That the Gold egg was the first to begin rocking surprised Westren. What surprised him more, however, was that one of the largest eggs in the clutch was a Brown! The Gold hatched shortly after, but Westren’s attention was focused on the angry Brown barreling through the Candidates. Determined as he was not to feel fear, Westren was equally determined not to get mauled by the first Hatchling.

However, a desire to remain unscathed did not mean that Westren would be kept away from his injured fellow Candidates. Keeping an eye on the Brown, he inched through the crowd, trying to reach the boys unfortunate enough to have been in the Hatchling’s way. Reaching one of the injured Candidates, he spoke as softly as he could,“ Need a hand?”