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 Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:38 pm
Kiera raced through the halls toward the Sands. By the Egg, how could she be late again! Her heart was racing as the sounds of humming filled the air. They were already beginning to hatch. Oh no!
When she reached the Sands, she halted, composing herself and steadying her breath. This was not a good day for her. Why was it always so bloody hot on the Sands?!
She slowly stepped into the throng, and sent her thoughts outward, her heart beating like a drum, clogging all other sound. Please, little ones...
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:38 pm
Oh good. He hadn’t missed anything yet. Personally, Xeran disagreed with Vera’s desire to be here. Last time she was here, she had ended up with a cracked wrist, a broken set of pipes, and the worst flu case he had ever seen. It didn’t seem likely that such a thing could happen again, but… he worried anyway. The fact that Vera so insisted on being here was a bit odd, but he didn’t have it in his heart to refuse her anything right now.
After all, she was still angry that Xeran and Marko had gone out drinking together. The Harper looked over the Sands, his eyes momentarily resting on any familiar faces. And there were still an awful lot of them, ex-Harpers and the like. Far, far too many…
Suddenly, the eggs both cracked open completely, releasing chaos all across the Sands. “Shards! Was that Mal?!”
Wait, what!? Where was Vera now?! Now it was Xeran’s turn to flail as he attempted to bring Vera back to a safe place. And S’van too, he supposed.
~.~
And, yes, it really was Mal. At first when the angry Brown had ventured towards him, he couldn’t help but hope… well, actually, his main hope was that the angrified dragonet would leave him alone! Unfortunately, he didn’t get so lucky… much to his distress----as if being scratched by a flailing dragonet wasn’t enough----he let out a rather pathetic squeak and scrambled to get away. The wounds weren’t serious but, shards, that hurt!
Who had the bright idea to wear sharding dresses to a Hatching anyway?! At least he had plenty of room to maneuver, since everyone else had moved away from the pissed-off dragonet. Smart move… judging by the screams, the girls weren’t having an easy time either, but Mal didn’t care about them. He was hurt!
He ignored Vaythel’s attempts to help and instead sought out S’van or at least someone he recognized. He’d just have to settle for the Healer.
~.~
“Fardles!” Cordel couldn’t help but let out a particularly foul curse at the screams. It was time to get to work. Armed with bandages and numbweed, the Healer made his way to the wounded pair of boys, trusting that La would get the girl. Or someone would anyway. This was all that girl’s fault! The one who had touched the eggs. If she hadn’t done that, the maulings wouldn’t have happened and…
“Stop your flailing,” he said irritably at Mal, trying to get him to calm down a bit. “It’s only a cut. Faranth, stop acting like he took off your leg…” the cuts were deep, yes, but they didn’t get into the muscle; he was certain that Mal would be allowed to stay. Goran’s cuts were a bit more serious matter. It was still probably mostly shock making the Candidate wobbly-legged, but even that could be dangerous on the Sands.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:39 pm
Raedue watched in wide-eyed horror at the marks left behind on the boy's legs. Horror at both the wound, and himself, because, all he could think was that he was glad it wasn't his legs that had gotten slashed. Legs were everything to a runner. He glanced briefly over to the gold dragonet that had hatched and was glad that he wasn't a female and having to deal with her too. And so he kept his eyes mainly on the brown and partly on the other eggs, ready to jump away if any others decided to hatch and start rampaging like their siblings.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:40 pm
So the egg was a brown, and an angry one at that! Jisken took careful note as the dragon drew closer, though he found himself suddenly distracted by the queen's grand entrance, only the second to hatch. It was a strange occurance, but not too strange, thought Jisken, who supposed that being the queen, she could emerge whenever she felt like it and--
A brown blur, far too fast, and all of a sudden Jisken was on the floor of the Sands, unable to see with all the flailing going about. He felt the dragonet's claws gouge through one of his arms and across his chest with an uneasy sort of detachment, and for a moment he wondered if he had hurt his back in the fall before the pain hit him, full force, not fully able to pull a scream from between his gritted teeth but certainly able to cause him to grunt. This, he thought, was worse than that time he got thrown by a runner and broke a few ribs, and coming from Jisken, who had often used that instance as a point of reference for pain, that was saying something.
He felt hands, light touches, something difficult for his flustered mind to register, but somehow, he grasped onto another male candidate, able to pull himself away from the angry dragonet with his good arm. He didn't look down to the shredded sleeves of his robe, where his arm was bleeding pretty steadily--not enough to have hit a major artery, but still rather substantial--partly because he was half-afraid he'd lost the thing. Once he was a good distance away, he eyed the other candidate, also injured, then looked up at his saviour of sorts, Vaythel. Through a pain-fuzzed mind, he nodded, unsure if he'd even be able to say his thanks and still remembering his duty to silence on the Sands. He never tried to stand, knowing better than to be a hero: Healers would be on the way soon, and he'd stand once he knew the bleeding was tended to.
That is, if he managed to keep consciousness that long. Considering the pain thrumming through his arm, passing out almost seemed like it would be a blissful retreat. But for now, he watched, eyes half-grimacing in pain as he made sure he was able to scoot away if the situation called for it. He didn't want that brown near him again.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:41 pm
Another Hatching; another scramble into scratchy white robes; another falling head-over-heels sprint to the baking sands with one sandal on backwards, the other on only partially and neither of them on the right foot. Ferris had been through it all before, which was why, this time, she was undaunted and in no SUPERSONICRUSH to get there. Everything had been smooth and calm.
...
BUT NO, NOT ANYMORE. Not with the crazy bat-out-of-hell-that-has-to-be-Cheoth's-daughter and the Freddie-Kruger-man-eater that had just hatched.
Ferris was luckily in the far back of the female candidate-lump due to her lateness and calm stroll, but her body jumped backwards out of 'habit' and she gasped as blood became visible on a few of the now unlucky candidates. A lack of a touching, and an inappropriate one as well, really did seem to change the entire atmosphere and overall safety of the Hatching. Would things get even worse?
Staring the the little demon dragonets parading about with pushy and slashy manners, Ferris could only believe that, Yes, things were going to only go down hill. Call it a pessimistic thought, but it was realistic.
"I'm going to punch that little bimbo after this thing is over," Ferris muttered as she steadied another candidate in front of her as girls kept trying to move backwards and out of harms way.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:42 pm
"By the egg, he's a big lad, though, Rin." Kess was a bit awestruck now that they were outside of the immediate danger-zone again and she shook her head slowly, vaguely amused with herself. It never failed, every time her feet touched the sands she became enamored once more, remembering why she'd dedicated her young life to these creatures.
A grin. "Yes, this'll be an interesting clutch to turn into a wing." Stopping herself from moving closer, she once again scanned the candidates, blinking in surprise at the sight of Uuni, then Ollen. They both looked alright, though the former seemed a tad nauseous. That was good, at least.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:42 pm
When the large brown came out of his shell with a scream Veyes only wished he could be the one to sooth its anger and had to struggle with his own inner desires to rush over and try to do just that. However, the dragon had gone the other direction and soon was clawing through the candidates trying to find its life mate.
Veyes watched and his jaw dropped as the little gold dragon charged forward causing the brown to trip and claw his way through his roommate and another. He would have rushed to Mal's aid had not the distance between them been so great. He wanted to help some how... stop things from getting worse. These were only the first two of several eggs. How many would end up bleeding on the sands? His hands clenched together wishing that the touching could have occurred to avoid this sort of thing. Looking over towards the brown, he tried to send calm thoughts to the agitated hatchling. It will be ok. Just relax...Your rider will soon be found.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:46 pm
As she suspected things had taken a bad turn with the arrival of energetic and angry brown and gold... Pendra didn't know what to make of them and was knocked to the sand as others avoided the hatchlings. She sat there in shock, hardly aware of the hot sands. She tried to project calm to the hatchlings. Pendra hoped they found theirs' soon before more injuries occured.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:47 pm
Merik let out a little whoop at the final revelation of the first Hatchling's color- a Brown! Nearly a Bronze, by the size of that little monster! A bit splotchy and awkward on its feet, but amazing to watch, even as it barreled right towards the cluster of young men. He wanted to cheer it on, but his grin faded very quickly once blood started hitting the sands. He wasn't scared, didn't fear for his own well being. It was an out-of-body experience; he was stupefied. It didn't even cross his mind to back up or get away. He just stood very still and very glossy-eyed, watching the Dragonet's rampage in silence. He heard the shrill cries of girls he could only assume the little Queen had started trampling, but that was of no importance to him... This huge Brown, it was gone mad! None of the boys it had sliced up had a name in Merik's mind, and he felt bad for them, but his only real concern was the Dragon. It had to Impress... right? What happened if it didn't? Why was it taking so long? Why was it so wild? Was that normal? It fell- what if it got hurt? What if it killed someone? Could a sane Dragon live with that? What if it stayed crazy? What if, what if-?
He was breathing very heavily, thoughts whirling and still standing in place. Shards, this was nothing like birthing a beast. More like trying to run through a herd with a Dragon overhead... They were beautiful, and horrible, and he wasn't nervous or upset... just completely dumbfounded, confused, standing slack-jawed in the midst of some brilliant type of commotion.
Thick and dull as he was, those reeling red eyes touched him right at the core. Merik dearly hoped he was good enough, but if he wasn't... He knew he shouldn't have been thinking like that at a Hatching, but who wasn't? If he didn't Impress, he would certainly not go home. A Weyr needed skilled hands, and he felt very much that he just couldn't leave after Standing. After being so close he could just reach out and touch one...
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:51 pm
"Big and angry," Rin agreed, although there was a part of her that thrilled to watch their ferocity. You know, the part that wasn't on the sands hoping not to get mauled. Fierce angry creatures were awesome to watch, as long as you were firmly in the spectator's seat. Otherwise, it sort of turned into an 'ogod get out of the WAY before it gets me' thing. "Lessons should be fun."
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:51 pm
Out of the corner of his eye, Raedue noticed one of the boys he had met at the lake his first day at the weyr. He seemed to almost be melting down. He edged closer to him and whispered at him. "Hey. Merik, it'll be alright, yeah? Nobody's going to die, and those who are meant to impress now will impress. Just calm down and be ready to jump away should a dragonet decide you aren't the one. You want to be in top form for yours should you impress, yeah?"
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:52 pm
"... S'van," Vera said warningly, tugging on the lad's arm. "Get back up there. You can't help Mal like this, and you definitely can't help him more than that healer. Calm down, and... get your act together! You're a Brownrider, not a sharding dimglowed holder." Apparently her opinion of some of the holders she had encountered crying over their little babies was not very high. "Buck up, man." That, it seemed, was all that it took to get S'van grudgingly back up to Xeran... though he continued to watch Mal like a wherry hen whose chick had been threatened. "If he gets hurt..." If he got hurt again, Vera fully expected that S'van would hold her responsible. However, it seemed that S'van was for the moment content with glaring at Kyllae, whom he deemed to be the cause of this entire mess.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:54 pm
The most magical words in the Weyr for anyone under the age of ten: "I triple wherry dare you!" Of course, Dolmin wasn't convinced that he couldn't have gotten someone to come with him, even without resorting to such drastic methods. He could have gone alone, of course but he really didn't want to. Besides, Kagiya's pride was such an easy target, even if he couldn't make any jokes about her father being a skittish tunnelsnake if she didn't go with him anymore (who would have guessed that the Weyrbrat girl's daddy really would turn out to be a bronzerider?) It was a bit naughty, he knew, to be sneaking around that crack in the tunnels during a Hatching. But THEY (capitalized, you see, because it was always THEY who interfered with his plans) looked down on little kids joining the stands. Dolmin might have pestered his mother into sweet-talking him in, but then she'd put her foot down and said no. Because there was no Touching, she told him, it was much too dangerous for a little boy of his age to be watching! But that hardly deterred him. Sneaking through the rock tunnels, he could hear the loud and exciting screams and shouts of the Hatching Grounds. His blood heated by them - things were happening already! "C'mon!" he whined to the girl, "we're missin' ev'rythin'!" They were almost near the little crack now - far from fearful, driven by curiosity and joyous rebellion in finding some way to do what THEY wouldn't let him, Dolmin hurried onward.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:55 pm
Merik turned to look at Raedue, and had to stand blinking a few seconds before anything in his head clicked. All of the sudden he was animated again, wiping back his hair and nodding vigorously. "Right, right, right. I, uh... faded out. I... tired, I guess." In all this? Not likely! "I can't seem to stay focused, you know? You're conducting yourself a bit better than me, I think. Uh... yeah, you're right." He wasn't really sure what he'd just said, but it sounded like an appropriate response. "They're... pretty incredible," he mumbled, stepping back a little but never taking his eyes off the Brown.
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Posted: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:56 pm
He only managed to grunt a little with surprise at the unexpected hand that reached down for him, grasping it without thinking and using it as leverage to haul himself up on his feet. "Thanks." He thought he muttered at Westren, couldn't be sure because his tongue felt thick and shook his head. Just a scratch, it was just a scratch. That was what he kept telling himself and it was enough to keep his legs from shuddering about like frenzied tunnelsnakes. Adrenaline, however, was a wonderful thing, and he had quickly squared his jaw and was focusing on the dragons again.
The brown was still lying on the ground, and glancing about for a moment, it looked as though only two others had been slashed. Fine, that was fine--he was trying to keep himself calm and not fall to pieces, giving his head a rough shake before he directed even rougher words at the one who helped him up. "Didn't have to do that. ...Thanks." Could have gotten himself hurt, too.
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