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While the candidates stood nervously, chatting amongst themselves and clinging to their last few lights, Beksk had kept up a constant stream of chatter. Many of his remarks were about the candidates. Bekar ignored most of it. He wasn't a dragonrider, and he didn't much care how the new dragonriders turned out. That was for their wingleaders to deal with. Where was J'aro? Ah ... not stopping to greet him, which was a bit disappointing but understandable.

And then Beksk had something new to say.

TUNNELSNAKES! TUNNELSNAKES! I knew it! Bekar! Tunnelsnakes!

The boys were agitated, but not more than Beksk, who was actually hopping up and down like a massive puppy. Bekar stood, shocked, not knowing quite what to do. Shout a warning? J'aro was already aware of whatever was going on -

J'aro was making his way out onto the sands, and Bekar was damned if he wasn't going to try and do something as well. He was the Whersecond, and he wasn't going to sit there like some random guest while tunnelsnakes ate the candidates along with that poor flit. Meanwhile, Beksk had crowded up through the ranks of dragons and stood at the edge of the sands, not daring to actually enter but ready to pounce on any tunnelsnake foolish enough to come his way. He whipped his heavy, horned head from side to side, huge eyes tracking the snake.

BEKAR! It is huge! Let me get it! Let me get the snake! I WANT TO KILL THE TUNNELSNAKE!

NO! Bekar hurried towards the panicked candidates and J'aro, ordering his wher to stay put, ignoring Beksk's irritated roar. Some of the candidates were running towards the dragons (and Beksk), he didn't want his wher to accidentally step on one of them or knock them over.

F'sey watched the entire scene unfold with no small degree of horror. So. J'aro had been right, after all. He had been jailed, because he was afraid of this happening.

Good call, Gaurdmaster. You idiot.

Speaking of idiots, why were all the candidates running for the eggs? Albeit, some of them scrambled towards the Stands and others towards the back where there were Healers, but a great lot of them were crowding the Queen. Did they not just see the tunnelsnake come from the eggs? What if there were more? And even if they weren't, they were approaching a Queen with a clutch.

"BACK UP," he hollered, pushing by a few Wingleaders as he watched the gold warily. "BACK UP. GET AWAY FROM THE EGGS, YOU IDIOTS. DIDN'T YOU LISTEN TO YOUR LESSONS AS A CANDIDATE?! GET AWAY FROM THE QUEEN."

Seriously, who approached an agitated mother?

That's right - yelling. More and more people were filtering in towards the queen (did they think there was less of a chance of dying?), little bobs of light from baskets including Kaeynes. Well, shards, shells, and little green flits. Then F'sey began to shriek.

Kaeyne dug in his heels and tugged back at Adetsu with a single word: "Stop." When his partner stopped, as he would, always did, no question ever, Kaeyne shook his head, eyes hard.

"There may be more," he said for a third time and in a firmer tone than before. Kaeyne glanced back towards the Queen, the clutch, and the nearest Not Clutch With Queen spot around not of the crowd - dragons and whers, dragons and whers. To get to the humans would require cutting through an entire hoarde and possibly a (few) tunnelsnake(s). Kaeyne began to pull then, towards the area of the dragons and the whers, near stumbling over his own feet. "We'll be eaten, otherwise. Come on."

Oh sweet sharing hell Mairin was dumb. Just becuase a gold protected their clutch didn't mean they were going to protect the humans, including herself, that were now likely far too close to the unhatched eggs for comfort.

The girl's legs moved of thier own accord and she was carried towards the previously rejected right where the watching dragons and wher's where. Some of them seemed excited enough to possibly trample her accidentally but dammit it all there was nowhere else to go.

Adrenaline coursed through her but all glee was drained from Mairin. Every single ******** decision she made tonight had been wrong. Mairin had never made so many potentially costly mistakes before and and as she lunged towards the light of glows and the roars of dragons and whers she could only hope that she lived long enough to make better choices in the future.

F'sey was right. The queen was indeed furious. She roared at the approaching candidates, and when her voice recovered, hissed at them instead.

Her rider had no choice but to remain completely focused on trying to keep her dragon calm. This was the kind of situation where personality and experience meant nothing. One where you were a rider, not an individual -- just a rider -- and had no choice but to act as one.

None of the eggs had moved again, but few people had enough attention to spare to be concerned for them just yet.

Sesabal watched the entire scene unfold through some sort of daze. He just couldn't believe J'aro had been correct about the entire thing; it seemed so far-fetched! Snakes. Tunnelsnakes. On his hatching grounds!

Swallowing nervously, the Gaurdmaster took a wary step back. The Queen was upset, the Wingleaders were upset, J'aro had taken off into the middle of the crowd. Would anyone notice if he was gone? What if they did? Would they get angrier, knowing Sesabal had bailed out at the moment of crisis?

Worrying his lower lip, the man took a few more steps back. Perhaps if he stood amongst the Wingleaders, no one would notice him...

Iafri slowed when she reached the group of dragons, not wanting to smack into or otherwise startle one, turning around when she'd reached the front row to scan the crowd on the hatching grounds. Where was Kala? At least she had a glowbasket, so that narrowed it down a little...but no, there was no way she could tell where her friend was for sure.

Wringing her hands with anxiety and more than a touch of guilt, she backed up a few more steps when quite a few candidates rethought their decision to head towards the eggs and ran this way instead.

...and she very nearly bumped into someone's bronze wher. Oh, goodness! Iafri danced to the side to avoid it with a deeply apologetic, "S-sorry."

Oh please don't be an angry wher.

It was difficult to concentrate with Beksk's silent bellowing in his head, but Bekar made his way through the crowd as best he could. Where was J'aro? He risked a look behind. Sesabel, doing nothing. Frowning, Bekar turned back to the crowd, dodging panicked candidates as he sought to find the Whitemaster. It was difficult to remain on his feet in the near-blackness, with the roaring of dragons and screams of candidates ringing in his ears.

"J'aro!" Little hope his voice would be heard, but if J'aro was trying to stop the panic then Bekar wanted to be at his side.

Beksk was immensely disgruntled when the candidates turned from the roaring queen and began pelting towards the dragons and whers. He was no dragon, incapable of harming humans, but he had nothing in particular against humans (as long as they weren't prisoners) and no desire to stomp on them. Besides, Bekar would get fussy. The wher ceased his agitated hopping and simply shifted from foot to foot. Maybe the tunnelsnakes would follow the candidates to him. Oh, that would be wonderful.

He shifted his attention briefly from the delicious, terribly distant tunnelsnakes when one of the candidates almost bumped into him. What was she saying? Sorry? Beksk didn't care if fleeing people bumped into him, but he was a bit gratified by her apology and the admiration in her voice. Of course she was admiring, because he was clearly a handsome wher. Instead of ignoring her he made the extra effort to speak to her. I want to eat the tunnelsnakes but Bekar won't let me, Beksk informed her, his mental voice somewhat mournful. I hope the tunnel snakes chase you here. Then I will eat them.

Back to bouncing from foot to foot, trying to stay still enough not to bump into any humans but incredibly excited about the tunnelsnakes.