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Saain

Her head hurt. The woman swayed slightly under the force of the green's mental voice, eyes clenched tight and hand curling up towards the hollow of her throat. Well, now she knew what had happened and she did not like it at all. The grey was angry but it had been healthy. Saain swayed slightly, collecting herself and looked at the mess on the sands. She was trapped in a political nightmare. Fragments.

A hatching broke free. The winter visitor, she remembered that egg and the shy soft voice that curled in her mind, soft and questioning. It was a gorgeous little green, so pale in places to be white and sane and caring as she nosed her queen sister. Poor little hatching had seemed so shy and to hatch out in this mess?

She felt sorry for the little thing. This wasn't any sort of place for a hatchling.

Not yet.

Whether M’onk admitted it or not, the words were a small victory. A line had been drawn, a line that not even M’onk would cross for fear of the consequences. M’ska smiled.

“Well, then. I suppose I’d better see to her, shouldn’t I?” And he strolled away to rejoin Descanth, stroking the grounded green’s weaker side. Descanth had not moved from her defensive position, though her eyes whirled yellow-grey.

As much as I support your principles, sister, she told Berath gently, I think it would be wiser not to provoke the brown further. A fight down here on the sands could result in more hatchlings injured by accident.

-----

Zenaith and Ralvyn both flinched visibly at the sudden onslaught of screaming, both aural and mental. And when Malta curled into a ball, Zenaith joined Rokana in trying to comfort her. The little yellow crooned warmly and rubbed her cheek against the girl’s arm, trying valiantly to be calming. Everything was going to be all right, as soon as the adults stopped shouting.

“Er, her name’s Zenaith.” Ralvyn looked a little unnerved, and his voice was almost apologetic. “I’m sorry, Masterhealer, but you’ve got... You’ve got something on your face there.” And I’m pretty sure it’s a handprint made of my blood, and it is freaking me out something awful, he didn’t add.

Zenaith warbled and greeted Haliath with an appreciative little nose-bump, taking the meat from her sister and snapping it up neatly. She tried to keep from getting any more blood on her maw than was strictly necessary - no sense making Malta more upset by nuzzling her with a bloody mouth. Thank you, Haliath. I would have gone to get it myself, but I would rather not leave my rider until he is seen to safety.

-----

Merceth made no further aggressive motions forward, although he remained coiled tense and protective at C’ross’ side. He might not be able to kill anyone, but the first person to approach C’ross with angry intent was getting grabbed and dropped in the weyrlake.

C’ross kept up his facade of cold dismissal, fixing Stella with a sharp look. “Neither Merceth nor I have any intention of causing any further trouble, as long as no one else gets it in their heads to scream at us. But I won’t be shamed into skulking off the sands with my tail between my legs, so you can quit trying.”

Stella

Stella glanced up at C'ross, ignoring his cold glare. "I know you aren't going to cause any more trouble," she said mildly, reaching up to rake a hand through her short hair, "and I wouldn't tell you to sulk off the sands either." She wasn't good with this sort of thing. "I was trying to get the green ladies to back down... not you." She crossed her arms, quirking a brow. "I was going to ask if you care to talk, because unlike every rider here... I'm not going to go berserk at you for following orders involving that little grey hatching. "

Orders were something Stella understood. The reason she was here and not anywhere else, well... sometimes bridges burned and she was sure it was the same for everyone else here. There was a reason that M'onk's orders ruled. "So, I thought you might care to have some company when you crawl into a wine vat later. Even if it is just to make sure you don't get vomit in your hair."

Joscelin

Joscelin snorted, knees pulled towards his chest, giving V'tyai an irritated glare. "The little pink terror tore them as well, thank you for asking," he said words clipped in a mix of frustrated anger. Who went on the sand without underthings? It wasn't as if he wanted to bare everything to the entire population of the prison, and the white robes were not thick enough to warrant even thinking about going commando.

Blyte smirked, hearing the green's voice in his mind. Good for her. No one would have dared if the queen had still been alive, even a queen like Warden's had had, but as they didn't have her, well, maybe this would work.

It probably wouldn't stop him from crippling the hatchlings later, but they had been warned about that before hand. And you weren't supposed to judge a hatchling before it impressed, or so he had thought. There were stories about worse maulers than the little grey had been, about hatchings where people had been killed.

The pink hatchling had impressed to a girl who looked as if she was attempting to help out the boy who had had his robes ripped, something that was slightly amusing. He wasn't going to laugh about it now, but it'd certainly be something to share once they were returned to the prison part of the weyr. The ones that hadn't gotten to come would probably get a laugh out of it.

The princess egg had hatched a shiny, but after the two other gold colored ones, he wasn't quite ready to label it anything special. It was pretty though.

Oh shards. The brown's scream rang through the sands, and he had to wonder if there was going to be a fight. And really, they were worried about the prisoners causing problems.

The thought made him laugh out loud. This was a horrible drama filled hatching and right now, he was in love with it. He hadn't had this much fun in ages, and to think, it was all because the warden had decided to shoot the little grey. It didn't make the loss any better, but chaos in it's wake did help.

And then a little green hatched. Thank Faranath. No one should have any issues with a green, even if it mauled someone. He didn't think that she was going to, as it looked like she was checking over the other eggs, but he watched the pair of hatchlings warily, half expecting trouble.

“Oh, I think Gus would do plenty of flinging all on his own if someone tried to kill him,” Taavi said with some false joviality. Oh Faranth, he still had nightmares about that. Sure, Gustav was a murderbeast, but he was Taavi's murderbeast. “And that's Stella. Handler of Green Stellask.” Man, Vit needed to work on his interpersonal skills. But that was alright. It was part of his charm (?). Yeah. Part of his charm was his inherent lack of charm.

Not that etiquette would start today. V'tyai needed to go rant and roar at his new Weyrlings. He barked a quick laugh. “Yeah, I've met Marue a few times. I say met, but it's more like 'eww a wherhandler, who let that inside the prison'.” Aww yiss. Who was holding hands with V'tyai like a boss?

Taavi was.

And just in time to see the gold egg finally hatch, spilling out a little... rose gold, maybe? It looked kind of rose-goldish to Taavi. With a smattering of other colors too. It was quite possibly the least graceful thing to ever flop on the Sands and that was coming from a man who'd seen a wher hatch.

And then there was Marue, all pride gone and evaporated into a pure shining desperation to keep her dragon safe. The question wasn't directed at him, but Taavi answered it anyway. He was a guard. He was supposed to guard thing. For once, his toothy smile had less in common with an expression of joy and more to do with a wher's grin. “Berath can't hurt people. We can.”

Gus shifted in the back of his mind, always eager to do some killing.

~.~

That was not a gold. That was most definitely not a gold. It had nothing to do with the color yellow and everything to do with a smattering of others. Bruised purples and angry black bloomed on the wings of the latest hatchling, making Meera worry that something had gone wrong with the Hatching again. Would the higher-ups decide to kill this one as well? To put it out of its misery?

She hoped not. The little thing meandered around the Sands, warbling and chirping and making a point to stop and nuzzle its sister.

~.~

The pale glittering egg finally hatched and it most certainly was not a Queen. Leevi wasn't sure what it was. Like the Grey and the Pink, it was a completely new color. A... a white, maybe? The smattering of blues and greens made him wonder, but it didn't seem right. He was pretty sure the base color of a White would be... well... White.

Granted, he'd never seen one before. So maybe this was...? Unlike its graceful siblings, the metallic(?) hatchling clearly had some trouble getting around. It didn't so much walk as it did crawl, occasionally trilling or chirping.

It was really pretty adorable.

Joscelin

The red head blinked at V'tyai shock still and managed no to pull a face at the idea of his candidate master without under things on. Too much information he did not need to know at all, thank you. Could they talk about something else now? If V'tyai wasn't going to get him a pair of pants?

Ooh, look a new hatching. Which wasn't gold. Joscelin wasn't sure what the hatching could be considered beyond not gold. It was shinny, more brash copper then gold and he could see a bit of yellow and purple blue and what seemed to be molted white across his or her belly. Sort of familiar... his sisters might of had jewelry with gems close to the molted look. He couldn't remember though. It wasn't the black and white moss opals his sisters had displayed. Which was the only ones he could remember at the moment.

Saain

That... wasn't a gold. She or he was metallicish the copper shown and it was pretty but there was to many colors. He or she was clearly not a white either. A fourth new color? How interesting and such a pretty though ungainly little baby. Saain smiled at the new hatching, enjoying to soft peeping. Well, hello there little one. It would be alright.
Maybe.

Haliath agreed with a small incline of her head, turning to take another piece of meat from Hiemal and then holding it out to Zenaith.

"He is quite correct," Hiemal chimed in. "You appear to have smeared blood on your face. I suppose it is an occupational hazard?"

***********

"What?" Bereck's hand moved instinctively to his face, and this time he felt the tackiness of slowly congealing blood come off his fingers and onto his cheek. Muttering something under his breath the healer reached for a cloth to wipe the worst of it off his face and hands, swiftly following this up with redwort solution. "Thank you," he nodded to Ralvyn, trying not to feel embarrassed by the fact that he had smeared the boy's blood all over himself and failed to notice.

Luckily at that moment a couple of strong young men appeared with the stretcher he had demanded. "Right, these two are going to lift you up and I'll move the stretcher under you," Bereck began with a nod to Ralvyn, "just tell me when you're read-

"...Ready."

Had that green just Impressed to Malta?

Shards.

He was sure that once he had time to think about anything other than crisis management he would be pleased for them but all he could think about on the subject right now was the fact that he'd just lost two apprentices in one fell swoop. Damned dragons, stealing his sleep and his apprentices.

*****************

Berath replied calmly, addressing Descanth and also Merceth, She knew that other candidates had been hurt, including Sturnuth's she believed, but everyone else appeared to be upright and would with luck only need to visit the healers fleetingly.