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Orlina moved aside as Cyrci had when the Green hatchling passed through them, but her eyes followed the Green to see if, perhaps, she would turn and look at Orlina. After all, Greens were the most likely of all colors to Impress to the girls. Though, so far, it seemed that the Greens were picking boys and girls half-and-half. Some of the nicest riders were male Greenriders, though. Orlina certainly didn't begrudge them their partners.

The dark girl glanced into the stands after the Green had carefully crept by her and moved on to other girls, looking for familiar faces. The dragons drew her attention, and the bright, unique hide of Aerith in particular. Mercy must be in the crowd, too, of course. Orlina couldn't imagine the Whiterider missing a Hatching. Few riders did. Her eyes skimmed the rows of the crowd until a crack drew her attention back to the Clutch, checking to see if another dragonet was on the Sands. She rubbed her hands together nervously. The suspense of the remaining seven eggs was going to kill her.

Orothor briefly noticed the Impression of the Green to one of the other boys, but his mind was on his future options. Probably not the best thing for him to be considering at the Hatching, but Orothor was attentive enough that he thought he wouldn't miss the dragons hatching, even if he did have his mind on other things. He often had to be dragged, coerced or called from his thoughts, after all. He'd become used to multitasking.

Cyrci's heart leapt into her throat as the Deceptively Delicate egg began to quiver and shake the girl bending low to get on it's level though still keeping her distance. "Come on great one. You're almost there. You can do it." She whispered her encouragement her voice hoarse with worry, hope, and swirling emotions that felt so big she wasn't sure her body could contain them. This egg with whatever proud creature lay inside had stolen her heart the moment she'd touched it and the girl had not stopped fretting over it since she'd left the sands the first time.

Hope lit Cyrci's face bright, hope and determination. It just had to make. "Come on great one keep rocking your so close." Cyrci whispered trying to fill her words with all the will and love she could for the little creature. Did it matter if it impressed to her? No, not it didn't. Not anymore. She'd walk off the sands happy just to see this one make it. Perhaps it was silly of her, but she'd always had a habit of rooting for the underdogs. Who wouldn't when you yourself was one. Every single crack, every little fracture that came felt like centuries as the seconds ticked by.

Why had it stopped rocking? It couldn't stop rocking! The Deceptively Delicate was just so very very close! So very very close! And the brave little creature had come so far and fought so hard! Maybe it was just taking a breather? Just biding it's time? Or was it hurt. In those few seconds a million horrible outcomes flooded Cyrci's mind forcing her to shake them off.

No, no the black egg would be fine. It'd be fine. The others had made it it would too. It wasn't going to be hurt or go between. It wasn't, it couldn't. Such thoughts were too horrible for her to comprehend. There! It started rocking again and more violently then before! It was ok! Letting out a breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding Cyrci practically beamed. The egg was ok! It was ok.

In the Stands, B'ram leaned back, relaxing while he watched the Hatching. Aside from the first dragonet going between, this had been a remarkably calm event thus far. Would that change, or would the seemingly sedate pace continue? He very much hoped the latter would be true, because he had a very difficult time watching the occasional but inevitable maulings; he'd even left a Hatching once, unable to bear it when things got violent. At least he had that luxury now - he wasn't stuck on the Sands like the Candidates. But he'd been fortunate in his time, and hadn't sustained any injuries himself.

Nachith was much more cheerful than his tense rider, delighted as always to see greens hatching and Impressing. They were such pretty things, even when they were small! And when they were older, well... Look at them all, B'ram! Four of them, aren't they lovely?

Yeah, of course, he agreed offhandedly.

The brown rumbled, having grown rather tired of his rider's dampened mood of late. Stop being so serious, Mine. It's a Hatching! Forget about what is bothering you and enjoy it.

Orlina didn't dare turn to see where the other Green had gone, worried she would miss the hatching of other eggs, but she noticed when the girl and her dragonet walked past her peripheral vision to go feed the newly-Impressed Green. It would have been sad to lose another dragonet. Orlina didn't want to hear or see another baby go between. Not this Hatching.

Orothor had warned her it would be exciting. In a bad way, that could be considered exciting, she assumed. That hadn't been the excitement she had been hoping for, though. She looked over the tops of the eggs, across the Sands, at her half-brother. How many times had he Stood? Had he told her the first time they met? Would he Impress this time? Would she?

The soft sound of a shell cracking drew her attention to the eggs. Two more were rocking, breaking open. The hope and the excited pleasure at seeing more dragons come into the world filled her, pushing out the unhappy thoughts. She looked back over at Orothor. There were still seven babies that had yet to break their shells. What colors would they be? Would one of them be hers?

Suddenly, Orothor's gaze flicked up, towards the girls. Excitement surging through her, she caught her brother's eye and her face burst into a brilliant grin.

With a shiver and a shudder The Swirling Depths Egg cracked open and a handsome young dragon stepped out. For a few moments there might be some debate up in the stands as to whether it was green or blue, but as it stretched and shook some egg goo off itself it became clear that it was the latter; that hide was definitely greeny-blue rather than bluey-green, and it was too big a hatchling to be a green in any case.

Crooning softly the blue cast around trying to get his bearings, a swirl of yellow and white in his eyes indicating that here stood another hatchling not entirely sure of itself.

The same could not be said for the dragonet that abruptly burst out of The Deceptively Delicate Egg. This green - oh yes she most certainly was green! - greeted the world with a shriek and a flare of her wings, the burning orange of intense forest fires in her eyes. Snarling she kicked aside the remains of her shell before casting her eyes over the sands imperiously; proud as golds are said to be and fiery as crimsons this small skinny female let the world know in no uncertain terms that she was a force to be reckoned with!

This fierce entrance unsettled the more nervy blue; giving a cry of distress he barrelled off towards the male candidates, clearly keen to put as much distance between himself and his sister as possible as fast as possible.

With the two new hatchlings, it seemed things were about to get a little less calm. The blue ran for the boys when his green sister hatched, her shriek and snarl and the orange cast of her eyes a clear sign that she was not happy; not like it was a surprise, though, given what her disposition had been in the egg. Ralla kept a careful eye on her, not keen on being in the way if she decided to come over in this direction and didn't like what she found.