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“Come on, folks. There’s a new clutch on the Sands and you know what that means! It’s time to make bets! For a small fee, you can have a chance at some firelizard eggs. And, that’s not all…” Mal lowered his voice conspiratorially, as if imparting state secrets to his audience. “But there’s a decent chance that one of the eggs may hold a Gold. I’ll repeat that loudly for you folks in the back there! The handsome father of this clutch was a Bronze, which means there’s a good chance that we’ve got a little Queen in one of these eggs. Just one-eighth of a Mark entry fee and fill out your guesses for the colors inside the dragon eggs!”

Mal, natural showman, was rather enjoying himself. Now this was what he loved about being a Harper: the attention of it all, the knowledge that everyone was watching him and hanging on his every word. Rin was probably getting exasperated by her partner’s flamboyance, but Mal was having the time of his life. Given the ex-Harper’s rather abysmal handwriting, Rin was handling the entry process. It was up to Mal to attract attention and he was good at that.

Of course, he was careful to avoid the idea that his Aeron had flown Shim. Those who knew the aggressive little ‘lizard would not be happy at the thought of him spreading his genes and even less delighted with the knowledge that they were getting one. Thankfully, the firelizard was out of sight for the moment, tending Shim.


ooc| Please note: the winners of the flit eggs have already been decided. <3 So… uhh… yeah. If you’re an owner of one of the AeronxShim clutch, feel free to just have your character fill out their guesses. You don’t have to state them.

But! This is an open thread. Other people are free to fill out their guesses and post them up. This is set after the Touching. Since there isn't a Touching this is... uhh... well, it's after the Touching WOULD have been. While the rp is geared towards other Candidates, I know that some people have decided to give their eggs to non-Candidate characters. Just have them crash the contest and enter anyway. >3> Mal won’t tell on them.

To recap: your character is making bets on what colors the dragon eggs are (not the firelizard eggs). Not who Impresses or not. Your list should include each dragon egg and what you think it holds.

If you want to be included in the running for the special prizes, post your guess list or say that your character is entering the raffle. There are ten prizes. Five will be given to the five people who get the most guesses correct and five will be raffled off.

PLEASE don't wait for a reply from Rin or Mal. Just fill out your guesses or enter the raffle in one post.

Veyes was just coming back from his round of chores feeling a bit healthier than days gone by. Things around the Weyr seemed pretty much normal and for that he was thankful. He had returned to working on his practice riding straps design with renewed vigor and was determined to get further lessons from his mentor as soon as he had time to get L'thor to teach him new things. But for now, he stitched across leather over and over trying to get good rows so he'd be more than ready when he finally impressed.

But as he was deciding whether to get food or go get a bath he saw his room mate, Mal calling out for bets. "Hey Mal, whatcha doing? Bets? Oh..about the eggs? Flit eggs?" He smiled and shook his head knowing that his room mate was a sly smooth talker with a bit of con man rolled in. But most of the time, he went along with Mal's crazy schemes just because the former harper would talk his ear off into going along with it. So before Mal could even tell him how great this opportunity was, he'd beat him to the punch. "Ok... I'll bet a mark."

He scooped up a piece of paper and smiled as he filled out the form with all his guesses as neat as he possibly could then placed it on whatever pile he was supposed to. "So...Mal, umm..who's the parents of the flit eggs?" He grinned at his room mate and wondered if Aeron got lucky. Veyes had to room with this fire lizard and was beginning to know all the creatures bad habits... Mr. Toe Biter himself. Or as Veyes quietly mused in his mind...Mr. My Marble and You Can't Have it Back!

Aww… Rinfala was feeling cheerful! Mal was vaguely curious about what had gotten the girl down, but assumed it was the heat. It was, after all, another broiling Ista day where one could probably cook an egg out on a stone. Or maybe Shim was just in a bad mood; she hadn’t been happy about giving up her eggs and, for that matter, neither had Aeron. Mal’s hand still throbbed a little where the Bronze had bit him. Mal merely smiled at Rin; there wasn’t any time for more conversation as their first better was walking up and it was none other than Mal’s own roommate, Veyes.

“Ah, Veyes! You’ve come at a perfect moment! Rin’s Gol…” unfortunately, Mal’s little speech was cut short, much to the Harper’s annoyance who had rather been looking forward to giving it. His eyes lit up as Veyes offered a Mark. In fact, the price was one eighth of a Mark, but, if Veyes was going to offer a full Mark… well, Mal sure wasn’t going to stop him! And now Rin was stopping his speeches too. Mal looked from Veyes to Rin suspiciously, wondering if they were working together to put a stop to his fun.

“Like she said, her Gold was flown by a friend’s Bronze,” he said with a shrug, giving up on his flowery speeches for now. “There are eight eggs up for grabs, through two means: you can either bet on what colors are contained within the dragon eggs or you will be entered into a raffle. Your choice. Even those who don’t win an egg will get a chance at a special prize!”

Vaythel really hadn't meant to be here. He just got sort of caught up in the flow of everything, and now he was poking up above the crowd, his eye level above quite a few people's heads. He raised an eyebrow as he heard the calling of bets, and he walked through the small throng of people to go an requisition a form.
"Well. Another Hatching to bet on, eh?" Vaythel said simply while he filled out a form, his spidery handwriting neatly slicing across the page. He was going to guess one Gold, two Greens, two Blues, a pair of Browns, and a Bronze. That seemed to be a likely combination, as there were a whole bunch of decently sized eggs out there. Vaythel hadn't gotten out much in his time in the weyr, so he didn't know any of these people's names. Idly he wondered if he might Impress this Hatching. He had already failed at one, but that wasn't going to put him out just yet.

Oh, good. Rinfala had been starting to think that word of the clutch's sire had gotten around. For a minute there, she'd pondered 'gifting' them to people unlikely to have heard of Aeron. This was much better. If she was lucky, she'd end up with a half-mark or more from the day's 'work.'

"Sure," she remarked, smiling up at the nervous-looking guy handling a half-mark. "Just write down your name, and you're in. Same price to enter as the guessing."

Oh! More betters, eh? Mal was rather pleased that he had thought of the idea of charging for entry into this. After all, they were firelizard eggs. Not only that, but there was a chance at a Gold firelizard! Even a regular egg could cost several marks, which was more money than most would see in their lifetime. 1/8 of a mark wasn’t too onerous.

“Remember to write down all your guesses, people! Which egg is going to hatch into which color for the guessing game.” Well! They were getting a decent turn-out already, which was nice. A girl had joined the back of the group, he noted vaguely, but he didn’t take that much notice of her. She didn’t seem overly interested, which meant he wasn’t interested. “Just 1/8 of a mark! Just 1/8 of a mark and you can be the proud owner of a gold firelizard!”

‘Could be’ being the operative phrase, of course. According to Dragonhealer Cordel, there was a small chance of it. Mal was quite happy to run with even a ‘small chance’ of things.

Ugh, gambling. Frankly, while the idea was a good way for her to, once again (what, twice out of her seven attempts as of late?) prove her fantastic 'powers' of observation amongst other things, she had to ponder over one special idea: was it worth it to throw her luck out into a raffle over the possibility of impressing upon one of those eggs (especially the one she had her eye on?) that were being bet over?

Really, it was a close match inside her head. Ultimately, however, the realization that the eggs would hatch before anything else could be determined her decision. If she had luck that day, it'd put itself towards the very thing it needed to!

If? HA! She was confident enough that she'd impress soon enough. Excellent!

Okay, guessing the contents of the eggs? She could do that easily enough -- she knew at LEAST two (or so she thought). So with that knowledge in mind, she approached the betting table, fishing through one of the pouches on her belt for the needed eighth-mark, clutching it one hand, only offering it when she was close enough to the table.

"I'll take a guess." she said, relinquishing the payment before she took one of the papers in hand, frowning at the sheet. Hmmmm. What were the eggs again? She'd guess....

Hmm, the larger coppery one (Thoroughbred) is probably a bronze, as is it's bigger companion (Kiger Mustang).j Maybe that other one (Andalusian) is too.

The dark one (Quarter Horse) is probably a brown -- definitely a brown. So is the one that's hanging out by itself (Clysdale). Maybe that one at the very back is a blue (Akhal Teke). The small ones are probably greens (American Paint, Shetland, Sandalwood Pony).The three (Arabian, Gypsy Vanner, Fresian) are blue. Definitely blue.

The mottled pair are probably a bronze and a brown (American Sport Horse, Fresian).

That leaves the last one being a Queen (Nightmare).

(I put the actual 'egg names' in parenthesis for reference)

She frowned, a lot while thinking it over, but ultimately did when she set her guesses on the pile.

WELL, she couldn't go back on those guesses anymore. Hell, she didn't need to! ....At least she was thinking that was right. That was. One queen, two bronze, Three browns, two greens, and three blues. Huuuh. Possibly wiggle room between the blues and greens.

She'd just have to see.

"Yes," Rinfala said simply, pushing forward one of the blank sheets. She ignored the bluerider for now, although the hairs on the back of her neck rose in anticipation of trouble. If anyone would be able to talk their way out of that trouble, it would be Mal. Nevermind that Firyal had been attempting to talk to Mal...she'd just taken care of that, hadn't she? She flashed a smile at one of the few betters who hadn't made a fuss so far, going so far as to grant Alanna an approving nod. Good, good. If more like that showed up, they might not have to work too hard for their marks.