It was in the early morning calm, as Rukbat was just peeking over the rim of the Weyr, that the low hum inserted itself into the day. It went unnoticed for a few moments, but soon the Weyr was rousing, rushing around in preparations for the upcoming Hatching.
Perilas grumbled as someone shook him. He was tired. "Wake up! The eggs are hatching!" The voice was feminine. That caused Perilas to wake up. Oh yeah. He'd spent the night with one of the female candidates. Rule about no relationships? What? Perilas had deliberately forgotten about that rule. It did not exist.
But the Hatching did. The fourteen Turn old lad found his clothing and got dressed, moving down the hallway towards the candidates barracks. There, he found absolute chaos. Boys were running left, right, up, and down, all close to panicking. Rolling his muddy green eyes, Perilas wound his way through the crowd of boys to find his own white robe. He pulled off his own clothing, not minding. No one was really paying attention to anyone else, anyways. He pulled the white candidate robe over his head, smoothing it with his hands for a bit.
About that time, the Candidatemaster showed up, leading the boys out to join up with the females. The whole group then moved across the Weyr Bowl towards the Hatching Grounds. Many tried straightening their hair or robes along the way. Perilas didn't care. He didn't figure that his appearance would be the deciding factor for a dragonet.
The candidates were herded into the Hatching Grounds, seperating into two groups. The boys formed a semicircle off to one side while the girls formed a smaller one to the other side. There was no gold egg in this clutch, but the golden queen was still protective of her clutch.
The humming of the Weyr's dragons reached a crescendo as one rather large egg wobbled and cracked, spilling forth a small bronze dragonet. He creeled and rushed forward, Impressing to one of the boys. All the boys followed the hatchling's progress and Perilas sighed as he was not selected.
As if the bronze's Impression had been a signal, eggs began shattering left and right, revealing many greens and blues and several browns. The hatchlings moved forward, some instantly while others paused, having to search for their rider.
With each Impression, Perilas began to grow disappointed. Soon, most of the hatchlings had Impressed and only two blues and a green remained, along with a single, unhatched egg. The green, who was in the middle of the females, having followed a green sister there, squealed and ran across the hot sands to one of the boys. This drew the attention of the blues to, first the girls and then the boys. The blue hatchlings split, one going to each group and the two Impressed.
Then, all remaining candidates turned hopefully towards the last egg, which remained motionless. As if knowing that the entire cavern was watching it, the hatchling within shattered its shell with two good kicks and was out, slowly stepping forth, spreading his wings to start to dry in the hot air.
A gasp was drawn from the crowd at the second bronze's hatching, a much larger bronze at that. In a rather smug fashion, he glanced towards the male candidates, slowly striding forward towards them. Each boy held his breath as the bronze stopped a short distance from them.
Suddenly, the hatchling's stomach grumbled and the bronze sighed, turning his wedge-shaped head towards Perilas.
Come, Mine. I hunger.The boy's jaw dropped as the voice resounded in his head, his own muddy green eyes gazing into the gently whirling bright green of the bronze. This was his dragon. His Pericolath. P'las blinked at that thought. How did he know the dragon's name? He knew that the hatchling had not told him.
Blinking, P'las strode forward, gently scratching the still damp eyeridges. "Come, Peri. We'll get you fed."
Good.P'las smiled and the pair walked off the sands, together from that moment on and for the rest of their lives.
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