When Storms Roll In Flitter Clutch -- HATCHING

[Administrator]

Marra smiled ever-so-slightly in amusement. "Well, let's just hope they don't see me," she told Paryal sheepishly. That was a lie. Secretly, of course, she had this hope to Impress one. It was her and Rawign's clutch, after all. But to openly admit this was to be selfish. She didn't need a flitter. They were wonderful creatures, but not necessary. Looking to the clutch, she saw a handsome young bronze hatch, and she felt a strange surge of pride. A bronze first was good luck. Somehow, she was pleased with this in the clutch she had taken in as one of her own. Like children. She smiled, but it faded as she realized how disconcerting it was to be the 'children' of her and Rawign. Turn off those thoughts! Marra found her cheeks tinging with a flush.

Speaking of Rawign, where was that idiot? Looking around, she saw him enter hastily just as one of her 'children' bonded to someone she didn't know that well. Glaring at him as he came up, she smacked him hard on the arm. "Where were you?" she asked, her low voice a hissed so as not to cause a scene. She sighed.

"A green hatched and Impressed, but a bronze is still too busy showing off to pick someone," she told him knowingly. "Sounds a lot like you," she added with a smirk. It was all teasing, however, not so much the true insults she was used to giving him. Somehow, even though she knew he was a prick and a prude, he was a nice prick and a prude. She had not meant her insults as much ever since that time in her apartment, though she wouldn't admit it, of course.

Looking back over to Paryal, she frowned as the queenrider waved at someone. Her eyes following the wave, she scowled when she saw it was directed to Z'hin. "You two know each other?" she asked in a low tone, giving Z'hin an extra glare for good measure. Turning back to Rawign, she sighed. "I should've found a way to control who got into this hatching or not," she told him with a frown.

--

As the bronze still thought over his decision, two eggs popped, each one right after the other, sounding like bullets in the room. One was the Thunderbolt Egg, from which a slender, azure blue flitter stepped out of the shards with elegance. He looked around curiously, letting out an inquisitive cheep. He was hungry, but there were so many people with food that he didn't know where to go...

The second egg to pop open with an array of sharp fireworks was the Mist Egg. Silently, seemingly to avoid as much fanfare as possible, crept out a large, dark brown. He looked around timidly, ducking low to seemingly get all eyes off of him. He wasn't sure if he liked all of this attention. Anxious to get these cold, greedy eyes off of him as fast as he could, the little brown charged into the waiting people, picking one that looked small, one that wouldn't harm him so much. Trying his hardest to crawl up Mutasim's leg, he creeled pitifully.

The bronze chirped, scolding the brown. It bothered the brown that such a nice creature was being such a wimp! Fanning his own bronze wings one last time, he finally decided he was too hungry to keep going with this showing off. Tottering up to a female, he crooned, nudging Mariyelle in the leg, sending her all his hunger pangs to try and guilt her into feeding him.

Slow to crack was a Dark Winds Egg, but calmly, it enlarged the crack in it, tapping away at it enough so that a gorgeous, deep blue hide was visible. One who had admired it long enough would see almost a sort of green tone in it when looked at from the right angle, but there was little doubt of this little one's true color.


Dark Clouds Egg -- Unhatched
Wind-Whipped Egg -- Unhatched
Mist Egg -- Hatched :: Brown :: Mutasim
Storm Surge Egg -- Unhatched
Crushing Waves Egg -- Hatched :: Green :: F'con :: Named Viveer
Black Skies Egg -- Hatched :: Bronze :: Mariyelle
Thunderbolt Egg -- Hatched :: Blue
Lightning Struck Egg -- Unhatched
Raindrops Egg -- Unhatched
Stormtossed Egg -- Unhatched
White Waves Egg -- Unhatched
Black Seas Egg -- Unhatched
Maelstrom Egg -- Unhatched
Dust & Debris Egg -- Unhatched
Dark Winds Egg -- Hatching :: Blue hide visible
Drenched Egg -- Unhatched
Hail Egg -- Unhatched

[glamourie]

Smacked! Rawign blinked sheepishly as Marra's hand impacted his arm and he gave her as dazzling a smile he could muster up when he was busy being annoyed at himself. The clutch was theirs in its own way and he felt bad for not arriving sooner; the fact that Marra seemed annoyed with him was just stacked onto his own agitation with himself and he hastily shook his head in response before whispering, again the words meant only for her, "I was in the infirmary - Keliris and Kaliran did something that got them both roughed up. I'm sorry, I didn't realize it was hatching. Beggar tried to tell me but apparently I don't speak firelizard very well." The explanation sounded lame even to him, but it was true nonetheless. Yet, perhaps ridiculously, he felt as though he'd missed the birth of his two first children, in some way. But weren't they his and Marra's to some degree? Hadn't it been the two of them who took care of the eggs when they brought them to the Weyr? Rawign hadn't willingly told anyone about their existence. (He'd slipped to Cezine then made her swear her silence - and refused to show her the eggs on principle.) It was... their secret, in a way.

Marra's explanation of the hatching so far made him smile and he looked down at her explanation about the bronze before giving her a playful grin, "Aw, he takes after his papa. Sort of." He shook his head slightly, then turned to nod at Cezine as she arrived. He didn't make any effort to speak to her, though. He was busy watching the Hatching and listening to Marra before giving her a bemused grin, "Would you have had me thrown out then as well?" He was teasing; he couldn't resist. Somehow he found it hard to take her comments as personally when there wasn't as much bite to them. "Best to let them have their selection of people. I wouldn't want them to pick based on our decision, would you? They deserve their full choice, whoever they want of anyone here." Conceited much? He thought of them as his - and therefore, they deserved the best. Rawign's logic at its finest.

However, whatever comments he might have had were drowned out by the next two eggs hatching and Rawign raised his eyebrows at the little brown as he made his choice. Rawign didn't know much about Mutasim, except that he was a candidate that had done some major damage to his foot not too long ago. His eyebrows raised, though, as the little bronze finally made his choice and Rawign turned to watch him glide over in interest. He smiled slightly, glancing at Mariyelle (who was rather near to them) before giving her an approving nod. She seemed nice enough. Then his eyes were drawn back to the clutch, along with the desire to haul Marra right up to the eggs and roll her in meat in hopes of one of them flying over to her. She probably wouldn't appreciate that, though.

---

Back in the crowd, Keliris filtered his way through before making his way nearer to the front, though it took considerable effort given his height. Most people would not have noticed him and therefore would not move. He wanted to be closer to the firelizards, although he did not fully expect to Impress anything. He had bad luck with them, especially considering that Chipper so loathed him. He blamed that more on the fact that Chipper was such an utterly happy creature, though, as opposed to him actually having anything wrong with him. Keliris was unwilling to admit there might be even the slightest problem with him; he was perfect, thank you very much. He folded his hands behind his back and peered at the Dark Winds Egg as it cracked, his eyebrows raising in interest. What a pretty blue it looked to be... A nice distraction from teasing Rawign, who was back over at Marra's side. Honestly, he was pathetic!

---

Kaliran, on the other hand, wandered aimlessly through the group of people until he found a familiar face. He was fortunate enough to have a flitter of his own and he thought it rude to come forward and try to Impress another. It struck him as vaguely odd that Keliris wasn't right in the front of the group, too, but he decided not to question his older brother's actions. Lir was strange at the best of times and Kaliran didn't want to know what was going through that brain of his. He came to stop near Cezine, as she was one of the few people he knew, since she'd been at the Weyr for a few Turns. Kaliran was Holdbred, after all, and he made a point to try and befriend anyone (or thing) that remained at the Weyr for any length of time. Such was his nature.

"Shouldn't you be closer to the clutch, love? You don't have any firelizards. At least hold this." He snatched a piece of meat from the nearest bowl (with no regards to who was holding it or any consideration for the fact that they might have wanted it) before holding the meat out to Cezine. "Give yourself a chance. Don't make me haul you up to the front, girl, it won't be pretty!"

[Requiem]

Z'hin shrugged his broad shoulders as the crowd only grew thicker. They were effectively stuck. It wasn't that he had no interest in flitters, really. He just wasn't much of a one to go out of his way to care about getting one when, in the back of his mind, he wondered if Jessereth might be jealous. Jealous of one of those little things? Don't insult me. Z'hin blinked, then cracked a small smile. His gaze carefully avoided the group of people gathered around Marra. The last thing they needed at the moment was another fight, right in the middle of a firelizard hatching.

It was the brownrider who noticed the little brown flit first, the one that seemed determined to wander through the dangerous forest of legs and feet to come their way. Blinking, the weyrling glanced around, finding a meatbasket. As he turned back, though, he saw that the little flit had come to press against Muta, and a pleased smile came to his features. Maybe this would give his friend a little more confidence. Obviously, this large brown was not going to just anyone with food - Mutasim had none - and while firelizards didn't put quite as much into choosing as dragons...It was perhaps a good sign. Z'hin walked up, pressing the basket into Mutasim's hands. "Looks like you have a visitor." He couldn't tone down the broad grin that split his face.

The candidate was very much aware of that fact. Still, for the longest moment he didn't react, just shocked to find that this baby firelizard had singled him out at the back of the room. He wanted...him? Something broke in the quiet, dark-hearted boy, a single tear glistening at the corner of his eye. Mutasim set the basket to one side, carefully taking the brown into his hands as if the little creature were made of glass, or perhaps mist - and then he set the firelizard on his lap gently.

"Hush. It's okay now," the boy whispered, trying to soothe the little piteous cries. This small creature reminded him a lot of some of the younger orphans of his den. Frightened. Hungry. Just looking for someone to reach out and take care of them, to love them. He carefully rolled some meat between his fingers, offering it to the little brown, who tentatively ate before rubbing his head against the small hand. He wanted more. Was that okay? Mutasim smiled lightly. Of course. Of course it was okay.

Feeding him another bit of meat, Mutasim said, "There you are, Jabari." It was an old name. A special name to Muta, though he would never speak of the one who bore that name. It was right that the little brown should bear it, though. Jabari crooned at the wave of love and reassurance that came with that name, rubbing against Mutasim's hand again.

Z'hin watched with a soft smile. Those two were taken up in their own little world. It was cute.

[boober]

Cezine couldn't help but frown as her pockets came up empty. Shells, didn't she even have a chunk of her lunch in there? She'd heard they'd eat anything fresh out of the shell. She was so busy rummaging around for something to feed any of the little beauties that came her way that she didn't even notice anyone else for a brief few minutes. It was only when she heard several more shells crack that she looked up, standing on her toes to peer over the person in front of her... who just happened to be taller than she was. Shard it. This one already looked to be a bust. Maybe she should just give it up?

Before she could even so much as put serious consideration into the idea, someone was next to her... speaking to her. Blinking, Cezine looked up curiously into the face of another Candidate. She was familiar with Kaliran, though she wouldn't call him a friend... he seemed like he was friendly to everyone, a trait that she found rather endearing. She just didn't know him well enough to consider him a friend of hers. However, she did smile at his words. "Oh I came in late and I didn't think anyone would appreciate me shoving my way to the front; I'm not the only one here without flits, you know." Her tone was light, as always, rather than snippy or anything else even remotely unpleasant. But all at once, she was having a chunk of meat shoved at her. "Er..." Resisting the urge to point out that he had just taken it from someone else's bowl (which was obvious), Cezine just smiled and accepted the meat.

"Thank you." She couldn't help but laugh at his next statement. "Are you so sure I would mind?" The young woman gave him a sweet smile. Though the desire to see what was coming out of the eggs had not diminished in the least from her mind, she couldn't help but take a moment to flirt with Kaliran.

[lilliana]

Look at that – the Thunder Bolt Blue was so cute! Smiling even wider, Mariyelle barely even noticed the Mist Egg hatch into a brown, instead practically cooing over the Thunderbolt Egg. Yes – that little cousin of mine is good for you.

Mariyelle shook her head – was Arvenith ever not full of advice? Nope. You’d miss it, though, and you know it. Well…that was true. The green rider turned her attention back on the hatching, her eyes seeking out the Black Skies Bronze once more, despite her green’s advice. And, surprisingly, he was making his way towards her…

Aw! The bronze was right at her feet, and crooning. And…shells, the poor boy was hungry! Bending down, Mariyelle scooped him up in her hands, cradling him for a moment before he crooned again, feeding her another hunger pang. “Poor baby! Here…lets get some food in you.” A drudge brought her a bowl of meat scraps, and she took a small handful. “There ya go, darling,” the green rider said as she offered the meat to her little charge.

When he was done (after another handful of the meat scraps) the bronze crawled up her arm, settling himself on her shoulder and wrapping his tail about her neck loosely. “I suppose you need a name, there, little trooper?” Mariyelle asked him, smiling slightly. “How about…Titian?” The bronze chirped sleepily, his lids already closing. Giggling quietly, she reached up to stroke his bronze hide, stepping back a bit to watch the rest of the hatching.

That one'll be trouble, Mine. Mark my words. But, I suppose, he's cute enough.

[evendar]

N'call leafed through the hides he'd gotten from the harper hall only that morning. So many new songs since he'd last gotten a flit. If only he had one of his own things would be so much easier. The blue that came to him from the Hall on rare occasions just couldn't carry all the new material. If only he had one of his own. He spotted the crowd of people surrounding Marna, a fellow harper.

What in Faranth? A flitter clutch? How convenient. He walked up, noticing the rocking eggs and shattered shell. There was a song in that somewhere. But not now. He peered over the heads of everyone else, looking at the clutch.

It was big. The cool blues and dark greys a beauteous combination. He wondered what he would do if one of them chose him. But decided to cross that bridge when he got there.

[Tashe]

F'con had now situated himself near the back of the group, letting the others fill in his place where he had once been. It was fine with him if he only impressed one flitter in this hatching, but if another wanted him he wouldn't be far, he'd only be a few wing flaps away. Quietly feeding the small green who had chosen him, the Bluerider absentmindedly ran a finger down Viveer's back. "Well didn't I pick a good name for you. Viveer is taken from an ancient word that means life, which of you seem drenched in."

As in response to his comment, the little green took up an amusing one legged stance, before toppling over creeling for Her's to catch her. Curling up happily in the palm of F'con's hand, Viveer let Her's continue to feed her.

----

Looking over the faces of the crowd, her firm blue eyes located the boy she had helped a while ago. Giving a small wave over to Mutasim, Gina smiled slightly before returning her attention back to the hatching. The green that had impressed her cousin reminded her of when Argyle had hatched, the same unpredictable movements, but of course her little green had no one but Gina to go to.

Laughing silently to herself as she replayed that fiasco in her head once again, the female candidate let her eyes wonder over the clutch. A green, a few blues, a bronze and a brown... and each one very unique. "Pretty, and very interesting! Don't you think so Sara?"
---

When Gina's voice finally broke through to her consciousness, Saraina had been thinking of Zor's hatching. The little squirt had practically divebombed her when he had decided to want her meat over all the others. But no matter how annoying or ridiculous he got, she secretly loved him, and no matter how many ways she threatened to kill him she would never do it. And unfortunately the little blue knew the truth.

"...think so Sara?"

"Huh?" Pausing for a second as Sara remembered that Gina had been talking to her, the candidate brought up a simple response that satisfied her inquirer. "Yeah yeah, quite interesting."

[Administrator]

Marra gave Rawign a stern look. "I'm sure they could've fixed themselves," she told him, then paused to look at the clutch quickly. "Listen to your flitter. You knew the clutch was supposed to hatch soon. Weren't you listening?" She didn't know why she was suddenly taking out her anger on Rawign. She thought maybe it was because he was the only one here that he knew well, and her discomfort in crowds only made her more irritable. Folding her arms crossly, she looked pointedly away from Rawign. Hopefully these little creatures would hurry up and pick so she could retreat back to her apartments. Or maybe go for a swim, or a walk. Just anything to get away from any part of society. Solitude was what she wanted, and all these people didn't do anything to give her that. They just made her anxious and her heartbeat speed up. She didn't identify herself as claustrophobic, but too long in a large crowd could make her breathing heavier and make her begin to sweat after a while. This was the price, she supposed, for not liking people.

Fortunately, Rawign seemed to be her link with sanity. She found herself giving a small, half-smile, almost an exasperated one. "So you're a papa flitter?" she asked doubtfully. "Does that make me the mama flitter? I hope not. I must have been pretty desperate in my Flight," she added with a smirk. Again with the teasing. Bothering Rawign was too much fun, especially when he seemed to just be asking for it. It was her duty in life, it seemed, to make things awkward.

At his next question, she frowned. "No, because you were the one who actually found the clutch, and to not let you near them would be stealing," she explained, failing to catch the teasing quality to his question. As much as she loved to tease, she couldn't identify it to save her life. She sighed. "I just don't like the idea of keeping it open." She didn't go into detail as to why she didn't like it. Whereas Rawign could keep his secret about his fear of dragons, she could keep her dislike of crowds a secret. Looking over to the Impressions and hatchings distantly, she frowned. So many eggs left to hatch...

--

The Thunderbolt Blue was still stalking amongst the people here. From the way he held his head, it seemed as though he were frustrated with the selection. Just where was His? He could've sworn he felt a good presence every now and then, but he couldn't see where it was... He was too tired to actively search out the person he wanted, so he let out a plaintive chirp, trying to call out to his person. With any luck, they would come closer so he could see if it was his or not...

The Dark Winds Egg patiently went about its cracking, finally resulting in the open crack to consume the rest of the egg, spreading cracks all along the shell. Pulling himself out of the shell with a surprised peep, he looked anxiously up at the onlookers. Staggering up, he opened his wings to fan them free of egg fluids. As he did so, his tiny blue head cocked as he took a good look at people. Not wasting time on ceremony, he charged straight to P'nor without any hesitation. He was starving, and he wanted his food right now.

The Storm Surge Egg broke up silently, but quickly, with little warning. It wasn't a neat hatching, with shards spilling out every which way, flying into the Thunderbolt Blue, who protested with a screech. Not seeming to notice or care about her rudeness, the Storm Surge Green took a look around, seemingly bored already. Without a doubt, she would have flown out the minute the egg fluid dried from her wings, but she was hungry. When there was immediate food, what was the point in flying in search of the hard-to-find stuff? No- she wanted the easy food. Tottering over to T'ren, she pecked at his feet impatiently.

Obnoxiously, another egg began swinging around, knocking unceremoniously into its neighbors. The Maelstrom Egg was knocking itself around so fiercely that it crashed into the Drenched Egg, who, in turn, fell on top of the Hail Egg. Miraculously, none of the eggs broke, though the poor little Hail Egg was sent spinning across the floor, lying close to Uu'n's feet, twitching as if in protest to its treatment by its siblings. The Maelstrom Egg, oblivious to the havoc it wreaked, finally managed to gain a crack. A muffled croak of happiness issued forth from the crack, and a brown head broke through, looking around excitedly. Eager, he tried walking over to the people, only to roll. The rest of his body stuck in the shell, he wobbled onto his back. Squealing in complaints, he tried the flailing inside his egg tactic all over again, determined to get free and find some food.


Dark Clouds Egg -- Unhatched
Wind-Whipped Egg -- Unhatched
Mist Egg -- Hatched :: Brown :: Mutasim :: Named Jabari
Storm Surge Egg -- Hatched :: Green :: T'ren
Crushing Waves Egg -- Hatched :: Green :: F'con :: Named Viveer
Black Skies Egg -- Hatched :: Bronze :: Mariyelle :: Named Titian
Thunderbolt Egg -- Hatched :: Blue
Lightning Struck Egg -- Unhatched
Raindrops Egg -- Unhatched
Stormtossed Egg -- Unhatched
White Waves Egg -- Unhatched
Black Seas Egg -- Unhatched
Maelstrom Egg -- Hatched :: Brown
Dust & Debris Egg -- Unhatched
Dark Winds Egg -- Hatched :: Blue :: P'nor
Drenched Egg -- Unhatched - Knocked over by Maelstrom
Hail Egg -- Unhatched - Rolling around on the floor

[glamourie]

"You saying you wouldn't?" Kaliran asked quietly as his eyes fell on Cezine with a tell-tale look of mischief. Her words were very clearly the wrong answer, and he was going to make her wish she hadn't said them. No part of him was malicious, but sometimes, Kaliran didn't know where to draw the line with his mischief. And Cezine was fixing to find out just how badly obscured the lines for him really were. "Very well!"

Grabbing the girl around the waist without any regard for the people around him, Kaliran promptly carried Cezine like he might a particularly bulky chair, with his hands folded over her stomach. She was facing away from him so she could see in the front and his height helped to make it easier to carry her about. She was actually three Turns his senior but given their builds, Kaliran was easily the taller and physically stronger of the two; the same would not have been the case were it Keliris in his place. He proceeded to carry Cezine right through the crowd, using her to actually part the way as he went, never mind that it was inconsiderate to practically shove other people out of his way. He wanted to put her right in the front and he would do exactly that!

"People! Move! I'm coming through here and I've got a girl, I'm not afraid to use her, I will let her kick you and from this angle, she could probably do some damage! Coming through, hell~o, people, moooove!" he called out as he went, paying no attention to who he bumped or how much of a scene he made. He was probably earning himself quite a few enemies, but it wasn't in Kaliran's nature to care about things like that. He wanted to put Cezine in the front. She was flitterless and it wasn't fair for people who had Impressed to be in front of her, in his not-so-humble opinion. Once he reached the front of the crowd, he deposited Cezine down right in front of the group, oblivous to the eggs hatching on the table before taking a bow. "You see? I know how to part a crowd!"

---

Oblivious to Kaliran's scene-making skills, Rawign blinked over at Marra and her scolding tone before smiling weakly. She was right; he should have left Lir and 'Ran for another healer to deal with and he felt guilty for having not done so. Shaking his head, he folded his arms over his stomach and tried to deny the fact that he felt... guilty. Guilty for having, what, missed the first two eggs hatching? He was there, though, for the rest. The flitters were okay too - they had Marra. She wouldn't have let anything happen to them and so many people around, there was no way they would have gone cannibal or anything, right? He mentally reassured himself, even though he was still terribly nervous.

"You're right. I'm a deadglow. I'm sorry," he replied, then shook his head. "But I'm here now."

Trailing off, he blinked and looked at the crowds as people started whispering amongst themselves. He could see startled and awkward movements, as if something was moving around behind them, but from his position it was hard to make out exactly what was going on. Marra's words drew his eyes back up and he smirked, unable to help himself, "Yes, that makes you the mama flitter. And me your only chaser, I suppose, since you were that desperate." He was just asking for a smack, but she'd left herself so wide open. "But don't we have such a lovely clutch? Look." His eyes drew back to the first blue - and then the second - who hatched and he gave them individual nods before smiling.

The little green that followed brought a wider smile to his face, but the smile was short-lived as Kaliran came bursting through the crowd noisily, then set Cezine down right in the front. What was he doing? "Kaliran," he hissed, anger tainting his voice, making it clear he was more agitated than he looked, "you're being extremely rude. Be quiet." His words earned little more than a snubbed nose as Kaliran turned back to Cezine with a smile, and Rawign bit his tongue to avoid climbing over the table and throttling his fellow candidate. How dare he make such a scene during the hatching and detract attention away from the eggs, who deserved it the most? Deadglow!

---

Keliris, meanwhile, had slammed his hands over his face and actually backed up so people surrounded him and he could no longer see Kaliran. He was tempted to crawl under the nearest table if only to avoid being seen. His brother was so embarrassing! How could he be related to something like that? Humiliated, he circled through the crowds until he could readily see the table again, coming up behind Kaliran easily enough. Then he bopped his younger brother upside the head with the palm of his hand, obviously agitated with the scene he'd caused. His expression was nothing short of angry as he folded his arms and turned back to the table. Kaliran just didn't know how to behave like a civilized adult! (And maybe Keliris was a little uptight.)

His eyes fell on the Maelstrom egg as it wobbled about and then knocked two of the other eggs into each other. When the Hail egg fell, a hint of worry crossed over his face (the expression mirrored on Rawign's and really, it was a wonder the Healer didn't go running after it), but since it rolled over to one of the riders' feet, he expected them to pick it up. Keliris then glanced back up at the table and raised his eyes at the little brown, still in his egg, before whispering, "It acts like you, 'Ran. Fallen and can't get up."

[neeuqtar]

Uu'n watched the proceedings with detached amusement. Why were the silly creatures all wandering the floor? They might get stepped on! That was kind of idiotic... He heard one of the creatures crying and sighed. Pretty creature. Hopefully someone would feed it soon, because Uu'n had no intention of listening to the beast caterwauling, and he certainly did not intend on Impressing another needy creature. Not that he had any problem with Adith. The dragon was the greatest blessing of his life, the best thing that had happened to him since, well, ever. Uu'n could find no fault in his dragon, save for the character flaws that he didn't really mind at all.

Something crazy happened then, while Uu'n was busy wondering where the crying creature was so he could wring its neck or otherwise get it to shut up! The blueweyrling missed the action, but the end result was eggs cracking and smashing, and the poor bland Hail Egg skittering across the floor. With impressive reflexes, the young man brought his hand down in a protective cage about the small egg, keeping it from getting accidentally smashed. He could feel it bumping into his hand, and carefully transferred the little egg from floor to his other hand, eyes darting around for the still-crying flitter. Oh, that was getting annoying!!

"I'll just put.. you... back?" Looking at the mess of what had been the once-calm nest, Uu'n changed his mind. "Maybe not," he murmured, looking down at the white egg cradled in his hands. Shards. He'd have to give it to someone... or something. It was going to be difficult to take care of the little baby, what with Adith... and the blue would be jealous... Wait. When had he decided to Impress the creature? Uu'n hadn't intended that! Oh, for the love of little green dragons... he moaned mentally. He'd gotten attached to the egg. Proprietary. "You better not be a blue. Adith would eat you," he grumbled to the creature rocking the egg.

[ravenmane]

P'nor watched the Hatching with a great excitement. His eyes wandered over the fire-lizard eggs, carefully examining each. The beauty adorned by each egg was unique and unusual. Many caught the Bronzerider's eye, but none were very special. Maybe you will get me a little cousin, Mine. someone to keep you out of trouble while I can't. The soothing voice of Cyanth echoed in P'nor's ears as the man moved into a corner. You just want a new companion, Great beast

The sudden hunger pain in his gut stabbed him with surprising speed. Only once had P'nor felt something like this, but it had been at Cyanth's Hatching. His eyes looked up to see the charging form of a Blue flit. Without hesitation, the small terror leaped onto his Chosen's leg and proceeded to climb the man's trousers. Swiftly shifting the fire-lizard to his arm, P'nor grabbed a handful of meat from a nearby platter. A creel of hunger grated against his ears as the Blue flitter demanded his share of meat. P'nor tore each piece of meat into sizes that would not choke his newest companion. You Impressed a Blue cousin, Mine. P'nor rolled his eyes at the dragon's voice/ You just like your Blue relatives too much, Cyan. Glancing at the sated blue creature in his arms, P'nor realized he must name the flit. How about Athol. Athol? P'nor's tone was doubtful as he stroked his Blue. "Alright, your name is Athol, Little Bue."

[boober]

Cezine wasn't so air-headed as to squeal when she was picked up, but she did have a rather comical expression on her face. However, that quickly passed, dissolving instead into /laughter/. Yes, she found being carrying through the crowd amusing. And for every person Kaliran shoved aside using her, she snorted, giggled and uttered polite "Excuse me"s and "So sorry!"s. Except that her amusement made it clear she wasn't really sorry. She was just being a deliberate contrast to Kaliran's loud demands to get out of the way. She was still laughing even when she was set down, her feet touching the floor once again. Whirling around, the girl poked Kaliran, grinning widely. "I don't believe you did that!" In spite of her apparent disbelief, however, she laughed again.

It was cut somewhat short, however, when Rawign suddenly admonished Kaliran. She tilted her head somewhat and smiled slightly, trying to ease the older boy's agitation. It wasn't expected to really help, but at least it was an effort. Cezine shook her head, not understanding what all of the fuss was about. She made a face at Kaliran, a smile spreading across her face as he looked back at her. But even that was cut short when the lad was fetched a blow from behind. At a glance, Cezine could tell that it was his brother. She looked down to hide a smile, and that was when she caught sight of the Maelstrom Brown. Quickly, she realized that she needed to redirect her attention if she really wanted one of these little beauties for herself. Edging a bit nearer, she bent down somewhat to offer the meat she held, warm and limp in her hand. She wouldn't complain about any of the colors, because they were all wonderful to her. The Thunderbolt Blue also caught her attention; poor little thing seemed almost lost.

Forgetting all about the boys, Cezine focused all of her attention onto the clutch before her. She'd really like to have one of these little beauties as a companion.

[Tashe]

As soon as the Maelstrom egg created havoc in its area, Viveer sprung from F'con's hands and with little wing beats, decided to explore what was going on. Hastily getting up from his kneeling stance, the bluerider charged after his little green flit. "Viv come back! Shard it Greeny." After a few moments of chasing the flit around, F'con was able to catch up with his little female... But at the cost of knocking over the two candidates he had arrived with. "Oh damn. Sorry guys... Viveer escaped me."

---

Pitching forward as somebody knocked into her, Gina made a rash decision to snatch at Saraina in an attempt to keep herself up. But unfortunately, her hasty plan failed to take on the effect she had wanted. Skidding forward slightly as her friend fell on top of her, Gina groaned unhappily at F'con. It was the second time she had hit into him and fell, but at least the first time it entirely her fault. But no matter how hard she tried to be mad at the man's flitter, she just couldn't. It was barely a hatchling and didn't know better than to fly around a crowded hatching room.

Turning her attention from F'con and Viveer, the younger female candidate spoke. "Sara... get... off... me..." Not bothering to say please, Gina hissed as the pain in her palm increased. It was at an odd angle and the sooner she got weight off of it the better the chance it wouldn't leave a painful bruise or sore spot.

----

As soon as she felt Gina grasp her sleeve, Saraina knew she was about to be dragged down. And before she could curse scathingly at both Gina and F'con, the young woman found herself pitched forward and laying on the female's back. Rubbing her head slightly before picking herself up off of Gina, Sara realized that they had gone past the first row of people. Snarling under her breath at F'con's flitter, the candidate grabbed her so-called-friend's arm and jerked her to her feet.

"Boy F'con you better keep that flit away from me or I'll strangle the living day lights out of it." Threatening the bluerider in a whisper so that only the three of them could hear it, Sara drew Gina back into their original positions.

[Administrator]

Nodding in agreement to the statement that, yes, he was a deadglow, Marra turned back and faced the clutch. And he was here now, so she didn't have to deal with a hatching of their eggs all by herself. Late, yes, but he had gotten here and owned up to being a deadglow. That had to do, she supposed. Watching as one of the eggs knocked a couple over, she frowned in disapproval as the Maelstrom Egg hatched, not noticing that Uu'n had picked up the littlest egg in his hands. She was more irritated with how obnoxious the Maelstrom Egg was. Well, there had to be a weirdo in every batch. She was a weirdo in her batch, and she knew Rawign must be. Maybe this egg wasn't such a bad little guy after all.

She raised an eyebrow, turning back to Rawign in total disbelief. She had hoped she had made a comment that would make him stammer awkwardly. Instead, he built on it! Was she losing her touch, or was Rawign just getting used to her comments? "Well," she said, determined to not let him win, "maybe it's just that the other flitters were more stupid than you, if that's possible. I don't get just one chaser. Or... you scared them off. They thought you'd fly into them," she teased, smirking.

And then! Clasping a hand to her temples, she massaged them with her fingers as Kaliran pranced through, carrying some woman along with him. "For the love of Faranth, please SHUT UP!" she hollered at them. To add to this mental torture, F'con's flitter caused a scene with a couple candidates. Had all hell broken loose!? She couldn't stand noise like this with so many people... Making a brushing motion with her hands, she tried to shush the crowd. Her breathing quickened, and felt her heart pounding in anxiety against her chest. She couldn't stand this kind crowd...

In a fit of madness, she charged around to Kaliran, grabbing him by his collar and shoving him against the wall. "For the love of little green dragons, shut that mouth of yours and show some respect!" she growled, fisting the collar of his shirt in her hand. "If you can't, I will forcibly send you away!" She narrowed her stormy eyes, showing that she was not lying. Shoving him back, she retreated to Rawign, sheer anger at these people showing through her shakiness, though that might also be attributed to her crowd anxiety. Her stomach squirmed in her discomfort as she folded her arms, trying not to betray her emotions at this.

--

Ha! Trumpeting triumphantly, the Thunderbolt Blue darted quickly to Kaliran. He found him! He had come up front, right where he could be seen! Crooning lovingly, the blue attempted to scale the boy's leg, but found gravity worked against him making him slide down. Possessively twining his tail around Kaliran's leg, he sent him the most vicious hunger pangs he could in an effort to get his need known.

The Maelstrom Brown managed to shake the rest of the shell hard, the floor causing the shell to gain spidery cracks trailing up and down the shell. Shaking himself free, he finally wrestled himself onto the floor that he had so longed to step on! Letting out a small trill of happiness, he didn't turn to look back at what he had done to his siblings. Making a straight-line dash for Paryal, he clung to her shoe, crooning lovingly, but that turned into a creel of hunger. He loved her already, yes, but he needed food!

The Drenched Egg, it seemed, did get a small crack from when it knocked over. It slowly grew, flailing on the ground even more with each new little crack. Finally, shards were sent flying, and a pale green flitter let out a screech even before all the shards were off of her body. Looking around with whirling red eyes, she pushed off, leaping over to N'call in a perfect picture of a terrorizing flitter. Landing on his thigh, she attached her baby claws into his pants, scolding him.

The Hail Egg began picking up intensity as it was placed into Uu'n's warm hands. It rolled about, sometimes where it was in a dangerous place on the edges of his hands, yet it always fell back in. Little cracks spread along the white shell, but none of them breaking open yet...

Next to hatch was the Raindrop Egg. It was a quiet hatching, the shell splitting neatly in half to reveal a curiously shaded flitter, a bright green with bits of an almost yellow shade about her. Looking about nervously, she fidgeted on the spot, torn between fear and hunger.

Dark Clouds Egg -- Unhatched
Wind-Whipped Egg -- Unhatched
Mist Egg -- Hatched :: Brown :: Mutasim :: Named Jabari
Storm Surge Egg -- Hatched :: Green :: T'ren
Crushing Waves Egg -- Hatched :: Green :: F'con :: Named Viveer
Black Skies Egg -- Hatched :: Bronze :: Mariyelle :: Named Titian
Thunderbolt Egg -- Hatched :: Blue :: Kaliran
Lightning Struck Egg -- Unhatched
Raindrops Egg -- Hatched :: Green
Stormtossed Egg -- Unhatched
White Waves Egg -- Unhatched
Black Seas Egg -- Unhatched
Maelstrom Egg -- Hatched :: Brown :: Paryal
Dust & Debris Egg -- Unhatched
Dark Winds Egg -- Hatched :: Blue :: P'nor :: Athol
Drenched Egg -- Hatched :: Green :: 'call
Hail Egg -- Unhatched - Rocking in Uu'n's hands

[glamourie]

"I probably would," Rawign whispered under his breath. "I don't know the first thing about flying." He shrugged, figuring that much was perfectly obvious, seeing as how he had no wings of his own. His knowledge of flight was limited to one trip on dragonback and really that was more than he'd wanted. Not that he was about to fess up to that fact, no no, Rawign was perfectly happy pretending he didn't mind dragons at all. Nope, no problems, none whatso--

Ooh, violence. Rawign's eyes went wide as Marra moved around and acted on his own urges, slamming Kaliran right into one of the walls. He flinched at the expression the younger candidate made, a cross between a bemused smile and something else akin to embarrassment. But it wasn't Kaliran he was worried about, because Keliris's appearance behind Cezine and Kaliran made him very nervous. The older of the pair of brothers wasn't known for his temper control and while he'd never seen Lir become violent, Kaliran had mentioned (on several occasions) that he wasn't adverse to using violence to make a point in temper. He'd gotten control over it, but... that didn't mean anything, since Rawign knew that Keliris was extremely fond of his younger brother and seemed to operate on the thought of "I can pummel him but no one else better look at him wrong" as though it were logical.

"Marra... come back over here, please..." He glanced over at the F'con and the two candidates, unable to hear their speech but as they came stumbling to the front it was hard to miss them. Was he going to have to sit on Marra to stop her from being violent? Well, at least her behavior kept his own in line. Once she arrived back at his side, Rawign glanced over at her and whispered, the words meant exclusively for Marra, "Hey, don't worry. They'll all find people, and 'Ran's just a bit... dim." The way she hugged her stomach made him nervous and he put one hand on her shoulder - a startling amount of boldness for him, considering that Rawign normally wouldn't touch anyone - in an attempt to comfort.

---

Slammed back into the wall, Kaliran laughed nervously. Marra's yelling did not remotely bother him, though his shoulders did sting from the force she'd shoved him with. Shards, that girl was strong! He had to bite back the urge to laugh at her. Rawign wasn't lying when he said she wasn't like normal girls, but in his opinion, there was nothing wrong with that. As Marra retreated, Kaliran winked after her and then turned back to Cezine before smiling. Scolded or not, he'd gotten them up to the front, hadn't he? So in the end, he won, right? Right. She was up at the front and there were firelizards hatching, plenty to go around for everyone from the looks of things.

However, the sound of trumpeting drew Kaliran's attention away from Cezine and he blinked in surprise as the little blue flew over and latched onto him. Aww! Wasn't he precious? Completely ignoring that he'd hauled Cezine to the front in hopes of her Impressing, Kaliran scooped the little blue firelizard into his hands to avoid him sliding down his leg. He set the little one on his shoulder as Chipper (from her spot along the wall) gave a delighted chirp, and then Kaliran snatched some meat from one of the people nearby's bowls. "Don't worry, don't worry, it's okay," he whispered, disregarding his surroundings in favor of trying to comfort the little fellow. "You're okay, here, see?" As the meat was snatched up, he smiled and looked over at Cezine. "I think I'm going to call him Maris." No doubt to be named after Marra, who had just slammed him into the wall, though fortunately she was far enough away not to hear that comment.

---

Violent was an understatement for the urges Keliris had as Marra slammed Kaliran into a wall so forcibly. He bit his tongue to avoid shrieking at her and dug his nails into his stomach before taking two soothing breaths. It wouldn't do to yell at her for something he was tempted to do himself, but she was making an even bigger scene than 'Ran was, and she didn't scold the rider or his candidate friends! Uck! Keliris threw his hands up in defeat as the little blue latched onto Kaliran and gave his brother a dirty look, earning a sheepish one in response. Honestly! Weren't people who didn't have any flits supposed to have a chance? -- Nevermind that his main problem was jealousy ...

His eyes turned back to the table to watch the other firelizards free themselves from their eggs, nervousness surging through him beneath his annoyance at his brother (and Marra). He was able to contain most of his emotions, though he did take a slight step back so that he was hidden by Cezine again. The last green to hatch drew his attention, though, for her yellowy tones were surprisingly pretty. Not that he'd have said as much aloud. He was a proud thing, after all. He couldn't admit anything like that where anyone might hear him...