when will the flames at last consume us (hatching)

[Ember]

Charming tilted his head slightly when Lao scolded him. So weird to have a bronze thinking they were a green. Did that mean the bronze also rose like a green? It would be too funny if he did. An image of a bronze being chased by a bunch of greens made the brown flitter chitter with amusement. Bronzes were so funny. Lao had competition though. That mocking bronze from earlier still was the funniest. The bronze protecting his eggs was a good act though. Charming approved. Male or female in mind, firelizards ought to help their own kind.

The brown chirped encouraginly to Lao. The bronze would do well enough with the cub. Charming had already done his part. Too many people or flitters in there and the kitten would just cause more trouble. Ah, see. All was okay again. The human one had the cub safely away from the eggs. Charming nearly fluted in victory against the furries until he saw a big one coming. Oh dear. He fluttered out of range as Lao was taken down by the momma cat. What to do..? The bronze was coming to no harm and the eggs were not being bothered anymore.

The newly hatched baby made Charming's mind up. The older brown trilled at the very pale brown. There was one of his own colour now (and was that a brown leg he saw from that one ugly egg?). He was amused by the hatchling's behaviour. He obviously hadn't taken any harm from the cub's antics, even if he was a bit..troubled. he was a rather rushed one, wasn't he? Off to chatter to the cat and Lao before hurrying to His. Well then. That left only a handful of eggs. He was a bit surprised to see most of them bonded already. Despite all the chaos the hatching was going rather quick! Ah, his should know about all this!

Nephele frowned at the rather strange images that Charming flashed to her. Claws, fur, eggs...a bouncing brown? She snorted quietly and shook her head. Browns seemed to be the nuttiest. Charming disagreed! He flashed an image of a bronze and then quickly a green. What was that supposed to mean? That had nothing to do with browns. Her brown could have facewinged. One day he'd show her the gender confused flitter. Until then he'd make do knowing he was absolutely gorgeous, no?

[absinthe]

Amelie looked up from doting on her new feline companion, startled by the sudden increase in the noise level. The kitten in question didn’t seem to be fussed though; if anything he was interested, watching the entire scene intently before jumping up with the obvious intention of checking all of this out and possibly aiding his sister in causing mayhem. Unfortunately for him, his new human was quick. Amelie snatched the cub up and wrapped him in her arms, frowning. “Oh no you don’t; you’re a big silly if you think for one second I’m going to let you go over there and cause more ruckus.” The softly chiding words were accompanied by affectionate scratches for the kitten’s ears. Much as he tried to squirm from the girl’s grasp, it didn’t seem to be very effective so he eventually settled down and uttered an exasperated-seeming huff. But once Amelie started poking his nose with a blade of grass it didn’t seem as if the little feline could resist snapping and swatting at it. The girl giggled at the now distracted kitten, pleased that she’d figured out some way to keep him occupied through the chaos.

Although she was clearly having fun keeping the cub distracted, Amelie couldn’t help but gaze worriedly toward the blanket and the clutch. She considered herself fortunate that she hadn’t been here for one of the firelizards after all; being in the midst of all the upheaval didn’t look like a lot of fun. She hoped that the eggs were all right. There were quite a few people between her and the blanket and she couldn’t really tell if any of the eggs suffered damage or not. It occurred to her to look and see how the tall young man who’d accompanied her was doing, and her gaze found him just as he rescued his scraps of meat from the blanket lest they get trod on or stolen.

Junaes had been watching the clutch intently, keeping a continuous count of the unhatched eggs, which had cracked, which ones moved and where the shells went after they were discarded and even which hatchling had come out of them. This whole thing was very fascinating to the youth, so much so that he failed to notice the feline cub’s intentions until chaos erupted around him. By the time it occurred to him to /do/ something, all he could do was grab the scraps of meat he’d put out in event that someone got careless and stepped on them or one of the felines made off with some of them in all the commotion. The eggs that got stepped on before the kitten was grabbed almost made the candidate wince and he could only watch and hope that the babies inside the shells were all right. The clutchmother looked on the verge of hysterics, which Junaes didn’t blame her for.

But the show must go on and much to his relief the hatchlings that emerged from the abused eggs didn’t seem to be harmed. Much as he’d like to pick them up and make sure, even he knew that touching was a big no-no unless one of the creatures made it clear that it was choosing him to bond with. And so, masking his grabby hands, the candidate just watched and waited. There wasn’t much else to do now that the kitten had been contained and the basket righted.

[mierce]

No.

Set on grimly pouting at nothing in particular, Evrgarde didn’t notice the whir of green flying towards her until it was too late to dodge. The moment that little beast struck her stomach, she felt her heart sink in horror. Yet before she could even hope for the fire lizard to decide she wasn’t a suitable bondmate, she felt it.

No.

Yes.

Iorath must have felt something as well, as he quickly twisted his head around to look at His. Her back was still to him but even if their bond didn’t lend itself to making it easy for him to sense her emotions, the stiffness of her shoulders (and the little green mini-cousin) was enough for him to figure out what was wrong. And so, he laughed. His draconic amusement permeated through Evrgarde’s thought and she snatched the fire lizard off her shoulder with half the mind to hurtle it away.

Why you--- she paused, staring at the slinky thing in her fists. The green flitter was oddly shaped, downright lanky perhaps. No, not lanky, she decided with a curious tilt of the head. The creature’s proportions were way off. For a moment, Evrgarde wondered if her vision was playing tricks on her and spared a glance at her surroundings (while taking care to not make eye contact with anything). No, this thing was just weird.

What the… you’re so… so… Ignoring the fire lizard’s squawking, she held it up to look at the slender body protruding from the other end of her fist. “L—ang! Ugh!” At that moment, Iorath had chosen to nudge Evrgarde’s back and in the same untimely moment given his little cousin her name. Except, the words came out slightly distorted and instead of Long, this little Prima Donna became Lange.

The fire lizard continued to squawk and chirp at her in annoyance. Food this food that. Of course, Evrgarde had no intention of impressing and thus didn’t even think to bring food. Disaster appeared to be imminent.

Iorath leaned close to peer at Lange, earning a few enthusiastic chirps of frustration in return. She’s got pretty large wings, he noted.

“Shut up,” Evrgarde hissed and quickly dashed around the blue so that she could climb onto his back. She still held tightly on the fire lizard, though for what she didn’t know. It’s not like Lange couldn’t fly. Maybe she was subconsciously terrified that she would incite more fire lizards to come her way. “Food,” she muttered, Lange’s persistent bond breaking through the rider’s mental barriers.

There’s a hyper brat of sorts up front with two bowls. Surely he could spare you some.

We are not getting any closer. It was an order. Oh my, His seemed quite perturbed. Still, the blue was quite amused as he took to the skies and headed straight towards the kitchen. And all along the way, fussy little Lange would… not… shut… up…

--------------------------------

Oh noes! Cerdic jumped, waving his bowls about. He was starting to feel a bit concerned. There were only 11 eggs, of which it seemed only four had not yet impressed to anybody. Was he doing something wrong? Was he too young? Too enthusiastic? Did he seem too desperate with so much food?! AAHH!!!

No, he must compose himself. Surely he was making a really really bad show of himself. Who’d want to impress to someone like him? Taking a deep breath, he lowered the two bowls of meat and put on the most serious and sophisticated expression he had. Or, at least that’s what he hoped it was; there was no mirror for him to check. “Why, I do say, it’s a lively scene here today,” he commented to no one in particular. He then looked down at his two bowls. “My, these meats look quite scrumptious. It would be a shame to see them go to waste.”

[Requiem]

Heh. Thank you firelizards for the distraction...sort of. He actually wasn't terribly happy about the 'let's divebomb the baby kit' thing, even if she was probably his least favorite of the bunch. Then again, the lazies didn't hold much of his interest, either. She was probably tied with them. "Stop the growling," he murmured. "Did you want a swarm of firelizards after you?" His free arm snaked around over her hind legs and he brought her into his chest at an angle where teeth and claws wouldn't reach. It was hard to keep a grip on silky fur, after all, when just dangling a creature out in front of you.

He completely ignored the evil mother of this evil little bundle of trouble. Empress was clearly the devil. Even though he wasn't sure what the devil was (an odd phrase flitting around Bitra that had no origins he could discover) it seemed a suitable enough description for the feline. She took great delight out of waking him in the night, for one, and acted like he was encroaching on her territory. Well, he was fairly sure that R'wign found better uses for him than a cat, so there.

And no, the dismissal of the beast wasn't a complete dismissal, in that he settled into R'wign's lap with a decidedly smug grin directed in her direction. His. Round one, M'ta. His gaze flicked toward Mer, amusement flitting over his face at the falling flowers...before settling on the smirking bluerider. "Hey, if it's that amusing, why don't you take the little monster you've been eyeballing since the start of the hatching? I'm sure she'll suit you just fine." Only an idiot would think M'ta was being nice. He didn't like most cats. (Probably due to the evil Empress, who was his first real contact with the species.) This one definitely fell under the 'do not like' category. He glanced back at R'wign to make sure it was okay, extending the creature toward F'lix.

Tch. Cuffing his weyrmate lightly upside the head, he nodded toward Mer. "Be nice."

The brown settled to the ground, watching the remainder of the cracking eggs with keen interest. Blatant amusement colored his gaze, even as he curled around his clutchbrother's feet in a posture that was either friendly or possessive...hard to tell. Though if he was feeling runoff from His, likely a mixture of both. We shall have to fly fast and wild, then, he commented, pleased. Yours does have many of the little flyers, Behruth added to Checkoth.

---

Glancing down at Lord - who had apparently gotten tired mid-raid and was now sleeping in the meatbowl - Miguel shifted from foot-to-foot. Conversation meant he had to talk. How awkward. His deep blues found Nephele again almost shyly, and he followed her gesture to the young green dragon. Still not a big dragon yet, though she was definitely big enough to appear huge to a five-turn-old. He shifted the bowl into the crook of one arm, his hand rising tentatively, and the little boy waved at the dragon in greeting.

His gaze returned to Nephele. "My name's Miguel." A name some might recognize as Laurie's son. Some of the older ones probably remembered his father, who he was growing to resemble more and more - Lauranna's weyrmate of over twelve turns, and a well-loved dragonrider, at that. Threadfall had brought a fair amount of tragedy, it had. At the commotion, however, Miguel slipped alway from the greenrider, worried about Shei who was in that jostling crowd. He managed to locate her with some difficulty as she watched the hatching through slitted eyes, Miguel taking up his position as her shadow again. He shifted nervously. Couldn't they leave now?

[Kisha-Ra]

Lao hissed again, pleased with himself. Yes he was fearsome! Cowardly baby feline, too scared to chase a big green wasn’t it? What? The bronze was momentarily distracted from the kitten by a salamandyr voice, oh was that his mate? A closer look revealed that no, it was a pretty blue salamandyr but it was only a little one not old enough to be Lao’s mate. How sad.

HIS EGG! Nooo! With another loud screech Lao started forward again, now he was going to teach that ball of fluff a lesson. How dare it tread on his egg?! For the moment Lao ignored the egg itself concentrating solely on driving back the kitten, a paw full of claws came at him but he didn’t worry, he was fast. Wait, where did it go? Oh it was out of the way now someone had captured the evil thing. Good human, goo- Lao’s grateful fluting to M’ta was cut off abruptly by something knocking him down and pinning him to the ground.

Yoalla closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose as she was bombarded with panicked images from Lao as well as fragmented demands for her to do something about the situation, save his egg, eat the feline, anything! A quick look around told her she wasn’t going to be able to get close to do anything about Lao, someone already had the cat, at least that had calmed her firelizard a little. Oh no, no, someone grab the adult feline please… Yoalla wriggled between a few people but nowhere near fast enough, the adult cat, probably the mother of the kitten to judge by their looks, pounced Lao with what would have been deadly accuracy had the cat seemed to have anything more in mind than using the confused bronze as a pillow.

Lao flailed around under the bigger feline, or more accurately his tail flailed wildly, his head move around a bit and other parts of the firelizard that were sticking out from under Empress twitched a bit. The majority of the firelizard was pinned down. Yoalla supposed she better go and get him, she moved around people a little more politely now that her pet wasn’t frantic or in any immediate danger from the cat. As she worked her way around Yoalla tried to remember how you were supposed to pick up a feline so it didn’t bite you, cats having only previously having featured in her life as a source of food. Was holding a grown cat by the back of the neck acceptable?

Squawk, thud. Chatter!

For the second time in a few short minutes Yoalla was assaulted by frantic firelizard images, this time all revolving around claws and teeth. She yelped and carefully unhooked a small firelizard from her skin when tiny talons bit into her, she had a feeling if she didn’t do something about this one it would be climbing up her face to cower on her head. ‘Stop that, it’s not about to eat you, it hasn’t even started on Lao yet.’ Yoalla tried a calm tone of voice on the small green in her hand. ‘I’m going to let go now, I’d like you not to resume climbing my face.’ The creature stopped flailing around in Yoalla’s hand and went limp. A pitiful little chirp emerged; if she wasn’t about to be eaten she’d like some food. Huuungryy. The green clambered slowly up Yolla’s arm as the girl started moving again, her panic over the feline clearly already forgotten in the face of her hunger.

‘Alright, that’s you sorted out for now.’ Yoalla ignored the slowly climbing green for a moment. ‘Now what are we going to do about Lao?’ Yoalla didn’t expect a response from the firelizard, which was just as well because the green was paying absolutely no attention to Yoalla’s words, utterly focused on getting to a shoulder perch and getting comfortable there. Food now? ‘One second Zai.’ Yoalla named her new pet while barely paying attention to the little green, she was busy trying to work out how she could get her other firelizard back without making too much of a scene.

[Rowana]

Merridan rolled her eyes at R'wign. She settling the flowers in a pile next to her, having giving up on keeping Vikky away from them. She would just have to go out and get more. "As if I cared about that," She commented dryly, then grinned. "You'd probably look better than I would," she added with a chuckle. She had never cared much for appearances one way or another. Her shirt just happened to be a good place to put things if she didn't want them squashed when she sat down. Vikky, however, had decided that flowers clearly belonged in the ground. She was happily digging up little holes and stuffing them inside one by one, only pausing here and there to take another piece of meat from Mer's pile. Auran continued to glare at her. What a stupid creature she was.

Mine likes the pretty smellies, but she does not like others to see, Chaoth explained reasonably to Checkoth. She keeps them in our room. She has many different kinds. He watched Vikky with amusement. Though it seems she will need more of these now. He shifted in anticipation and excitement. I am sure I could fly fast, he declared with confidence. He hadn't done much yet outside of class, but that didn't mean he couldn't do it, he was sure of it.

[dragon]

After one feline was snatched up by her scruff, and yet another appeared out of nowhere (he hadn't seen her coming), firelizards all in a tizzy, Llannu suddenly decided that crouching so near the wobbling basket wasn't such a good idea. Backing away hurriedly, he almost kicked the kitten that he'd put down earlier on. "Oh, sorry." he murmured, reaching over to scoop up the limp sack of kitty again. Curling the kitten against his chest, Llannu continued to back away, through the throng of milling feet and avoid getting his fingers stomped on in the process. All of a sudden, it just wasn't a safe place to be. For him or the kitten. So, the logical thing to do was get out of there before they got hurt. Right?

Once free of the crowd, Llannu stood up. lanky as he was, he wasn't short for his age. It certainly made it harder for someone to unwittingly trample him, though he was now in more danger of getting knocked over. Especially if people who impressed kept flailing around like the adult flitters were doing. This must be a flail fest, wave the arms around, and make strange noises. A very strange custom, to be sure. Llannu wondered if that was standard operating procedure, or if that was just what happened.

"It's ok, I gotcha. You won't get stomped now." He told the kitten, wrapping his other arm around the furry creature. He grinned, though, when the kitten perked his ears and started licking industriously on one of his fingers, wrapping a tiny paw around said finger to make sure it held still, tiny baby claws prickling on the skin. "Hey, hey! Pay attention, now. The last few eggs are gonna hatch and we're gonna miss it." Llannu protested, trying to extract his finger from the kitten. That made the hooks dig in though, and he quickly gave up, letting the furry creature lick on his finger as he tried to find another vantage point that would let him see.

---

Pretty much unseen, bouncing through the leaves and grass, Skink hurried over, attracted by all the commotion and rumblings and hummings. Chaos was in progress, obviously, and she had to be part of it. Chaos was fun, after all!! When she reached the area where people were, she started bounding in a funny four-legged bounce that took her over all those dangerous feet everywhere, until she could see what was at the heart of the commotion. A basket! And a feline, lots of flitters, some of them quite tiny ... Oh, yes, fun indeed!

And there! With a squeak of bossiness, Skink ran over and scrambled over everything until she could reach Charming. There she made herself into a little green necklace on him. For a half second she scolded him before getting distracted by other things. Scampering down again, and leaving the brown flitter alone once more, she grabbed up one of the shards of egg that had been tossed aside when the basket had been tumbled about. Sitting on her haunches, she turned it about and considered it from all angles, inspecting the concave nature of the piece.

[rii]

Simper curled his tail uncertainly around his feet when his furry friend was lifted away. Amongst the broken shells and chittering firelizards he sat dejectedly on the blanket. His frill twitched, lifting and folding as he looked around. Why did none of them want to play with him? Could he play? Please? The sadness Simper felt soon passed as he found entertainment in a piece of colorful shell. He took it into his paws and rolled over onto his back. Shiny~shiny~ Maybe Lilitu would like it? Or Terror? — Oh look, another salamandry! Green, pale green and so tiny. Shoving the piece of eggshell into his mouth, Simper flipped over and made a straight path for Skink–his bounding nothing other than playful.

He wasn't the only one that noticed Skink's arrival. Lilitu's eyes whirled with reds, watching as the pale green dot on one of the flyers. She didn't know this mandyr but looked like that one that had dared to crawl on hers a few nights ago. Lilitu had woken just as the small thing had scampered off and out of the door. How dare that one touch Lixhers. Frill raised, shaking with ire, the venomous color clear enough of how dangerous she could be. Letting off one last raspy hiss, Lilitu darted down F'lix and across the blanket. A tiny black shadow swerving around the moving feet also made for Skink. While Simper wanted to play, Lilitu was intent on making sure that one never goes near Lixhers again.

Touched mine. Pay you will, dumbflitlicker. Pretty wherryfaced pathetic one.

Fearless, Lilitu lauched at the equally small green, claws extended to slash at the other and mouth biting for her frill. Simper merely tilted his head, eggshell still in his mouth, after a moment he hopped after the two greens. Love~

F'lix, for his part, didn't notice right away. Lilitu had been emitting hateful vibes since first arriving, so the sudden spike in anger didn't strike him as odd–at least until he felt the urge to rip her frill off invaded his mind. – who? Saboth supplied the image of their little dark ball of wrath diving at the pale destructive nuisance. Pulling a face, F'lix shifted uneasily. It was then that M'ta addressed him. He gave the brownrider a snort in response, but extended his hand to receive the kitten anyway.

Yes, the cub was a bit of a monster. But, the bluerider reflected on the two salamandyrs and two flitters that had invaded his room a few months back. If she would serve as a means to keep pesky critters away, then good. Yes, not that he liked the cub, or anything of that sort. Definitely time to leave, F'lix rose to his feet and pushed forward to scoop up Simper–the blue quickly shoved into his pocket–he made a grab for Lilitu but she dodged, intent on ripping Skink to pieces..

Forget it, F'lix stood and moved away from the chaos and those present. He made it very clear to Lilitu that he was leaving with or without her. – but this one had dared to touch what was hers. F'lix shook his head, going for the stairs. There would be plenty of opportunities to 'destroy her' later. This struck Lilitu as true, and with one last swipe and threatening hiss, Lilitu turn and zipped after her bonded.

Poor baby you. Lucky now. Lilitu find. Wimper you then, like pathetic coward one.

[jaq]

All the commotion was starting to remind her of the day she came to this place.

She could barely contain herself when the kitten knocked over the eggs, but Dyudahlii didn't want to add to the excitement, so she sat back, quickly enough the kitten was taken care of.

Then she noticed that one of her favorite eggs to look at hatched. It reminder of of the night sky, so peaceful and magnificent. It surprised her when such a pale fire lizard plopped out. It was being noisy and was bouncing around, it was so adorable, it reminder her of when she raised pups. Then it bunny-hopped over to her and bounded into her lap.

Dyudahlii was excited that it chose her, it had been so long since she had been around baby animals and she missed it. But as soon as it landed on her and looked up at her she could tell what it wanted. She unwrapped the meat she had prepared, and started feeding him, giving him the best pieces of first.

"Qinaii" she said as she held the piece of meat flat in her hand and offered it to him. Yes, Qinaii, it will be a good name for him.

Qinaii, in such a hurry to eat, almost bit Dyu's hand, but she had protected her fingers well, definitely used to hungry animals during her turns. Qinaii was almost choking himself in his eating, so Dyu had to force him to slow down, only allowing him near another piece of meat once the first one was successfully swallowed. This fire lizard was in such a hurry and Dyu had never felt the need to hurry for anything, at least, not in a long time. This was going to be interesting, Dyu didn't know much about fire lizards but she figured she could get Qinaii to calm a bit with some good, patient training. Qinaii, on the other hand, seemed to have no intention of slowing down, still practically inhaling each piece of meat given to him, not understand why Dyu insisted on feeding him so slowly. But he loved her anyway, and it was obvious that Dyu became instantly attached as well.

When Qinaii finished eating, he curled up in Dyu's lap and she pet him, admiring his markings and thinking about how to properly introduce Qinaii to Bawnii and Klaiid. She quietly giggle to her self. This was turning out to be a very interesting day.

[glamourie]

The thing beneath her was squirming but – oh well. Empress looked down at Lao and casually sprawled further; she did not bite nor scratch but she did hold the bronze down most effectively… down and away from her kit. Her head swiveled toward the approaching girl and her ears laid back, daring – would this one be fool enough to attack her? She’d eat her face if she was. Empress was selective; she only willingly allowed R’wign to touch her. She was very much a one person feline. Her tail lashed and she turned her head before fixing M’ta, again, with a dirty look. Her tail thumped and she reached one paw up to hold Lao’s face toward the ground, taking her agitation out on the unfortunate firelizard splayed beneath her. Her ears laid back and with a very distinct sound, she mrrowed. It was definitely aimed at R’wign and she fixed him with an accusing stare; without words she demanded to know why she wasn’t the one in his lap, not that person who invaded their home. She didn’t much like him – but then, Empress didn’t much like anyone but Hers, and she was quite dedicated to only him. (No one ever seemed to question her unique ability to find him either – for instance, how had she known he was on top of the cliffs? Mystery of myseries, that.)

Eggs continued to rock, but the cracking of their shells (the Down Once More Egg was rolling around, that one brown limb floundering around trying to make more cracks in the shell heedlessly) was drowned out by a sudden and very loud screech – Ellie. The gold leapt from her spot near the eggs to fly around chattering furiously at Skink – who was decidedly not welcome near her eggs, and by proxy, neither was Charming if he was bringing those creatures close. She remembered Brat running after her flinging insults and she very distinctly recalled Showoff trying to eat her eggs – Charming’s egg to be more specific. Frantic, the gold flashed images to all the nearby firelizards of the salamandyr and squawked her fury. No eating her babies! They were not allowed to eat her babies. She’d gotten this far and she’d take the hideous thing away before she let it do that.

R’wign twitched from beneath M’ta, his arms around the other brownrider’s waist. His gaze flicked around before he turned his head in the direction of the girl who the brown looked to and said, perhaps a bit too coldly, “Get that salamandyr out of here – whichever one it is. I’d assume its Emoyan’s, since its mirror image is usually torturing Ka’rys. Get it out of here, or I’ll let Empress eat it. You have five minutes.” He minded the salamandyr more than he did the cub. The cubs were actually more accustomed to Ellie and yes, the female was being a nuisance (R’wign peeked over M’ta’s shoulder at her before wincing at him for holding the little girl out toward Mr. I-won’t-tell-you-my-name-is-F’lix) but they were his. Salamandyrs weren’t… and R’wign hated them. It was odd; he normally liked draconid species. However, salamandyrs were just horrible, obnoxious pests in his opinion… and he did not like them flustering Ellie. Not at all.

The Down Once More Egg toppled over before an brightly-colored and chubby brown sprawled awkwardly on the ground, half in the shell. His lower body remained in the unbroken portions and he stared up toward the sky as though in a trance, lost in his own little world. It didn’t appear as though he even noticed that he’d hatched. Eyes whirled, he stared up at the clouds passing by, one claw curling up against his body as though in thought. The sounds around him (particularly his dam screeching) were completely tuned out. Look, clouds. Weren’t they lovely?

It seemed that chubby firelizards were all around, for a moment later not one but two eggs split simultaneously: the Poor Fool Egg and the Stranger Than You Dreamt It Egg. From within fell two blues, both pale and decidedly chubby. Twins seemed to be a theme of the latest clutches, for these two looked identical and from the moment of their hatching were near inseparable. The Poor Fool Blue gave a happy flute and projected to everyone around an image of several broken eggs, followed by several eggs fixed again and lined up awkwardly on top of a wall. He leapt to his feet and his clutchbrother followed, projecting a similar image – of the eggs all falling off said wall and shattering. The pair bounced around together in the ruins of the clutch, chattering noisily to each other and everyone around, before looking up at their panicking dam curiously.

Chirp, chirp, went the Poor Fool Blue.

Flute, flute, replied the Stranger Than You Dreamt It Blue.

The pair cocked their heads ot the side, looked at one another… and then comically took to wing and flew right past one another in opposite directions. Both males screeched in terror (though what they were afraid of, neither knew – the gold was screeching so something must have been wrong).

In his irritation, R’wign missed Merridan’s reply. His gaze was fixated on Nephele, it never occurring to him that he might have been being rude; she was the reason that the green menace was present. The only thing to distract him was the sound of Ellie screeching louder as another salamandyr came near her clutch and that was all it took to destroy what little self-restraint he had. Ellie’s emotions affected R’wign more strongly than most firelizards because he was more like her than most of his mindmates. He quickly squirmed underneath M’ta, but the other salamandyrs were moving – moving away – and Empress stood up, releasing Lao…

Her gaze turned to Charming and it was anything but pleasant. Arching her back, the feline bolted forward, carefully leaping over the Masquerade Egg (which chose that moment to split and shatter in a flurry of egg fragments that revealed true glittering hide – a gold hatchling). Her running was quick and she threw herself at Charming, growling low in her throat, fully intending to destroy the green thing that was upsetting her gold so much…

The two blues, still flying frantically, collided with their chosen mindmates and flashed images of Ellie screeching and then Empress pouncing – all at the same time. The Poor Fool Blue latched onto F’lyn’s shirt and creeled piteously, while his clutchbrother the Stranger Than You Dreamt It Blue literally grabbed Junaes on the face. Hungry, hungry, hungry.

The female feline cub gave F’lix a questioning look as he picked her up and she balled up tight, growling. Her gaze fixated on his face, but she didn’t pull away; instead she started sniffing at his hand as much as she could, obviously trying to decide what she thought of this person who held her. Her tail swished back and forth in agitation… before finally stilling in acceptance. Tolerance, rather. She didn’t know if she liked this one but at least he wasn’t horrible. And it got her away from the loud things. She wanted to smack the loud things so very much.

As R’wign and Ellie were upset, so too was Checkoth; he missed answering and instead squirmed around, crooning after a woman who departed at a hasty enough speed to be worrisome; had someone offended her? And why was there a worm with the clutch? It wasn’t Baoth’s worm though, so he didn’t know what to do. Instead of doing anything, Checkoth thumped both of his tails and whined in his throat. Why were things bothering the little babies…? Where was Jingth when they needed her to make people behave?

---

01. Think of Me Egg Impressed: Green Zai to Yoalla
02. Angel of Music Egg Impressed: Green Vikky to Merridan
03. Phantom of the Opera Egg Impressed: Bronze Mojo to K'sel
04. Music of the Night Egg Impressed: Brown Qinaii to Dyudahlii
05. Stranger Than You Dreamt It Egg Impressed: Blue ? to Junaes
06. Prima Donna Egg Impressed: Green Lange to Evrgarde
07. All I Ask Of You Egg Impressed: Blue Lord to Miguel
08. Masquerade Egg hatched: gold; dazed and covered in egg goop
09. Poor Fool Egg Impressed: Blue ? to F'lyn
10. Point of No Return Egg Impressed: Green Shrew to Emiliah
11. Down Once More Egg hatched: brown; staring at the clouds in awe

[glamourie]

Stranger Than You Dreamt It Blue
Name:
Color: Blue #A2CEF3
Gender: Male
Age: Hatchling
Based off of: Tweedledee
Written by: Avu
Looks to: Junaes
Physical Appearance: A very chubby little creature, this blue, without being obscenely overweight: A layer of fat glosses over his entire body, rounding out every angle into a gentle curve and completely hiding any muscle that may (or, more likely, may not) develop on this firelizard’s body. It’s very easy to associate this plump firelizard with a baby – for he looks very youthful, and it’s unlikely that he’ll ever grow out of this appearance, or loose an ounce of the “baby fat”. Fortunately for him, he looks undeniably cute in a way that simply could not be achieved without a little bit of excess fat: a very small head with large eyes gives him a decidedly innocent cast, especially since his head knobs are rather short and kind of knobby at the ends: They look very much like an elongated doorknob of some kind. His entire body is on the short side, too; sturdy legs are tipped with needle-sharp claws that offset his “cuddly” appearance, and a short, thick tail and short, wide wings tops off this blue.

A pale blue shade gleams over this firelizard’s hide. It’s not pale enough to be mistaken for white, but it’s still on the light side of the spectrum. The shade in question? A distinctly violet-hued blue; indeed, this firelizard is almost a pale indigo color, so purple-shaded in his hide. A darker shade of blue that lacks the violet tinge rims both eyes, just thick enough around each of this blue’s eyes to be seen, as if to emphasize the size of them. A single, straight trickle of the same dark color marks the very tip of his muzzle, directly in the center where his nostrils are. Also in the dark blue is a line that trails down his spine, from the tip of the first of his neck ridges all the way down to the very tip of his tail. While his markings are undeniably interesting, the most noticeable thing about this blue is the fact that he’s absolutely identical to his favorite clutchbrother – the Poor Fool Blue.

Personality: The one thing about this blue that will stand out the most, above all else, will doubtless be his fondness for the Poor Fool Blue – he cannot seem to go a day without seeing his brother; if he does, he’ll end up sulking – and he is not the only one who must go to see his clutchbrother, no – he will insist on his Bonded also going to see his blue brother’s Bonded – and if he can somehow force them into becoming as inseparable as he and his brother are, then all the better! Never, does it seem, will this blue tire of his clutchbrother’s company, even though he chirps and chatters almost incessantly when around said brother, with the occasional flute and croon thrown in for good measure. Amusingly enough, his blue clutchbrother is the only one he displays this behavior around; he’s always at his happiest in the company of his blue brother: It seems that his very existence rotates around making sure that his blue clutchbrother is right next to him, and, at all costs, making sure he knows that he’s perfect.

However, whether or not his clutchbrother is there, this blue is very much a coward: The idea of being hurt or being scolded or humiliated will be enough to have him cringing, or downright panicking. Never will this blue enter a fight; he’d rather be called a coward any day than actually get into a fight – it might hurt! Neither will he ever argue with anybody, especially not his brother, and it’s likely that his entire opinion can change in a matter of seconds if somebody asks him to. The only thing that will absolutely not change is that his blue clutchbrother is the most amazing firelizard ever – and that he likes to be told stories: The one thing that can take his mind (however briefly) off of the Poor Fool Blue is a story; he seems to especially like the stories that can be told in the form of a song, for in such a case, it’s very possible for him to flute along to the melody – very musical, does his voice sound. Not only does he like to listen to stories, however, but he likes to tell them, in the form of gesturing with his wings and enthusiastic crooning and chattering.

---

Poor Fool Blue
Name:
Color: Blue #A2CEF3
Gender: Male
Age: Hatchling
Based off of: Tweedledum
Written by: Avu
Looks to: F'lyn
Physical Appearance: This blue is far from slender, though he’s not completely overweight, either – he’s just on the chubby side. He’ll never manage to look graceful, but at least he’ll have some dignity, appearance-wise, for his rotund form is one that he will simply have to get used to, as there will be almost no chance that he’ll be able to shed any of the chubbiness; it’s there to stay, and neatly conceals any strength that this blue boasts. Regardless, most people would still find this blue appealing – because he is undeniably cute: He looks very youthful, possibly because of the fact that his entire body is compact, short and ‘sturdy’ (read: round) with short, wide wings and thick legs tipped with claws that look astoundingly sharp considering his distinctly childish appearance: His Bonded will have to pad his shoulder before this blue is allowed to perch; otherwise, it’s a very real possibility that he’ll end up with neat little holes matching up with each of this blue’s claws. A short, thick neck ends in a surprisingly delicate head, though his head knobs are very short and the knob at the very end is very much defined.

A purplish-blue color that looks rather washed out, and, in comparison to most blues, will look positively pale, envelopes most of his hide. Even when he’s well-oiled, this blue will never gleam or shine like some firelizards; his will always be a deceptively pale, rather unimpressive, hide. Nevertheless, the purple shade to his hide is not a common one; any deeper purple and he wouldn’t look blue anymore. Just to make sure people are very much aware that he is, however, blue and not some new strange purple creature, dark, stormy blue markings are very prominent over his body. A straight line marks the very tip of his muzzle, right smack in the middle of his nostrils, and his eyes are lined with the same blue shade, making them look even bigger than they already are (which is rather unneeded, as they’re positively huge). The same blue starts at the tip of his top neck ridge and then follows his spine to the very tip of his tail. Between his odd base color and his markings, it would be safe to say that this blue is completely unique – except that he isn’t: He’s positively identical to his favorite clutchbrother, the Stranger Than You Dreamt It Blue: His Bonded should make sure that he doesn’t mix up the two and take home the wrong firelizard someday…

Personality: It will be clear within the first day or so of his life – and onwards – that this blue was born to be best friends with his clutchbrother – the Stranger Than You Dreamt It Blue; the two will prove to be all but inseparable. His loyalty to his blue clutchbrother will prove to be incredibly strong – almost as strong as that to his Bonded. Indeed, he’ll often push His to try and make friends with the Bonded of the other blue, since clearly this will mean that he’ll be around the other even more! However, his enthusiasm may or may not be shared by his Bonded, for when around his clutchbrother, he becomes a very vocal creature: Constant chattering and chirping will ensue, and to make matters worse, his brother can match him at every note, which makes for quite a loud pair – especially when either of them are sharing stories. This blue positively adores stories of any kind, be it about Holder, dragon, firelizard, or complete fantasy, and can be very easily enraptured by even the simplest story. Unfortunately, the price to pay is even more enthusiasm around his clutchbrother, since clearly the story must be passed!

He is, clutchbrother or no, very music-oriented; it will be easy to teach him to hum along with songs, or even chirp to the music, since this blue was gifted with a naturally musical voice (which he uses very often to suit himself), and he seems to positively adore rhyming, even trying to twitter along with them occasionally and/or encourage his brother to. His brother, however, is one of the few firelizards who can actually not send him into hiding with even the mildest threat – possibly because he’s sure of the fact that said brother never will threaten him; indeed, he spends a good deal of time around the Stranger Than You Dreamt It Blue preening and returning compliments. Any other threats, though, even from His, will positively send this blue into hysterics, apologizing wildly for whatever it is that he did wrong – even if he didn’t do anything wrong, so insecure can he become. If there is ever a fight – an invasion – or the like, it would not be advised to depend on this blue for anything, not even comfort, for it’s more likely he’ll flee straight to his brother to hide.

---

F'lix's Cub

Name:
Age: 8 sevendays
Gender: Female
Species: Feline
Breed: Siamese
Belongs to: F’lix
Physical Appearance: On the smaller side for a feline, this girl’s face is stream-lined, elegant and lovely to behold – she looks, quite frankly, adorable. Her body is more muscular than most cubs, and is clear indication that in adulthood she’ll be a powerful runner when she chooses to. She has legs on the shorter side, so instead of being tall, she’ll always seem hunched down toward the ground. Her tail is slightly too long for her body, frequently curling around behind her as she prowls, and she has long paws – clearly her body, at least, is designed to be a good huntress. She’ll never be a very big animal, though… but she’s definitely not the runt of the litter. She has somewhat large ears in addition to her paws, which always seem to be twitching curiously – eager to know exactly what is going on around her.

Short furred, this little female is definitely on the pretty side. Her ears, being somewhat large, are particularly noticeable: the very tips have tufts which are nothing short of adorable. Her tail is slightly fluffier than the rest of her and can grow to a ridiculously large size when she’s mad. Her coloring is remarkably pretty for a feline, too – her body is a base of rich cream leaning closer to white, with nearly black socks stretching up the length of her legs. Her tail, too, is a pure chocolate, and so are her ears, but what’s really impressive is the masking over her face. Instead of covering her face completely, it settles for just her nose, stopping right at the eyebrows. Her eyes are pure blue, like little sapphires, and she has little white whiskers that are constantly twitching – as if in silent laughter.

Personality: Unfortunately for Pern, this little female takes after her mother – she’s nothing short of unpleasant. She has the barest tolerance for one or two people aside from her owner (with special consideration for her mother’s owner, since he raised her), but most people are not only ignored – they are treated viciously. She’s not vain, she just is most assuredly a single-owner feline. As a kitten, she’s particularly energetic, fond of throwing herself at things and destroying them – especially shoes which she detests with remarkable passion. In adulthood, she’ll be describable with one word: huntress. Salamandyrs and firelizards are her prey and none are spared her devious delight – not even those who look to Hers. She’s disgustingly fast and her claws are razor sharp; cunning and clever, it’ll be very obvious quickly that to keep her in line, Hers will have to set guidelines… which she may or may not follow depending on her mood. Rules are clearly made to be broken.

This feline is particularly protective… and possessive… of hers. She won’t tolerate other felines around and will constantly fight with them if they come near her – barring one exception: Empress. And even then it’s only because she’s been conditioned to tolerate Empress, not because she actually likes her. Trying to get rid of her is unlikely to work – she’ll come back and yowl until Hers lets her in. Fortunately, she’s also the type to scratch, claw and tear up anyone who upsets Hers (which might be a bad thing in the long run since there’s no breaking her of this habit). Given a choice, she’ll always sleep on Hers’ head… and if he removes her, she’ll settle for his chest and slowly inch up to his face throughout the course of the night. It never dawns on her how obnoxious this can be and frankly, even if it did, she likely wouldn’t care.

She absolutely hates closed doors as well and will howl any time she’s presented with one, regardless of where she happens to be. So don’t close doors around her or else.

[midnight]

Meagen was so late, so late. She hated being late for anything, it had taken her so long to figure out exactly where it was happening. Through the grapevine, she had heard, she had been focused on trying to catch up on chores. Shards and Shells! She was late, to a Firelizard hatching. At her old home, she had never had this opportunity. She always was kept busy with other things. Her eyes widened as she came upon the scene. There was already so many impressions, and then the heavy weight of possible failure fell upon the females shoulders.

Oh well, it was her just due. She was late, that she was indeed. But being here did manage to get her one thing. "CRYSTOPH!" The female exclaimed the males name. She could recognize that hair anywhere. She made her way to over where he was, and then she hesitated. Did he still even care? She was so tempted to just leap at him and hug him. To wrap her arms around him and cry.

"Cry, you sharding wherry brain!" She exclaimed. She didn't care if people questioned what she was doing. This was Cry, and she wanted to hug him. Faranth stop her, she was going to do it... Hopefully. That's what was exactly on her mind as she launched herself in the males general direction. Seems a firelizard hatching was a smashing good place for a family reunion.

[dragon]

Llannu backpeddaled as things seemed to erupt into even worse chaos. More flitters hatched, sure, but that was almost missed in all the other flailing and attacking and jumping around that was going on. The screetching, the yelling, howling, and what could possibly have been miniature roars going on, back and forth as the three species of pets all had at it in an all out war over the hatching basket.

What in Faranth's name?! Who could have thought that such a thing could take place?! Were hatchings always like this??! Llannu hoped not ... and if dragon hatchings were anything similar, than he decided right then and there he didn't want any part in it. After all - if he were down there, same size as everything else ... there was a good chance that kind of melee would get him killed. All those teeth and claws and things from all directions. It was crazy!! He stumbled backwards, just in time to crash into another person (a girl-?) who happened to be yelling and running past as if she intended to take part in the mayhem by attacking someone else. With a squawk of startlment and loss of balance, Llannu took a headlong backward tumble, sprawling out in a tangle of elbows and knees.

Through it all he kept a hold of the kitten, though, holding him up and safe. After landing with a breathless thump on the ground on his back, Llannu just blinked and looked up at the dangling, limp kitty in his hand at the end of his outstretched arm, over him. "Hi. Are you okay?" He asked, never even thinking to see if the girl he'd knocked flat was okay or not. A tiny tilt of the head and small 'mrow' from the kitten was all Llannu needed to know that the kitten was, indeed, okay. Pulling the baby to his chest again, Llannu tried to untangle himself and get back to his feet.

---

Skink lowered her shard of egg when she saw Simper coming, with his own shard in mouth. She trilled happily as he came, and lifted her own shard overhead, sitting on her haunches still. Puzzle! She chorused. Maybe they could fix the egg? And then smash it again, yes!!! What fun!!

But that idea of what to do was shattered completely as war erupted around her ears. Skink shrieked and balled up, clutching her shard as things flew at her from all sides. There was no where to run! Empress on one side, Ellie above, and here came Lilitu from a lower angle. Lilitu, naturally faster than the rest, seemed to get there first, and Skink leapt upward in an attempt to get away. But, even if they were matched ounce for ounce, Skink knew she had one advantage: Lilitu wasn't very old, and didn't know much. When the darker green dived for Skink's frill, Skink flopped over sideways and crammed her shard of egg upward into Lilitu's mouth, while raking with her back feet at Lilitu's belly, trying to kick the younger green off. Bad baby! Bad baby! She scolded, shoving on her shard with all her strength, to keep that biting mouth away from any part of her own anatomy.

In the instant that Lilitu decided to turn tail and run (Skink was most proud of having won that round), Skink jumped to her feet and shot after her. Run, bad baby! She jeered. But she didn't chase her in an effort to catch her, oh no. She was simply going the same direction because it was the only venue out of that mess that was working on crashing down around her ears. Big bad mama kitty and big bad mama fluttery were both after her, and she didn't want to be there when either of them hit ground! She was small enough to be swallowed whole by both of them, and she knew it. So it was out of a bad situation by following Lilitu, yes it was. At the first opportunity she changed directions, running and leaping as fast as she could go through the grass and away.

Chaos was all well fun and good ... but losing her life in the process was not part of the plan! She'd already lost her tail once, and didn't intend to lose anything else ever again. That hurt! Skink ran to the cliff's edge, and then started down the face of it. Here, Empress couldn't get her. Ellie might, but with a few eggs left to go, Skink didn't think the gold would leave the nest just yet. So, she assumed she was home clear.

Well - not quite. Home was a long ways away. With a screeching call, Skink tried to call in back up. She needed and escape route!!! As always, her backup was not long in coming. Always protective and usually at least somewhat attentive, Rascal appeared from between, scooped Skink up off the cliff face, and flew away with her again, scolding her soundly the whole way. He rather didn't like it how she kept putting theirs' sanity on the line. For the momente, Skink tolerated his bossiness, looking back at the milling humdrum that was the hatching.

Whew. That had been close.

[mierce]

The commotion between scampering salamandyrs, cubs, flitters and some less than composed audience members barely bothered Cerdic. Sure, he took a few reflexive steps back to avoid getting hurt, but at no point did he think of running away (well, he still wanted a fire lizard but that’s besides the point). This must be the sort of adventures Dicerra talked about, he reasoned, his grey eyes on the verge of glowing in anticipation. Truth be told, there was a little bit of fear flickering in his chest as he watched the movements of the cubs, but he forcibly quashed the apprehension and held his ground. If he remembered correctly, Dicerra had said that dragon hatchings can get quite bloody with candidates getting maimed in the process. He had to steel his nerves! Yes, he shall!

As if his (presumably) serious expression wasn’t enough, he set his jaw firmly and gazed steadfastly towards the two remaining flitters. Well… he tried to anyway. One looked sort of under the influence of opiates while the other was… hehe… covered in egg goop. Haha egg goop! Goop is such a funny word, baahah--

No! Stop laughing!

[Rei]

F’lyn watched the chaos with interest. So much went on at these events. Well when you crammed lots of people into a small area and tossed in newly hatched babies, plus the owners previous pets, things where obviously going to get chaotic. The blue rider felt Pandorath press happily against his conscious. Oh look at the two new blues! Weren’t they adorable and oh there they went! With a wet smack F’lyn felt the Poor Fool Blue smack against his shirt. Eyebrow raised he automatically began detangling the blue’s long claws from his shirt. Uh Oh. The familiar hunger grew in his belly followed by frantic images. Oh oh oh! Did his poor brother get away? The things where going to eat them! His had to protect them.

F’lyn chuckled lightly as Pandorath filled his head with unconcealed excitement and delight. His had impressed! How wonderful! Finally after all these turns he had his own little flit. Such a cute little blue too ,and listen to him flute! He was very musical wasn’t he? The blue rider nodded absently and picked up a few bits of meat which he offered to his new mindmate. “Musical yes. I think I’ll call him Piper.” The name came automatically to mind for the blues tones sounded like a fine musical instrument. Pandorath rumbled appreciatively. A fine name to be sure but they would have to teach the little one to keep the claws away from the hatchling. It wouldn’t do for him to accidentally hurt her. That would be bad. F’lyn nodded and continued feeding the newly hatched Piper who ate with a enthusiasm only newly hatched dragonets could match. Hunger overruled all else right now. After he would have to make sure his brother was ok.

-----

Crystoph turned as a female voce sounded his name. It sounded a lot like Meagan. The candidate’s eyes widened as he faced the female. It was Meagan! “What in Faranth’s name..” Was all he got out before his friend tripped over another candidate and was sent sprawling. Crystoph paused for a moment. The two would need to untangle themselves anyway before any sense could be made out of the situation.

Until then he gave a glance at the basket and the two newly hatched flitters. The only two left. Who would they impress to? Only time would tell. At least the chaos would be over soon. Hatchings always went fast and chaotic. Seemed there was no other way for them to go. A small part of him still hoped one of the flitters would find him acceptable but he knew it was a long shot. Dragonic creatures seemed to find him unacceptable for some reason.