Not Quite A Dozen Roses (Rose Hatching)

[Sheari]

Good! Good, good! As the fire lizards Impressed to those grathered, Emiliah began to feel a little less angry at the dust and dirt. Soon they would filter out and she could finish sweeping for the day and do other chores. Soon though, she guessed that someone would come in and tell her to stop working.

That had happened a couple times already, but since she wore non-candidate like clothes and often didn't wear her candidate knots, most saw her how she saw herself. It was fine with her, she liked the work, regardless of how Shrew felt.

The girl looked over and saw the last egg. It had fractures and cracks but had stopped moving and she worried that the little one inside had given up in the effort. It was a large egg and she silently cheered it on, equally curious as to what was inside colour-wise. Move little one, you cannot remain inside! came Dib's sing-song chant. of course, the baby didn't hear Emi's figment, but to her it was real. The translucent gold was sitting next to the egg, somehow remaining a seperate entity from the pillow. Emi didn't see Dib so much now, as she simply felt or imagined her there.

"Move, little one," she murmered under he breath. What if it didn't finish hatching? Would the others just leave and let the egg be? If they did that then she would be left to clean it up. She'd probably break the shell open first to see what colour the thing was before disposing of the body. Sad task that would be.

Hey! No thinking like that! Dib reprimanded. Emiliah smiled and looked at the egg again.

[mierce]

With some wriggling and a handful of cheery, “Excusemeplz”’s, Cer’c managed to bounce up close to the makeshift nest ready to smile down upon the baby mini-dragons. With one last twirl he skirted past the final spectators that barred his path and found… “Whaaa…?” For all the commotion, he was a little more than surprised to find only two babies left. Well, more accurately just one baby and a cracked-but-still-together egg that was writhing. Huh…

It seems the others have found their humans, Harmonyth offered, her mind voice filled with relief that Cer’chers had finally stopped moving and…. was that a touch of jealousy?

Neither of the greenweyrling pair had time to consider things when the Rainflower Bronze lit upon the boy’s shoulder and started to chirp annoyedly in his ear. “Ahh!” Cer’c spun around a few times before realizing that the source of the sound was on him. Eh?? He eyed the lanky firelizard curiously which only earned more stern squawks. Food shardit, food! It took a little longer than the bronze would have liked, but it finally dawned on the human the meaning of things.

Cer’c shrieked, holding his clenched fists up in front of his toothy green as he sort of jogged in place. Without really thinking through his actions, he grabbed the bronze from his shoulder and gave him a quicky but tight squeeze. The boy turned to Rose and bent forward at his waist. “THANKYOUROSE!!!” And then, he was off. The still yet unnamed bronze held protectively against his chest, Cer’c quickly made his way towards the kitchen for meat. Though the bronze could not speak, Cer’c could vaguely register the impatience from the tiny lizard; slow as he may be sometimes, he at least he had the sense to act quickly when literally caught empty handed.

Alas, he had barely bounded into the kitchen when he collided with a woman. Luckily there was no repeat of a similar scene from his candidacy that resulted in one very pissed of pretty drudge. Without thinking, he extended an arm as if to steady Mae (even if she didn’t need any help). “I’m very sorry,” he said quickly with a sheepish smile. “Are you hurt?”

The Rainflower Bronze, on the other hand, had other ideas for in Mae’s hands was a bowl of rather juicy-looking meat. Served by another human, how fitting for a fire lizard as regal as he! He supposed he could overlook that somewhat embarrassing near-accident for now; surely he will be able to whip this human-servant of his into shape soon enough. With a pleased chirp, the bronze slithered free from Cer’c hold and hopped over onto Mae’s wrist where he tentatively licked at the top-most chunk of meat before snatching it up. One deliberate tilt of the head later, the meat had disappeared down his throat and the bronze went for another piece.

“OmiFanarth, that’s not very nice,” Cer’c stated to the bronze. He held up his hand to retrieve the rather forward fire lizard and was greeted with a chirp that was nothing short of shock. Shock!

Was his human-servant daring to interrupt his meal? Honestly? The bronze was aghast at this turn of events! “Uhh…” Cer’c quickly withdrew his hands and bowed apologetically to Mae. “So sorry about this. Please, let me help you get more.” He slipped around her and went to get said meat… except… He froze in mid-step then turned around, a hand scratching the back of his head. He regarded her with a nervous smile. “Uhh… where is the meat anyway?”

Somewhere else, a certain green dragon was huffing at the thought of having yet another pet around.

((( Thank you Teddy!!! <3 <3 <3 )))

[Rowana]

Hoayamae had just started back with a fresh bowl of meat when someone ran into her. She glared at him furious as Nhim dove back into her shirt. It was hard to tell if she was angry at the boy or the fire lizard. She took the arm though, grateful for the help to keep her from falling. She wasn't as steady as she used to be. She took a deep, calming breath. At least this boy was polite.

"I'm fine," she returned shortly. She scowled at Cer'c's bronze on her arm. "I hope you don't plan on staying there," she told him in an acusing tone. She used her free hand to push him off and onto the bowl, which she passed to Cer'c. "Don't worry, I'll get it," she assured him. "But if you could take bowl there should be enough for someone else too." She was being nice mostly because Cer'c was being so polite, which always got her approval. She pulled Nhim out of her shirt again and collected another bowl of meat. Nhim gave a long chirp of mourning, but settled to pacing her shoulder instead.

Mae shooed Cer'c out of her kitchen as she returned to the hall. "Whoever got stuck with a baby, come here for yer meat," she called gruffly. Clearly 'stuck' was how should thought of it. Though she liked them better than salamandyrs. At least they were quieter. "And don't blame me if there's nothing for super!"

~

With only one egg left, Merridan highly doubted it would come to her, so she shrugged and started back to her table. Seeing Tobby's sad look, she tapped him on the shoulder as she passed. He must be one of the candidates, since he looked young and new. "First hatching?" She chuckled at R'wign's newly acquired addition to his flock. "Don't worry, we aren't all blessed with an ability to attract fire lizards." True, she had two. Vikky still messing with eggshells and Auran sitting moodily on her shoulder, but she never expected she'd get as many as R'wign did in her lifetime.

[marge]

Disappointment was clear on Tobby's face as he watched the last two hatchling find and Impress to a pair of riders. Maybe he just wasn't meant to have a firelizard at all. After all, this was two Hatchings and he'd yet to even come close to getting one of the little beauties. Still, it probably wasn't a good idea to give up after only two Hatchings. The young candidate sighed softly then looked back to the table, rubbing at his arm as he did. Now what could he d- Wait! The boy's eyes brightened as he realized that there was still one egg left in the tortured pillow. He had completely forgotten about it. As it began to wobble, Tobby found himself mentally cheering the little thing on. That's all it probably needed after all, some love to keep up the strenuous work of Hatching.

Then someone tapped his shoulder and Tobby blinked, his intense concentration on the egg completely broken as he turned to see who it had been. Maybe X'rx had come back over? But no, the speaker was definitely female. The candidate smiled at her question but shook his head. "No, second actually. But it has been Turns." He replied, before adding as a second thought, "Then again, I don't know if you could really consider the first time a Hatching. An egg hatched I mean, but it was only one. My m- foster mother," He corrected quickly, "bought it for me. Then when it was finally ready to hatch, the little tyke flew right past me and straight to him." Tobby gave a short nod toward R'wign and his flock. He sighed before smiling again at her next words. "That's true. I just hope my poor luck with attracting firelizards doesn't extend to dragons when the time comes." He joked, glancing once more to the table. "My name's Tobby."

[mierce]

A slice of meat pinched tightly in his mouth, the Rainflower Bronze looked up at Haoyamae as if demanding what she was doing pushing him around. How rude of her! Was she blind? Did she not see that he was clearly a Bronze with a capital B? He swallowed and spread his long wings in protest. How DARE she! The more he thought about it, the more upset he got to the point where one may wonder if he had delusions of being a Queen.

Cer’c hastily accepted the bowl from the woman, turning the bronze to face him and hopefully be distracted from the woman. “Be nice. Look, she gave you a whole bowl.” He smiled at the bronze, rubbing his head gently with the pad of his index finger. The bronze made wheezing sound as if heavily exhaling through his nostrils, but obediently settled down on his human-servant’s wrist to continue eating. “Thank you again, mi--ma’-- err missma’am… Miss.” The words fell clumsily from his lips as he stumbled through how to refer to the woman; he needn’t any encouragement from Mae before he fled the scene and attempted to disappear into the thinning crowd in the Main Hall.

“Does anyone need meat?” he called out. The bronze may have objected, but in the distance between kitchen and Main Hall, he had already cleared a good portion of the bowl and was quite full. With a content chirp, he nonchalantly relocated to Cer’c’s head where he settled down amongst the tangled locks of hair. He held his head purposefully and looked around the room as if a sentry. Yes my human-pet. We ought to share with my clutchsiblings.

[Shiny]

"L'nu!" Huffing and puffing, J'ash raced the last stretch over to his friend. He was very out of breath, having run most of the way to the Hall where Rose's Hatching would take place. Craivaruth was glued to his heels, a strange orange hue in his eyes.

His bonded was sick, and had been puking his guts up for hours. Craivaruth had told him not to go to the Hatching - not only might he become worse, but he might offend Rose by puking all over the place and not get any egg anyway. J'ash insisted that he was feeling better, and insisted to at least catch the end of the Hatching.

Craivaruth bent slightly around J'ash's legs as he tried to catch his breath; the blue-green could see His swaying slightly. The blond looked at L'nu with tired eyes, his face still very pale. "Congratulations, man! Your flit's a mom." He patted his friend hard on the back in congratulations. With a smile, he looked around at all of the people still present with their new firelizards. To be honest, he was jealous... He'd wanted one - although Craivaruth protested it - but just had to be sick while Rose's Hatching took place! He felt bad, too - he was pretty sure he was L'nu's only good friend at the moment, and he hadn't even come to take part.

Sighing, J'ash's smile disappeared. He looked solemnly at his friend. "I'm really sorry... I wanted to be here on time... I really did..." A small wave of nausea was swishing around in the pit of his stomach, but he fought it down. He would stay until L'nu left.

Craivaruth snorted, wrapping his tail and body around Jash's feet. J'ashmine, you're better off without one of those noisy, smelly things anyway.[/color]

'You really aren't helping,Craivaruth.'

[Lotty]

Awkward. He should have left when he had the chance, but really now he had very little sense of appropriateness. A sudden flurry of activity exploded around him. There was some kid asking for meat, there was a greenrider stealing some too...and touching him. What the shards? This was so weird and she was trying way too hard. Not that K'sel would complain about eyecandy or anything, but to be subtle went far with him. Elysia wasn't subtle. She might be fun (if he was into chicks eight turns his senior), but she didn't hold his interest for more than a passing moment.

You clearly were boring if you weren't fighting with him.

He sighed when his attempts at kindness were a failure and Nephele escaped. She wasn't going to stick around and chat? Being a douchebag was clearly more successful, he should really learn to stick with that, but before he could leave safely he felt a tick of hunger. Ugh. Not again. He didn't even have to look at the hatchling and he knew everything about her. It was easy because he had two of these already. Weyr decorations. Little gargoyles. Spies. It was like being watched by some omnipotent force, there was always a firelizard in the corner watching.

This one was cranky too. Awesome. He turned on his heel to look at it impatiently wait for him. This was not going to fly, and with Neph gone, he could be his normal jerk self again. "OH! I AM SO SORRY!" he facetiously gasped, "I didn't know you needed to be fed Princess!" She squealed at him with disdain, "Oy, my life. If you want to eat you better learn to keep up..." he didn't grant special favors to Eyesore or Mojo. It shouldn't be any different with this newfound ruckus. She flopped after him angrily, "I don't know why you are so angry. YOU are the only who started with fracas."

[dragon]

L'nu twirled about when J'ash turned up. "You look like you got hit by a dragon, J'ash! What happened?" He asked, concerned. It never even occurred to him to be even a little upset at his friend ... no one knew when the hatching would be, and considering how hard J'ash had worked to talk L'nu out of hoarding them all? Why would J'ash want one? L'nu had thought that J'ash staying away had been planned. After all ... Rose was bad enough all by herself. L'nu grabbed J'ash by the arm to steady him a bit. "You should sit." he suggested, for once not a ball of nerves. J'ash was a friend.

The very last egg in the rather destroyed pillow-nest rocked and shivered again, turning slightly where it sat before going still again. Rose leaned over it, sniffed it, and then tapped on it with a talon, too. This resulted in a dent in the shell where she tapped it. The dent quickly became a pointy spot, however, as it was shoved back out. A tiny brown nose protruded from the hole, being forced wider as the baby inside shoved for all he was worth. The shell was somewhat thicker than it should have been, and it was a good thing that the hatchling inside was brown - a green or blue might not have managed to hatch. The shell gave way out the other end, from being shoved on, two back feet protruding through the shell. Which left the brown inside in a rather awkward predicament. Nose out one end, toes out the other. Now what?

Rose squawked in a most undignified manner, and grabbed the egg. She started rolling in around trying to decide what to do with it. It needed something done, that was for sure! Finally, a perturbed cheep from the Rain on the Pond Brown got Rose to stop rolling the egg around and around. She leaned over the egg and peeped back at his nose, trying to figure out what to do. A peeping snout and wiggling toes was not something that she knew how to deal with.

The brown, however, seemed to have an idea. Pulling his feet back inside, he braced them against the edges of the hole, and shoved again. This only resulted in more shell breaking away, but it did get him a bigger hole. A few more tries at that, and the Rain on the Pond Brown writhed backward out of this somewhat intact shell. Sitting up in freedom, he peeped loudly, a happy expression on his face. Yay! He did it! Rose chirped and nosed him, proud of his accomplishment.

The enthusiasm was short lived, however, as the brown was quite exhausted from all the hard work that shell had subjected him to. Drooping just a bit, he huffed a sigh before sprawling in the rather gooey feathers of the pillow. Blowing one away from his face, he unfurled his wings a bit to air dry them. With a simple chirp, he demanded that his pet come get him... he was too tired to even think about moving. As his hide dried, subsequently gluing downy feathers to himself, it became evident that the mottled appearance of his hide was not due to being covered in egg goo. Instead, he really was a varying mottlement of browns and near-blacks. To be put bluntly, he looked like a hunk of semi dried mud smack in the middle of the sand-filled shredded pillow.

Rose trilled happily, and piled out of the pillow herself to curl about where Azaran was. All done. Time to go back to her usual, since she no longer had a nest to guard so vigorously.

[dragon]

Rain on the Pond Brown

Color:Brown
Impressed to: J'ash

Personality: Calm and solid, this sturdy fellow is most reliable. He will do just about anything asked of him, and happily. Extremely loyal, he will often follow his person all over the Weyr, or to wherever they might be going. Nothing is more important than his. Even if there is a flight happening, he will only participate beyond a reasonable doubt that his person is not only safe, but does not need him to do anything. He doesn't much care for the presence of other flitters near his, unless they also belong to his human. Strangers will get hissed at until they leave.

Oddly enough, he is also hyperactive when it comes to chasing other things that he perceives as a threat. This includes salamandyrs and felines. Both he will chase until they reach a certain perimeter from his human. If they do not run, he is not shy of biting or otherwise harassing them until they do run. If you didn't know better, you might think he was a miniature version of a canine, rather than actually a flitter.

Appearance: Very earthy in color, varying from tan-browns to black-browns in a very mottled fashion, he could most definitely vanish on a bare patch of ground if he ever bothered to sit that still or low for any period of time. Adding to the appearance of being made of a mass of kinds of mud, his hide is textured as well. Not at all smooth, he is quite bumpy all over, much like the surface of a lump of broken, dried mud. He absolutely loves to have his hide scratched, though, and will wiggle all over when he gets it.

His body is very compact, almost appearing shortened in all directions in proportion to his thick nature. It is quite obvious that he is not fat, though. Every ounce of his earthy self is dense muscle. If it were not for a great deal of that mass being centered on his chest and shoulders, it might almost have been a detriment to his ability to fly. But his flight muscles are arguably some of the biggest on his body. This brown is more than capable of moving objects that have some heft to them, and taking them between with him.

[Shiny]

J'ash waved a limp hand in protest to L'nu - the least he could do was stand at a Hatching, despite how awful he felt.

Then, the last egg quivered.

He watched, wide-eyed, as the Gold fluttered over to it. Rose poked at it with a claw, and a cute little brown muzzle poked out in response.

Craivaruth was still like a predator watching its prey, his head high off the ground in alertness. His eyes seemed to glow with a more intense orange. His tail curled and locked around J'ash's legs subconsciously.

Two feet broke out the other end, and before he knew it, the Brown firelizard had slipped itself out of the mostly intact shell. J'ash inhaled sharply as he felt an explosion inside his head, light briefly dancing before his eyes. He'd felt something similar when he and Craivaruth had bonded. Was this... his? He could feel another mind in his own - one other than Craivaruth's.The Brown plopped down in the goopy feathers, exhausted. It seemed to call him.

Grudgingly, Craivaruth unwound himself from J'ash to allow His to walk forward. The blue-green was not happy.

A much more intense wave of nausea hit him - the flit's hunger and exhaustion fed J'ash's sickness tenfold. Stumbling forward, J'ash fell to his knees in front of the flitter, trying desperately to get him out of the way -

New "goop" splashed on a part of the poor Brown. The nasty substance coated much of the already ruined pillow-nest. Coughing, J'ash got the rest of it out before wiping his mouth with a spare handkerchief. "Oh, I--I'm..." Even though he was as pale as a ghost, there was a very faint dusting of pink across his cheeks. How embarrassing!!!

"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry!!" J'ash exclaimed, taking a clean side of the hankie to his new flitter. The Brown stared up at him with owlish eyes, as if it did not have a coat of puke on it in the first place. It croaked pleasantly at him.

Having done the best job possible, J'ash carefully lifted his little mudball, rubbing his tiny, half-asleep face soothingly. "I think... I ought to call you Vomit."

Vomit chirped sleepily as J'ash carefully placed the exhausted flit on his shoulder. He took several deep breaths and slowly stood up, swaying quite a lot in the process. His vision had become wonky. Slowly, he dragged himself back to L'nu and his Blue, who did not look amused.

Craivaruth stood, watching the flit intently. He didn't move a muscle.

Vomit's eyes flew open. He spread his wings menacingly, rearing his back in an arch, and let out such an unexpectedly awful hiss that J'ash nearly jumped out of his skin.

Craivaruth began to growl, his own, disproportionately long wings beginning to unfurl. No firelizard was going to show him up in ferocity!

"No! You two, get along!" J'ash yelled, an authoritative expression taking over his still sickly face. Huffing, Vomit tucked his wings back down to his lumpy sides, and crawled down J'ash's chest to sleep under the cover of his shirt.

J'ash looked at his bonded, feeling the betrayal, anger, and sadness there. Instantly, he felt guilty. "You know I love you, Craivaruth. And I always will." He slowly crouched next to the frozen dragon, and bent down to kiss the top of his blue head. Craivaruth's eyes were a mixture of colour as he looked up at His.
I know, J'ashmine. I know.[/color]