Hatch Or Die [Outlaw Flower and Art Clutches]

[puppetmaster]

Eggs.

So many sharding eggs.

Jessan hated to make a habit of regretting life choices, but sometimes it was inevitable. The boy in her Crafthall days, the not being there to tell Machi to not kill that rider... And, while sitting on the small ledge between entrance and eggs, half naked in her knee length skirt and the tank top, on rock- Well, Jessan found herself immensely displeased with the fact they had so many eggs. Food was hard enough to find as it were, though getting slowly easier, but with dragons...

Sometimes her ideas were good ones. Othertimes, they worked too well. The mass of eggs happened to be the latter.

They'd cooled a bit in the past few days, responses to fingers on them weaker then they were initially. Jessan tucked some hair behind her ear, glancing to the quiet eggs. Steam curled over her crossed legs, uncomfortable and sticky; they'd probably cooked them all with the constant heat.

Beside her, Machi dozed. His legs dangled over that ledge, head tilted back in a rare show of trust. Poor thing - hadn't been sleeping. Jessan stroked his knee, silent, and frowned.

"I hope they don't die." Machi said, a murmur, and Jessan wondered when Machi started hoping for anything. Last she remembered, he just took what he wanted, and didn't think of anything past that. She glanced over to him. Eyes still closed, the corners of Machi's lips turned downwards. "I never saw baby dragons before."

"You don't even want one." Jessan rolled her eyes. She paused, withdrawing her fingers from his leg. "If they don't hatch, I'll open one for you."

Machi almost shrugged; Jessan saw how his shoulders tightened, twitched. "Still never saw one. I'll see yours."

She smiled, a brief, faint thing.

That was when an egg began to shake. Two pairs of yellow-brown eyes looked to the clutch. As if it their gaze were a cue, the clutch as a whole began to tremble. A few of them rocked. Jessan made a small sound in the back of her throat, hands flying down and onto the stone. Despite his previous injuries, Machi stood before Jessan, already stretching when she managed to get to her feet.

"Make sure someone brings meat!" Jessan leaned up against the wall, eyes wide and on the rocking shells. Machi left as quickly as he was able, grabbing a random outlaw - a petty thief, if he remembered correct - and shoved the other man into action with him. The thief ran off to tell others and Machi ended up leaning on the wall near to the hot springs. He held the Warden's dagger in loose fingers, remaining eye sharp and fixated on people as they walked in. Even Jiru would receive an icy, decisive look. They'd been instructed, via panicked thief man, that they would have to bring their dragons meal.

Inside, the hot spring walls glowed from the fungi growing their, illuminating the eggs and outlaws alike with a sickly cast. Only about twenty five or thirty of the outlaws would fit there - less, even, once they hatched. If they hatched. The exits were few - walking back out to the narrow ledge, the exit to more stone halls, or taking a leap into the water. Lovely. Jessan stood before the clutch, eyes narrowed in concentration. She hummed.

OOC

[/u]

1. Please no more then two posts per character per Admin post. We will be posting under 'Puppetmaster'.

2. As ever, IC actions will lead to IC consequences. If your character is particularly stupid, they may be mauled. If you stab a dragon, you have dead baby dragon.

3. When the first egg hatches, the guessing thread and all touching posts will be closed.

4. We tend to make a few posts per baby, so please be patient and just have some fun with it all.

5. Any questions? Ask. We love you.[/center]


Eggs

1. Call to Action Egg - For All Gray - Constructivism - Gintineth to Iris
2. Golden Starburst Egg - Hatesong Opal - Art Deco - Algonquith to Jadore
3. Fresh Perspective Egg - Inner Vision Brown - Cubism - NPC
4. Hero's Call Egg - To the Rescue Pink - Comic Book - Juarth to Ragniel
5. Making a Mockery Egg - Masterpiece Green - Dada - Between
6. Infant's Kiss Egg - Innocent Soul Silver - Baby's Breath - Dead in shell
7. Watch Your Back Egg - Two Faced Pink - Begonia - Beoth to Arkady
8. Whirlwind Romance Egg - Pursed Lips Gray - Rose - NPC
9. River Blue Egg - Running River Purple - Bluebell - NPC
10. Holland's Pride Egg - Single Early Purple - Tulip - Tith to Alezri
11. Lurking Stare Egg - Fading Hope Yellow - Anemone - Moneth to Jiruyno
12. Jazz Hands Egg - Shimmy Shake Yellow - Buttercup - Dazanth to Kailin
13. Widow's Veil Egg - Sobbing Mistress Tortie - Mourning Bride - Brigith to Astor

Admin: Enchanted Garden Egg - Fragile Shadow Purple - Snapdragon - Rhinth to Machi
Admin: Want Me Egg - Passion Fruit Gray - Passion Flower - Passith to Jaden (Wardens)

[S'yal]

The eggs were hatching.

More then that, her egg was hatching.

There was a sense of urgency to Iris's movements, even as she stopped in the preparing of the meal she had acquired for herself. It wasn't anything spectacular- a pair of small wherries, slightly smaller then a chicken, that she had managed to kill herself. It was looking like, however, she wouldn't be the one to eat them.

Iris still had her satchel, the one she'd gained from the theft. The sliced meet, prepared but not yet cooked, was quickly wrapped in the wrapping she had saved from the pies. Hopefully that would prevent Iris and the satchel from being blood drenched... and having a baby dragon charge her for a meal. She was careful as she placed the meat that she could carry inside the satchel, casting a mournful glance at the rest. There was no time to just leave it.

Iris set out for the hatching, pausing to nod to Jessan and in turn Machi. Jessan had connections. Machi had sharp knives that were good for cutting out innards. Always good to show them due respect!

Iris was careful not to crowd herself as she took her place, which happened to be from where she had the best vantage point of Widow's Veil.

[firebird]

Yekemi had been on his way to the hot springs anyway. He had wanted to clean get rid of the grubby feeling brought on by a day of hunting tunnelsnakes. The slippery little things were fast and he had only managed to kill a few. Aside from the act of killing them being good for all of the outlaws, they would make a good meal.

Or they would have made a good meal. The appearance of the eggs and the reactions of Machi and Jessan (neither of whom he wanted to be on the bad side of) foretold that he would be donating the corpses to a communal cause soon. Yeah, he wasn't going to be keeping these. Yekemi grumbled and began roughly hacking the three tunnelsnakes into chunks. Well, at least this should put him in good graces with whoever Impressed. If any did.

"Mindhealer Jessan," he said from the entrance, a pile of bloody meat in his arms. "I believe this will be useful. The beasts can digest tunnelsnake, I assume?" Now that he was not going to get the chance to bathe himself, he planned to only stay in the room for as long as it took to dump the meat somewhere. He did not trust any of the hatchlings to stay away from him, given their reactions to him. He guessed he would be eating partially-spoiled fruit tonight. Ugh.

[giftwrapped]

It took Jiruyno some time to arrive. Not because he needed waking - he didn't sleep - but because he had taken a short amount of time to go hunting.

His hand was bleeding rather sorely as he slunk into the caverns, but a hastily-made bandage stemmed the worst of that, and he turned a scalpel over in those fingers as he slipped past Machi, giving the man a cold smile in return to that cold glare as he leaned his back against a wall. Doubtless half the glowing fungus in the cavern would end up on his back later, but Jiru had no mind as to that at the moment. The faintly-glowing slime was preferable to the blood that would doubtless arise if he was stupid enough to attempt to stand closer to the eggs. His eyes lingered briefly on the shells he had touched, Hero's Call, Golden Starburst...

Both hands were full, one of the scalpel he suspected would be a last-ditch line of defense should a dragonet manage to force its way through the crowd and come for him. He had heard they sensed unbalance in the minds of others, but he had never really known what purpose such a thing would serve. Would a dragon make its efforts to eliminate the askew Candidates from the Sands? What purpose would that serve? His gaze returned to Hero's Call for a moment - would a dragon like that do it? He was dreadfully unprepared for such things.

And the limp figure that swung from the other hand, neck obviously broken, was a green firelizard that was formerly known as Kitty. Greenrider K'bay would doubtless be displeased, but Jiru cared little for a woman's feelings. And anyway, it could well be what stood between a dragonet's life and death. Let her try to argue with him about those things, when a dragon's death was on the line. Jiru was not intimidated. And if it turned out no dragon wanted him...well, doubtless someone would be looking for a meal for their beast. And Jiru did so like debts.

[tuathade]

Even if Arkady didn't keep an ear out for news as a general rule, it'd be impossible to miss the sudden flurry of activity accompanying the thief's announcement. It was Hatching Day, and anyone who'd spent any time in a weyr knew what that meant: break out the feast and the Benden.

Of course, that meant a little something different in the middle of the sharding jungle. In this case, it meant "scramble immediately for whatever meat comes to hand and hope it's enough." Arkady's shoulder had more-or-less mended, enough that he could function normally, but hunting was difficult. Enough so that he didn't exactly keep spare meat lying around. He was lucky if he got something in a snare trap on any given day. On the other hand, he had trading material.

One of the skins of Benden was gone, sacrificed as anesthesia for when Jessan cut the bolt out of him. (And even with a skin of wine in him, the less said about that ordeal the better.) The second one had been tucked away with the machete and his other valuable things, and he grabbed both the blade and the skin in one go. It wasn't hard to find some unlucky schmuck just coming back from a hunt, as foraging for food seemed to be all anyone did these days, and corner him.

The exchange went without a hitch. Maybe it was the promise of quality alcohol. More likely it was the combination of the weapon in the harper's hand and the expression on his face. (Arkady's slasher smile was in top fucking form today.) Whatever the reason, the erstwhile hunter wandered off with the wine, and Arkady sped off towards the hot springs with a scrawny but acceptably sized wherry in hand.

Others had already arrived. Some were keeping back, hugging the walls - no doubt fearing a mauling from some of the more aggressive dragonets in the clutch. Well, he'd leave that whole self-preservation business to someone who actually had a self-preservation instinct! He waved cheerily to Jessan and Machi, then claimed himself a little section of floor and began hurriedly butchering the wherry. It was clumsy work, more just hacking it apart with the large unwieldy blade, but he doubted a starving newborn dragon would care. Besides, soon enough the cavern would be stuffed to bursting with people and he wouldn't have any space at all to work - best to get it done now.

[Evadne]

Jadore had no idea how much a newborn dragon would eat nor was she the sort ready to run willy-nilly into the jungle, armed with only her purloined belt knife to kill something. She'd seen some small success with her makeshift net though. Small being the operative word there. When the call went out that there be dragons soon, the one-time Lady arrived with a string of silvery fish. Several of them, each no more than a mouthful for a hungry hatchling, it would simply have to be enough.

The thick and humid air of the springs pushed back at her as she ducked her head to step inside the niche set aside for the eggs. Only a few here so far and already it grew crowded. She smiled anyway. It was time and she was early enough to claim a favorable spot.

Machi's icy stare received a a formal and quite respectful dip of the head from Jadore. Acknowledging his place or his status as living weapon? She left it to the man himself to decide. Others were then studied; when she paced forward again to squeeze in on the ledge, it was after carefully stepping around the mess Arkady was making. Yekemi was avoided as well; he already smelled quite ripe and Iris was none too fresh either. Some distance was placed between herself and the gore. The smell of blood and death was stifling in these close confines, on the thick air.

Jadore dangled her own offering from her fingers, letting the fish hang over her shoulder. Clean, relatively fresh and not messy. Those were the important things. Once she had her place tucked near the wall, she let her gaze roam over the twitching clutch.

"They seem lively," she remarked to no one in particular. Her throaty voice rung with a smile that didn't appear on her face.

How dreadfully exciting!

[lithle]

The problem was Roni. Myr had found, to her surprise, that she could get along alright in the outlaw camp. The problem was always Roni. But then, she might have expected as much. Her love for the beautiful and the unique had always been a cause of her difficulties. That innocent desire to own nice things was what had landed her in prison in the first place.

And now, people were frantically rushing to the hatching grounds as Myr carefully ran her fingers through Roni's hair, tidying it, and tried to decide what to do. She did not want the child injured. She did not want to leave her alone, either. In such an environment as this, well--

It simply couldn't be done. But to have her marred by a frantic young dragon, well, that would be unforgivable.

And she had to go. She had to have a dragon of her own. Had to.

"Roni, sweetling, it may be best if you remain here," she murmured, her voice silken.

"No." Tears were showing in the child's eyes and she clung to Myr's arm in a rather unsightly way. "Don't leave me. Please Auntie Myr, don't leave me."

"Oh, darling. Don't whine. You'll spoil your pretty face." She detached the girl firmly and took her hand. In the other was half a dead, well, something. She'd traded some of her best try at creating alcohol for it. The stuff was barely drinkable, and may very well cause blindness, but it'd get you drunk.

Reaching the hatching ground, she stood along the lip to the hotspring, Roni behind her. The water wasn't deep enough to really harm the child and if the situation became dangerous, she'd simply push her in. She watched the eggs move, her expression hungry.

She'd have one. One for her very own.

[puppetmaster]

The eggs rocked. Some merely shivered. Others were frantic, even violent in their need to escape. The Hero's Call Egg which had been trying, in small ways, to escape for a sevenday already, showed the most activity. Whatever furious beast was beneath that shell, it wanted out.

Now.

Yet, even as its rapid movements drew most eyes, the Making A Mockery Egg was making its own preparations. It only shivered, but on a shell harmed by uneven heating and poor conditions, that shivering was enough. The shell was a spider's web of cracks, and then it simply turned to dust, leaving a small green hatchling where the egg had been.

Well, most of a small green hatchling.

The Masterpiece Hatchling had not formed correctly, growth ruined by the poor environment. Her wings were mere stumps. Her front left leg ended without a foot. She made no attempt to move but began to scream, the noise high, piercing, distressing.

And, as if in response to the cry, the Hero's Call Egg exploded. A deep pink hide, a broad muscular form, with none of the sad strangeness of the Masterpiece Hatchling. The To the Rescue hatchling ran to his sisters side, his eyes whirling red, a deep rumbling growl in his throat.

Was he going to kill her? The egg had been so filled with bloodlust.

But, no.

He curled himself protectively around the small green, making soft, reassuring noises, nuzzling her anxiously, trying to get her to walk. His gaze was purple now, all gentle concern. She stopped screaming, leaning heavily against him. Her eyes were moving toward gray.

He stood, his wing over her, pushing her with his head, urging her to move, trying to force her onto her three good feet.

She whimpered, looking at him. For a moment, her eyes were touched with blue.

Then she was gone. He was alone in the center of the clutch.

The To the Rescue Hatchling roared, his eyes instantly going from worried purple to bloodthirsty red. He turned to look at the outlaws. They had done this!

It was their fault.

They would pay!

He began stalking toward the line of watchers, the roar turning into a low, constant growl.

[nozomi]

... Fuck.

"Hey, Arkady, time to stand up now." Jessan hissed the words before her jaw locked up. She'd been moving back since that deformed creature came out of its shell, making her way towards the guy with the machete and half-butchered wherry. The Mindhealer did not have a weapon, nore any sort of distraction for the creature save flesh. Machi, too far away and not even near the site, did not move from his vantage point. He couldn't do anything for her, and even if he could, from that distance he couldn't see jack shit.

Jessan waved her hand at Arkady, still backing up and muscling her way backwards into the cluster of people when the green betweened, that pink turning to them. Shit. 'Hiding' was such a cruel word. But she did it, trying to mesh back and away.

Shitshitshit.

[tuathade]

...well, shards.

They'd known it was a possibility - eggs weren't meant to live in these conditions, so far from their mother, bathed in dirt and steam instead of the steady dry heat of the hatching sands. And yet to see the terrible state of the green was still a little pang at whatever humanity Arkady had left. It wasn't much, but... They'd done this. They were responsible. And they would have to accept the consequences.

Consequences, in this case, coming very quickly in the form of the Hero's Call egg. "Fuck," he muttered, already beginning to rise even before Jessan spoke. "Yeah, I see it." He stood up, abandoning the meat where it lay; if the hatchling wanted it, he could have it. And if Arkady was still alive after the incoming rampage, he could retrieve his butchered wherry then. He could see in his peripheral vision the Mindhealer backing up, trying to vanish into the crowd. For a moment, whatever-it-was he and Jessan had warred with self-preservation instinct -

Wait, what self-preservation instinct? Oh right. The one he didn't have.

He flashed her a brief, crooked smile over his shoulder, the kind that says don't worry. This is going to work. And then Jessan had five feet ten inches of pissed-off ex-harper placed solidly between her and the raging pink. He wasn't making any threatening motions, just... standing at the ready. His weapon hanging loosely in his hand, not truly threatening, yet clearly capable of lashing out should it try to attack him - and yes, Arkady would strike back if it came at him, baby dragon or no.

[firebird]

Yeah, he thought some of them would die. The green was deformed anyway; would have been a useless drain on their supplies. But its fellow hatchling, the pink one... Big and muscular. That one would make a good dragon for someone. Or at least it would, had it not turned and advanced murderously on the candidates.

Yekemi was suddenly quite happy he had opted to stay in the doorway, as it meant that there were a number of people between him and the enraged hatchling. Still, he stepped out of the cavern and readied his pointy stick. Not the belt knife; he had no plans to get his hands that close to the beast. His doubted the pointy stick's ability to get through the hide of a dragon, baby or no, so he really hoped he wouldn't have to use it. The nostrils would probably be a good spot to aim for.

He still had the tunnelsnakes with him. Why hadn't he handed them to someone? Ugh. Yekemi dropped the chunks of meat in a pile next to the entrance so he could ready the stick. Just anyone try to take it without bargaining.

[whiteangel28]

It would figure she'd be hiding away from the rest again when the eggs began to hatch. It was a mirical really, and one she quickly thanked Faraneth for(even if she had no iea why), that she emerged from the deeper tunnels just in time to see a few sother stragglers hurrying away toward the hot springs. The caves this empty with people running about, meat gobs held tightly in their hands, well, it was pretty obvious what was going on.

Breath catching in her throat, eys widening slightly, the young woman hurriedly looked around for any type of food, cursing the fact she hadn't been paying attention. Hesitating a moment longer, she finally gave up in her search of food seeing as most was already taken, or spoiled. The set off down to the hot springs at a dead run, arriving out of breath and choking on the gas from the air. She had arrived just in time to catch one good glimpse of the green hatchling through the crowd before she was lost.

Her wa caught once more in her throat, shefound herself holding back a small dry sob. The sight of such deformity in the young green made her regret being suc a coward. Perhaps if she had pushed against the egg theirvery a bit more that one egg would have hathed okay, on the Sands where it belonged.... and she would be dead more than likely. Would it really have been worth it?

No, she answered herself, her answer clear in the hurt and anger now bubbling in her chest, It wouldn't be worth it until the council sees the truth. She almost didn't notice the pink dragonet suddenly turning on the candidates, almost. But she did and felt a brief flare of sympathy for those up front before having it squahed down by a new anger, one that had nothing to do wit Gerren.

Reap what you sow. she thought savagly.

[Evadne]

The eggs began to shatter and Jadore had just enough time to reflect that hatchings were very different when one was on a level with the eggs before things began to go badly.

That was exactly how she thought of it too. Not disastrous, not dangerous. Badly.

She hadn't stolen the egg that had produced a crippled dragon, after all. But as the pink hatchling swung its furious attention towards those watching, she rather supposed that wouldn't matter much at all. There was rock at her back, slimed with phosphorescence. It provided no retreat. Her only option was to begin to ease to her right, cutting in slightly behind Myr. Any further progress was impeded by the child the other woman had brought with her.

Wait, child?

Jadore gave a soft, feline hiss of frustration and glanced to the side, to the pool. Right. Well, at least Myr had considered potential avenues of escape. The disgraced noblewoman held where she was, flanking Roni, and returned sharp, watchful eyes to the prowling pink. If worse came to worst, she could simply shove both females and then tumble into the water after them.

Surely the ravenous and angry hatchling would vent its anger on somebody more substantial.

[tiamat]

Ragniel had just returned from an unusually successful-for-her hunt (two small wherries; it was practically a feast!) and was limping towards the hot springs as quickly as was painless for her when she heard the echoes of a scream, and if that horrible shriek was any indication something was going horribly wrong.

Which, honestly, she had expected, but that scream did not sound like it had come from a human throat. That sounded like a dragon and if she discovered that someone had decided to take it into their heads to kill a dragon she was going to feed their shapeless corpse to the ones that impressed.

She slowed when she heard the roar, and slowed further after she entered the hot spring room itself and saw the pink hatchling stalking towards the candidates. She stopped near the edge of the springs and waited to see what the pink hatchling would do next. She just hoped that it knew what it was doing and didn't decide to attack, say, Roni.

[Cansi]

Everything here was different than the stretch of the Northern Continent Alezri had roamed a few Turns ago. Initially, so much different that he'd been unable to bring down anything more nourishing than a handful of tubers, brought up from the earth with the hand shovel from the satchel he had found the day of the egg theft. He'd been working with Squall the whole time, grateful that at least the little bronze was able to understand the concept of retrieving things, frustrated that he hadn't seemed to care what he brought back. Sometimes it was fish, sometimes it was rocks. But the blond outlaw had been very careful not to scold the little guy. He needed the extra pair of eyes watching his back, and company that was neither threatening or judgmental. Squall was his anchor.

Gradually, the firelizard had seemed to decide his human must want the food items more than the rocks. The rocks were always deposited in a pile, with lackluster thanks. The meat was consumed, sometimes shared, with lizard-like gusto. It was inevitable that a crafty flit would make the connection sooner or later. The minor successes with the 'bring-back' command had led to new attempts; Alezri taking the flit along and using him like some huntsmen used canines, to flush out prey. The flightless, ground-running wherries here were bigger than the ones up north, but they weren't hard to chase into pit traps. The hard part was making sure the trap was big enough and equipped with enough sharp sticks to kill the stupid things once they fell in.

So it was that the reason Alezri took so long to make it to the hatching area was because he was struggling with just such a dead wherry, their first. It would have fed him and his lizard for a few days, but now that they had a good pit location, he thought it more important to bring the body here. The call that the eggs were hatching had been all the summons he needed.

He arrived on the heels of someone who had obviously been running, too late to see the first two eggs hatch. It was easy to infer that one of them had gone between- the litter of shell, and the presence of only one hatchling- a pink one at that- proved that.

Squall cheeped softly, riding on his shoulder. It was a worried sound. The pink was infuriated about something, and Alezri was just as glad he was back here, right at the doorway. If it came to it he'd drop the wherry and run. Meantime, he feverishly worked to hack the body into smallish pieces, skin and all. "Squall, you need to disappear. You could get eaten." So glad I thought of tying the knife like this. It was handy to keep it dangling from his wrist, available and waiting, though he'd sliced himself the first three times he'd tried to swing it into place.

No sooner did he say that, then the flitter launched off his shoulder back the way they'd come, blinking between.

Because, no matter what else happened, Alezri had no intention of trading his useful, productive flitter for a hatchling dragon. He loved that little guy far too much for his own good.