Hatch Or Die [Outlaw Flower and Art Clutches]

[firebird]

What the... Yekemi hadn't thought dragons could eat human flesh, what with their weird cannot-hurt-a-human thing. This elevated the danger of dragonriders a little bit. Well, at least now they had a way to dispose of bodies before they became a disease vector. And hey, now they could raid Warden's Weyr for guards and have the normal meat left for the human population.

He did not like the commanding tone in Jadore's voice, but favor was favor and as the rider of a clutching dragon she had power. Yekemi collected his chunks of tunnelsnake (which were starting to smell from the heat) and pushed and shoved his way through the crowd again. This time he had to use his elbows instead of his pointy stick, and once tripped someone into the water because they were being too stubborn to move.

"Here is some meat, my lady," Yekemi said as he reached Jadore and the opal. Laying it on a bit strong, aren't you? The tunnelsnake chunks, not unintentionally, were just the right size for keeping a dragonet from choking.

[puppetmaster]

Cull it? Did the poor, shivering thing hear that comment? Certainly it jerked to look at Jessan, eyes red, hissing continuing even as it shook with fever or weakness or whatever was making it tremble and stumble as it tried to make its way across the dirt.

Dirt was a much greater obsticle when one was a very small dragon in a very large world.

The Fragile Shadow hatchling sneezed. Twice. The second sneeze was so violent, it knocked the tiny creature over. She tried to stand again and collapsed in the attempt, her knees refusing to hold her. There was dirt covering her scrawny purple hide, clinging to the egg gunk and changing her coloring to unplesant gooey brown.

So, she squirmed, worming across the dirt and still, even then, hissing. Moving toward Jessan, eyes red with threat. Yes. At her size, in her shape, she was trying to stare the woman down.

She made it a good foot or two with her new wormlike motion before a huge tremor hit her.

She stilled, panting. Her eyes were touched with sickly gray. She turned her head slightly, to the one being asked about culling her. Machi. Slowly, panting, she forced herself into a sitting position, proud and covered in dirt.

Does she think, Machi-Precious, that flaunting herself like that somehow distracts from the fact that she's trying to have me killed? She is jealous of us. Jealous of how I love you. I would not have let someone take your lovely eye from you. I would have been there. A pause, as she shook again. I will need food. You may have to carry me.

Colored special for Noz by the Boy!

Name: Rhinth

Flower: Snapdragon

Appearance:

Rhinth is on the tiny side. That is, she's tiny at hatching, like all purples, but she'll never grow as large as some of her sisters, being on the small size all her life. Which is to say, she's about on par with a large gold, in terms of length. She's a scrawny thing, extremely sickly at hatching and desperately needing care. As she ages, she'll grow mostly in length and not in bulk, she'll always be whipcord thin. She's also fast as hell, especially for her size, with a long, snakelike neck which allows her to whip around and attack without warning.

Personality:

Rhinth is sweet as f'ing pie. Motherly and helpful, she has a knack for getting involved in everything. Wherever someone looks, there's Rhinth. She's volunteering to carry, dig, haul. If it's necessary or will simply get her noticed as 'doing good' she'll be there, doing it. Doing it and commenting that no, she doesn't mind doing it alone. She's sure that her siblings need the extra rest. After all, some dragons just don't have the stamina she does! See, with all that helpfulness, that willingness to lend a hand, one can almost miss the truth. Specifically, that Rhinth hates everyone. Beneath the very thin veneer of seeming niceness is pure venom.

She is the epitome of killing with kindness, barbed statements painted over with a light coat of seeming thoughtfulness. But, the insult's always there beneath the surface and usually one doesn't even need to dig to find it. 'Sibling, your hide's so shiny today! It really helps distract from the dullness of your color.' Or, 'Sibling, you have such a handsome rider. I think good looks are so much more important than intellect, don't you?' If accused, she's all innocence. She was trying to be nice! Her accusers are just being oversensitive. But she's sorry if they took what she said out of context.

When she talks to her rider, Rhinth hides nothing. It's just one constant stream of utter venomous disgust for everyone. But oh, how she adores her rider. When directing her acid his way, each comment is turned to his advantage. 'That man is so dull. Not like you, mine.' or 'That woman disgusts me. So weak. All humans are weak but you, mine.' So devoted she is to her rider, so hateful of everyone else, that even with her apparent 'helpful' nature she had a difficult time making connections that pass beyond the superficial. She does have a certain liking for Algonquith, however, the opal's quips amuse her to no end. Of course, she still thinks she's the more clever.

One place where Rhinth differs from most the outlaws and some of her clutchmates is on the subject of violence. It's not that she wouldn't like to see hateful Warden's burned to the ground, but she really is a bit of a coward, for herself and for all those who are lucky enough to have her 'looking after them'. She hates pain, finds blood distasteful, and is terrified by the idea of hers getting hurt. She may have no moral qualms about violence, but she's the one who'll be thinking about the dangers involved in any attack. Unfortunately for everyone, this means she's a big supporter of preying on the weak. After all, they can't fight back!

Why Me?

Machi is at his best when a strong woman stands behind him. Oh sure, he's got Jessan, but if you ask Rhinth, that woman doesn't do nearly a good enough job looking after him. If she did, he'd not have lost an eye. Rhinth, meanwhile, needs someone who knows how to respect a woman's authority, someone who could handle a little doting. And while Rhinth won't mind Machi's violent side, she will keep an eye on him and try to encourage him to pick only those fights he's sure to win.

[Evadne]

My but Yekemi was prompt. There was something to be said for enlisting large older men to do one's dirty work. Jadore would have to remember that.

Less plotting, Jadorelove, more food. And my shoulders. Algonquith's complaint was accompanied by a twitching of her wings. They furled and then stretched, threatening everyone in the vicinity with a a poke or a whap if evasive maneuvers weren't taken. The sympathetic crawl of an itch over her own spine left Jadore hastening to attend to the matter.

"Ah but you are a help. Thank you, sir." If Yekemi was going to lay it on thick, Jadore was perfectly capable of responding in kind. Nevermind that her hands were occupied, searching out the dry patches that were cropping up over Algonquith's dark opal hide. "If you could just..." Somehow the tilt of her head was intended to convey that Yekemi was welcome to place the tunnelsnake bits on the ground before the opal. That the commotion surrounding the newly hatched purple had ended passed her by.

Or, if he so choose, he could place them one by one inside of the toothy maw that Algonquith had opened before him. She'd already licked her chops clean of Myr's offering. Now it appeared to be his turn to feed her ladyship.

[tuathade]

Beoth took the offered meat and gulped it down with no regard for where it came from. Then he continued to tear into the corpse, ripping off chunks and swallowing them. Then the pink let out a satisfied churr and butted his head against Machi’s chest. Little pale man had offered meat. That meant Beoth liked him temporarily! At last the insistent hunger was starting to turn from desperate into merely ravenous.

Arkady arrived shortly after, slowing when he saw Machi lift a hand and felt Beoth’s mood change. He was a little too comfortable around corpses to have his stomach turned by the sight of his dragon eating one – that, and the raw satisfaction coming from Beoth’s mind was too compelling. But still… It was a little disconcerting. Especially when Juarth seemed to have the same idea. “Right, okay. What have we learned today? Pink dragons eat people. Good to know.”

Then he heard Jessan’s softly whispered “oh dear,” and turned to see the purple hatching. This one was… there was something wrong with it. It wasn’t just small. It was fragile, in a way that the other had not been. And yet – “No,” he said quietly. “No, let it do what it will. If it can’t survive, it’ll between on its own.”

People, sometimes people needed to be killed. And if Juarth hadn’t stopped his rampage, he would have needed to be put down like a rabid canine. Likewise, the green going between was a mercy, to stop the poor crippled thing’s pain. But culling a dragon right out of the shell… No. Give it a chance first. Let it prove if it was strong enough to live. And even in her condition, shaking and sneezing like she was wracked with fever, she was still worming her way across the dirt. Trying to reach – her rider? No, those angry red eyes were only for Jessan, who’d suggested the culling. Arkady couldn’t honestly consider the poor little thing a serious threat, not when it couldn’t walk, but he watched it with bemusement nonetheless, unaware that it had just Impressed.

[firebird]

Currying favor seemed to be doing well, though Yekemi would make sure to check later that he wasn't being taken for granted. Maybe he could influence the dragon some, too... Of course, he wasn't being very subtle about it. He wasn't trying to, not for Jadore. She struck him as being perfectly capable of discerning whether someone was trying to be sneaky, and with those sorts it was usually better not to try.

"Anything for such a lovely dragon," he said with a polite nod of the head in Algonquith's direction. No, he wasn't stupid enough to stick his hand in a dragon's mouth. He did not want it bitten off when the dragon tried to bite down on the meat chunks. He was going to stack them on the ground as neatly as he could and then stick around for a bit. It would not do to just drop the food and then leave. Doing that would likely cause his help to be mysteriously forgotten.

[Inkwell]

Astor was quick to push himself up into a sitting position when the opal (who was heavier than she looked) finally got off of him. The way she had bopped his head into the dirt had ensured he had a mouthful of it, and the stubble on his chin had caught some of the less fine grains. Not to mention she'd knocked him down on top of his sack of fish, meaning they were now both bludgeoned and slightly squished. And starting to smell. Well, it was for the dragon, after all. And speaking of dragons... there was a purple that had not been there before. Impressed to Machi, no less! A sickly little thing, though. Not at all as robust-looking as his dragon (which may or may not have actually been all that robust. But to him? The little yellow was alive and therefore perfect).

It only then occurred to him that he was sitting outside of the group standing around the lip of their makeshift hatching grounds, perfectly presented should another one those crazy pinks hatch -- and he smelled like fish. He cast a yearning look towards the yellow. He really should move back, join the ranks, make sure that everyone else had a chance of being eaten too... but he didn't want to move even an inch away from that baby.

So he stayed, and waited. No sudden movements, or he'd find the opal atop him again, he was sure. This was going to work out. It had to. He was Astor. Things weren't supposed to go wrong for him.

[nozomi]

Machi almost smiled, his fingers up and rubbing at Beoth's headknobs in a manner almost considered affectionate. He'd ignored Jessan and her suggestion over killing a brand new baby dragon; if the creature was too frail to find it's rider, it would between. It was... distasteful to suggest such a thing. Best it not Impress to her, if she'd want it dead.

Except, er, it was coming towards them. Machi glanced up from where he crouched next to the corpse and Beoth, irritation writ on his face. Jessan didn't step away from the oncoming worm-dragon, but he could see the set of her shoulders, how she angled herself back. Maybe the dragonet would not - could not - attack, but a sibling of it could.

The dragonet stopped, pulled herself up. Machi could have sworn he saw scorn in her eyes. Then a voice, sharp, unamused.

Does she think, Machi-Precious, that flaunting herself like that somehow distracts from the fact that she's trying to have me killed? His world stopped, and Machi felt all the blood drain from his face. Rainbows exploded and something sweeter then anything else invaded his mind. She is jealous of us. Jealous of how I love you. I would not have let someone take your lovely eye from you. I would have been there.

His darling, she looked at him, and shook. I will need food. You may have to carry me.

Of course.

"Of course." His voice came out nothing more then a whisper. Jessan looked sharply down at her brother, eyes narrowed in suspicion before widening. She opened her mouth to say something, but Machi had already stood, already grabbed meat from another outlaw and shoved them away. The random man stumbled back - human flesh was far too hard for his Rhinth to chew on - and Machi all but bolted to that fragile little creature.

"Machi!" she said from behind him, and he ignored her unspoken order, for the first time in his life. Machi leaned down to scoop up his gangly, fairy-delicate dragon and hold her to his chest.

"Poor cold Rhinth... I made you walk that far, didn't I." He murmured the words, nearly hissed, but she cuddled closer anyway, poked that so sharding frail head close to his chin. Machi rubbed her emaciated frame and moved back towards his sister, the pink, Arkady. Rhinth hissed in their general direction, but quieted when Machi offered her a bit of that pilfered meat.

You were being distracted, Mine. They are not as intelligent as you are, and need your help. He did not flinch away from the acid in her tone, but rather crouched again near to the corpse, head bowed over his dainty girl.

Above him, Jessan hissed her frustration, bright eyes on her brother and his new bondmate. Well. Shards. "Who would have guessed." She said, lips slowly twitching into a slow smile. There needed to be a smile. her brother Impressed. "She lived!"

Of course I lived, Mine. I came to take care of you. She hasn't done well at all.

He murmured a 'shhh' and fed her another bit. Jessan blinked to Machi, then back to Arkady. She had no words. There were no words.

"Pinks eat people," she agreed instead. "And purples Impress men. Crazy men?"

Rhinth hissed.

[puppetmaster]

While Shimmy Shake Hatchling didn't seem too concerned over her sister's plight of crawling and worming and all that, she... well, she also didn't appear overly alarmed at the fact that one of those that Touched her as an egg was standing there, muddy, wet, holding fish smell all up on his grill. She sniffed at the air delicately, pranced away from her shell and the other eggs. Shimmy Shake rounded on Astor, sniffed him again, crooned an affectionate little croon, and gave a little hop away from him.

Oh no! He was lovely, of course he was - but so were others. She trilled this way and that, somewhat thin but an otherwise healthy creature. The yellow churred towards the human-eating Beoth but - no - she swung around.

JUARTH.

Poor Juarth. The yellow bound up to him, energetic and excited over his presence, eyes swirling pleasure, and she chirped towards the water. The Shimmy Shake girl trembled, something excitement, innocent glee, and glanced back to the other eggs. Hmmm. What to do, what to do.

Back to the eggs! She scooted right past them all again, and knocked affectionately into Infant's Kiss with a croon. The shell began to chip, cracking. The yellow knocked closer, humming and leaned down to nibble along the shell as it slowly began to clear away.

As the Infant's Kiss started to crack down the middle, Shimmy Shake sat down next to it, crooning. She'd make her way back around once her sibling hatched!

And it did. A dragon with a bright sheen tumbled out, explosions of flower petals decorating it's near white skin. Silver dominated the bright hide, marred only by a few explosions of steel-gray flower petals decorating his legs. Too large to be a gray, with a clear shimmer and shine to his hide - a true silver sheen. Where his face should have been was nothing but a mass of half-formed flesh, dips where the eyes and mouth could have been, his chest caved in where his arms once were pressed.

Shimmy Shake keened with sadness, prodding at her brother desperately. She whined when the Innocent Soul hatchling failed to move. Shimmy Shake hopped back up to her feet once more, keening even as she all but galloped towards the hotsprings. She stopped just short of falling in, eyes swirling gray and yellow before shifting to rainbow.

KailinMine! I did everything I could. We were going to be friends. We are not going to be friends anymore, oh, no. We can't. She shivered, head shaking. We will make new friends, though. ... I still tried.

Name: Dazanth
Color: Yellow
Hex: FF9900
Flower: Buttercup

Appearance: Dazanth is a big starburst of AWESOME - right? She is a thick girl in all the right places, more muscle then fat, and not very long at all. Her claws are exceptionally long, her tail whipcord in comparison to the rest of her body. Her wingspan is average, but the thick frame will keep her from having very long Flights or too much stamina.

Speaking of - she has freckles. All of them. They cover a good amount of skin, sprinkling over shoulders, legs, wings, and muzzle. She finds them quite pretty and has no problems talking about them.

Personality:

C'mon kid, let's go and paint the town - and all that jazz!
Rouge your knees, and roll your stockin's down
And all that jazz!

Dazanth is sweetness, light, and love. Not 100%, but who is? She tries to be as innocent as possible, taking little true offense to things said and trying to turn them around in her favor. Kind words may not always leave her brain, but the intentions are nevertheless there. Even with being an atyp, violence goes against what she thinks is fun - and Dazanth is all about fun. She flirts when proddy, all mental giggles, flicking tail. The main victim of her sugary affection is the most unlikely suspect: Juarth.

The part of her that isn't darling and adorable is something just a bit manipulative. Oh, this doesn't mean she goes out of her way to try and twist people around her fingers, but she sure as shootin' isn't going to let someone take advantage of her. She's a smart girl, and has absolutely no problem gently calling them out, with sharp words in sweet tones. It's just that she can do it with style. It's a talent, dont'cha think? As is lying.

Unlike some of her sisters, Dazanth is not overly interested in being 'top dog'. She is good at things whenever she puts her mind to it, and will often try to please her rider, but when something is boring, why bother? Dazanth can lie her way out of anything, and luckily she has little moral issue with doing so if it means she doesn't have to force herself to be bored, or irritated. The yellow is distant, and good at it. Dazanth views spinning the truth as a child would a game, tossing out clever lies here and there because she can, not because she feels the need to make herself or her rider feel even more important. It's fun.

Speaking of others, and top dogs and all of that - Dazanth will do her damnedest to collect friends and allies, putting them on her shelf to admire and heap that same affection on. Her positive reactions to nearly everyone in the shell could be considered a tip of to this, at how those little stretches of truth and her pleasure with a vast majority of people may play out. Dazanth is based off a flower that means "dazzle you with my charms", and she does her best to live up to it with the friends and shinies to prove it.

Why Me?[/quote] No one could be as much fun as Kailin! She is a girl who is quick to judge, and Dazanth is just the person she needs to try to keep those friends, even when the human may not be keen on doing so. They match on the enthusiasm for life, and a good story will never go wrong with Dazanth, but she can provide Kailin with security of a large dragon form and the love that seeps from her. Kailin won't have to worry about being saddled with some mean ol' dragon that'll claw her face off at the first incident, but a patient one who would rather giggle then pout. Kailin will give Dazanth an outlet for her energy.

With that outlet, as well, Dazanth does have a sense of self-preservation. Damn straight she will be using it.

[Inkwell]

This was it. This was it this was it this was... what? The little hatchling crooned and... turned away. Where was she going? He was right there. Astor looked worriedly after her, and the further away she got, the easier it was to see the rainbows when they bloomed in her eyes.

Not for him. For someone else. Some other outlaw that hadn't taken her, hadn't packed her shell with dirt to keep her warm, hadn't visited her nearly every day to check on her. Those rainbows weren't for him and he didn't know what to do. The ground under him seemed to have been pulled away, flipped upside down. He couldn't think. He wasn't sure whether he should be despairing or angry or both.

You were supposed to be mine! You were supposed to be mine and I coaxed you to life and now you've chosen someone else? How could you...

Another betrayal. Another abandonment. This was just another Isaak, another Madik. He had done nothing but love the little hatchling. Was it so difficult for the yellow to love him in return?

He would get a dragon. He was Astor. He had to get a dragon. And he would raise that dragon to hate the lying turncoat yellow with the same passion he was already cultivating. He wouldn't kill the baby, no. That wouldn't be a fair fight, wouldn't be a satisfying revenge. He'd raise his dragon to be a better dragon than the yellow would ever be, and best it that way. And he'd say: 'This is what you left behind. This is what you abandoned. You could have had me. You could have been big and strong and fierce. And now you can never go back to being anything but hated, a weak little dragon with a weak little rider. And it serves you right.'

[S'yal]

That dragon was dead.

To properly picture Iris's horror, one must imagine something. You are a mother. A mentally unstable mother, but a mother nonetheless. You, as a mother, have been separated from your child for nearly the last five years. You have recently kidnapped another mothers eggs, and promised to protect one of them. You have just watched two babies die, and it is looking more and more like your own egg, the one you promised to protect, will go the same route.

If you can understand that, you can understand the pure terror going through Iris's mind. Her breath stilled as she saw the silver form, a strangled sob escaping her as she saw it's deformities. That was a baby, not her baby, but a baby. It'd been a long time since Iris felt like this, sadness ripping through her and replacing the dull emptiness that had formerly occupied her mind. That was a baby on the sands, not a human baby and not Widow's veil. But it was a baby.

It could be her baby. The human one or the dragon one, they could be still and quiet and not moving just like that dragon. There was blood in Iris's mouth now, trailing down her lip and into her mouth and down her chin. Something else salty had reached her mouth, and a burning in her eyes and her throat lead Iris to realize she was crying.

"D-don't be dead." She found herself asking a golden shell, unable to force her legs to move. Widow's veil couldn't die. Iris needed it. She needed something to live for, and even if she didn't Impress it - How could she, a broken bird with nothing left inside - that dragon would be something to live for. "Please... please... You can't be dead. I promised you..."

"I n-never break my promises..." But she couldn't move, she couldn't approach that egg. She couldn't even breathe. It felt as if something was crushing her chest, stealing her life away. All that egg had to do was shake, all the dragonet had to do was bust out of that golden shell. Please, please. I can't break anymore promises.

She'd broken her promise to Fang, and now he was dead. She had broken her promise to her son and let him be ripped from her arms. Now, had she broken her promise to Widow's Veil and brought it somewhere it would die?

She couldn't even muster up the hope that it might be alive.

After all, she'd killed everything else that she touched.

I'm sorry...

[whiteangel28]

It was perhaps the brown that hatched that kept her from losing what measly little meal she was able to scrounge up, the sight of the brown hide seemed rock solid to the dizzy girl, still fairly overtaken by the whirlwind of color. The limp leg had moved, the yellow dragonet was alive. That made her sigh in relief, even as the brown hide was lost from view. Of course that meant once she started trying to keep track of the hathings, her dizzy spell came back with a vengeance, what with keeping up with the already Hatched and Impressed it as getting quite difficult.

Leaning even more heavily against the wall, she spotted the yellow she had thought might be dead, she had Impressed. Oh, there was another purple? When on Pern...? Where did the other one go? Looking around at high speed, she succeeded only in making herself more dizzy, he stomach just couldn't take it. What with the violent pink eating a human corpse now, the scent of death all around her mixing horribly with he air and not to menion her dizziness, she just couldn't take it! Forget diginity and anger, she needed to sit down.

Which is exactly what the young woman did, sliding don the wall hand over her mouth as sh fought down the bile. The scent of death had always been partial to her after Gerren, burning flesh really set her off, but seriously? Sulferand death? Ew. Oh. she thought to herself,There's the other purple, right here with Alexzri...

That vague line of thought formed, she quickly burried her head in her hands once more, ignoring the fact she was probably sitting in wherry blood.

[puppetmaster]

The rules of the game were simple:

Hatch or die.

So many people upset for the dead silver, Iris in tears, Caroline about to ... to do something distasteful from the sight of the horribly deformed young dragon. Others had hatched, rampaged, done this, that, and the other - but not Widow's Veil. It lay still and cool under Iris' gaze, unwavering save for the shimmer of it's shell. For a long moment after Dazanth Impressed, none of the remaining four did more then shine like the pretties they were.

Then - two. River Blue began to quake, a shiver with cracks starting to shoot down along the contours of it's shell. Perhaps it was a sign - from one egg to the other - for the Widow's Veil egg began to rock with it. The two of them rocked and shook in unison, too hidden in themselves for a hide to be seen but one thing was for sure: even if the dragonets ended up to be hideous and twisted, they were undoubtedly alive.

[Spiffy]

Bloody hell there were a lot of violent ones in this clutch!!!

But at least the purple managed to impress, though Kailin was slightly disappointed it wasn't to her. Then the yellow with the leg out of the shell showed signs of life, much to Kailin's relief. Which was short-lived, as the emaciated purple emerged. She almost went to help it, but knew better, unlike the boy with the opal on his back. Then the thing pulled its way over to...

Wait, Machi?

Very strange, but then the yellow finally escaped its shell and started dancing around the ledge. Ah, definitely alive then. She grinned. It was good to see a happy dragonet hatch. She gasped though when it pulled little Infants Kiss from it's shell, seeing the sadly deformed dragonet was, quite plainly, dead.

Then a voice, full of sorrow and shock entered her head, the little yellow bounding over to look up at her with rainbow eyes.

KailinMine! I did everything I could. We were going to be friends. We are not going to be friends anymore, oh, no. We can't. We will make new friends, though. ... I still tried.

As the dragonets sorrow spilled over into her own, she realised, this dragon was for her. This dragon was her own. Shuffling forward on her knees she enfolded the yellow in her arms, Dazanth leaning into her.

"Oh my dear I am so, so sorry," She said aloud, not bothering to wipe away the tears or mixed sadness and joy. "You tried, you tried so hard, I know, but sometimes... Some things just happen and there's nothing you can do. But," she said, pulling herself together and trying to make a brave face for little Dazanth (which likely as not failed s the yellow was tuned in with her mind) as she held the yellow at arms length, "It's the trying that counts. And you can make other friends. Lots of friends, then you must be sad no more, mmm?"

I know mine, there are many others, but... he was my friend mine, I knew. I could feel him in my egg and we talked and he was my friend. And now I've lost him.

She drooped, and Kailin hugged her again, firmly. "It will be ok, I promise you. Here," she said, letting go and reaching around for the fish bag, which had miraculously remained on her back throughout all her trouble and exertions, "have some food, take your mind off it. Food always helps. And you'll like fish, I think, fish is nice! And I caught it myself," she added almost proudly.

Well, if you say so, and I am so very hungry. I'm sure it'll be nice if it was you that got it for me, she added, nuzzling Kailin as she opened her mouth for the first fish, which Kailin chopped roughly into chunks before posting it down Dazanth's throat.

"You like it?" Kailin asked, after Dazanth had had a few bites, slightly worried that dragonets shouldn't really be eating fish.

No! No no, it is very nice! It slides down well, she added, licking her chops before opening them again for another chunk.

Looks like I'm gonna be catching more of these things then, if I'm to feed you on them. Only I don't think that's a good idea, dragons don't usually eat fish. I'd better find some way of getting you some proper meat. Maybe I'll trade fish for it with Bella, she mused, realising after she started that Dazanth could hear every thought, and continuing as she received a nudge of support from the yellow.

... I'm gonna need to get used to this.

You will KailinMine, it is very easy! Dazanth piped with draconic innocence. But where do we get this fish from? Is it far?

Kailin laughed at that.

Yes, it is quite far. I think I may have to carry you a bit at first, but you can sleep lots when we get there. There is a lot of waiting around fr the fish to swim into the net.

Ooh, swimming sounds fun! Dazanth said, plucking the thoughts from her rider's mind. Is that why you are all wet, were you swimming in the hot pool?

Ha, yes, something like that.

[Cansi]

Alezri couldn't decide where to look now. There was just too much going on, the eggs' hatching seemed to have accelerated somewhat. He glanced from the little purple, on the move now, toward where the Inner Visions brown was staggering around pitifully. The poor baby even knocked into a little egg. It was such a sight the young outlaw couldn't look away.

Until, that is, something small and warm was suddenly curling around his legs. Squall? he thought, startled. But it surely wasn't.

What are you doing, dearest? A girlish, silent-but-amused voice entered his mind.

(Neck of wherry dropped from nerveless fingers. Alezri's mouth fell open as he looked down in dumb shock. Rainbows in the eyes. There were rainbows in her eyes. Rainbows. He could feel her amusement, as her mind meshed with his like water falling into sand. He was instantly drenched in her mentality, and if it were biologically possible, his eyes would have spun rainbows too.)

Staring at my clutch sibling! That one is no good, not as good as your Tith, Alezri. Stop looking at it, admire me, and feed me. There is so much to do! So much to see! She disentangled from his legs and looked up at him with a hint of demand. Hold your Tith now!

"Oh, lovely," he whispered, dropping to kneel beside his soul-mate. "I will hold you forever." Normally Alezri would have been appalled at himself, but at the moment he didn't give a shit that his blue eyes were liquid with tears that gathered, trembled, and fell. "My Tith." He gathered her willingly, feeling the irrefutable flesh and hide that housed the other half of him. This was not a dream. Ever so gently, he stroked her neck, murmuring sweet nothings as she nuzzled his face. Yes, she was beautiful. The prettiest. The most amazing. And travel-sized!

What do you mean by that?! Tith grumbled.

"Just that you'll be twice as easy to feed for now as those hulking pinks," Alezri said hastily. Oh yeah. He could have thought it at her; she'd have heard. This was definitely going to take getting used to. (Never had he been so enthusiastic about accepting his circumstances before!)

Alezri-

I know, I know, he said, laughing aloud as he put his little lady down. It's right here. He set to feeding her, morsel by morsel, cutting smaller pieces as quickly as he could to see that she didn't choke- something that mortally terrified him. Elation bloomed in him from the bottom to the top every time he thought about the warm presence sharing his mind, brittle in its newness and completely unexpected. He'd never bothered caring about how others felt, unless he wanted something from them.

He didn't want anything from Tith, but she was precious. Her presence, her existence was more than enough of a gift. She paused eating long enough to make a churling sound, half approval, half amusement. I love you too, she said. There was a definite sense that she appreciated that he hadn't even looked around to see what else was hatching, not even the yellow. Undivided attention definitely agreed with her.

[Evadne]

Yekemi's efforts earned him an amused study with two sets of eyes, one a soft hazel and the other whirling blue-green. The look both Jadore and Algonquith gave the man spoke of gratitude for its efforts. But there was that humor too, mild though it was. Yekemi was washed in a rush of meaty breath when the opal crooned to him, a soft and rolling song that made her throat swell, before she dipped her head to begin plucking the chunks of tunnelsnake from the ground one by one.

Jadore's gaze lingered longer.

"She is, isn't she?" So the one-time Lady wasn't going to make a fuss. Indeed, she seemed to welcome his efforts; she'd invited them after all. They provided an engaging little distraction from the ghostly itches that were springing up over her body, in spite of Jadore's lack of hide.

And from the commotion that broke loose when the yellow helped the silver break shell, and the latter's passing was revealed. Jadore froze when she looked over to see the lifeless body on the dirt, the shards of its shell scattered around it. That had been the egg she'd stolen. The one she'd intended to use as proof of her status here, a mark of pride. Deformed. The creature inside of it had been deformed.

The worry that rushed through her was shoved firmly out of the way by a thought from Algonquith. He was weak, that one. Always soft, always frightened. He didn't belong here. They'd have eaten him alive, this lot. And you have me now. The opal's head lifted, her tongue running along her teeth and muzzle to take every bit of blood from it. Her slowly spinning eyes were focused on Machi, on Arkady, on the feasting pinks, the diminutive purples. Finally she shifted her focus towards the newly bonded yellow.

And them. Such as they are, Algonquith finished, dryly.