(I never thought I'd need to catch up with my own thread... >.>)
Shea nodded to Caro as she greeted him. "Hi there," he replied, slightly more subdued than his usual greeting. He was distracted, by the clutch and by those gathered around it. Many of them he knew already, from around the Weyr or before that the Hold, but there were a coupe new faces here and there - most looked candidate age, so he assumed that they'd not been there for long. But even with those he knew, he also knew that he needed to watch, make sure that they didn't try anything stupid. So far they had been alright, and a couple of the eggs had hatched without a problem.
But then both he and Caro were distracted by the flitter chase that whipped past them. She, sitting on the floor, escaped and damage, but he saw Caro and a couple of others get whipped by stray tails or unruly wingtips. He had to struggle not to giggle, watching as Caro absently rubbed at her wound, attention clearly taken by whomever the errant green had Impressed to. A friend maybe? Shea peered around the side of Caro. Ah yes, the girl with the blue flitt, not a candidate, but what was her name again? Something like Caro, began with the same letter at least...
He realised that he wasn't watching the hatching perhaps quite as closely as he should have been, having missed the hatching of the little blue. A movement to his immediate right caught his attention, and he turned his head to see J'thir sitting next to him, cradling a mug of klah in his hands. He looked a little grim. Probably didn't want a conversation quite yet then. Shea nodded to him and turned his attention back to the hatching. Oh, the blue had gone. He peered around for a moment, eventually spotting it on the head of one of the candidates.
J'thir, however, sipped his klah thoughtfully, eyes on the hatching sands - or the half that he could see, anyway. He kew Shea had a clear view, but J'thir had someone standing in front of him, so could only see part of the action. Still, he noticed the bronze slipping from its egg before Shea did, nudging Shea's leg with his knee and nodding toward the sand. He saw the grin spread across the Weyrherder's face.
He didn't know what it was about the Journeyman that J'thir liked. He wasn't dumb, but neither was he serious, not often anyway. Perhaps that as it, Shea's ability to make light of any situation, to bring a smile to even J'thir's face on a bad day. But he was also a good person to know - it was a sure bet that Shea knew more people on the Western Continent than any other, and he was always in on the action; from him J'thir could learn of goings on that were hushed when he was around, enabling him to keep on top of things. In a way, he filled the same function as Kemi had back at the traders caravan, but different. Shea was not Kemir, and neither were they tied by brotherhood like he and Kemi. And he treated him as a friend, not a superior...
He was distracted from these thoughts by a movement from the bronze. He belatedly realised that the thing hadn't moved in a while, the whole while he'd been thinking. Odd, was there something wrong with it? It was walking kinda funny... but seemed to fly ok, as it landed on the shoulder of one of the girls standing nearby.
Both J'thir and Shea had a good view of the bronze as it Impressed, but only Shea knew the girl to be Caro. He knew that J'thir was too busy to keep checking in on the candidates. In fact, it seemed that everyone else was too, for that matter, either that or they just didn't want to deal with them. Or the Weyrlings, neither had had a constant teacher for the last sevenday, not since both the Candidatemaster lost his dragon and the Weyrling Master failed to return at all. The Weyr was in desperate need from within its own ranks, let alone in need of others from the North, who still hadn't responded to their crisis.
But the hatching of the two blacks was not lost on either WeyrHerder or bronzerider-come-weyrleader. Neither could help but stare in confusion, trying, and failing, to guess which colour the pair were.
"What the... what are they?" J'thir asked in confusion.
"I dunno," Shea replied thoughtfully, "but we did have a suspicious one earlier..." He trailed off. J'thir waited for him to continue, but when he didn't pressed him lightly to elaborate.
"Which one was that?"
"The brown... that reddish one there," he said, quietly, pointing to Tighearnan's shoulder where he was feeding Kenna. "First I thought it was a brown, but though I've seen some pretty reddish browns, I've never seen a pink one."
J'thir thought for a second. He only knew of one brown to have hatched so far, supposedly.
"That the one that was chasing the green around the room?"
"Yeah. And now two black ones. Wait, are they fighting?" he said, agitation entering his voice as he stared at the eggs. J'thir strained to see, reluctant to stand just yet, but Shea was already making a move to get up.
"Hey Theo, leave them...!" Shea began to say as he saw the dragonless make a move toward the glaring flitts, but then the pair stopped. But then another strange flitter spilled from its egg, shaking itself and making a beeline for the dragonless, tugging her as if to encourage her away from the sands, or maybe away from the blacks...
"What the..." it was Shea's turn to say. From behind him J'thir finally scrambled to his feet, not wanting to miss out on the action any longer, especially if it had the WeyrHerder so stunned, brushing off a greeting from the newly arrived J'len. He only just managing not to tip the remains of his klah from the mug as he rose, cradling it one-handed against his chest. Riki grumbled in protest, clinging to his humans shoulder for dear life. J'thir said nothing, mind spinning too much to form a sentence relevant enough.
But then the black was up and gone, to the far side of the crowd. With a sigh, J'thir resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't going to see who the black had Impressed to, plunking back down to the floor, sipping his cooling klah darkly. Shea, on the other hand, saw who the black went to, though only just. From what he could see it was another of the people he didn't know, at all for that matter. As in not even seen before, which was most odd. Almost certainly a candidate, but then who was the one she was talking too. Surely he wasn't a candidate, he looked too old... Shea squinted at the stranger, but couldn't make out the man's shoulder knots. Maybe he'd go check him out later and say hi.
Settling back down in front of the fire, he finally spotted J'len, Liresk by his side and looking up at another new arrival. One of the healers. Well that was good, at least someone had had the foresight to keep an eye on the man. He really was too stubborn, Shea decided, but he couldn't begrudge the man getting bored cooped up in the infirmary. That place was enough to drive any non-Healer stir crazy. He'd not known J'len particularly well, but had seen him near R'fel on the few times that he'd journeyed down to see how his friend was getting on.
Speaking of...
Shea. Dusk's say congratulations. Hopes for chance to speak to soon, he was again distracted by the stray thought entering his mind. He was in no doubt it was Dusk, no other dragon (or basilisk) sounded quite that grumpy when talking to him. But still, he hadn't seen R'fel in a couple of days now, and it was high time he went down again. He'd go down tonight, and would have told Dusk so. But he couldn't see Dusk anywhere, though he knew she was there somewhere. Or at least he hadn't seen her leave yet. Oh well, it'd be a surprise for R'fel then.
"J'len," he said at last, turning back to the Sapphire rider and his basilisk. "It's good to see you up and about, even if the healers don't think so," he said flashing Aethyr a quick wink. The lad looked as weary as J'len, if not more so.
The remaining black watched as her clutchbrother flew off, leaving her to her own devices. She didn't move much to begin with, just sat licking the occasional piece of egg shard or sand clump off of her dark hide, but she looked up again, almost as if in surprise, as one of the outer eggs made a popping sound. A second later a piece of egg shard, almost perfectly circular, landed in the sand next to the black, causing her to jump back in alarm.
After glaring at the shard, she turned back to the egg from which it came, to see a tan coloured foot poking from the top of the egg, wriggling manically. Curiosity piqued, she wandered over to the new hatchling as the egg fell to pieces around him, the result of his struggling. The brown righted himself, looking up as the black crooned to him, quite the contrary to the way she greeted her other brother. Crooning back to her, the two touched noses, the brown lifting his wings while the black folded hers. Snorting the brown pulled away from the black, beginning to wander to the edge of the sand. Warbling, the black followed him.
The pair stopped when a sound came again from behind them. There was only one egg left shaking, and as they watched it disintegrated into pieces, revealing a green in its place. She looked around as if in wonder, spotting the pair of flitts watching her. With a happy chirp she leapt forward and... faceplanted in the sand, creeling in distress. Breaking away from the brown, the black trotted over, crooning again. She gave the green a reassuring nudge, righting her as she wobbled on her feet. Pleased with her handy work, the black went back to the brown, who appeared bored with the proceedings and promptly took flight, the black following him.
They wheeled around the room for a bit, the brown apparently not owing where to go and the black following blindly. Blindly, that is, until she spotted something else. Instantly distracted she spiralled down to land on J'thir's leg, surprising him mid-slurp. Cheeping in delight, she proceeded to scramble up his shirt as he hurriedly moved his arm out of her way, wincing slightly as her claws, new though they were, dug through his shirt. Another brown! She must meet him. With single-minded determination the little creature eventually made it up to where Riki was, staring down at her in bemusement. She happily licked his foot, which was bigger than her whole head, cheeping again. Once she was happy that she'd said hello to the brown, she turned to J'thir. This man would feed her, now.
The brown, meanwhile, noticed the black spiralling away from him, debating about whether to follow her down or not. Eventually he did, curiosity winning him over. He stopped midair, considering. He didn't really want to stay here for too long, hovering was hard work. He spun himself jerkily around in the air a couple of times, before selecting a suitable shoulder to rest on. He settled in relief on Aethyr's shoulder, plunking himself down and abruptly loosing interest in the black altogether. His stomach burbled loudly in protest, as if to say 'why am I being ignored!'
The green meanwhile stared after the departing firelizards, eyes slowly beginning to revolve yellow. They'd left her. Just upped and gone. She was alone. the green began to panic, but a gentle croon from Dawn behind her, who had remained silent for most of the hatching so far, chased away the worst of her fear. She looked in the direction her brother and sister had gone. There were people over there, lots of them! She lurched forward, only just stopping herself from falling again as she proceeded a little slower. Unlike the rest of her siblings the little green didn't take flight from the edge of the sands, but instead kept on walking, running when she built up the confidence, to the edge of the sands and down onto the floor. Looking up fearfully at the forest of legs before her she swerved to the side again, stopping behind a table leg, panting. It took her a few seconds to notice Dusk, also sitting under the table, but when she did she gave a startled squawk, shooting out from under the table and into the air, plastering herself to B'man's chest. This human felt safe, he would protect her! Maybe he could chase away whatever was gnawing at her stomach too...
i53.tinypic.com/fwuikz.jpgColour: Black (30313a)
Impressed to: J'thir
Appearance: Though not exactly black, this little flitter is not far off. She's a very dark grey, verging on navy blue in places. She is not, however, without black, for her whole body is covered in tiny filigree patterns of deep black, noticeable only upon closer inspection of her hide. These patterns, however, do not cover the underside of her wingsails, which stand in stark contrast to her otherwise fine skin by being the deep grey of rolling storm clouds, the type that threaten extreme weather to come. She shares the build of a green, small and feminine, but has a little more bulk around her middle than is normal for a green. But this doesn't look out of place on her, seeing as she is the size of a blue flitter by normal terms, and instead looks like the rest of her is slimmer than usual, and her belly the correct size.
Personality: This little flitter has a strange personality. Her anger is much like the threatening storm that her wings suggest is coming: it may break, it may pass over. One can just never tell. When not angry, however, she can be really quite sweet. She absolutely adores browns, or any shade, shape or form, and dotes similarly on her human. While she doesn't exactly welcome cuddles from anyone else, she doesn't chase them away either, just as long as they don't do anything nasty or annoying.
i55.tinypic.com/118fxo3.jpgColour: Brown (c28745)
Impressed to: Aethyr
Appearance: A light tan in colour, with large swirls of a darker brown twisting around his body like a fine cake decoration, though this brown is far from sugary sweet. He is a good size for a brown, though edging more to the bulky side of the scale, even going so far as to be a little rotund around the belly.
Personality: This brown seems to possess the patience of a saint. Even tempered and noble, very little bothers him. Little, that is, except for pieces of string. Especially pieces of string that stick out from things, like they're just asking to be cut off. Aethyr may just have to watch this brown if he's ever around when he's stitching up a patient, but apart from that the browns bidable nature could serve his human well as an assistant in the infirmary.
i52.tinypic.com/23ibh2x.jpgColour: Green (378e23)
Impressed to: B'man
Appearance: Medium green in colour, this little green is everything a green is expected to be: small, dainty and feminine. The underside of her belly is a slightly darker, duller green, while the top, along her back and neck ridges, there runs a strip of green so pale it's practically white.
Personality: Dainty by name, dainty by nature, once this green has gained full control of her legs she will be as graceful as the morning breeze. This does mean, however, that she has an aversion to mud, and will insist on regular baths from her human. She is, however, a little paranoid; she cannot stand being alone, and will affix herself to her humans clothes, arm or head, crying like a baby should he even
try to leave her on her own. If left with someone else, however, she's quite happy to stay behind if need be.
(O.o long post is long. Hopefully it will last you all until I'm back on saturday/sunday ;)
Right guys and gals, that's your lot, the hatching is now officially over. Take your flitts away, care for them, and above all enjoy them! Each was created to suit your character as much as possible and to your own preferences those of you who provided them. They are, however, by no means set - if you want to change a little detail about them, go right ahead! They are yours to keep.
This thread doesn't have to go dead all of a sudden though. Stay a while, mingle, let your characters get to know the others and their new pets!)