Is it hot in Here?

[Luna]

Luna relaxed as the first few Candidates made their way to the clutch. Things were finally going as planned, well close to. In her original plans Raineth didn't rise so early. Well, if she was being truthful, it hadn't crossed her mind.

You really are a dimglow then. I'm a gold, the mother of the Weyr. Where do you think dragons come from?

Luna frowned and arched an eyebrow to where Raineth was keeping an eye on the Candidates, You're supposed to support me and love me.

I support you in making this Weyr and I love you...even though you're a dimglow sometimes.

If she didn't feel the undercurrents of amusement Luna might have gotten offended or hurt by her Bonded's words but it was all good banter. She was well used to her dragon's own brand of humor by now.

Raineth had mostly just stayed still and watchful as the Candidates walked by, having noticed that Luna's words had frightened them sufficiently to be good. But then a little whelp of a boy came up, mocking her. Oh, he probably didn't mean it, but that was no excuse not to make absolutely sure he understood he was talking to Raineth and she wouldn't tolerate it. In a quick movement she snaked her head forward and snapped her jaws at him right before he made his way to her eggs. She just wanted to scare him, she wouldn't actually hurt anyone, but scaring them? That was completely acceptable.

Luna gawked at the gold before hissing, "Raineth!" The gold just drew back and preened a little, ignoring her.

Luna was about to deliver a scathing lecture (that would be completely ignored) when a Candidate spoke up. "Yes?" It took a few more seconds and then her brain processed the words, "Oh, within the next sevenday I'd guess. At the latest the second. So yes, we're very close to Hatching. This Touching is coming a little late, but I wanted a sizable group to be here first."

Luna turned in surprise as yet another Candidate appeared. She nodded, "You're not too late Ingasa, the others just went to the eggs." She made a small shooing motion, but the girl already seemed to be practiced in the Touching ritual. It gave Luna a pang of pity. It was such a bittersweet moment for those who had already stood to be at another Touching. They had hope for the future, but were dragged down by the failures of the past. She didn't wish that on anyone, but it was all up to the dragon.

[Lucius]

The lack of being eaten by the large gold signaled that she was acceptable, and allowed to approach the eggs. Taking a deep breath, Ingasa stepped towards the clutch. She was grateful there was no queen among them, for queen dragons got awful possessive when one of those was about. With a soft smile, she reached out to stroke the surface of one of the smaller eggs with only the pads of her fingertips. Then, she placed her whole hand on it, feeling the surface and trying to imagine the life within. She leaned down, then whispered, "Hello, little one," before moving on to touch yet another.

Here among the eggs, she felt both elated and depressed at the same time. As she stroked their surfaces, pressed an ear to a shell, or just stared in awe of an egg that huge (as many Hatchings as she had stood in, the size of the eggs never failed to impress her), she wanted to squeal in joy. Yet she also wanted to fall down sobbing. She was a failure. A miserable failure.

[Khell]

Khell wandered into the clutch of eggs, fingers lightly brushing all of them. They were warm and hardening but Khell found it hard to imagine a curled up dragon inside of it. The eggs couldn’t be comfortable, he didn’t think so at least. Did any of the unhatched dragons feel awkward with their backs aching? So many questions were running through his mind.

He crouched down at an egg that was near Ingasa. He placed his forehead on the shell and cupped his hands around his eyes, wanting to peer inside. He saw nothing but black of course, his hands filtering out the light. He wasn’t exactly sure what he had been expecting. A shadow of a dragonet perhaps? He looked up at Ingasa and grinned slightly, whispering “Do you think anyone would notice if I slipped one of these into my pocket.” It was obviously not possible and he wouldn’t do it but he didn’t want to say it out loud just in case someone didn’t have a sense of humor and decided to take him down.

He stood up, knees popping slightly and watched as the large gold snapped her jaws. Whoops, did someone make her mad? Was this an example of a dragon being proddy? The dragon didn’t do anything more than snap which was probably for the best. Khell wasn’t quite sure if he wanted to see someone get ripped in half by a dragon’s teeth.

[Ayla]

Vittoria was already too absorbed in the eggs to hear Piene's speech. The snap from Raineth could hardly escape her notice, though, and her head whipped around to stare. Although she had seen plenty of dragons get angry and growl and snap, it didn't seem right for this docile-seeming gold to be angry at anything. Raineth's return to nonaggressive preening confused her even more. If this was what all golds were like... maybe she didn't want one after all. There wasn't much chance to do the whole meet-and-greet at Southern.

She averted her eyes after a moment and went back to stroking the Prairie egg. The texture was nearly the same as very smooth leather, although it had a different quality that Vittoria strained to place. Alive... She suddenly stumbled upon the word. Her hand stopped mid-stroke as the egg moved ever-so-slightly, and the surprise almost made her tumble backwards. She looked down at the egg in wonder, then noticed that her knee was touching the egg. So much for the movement.

Vittoria stood up and walked a few steps to an unoccupied egg. This one was a different shade, though had the same qualities of the first one. Vittoria was very careful not to touch the shell with anything but her hands this time; no need for more false alarms.

[Wangri]

While he was busy trying to figure out how to handle the eggs in a suitable fashion, Piene felt the sensation of being watched. Turning around just in time to see the giant dragon close her jaws shut with a burst of hot breath, the boy yelped loudly and shot into the air. He nearly jumped out of his metaphorical pants, if not nearly wetting them! He stumbled a step or two in the burning sand, then neatly face-planted himself in front of one of the eggs.

Fan-tastic.

There was no time for sulking or self-pity, though, since the scolding ground demand that he kindly remove his face or have it covered in blisters. Even with a hasty removal, his cheeks sported a new shade of the color red, and not just from the embarrassment that the Gold had caused him. Glaring at the giant Queen over his shoulder, Piene silently thanked Faranth that he was male, so he could never Impress a humorless beast like that.

Oh, right, Impressing! The Candidate turned his attention back to the egg he had face-planted in front of. It was a slightly different shade than the first that he had been to, since this had more warm colors, but otherwise it didn't seem too much different. Same leathery shell, same radiant warmth. Piene meekly touched its shell, a bit over-whelmed to say the least. But after a minute he moved along to another egg, and then another, and then another. Later they would all seem to blurr together in his head, except for the first egg and the face-plant egg, of course.