Hatchings

It had been a few weeks since Teyumeth's clutch had hatched, and the Dragonry was starting to fall into a lull again. It was a welcome surprise, then, when the next clutch chose to hatch. Nine candidates were ushered onto the sands as the eggs rocked around their mother, Shonakasen, sitting in the middle.
Before long there was a crack as the first egg hatched. A pair of slender wings came out first, glistening with silver membranes. The hatchling's red body soon became visible as she struggled out of her egg. With a final kick, she removed the egg shell and climbed to two unsteady feet.
The candidates watched hopefully as she turned her head, eyeing the various candidates, but they were disappointed; instead, she turned to her mother, and the Weyrleaders sitting nearby.
"None of these candidates are suitable for me," she said in a steady, prim voice. "I shall go somewhere else. Wu Weyr?" she asked, and tilted her head at the Weyrwoman. Rahel shrugged and nodded. Satisfied, the hatchlingwalked towards the kitchen, growing steadier with every step she took. "My name is Kaseni, then."
Two more eggs had hatched, and from one had come a gold-winged blue, from the other, a brown-red. The blue, a male, paid no attention to the candidates at all, just headed right to the kitchens. My name's Marrodar. I'll be in the kitchen if anyone needs me, he said, trotting out the door.
His brother watched him leave from where he was sitting in the sand. Climbing to his own feet, he pranced around a bit before looking over the candidates. He inspected them quite closely, some of them leaning away from his attentions, until he finally stopped at Ekren. I like you, he said in a satisfied voice. I'm bonding to you, Ekren. My name's Nariti.
Initailly taken aback at the brown-red's direct manner, the boy smiled. "If you say so," Ekren said with a laugh.
Another colorful pair hatched from the next eggs--a small and dainty white dragoness with silver wings, and a somewhat larger darkish red female with purple wings. The red-purple walked boldly up to the candidates, stepped somewhat contemptuously over a spotted green rukel at her feet, and stopped at T'riel's side. "My name is Hadikan, T'riel. I'm not going to bond to you," she said, "I don't think your other dragons would appreciate that...much less your other...pets." She threw a wary glance at another rukel and hunched down. "Why are there so many rukels around here?" she hissed.
"I don't know, because we live here?" the green one said, and continued with, "Watch it!" when Hadiken nearly stepped on his tail.
The white-silver giggled a bit as she listened to the conversation, but there was a shifty look in her eyes--intelligent despite their vapid look--as she went to the candidates. Cuddling beside Calisy, the hatchling shouted, "You look like fun! Let's bond!"
The pair were nearly out of the Hatching Cavern, when the white-silver quitely added, Nobody's going to hurt you when I, Kladari, am around. Don't worry about anything.
The green-spotted rukel was still hunched and glaring at Hadikan when he was distracted by another hatchling. What'chu looking so upset for, Daichi? Be happy, you get to bond with the great Feardon. I bet together, we could rule the world, and do whatever we want.
Daichi laughed. "Right, Feardon. Let's eat."
Feardon was somewhat bemused. Hey, I was being serious...
With all the candidates distracted, another two eggs had hatched, while another showed signs of cracking any second now. A stately silver-purple stopped in front of Ringo. "My name is Menazey, Ringo, and this running about and getting into trouble is going to stop, honestly," he said with a snort. Once it was just the two of them, though, he added, "Besides, it's more fun when people don't know you're responsible."
The tiny green-silver scratching an itch nonchalently didn't appear to notice any of the candidates, until her mother shoved her impatiently towards them. "Oh," she said, nonplussed, looking as though she was noticing them for the first time. She showed no hesitation in finding her bond, however, and went straight to Roni. Yep, you're the one for me, Roni. Come on, I'm getting a little tired of all these people around us.
A small smile playing about her lips, Roni said, "Okay, Shezare," and lead her new dragon to the kitchens.
The other egg shattered suddenly, throwing shards against the shells of the other eggs. The green-winged dragon that stepped out from it gave his surroundings a derisive snort. He cast a careless look to the candidates, obviously not planning to bond anyone, but he straightened when he met Ansuz's eye. A little meekly, he walked over to the quiet man and grumbled. "Come on, Ansuz. I'm hungry, let's get away from these people and eat."
"You should calm down a bit, Sharenzi," Ansuz replied, but he said nothing else.
A round egged cracked to reveal a dragon with glistening gold hide, and it rolled halfway through hatching, crashing into another egg and sending the dragon tumbling to the sand. Two hatchling dragons groaned as they climbed off of each other, the female gold apologizing profusely to her brother.
"It's alright," he assured her. "No harm done." Her back to him now, she didn't notice his narrow-eyed gaze.
"Ooof! Sorry about that!" The white-winged gold had tripped again, landing in the sand beside T'riel.
"It's alright," T'riel grinned, but her clutchsister Hadikan stared at her and then sniffed disdainfully.
What a clumsy oaf...
"My name's Gherran," she announced, not seeming to have heard Hadiken's comment. "I'm going with you too, T'riel, okay?" She bounced up again, ready to leave and eat, and sprayed Hadikan with sand in the process. "Oh, did I hit you again? Geez, I'm really sorry," she said as her sister spluttered.
Meanwhile, the dragon that had hatched earlier, a red-winged black, had decided not to bond. He went off somewhere by himself, stopping just long enough to mention his name, Darro.
Now just one egg was left to hatch, huddled between Shonakasen's claws. It fell apart gently, leaving a tiny black-white dragon sitting in the shell. She stared up at her mother, and with purr, went to sit beside her. Litoreiza will stay with Mother, right Mother?
Shonakasen's expression was unreadable, and nobody heard her reply, but as she left the Hatching Cavern at last, Litoreiza followed at her feet, self-satisfied.
Everyone else was leaving now, and Rahel looked around at the empty sands. "Well, it looks like that will be the last clutch for awhile," she said.
"No more females ready to lay?" A'ra asked in surprise.
"There's a gold and brown pair who asked permission to use the sands, but they won't be ready for it for a while yet," Rahel replied.
"Let's host a Frenzy!" Ean piped up out of nowhere.
The Leaders stared at him.
"What? It's not like we have anything else to do," Ean said defensively.
"This came out of nowhere," Rahel pointed out.
Ean shrugged. "Yeah, well, I just got an idea. Hey, I need to go talk to someone. Be right back." He jumped off of the sands and ran out of the Hatching Caverns.
Rahel sighed and threw her hands in the air. "Excitable guy, isn't he?" A'ra asked dryly.
"Yeah, you could say that."