Product of a Jade (Ladeth's Clutching)

[FaizahPandora]

IC Date: Week of Feb. 29th, 2012
IC Time: 3:04 p.m.
IC Weather: Light snowfall

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Mentari had headed down to the dining room to grab something to munch on. Ladeth, only just starting to show that she was egg heavy, was sleeping soundly in her weyr. But she had woken suddenly, her stomach cramping and an intense instinct to get to the hatching sands. So she did.

Ladeth glided down into the hatching sands easily enough. With a Two-Gold clutch off the sands, landing was easier. The only other clutch there was Reyna's flit clutch and green Dulchanth's clutch. Ladeth greeted Dulchanth as she landed, then headed over to another corner of the sands. There was plenty of space between Ladeth and Dulchanth, so neither green would worry about their eggs.

MentariMine, the eggs are coming. Ladeth sent to Mentari as she hunkered down to start laying her clutch. Kimath! Our eggs are coming![/b] Ladeth then called Kimath to the sands.

Mentari was on her way back to their weyr when she got the message from Ladeth. She smiled, turning around to head to the sands. For the longest time, Mentari thought that Ladeth just wouldn't produce a clutch, but the plumpness of the green in the past week or two had proved her wrong. And Mentari was very glad that she would now be able to see the eggs for herself.

She reached the hatching sands soon enough, and hurried to Ladeth's side. She rubbed the green's foreleg as Ladeth reared up and strained. Within a moment there was a soft plunk that siganled the arrival of the first egg. Mentari's grin widened.

[shadowreine]

Bwah? Eggs? Kimath, being of small brain and slow reaction time was, not surprisingly, confused.

Not that he didn't know there were eggs. Just that he hadn't quite thought about them. "Kimath, what's up?" Tad came out of the inner weyr.

Eggs?

"Oh...oh, come on, you big lump of blue." If he didn't go with Kimath, the simpleminded dragon would probably forget halfway to the hatching sands, and then Ladeth would probably kill him.

He vaulted onto the blue, not bothering with straps for the short flight to the Sands. There was another green dragon curled around her clutch, and then Ladeth, Mentari and he thought he saw one egg.

How many would she lay?

[FaizahPandora]

Ladeth grunted. Our eggs. The green added as she noticed Kimath and his rider appear in the sands.

Ladeth turned and began covering the egg with the warm sand. Mentari turned and greeted Tad, the image of the egg in the forefront of her mind. "Tad. You made it." She smiled.

She was increasingly happy. Ladeth seemed to be doing well with the laying of the eggs, and Kimath and Tad were here now. Ladeth greeted the blue with a flutter of her wings and a soft hum. Mentari walked over to Tad. "First egg was normal sized, it seemed, and a light cream color. She's already covered it with sand." Mentari explained. She wished she had a camera so she could get pictures of the eggs...

[shadowreine]

Tad would, of course, have brought a camera if asked. He dismounted and offered Mentari a hug as Kimath settled down protectively close, but not so close as to interfere with the process of laying and burying the precious eggs.

"How many do you think she'll lay?" He knew the Pernese seldom let greens clutch, because they generally threw only the smaller colors and, in any case, it might result in the planet being overrun with dragons. He supposed they would have to sterilize some of the greens sooner or later.

"And has anyone bespoken Surth so Faizah knows that she has another clutch to worry about?" It was, after all, in some ways her responsibility as Weyrwoman. Another clutch...and this was Kimath's and Ladeth's.

All blues and greens, most likely. Maybe, though, there would be a white like Cobweb. Wherever he was.

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari shook her head. "I hadn't thought about telling Faizah. I was in a hurry to get down here." Mentari paused, calling Christopher. As she waited for the blue to appear, she looked back at Ladeth. She was so thin, even having a clutch of eggs in her. Mentari shook her head. "She can't lay many. She is so thin there can't be a lot of eggs in there..." She whispered.

Ladeth was ignoring hers, focusing more on laying her eggs. She reared up again, straining. Another plunk signaled the laying of another egg. Mentari looked, noticing it was somewhat larger than the other before Ladeth managed to bury it.

"Two eggs so far..." Mentari said.

[shadowreine]

Tad nodded. "And greens can't really fit as many in there to start with as golds, surely. But two so far, and they look healthy as far as she's letting us see." He grinned a bit.

More cute little green and blue dragons for Rocky's skies...and they were his Kimath's offspring. And his own offspring... He glanced at Mentari, looking for any sign of that. Humans took a little longer to 'cook' than dragon babies, even counting the time spent heating on the Sands.

"Which is what really matters...that they're healthy."

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari nodded in agreement. But she couldn't help but be a little worried about Ladeth. The green had only started showing her pregnancy about two weeks ago. That just meant that there would be less eggs than even a normal green clutch. Maybe three? Four if they were small...

Christopher and Nicole appeared above their heads, spiraling down to land on Mentari's shoulders. She rubbed their heads and gave them a little bit of attention, before she turned back to why she had called the flits. She gave both of them the image of the eggs, and Ladeth, and then gave them an image of Faizah. "Find Faizah. Show her the eggs." At that Mentari showed them the image of the eggs again, making sure they understood.

Nicole chirped and then went between, almost right from Mentari's hand. Christopher shrieked at the green, then launched himself into the skies to follow Nicole. Mentari could help but laugh at their antics.

Ladeth was still humming lightly as she glanced over at Kimath. We have two eggs, Kimath.[/b] She said. She nudged a little more sand over the second of the eggs.

[shadowreine]

"Two?" A pause, then. "Well, that just means they'll be extra special and completely cute," Tad noted.

Kimath, having relayed that to his rider, just curled up smugly. HE thought two eggs was perfectly fine, even if it was a tiny clutch even for a green. Of course, he was only a blue, so most likely that was to blame for the small clutch. And maiden clutches were usually smaller, right? (Although it seemed that at least some fertile greens failed to follow that rule).

"They'll be just fine." And the Candidates likely wouldn't care. This wasn't Pern, where, he was told, blue and green dragons were at the bottom of the pecking order by virtue of size and color. And he was glad Mentari had Impressed a green...

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari nodded. "Yes. They will be cute and special." She smiled up at Tad.

Ladeth laid herself down, circling the two eggs she had laid. She turned her head so she could rub it on Kimath's chin, inviting the blue to come closer. The green was being unnaturally accommodating, even if Kimath was the sire of the clutch. But Mentari didn't worry, She leaned into Tad, giving him a one armed hug. "Ladeth and Kimath did good, didn't they?" She asked, looking up at Tad.

Mentari was imagining what her own child, her and Tad's child, would be like. Soon they would be able to see Ladeth and Kimath's children, but Mentari was impatient to see her own...

[shadowreine]

"They did...especially for a blue and a green." It had to be because the sire was a blue that there were only two eggs, but that did not matter to Tad. As long as the dragonets were good. "I can't wait to see them." He glanced at the dragons.

"Kimath feels the same way." Even if Kimath would promptly forget which dragons were his children unless Tad reminded him. For that matter, if either or both were greens, he would chase them. Dragons did not care about incest and had no taboos.

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari nodded. "Ladeth and I feel the same as well. I'm really looking forward to the hatching now. Only a few more weeks..." She grinned at Tad.

Faizah entered the hatching sands just then, smiling at the two of them. She looked past them, only seeing two mounds of sand. "Only two?" She asked, jotting down notes on the paperwork she had brought. The clutches of greens born on Earth were proving to be generally smaller than those that were laid from greens that came from Pern. Faizah smiled. It must mean the lack of Thread really did effect the greens as well as the golds...

((Sorry for short post.))

[shadowreine]

"Seems that way...but quality over quantity." Tad grinned at Faizah, clearly quite happy with his dragon's 'performance'. Even if, as was normal, Ladeth had done all the work. Kimath could take at least some of the credit. Really, not bad for a blue who was, while healthy, not a dragon he had ever expected to win a flight at all...he'd always figured he'd be outwitted.

Of course, maybe Ladeth had been sharing Mentari's feelings and desire. They did say that dragons and riders overlapped with one another to some degree.

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari laughed a little, her eyes moving to watch Ladeth and Kimath and the eggs.

Faizah nodded, smiling slightly. "That's true." She finished with her notes.

((I think we're done here...))