First Clutch of Rocky! ^-^

[FaizahPandora]

Reyna stood guard over her clutch, small as it was for a gold's clutch. Eleven eggs lay hardening in the hot sands, and she had yet to leave them once. HerFaizah brought her the food and all other necessities, along with company for a few hours a day.

Spock had also visited often, most of the time napping alongside Reyna in the warm sands. Reyna had noticed Faizah checking the hardness daily for a few days now. Reyna knew that soon HerFaizah would be giving her eggs to the other people. That of course meant nothing to Reyna. She simply knew that soon her eggs would be hatching, and then Reyna could get back to restoring order among the flitters of Rocky.

[FaizahPandora]

It was morning, cold and nippy outside the Hatching Grounds. People in the town below were just wakening to get ready for work or school. The Weyrleaders of Rocky had been up for an hour at least, and the other members of the Weyr were either awakening or were already awake.

Reyna chittered as she wandered among her eggs for a few moments. Then she began to hum, signaling that her eggs were going to hatch momentarily. She heard WhiteSurth bugle out, alerting all the others that the hatchlings were coming. Reyna knew that all the other flitters around the weyr would be humming as well, and she patiently waited for them to appear. All would come for Gold Reyna's clutch hatching!

Faizah was the first one there, accompanied by Mentari. Faizah smiled as she saw blue Hobbs between from no where so that he could sit next to Reyna and hum to greet the hatchlings. Faizah pushed Mentari forward, whispering to her the number that was hers. Days ago Faizah had painted a number on each egg, and each person who was to receive an egg knew their number.

Mentari walked up cautiously, watching gold Reyna as she reached out and picked up the egg marked with a large, bright red "3". This was her flitter egg, and she couldn't wait to get one of the miniature dragons that lay inside. The broad smile that was plastered on her face was proof enough to her excitement.

[Samari]

Tahli darted her way to the hatching sands when she heard Relanth beginning to hum. She looked and spotted Faizah and another young woman. She walked towards the two and bowed.



"Hello Weyrwoman Faizah. I heard Relanth humming..."

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah smiled at Tahli. "Get over there. Your have number nine. GO! Before it hatches!" Just as Faizah said that the egg in question shook violently, a crack erupting across the side. Faizah noticed and pushed Tahli gently towards the egg.

[Samari]

Tahli nodded and darted towards the egg labeled 9. She picked it up slowly, holding it steady in her hand. She held her breath subconsciously.


She was so nervous.

[FaizahPandora]

Mentari gasped as she saw a crack erupt from her own egg and she could feel it shaking in her hands. She barely noticed Faizah setting a bowl of meat next to her, she was concentrating on the egg so much.

The egg Tahli held shook and a small peice of shell broke off. From the hole in the egg a small wing popped out, green in color.

[Samari]

Tahli broke into a bright smile as she pulled a chunk of bacon she'd saved out of her pocket. She would wait patiently for the rest of the litte hatchling to show herself.



Kumiko ran in to the sands, taking a moment to catch her breath. She took a seat on a bench and looked around.



"Raynith began to hum, so I came here."

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah hurried over and set a bowl of meat next to Tahli. She noticed Kumiko sitting nearby and smiled at the girl. "Exciting, isn't it?" Faizah asked in Japanese. She knew that she had been nervous when Reyna had hatched.

Tahli's egg suddenly cracked in a spiderweb formation, then the egg shell fell away. The little flitter inside trilled hungrily, her eyes whirling rainbows as she gazed at Tahli and the strip of bacon she held.

Mentari jumped up and down once when a little blue leg erupted from her egg. She grabbed a small handful of meat as she waited for it to finish hatching. She already knew what she was going to name it. Him.

[Samari]

Tahli handed a tiny bit off the strip for the flit, watching the little green eat it quickly. She kept breaking off little bits to feed to the ravenous lizard. After the entire strip had been devoured, the little green chirped and dozed off in Tahli's hand.



"I shall call her Freya. She's so adorable."




Kumiko nodded frantically and smiled brightly at the new green.


"Yeah! I can't believe the energy of this occasion."

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah nodded at Kumiko. "I remember when Reyna hatched. I was very excited. Suddenly my room was filled with mini-dragons.

Faizah smiled at Tahli as she held the sleeping green. Faizah approached her with a camera and a notebook. "Picture and basic documentation. I need to know what you named her, and when she wakes up I will need to weight and measure her." Faizah whispered. She took a quick picture of the little flitter and then waited for Tahli to tell her the name.

Mentari bit her bottom lip as the little blue finally erupted fully from his egg. She immediately loved him. But she wasted no time in offering him bits of meat, which he devoured quickly. After he had eaten a quarter of the bowl he climbed Mentari's arm and rested along her shoulders, wrapping his tail as far around her neck as he could. Mentari stroked his delicate wings. "I'll call you Christopher." She whispered.

[Samari]

Tahli looked back up at Faizah and smiled. She understood why the Weyrwoman had to check on these things.



"I have called her Freya."



Kumiko thought back to the Hatching of Hikari. She was excited then too.

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah smiled as she wrote it down, then moved over to Mentari. She was so glad her little sister had Impressed a flitter. And when they had a clutch on the sands, Mentari could soon stand for a dragonette. She wrote down that Mentari had named her blue Christopher and went to take a seat. It seemed for now things had settled a little.

She smiled at Kumiko as she sat next to the girl. "What do you think of Green Freya and Blue Christopher?"

Mentari was excited as she sat in the sands, still absently stroking the flitter. She glanced at Reyna, who was glimmering brightly and had stopped humming for the moment. Mentari was glad she had gotten the son of the gold mini-dragon she had been so enamored with when Faizah first Impressed it.

[Houka Ryuu]

It has been a few days since Lesla arrived in her new home. Some things in Earth still boggled her mind especially those ... things that she espied flying up in the sky. Lesla for the most part tried to ignore the weird things that came with having to move to another planet. But even though she had Impressed a dragon and was now living in another planet very different from Pern, Lesla still stayed her shy and quiet self. She's barely talked to anyone and pretty much kept to herself and yet, Lesla learned the ins and outs of the Weyr from Seichou who had practically explored the whole of Rocky Weyr in just two days time after their arrival from Pern.

In the few days that she has arrived on Earth, Lesla had developed a daily routine somewhat similar to the one she had when she was back in Pern. She had been up at dawn in the Kitchen to chop up some meat for Houkath to eat when the little Green woke up from her slumber. She instructed Seichou to stay at their weyr so that he can keep an eye and ear out for the slumbering Houkath. There were advantages and disadvantages of having their own weyr, if she had been back on Pern, Lesla wouldn't have minded leaving Houkath along with the other sleeping dragonets in the Weyrling Barracks. With a sigh, Lesla put her mind back to her chopping. She had managed to fill up a bowlful of chopped meat in the Kitchen when she heard White Surth bugle and at the same time, Seichou popped into existence from Between.

Seichou had given his assent as he watched His leave the weyr to prepare food for his Green cousin, Houkath. Seichou didn't really know why he and His were sent to this place but he was content to just stay together with His wherever His might be. Seichou also didn't know what was wrong with Houkath. In Seichou's point-of-view, Houkath was a very healthy dragon and he loved her only second-best to His. An hour or so had passed since His had left when he heard the humming of the other flits within the Weyr. Instinct told him that there is a hatching about to occur. Making sure that Houkath was still soundly asleep, he went Between to appear in front of His, just as White Surth bugled to alert everyone in the Weyr, and cheeped excitedly to let His know of the hatching.

When Lesla heard Surth bugle and having Seichou appear in front of her, she froze in fear for a few seconds until she remembered that Houkath would not have heard Surth's bugle. Then she received the sending from Seichou and it was all she could do to somehow get back to her weyr and ferry a sleeping Houkath down with her into the Hatching Sands.

Back in her weyr, a panting Lesla mentally told Houkath what was happening as she braced Houkath between her arms and laid her onto the pull-wagon. It was an ingenious piece of contraption that was made by the Earthians. It sure helped in carting Houkath in and out of their weyr. After all, Houkath was old enough that Lesla is almost unable to carry the little Green.

Arriving at the Hatching Sands, she noticed that a few others were already there before her. She recognized the Weyrwoman and gave the proper greeting to her. The others were still strangers to Lesla and so she ignored them for the most part. Her eyes were snared by the eggs which Lesla just realized had numbers on them. Lesla thought it was strange but she didn't utter a word as she stood someplace where she would not be a hindrance as others arrive.

Seichou having delivered his message to His alighted near one of the flits and lent his voice in humming.

Houkath deaf to all the goings on, remained blissfully asleep in the pull-wagon that Lesla borrowed.

(OOC: I'm assuming that the pull-wagon is available to be used by anyone and supposing that the Weyr do have gadgets and gizmos that are from Earth.)

[PhazonDragon]

This was one of those rare moments that Rafael was at Rocky. Of course, as the current riders in training grew, he would try to be here more and more to study them. This time, he was invited. That gold fire lizard, Reyna, she had a clutch on the sands, and it was set to hatch soon. This wasn't a chance that Rafael would pass up. A dragon didn't fly him up this time--he had to hike. And as Rafael finally made his way to the weyrbowl of the hideaway in the Rocky Mountains, he doubled over, hands on knees, and slightly panting. He definitely wasn't built for hiking... He was a historian!

"Haaah..." Rafael exhaled deeply, standing up straight again. He ran a hand through his messy hair, and took off his glasses to clean the smudges off. He wiped at the brown-framed lens with the edge of his shirt, and stuck the glasses back on his head. "Now.. To find the Weyrwoman," he murmured to himself. He only took one step when the bugle of a dragon caught his attention. The German's head whipped around to find the source of t he noise. There wasn't a dragon to be found... But a low hum filled his ears. Wait--didn't he read that during a hatching the dragons would hum?

Time to find that hatching sands! From his previous visits, Rafael knew a general layout of the weyr. The hatching sands was somewhere.... That way! The historian pointed off toward the inside of the weyr, even if he didn't know exactly where the sands were. To his surprise, the humming grew louder as he walked toward the grounds. Too bad he didn't know this was because the eggs were hatching, not because he was getting closer. But some sheer stroke of luck, Rafael stumbled onto the hatching sands. There were people present already, and by the looks of it, two had already hatched, or were in the process of hatching.

"Hello, Weyrwoman Faizah," the historian greeted the woman politely as he stepped onto the sands. The unexpected heat made him pause for a second before resuming his walk to where the eggs were situated.

[shadowreine]

This had been a very interesting few days for Loren Thomas.

"I don't get it. What's..."

She followed the other people, aware that there was a soft humming sound dominating the area, drawing everyone towards a chamber of sorts, an open one. On the floor of it was sand.

There were a group of people around a very small version of the dragons, a creature she had seen the like of before, but only here. And...small round objects.

Okay. Those objects were, obviously, eggs. Eggs of the miniature dragons. They were obviously, also, hatching. Right now. One being held by somebody had a green wing sticking out of it. The dark skinned girl made her way to join the other humans gathered around them.

Of course. Like the larger dragons, these smaller avians imprinted at birth. The people here were hoping one would imprint to them. "Could I possibly join?" she inquired.

Even if she didn't bond a dragon...she had been warned she was already somewhat old to do so...she could acquire one of these little creatures.

Of course, that might tie her to this place forever. Surely these things had to be kept quiet. In that moment, though, she did not care.

She hesitated, then moved to join the group.

[FaizahPandora]

Faizah jumped up from her seat as the humming began again. As she was rushing Forward when she saw Lesla and Houkath enter, followed closely by Rafael, who greeted her. "Ah, hello Raphael. Nice to see you could make it."

Faizah then saw Loren enter, and she quickly grabbed hold of the girl. Faizah pulled her quickly over to an egg that was cracked down the center and had a painted number 5 on it. "This is yours. When the flitter comes out of the shell, offer it meat from this bowl. Feed it until it won't eat any more." Faizah set the bowl next to the Candidate and headed off to grab another egg.

This one had a number 8 painted on it, and Faizah hurried it over to Lesla, along with a bowl of meat. "Hello, Lesla. This egg was never actually claimed, so I've decided you may have it. I'm sure you know what to do since you already have Seichou."

[Samari]

Kumiko chuckled as she saw the little pale green so much like her Hikari. She wondered where her little green was this night. She looked down to the small eggs and shuddered. Maybe one might be intended for her, and she didn't even know it.

[Houka Ryuu]

After Lesla arrived, she watched the eggs but heard the Weyrwoman greet someone by the name of Rafael. Lesla didn't even look away from the eggs. Still, she silently wondered, I wonder why they are numbered? as she looked the numbers on the eggs. Looking away from the eggs, Lesla saw the Weyrwoman appropriate one of the eggs with a number 5 painted over the eggshell. Lesla silently watched as the Weyrwoman handed the egg to a girl along with a bowl of meat.

It was then that Lesla realized that the eggs must have been reserved to certain people already. She felt a little disappointed that she wouldn't be able to Impress another flit but then, the Weyrwoman had gotten another egg along with a bowl of meat and headed towards where Lesla stood.

She heard Faisah say, 'Hello, Lesla. This egg was never actually claimed, so I've decided you may have it. I'm sure you know what to do since you already have Seichou.' as she held hands up to receive the egg with a number 8 painted over the eggshell from the Weyrwoman.

Lesla could only nod in reply to the Weyrwoman's remark for Lesla was speechless and surprised to learn that she actually managed to get a flit egg. She wondered idly what color the egg will reveal once the flit decides to hatch out of its egg. She quickly looked around and saw that two eggs have already hatched. One of the eggs hatched a green flit that Impressed to a girl with long hair who seems to be of the same age as Lesla. The other egg hatched a blue flit that seems to have Impressed to a young girl that looks close enough to Faizah.

Lesla made a quick survey and realized while two of them each had an egg in their hands and two of others each already had a newly Impressed flit, she realized that there were only seven eggs left in the mound. Lesla didn't even bother to wonder who would get the eggs for she was more focused on the egg in her hands waiting for it to hatch and wondering what color the flit would be.

Houkath finally waking up, opened her eyes to find herself on the pull-wagon. She got out of it and gently nudged Hers. She noticed that Hers was cradling an egg without her hands. She sent an image of the egg and a feeling of uncertainty.

Lesla smiled at her dragon and silently replied, This is a flit egg. Soon a flit will hatch from it. I'm waiting for it to hatch and see what color it will be. After a pause, Lesla added, Are you terribly hungry? Deep inside, Lesla rather hoped that Houkath was not hungry because she really didn't want to give the flit egg to someone else in case Houkath wanted to eat instead.

After contemplating her tummy for a bit, Houkath shook her head in the negative and hunkered down beside Lesla to wait for the egg to hatched. Like Hers, she was focused on the egg and being deaf, she didn't hear the humming coming from the flits and dragons. Which is why she wasn't humming along with the others.

Seichou noticing that His was given an egg flew over and landed to settle himself on His' right shoulder with his tail gently wrapping around His' neck. He gave His a caress on the cheek as he resumed to hum encouraging the flit inside the egg to hatch.

[FaizahPandora]

The egg that Lesla held suddenly cracked and rocked violently. Unlike it's blue brother and green sister, this flitter didn't want to remain in the egg that much longer. With a last violent shudder the egg shell fell away to reveal a bronze who looked around for food with an almost angry squawk of demand.

[shadowreine]

Loren blinked, then grinned. She carefully lifted the egg...very carefully, she had a feeling she might end up actually holding a hatchling, given it was cracking open pretty much even as she watched.

So far, a green, a blue and a...that was a bronze, yes...had hatched. She could not see what might be inside the egg she had. Golds were largest and rarest, then bronzes, then browns, then blues, then greens.

Yes. She was learning. The whites, seemed to be even rarer, like Surth.

If she was going to feed this thing that was breaking out of an egg even as she thought about it, then she would need...ah yes. The bowl Faizah had mentioned.

Feed it until it won't eat any more. Maybe they exhausted their yolk before hatching and needed solid food as soon as possible.

This felt kind of unreal. The dragons were something she had accepted straight away. At an academic level. Now their reality was beginning to hit her emotionally.

This really was happening and she was a part of it.

[FaizahPandora]

The egg that Loren held cracked further, and tentatively a little green nose appeared through the egg shell. The humming began to get louder and it seemed to urge the little green on, for within a few moments her entire head had appeared; eyes whirling and mouth open. It was a second thought that the hatchling opened her wings and fractured the remainder of the egg.

[shadowreine]

"Well...aren't you cute," Loren quietly informed the mouth that had just appeared in the crack. Before she reached for a piece of food and inserted into said orifice. Well, carefully. The young firelizard was quite a small creature, after all.

With teeth already fully formed, it chomped on the piece of meat. Its eyes had a red tint to them that didn't seem entirely pleasant, but it...she, Loren reminded herself. Greens were female, she knew that much. Barely. She...and she wanted more.

And she was...absolutely cute. For a small dragon, she approached kitten or puppy levels of cuteness and Loren also felt a deep affection, as if she'd had the little thing as a pet for far longer than a few seconds. More food. "I suppose I'm going to have to come up with a name for you, aren't I."

[Houka Ryuu]

Lesla returned Seichou's caress by nuzzling him with her cheek. She sent her love for him and her appreciation that Seichou didn't seem to mind her getting another flit. As she once more focused her attention on the egg, she didn't have to wait too long for suddently there was a crack on the egg which began to rock violently within her hands. Fearly for the safety of the flit within the egg, Lesla slowly sat on the ground with the bowl of meat just to her right. She could feel Houkath intensely watching the rocking egg within her hands from her left.

And just as she settled herself on the ground, the egg gave a last violent shudder and the egg shells flaked away and revealed a bronze flit. Lesla did a double take looking at the flit in her hands then back to where she could see the dam, Faizah's Gold Reyna, and the sire, a brown that Lesla didn't know of yet. Lesla sent her love and admiration to the bronze flit who was looking around for food and angrily demanding that he be fed immediately. Because of lovely surprise of Impressing a bronze, Lesla just sat there admiring the handsome bronze.

The bronze was pacified a little since he was being admired by His. And so, he stretched himself stood on his hind legs and unfurled his wings and let His see how handsome and marvelous he was. After a few minutes of being adored, he furled his wings close to his body and once more demanded to be fed. However, since His still seemed awestruck, he crawled over Lesla's hands and thigh to where a bowl of meat was situated. Sticking his head into the bowl, he gulped down a piece of meat.

Lesla mentally shook herself from her awestruck daze when the bronze had strike-a-pose for her benefit, she saw that the bronze was big, bordering on huge for a bronze flit at a whopping fifteen inches long give or take from nose-tip to tail-tip. Looking down, she saw the bronze had already gulped down a piece of meat without even bothering to chew. Having had experience with Seichou, she gently took bronze away from the bowl and slowly hand fed him tiny tidbits of meat that were safe enough to gulp down without being chewed. As she did so, she hastily thought of a name for him while she projected her love for him and a feeling of peace and safety so that the bronze would never choose to leave her behind.

The bronze let His pick him up since he really didn't think it was suitable for him to be feeding himself and looking undignified in his opinion. He crooned appreciatively when His started to hand feed him. After gulping down the second piece of meat, he looked up at His and finally noticed the brown flit that was perched atop the shoulder of His. He didn't like that one bit, that spot should be reserved for him and not some brown's. So the bronze hissed angrily at the brown on His' shoulder .

At first Seichou was happy at meeting a new bronze that belong to His. But then he was shocked when the bronze suddenly demanded that the shoulder Seichou was standing at should be reserved for the bronze. Before Seichou could comply, Houkath suddenly nudged at the bronze and His assured him that he didn't have to leave his spot.

While, Lesla and Houkath witnessed the confrontation between the bronze and the brown, they each didn't like the fact that the bronze was ordering Seichou around and even ordering Seichou to get off of Lesla's shoulder. Of some internal accord Rider and Dragon went into action to reprimand the bronze and at the same time reassure Seichou that he didn't have to follow the bronze's order to get off of Lesla's shoulder.

Houkath let herself be known to the bronze by aligning her head in his line of vision. She projected to the bronze her curiosity and amazement at his rather large stature. However, Houkath also sent her disappointment that the bronze should be such a bully towards Seichou who was the bronze's senior by at least a year and more. She also sent the bronze that Houkath will never be one that the bronze can order around like he could Seichou.

Lesla on the otherhand went to reassure Seichou and giving him loving caresses with her free hand. She silently thanked Houkath for intervening with the bronze. To the bronze she said, "That was a little mean telling Seichou to get off of my shoulder just because you think that should be your special place." as she also sent the bronze a little bit of disappointed feeling. After a minute, Lesla said, "Anyways, as long as you aren't mean to Seichou or to Houkath, we should all be fine." as she sent reassurance that she still loved the bronze even after that stint. "As for a name... I'll name you Zeus." Lesla told the bronze. It was a name that she had read somewhere back in Pern. She didn't rightly remember the meaning of the name but the sound of the name itself sounded cool to her ears.

The bronze cocked his head to the right at the name that His uttered. He cocked his head to the left as if thinking how he liked the sound of the name he was given. With a nod, he trilled an assent to the name he was given. And then, he kreeled his hunger and once more demanding to be fed. His eyes were once again swirling red where once it had been swirling a happy green.

Lesla just shook her head as Zeus' antics and resumed to stuffing his face full of meat until the bronze's stomach was distended. While she once more fed Zeus, Lesla took a quick look around and saw that the girl who had egg numbered 5 now had a green flit hatchling. She also idly wondered if the other eggs will wait before their reserved owners arrive. Looking at some of the eggs, she had to wonder what Faizah will do should an egg hatch and the supposed flit's owner was not there yet. After all, flits are not like dragons who patiently looks for that particular special person of Theirs. Flits will Impress to the first person that feeds them as soon as they hatch.

[Samari]

Tahli was stroking her sleeping green when Darwin came down to inspect the little flit. Her curious brown sniffed at Freya, causing her to wake up. She cheeped sadly at Tahli, sending an image of Hers making the brown stop bothering her nap. She chuckled and pushed Darwin back gently.



"Let Freya sleep, Darwin. She's very young and very tired."


The brown chirped in understanding and wrapped his tail around Tahli's neck.

[Wolfy]

J'kent had been hovering over the eggs for the last few days, knowing that he had somehow earned one. Dust had known as well, acting jealous instead of lazy, as he usually did. He'd gotten over his depression over his loss of Kara, butnow he was ready to go into a depressed fit over the egg! J'kent grinned as the chubby brown once again bit his ear lightly, chirping, scolding him. The tall rider just ignored him.

Finally, after he'd left for his weyr with Marith to sleep, Dust woke him, humming. It took several moments for the groggy Greenrider to recognize exactly what it meant however.

The Firelizard eggs are hatching!

He was with the eggs within the minute. Many of them were already hatched. He stood there, still only half-awake, like a dimwit (which he later felt he was; he was somewhat embarrassed that he had acted that way).

He strode toward the eggs that had not yet hatched (he was relieved to see that his had not yet hatched) and picked up the one that had been assigned to him - the one with the large '6' painted on the side.

It was shaking violently, and he glanced around, locating the bowls of meat. Nodding respectfully to Faizah, he grabbed one and hurried to an unpopulated area.

Even as he plopped down into the hot sand, the egg cracked along the top.