Once again, Aseicien had been left standing. Not that she minded so much this time, at least there was another queen dragon tending a clutch on the sands. It wouldn't be long before those eggs hatched too, perhaps then she'd Impress a dragon.
And one day, they did hatch, though they weren't the only ones hatching that day. Apparently, a sneaky green dragon had mixed her own smaller eggs in with the queen's who was now livid with anger. Nevertheless, she guarded the eggs, and announced to the Weyr when they began to hatch.
The first eggs to hatch did so at once, spilling three dragons onto the sands as Aseicien raced to the sands behind the other candidates. The first dragon to catch her attention-and that of the rest of the crowd-was the large bronze dragonet who leaped from his shell with a creel before climbing on top of another pair of eggs and announced his name to his rider.
The green and blue that hatched with him were quieter as they chose their bonds, both going to male candidates.
Another of the queen's eggs rocked, and she pushed the male candidates out of the way as the egg wobbled. Aseicien watched hopefully, the queen's behavior implied that this was a queen egg, and sure enough, a small gold dragonet slowly emerged from the egg.
Hopeful, Aseicien watched the little queen as she conversed with her mother, but the gold hatchling chose another young woman. Aseicien was only slightly disappointed, there were plenty more eggs, after all.
A large blue dragon from the queen's clutch creeled as he tumbled out of his shell, one of his wings was caught underneath another egg somehow. A young man rushed to the hatchling's side and helped the blue free his wings.
Two smaller green's hatched, and both female dragons chose male candidates. Aseicien frowned impatiently as three eggs hatched, spilling a bronze, blue, and green onto the sands-the same as before. Again, the bronze was the first to choose, then the green dragon walked to the female candidates.
Aseicien held her breath as the large green nudged Caolla curiously, and the green fire lizard hissed warningly. Then the green looked up at Aseicien, and asked, Will you share?
Aseicien blinked back tears of joy as she knelt to hug the dragoness to her. "Drommendeth, I think Caolla will like being with you, just like I know I will!"
Drommendeth's eyes whirled happily. Good. That is as it should be.