E'let & Kinneth

The sun was barely above the hills, but Eleter was already up. He was alone, since few people except the drudges would be up by now, but he liked the peace and quiet as he sat by the beach of the lake that gave Crost Lake Hold its name. As he sat on the sandy ground, he was supposed to be working on writing down ballads before the harper's lesson began, but his heart wasn't really in it. He kept his eyes on the beach instead, watching for the flash of gold that meant a queen fire lizard was near. He'd seen her flying around the hold, especially hanging around the strips of sandy land around the lake's edge. She was obvious gravid with eggs and would clutch soon; Eleter intended to be there when she did--if he was the first person to find the clutch, he'd definitely be able to get a good egg or two for his own.
He fidgeted impatiently, brushing sand off of his legs. His mother would be dismayed when she saw the state of his clothes, but it was nothing she wasn't used to. Finally, the gold fire lizard appeared from between suddenly, soaring low over the lake. She had a red ribbon tied onto one of her front legs, which meant she probably belonged to someone, but Eleter was pretty sure it wasn't anyone from the Hold. If the queen had snuck out here to lay a clutch far from where she belonged, it wasn't likely that her owner would ever find it. And Eleter wouldn't have to tell anyone what he suspected when he could just say he found it by accident.
The fire lizard still flew over the lake, but she suddenly dived down behind some rocks. Eleter leapt to his feet and ran toward where she had landed, but as soon as she saw him, she hissed and flew a short distance away, watching him warily. Disappointed, he backed away. Obviously she wasn't going to lay her clutch while he was there. He shrugged and noted the area in his memory. Hopefully, when he came back later, there'd be a fire lizard clutch.

It was two boring days of lessons and chores before he could get away to check on 'his' fire lizard again, but as it turned out, his somewhat-strained patience was well worth. As he searched the sandy beach of the lake for fire lizards or eggs, he heard a hiss from the fire lizard queen--she'd holed herself away in a small cave-like pocket in the rock face, and there was definitely the pale curve of eggshells visible as well. The gold hissed again and flared her wings, protecting her clutch, and Eleter backed away. Perhaps it would be better if he came back later. He could hardly carry away more than one or two eggs by himself, anyway. Still, this was a very good sign.
With only a little begging on his part, he managed to convince his eldest brother Eldren to go out with a few friends and retrieve the eggs. They had to wait until the eggs had hardened a bit, but there were half a dozen warmed pots ready by the time they set out. Eleter carried one of the pots, already wondering what he was going to call his pet when he got an egg, and had to be reminded by Eldren to show the others where the eggs were. "We can't hang around here all day," The burly nineteen-turn-old said impatiently. "We still have to deal with the mother too, if she's still around."
Eleter had neglected to mention seeing the queen fire lizard when he'd reported the clutch, mostly because he'd skipped out on a lot of stuff he was supposed to have been doing when he'd been watching her. As they approached the cave, there was a flash of gold some distance away over the water, pointed out by one of Eldren's friends. "Look, it's a gold!"
"Definitely the clutchmother then," Eldren said. "Good, let's get this over with quickly, before she comes back. I doubt we have enough pots for all the eggs, though, so we'll have to leave some behind."
Eleter frowned, a little annoyed at how quickly he'd been seemingly forgotten, now that Eldren had taken charge, as usual. Still, as long as he got an egg out of it, he would deal with it. Especially since, as the finder of the clutch, he got first pick. Each of the people gathered around reached carefully into the little hole and picked up an egg or two. Unsurprisingly, most of them favored the larger eggs, though there was no sign of a telltale golden sheen on any of them. Eleter, however, had his eye on one of the medium-sized eggs, one with an unusually bright sea-green shell. He grabbed that one, and then another smaller one since he had enough room. And that was it; it was over surprisingly quickly. The holders were away before the queen returned, and passed their prizes around when they returned. Each member of Eleter's family recieved one, and Eleter of course picked out his sea-green egg immediately. Though Eldren had chosen the largest egg in the clutch and was hoping for a bronze, luckily for Eleter, his other older brother had not been interested in taking care of a fire lizard, and had given his egg to Eleter.

Eleter was even more distracted than usual over the next few weeks while he waited for his two eggs to hatch. He spent his time thinking up names for them and how he would train them to fetch things for him when he was supposed to be listening to the Harper. It was a relief to his teachers when the two small eggs in his pot began to rock, making a clicking noise as they hit the sides of their container.
Eleter was ready immediately; he jogged quickly down to the kitchens to get some meat, warning the rest of the hold that the eggs would be hatching soon in the process, and then raced back up to his room. He hadn't missed much; the larger egg had a deep crack right down the middle of the sea-green shell, while the smaller pale egg was still uncracked, though rocking harder than before. As Eleter stood ready with food, the crack on the larger egg begun to split, and he heard an urgent peeping sound as a green snout emerged. He grinned as the green hatchling fought her way out of her shell, finally unfurling her newborn wings clumsily as she finished, and the boy coaxed her to him with the food he held. She stumbled over to him readily, taking the meat gratefully and hummed happily as she curled up beside him.
Meanwhile, the other egg was starting to hatch in earnest, and as Eleter divided his attention between his green and the new hatchling, a deep blue tail poked out from one end of the shell, followed by a pair of strong, blue hindquarters. Before long, the blue was likewise coaxed to Eleter's hand and fed, and the two were soon named, as well. The blue, he'd decided, would be Squall, and the green from his chosen egg was named Shell.

A month passed as Eleter cared for his new pets, and then another, with Squall finally starting to outstrip Shell in size as they continued to grow. Feeding and oiling the pair of flitters proved to be more work than he had originally counted on, but he certainly didn't regret it. Eldren's egg had hatched into a bronze, as expected, and his brother was being rather insufferable about it as a result, but Eleter was not as picky. After all, he had two fire lizards to his brother's one, and he didn't care at all which colors they happened to be.
Shell and Squall were still young, but larger and braver than they were before, starting to explore their surroundings even when Eleter was not around. Usually, though, at least one of the flits would accompany him, riding on his shoulder or in the crook of his arm whenever he could get away with it. This day, it was both, with Squall having claimed his left shoulder while green Shell was nestled in the crook of his right arm.
Eleter was particularly excited today, because he had heard that Searchdragons were due to arrive at Crost Lake Hold today. It was the first time they had come since Eleter had been old enough to be Searched, and it was the first time he'd be presented to them with the rest of the children. His parents knew how obsessed he could be about dragons, and with two older, stronger (and unSearchworthy) boys ready to take over the running of the Hold, they had no objections to letting him stand if he was found worthy.
In fact, Eleter was one of the first children outside once the dragons arrived; they were two blues and a green, and the boy was already falling into his place in line as the dragons circled. Squall chirped, curious at the larger versions of himself, and Eleter stroked the fire lizard's head fondly. There was some talking between his parents and the searchriders first, but soon enough, the dragons began looking at the kids in earnest, singling out one or two to get a closer look. They didn't seem to be having any luck so far, but then one of the blues came to Eleter and stopped, huge whirling eyes blinking slowly as he stared, though Eleter wasn't sure whether he was staring at him or his fire lizards.
The dragon's rider came over to him, with a grin, which Eleter returned hopefully. "He says he thinks you'll be able to Impress a dragon if you stand for Opazath's clutch. Would you like to come to Aneris Weyr?" the dragonrider said.
"Yes!" Eleter practically shouted the response.