Post by Katlyn on Oct 12, 2012 17:55:19 GMT -5
It was one of the winter’s cold nights where the snow had crusted over with a thin layer of ice. The wind had stilled for a few candle marks now, but Kolteya found that no matter how hard she tried, she just could not fall asleep. At least, it had not just been her. Tsunath kept sticking her head around the great rush divider as if checking that Hers was still there. It had become quite regular on the quarter mark and then Kolteya felt the whoosh of frigid air as her golden counterpart moved out to her ledge and into the bitter cold night. {{Tsunath?}} the gold rider asked of her dragon curiously.
[[Littles,]] was all that was said as the great gold glided her egg heavy body down to the Hatching Grounds entrance. Once inside the warmth of the Sands, Tsunath tromped a great circle for her clutch to be lain, then began the instinctive process of the labor that was involved. By the time that Kolteya had reached the Sands, three eggs lay at the center of the circular depression while the wide gold paused to take a break before the next egg.
Fraith had dozed off at the beginning of the evening, her rider falling into a deeper sleep. It wasn't until later in the night that the gold rewoke when Tsunath took off towards the Sands. Looking over to see Hers still sound asleep, the smaller gold glided down towards the cavern entrance, settling down just in just inside the Sands and placing her head down on her forelegs, watching carefully. First one, then two, then three eggs left the larger, if younger gold. ((They look lovely,)) Fraith finally said to Tsunath softly as Kolteya came to join her gold. Fraith intended to let her rider sleep for now, though she wasn't certain how much longer her rider would do so.
Tsunath’s golden head snapped up at Fraith’s words to her, her eyes whirling with uncertainty for a moment until she realized that Fraith was her only spectator at the moment. Her hide glistened with something akin to sweat in the heated Sands, but she did not seem stressed otherwise. After nudging at her nest of three eggs, she crooned softly before bespeaking Fraith finally, [[Thank you.]] Her tone was a far cry from its usual anger and annoyance, bordering on grateful and prideful if one thought of it hard enough. [[Are your Littles coming, too?]] the wide gold questioned curiously.
Fraith's head popped up at the question, but she stayed silent for a few minutes, looking at the three eggs already on the Sands. It was nice to hear Tsunath being rather polite towards her for a change, but she wasn't going to let it get to her too much. The younger gold wasn't exactly her friend, though the fact that she wasn't being excessively temperamental was a step towards that direction. Assuming that it lasted. ((Soon...tonight,)) Fraith finally answered. She was going to let her rider sleep a bit longer first. Tsunath had been on the Sands first though, which is why she waited patiently at the entrance, to see if she would be allowed there. She would find somewhere else, if need be. There was still a bit to go before her littles needed to come.
Tsunath warbled with the onset of another contraction, wide golden head drifting toward her Rider a moment before she curled around her three eggs uncomfortably. [[Your Littles can be here, too. It’s too cold for them to be anywhere else,]] the younger dragon said to her older counterpart, laying her head down on her forepaws as her swirled hide rippled with her labors.
The smaller gold's head perked up even more then, before she finally settled it back down on her forepaws as well, her tail twitching slightly behind her. ((Alright then,)) she said, though she stayed where she for now. It wasn't her time yet. ((Thank you,)) Fraith said a few moments later. She laid there silently then, watching as Tsunath continued on, imagining that there would be a few more eggs there before her own clutch decided it was time to come.
Tsunath’s swirled head bobbed in acknowledgement as she shifted to give her three eggs a berth before muscles rippled her wild hide in the movements of her next egg. She did not complain to her Rider that it hurt, instinct driving her to clutch what had been developing inside her, nor did she heed the quiet watchfulness of Fraith at the entrance of the Sands. Soon, a shimmering egg was produced and the wide gold moved to nuzzle it and move it toward the three she had clutched already, being so gentle that anyone that did not know Tsunath would not find it so surprising, yet Kolteya sat in the Stands in amazement. Her dragon was quite a strange one since the arrival of the future egg a while back.
((Ooh, that one's lovely too)) Fraith said softly when the fourth egg came out and joined its siblings on the sands. She twitched a bit more, falling silent again for a bit. Her head popped up again a bit later, having stayed silent the entire time. The twitch turned to a ripple that echoed that which was going through Tsunath's body. ((Mine...)) she said to her rider softly, knudging Ardalae awake where she slept in their weyr. ((Mine, they come,)) she said then, her rider groggy but awake enough to understand. The goldrider bundled up before waking her flit up and going to the hatching caverns. When Ardalae arrived, Fraith was pushing a small bright pink and orangy-gold egg towards the four that Tsunath had placed on the Sands already. Her fellow gold had said for warmth, after all so she figured it would be fine to intermingle the eggs.
Tsunath crooned in appreciation as she heard Fraith’s comment on her newest addition to her little clutch. Tsunath had taken a break while she watched Fraith curiously for several moments, her head popping up from her care of her eggs to see who had entered the Sands. Seeing that it was Fraith’s Rider, the gold went back to her meddling. After all, Fraith deserved to have her Rider there as well. [[Lovely one,]] the wide gold said to her older counterpart, making a nestle between two of her own eggs for the new one that belonged to Fraith.
Kolteya smiled at Ardalae’s arrival. “Looks like our dragons are gettin’ along,” she commented in mere amusement. She was enjoying this attitude of her dragon’s and relishing in the fact that she was not arguing with her lifemate every candle mark of the day. The sharing further amazed her as she watched her dragon allow the other to mingle their eggs together. Turning back to the pair of golds, she saw Fraith’s first treasure and smiled. “They’re all beautiful so far,” she said, knowing that her own dragon was far from finished and that Fraith had just begun.
Ardalae sat down by Kolteya, pulling her warm clothes up around her. "It sure is nice," she said in agreement, though she found it quite amusing as well. She watched as the two golds settled the five eggs down. It didn't even cross her mind to ask how many belonged to who. "I bet they are," Ardalae replied in agreement, knowing that eggs were always quite beautiful.
Fraith crooned softly as Tsunath helped her settle her one egg into place amongst her four. ((Thank you,)) the gold said, settling back down again as the twitching in her body seemed to ease. It seemed that the smaller gold would be moving much more slowly than her younger counterpart when it came to laying this clutch. Her one egg did seem a bit smaller compared to the other four though.
Kolteya smiled at Ardalae. “I couldn’t sleep tanight an’ neither could Tsunath an’ a while ago, I found out why when she came down here.” She smiled at the pair of golds on the Sands and wondered if her dragon’s docile ness would continue until the two clutches hatched. She sure hoped so for her sake as well as Fraith’s and Ardalae’s and the entire Weyr’s.
Tsunath nuzzled her eggs gently against Fraith’s smaller one, then laid down on one side of them, her next egg not quite ready to become known. More than likely, another of Fraith’s would come before her next one or two, but she was not in a hurry to finish her clutch‘s appearance.
Ardalae nodded in understanding as she leaned close to her friend for warmth, the night chill a bit much for her. "There's...." she had to get Copper to focus a bit before she got the number. "Five eggs now?" she asked to verify. She wasn't certain how many were hers and how many were Tsunath's, but she figured Kolteya had a better idea of that, as she had already been there a bit.
Fraith watched as Tsunath settled the eggs down and laid down beside them silently. She knew that Tsunath would be gentle with the eggs, would be careful with them, and saw no point in telling the younger gold to do so. Since Tsunath was in a decent mood for a change, she wasn't about to do or say something to jeopardize that. True to what Tsunath figured, her second egg was out a little bit later, dark in nature and being rolled up against the others.
Kolteya did not mind Ardalae’s closeness, knowing that there were no ill intentions in the gesture, especially that it happened to be her good side. Besides that, it was something she had been used to with her sister before they had Impressed their dragons, Tsunath driving them apart throughout Weyrlinghood. The chill of the big cavern sure did not help much even though the volcanically heated Sands did keep the great area warmer than most places about the Weyr. “Yeah, there’s five. Four are Tsunath’s and one is Fraith’s so far.” She could not quite make out the coloring of each of the eggs to remember which ones belonged to her dragon and which ones belonged to Ardalae’s, but she did know the counts at least, counting with her dragon on each one.
At Fraith’s second egg, Tsunath remained where she lay, debating on getting up again for another egg, but deciding against it for a while. She was actually a bit tired from expelling her first four.
The smaller gold grew restless for a little bit, shifting about, though not actually moving anywhere beyond where she also lay. ((I like littles...I don't like this,)) she said to her rider, who gave a soft giggle. It was obvious that the gold was uncomfortable and she continued to shift about a while while the others in the cavern stayed where they were. Eventually she settled and laid her head back on the sands.
Ardalae nodded, and settled down quietly. "They both seem to be taking their sweet time," she finally said to her friend when her gold settled down finally.
Tsunath stirred moments later, getting up and walking several tight circles for nearly a quarter mark, seeming more uneasy with this contraction. Finally she stopped and pushed a little harder with this one, expelling a rather large egg with a shimmer to it. The large gold stopped then and rested with that particular egg between her forepaws, giving it some extra attention for several moments.
Kolteya smiled at Ardalae as she watched her dragon mill about now and again. “Must be a big one this time,” she said as she saw the swirling glow of her dragon’s lighter colors bending and turning with the big dragon’s movements.
Fraith looked to where Tsunath's latest egg joined the sands finally, getting only a glimpse of the shimmer to it. ((Is that one of us?)) she asked the younger gold curiously, before giving a soft warble as another ripple moved through her. She wasn't too terribly happy with the whole clutching thing, she decided, but she couldn't wait for her littles to come out. She couldn't see enough of Tsunath's newest egg to be certain, but the way the younger gold was fawning over it had her curious.
Ardalae nodded some. "Yes, it must be. Fraith's too," she said in agreement, wondering what had her dragon so curious, as Fraith hadn't yet told her.
Tsunath nuzzled the egg some more before answering Fraith’s inquiry. {{No. But close enough,}} she said, gazing at the egg a while longer as it was the largest on the Sands so far. She relaxed as if she were finished, but five eggs was far from what was expected and only she knew that she had others waiting to announce their presence.
“Tsu seems awful int’rested in that one, but she says it ain’t a gold,” the former Raider said pleasantly, amused by her dragon’s show of affections.
Fraith crooned softly. ((Oh. Well, it's still a little,)) she said with a small rumbled, standing then and shifting around some. She seemed to be uncomfortable for a while longer, but moving around seemed to settle whatever it was that was bothering her and she seemed to sigh in relief before another ripple coarsed through her and two small eggs quickly joined the other four she had already lain.
"Perhaps, then, it's a bronze?" she suggested with a smile. Her dragon seemed to be very uncomfortable for a while before that quickly passed. The smaller gold informed her of the two new eggs and she smiled again.
“Yeah a bronze would be good. We need them,” Kolteya agreed as she felt her dragon tense and watched the swirling hide nuzzle her egg in with the others.
A moment of pacing afterward and the large gold expelled another, sniffed at it nonchalantly, then stepped away from it to spin in another circle to drop two more of the smaller range that eggs came in. She paused long enough to nestle the three amongst the others before walking a larger circle in the warm sand, uncomfortable as her labors grew in intensity.
Fraith settled down once more, watching as Tsunath quickly laid three more to their growing clutch. They were up to twelve eggs now, and perhaps the largest clutch that Izuko had seen for a few turns was in the process of being lain. It would certainly be a good thing, considering that their flight hadn't exactly gone as planned. The same discomfort from before forced her to get up and start pacing again, but this time it didn't pass quite so easily. She figured that she would wait it out, at least for now.
"We need every dragonet we can get," Ardalae responded, frowning some after a few moments. "I get the impression that this is a bit more uncomfortable for her than it should be," she mumbled quietly.
Tsunath paused as Fraith got up and paced again, curious as to whether or not her next egg would come before the smaller gold’s next. As she watched the older gold pace, she warbled softly at her. {{A big little?}} she asked curiously, muscles rippling to move her back into her pacing circle, patches of hide darker from her own sweating.
“Wanna wait another moment or two before we fetch a Healer?” Kolteya asked, concern for her fellow Rider and her dragon touching her voice. She turned her gaze to the smaller gold, the sliver of concern that her dragon had for the other further echoed in her own mind.
((Yes...)) Fraith replied, her eyes slowly turning to a more concerned pain than a happy pain they had been at the beginning of her clutching. She kept pacing about, but nothing seemed to be helping this time, and any time she tried to push out the next egg, it didn't seem to want to budge.
Ardalae knew that her gold wasn't saying it yet, but she could tell that Fraith was worried about the egg. "No...I don't think she needs one. She says it's just big is all," she finally replied with a sigh.
Tsunath practically stopped her own pacing as she gave the smaller gold a berth of concern. {{Must be very big,}} she commented with a warble, watching closely for a long moment before natural processes took over her own ideas and another egg found its way into a nestle in the warm sand of the combined clutch.
Kolteya watched Fraith in concern at Ardalae’s comment. “Do you wanna go to Fraith? I can take ya’,” she offered of her fellow gold rider.
Fraith looked at Tsunath and gave a small nod, switching back and forth between laying down and pacing. She didn't like this, but she didn't want her rider worrying about her. Instead, she tried to focus on watching Tsunath as she laid her eggs, giving a dragonic sigh.
"Yes please," Ardalae finally rplied, grateful that the other goldrider was going to help her go out to her gold. ((We're coming out there, love,)) she warned her gold, who rumbled softly. Copper was sound asleep and she didn't want to wake the little flit up.
Kolteya stood, then offered her hand to Ardalae by touching her shoulder to say that she had stood up. “As soon as you’re ready,” she said as she waited for the other goldrider to stand and sort herself to her liking. Once she got the confirmation from her friend, she led her down the few steps to the hot sands and over to Fraith’s worried form in the slowly lightening cavern.
While her Rider escorted Fraith’s Rider to the smaller gold, Tsunath paced a small circle and produced another rather large, shimmery egg and regarded it with the same affection that she had the one they thought to be a bronze. Watching the pair of riders closely, she eventually dismissed them as they were there to bother with Fraith’s problem with her yet to be revealed egg. She did reach out for the other treasured egg and coddled the two between her forepaws as she watched her Rider near Fraith.
Ardalae took Kolteya's offered hand and let her friend help her out to her gold, stepping carefully on the stairs, though moving a bit more quickly once they got onto the sands. Fraith headbutted her when she got to her gold, and said, ((I think it's just very big for me.)) The news worried her rider some more, though the gold didn't want Arda to worry at all. Fraith was relatively small, compared to the other two adult golds. If she was having this issue with her first clutch, who knew what would happen with her future clutches. But the gold obviously wasn't too concerned just yet.
[] the great gold said with a bit of concern to her mind voice as she coddled the two eggs she favored so far. She was growing tired, but she was in a brief resting stage at the moment.
As Kolteya escorted Ardalae to Fraith, she glanced toward her dragon, gazing briefly at the pair of eggs coddled in her forepaws. {{Are they gold eggs, Love?}} the former Raider asked curiously of her dragon, though it was extremely rare to see two gold eggs in a clutch.
The great gold crooned softly and licked each egg. [[They’re my favorites,]] she said with pride, neither saying that they were as special as gold or not.
The answer withdrew a quiet chuckle from Kolteya as she turned back to Fraith and Ardalae. “We have at least two special eggs from Tsunath, but she’s not saying that they’re gold or not,” she said, looking at Fraith.
Ardalae sighed and placed her hand on her gold's muzzle for a few minutes while her gold shifted about. ((Oh, I don't imagine that it's quite that big,)) she replied to Tsunath. Her rider had to smile at her small gold's soft retort to the idea of bringing the healer's out. Besides, both knew that the majority of the Weyr was sound asleep after the night's earlier festivities. Ardalae herself felt bad that she had left K'ryn alone, but he'd seemed very soundly asleep. Besides, this was one of those few things were it was T'jas's right to be there primarily. And he and Hirazeth were sound asleep.
After a short while, Ardalae moved away from her gold. Fraith was getting restless again. "We should go back to the stands. She says she's fine," the goldrider told Kolteya and the pair of riders headed back. It was still cold, so she was grateful there was another rider there.
Once Kolteya and Ardalae headed back toward the Stands, Tsunath licked each of the two eggs that she coddled before nudging them gently into the nest and moving away from the glistening eggs to pace again. Soon, there were two more eggs added to the growing nest of eggs between the two golds and the great gold nuzzled at the freshly lain eggs a few more moments before rippling again with her signs of labor.
Fraith got back up from laying down for quite a while, at least half a candlemark, shortly after the riders returned to their seats. She knew that Tsunath had gotten back up to lay a few more eggs, but she had quit paying attention at that point. Her one egg was much more important, even more important that the two favorited ones. Fraith knew neither were a gold, just instinctively. But that wasn't at the front of her mind.
No, now she was focused on the once again moving egg. It was indeed large, and it took her almost the rest of a candlemark to finally get it pushed out. With a huff, the gold laid down next to her latest addition, coddling it much the way Tsunath had been coddling the other two eggs. It was an interesting egg, half white and almost heavenly, the other half scary. ((Almost done,)) she said to all present. For now, she needed a short break though.
Tsunath stopped her pacing to see what Fraith had finally expelled and studied the odd looking egg closely. [[Hopefully the rest ain’t as big,]] the wide gold stated, using a word that her Rider used often in place of a more grammatical word. Turning away from the oddly colored egg that Fraith coddled, the great gold soon pushed out another egg.
((I doubt there are. There's only a few more left for me. They feel small,)) the gold said as she rested and watched Tsunath settle all the eggs together. Eventually the gold rolled her oddly colored, large egg towards the growing pile and stood up, moving a bit away before she circled and dropped another egg. It wasn't large like the last, but it wasn't small like the others she had lain thus far. It also seemed oddly colored, but she ignored it other than to roll it over to the others. Obviously it wasn't special like the last one.
((Almost done,)) she repeated again, not bothering to lay down this time around. It would only be a short matter of time for the small gold to finish up.
Studying the nest of 19 eggs so far, Tsunath paused to nuzzle one or two in tighter against the others, then padded a deep depression a short distance away before working hard at another egg, yet the egg that finally came forth was quite small compared to most of her eggs and even a handful of Fraith’s eggs. [[Too small to make such a fuss over,]] the great gold said as she rolled the tiny egg toward the others, but paused in her trek to abandon it and return to her pacing depression.
((Nothing wrong with small, you know)) the smaller gold said, almost huffing as though the gold's words upset her, though they didn't. She was more than used to being the smallest gold at the weyr.
After a few moments, she stood again, and in almost an anticlimatic affair, popped out to more, somewhat similiarly colored eggs out in a rapid succession. ((All out,)) she said then, in that same anticlimatic tone that these last two eggs for her had come out. Now with 22 eggs on the sands, and all intermingled, they waited only for Tsunath's eggs.
((Only eight?)) Ardalae confirmed from her gold, who silently agreed. True, for a first clutch, it was quite small, but then again they were talking about a small gold and a relatively short flight.
At nearly the same time as Fraith laid her last egg, Tsunath paused a long moment before giving a final push for her current egg, producing a rather large egg compared to most of hers and then stopping to pant before looking at her tiny egg that was part way to the others and that of the one she had just expelled. After a moment, her heaving sides took on a more rhythmic state, becoming ever so slowly her normal breathing patterns. [[All done,]] she announced with pride as she turned to gently roll her last two eggs into the combined nest of their eggs.
After circling the nest and Fraith a moment, Tsunath settled down on the entrance side of the cavern to shield their Littles from any little winds that dared make it that far into the cavern, laying her head down with a satisfied sigh. [[They are safe and warm now, don’t you think, Fraith?]] the swirled gold asked of her smaller counterpart.
{{15 eggs, my Love?}} came the curious inquiry of Kolteya from her seat in the Stands next to Ardalae.
[[Yes,]] came the sleepy reply as the great gold nuzzled her two favorite eggs one more time before closing her multifaceted eyes to take a nap before the Weyr awoke to find their treasure.
“Tsunath says 15 for her. How many for Fraith?” Kolteya asked of her fellow goldrider.
Ardalae smiled and curled up close to her fellow rider against the cold. "Eight for her. So twenty-three total," she said. It was a healthy sized clutch, though in reality it was two clutches. The gold rider yawned just as Fraith did and closed her eyes.
((Yes, they'll all be safe,)) the gold agreed as Tsunath blocked the entrance. She laid down on the other side and yawned as well, joining in a nap.
A few candlemarks later, the sun would rise to reveal two riders and their golden dragons sound asleep in the Hatching caverns, with twenty-three brand new eggs. Any and all were allowed to come see, so long as they didn't wander onto the Sands themselves.
[[Littles,]] was all that was said as the great gold glided her egg heavy body down to the Hatching Grounds entrance. Once inside the warmth of the Sands, Tsunath tromped a great circle for her clutch to be lain, then began the instinctive process of the labor that was involved. By the time that Kolteya had reached the Sands, three eggs lay at the center of the circular depression while the wide gold paused to take a break before the next egg.
Fraith had dozed off at the beginning of the evening, her rider falling into a deeper sleep. It wasn't until later in the night that the gold rewoke when Tsunath took off towards the Sands. Looking over to see Hers still sound asleep, the smaller gold glided down towards the cavern entrance, settling down just in just inside the Sands and placing her head down on her forelegs, watching carefully. First one, then two, then three eggs left the larger, if younger gold. ((They look lovely,)) Fraith finally said to Tsunath softly as Kolteya came to join her gold. Fraith intended to let her rider sleep for now, though she wasn't certain how much longer her rider would do so.
Tsunath’s golden head snapped up at Fraith’s words to her, her eyes whirling with uncertainty for a moment until she realized that Fraith was her only spectator at the moment. Her hide glistened with something akin to sweat in the heated Sands, but she did not seem stressed otherwise. After nudging at her nest of three eggs, she crooned softly before bespeaking Fraith finally, [[Thank you.]] Her tone was a far cry from its usual anger and annoyance, bordering on grateful and prideful if one thought of it hard enough. [[Are your Littles coming, too?]] the wide gold questioned curiously.
Fraith's head popped up at the question, but she stayed silent for a few minutes, looking at the three eggs already on the Sands. It was nice to hear Tsunath being rather polite towards her for a change, but she wasn't going to let it get to her too much. The younger gold wasn't exactly her friend, though the fact that she wasn't being excessively temperamental was a step towards that direction. Assuming that it lasted. ((Soon...tonight,)) Fraith finally answered. She was going to let her rider sleep a bit longer first. Tsunath had been on the Sands first though, which is why she waited patiently at the entrance, to see if she would be allowed there. She would find somewhere else, if need be. There was still a bit to go before her littles needed to come.
Tsunath warbled with the onset of another contraction, wide golden head drifting toward her Rider a moment before she curled around her three eggs uncomfortably. [[Your Littles can be here, too. It’s too cold for them to be anywhere else,]] the younger dragon said to her older counterpart, laying her head down on her forepaws as her swirled hide rippled with her labors.
The smaller gold's head perked up even more then, before she finally settled it back down on her forepaws as well, her tail twitching slightly behind her. ((Alright then,)) she said, though she stayed where she for now. It wasn't her time yet. ((Thank you,)) Fraith said a few moments later. She laid there silently then, watching as Tsunath continued on, imagining that there would be a few more eggs there before her own clutch decided it was time to come.
Tsunath’s swirled head bobbed in acknowledgement as she shifted to give her three eggs a berth before muscles rippled her wild hide in the movements of her next egg. She did not complain to her Rider that it hurt, instinct driving her to clutch what had been developing inside her, nor did she heed the quiet watchfulness of Fraith at the entrance of the Sands. Soon, a shimmering egg was produced and the wide gold moved to nuzzle it and move it toward the three she had clutched already, being so gentle that anyone that did not know Tsunath would not find it so surprising, yet Kolteya sat in the Stands in amazement. Her dragon was quite a strange one since the arrival of the future egg a while back.
((Ooh, that one's lovely too)) Fraith said softly when the fourth egg came out and joined its siblings on the sands. She twitched a bit more, falling silent again for a bit. Her head popped up again a bit later, having stayed silent the entire time. The twitch turned to a ripple that echoed that which was going through Tsunath's body. ((Mine...)) she said to her rider softly, knudging Ardalae awake where she slept in their weyr. ((Mine, they come,)) she said then, her rider groggy but awake enough to understand. The goldrider bundled up before waking her flit up and going to the hatching caverns. When Ardalae arrived, Fraith was pushing a small bright pink and orangy-gold egg towards the four that Tsunath had placed on the Sands already. Her fellow gold had said for warmth, after all so she figured it would be fine to intermingle the eggs.
Tsunath crooned in appreciation as she heard Fraith’s comment on her newest addition to her little clutch. Tsunath had taken a break while she watched Fraith curiously for several moments, her head popping up from her care of her eggs to see who had entered the Sands. Seeing that it was Fraith’s Rider, the gold went back to her meddling. After all, Fraith deserved to have her Rider there as well. [[Lovely one,]] the wide gold said to her older counterpart, making a nestle between two of her own eggs for the new one that belonged to Fraith.
Kolteya smiled at Ardalae’s arrival. “Looks like our dragons are gettin’ along,” she commented in mere amusement. She was enjoying this attitude of her dragon’s and relishing in the fact that she was not arguing with her lifemate every candle mark of the day. The sharing further amazed her as she watched her dragon allow the other to mingle their eggs together. Turning back to the pair of golds, she saw Fraith’s first treasure and smiled. “They’re all beautiful so far,” she said, knowing that her own dragon was far from finished and that Fraith had just begun.
Ardalae sat down by Kolteya, pulling her warm clothes up around her. "It sure is nice," she said in agreement, though she found it quite amusing as well. She watched as the two golds settled the five eggs down. It didn't even cross her mind to ask how many belonged to who. "I bet they are," Ardalae replied in agreement, knowing that eggs were always quite beautiful.
Fraith crooned softly as Tsunath helped her settle her one egg into place amongst her four. ((Thank you,)) the gold said, settling back down again as the twitching in her body seemed to ease. It seemed that the smaller gold would be moving much more slowly than her younger counterpart when it came to laying this clutch. Her one egg did seem a bit smaller compared to the other four though.
Kolteya smiled at Ardalae. “I couldn’t sleep tanight an’ neither could Tsunath an’ a while ago, I found out why when she came down here.” She smiled at the pair of golds on the Sands and wondered if her dragon’s docile ness would continue until the two clutches hatched. She sure hoped so for her sake as well as Fraith’s and Ardalae’s and the entire Weyr’s.
Tsunath nuzzled her eggs gently against Fraith’s smaller one, then laid down on one side of them, her next egg not quite ready to become known. More than likely, another of Fraith’s would come before her next one or two, but she was not in a hurry to finish her clutch‘s appearance.
Ardalae nodded in understanding as she leaned close to her friend for warmth, the night chill a bit much for her. "There's...." she had to get Copper to focus a bit before she got the number. "Five eggs now?" she asked to verify. She wasn't certain how many were hers and how many were Tsunath's, but she figured Kolteya had a better idea of that, as she had already been there a bit.
Fraith watched as Tsunath settled the eggs down and laid down beside them silently. She knew that Tsunath would be gentle with the eggs, would be careful with them, and saw no point in telling the younger gold to do so. Since Tsunath was in a decent mood for a change, she wasn't about to do or say something to jeopardize that. True to what Tsunath figured, her second egg was out a little bit later, dark in nature and being rolled up against the others.
Kolteya did not mind Ardalae’s closeness, knowing that there were no ill intentions in the gesture, especially that it happened to be her good side. Besides that, it was something she had been used to with her sister before they had Impressed their dragons, Tsunath driving them apart throughout Weyrlinghood. The chill of the big cavern sure did not help much even though the volcanically heated Sands did keep the great area warmer than most places about the Weyr. “Yeah, there’s five. Four are Tsunath’s and one is Fraith’s so far.” She could not quite make out the coloring of each of the eggs to remember which ones belonged to her dragon and which ones belonged to Ardalae’s, but she did know the counts at least, counting with her dragon on each one.
At Fraith’s second egg, Tsunath remained where she lay, debating on getting up again for another egg, but deciding against it for a while. She was actually a bit tired from expelling her first four.
The smaller gold grew restless for a little bit, shifting about, though not actually moving anywhere beyond where she also lay. ((I like littles...I don't like this,)) she said to her rider, who gave a soft giggle. It was obvious that the gold was uncomfortable and she continued to shift about a while while the others in the cavern stayed where they were. Eventually she settled and laid her head back on the sands.
Ardalae nodded, and settled down quietly. "They both seem to be taking their sweet time," she finally said to her friend when her gold settled down finally.
Tsunath stirred moments later, getting up and walking several tight circles for nearly a quarter mark, seeming more uneasy with this contraction. Finally she stopped and pushed a little harder with this one, expelling a rather large egg with a shimmer to it. The large gold stopped then and rested with that particular egg between her forepaws, giving it some extra attention for several moments.
Kolteya smiled at Ardalae as she watched her dragon mill about now and again. “Must be a big one this time,” she said as she saw the swirling glow of her dragon’s lighter colors bending and turning with the big dragon’s movements.
Fraith looked to where Tsunath's latest egg joined the sands finally, getting only a glimpse of the shimmer to it. ((Is that one of us?)) she asked the younger gold curiously, before giving a soft warble as another ripple moved through her. She wasn't too terribly happy with the whole clutching thing, she decided, but she couldn't wait for her littles to come out. She couldn't see enough of Tsunath's newest egg to be certain, but the way the younger gold was fawning over it had her curious.
Ardalae nodded some. "Yes, it must be. Fraith's too," she said in agreement, wondering what had her dragon so curious, as Fraith hadn't yet told her.
Tsunath nuzzled the egg some more before answering Fraith’s inquiry. {{No. But close enough,}} she said, gazing at the egg a while longer as it was the largest on the Sands so far. She relaxed as if she were finished, but five eggs was far from what was expected and only she knew that she had others waiting to announce their presence.
“Tsu seems awful int’rested in that one, but she says it ain’t a gold,” the former Raider said pleasantly, amused by her dragon’s show of affections.
Fraith crooned softly. ((Oh. Well, it's still a little,)) she said with a small rumbled, standing then and shifting around some. She seemed to be uncomfortable for a while longer, but moving around seemed to settle whatever it was that was bothering her and she seemed to sigh in relief before another ripple coarsed through her and two small eggs quickly joined the other four she had already lain.
"Perhaps, then, it's a bronze?" she suggested with a smile. Her dragon seemed to be very uncomfortable for a while before that quickly passed. The smaller gold informed her of the two new eggs and she smiled again.
“Yeah a bronze would be good. We need them,” Kolteya agreed as she felt her dragon tense and watched the swirling hide nuzzle her egg in with the others.
A moment of pacing afterward and the large gold expelled another, sniffed at it nonchalantly, then stepped away from it to spin in another circle to drop two more of the smaller range that eggs came in. She paused long enough to nestle the three amongst the others before walking a larger circle in the warm sand, uncomfortable as her labors grew in intensity.
Fraith settled down once more, watching as Tsunath quickly laid three more to their growing clutch. They were up to twelve eggs now, and perhaps the largest clutch that Izuko had seen for a few turns was in the process of being lain. It would certainly be a good thing, considering that their flight hadn't exactly gone as planned. The same discomfort from before forced her to get up and start pacing again, but this time it didn't pass quite so easily. She figured that she would wait it out, at least for now.
"We need every dragonet we can get," Ardalae responded, frowning some after a few moments. "I get the impression that this is a bit more uncomfortable for her than it should be," she mumbled quietly.
Tsunath paused as Fraith got up and paced again, curious as to whether or not her next egg would come before the smaller gold’s next. As she watched the older gold pace, she warbled softly at her. {{A big little?}} she asked curiously, muscles rippling to move her back into her pacing circle, patches of hide darker from her own sweating.
“Wanna wait another moment or two before we fetch a Healer?” Kolteya asked, concern for her fellow Rider and her dragon touching her voice. She turned her gaze to the smaller gold, the sliver of concern that her dragon had for the other further echoed in her own mind.
((Yes...)) Fraith replied, her eyes slowly turning to a more concerned pain than a happy pain they had been at the beginning of her clutching. She kept pacing about, but nothing seemed to be helping this time, and any time she tried to push out the next egg, it didn't seem to want to budge.
Ardalae knew that her gold wasn't saying it yet, but she could tell that Fraith was worried about the egg. "No...I don't think she needs one. She says it's just big is all," she finally replied with a sigh.
Tsunath practically stopped her own pacing as she gave the smaller gold a berth of concern. {{Must be very big,}} she commented with a warble, watching closely for a long moment before natural processes took over her own ideas and another egg found its way into a nestle in the warm sand of the combined clutch.
Kolteya watched Fraith in concern at Ardalae’s comment. “Do you wanna go to Fraith? I can take ya’,” she offered of her fellow gold rider.
Fraith looked at Tsunath and gave a small nod, switching back and forth between laying down and pacing. She didn't like this, but she didn't want her rider worrying about her. Instead, she tried to focus on watching Tsunath as she laid her eggs, giving a dragonic sigh.
"Yes please," Ardalae finally rplied, grateful that the other goldrider was going to help her go out to her gold. ((We're coming out there, love,)) she warned her gold, who rumbled softly. Copper was sound asleep and she didn't want to wake the little flit up.
Kolteya stood, then offered her hand to Ardalae by touching her shoulder to say that she had stood up. “As soon as you’re ready,” she said as she waited for the other goldrider to stand and sort herself to her liking. Once she got the confirmation from her friend, she led her down the few steps to the hot sands and over to Fraith’s worried form in the slowly lightening cavern.
While her Rider escorted Fraith’s Rider to the smaller gold, Tsunath paced a small circle and produced another rather large, shimmery egg and regarded it with the same affection that she had the one they thought to be a bronze. Watching the pair of riders closely, she eventually dismissed them as they were there to bother with Fraith’s problem with her yet to be revealed egg. She did reach out for the other treasured egg and coddled the two between her forepaws as she watched her Rider near Fraith.
Ardalae took Kolteya's offered hand and let her friend help her out to her gold, stepping carefully on the stairs, though moving a bit more quickly once they got onto the sands. Fraith headbutted her when she got to her gold, and said, ((I think it's just very big for me.)) The news worried her rider some more, though the gold didn't want Arda to worry at all. Fraith was relatively small, compared to the other two adult golds. If she was having this issue with her first clutch, who knew what would happen with her future clutches. But the gold obviously wasn't too concerned just yet.
[] the great gold said with a bit of concern to her mind voice as she coddled the two eggs she favored so far. She was growing tired, but she was in a brief resting stage at the moment.
As Kolteya escorted Ardalae to Fraith, she glanced toward her dragon, gazing briefly at the pair of eggs coddled in her forepaws. {{Are they gold eggs, Love?}} the former Raider asked curiously of her dragon, though it was extremely rare to see two gold eggs in a clutch.
The great gold crooned softly and licked each egg. [[They’re my favorites,]] she said with pride, neither saying that they were as special as gold or not.
The answer withdrew a quiet chuckle from Kolteya as she turned back to Fraith and Ardalae. “We have at least two special eggs from Tsunath, but she’s not saying that they’re gold or not,” she said, looking at Fraith.
Ardalae sighed and placed her hand on her gold's muzzle for a few minutes while her gold shifted about. ((Oh, I don't imagine that it's quite that big,)) she replied to Tsunath. Her rider had to smile at her small gold's soft retort to the idea of bringing the healer's out. Besides, both knew that the majority of the Weyr was sound asleep after the night's earlier festivities. Ardalae herself felt bad that she had left K'ryn alone, but he'd seemed very soundly asleep. Besides, this was one of those few things were it was T'jas's right to be there primarily. And he and Hirazeth were sound asleep.
After a short while, Ardalae moved away from her gold. Fraith was getting restless again. "We should go back to the stands. She says she's fine," the goldrider told Kolteya and the pair of riders headed back. It was still cold, so she was grateful there was another rider there.
Once Kolteya and Ardalae headed back toward the Stands, Tsunath licked each of the two eggs that she coddled before nudging them gently into the nest and moving away from the glistening eggs to pace again. Soon, there were two more eggs added to the growing nest of eggs between the two golds and the great gold nuzzled at the freshly lain eggs a few more moments before rippling again with her signs of labor.
Fraith got back up from laying down for quite a while, at least half a candlemark, shortly after the riders returned to their seats. She knew that Tsunath had gotten back up to lay a few more eggs, but she had quit paying attention at that point. Her one egg was much more important, even more important that the two favorited ones. Fraith knew neither were a gold, just instinctively. But that wasn't at the front of her mind.
No, now she was focused on the once again moving egg. It was indeed large, and it took her almost the rest of a candlemark to finally get it pushed out. With a huff, the gold laid down next to her latest addition, coddling it much the way Tsunath had been coddling the other two eggs. It was an interesting egg, half white and almost heavenly, the other half scary. ((Almost done,)) she said to all present. For now, she needed a short break though.
Tsunath stopped her pacing to see what Fraith had finally expelled and studied the odd looking egg closely. [[Hopefully the rest ain’t as big,]] the wide gold stated, using a word that her Rider used often in place of a more grammatical word. Turning away from the oddly colored egg that Fraith coddled, the great gold soon pushed out another egg.
((I doubt there are. There's only a few more left for me. They feel small,)) the gold said as she rested and watched Tsunath settle all the eggs together. Eventually the gold rolled her oddly colored, large egg towards the growing pile and stood up, moving a bit away before she circled and dropped another egg. It wasn't large like the last, but it wasn't small like the others she had lain thus far. It also seemed oddly colored, but she ignored it other than to roll it over to the others. Obviously it wasn't special like the last one.
((Almost done,)) she repeated again, not bothering to lay down this time around. It would only be a short matter of time for the small gold to finish up.
Studying the nest of 19 eggs so far, Tsunath paused to nuzzle one or two in tighter against the others, then padded a deep depression a short distance away before working hard at another egg, yet the egg that finally came forth was quite small compared to most of her eggs and even a handful of Fraith’s eggs. [[Too small to make such a fuss over,]] the great gold said as she rolled the tiny egg toward the others, but paused in her trek to abandon it and return to her pacing depression.
((Nothing wrong with small, you know)) the smaller gold said, almost huffing as though the gold's words upset her, though they didn't. She was more than used to being the smallest gold at the weyr.
After a few moments, she stood again, and in almost an anticlimatic affair, popped out to more, somewhat similiarly colored eggs out in a rapid succession. ((All out,)) she said then, in that same anticlimatic tone that these last two eggs for her had come out. Now with 22 eggs on the sands, and all intermingled, they waited only for Tsunath's eggs.
((Only eight?)) Ardalae confirmed from her gold, who silently agreed. True, for a first clutch, it was quite small, but then again they were talking about a small gold and a relatively short flight.
At nearly the same time as Fraith laid her last egg, Tsunath paused a long moment before giving a final push for her current egg, producing a rather large egg compared to most of hers and then stopping to pant before looking at her tiny egg that was part way to the others and that of the one she had just expelled. After a moment, her heaving sides took on a more rhythmic state, becoming ever so slowly her normal breathing patterns. [[All done,]] she announced with pride as she turned to gently roll her last two eggs into the combined nest of their eggs.
After circling the nest and Fraith a moment, Tsunath settled down on the entrance side of the cavern to shield their Littles from any little winds that dared make it that far into the cavern, laying her head down with a satisfied sigh. [[They are safe and warm now, don’t you think, Fraith?]] the swirled gold asked of her smaller counterpart.
{{15 eggs, my Love?}} came the curious inquiry of Kolteya from her seat in the Stands next to Ardalae.
[[Yes,]] came the sleepy reply as the great gold nuzzled her two favorite eggs one more time before closing her multifaceted eyes to take a nap before the Weyr awoke to find their treasure.
“Tsunath says 15 for her. How many for Fraith?” Kolteya asked of her fellow goldrider.
Ardalae smiled and curled up close to her fellow rider against the cold. "Eight for her. So twenty-three total," she said. It was a healthy sized clutch, though in reality it was two clutches. The gold rider yawned just as Fraith did and closed her eyes.
((Yes, they'll all be safe,)) the gold agreed as Tsunath blocked the entrance. She laid down on the other side and yawned as well, joining in a nap.
A few candlemarks later, the sun would rise to reveal two riders and their golden dragons sound asleep in the Hatching caverns, with twenty-three brand new eggs. Any and all were allowed to come see, so long as they didn't wander onto the Sands themselves.
