[G] [H] 739.10.13 | What Dreams May Come

Mulrissa searched wildly through the chaotic mess that was the Sands, trying to find her children. She couldn’t do this again, she’d already lost two of her children and her mate in an instant, she couldn’t lose the other two. The fear clawed up her throat until she found her son, arms around his sister, revealed as Candidates standing in front of them moved away, and she let out a sob, overcome with the relief they were alive. Chalris looked up, as if sensing her looking at them, and met her gaze, giving her a nod. They were alright. Rissa closed her eyes for a moment, shaking. Her children were alright.

Plenty of other people’s children weren’t though, and Mulrissa knew she would feel guilty about that later, but right then she didn’t care. She could only feel so many emotions at once. Her own crisis dealt with, Rissa turned her awareness to Bedith, wanting to check in with her dragon, and was shocked when she found nothing. Well, not nothing, Bedith was there, as she always was, but she wasn’t feeling anything. It was as if the gold was completely numb. Bedith added her voice to Syrendryth’s when he called to get everyone’s attention, but she still felt nothing.

’Sweetheart, are you alright?’ Rissa asked, deeply concerned. I’m fine, Bedith replied, but where the queen was usually warm, her happiness sunlight, her anger a fire, now she was ice. And Mulrissa feared it was her fault. The fear for Chalris and Ginorra had dragged her back to her memories of after the Landslide; Rissa recognized the numbness, because she’d lived in it for a month afterwards, before Bedith had hatched and made everything just a little bit better. Dragons weren’t supposed to feel grief for their hatchlings like this, they were different, which meant Rissa’s fear and memories had done something to Bedith. That was the only thing she could think of that made sense. ’I’m sorry, Bedith, she though quietly, leaning into her dragon’s leg. A few moments later, Chalris and Ginorra appeared, having decided they wanted to be there to support their mother. Mulrissa wasn’t sure if part of it was that they thought it was safer next to the gold dragon, but she wasn’t going to question it, and she wouldn’t blame them if it was. It meant they were there with her.

She gave each of them a hug, before stepping back a moment to check in on everyone else. T’ryn seemed to be doing rather well, organizing everyone, keeping things under control, and Indivara was with the new Weyrlings, taking care of them. Mulrissa wasn’t sure if there was anything left for her to do, but knew there was everything for her to do. If she could, she’d stay with Bedith and her children, but Rissa knew she needed to be helping. As rider of the Clutch mother, she had to. With a last hug of Bedith’s leg, Rissa went off to help T’ryn with whatever he was doing; a unified front made people feel safer, right?

1:37

After an eternity and no time at all, another egg split open and a green tumbled out, causing many people to stop what they were doing to stare at her. Pride’s appearance came as something of a surprise; most people seemed to have forgotten that there were still eggs left to hatch. Even the dragonet seemed subdued by the heavy mood hanging over the Sands, and the little green didn’t really seem to want to be there. All the emotions around her were so strong and everyone was so upset and she didn’t like it, and quickly Impressed so at least she wouldn’t have to deal with it alone.

1:51

About ten minutes later another brown hatched, followed closely by a green. Power didn’t seem overly affected by the somber mood, and boldly bounded off towards the side of the Sands where most of the Candidates still clustered. Few had really ventured very far back onto the Sands yet. She skidded to a halt in front of one of the gold Candidates, kicking up sand behind her, and she chirped at the girl, butting her head softly with her own in greeting.

The brown was much slower to move. Slowly, he wandered the Sands, eventually reaching an area the Healers had set up for the dead and injured. Devotion poked his head around the injured, chirring softly, before coming across one of the dead Candidates. With a wail Devotion threw himself at the young man, curling alongside the body and resting his head where he could lean it against the dead boy’s. The brown keened quietly for a minute, nuzzling against the young man who would have been his lifemate, before he quietly slipped between.

Mulrissa could feel Bedith’s anger, and she was actually relieved; it was better than the sheer numbness of earlier, and Rissa clung to it, so glad she hadn’t broken Bedith’s emotions in some way. But the gold was angry — angry at her daughter for depriving other children of their bonded. How dare she? What if there were more after the brown? Bedith seethed, and worried for the rest of her unhatched children.


2:24

Three eggs clustered together hatched next, all three with more energy than Pride, but not nearly as lively as dragonets who had hatched before the gold. Mood looked around bewildered for a few moments, wandering in circles for a bit before seeming to figure something out and dashing to Impress. Behind her, Apprehension paced, tail flicking back and forth and hackles up, though he was clearly non-aggressive; all the negative emotions worried him, and he felt like he was going to be attacked at any moment. Eventually his pacing brought him past a young man who he decided would protect him, and Impressed. The last of the three to hatch, Augury, chirped quietly, not understanding why everyone was so worried and sad. She crept up to a boy and cheeped questioningly at him, wanting her lifemate to explain it to her.

Pride
Devotion - Between
Power - Impresses a girl
Mood
Apprehension
Augury