Hello loves! While I haven't been writing, I have been working on updating some issues that have been hanging around on the layout! The Character change box is now at the bottom of the page, beside the up/down arrows! Green and Gold dragon flight dates have been shifted to the bottom of the page, where the (useless!) discord widget was located. Where the dragon flights were in the header, is now replaced by a Monthly Event box! This will be updated at the start of each month, with a fun mini-event you can take part in, if you want to! Thistle!
16.Aug.19, 12:44 PM
Now that the Grounds were almost silent, Casa almost felt embarrassed, for a moment, before the sound of another egg cracking seemed to break the silence like dropped glass. Casa’s gaze shifted, searching out the last Egg (Thallyath had confirmed that the final was a dud,) and watched as it struggled to break free. Thallyath’s snarling and threatening words were enough to keep everyone grounded for the time being, and Casa pursed her lips as she watched, gaze only flickering momentarily to watch as Madiquel directed a couple of healers in their getting a blanket under her little green and walking her to the sidelines, so that she was out of the way.
Casa smiled wryly as Madiquel got her little green skeleton settled comfortably and bossed people around until she was settled down and feeding the creature again. But Casa’s attention shifted again as the egg moved, causing Casa to frown in worry as it tumbled sideways and wriggled several times. Casa held her breath, biting her lip again as she waited… and expelled the breath slowly when the little one within the egg appeared to go through a terrific effort to break the shell, poking a skeletal head out. Casa cringed, feeling Thallyath’s despair at another chronically unhealthy dragonet.
Another blue, Casa realised, watching as he slowly fought his way out of his shell and onto the warm sands, wings and legs spread in all directions as he soaked in the heat for several moments. She could see his eyes whirling rapidly, and wondered if he was going to vanish between, or breathe his last breath like his first green sister.
So close to being over, Casa thought, looking at the last two eggs. Thallyath was firm that the one was a dud, and not going to Hatch and Casa believed her. But the other one? Casa watched it anxiously, wriggling her unseen toes to keep from actively fidgeting while she was in view of all these people -- even if none of them were actually watching her. Casa could feel Thallyath’s resignation, and knew even before the first crack appeared in the shell that her dragon didn’t have any faith in the dragonet within surviving. Did that mean Thallyath thought her other children would live?
Her dragon was proven right, even though Casa didn’t want her to be, when one of the Candidates broke free and rushed over to the egg, kicking it solidly so that the shell split. Casa gasped, while Thallyath roared her anger at being disobeyed, snarling and puffing up angrily. Eyes wide, Casa watched as a third green dragonet slithered ungainly onto the ground, limbs splayed and head too heavy for her starved body. Casa swallowed roughly, biting her bottom lip, and watched in terror as the dragonet fought to find her feet for several long moments -- the Candidates that had surged around the egg had all stepped back -- and finally the dragonet sighed out in exhaustion, and lay still. There were several heartbeats of stillness, before a cautious candidate stepped forward and gently stroked the green’s neck, checking to make sure she was deceased before stepping away sadly, shaking their head. Casa bit back a sob, but at least the little dear hadn’t taken a human with her.
So… it was over. Casa glanced at the last egg, but knew Thallyath wouldn’t be mistaken about it. She could feel her dragon surge up into a standing position behind her, still glaring at the group of candidates that had disobeyed her, before the gold’s mind pressed against her own and Casa nodded. Moving down from her standing point with Thallyath, Casa made her way to Masterhealer Verec, and gave the man a grim nod of greeting when he took a moment and acknowledged her. “Sir, Thallyath and I would like to donate the deceased greens, and the dud egg, to your Hall.” Casa paused, licking her lips as she formed her words carefully. “Anything you can find, that will help keep the three that Impressed alive…” She fell off, glancing towards the dragonets that were all so seriously being fed and examined.
“Anything you can, to help, we would appreciate.” Casa didn’t say it, but she wanted desperately to be told why all this had been this way. Why the dragonets were so weak and lifeless, so starved. Did she and Thallyath do something wrong when the gold was carrying the eggs? Was it something that could have been prevented outside of Faxxonth winning the flight? Casa didn’t know, and besides the need to keep alive the three new Weyrlings, she desperately wanted to know what she and Thallyath could do, to better the odds of Thallyath’s next clutch, whenever that might be.
