Little Treasures: Firelizard Hatching (OPEN)

Avidian blinked as his egg broke open to reveal... something new. Something unexpected. He heard Casriel's soft exclamation about mutations, heard her urge him to hurry.

Well, hurry he did, as much as he ever hurried. That was to say that he reached out and grabbed a fistful of meat, then held it out to the mostly cream and yellow creature before him. "Do you want this, little lad?" the Stillmaster found himself asking. "It's for you, if you've the will to take it."

The tiny Agate firelizard stilled, then looked up at the person holding the clump of deliciousness. He mantled his wings slowly, letting this person see all of him, and then lunged to take what was offered.

Avidian smiled. He would do. He would do, nicely.

He looked around to see others hatching, strange colors, not seen before. Not the dragons' mutations either, it seemed. But rather, they all seemed to have some sort of variation in their coloring. Bi- or Tri-colored hides. Interesting. He'd heard some say that the mutated dragons heralded the arrival of the dragon plague. Did that mean that a plague was in the offing for firelizards? Come to think of it, he hadn't seen many of the little creatures around, save for the ones that looked to Casriel and Jah'vi, and occasionally a brown that followed Victory around like a besotted puppy. Interesting. Perhaps their wild numbers had been thinned as well?

The little Agate continued to eat, and Vid continued to feed him, until eventually, the tiny cream, brown, and yellow body lay curled in the crook of Vid's arm, belly distended with meat. The Stillmaster gave another one of his rare smiles and looked up to meet Casriel's eyes.

"Well enough," he said. "Will here is a male, for certain, so not a gold of any kind. You've never seen anything like him?"

Dividia watched with interest, betrayed by the lifting of her eyebrows. First her father's, then three more, all in rapid succession. She looked back at the light green one off to the side. "Is that one claimed, Wingleader?" she asked, gesturing.

"No..." Casriel said slowly, as she looked around the room. Teagan had a fire lizard who as the color of purple jewels, while the red haired woman Casriel had thrust the Terracotta egg at was holding a fire lizard marbled in blue, white and grey. She favored the lot with a rye grin and shook her head again.

"A brave new world indeed. Interesting colorway on your male. Yellow... Who would have guessed." Casriel chuckled. The woman who approached her now, ah the Wherhandler. For a moment Casriel wondered if a firelizard would be safe around that hulking brown of hers. Then again, it wasn't Casriel's problem.

"By all means. Linger though, many are hatching now and you might not get far before yours does the same." Casriel remarked. Even as she spoke, the egg in Brielody's hands shuddered violently. A long crack formed down the side of the pure white egg. Another heave and the firelizard was free.



A marbled white, cream and cyan blue firelizard craned his neck to look up at the Candidate Master. His tail, white on the top and cyan shaded ocean blue on the bottom curled around her wrist gently. He cheeped, almost a question, as he looked up at her.

"Oh!" came a voice. It was May, looking over at Brielody. "You got a Spinel too!"

"There are a marvel. Victory surely outdid herself." Casriel remarked, lifting the green egg Dividia had indicated. As soon as she lifted it, the egg began to shift against her skin.

"See what I mean." Casriel said, pressing the egg into the Wherhandler's hand. No sooner had Casriel released her hold on the egg did it crack open. Another trill lanced the air and pushing out of the broken, green shards was a rich purple head.



Now that her head was free, the little amethyst firelizard pulled herself the rest of the way free and balanced on Dividia's arm, trilling softly. Her faceted eyes whirled hotly, hungrily.



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OOC: Brielody
Color: Spinel
Sex: Male
Size: Equivalent to Blue Firelizards.

Dividia
Color:Amethyst
Sex:Female
Size: Equivalent to Green Firelizards.

Maraxith. Call Yllaveth and Gaveth. These eggs are rocking hard and I do not want to loose a one. Br'son and Sidran need to come down and get their eggs before they fly off. Casriel reached out to her cobalt, who made a wordless agreement before setting to his task. Turning his mind to the Titanium and other Cobalt, Maraxith spoke.

Yllaveth, my Queen. Gaveth, my Weyrleader. The gold firelizard Victory's eggs are hatching now. Have your riders come with all haste, with whomever they wish to Impress. The firelizards are all new colors.the plum dark Cobalt said. He turned his mind back to Casriel.

It is done, my Casriel. First we, the new dragon Guard. Now, new firelizards to herald a new age. Soon will whers join our evolution?

The sharp thought from her Cobalt drew Casriel's attention. She knew she had a clever dragon; since his birth Maraxith had shown himself cunning and very intelligent. And yet...

I suppose we will just have to see, love. Casriel murmured.

"Ah," Dividia said, feeling the edges of that hunger questing outward - feeling the deeply sleeping mind of Divisk shift, ever so slightly. She reached for the meat without looking, and the eyes of the deeply purple little creature on her arm never wavered, locked on to her face until the smell of the raw meat became too much to bare.

With a noise part joy, part snarl, the fire-lizard lunched further up Dividia's arm, anchoring talons through the woman's collar to hold her in place while eating.

Hungry thoughts turned from greed to contentment, warmth lacing through even as the little amethyst gobbled. A sharp knife of a smile cut across Dividia's face, and for a moment even the ever-watchful wherhandler forgot who was around.

Just a moment.

*
Gaveth didn't even snarl at Maraxith's sending, so polite was the other cobalt, and so pressing the reminder.

Sidran dropped her stylus - they'd planned to bring the two eggs Casriel had set aside for her and Br'son to the Tarza's Lord and Lady, but hadn't talked about it of late. Tell Yllaveth we'll take both to Tarza, unless Br'son has changed his mind.

It seemed unlikely enough that Yllaveth would allow such a thing, so against it had she been, and so Sidran moved before they had confirmation.

"I see there's not a moment to lose," she said to Casriel, seeing all the motion and hatching around them. "Are they ready to be taken between?"

If so, Gaveth waited just outside the cavern, and she could be mounted and to Tarza in seconds. Hopefully enough time, before she was responsible to bonding or losing two of the jewel-bright creatures.

Gaveth's snarl in her head was no half-measure - he, like his titanium mate, would not share.

Cradling the egg, her attention was directed toward the wherhandler at first. She looked down quickly, noticing the crack showing on the shell of the white egg. Again she thought maybe she would get lucky. However as the little freak escaped the egg, she knew she would never live this moment down. Bonding to a mutant. Her brother was certain to point out the folly in bonding to a firelizard to begin with and also that she had received one of the first mutated ones. The blame lay with Casriel's Victory, in her opinion.

Aurayath had no such qualms.

As the marbled white, cream and cyan blue firelizard looked up at her and trilled, she felt a moment of regret. He might have been happier with someone else. She heard May remark on getting a Spindle. Is that what they were calling them?

"It would appear so." Brielody said,her voice devoid of the excitement in May's tone though she was obviously not entirely unhappy. He was a firelizard which was what she had wanted. No one ever knew what they were going to get from an egg, not anymore.

Hopefully the coloring was all that was different about them. As the Spindle remained wrapped around her forearm, she used her free hand to give him meat.

"What are you going to name your Spindle, May?"

May looked up at the Candidate Master and noticed the lack of emotion in her voice. Was it just her or did Brielody looked sad? Vexed? May wasn't sure but as she fed her fire lizard another piece of meet, she considered what his name should be.

"I am going to call him...Sky." The journeyman grinned as she spoke and ran her hand down the length of the Spinel's creamy grey and blue body. She looked over at Brielody's own Spinel fire lizard.

"He is such a bright blue and white. What shall you call him?"

Teagan barely suppressed a shriek of joy and surprise as the little amethyst firelizard sprung from its shell and attached itself quite firmly to her tunic. Instinct kicked in, and she immediately began to feed the small darling tiny chunks of meat that were conviently placed, while whispering nonsense to her.

She is very small, like you, Ensieth observed with great humor. The three of us will make an excellent team.

Around this time Breklynn wandered into the hall, feeling a little hazy. It had been months but some of the withdrawal feelings came back and kicked her in the arse occasionally, and tonight was one of those nights. She needed klah, STRONG klah, and bread to absorb the queasines in her belly.

"What's going on?" she asked the nearest person. She'd been completely consumed by her studies recently and hadn't even realized Victorys clutch was hatching.

((OOC: Sorry this is so late!!))

Br'son stood to the side and let Lady Gavana and Lord Cyon precede him into the Mess Hall. Casriel was easily identifiable, her lovely blonde hair in her usual high tail on her head. The knot of people around her was significant, too. It meant that things were happening, and probably that they'd arrived not a moment too soon.

"Wingleader," the Weyrsenior said as he approached. "May I present Lady Gavana and Lord Cyon of Tarza Hold? I've promised them eggs from Victory's clutch, as a symbol of our alliance. They've come, as promised, to try their luck at attracting hatchlings. Have you their eggs ready?"

For Cyon's part, he looked around with wide eyes. He could see that some of the eggs had already hatched, but the tiny firelizards didn't look like any firelizard he'd ever seen before. Not far away, the bald Stillmaster smiled down at a creature that looked mostly like a brown, but had soft yellow coloring as well. There were other hatchlings as well, but they all had unusual colorations. What was happening here?

"Is something wrong with them?" He asked softly. "They don't look like the firelizards I've seen before. Have they... Are they like the dragons, with new... Color expressions?" He asked. He'd been about to use the word 'mutation', but had remembered at the last minute that his hosts weren't fond of its connotations.

Though, as a Lord Holder and one who bred animals, he was very well aware that it was, in fact, the correct term.

Teagan ran up to Br'son, her little amethyst firelizard to her chest. She had fed the little thing until she'd burped loudly and nuzzled into her top, falling asleep and snoring just slightly. "Br'son, look!" she exclaimed, not even noticing the Holders in her excitement to show off the beautiful creature she had just Impressed. "She's just like a tiny Ensieth, only she's purple!"

She didn't even notice that she had wiped her face at some point while feeding the darling, and had an almost perfect handprint in blood on her cheek and across her nose. The redness stood out in stark contrast to the brilliant grin and messy white blonde hair.

Br'son's eyes went wide, and he actually backed up a step. He held out his hands to stop Teagan's mad rush, and ended up catching her by the shoulders.

"Ah," he said, "Lady Gavana, Lord Cyon... may I present my Junior Queenrider, Teagan of Shadow Eniseth? And her new friend."

He smiled at the two of them in a look of "kids, what can you do?" that he hoped they would recognize. Then he looked at the tiny purple firelizard.

"Oh," he said, handprint and headlong rush forgotten. "Oh, look at her. Her, you say? Not just an oddly colored blue, then?" The Weyrsenior glanced up at the Holders. "It seems, Lord Cyon, that you may be correct. This is something we've not seen before."

Teagan shook her head firmly, tilting her head and smiling adoringly down at the sleeping firelizard. "Ensieth called her a her," she said with a blissful sigh. "And blues are boys, so she has to be special, just like Ensieth and Yvalleth and Alisieth and all the other new colo-"

She stopped mid-sentence, Br'son's words finally penetrating her happiness drunk brain. Lady and Lord? She looked up at her Weyrsenior with giant, shocked eyes and gulped. Hopefully she wasn't in store for a lecture for this breach of protocol.

Carefully she turned to Lady Gavana and Lord Cyon, bobbing down in an appropriate curtsey befitting a queenrider to a Lord and Lady. "It's a pleasure to meet you Lady Gavana, Lord Cyon," she said, her voice a little squeaky from nervousness. This was her first time being introduced to guests as a queenrider, after all.

She still hadn't noticed the hand print on her face. "I hope your firelizards hatch soon," she said, very aware of how young she sounded but feeling like she needed to redeem herself. "They're really wonderful... " She glanced back down at the creature curled tight against her chest, her eyes softening and the goofy grin returning despite herself.

Gavana's eyes didn't so much as widen - there was controlled chaos in the dining cavern, all eggs and murmurs and tiny sparkling lizards gulping meat - and then there was boundless chaotic joy in the form of the tiniest of queenriders, blood-marked and grinning. It was all she could do not to bit her lip to hold back a laugh.

Instead she inclined her head appropriately, and her smile was breathtakingly warm. "Junior Queenrider Teagan, it is a pleasure to meet you, and your lovely special beauty." As Gavana was, after all, who she was, she reached out to just touch (or just miss) the bloody handprint on the girl's cheek. "You are as ferocious as your shadow queen, I see. I become ever more pleased that we have allied with such an impressive group of people."

There was no condescension or teasing in her tone, nor as any sort of hidden barb. These weyrfolk deserved none of that from her, and she felt a flooding of affection for Br'son's expression and Teagan's unbridled self.

Wondering what the commotion was about, a typically scruffy looking Braedian hurriedly grabbed a couple of meat rolls and moved towards the small crowd surrounding Casriel.  The wingleader was eye-catching enough on her own, and with the addition of the little gold on her shoulder, she was even more so.

Not that speaking such flattery would get him anywhere with her, were he inclined to try.  But still.  He could note it.  And try not to feel too horrible about admiring a woman who wasn't his lost love.

No one would mind if he eyed the eggs she carried, though, and those seemed to be the big draw at the moment.  Several had already been claimed, some by riders, some by the Stillmaster and his wherhandler daughter-- both received nods of respect from the ex-Master Healer-- and now here were a Lord and Lady Holder, wanting firelizards of their own?

Waiting behind the nobility, Braedian had to wonder if there were any left… seeing the mutated colors, his curiosity was piqued.  And wouldn't a little creature like that be useful in sending messages?  Or fetching bits of gauze or things?

"Interesting, that the firelizards seem to be changing as well.  What are you calling these colors?" he asked of Brielody and May, gesturing towards their little ones and including the others around as well.

May smiled and held her firelizard, cradled to her chest. Her eyes shone.

"They are Spinels! Something like a blue firelizard but with creamy and grey blended in. Oh, Wingleader Casriel's gold firelizard, Victory, had a clutch. It's hatching now. I think there are eggs left if you want one." May's eyes moved from Braedian to Breklynn. Her words could not have been any more timely because at that moment, one of the two eggs Casriel had set aside for the leadership lurched over and cracked a little.

It was dwarfed by another egg that shattered open violently and out sprang a rich, saffron yellow Agate firelizard, run with magenta tinted brown. He took one look around the room, spread his swing and sprang for Breklynn.


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OOC: Color- Agate
Sex: Male
Size: Equivalent to Brown Firelizards.

Breklynn yelped in surprise, catching the small form as it flung itself at her. The little lizard clung to her front and creeled a begging cry for food. She was too stunned to move for a moment, then she felt someone at her elbow, prodding her.

"Here, feed him!" Teagan told her, and she flushed when she took the bowl from the young girl. She hadn't meant to wander in like this and surely someone else was more deserving of the honor... but the firelizard was clinging to her for dear life and she didn't think she could have pried him loose if her life depended on it.

And once she started feeding him, and adoring rainbow eyes met hers, she knew she wouldn't have let him go for anything.

Things passed quickly after that, and before she knew it the saffron colored firelizard was curled in her arms, fast asleep, stomach bulging. She blinked in disbelief, still not sure what had happened.

"What are you gonna name him?" the voice at her elbow said again, and she couldn't help but grin at the smallest queenrider. Teagan had bloody streaks from the meat across her face and top, a wide grin, and a tiny little amethyst colored firelizard in her own arms.

"I'm not sure yet," she admitted, looking down at the sated firelizard with a bemused expression. She hadn't been particularly interested in them so she'd never gave it any thought. "Have you named yours yet?"

"Prism," Teagan said proudly, running her fingers lightly down the tiny firelizards slender neck.

"Spindles?"  It was an interesting naming choice, one he couldn't quite place.  "Are all of them so far different from the expected colors?"  The ones he could see-- including the one that made him jump a little as it leaped for Breklynn-- all appeared to be healthy enough, even if they weren't the 'normal' colors.  Had proximity to the dragons here at the canyon somehow passed along the disease that was taking all but the mutants?  Or was there something else affecting the firelizards in this area-- or wherever Casriel's gold had come from?

Still curious despite the possibility that there may be future problems with the little creatures, Braedian stepped closer to see if Casriel did, indeed, have eggs left, or not.

Casriel noticed Braedian looking and, surprisingly softly, nodded her head.

"I have only one left, so if you want it, speak." Casriel said, not harshly but even as she lifted out the egg for Braedian it began to shiver and crack.

The egg that had been shaking earlier cracked open then and it drew Casriel's gaze. She gasped when the light caught the still wet body and the flaring wings.  A firelizard the color of pure silver rose from one of the eggs and Victory turned to hum, watching carefully. Casriel new it could not have been a queen since the clutch had been brown sired. It must be the new age bronze firelizard.....the Silver.



"Weyrsenior, Lady Holder. Quickly now. This one is marked for you, Lady!" Casriel called, waving her free hand. The Silver blinked and turned his shimmering head to look around.

"Take your egg, boy." Casriel said to Braedian.
----------------
Color: Silver
Sex: Male
Size: Equivalent to Bronze Firelizards.

"Oh!" Gavana exclaimed, her mouth a perfect 'o' of surprise. "Well this is...this..."

The shining little thing creeled, the noise both demanding and sweet at once, and she moved before she'd realized it, reaching for the bowl of meat and the molten fire-lizard with each hand. Eminently practical, the Lady Holder had been wrist deep in blood before.

As the silver fire lizard gobbled the food, she had a moment to look up, radiant. "Well, he might not know his name, but he is quite sure of himself, to be sure."

A fitting companion, for this particular woman.

Braedian's eyes widened a bit as she held the egg out and it started hatching-- clearly it wasn't going to wait for him, or anyone else, to come claim it.  But his attention, like Casriel's, was drawn to the little silver firelizard as it emerged from its own shell.

Glistening and clearly possessing a metallic sheen, it, like its clutchmates, did not fit in the normal color spectrum.  Was it a male or a female?  A queen, possibly?  Something like a bronze?  Or something else entirely, like the quartz dragons?

Whatever it was, the ex-Master Healer watched as it moved, and then the Lady Holder came forward to meet it halfway… and Impression, or whatever they might call the bonding was made.

Surprise flitted across his face for a moment as he realized Gavana had no qualms about touching the bloody meat, but Casriel's insistent words drew his gaze back to her.  He'd have scowled at her for calling him 'boy' had he not known it was now or never for him to accept the last of her gold's clutch.  So instead, he hurried forward and held out his hands to take the shuddering, cracking egg from the Wingleader, then waited to see what it would reveal.

Casriel blinked, her attention focusing on the man, not boy, for the first time since he had appeared before her. She frowned and bit her lip.

"My apologies." she said roughly. She waved a hand at the excitement all around them. "The crush of the moment. I didn't think."

With that, she released the fracturing egg into Braedian's hands. Immediately, it began to break apart and the egg shells tinkled to the floor like a thousand tiny bells. A dark head broke through and then wings spanned out to steady the firelizard. It was a large firelizard, larger still than the Silver and dark as a polished gem.

The Onyx firelizard righted herself and trilled loudly. Some of the male firelizards turned to look at her.

"Shards and shells. That's not possible!" Casriel breathed. "She's a Queen."



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Color: Onyx
Sex: Female
Size: Equivalent to Gold