Post by Neeq Machine on Feb 1, 2012 11:33:14 GMT -5
Late April
It was early morning, but the whole Weyr was up, watching the skies. There, high above them, raced the beautiful golden Oolarnth. Her siren call had summoned both bronzes of High Reaches to follow her on this, her maiden Flight, along with several browns and one particularly bold blue. Several people had spyglasses trained to the sky, watching the dance in the skies. Before long, the blue dropped out, followed by two of the browns. All that were left in the high-altitude endurance race the gold had called the males into were the two bronzes, and one powerhouse of a brown. The sounds of bugling drifted down in the crisp morning air as the sun finally broke the Rim, casting light down into the ‘Bowl.
The dragons vanished from sight behind a cloud, their shadows dancing through the mists high above, before three reappeared – Oolarnth, the Weyrleader’s Hetjiath, and the brown. The second bronze followed, but weakly, clearly tiring. The gold circled, higher and higher, and excited murmurs passed through the crowd of those watching. Even the Candidates were up, eyes glued to the brightening sky as the gold lunged towards the males. Talon met talon, and a pair fell, buoyed up on bronze wings. Excited cheers rose as the dragons plummeted from the heights. Hetjiath had won! K’ven would be their Weyrleader yet still! And, for the first time in decades, High Reaches Weyr would have eggs upon the Sands!
12 July 1257
Imarna soothed her gold as the dragon panted, admiring the clutch on the Sands. It was enormously large, for a first clutch: sixteen eggs, and one of them gold! It seemed that Oolarnth had inherited her dam’s propensity for throwing golds, for which Imarna was thankful. Having a gold egg in the clutch would soothe some of the whispers that Oolarnth was unhealthy, Rising so late. So what? Many golds hadn’t Risen until they were over five Turns old. Oolarnth was fine. The dragon thrummed happily under the woman’s fingertips, eyes whirling a peaceful and tired dark blue. You did well, the Weyrwoman told her dragon silently, sparking a deeper purr from the gold. Yes, she had, hadn’t she?
14 July 1257
It hadn’t been that hard to convince people. The last clutches had been raided; why should they take the risk with Oolarnth’s clutch, the hope for the future of High Reaches Weyr? And the gold dragon had only been too happy to enforce the edict, Commanding the dragons of the Weyr not to speak of the clutch nestled deeply in sand. No messages were to be sent discussing the eggs, and all outgoing mail was checked to that extent. Oolarnth’s children would be a secret. Word wasn’t even truly out about the gold’s maiden Flight. Though the leaders of the other Weyrs knew that Hetjiath and K’ven had been confirmed as Weyrleaders after all these years, they hadn’t disseminated that information. Nobody cared enough about the far northern Weyr.
The gold had proven herself a poor mother, spending most of her time away from the Clutch and only returning to turn them and reassure herself that they were still there. In an effort to keep eyes on the eggs, Imarna had assigned rotating watches over the eggs. Oolarnth hadn’t cared, even when she came back the next morning to find two greens sitting watch over her children. It was odd behavior, and the whole Weyr was commenting upon it, but that was that. It wasn’t as if forcing the queen to stay with her eggs would be useful at all. The gold was simply disinterested in the orbs, and that was unlikely to change anytime soon. At least the Weyrwoman cared about them…
29 July 1257
The eggs were hard enough for the Candidates to touch them, and touch them they did. Though there was always a dragon on watch, Oolarnth had utterly abandoned her Clutch almost as soon as they were hard enough for humans to handle. Imarna was embarrassed, but what could she do? She had no more command over her dragon than did the greens who were so often on assignment in the Grounds. The Weyrwoman had asked that the Candidates be excused from most of their regular chores to be assigned to the eggs, and the Headwoman and Candidate Master had grudgingly given their assents. The Candidates had been much easier to convince, and all were getting quite familiar with the tending of dragon eggs and the heat of the Sands.
It wasn't normal, but... what could they do? At least they knew that the dragons would Impress. Exposing them to humans for this long would surely draw the young minds together.
Out of gold Oolarnth by bronze Hetjiath[/center]
1. Unspoken Words Egg. This egg is large, and looming. It sits heavily in the sand, listing to one side, and rests in perfect stillness, a dead calm. In color, it is a deep burnished bronzed color, with nearly-black specks, lines, and streaks fading across the surface in all the dips and bumps of the shell.
2. Walled Garden Egg. A beautiful, verdant green, this egg is quite lovely to behold. All sorts of forest and spring greens merge together on this smooth, small shell. This egg is perfect in shape, but is almost always buried in sand, as if behind protective walls to evade prying eyes.
3. Geode Egg. Ugly, bumpy, and a mottled mess of gray and brown, this is perhaps the least attractive egg in the entire Clutch. But touch it, and it seems as if gentleness and peace radiate from this egg. A restful, sleeping presence is curled beneath that ugly, thick shell.
4. Enciphered Letters Egg. Lovely and ivory, the color of new vellum, this egg is inviting to look at. Golden-tan dapples mark the egg, and deep brown lines script across the egg. They don’t spell out anything, of course, but it’s fun to think that perhaps they mean something…
5. Camouflage Egg. It’s very easy to miss this egg – and, in fact, many do. It lies, somewhat neglected, at the edge of the clutch. Nearly precisely the color of the sand around it, and with a rough shell, it’s hard to tell where this egg ends and the ground begins.
6. Covert Affairs Egg. Deep, ruby-red, this egg is eye-catching in the right light. In the dark, it looks like a reddish shadow, but when light shines upon it, it glints brightly and almost viciously blood-red, as if something has been revealed that really should have remained in the shadows.
7. Skeletons in the Closet Egg. This egg is smallish, and a dull matte black. It stands out against the sands, but the darkness of the shell is not what catches attention. No, that would be the chalky white markings that lance the black, looking in places like nothing so much as the twisted skeletons of dragons long-dead.
8. Silent Understanding Egg. A strange dark violet gray color, this egg is moderately large and seems to give off a sinister air, as if there is something tainted about it. Whether it is a smell, a mental feeling, or something else altogether, people seem to avoid this egg.
9. Off-the-Records Egg. Eye-poppingly orange with searing neon yellow spatters, this egg seems to jitter just when you aren’t looking, and be in a slightly different position each time you whip around to glare at it. It’s rather unsettling to have something move only when you can’t see it, particularly something so BIG!
10. Anonymity Egg. There’s nothing interesting about this egg. It’s a relatively plain egg-colored egg, with brown mottles in no particular pattern. It’s average size, a nice comforting egg shape, and it doesn’t seem to have any air about it. It looks like nothing more than a giant hen’s egg sitting there.
11. Clandestine Meetings Egg. Perfectly even slate gray, the lack of markings or anything unusual on this egg sets it apart. It is completely round and of middling size, and it’s anyone’s guess what grows inside. It gained its name from the fact that it always seems to get moved to touch against another egg.
12. Buried Treasure Egg. Deep brown, this egg is marked only by a flash of silver and gold at its base. These colors are only visible when the egg is moved, for they tend to be hidden beneath the sand it sits in. From far away, the marking is completely invisible – it is, after all, only the size of a couple thumbprints on the mottled brown thing!
13. Forbidden Love Affair Egg. Ever seen a pink egg? Now you have. Delicate lavender and carnation pink swirl across this egg in a lovely display of colors which one does not usually expect on an egg. Here and there, the pastels darken to rich crimson and royal purple streaks, before fading again.
14. Surprise Party Egg. A raucous cacophony of color, this egg bears any color imaginable. Bright red? Lime green? Hideous mustard yellow? Purple mountain majesty? Puce? Yup. Look hard enough, and somewhere on this shell of jumbled colors and markings, you’ll find what you’re searching for!
15. Puzzle Box Egg. Beautiful, rich mahogany, the shell of this egg is striated and streaked in variations of the base tone that give the impression of something carved of wood. Silver lines intersect in what could almost be called a geometric pattern, calling to mind the delicate inlays of masterwork.
16. Pictures in a Locket Egg. Nearly the smallest egg of the bunch, this egg is a delicate blue-gray color. Variations in the color of the shell can be imagined into different images – a face here, perhaps, or the shape of a dragon in the wind. The patient can search out many images on this shell.
[/blockquote]
It was early morning, but the whole Weyr was up, watching the skies. There, high above them, raced the beautiful golden Oolarnth. Her siren call had summoned both bronzes of High Reaches to follow her on this, her maiden Flight, along with several browns and one particularly bold blue. Several people had spyglasses trained to the sky, watching the dance in the skies. Before long, the blue dropped out, followed by two of the browns. All that were left in the high-altitude endurance race the gold had called the males into were the two bronzes, and one powerhouse of a brown. The sounds of bugling drifted down in the crisp morning air as the sun finally broke the Rim, casting light down into the ‘Bowl.
The dragons vanished from sight behind a cloud, their shadows dancing through the mists high above, before three reappeared – Oolarnth, the Weyrleader’s Hetjiath, and the brown. The second bronze followed, but weakly, clearly tiring. The gold circled, higher and higher, and excited murmurs passed through the crowd of those watching. Even the Candidates were up, eyes glued to the brightening sky as the gold lunged towards the males. Talon met talon, and a pair fell, buoyed up on bronze wings. Excited cheers rose as the dragons plummeted from the heights. Hetjiath had won! K’ven would be their Weyrleader yet still! And, for the first time in decades, High Reaches Weyr would have eggs upon the Sands!
12 July 1257
Imarna soothed her gold as the dragon panted, admiring the clutch on the Sands. It was enormously large, for a first clutch: sixteen eggs, and one of them gold! It seemed that Oolarnth had inherited her dam’s propensity for throwing golds, for which Imarna was thankful. Having a gold egg in the clutch would soothe some of the whispers that Oolarnth was unhealthy, Rising so late. So what? Many golds hadn’t Risen until they were over five Turns old. Oolarnth was fine. The dragon thrummed happily under the woman’s fingertips, eyes whirling a peaceful and tired dark blue. You did well, the Weyrwoman told her dragon silently, sparking a deeper purr from the gold. Yes, she had, hadn’t she?
14 July 1257
It hadn’t been that hard to convince people. The last clutches had been raided; why should they take the risk with Oolarnth’s clutch, the hope for the future of High Reaches Weyr? And the gold dragon had only been too happy to enforce the edict, Commanding the dragons of the Weyr not to speak of the clutch nestled deeply in sand. No messages were to be sent discussing the eggs, and all outgoing mail was checked to that extent. Oolarnth’s children would be a secret. Word wasn’t even truly out about the gold’s maiden Flight. Though the leaders of the other Weyrs knew that Hetjiath and K’ven had been confirmed as Weyrleaders after all these years, they hadn’t disseminated that information. Nobody cared enough about the far northern Weyr.
The gold had proven herself a poor mother, spending most of her time away from the Clutch and only returning to turn them and reassure herself that they were still there. In an effort to keep eyes on the eggs, Imarna had assigned rotating watches over the eggs. Oolarnth hadn’t cared, even when she came back the next morning to find two greens sitting watch over her children. It was odd behavior, and the whole Weyr was commenting upon it, but that was that. It wasn’t as if forcing the queen to stay with her eggs would be useful at all. The gold was simply disinterested in the orbs, and that was unlikely to change anytime soon. At least the Weyrwoman cared about them…
29 July 1257
The eggs were hard enough for the Candidates to touch them, and touch them they did. Though there was always a dragon on watch, Oolarnth had utterly abandoned her Clutch almost as soon as they were hard enough for humans to handle. Imarna was embarrassed, but what could she do? She had no more command over her dragon than did the greens who were so often on assignment in the Grounds. The Weyrwoman had asked that the Candidates be excused from most of their regular chores to be assigned to the eggs, and the Headwoman and Candidate Master had grudgingly given their assents. The Candidates had been much easier to convince, and all were getting quite familiar with the tending of dragon eggs and the heat of the Sands.
It wasn't normal, but... what could they do? At least they knew that the dragons would Impress. Exposing them to humans for this long would surely draw the young minds together.
[/font]The Secret Clutch
Out of gold Oolarnth by bronze Hetjiath[/center]
1. Unspoken Words Egg. This egg is large, and looming. It sits heavily in the sand, listing to one side, and rests in perfect stillness, a dead calm. In color, it is a deep burnished bronzed color, with nearly-black specks, lines, and streaks fading across the surface in all the dips and bumps of the shell.
2. Walled Garden Egg. A beautiful, verdant green, this egg is quite lovely to behold. All sorts of forest and spring greens merge together on this smooth, small shell. This egg is perfect in shape, but is almost always buried in sand, as if behind protective walls to evade prying eyes.
3. Geode Egg. Ugly, bumpy, and a mottled mess of gray and brown, this is perhaps the least attractive egg in the entire Clutch. But touch it, and it seems as if gentleness and peace radiate from this egg. A restful, sleeping presence is curled beneath that ugly, thick shell.
4. Enciphered Letters Egg. Lovely and ivory, the color of new vellum, this egg is inviting to look at. Golden-tan dapples mark the egg, and deep brown lines script across the egg. They don’t spell out anything, of course, but it’s fun to think that perhaps they mean something…
5. Camouflage Egg. It’s very easy to miss this egg – and, in fact, many do. It lies, somewhat neglected, at the edge of the clutch. Nearly precisely the color of the sand around it, and with a rough shell, it’s hard to tell where this egg ends and the ground begins.
6. Covert Affairs Egg. Deep, ruby-red, this egg is eye-catching in the right light. In the dark, it looks like a reddish shadow, but when light shines upon it, it glints brightly and almost viciously blood-red, as if something has been revealed that really should have remained in the shadows.
7. Skeletons in the Closet Egg. This egg is smallish, and a dull matte black. It stands out against the sands, but the darkness of the shell is not what catches attention. No, that would be the chalky white markings that lance the black, looking in places like nothing so much as the twisted skeletons of dragons long-dead.
8. Silent Understanding Egg. A strange dark violet gray color, this egg is moderately large and seems to give off a sinister air, as if there is something tainted about it. Whether it is a smell, a mental feeling, or something else altogether, people seem to avoid this egg.
9. Off-the-Records Egg. Eye-poppingly orange with searing neon yellow spatters, this egg seems to jitter just when you aren’t looking, and be in a slightly different position each time you whip around to glare at it. It’s rather unsettling to have something move only when you can’t see it, particularly something so BIG!
10. Anonymity Egg. There’s nothing interesting about this egg. It’s a relatively plain egg-colored egg, with brown mottles in no particular pattern. It’s average size, a nice comforting egg shape, and it doesn’t seem to have any air about it. It looks like nothing more than a giant hen’s egg sitting there.
11. Clandestine Meetings Egg. Perfectly even slate gray, the lack of markings or anything unusual on this egg sets it apart. It is completely round and of middling size, and it’s anyone’s guess what grows inside. It gained its name from the fact that it always seems to get moved to touch against another egg.
12. Buried Treasure Egg. Deep brown, this egg is marked only by a flash of silver and gold at its base. These colors are only visible when the egg is moved, for they tend to be hidden beneath the sand it sits in. From far away, the marking is completely invisible – it is, after all, only the size of a couple thumbprints on the mottled brown thing!
13. Forbidden Love Affair Egg. Ever seen a pink egg? Now you have. Delicate lavender and carnation pink swirl across this egg in a lovely display of colors which one does not usually expect on an egg. Here and there, the pastels darken to rich crimson and royal purple streaks, before fading again.
14. Surprise Party Egg. A raucous cacophony of color, this egg bears any color imaginable. Bright red? Lime green? Hideous mustard yellow? Purple mountain majesty? Puce? Yup. Look hard enough, and somewhere on this shell of jumbled colors and markings, you’ll find what you’re searching for!
15. Puzzle Box Egg. Beautiful, rich mahogany, the shell of this egg is striated and streaked in variations of the base tone that give the impression of something carved of wood. Silver lines intersect in what could almost be called a geometric pattern, calling to mind the delicate inlays of masterwork.
16. Pictures in a Locket Egg. Nearly the smallest egg of the bunch, this egg is a delicate blue-gray color. Variations in the color of the shell can be imagined into different images – a face here, perhaps, or the shape of a dragon in the wind. The patient can search out many images on this shell.
[/blockquote]
