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Writers: Heather K, Len
Date Posted: 2nd June 2011

Characters: E'ril, Sh'del
Description: The Weyrlingmasters take stock during the hatching
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 18 of Turn 6
Notes: Mentor approved by Emma

When the humming started Sh'del would have liked to think he was
ready. But he wasn't. Physically he was but mentally...? He walked
like a condemned man to the entry way of the hatching grounds, green
Trouble flying and chattering over his head. Peering in, he saw that
the eggs were rocking steadily, but the candidates hadn't arrived yet.
No doubt they were getting lined up to come in. Maybe he should have
gone to help but right now all he could do was lean against the wall
and watch things, feeling the weight of what he was about to be
intrusted to do on his shoulders.

Through the wild colours of people's finest, he saw the stark white of
the candidates coming his way. As they passed he nodded to the staff
with them and readied himself for this. It was now or never, He just
hoped the kids would all come out alright.

Breathing a sigh of relief, E'ril ushered the last white robed Candidate
out onto the Sands and into line with the others. Whatever happened now
was up to them and the dragonets who were clambering to break out their
shells. The Weyrling Assistant took his place with his coworkers. Sweat
started to bead at the back of his neck and E'ril groaned. The stifling
heat was almost enough to drive him mad but he just reminded himself of
what was to come and ignored his discomfort. There were more pressing
matters ahead. He found himself standing next to the anxious looking
Sh'del. "Standing on these Sands never gets any easier. Shells, it's
hot. You ready for this?"

The brown rider blinked and snapped out of whatever he was thinking
of. "To tell you the truth, I hadn't even noticed the Sands." How
could he not? Now that E'ril had said it, he could feel the soles of
his feet beating. He had forgotten to put on boots for the hatching.
Pointing to his woefully unprotected feet, in their shoes, he laughed
and said, "they could tell you exactly how ready I am. How'd I forget
the most basic thing like 'wear boots'?"

The bluerider pulled a face when he saw the man's choice of foot attire.
"Bad luck, I guess. I'm sure you had a lot of other things on your mind,
being that this will be our first official day on the job and all." As he
chatted with Sh'del, his eyes scanned the sands before him flicking from
the eggs and then back to the line of nervous Candidates. Then, one of the
eggs started to crack. He nudged his coworker and said, "No turning back
now.
Here they come."

Sh'del grinned at the other man and turned as the first tiny green
hatched and made her way over to Pierka. Nodding to her, he muttered
to E'ril, "she's had some sort of memory loss as a child...something
to keep an eye on, though she's a good kid. Hard worker too, Loranth
liked her." At least in the short time that he had stayed awake
whilst she bathed him just the other day.

E'ril thought back to his own encounter with the girl. "She has a good head
on her shoulders, despite her issues with her mind. She'll be one to watch,"
he commented. Another egg cracked and revealed a bronze, the first of this
clutch. After finding his footing, the dragonet found his rider in one of
the
oldest Candidates. Tanom had been a Candidate for many Hatchings and now it
seemed that all his persistence and hard work paid off. This brought a grin
to E'ril's face. "Way to go, T'nom!" He cheered. "I don't think anyone
deserved
a bronze as much as that man does. He's Stood at countless Hatchings."

"That'll get Qorri off Meledei's back, in the very least," Sh'del
added, thinking back to their conversation the other week. "She
wasn't overly happy with a non-bronze rider being friends with our Jr
weyrwoman," he explained to E'ril, rolling his eyes at that opinion.

E'ril lifted his eyebrows in mild surprise. He was, of course, aware of the
friendship between T'nom and Meledei but he hadn't thought that Qorri would
have any qualms with it. "I see," he replied simply. His attention was drawn
back to the Sands as even more eggs began to rock and crack. He stepped
forward
ready to help when one of the girls was knocked down by a green dragonet. He
calmed down once he saw that Impression had been made. "I'll have to check
on
later. The scratches don't look too bad from here."

That may not have looked bad to E'ril but to Sh'del...well he about
fell over when that happened. Please please Faranth, no injured kids
or dragons in his very first go at this job. Being that he and N'vanik
went back a long way he felt personally responsible for each and every
child and hatchling out there.

Looking away from the girl and her new lifemate, he caught Taeshin
Impressing out of the corner of his eye. Well, that should be
interesting. Nodding to the pair, he muttered to E'ril, "we may need
to keep an eye on this one, he's a bit of a brat."

His eyes went in the direction the Second indicated. He sighed, not sure if
Taeshin's Impression to the egg wet brown would cause more anxiety or if the
dragon would calm his rider's snippy attitude. "We shall see. Hopefully,
what I
hear about him is true and he really has begun to change. Let us hope he
doesn't
stir up too much trouble."

"We won't let him." Sh'del looked at him and nodded.

"Indeed we won't," he agreed. They were nearing the end of the
hatching and there
were only a few eggs left. Another brown hatched from the handful of
eggs left and
found his rider with little trouble. "Another older Weyrling. It seems
that we will
have a pretty mixed class age wise this go around. Older Weyrlings
tend to be more
responsible and much less flighty."

"Good, of any Weyr out there, we need 'em up in the air, fighting
Thread as soon as possible." He turned away from the bluerider for a
moment to help out a girl and her new green. When the two girls had
toddered off to where the food was, he grinned at E'ril. "We're we
and our lifemates ever that small and cute? They all look so
helpless."

"Well, I don't know if I was ever 'cute'," he eyed Sh'del for a moment.
"You on the other hand may have been, however." E'ril laughed light
heartedly
at his jest. "Dawenth though, he was something else. Always tripping over
his
own tail. It took him about a month or so to get his feet working right."
E'ril thought back to a time that seemed eternities ago, when he himself was
no
older than these Candidates today.

Spying one desperatly unhappy face in the crowd of candidates that
didn't Impress, Sh'del reached out and patted Holder Talisian on the
back. "Better luck next time, lad." The boy tried to smile and
walked on with the other failed candidiates. Nodding to him, the
burly man said in a low tone, "I had a bad feeling he wouldn't
Impress. Too uptight about the idea of impressing a green, poor kid.
Maybe if you can give him a talk soon?"

E'ril watched the boy walk away from them and thought about the expression
he had seen on his face. He looked absolutely heart broken, as did many of
the others for that matter, but from what Sh'del was saying there were many
more reasons than just not Impressing. "I'll see what I can do. Hopefully he
can still see reason."

"And with that, let's catch a quick pint before we have to help these
kids not choke their lifemates or something of that sort." He patted
the bluerider on the back.

Last updated on the June 2nd 2011

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