A chance to touch a dream

[Beth]

Amair sighed as she leaned against one of the giant pillars that held up the Hatching Grounds. She gazed out at the clutch, partly covered in sand. One had been set apart from the others, a queen egg. It was a joyous sight, but also a painful one for the new Weyrwoman. The lack of a mother gold made the scene feel empty to her. She hadn't been close to Weyrwoman Kes, but Amair wished someone were there to help her set up the weyr again.
She shook her head, breaking free from her reminiscing. Candidates had been coming to the weyr for several days now, and the eggs were finally hard enough to permit a touching session. Without a Candidate Master, it fell to Amair to oversee the touching and make sure everything went smoothly. At the thought of having to deal with a swarm of youth, Amair reached out for the comfort of her dragon's mind, only to remember Iath was asleep. 'I can do this,' she thought to herself, squaring her shoulders. Taking on her confident Weyrwoman mask, Amair strode out to stand by the clutch, waiting for the candidates to come find her.

[ferathon]

Talane had been at the Weyr for a few days and he was dressed and ready to go touch the eggs and look at them. He'd been looking forward to this since he had been searched. He stood at the entrance and saw the Weyrwoman and bowed to her and then looked to her as if asking permission to go forward and get closer to the eggs.

[Elfie]

"You think Amair's watching over them this time?"

"Does it matter? It'll be just like old times if she isn't."

"The thrill of the secret always more fun!" Two voices chorused at once as a pair of figures walked across the Bowl. The Sands were their destination, of course, the lure of the Egg Touching too much for them to resist.

A small bubble of cold air heralded the arrival of a small red creature from between, Crin winging forward to settle on a young man's head. "I'm right, Crin reports that Amair's there." Sinarin informed his brother with a rather smug tone as if he'd just won a bet, while one hand lifted to caress his fire lizard. "What a good girl my little Crin is." Words were cooed while a smile replaced smirk on visage, the ruby colored flit butting her head affectionately against his hand.

"I never said you were wrong." Rinarin countered, linking his arm through his brother's as they entered the Sands. Their other three flits preceded them, darting and wheeling over the eggs while chattering with excitement and taking in the entire area. Amair was there, along with a boy who could only be another Candidate.

"Hello!" Both called at once, sketching slight, but polite, bows toward the Weyrwoman even as dual gazes fixated on the rows of different colored ovals. The Hatching really was drawing close! A sense of excitement passed through the pair, making goofy grins curve both sets of lips. They couldn't wait!

[Ayla]

Vittoria ate breakfast slowly. She had woken up early, roused perhaps by nerves, and didn't want to appear overly eager to the Touching. She wondered if that was even possible; the other Holdbred Candidates spoke of nothing but dragons. The Weyrbred ones were not much better, but since they had lived their entire lives around the beasts, it seemed to her that they were better adjusted.

Once Vittoria had seen a few Candidates leave the dining hall for the Sands, she stood and followed. She could hear faint groans and surprised shrieks from the Candidate Quarters; no doubt some of her new friends were being awoken quite rudely by their peers.

Vittoria strode quickly across the Bowl, her stride just long enough to tug at the hem of her dress. Her heavy I'm-not-getting-my-feet-burned boots poked out from under her skirt. The arch to the Sands did not take long to get to, for which Vittoria was grateful. Her nervous energy would have forced her to run if it had taken another minute.

She took a deep breath and forced the butterflies in her stomach to calm down. Then, she stepped onto the Sands. The eggs were obviously the first thing she noticed. After a slight delay, she turned to the Weyrwoman and bowed respectfully. "Good morning, Weyrwoman Amair," she said.

Vittoria looked back to the eggs, her attention drawn to the beautiful gold one separated from the rest. The queen egg, she thought. "Weyrwoman, if you don't mind my asking, do you know when the Hatching will be?" Vittoria asked. Hopefully soon.

After getting an answer, Vittoria bowed again, this time very slightly, and ventured off to the eggs. She began with the smaller eggs, especially the brightly colored ones. They were prettier than the dark ones, but Vittoria hoped she would Impress a larger dragon. They seemed better suited to her personality; what was better than a gold for someone like her?

[ÆRO]

Broad shoulders and a smooth chest was revealed above the water’s foamy surface. He wiggled his fingers as he dragged his arm slowly against the flow of the murky but completely natural water. With nutrients filled to every soluble percent, this mineral water was supposed to be great for one’s skin. Where the weyr got it, was something Rioe did not care about, and as he sat with his knees drawn up to his abdomen in the public baths, he was quite pleased to be there. And even though these were the public baths, the greenish tinge of the water was murky enough to make anything private remain private within its slightly warm and very soothing depths.

And as public as they were, they were still segregated by gender, and so in the men’s public baths, Rioe was calmly listening to the conversation of a pair of young men, perhaps fellow candidates as they seemed to be rather soft things. Perhaps even holdbred they were. Either way, they daintily but proudly stalked their way toward the exit with a towel wrapped around their lower body, one with a simple red fluffy thing, the other with a rather extravagant scarlet and gold trimmed monster. Snickering silently at the atrocity the young man was wearing, as he watched them leave, Rioe looked down to see a trail of bubbles appearing on the surface of the water between his two barely visible kneecaps. Grinning, he tapped the top of dark blonde hair that was starting to show, and the face that was connected to said head, surfaced sputtering water and gasping for air. With a rather crossed expression the young woman complained, “Did they really have to take so long? When will you hurry up and become a rider so we can have your own private bath all to ourselves?”

With a cocky grin he kissed his current flame on the cheek, “Don’t worry yourself, love. I’ll hurry up and impress a king, just for you?”

“Well, you better! I want to enjoy the benefits of letting a silly little candidate rattle my bones.” Murmured the kitchen girl whose cross expression had quickly turned into one of mischievous coyness as she slowly slinked back down into the water with a rather flushed face.

“I’m sure you had fun down there…” Rioe started with a equally if not more so expression, but he stood up abruptly, and jumped clean out of the water to land gently at the edge of the bath as he quickly wrapped a normal white towel around his lower body, “ But we’re going to have to continue this later as I’ve got some chores to attend to.”

The girl was startled into splashing down, face first into the bath water, and she went screeching all the way down. And being the tough working girl that she was, she shot right back up sputtering, but with a rather angry air this time.

With a roll of his eyes, that he made sure the girl didn’t see, Rioe grinned and placated the angry wherry, “Look love, if you want me to impress that king for ya’, you gotta’ let me go do my candidate chores, or else they are going to quick me out, ya’ hear?”
With a mute nod, she pouted but motioned for him to quickly get to his duties.

Human’s are greedy ambitious little things aren’t they? As long as they get what they want…..

Knowing this fact, Rioe happily whistled his way into his clothes, and
with a quick shake of his head, sent water droplets flying in all directions, as he achieved that perfect fresh out of the bath look.

Instead of going toward where his designated cleaning area was, he made a different turn, heading for the Hatching Grounds. The Touching, was today after all, and there was no shame in getting there early.

Well technically, he didn’t need to worry about his chores after all, as earlier in the day he had met a fellow candidate. Girls were such easy creatures to fool into doing work for you, and all it had taken from him was a few pouts, a pair of long lashes that blinked into twinkling eyes, and one of his extra shirts.

Snickering as he entered the Sands with a flourish of bows and smiles, he made sure to give an extra flourish to the weyrwoman,
“My Weyrwoman, I am so grateful for this opportunity to be able to come this close and maybe even touching distance of these great offspring. I thank you.”

[Beth]

Amair watched as several candidates finally appeared on the sands, their personalities showing. It seemed the search dragons had done their best again, as the candidates fell across the spectrum of dispositions. She tried to smile pleasantly at the first timid boy who came, and the emotion became more genuine as the general excitement of the Touching Ceremony seeped from her young charges.
Amair inclined her head in acknowledgment of each of the candidates as they entered. "Good morning." She finally called when five of them had assembled, her voice retaining a slightly husky tone from the emotional memories tied to this hall. She cleared her throat and continued, "I'm sure you are all eager to begin, so I won't blabber on. I just want to warn you of two things. First, be sure to try and touch all of the eggs. This is a proven method, and we want as few maulings as possible. Second, do not get caught here without an authorized Dragonrider." She made eye contact with each youth as she said this, her cold gaze hinting at dire punishment should they disobey her. She left them to imagine what kind of punishment that may be.
With a shooing motion of her hands, she gestured for them to begin. "Go ahead, and watch where you step."
The instructions finished, she turned to one girl who had asked her a question. "It will still be a few sevendays until they are hard enough to hatch." she said in response.

[ÆRO]

“Baa baa, I really do hope you grow up big and beautiful. “ murmured the girl into the side of the young sheep who had scarlet ribbons tied around either ear, and a bright golden ribbon around its neck in a bow, while she had her arms around the herdsbeast.
“Or, at least you better considering how much hay I had to steal to give you a little extra!”

After the slight threat that the sheep completely did not understand, Aoide squeezed the creature just a tad harder feeling her face sink into the fluffy wool, even though the somewhat itchy texture was slightly irritating against her skin. The girl didn’t mind sacrificing this feeling for the greater good of the pure and simple adoration of a cherished creature. Patting the sheep on the head, she smiled at her precious baby one more, before leading it toward a couple of buckets of soapy water and a large cistern of mysterious brown water. With a cheerful whistle, Aoide tugged again at the leash, and happily dragged the beast to stop in front of the muddy substance. Get a grip around its middle, she heaved and hoed until she was able to lift it up in a comfortable position and dropping it with a mighty brown splash into the substance. As the sheep screamed its protests, Aoide gave it a rather sadistic smile, before picking up the iron brush that she had placed next to the tub. Actually she had prepared everything, anticipating the trouble she would have with this bath.

Pulling the brush through the wooly tangled mess, Aoide cheerfully whistled to herself, an old folk tune about a herd of sheep and the girl who fell asleep while caring for them. At an especially hard mess, she gave an especially hard tug, and the sheep uttered a displeased squeal, kicking and thrashing to send a wave of the mysterious brown liquid onto Aoide’s rather worn and stained but still white shirt, which was now reeking of brown ooze.

“Shardit!” cursed the young woman, as she dropped the comb and sheep alike to pick at her ruined article of clothing. “This was my last
white shirt!”

With an angry stare at the sheep, she forcefully ran the comb through the wool with all her strength, as the poor creature bleated
helplessly, from pain or frustration was up to anyone’s guess.

Finishing with a huff, she dropped the sheep from the tub onto the ground with one final dump of a bucket of clear water that had been sneaked from the drinking facilities, Aoide tied the corresponding bows and ribbons in their rightful places as she begun to pluck at her clothing again. Soaking wet and brown, the shirt was definitely ruined, and she sighed rather regretfully before squatting down.
Well, she was done with all her candidate chores, and all that was left was to go change before the Touching, as she couldn’t just show up in her current dirty state.

Squatting near the sheep that was now chewing on some offered hay, the girl was bowled over as someone nearly stepped on her. Shooting upwards Aoide sent a death glare in the direction of this unnecessary intrusion, which turned out to be a pretty young man with a rather charming smile, which was directed at her person. Blushing, Aoide looked down and then back up at the man, who uttered an apparently sincere apology, before giving her the classic up and down eye sweep.

Aoide started to stutter something as she noticed a flicker of something flash across his face and before she managed to say anything, he opened his mouth and smoothly noted, “I see you’re in a sticky situation. Need some help there?”

Rather shyly she replied “Thank you for asking, but I’m fine.”
With a pout forming on his face and puppy dog eyes appearing, the young man moved forward, “ But you see, I do need your help.
W-w-would you be able to help me?”

The blank expression across Aoide‘s face slowly cracked as she stared into the depths of those eyes and she even felt her resolution to speak to a stranger dissolve away at that pout. With a suspicious frown she supplied, “With what?”

The young man added a saddened cast to his features and then softly murmured with tears brimming in his eyes, “There is this Runnerbeast that I care for, and the poor lump injured his leg. I need to take care of him for the last time today. They are putting him down, since he can’t run anymore. C-could you take care of my candidate chores for me? It’s just cleaning the hallway that leads towards the kitchens.”

Mutely and without further questioning she nodded, as the young man’s face cleared up and he gave her a smirk. Staring as the young man turned around to walk away, Aoide gave a startled squeak as he suddenly stripped his shirt off and threw it backwards at her. Automatically she reached out to catch it, and immediately the musky scent and warmth of the shirt hit her senses, and she felt another flush across her face. With a wink, the young man sashayed off, leaving Aoide with a sheep, a warm shirt and a moment to realize she had probably been tricked.
Faranth! The next time that deadglow came into her line of vision he’d better be careful! If she didn’t castrate him right then and there….!

With a mighty hurumph she slammed the shirt into the dirt, before stalking away. After a few steps Aoide walked back to the shirt, and picked it up, looking around suspiciously to see if anyone was there to see her doing such a thing. Dusting it off, she shoved the shirt into a little wad before giving the sheep a final pat on the head and stalking off to get ready for the Touching. She never really had enough shirts, and an addition would do great things for her lacking arsenal of clothing.

A little while later she had changed and ran a quick comb through the tangly brown mass of hair, Aoide was ready to go. Except for the watchwher of guilt that sat on her shoulders, she daintily fingered her new shirt before giving a final loud exclamation of a sigh and headed off to finish that dimglow’s chores.

Mumbling as she mopped and cleaned the expanse of hallway, it was only when a few girls that gave her odd glances walked by that she realized how much time had passed, and Aoide shot up, leaving the mop and water-filled bucket while narrowing missing tipping it over. Running and shooting over obstacles as they appeared before her, Aoide made it to the sandy warm arena that served as the Sands, with enough time to spare an appreciating glance at the large and hardened dragon eggs.

Looking at the Weyrwoman through her bangs, the young woman quickly bowed and murmured, “ Thank you for the opportunity to approach the late Queen’s eggs.”

[Ari]

Dorian had agonized over this day for the past sevenday. He was sure that Gather clothes weren't needed, but he didn't want to be seen wearing rags on his first visit to the Weyrwoman and her Queen. In the end, he had chosen some finely made clothes. They weren't flashy, but they were well made and clean kept. The sort of thing he'd put on if another Lord Holder was visiting. Dorian had almost blushed when he'd figured out he was worried about clothes instead of the actually eggs. He was a male by the first egg, he shouldn't worry about such things. It didn't help that he hadn't been in the Weyr long enough to meet anyone.

Dorian sighed as he finally reached the Hatching Sands only to realize he missed the Weyrwoman's speech. Did that make him officially late? Was he going to be pulled aside later and assigned more chores? No, surely not. There were only 5 or 6 here anyway. Such a big occasion was bringing out the worst in him it seemed.

A soft chirup was the only warning he received before Sadie landed on his shoulders. He instantly relaxed, a small bit of home in such a foreign place. He'd been sad when he was informed that Tundra couldn't come and that Darts probably shouldn't. Only Sadie was given a chance and she'd have to go too if she annoyed the Queen dragon or anyone above him. It was a privilege to just be picked as a Candidate. Some dragons were renown for hating fire lizards so he had to be extra careful and make sure Sadie was on her best behavior.

Fortified by his friend Dorian stepped forward to pay his respects. He bowed low to the Weyrwoman and gave one to the Queen for good measure. "It is an honor to be here and I am deeply grateful for the chance to see, touch, and one day maybe even Impress one of these miracles." He gave another bow, wanting to make sure such a large (and sometimes menacing dragon) wasn't going to take exception to him before he finally turned his attention to the eggs.

He stepped further in to the Hatching Sands so anyone else arriving wouldn't find him in their way. For a few minutes all he did was stare at the eggs and soak in the sight. Not many on Pern even did this. This right here, just standing at the Sands, seeing all these eggs. Dorian stepped forward and lightly ran his fingers over a green-ish egg. Stepping carefully, he made his way deeper into the late queen's clutch. Occasionally he would fill a pull towards an egg and linger, lightly brushing the egg with his fingertips. He'd always thought it odd a dragon knew his bonded, but a human couldn't tell. Looking out at the eggs he had no clue which was his, or even if a dragon was here for him.

He blinked when he found himself a few steps away from the golden egg. Definitely not one for him. A purely female egg, nevertheless, he daringly brushed his fingers against it. If nothing else, he could go home with that tale. With a smile lingering on his face, he continued on through the eggs. A bronze egg, he pressed his palm flat against the egg. A powerful dragon, a potential Weyrleader was housed in this egg. A male egg, but probably not his, it required a leader amoung men. He almost didn't see it, white against the sand, a small egg. Probably one of the smallest ones there. Hard to believe someone would ride this dragon and lift many things a person would never believe possible, he mused as he squatted down to touch the egg.

Dorian looked upwards to reassure himself that the other Candidates were still here. He didn't want to be taking too much time. It was also hard to pull himself away before he was told he had to go. There were so many eggs, so many possibilities. He paused at a beautifully coulored green, it looked almost like a forest, speckled as it was. Next was an amber, a dark sea blue, and on and on, until it all swirled in his head a little.

He found himself at the edge of the eggs and just stopped to admire them. Oh yes, he'd be happy to spend his life with any one of them. Maybe that was why humans couldn't find their bonded. They just wanted any dragon to pick them and only the right one could.

[ferathon]

Talane walked between all the eggs following the Weyrwoman's direct orders to make sure to touch them all then he turned and went back to the two eggs that really caught his eye. He touched the Sandstorm egg again and held his hand on it for a while trying to feel something besides the egg on his hand. He then stepped to the Falling Waters egg and did the same. These two eggs seemed to call to him. He was about to go walk to another egg when he stepped on his own foot and fell over into the sand. He quickly stood up, spitting sand out of his mouth and looking around to see if anyone had noticed. He wasn't a clumsy person, but he had his moments. He hurriedly walked back to the Sandstorm egg and just put his hand back on it to avoid anymore embarrassing mishaps. He really liked this Sandstorm egg, but he had no idea what was in it. It was beginning to make him wonder if he cared about color, but just wanted the dragon. He originally had wanted a brown. Not a super important rider, but where he could remain anonymous for the most part unless needed. He knew no one in the area except the Weyrwoman. He only knew her, because he'd seen her a couple of times. He had only been at the Weyr for the night before and had met no one yet.

[Ayla]

Vittoria scrunched her nose at the greetings others gave to the Weyrwoman. She was torn between calling them suck-ups and worrying that she didn't give a formal enough greeting. Surely Rioe and Dorian went just a bit overboard. The Weyrwoman was important, yes, but that didn't mean you had to impress her with overly formal greetings... right? Vittoria still wasn't totally sure, but she pushed it out of her mind to worry about later.

...Maulings? Faranth, I thought dragons were peaceful. I don't want to get hurt! she thought. She squirmed a bit, uneasy at the prospect of injury. Although she initially intended to only touch the eggs that interested her, she quickly changed her mind.

As good as her intentions were, Vittoria still could not bring herself to sit with the darker eggs for extended periods of time. It wasn't a conscious decision; she just moved on to the brighter eggs faster. The Gentle Breezes egg attracted her attention, as did the Dew at Morning Egg. She sat by both of these eggs for longer than the others.

Once she had touched about half the eggs, mostly the larger ones, she glanced over at the Weyrwoman. There was no one by the queen egg, which made Vittoria wonder if touching it was taboo. She didn't want to break some unspoken tradition by going to it, so she hovered around the eggs she hadn't yet visited.

Just a few yards away from her, a boy tumbled over into the sand. Vittoria stifled a giggle. It was almost cute the way he spit sand out. How he even managed to trip on a flat surface, she didn't know. He hurried back to the Sandstorm egg, and as soon as Vittoria was finished with the Sunny Skies egg, she walked over to him.

"I saw you trip back there; need some help getting to the next egg?" she said, a small smile on her face. Hopefully, it was obvious she was teasing him.

Vittoria glanced at the queen egg before he had a chance to respond. Shardit, what if I get sucked into a big conversation and can't touch it? I'll have no chance... she thought, dejected. She didn't let it show, though, and quickly turned her attention back to the boy. She was sure she hadn't seen him before, which was strange. It was in her nature to know everyone. He had probably only gotten in either last night or early this morning.

"I don't think I've seen you before. You haven't been here very long, hm?" she asked. "Believe it or not, I don't think I even know your name. I'm Vittoria." She wanted to ask what he hoped to Impress, but it seemed too forward this early in the conversation. Thank Faranth for extensive etiquette lessons.

[ÆRO]

Having held back his desire to run his fingers along all the eggs, perhaps even pushing his way through to touch some, Rioe had felt a sort of riveting delight when his hands first felt the smooth eggshell. The young man stared at the almost reflective exterior perhaps hoping to see his own face, or even see through to the inside of the egg. An impossible feat, Rioe sighed before giving the large and rather imposing egg known as the Thunder Strike a last pat as one would pat a forlorn child and walked away to see the young woman that he tricked earlier that day. Eyes wide, the typically grinning young man lost his congenial expression and quickly took off into the opposite direction to hide behind another egg that was quite a bit smaller in size. The egg was tiny enough compared to the others that it did not completely hide him, and he could feel the top of his head being exposed. Panicking, Rioe put his hands on the egg for support and peered from behind the soon to be dragon, to take a quick search for the naïve young woman. He saw quite a few candidates, but could not exactly locate the one that was striking so much fear within him, who was usually so good with females. Feeling the adrenaline rush through his veins, he panicked once more and dashed toward a larger egg, leaving the Sunny Skies egg behind for the Lightning egg. It was large and gave him a feeling of safety, and he sank down to the ground with his back against the egg. Feeling a sigh of relief escape his body,
Rioe took the time to think about why exactly he was running.

There was no real reason. If they came face to face, he could probably woo her with his words again, perhaps if needed a flashy smile and gentle touch would be more than enough. Pondering and incapable of thinking of a plausible reason, he laughed at his own sudden spurt of cowardice and stood up with renewed confidence, becoming his old self again. He flashed a smile at the egg behind him that had supported him in his panicked state, before running his fingers along its edge and moved off to another egg. He needed to touch as many as possible as his beautiful face could not be mauled. Ever.

----------

Aoide was stuck in a predicament. The clutch was not what she had imagined. There were big eggs and little eggs, brightly colored eggs and plain single colored eggs, and there were eggs that stood close together in groups and those that stood alone. What the girl had imagined a clutch would look like were perhaps uniform white eggs with the occasional brick red speckle of color, that were all the same size, shape, and coloring. They were all so different, how would she ever figure out which one to touch? In these situations there was only one thing to do. The young woman closed her round blue eyes, spun around in a circle, and pointed in front of her. In front of her pointed finger stood the Hurricane Eye egg and this was the one she approached with her hand outstretched.

Upon arriving at the egg’s side she drummed her fingers along the exterior of the egg unsure of how exactly she should be touching the egg. It didn’t take long before she felt the onset of disinterest as there so many others still untouched. Moving over to the next egg that caught her eye, the Freezing Rains egg seemed to radiate a sense of warmth and security, despite its name and Aoide casually approached it with a small smile on her face. Upon reaching the egg, she placed a light brush of a touch along the top of the egg. Unsure of how to continue, the young woman stopped to look at what the other candidates were doing. A few were still touching eggs, some were already done simply observing, and others had already begun socializing. Socializing. Aoide shuddered at the idea of walking up to an stranger and expecting to start an amiable conversation. She would much rather go hide back in the kitchens or go spend some time with the herdbeasts.

In an attempt to keep herself away from the feeling that she should indeed go make some friends and companions among her fellow candidates, the young woman took a final sweep of the eggs, giving each egg a brief touch all the while avoiding the golden queen egg as it seemed to attract too much attention, both negative and positive.

[Beth]

Ranea strode quickly onto the sands, hoping her confident gait would show everyong that she was late on purpose... fashionably late. She blinked her eyes quickly, trying to discretely remove any traces of sleep from her face. She hadn't intended to fall asleep, but the sun on the ridge had been pleasantly warm, the various sounds of the weyr a comforting buzz in the background.

She smiled and bowed quickly to the weyrwoman. "I'm terribly sorry Weyrwoman." She said, keeping her eyes lowered. "If you will permit, I would still like to participate."

Amair nodded to her and waved her hand, dismissing the problem. "Go join the others." She said, her eyes searching for one male candidate in particular. She thought she had seen him hiding behind the eggs.... but no, there he was looking confident as he stroked and egg. Amair shook her head slightly and returned to watching the group.

Inside, Ranea heaved a sigh of relief. She had been terrified she would be sent back to the barracks in disgrace. Considerably more cheerful now, the young girl moved among the eggs, trailing her fingers over their leathery shells. She linger extra long by Hail Fire and Snowflake, stopping to stare at them as though she could see the dragonet inside. At last she turned to go and approach the queen egg. But instead of seeing the usual gaggle of girls clustered around it, the egg was sitting by itself. Ranea thought about being the first one to touch it, but she was distracted by a glimmer of red at the corner of her vision. She turned to see a beautiful red fire-lizard perched on another male candidate. She couldn't help but smile at the little creature. She walked toward the boy and another who had to be some sort of relation. "You have a beautiful fire-lizard." She said by way of greeting. "What's her name?"

[Reakeda]

(Since obviously it was impossible for me to have posted prior to this I'm going to post him on time, rather than late.. if you'd prefer otherwise let me know and I can change it)

"I know Spark, I'm not running late and I don't move that slowly. I just have a few more to get," Jerston shrugged, waving away the firelizard's reminders of the time and the touching. He pulled another herb from the ground and brushed the dirt from it before adding it to the basket. Two more were added before he was bombarded with another series of worried impressions from the blue. He let out a sigh.

"Honestly, Spark. I'm never late to lessons. Well, almost never, and I know how important it is. I have time to find the last one and take these back to the infirmary still." He rolled his eyes as he examined the patch of plants around him for the tell tale signs of the herbs he'd been sent to collect. He located it quickly enough and pulled it from the ground, adding it the basket.

"Shara, come!" The golden canine was by his side almost instantaneously. He closed the lid on the basket and used rope to attach it over her neck. With a grin to the firelizard, he started back towards the Weyr. It wasn't too far of a walk. He had to readjust his gait as the ground grew firmer beneath him and then turned to the stone. Once he'd handed the herbs off to an apprentice for cleaning and sorting he hurried his pace towards the candidates barracks. There he peeled off his dirt caked clothes that he'd been working in since he'd risen and found something a little more presentable.

Never one overly worried about his appearance, Jerston chose to don a simple neutral tunic and dark brown slacks. His fingers combed through his short hair and he made sure he washed them before heading to the sands. Now Spark was constantly pressing his worry and rushing the candidate along. Jerston, though, did not hurry his step. He was careful to avoid cracks and rocks that would trip him as he placed his crutch and indeed, he was right not to be worried as he arrived just in time to hear Amair's speech.

He waited until she finished to approach and dip a respectful bow, taking his crutch in one hand so that he would be able to give a complete a proper bow. He wavered only slightly as he adjusted his balance to the new surface and texture of the sand. It was dizzying straightening back up and he nearly lost his balance before he could replace his crutch, but Shara was right there, brushing here body against him to steady him until he had his crutch in the sand.

"Thank you for this opportunity. It is more than I had hoped for," he stated with all sincerity before moving away so other candidates could approach and he could go to the eggs. His eyes then fell to Shara. "Shara, Out!" he commanded, gesturing to the entrance to the hatching cavern, thinking it best she not be with him as he moved through the eggs. It wasn't that she would be any danger to them, but he figured the Weyrwoman would probably feel more comfortable if the canine weren't there. She obeyed without hesitation, though she remained where she could watch him.

Since he would eventually touch each egg, Jerston didn't concern himself with which was first. His fingers reached out to touch the first he came to as the rest of his body instinctively adjusted to keep balance.

[Ari]

Lili glanced over the eggs and Candidates among them. Well, it appeared she was rather late. The normally detail-obsessed girl hadn't thought to find out exactly when the Touching of the eggs would begin. She shook her head, nope, she'd just focused on the fact that today was the day that she would see the dragon eggs up close. Her whole life in a Weyr and an egg touching still sent her in such a big fuss. She glanced down at herself and self consciously smoothed the non-existent wrinkles from her breeches. She had dressed up for the occasion, which meant that the breeches and tunic she wore weren't all patchy like her work clothes.

Lilith finally moved forward and bowed to the Weyrwoman, "Sorry for my tardiness." She turned slightly and bowed to the golden Queen dragon, "I hope you will excuse me, for it was meant as no slight to your clutch, it's a wonderful batch. Beautiful." Having, hopefully, appeased Iath, she returned her attention to the Weyrwoman, "I thank you for this oppurtunity." Waiting just long enough for it to be polite, Lili moved towards the eggs. Despite her eagerness, her gait was unhurried. She'd have plenty of time among the eggs. She was late, but it didn't seem too bad as most were still wandering through the clutch.

Standing at the edge she gazed at the eggs, trying to see if any one drew her more than the other. After a minute, she gave up. Anything could hop out of the egg, and as long as it called her Lilimine she'd be happy. With that thought in mind she smiled as she touched the eggs. She'd linger on the eggs that were obviously female, hoping to imprint herself on them or something. She did make sure to make a pass at the gold, for luck, she muttered to herself. Then, to make sure the boys didn't take offense, went through the male eggs.

The ones she wasn't sure of or just hadn't caught her eye were last. As she got the last egg, hoping to have gotten them all through her sporadic egg touching she took a longer look at them all and let herself really wander the eggs. Her eyes were now on the Candidates, most weren't Weyrbred of course, so they were strangers to her. She happened to be close to another female Candidate (Vittoria), "Can be very overwhelming at first, huh? Although it's almost dull without them trying to get out. Can't wait for the hatching." Having made her effort to be sociable, Lili smiled as she gazed at the eggs, silently reworking her path to make double sure all eggs had been touched.