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Josy - Thursday, August 12, 1999, 5:30 PM
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The following is a roleplay-log from SouCon MUSH (soucon.godlike.com 4201). The world of Pern is copyright to Anne McCaffrey.
You follow the trail, back around the slight bend, toward the clearing for these western weyrs.
You walk toward the Landing Field.
You walk toward the Garden Cottage Clearing.
Jayla nods slowly, following the way to her own cottage. Although at a much slower pace. "It is private, much more private. But you'll trip over something, I did just this morning. Its in a bad need of a cleaning..." Just as she speaks there's a infamous rock right in front of her foot, but she see's it just in time. Though barely. She may be clumsy, but not that bad.
Jeuneth> Muinyth senses that Jeuneth, in her invasive and unavoidable way, allows a tendril to creep into your mind. Minimal, sparing the effort of a real request. << It's about time. >>
Joslyn misses a step, tripping over a blade of grass but catching herself. With an excusatory cough, she frowns at that blade of grass, oh-so-discreet and stuff. No one saw that.
Foloran certainly didn't. He's rather busy walking with Jayla toward her cot. "I'll just be careful. Small price to pay. You are in serious need of a massage." As if she didn't know that.
Dragon> Jeuneth senses that Muinyth's attention slides over to your thoughts, his voice a gentle drawl. << For what? >> He inquires, followed with a caressed thought of endearment, almost a << dearest? >> Added to the end.
"Fine... Just be careful, there's a lot in there to trip on.." Jayla has yet to notice Joslyn being rather busy watching the ground for anything else she might fall over. "But my back is feeling a lot better now..."
Joslyn gawks now, blinkblinking at those two over there across the clearing, her eyes widening dramatically. And then even more as she tilts her face up toward the sky, blinking some more. Quite inobtrusively now, she asks with some urgency, "Does anyone have boots?"
Jeuneth> Muinyth senses that Jeuneth explains only because she must, using more hinting images of eggs and the like to clarify the crisp reply. << For us to go the Sands. >>
Foloran blinks once, himself, and turns around. Ever Joslyn's slave, he nods. "Yeah, I do... Be right back, Jayla." And he jogs over toward Joslyn.
Foloran blinks once, himself, and turns around. Ever Joslyn's slave, he nods. "Yeah, I do... Be right back, Jayla." And he jogs over toward Joslyn. "Why don't you have any of your own?"
Jayla finally does notice Joslyn, stopping in her tracks right as she's about to step up onto her porch. She slowly turns around and then over to Foloran. Somehow she thinks she's about to lose the rest of her massage, but then again it could just be for boots..
"I DO have some of my own," Joslyn replies absently, squinting up at the sky and then shaking her head quickly. She sits down on the ground at once, pulling the laces out of the boots considerably and shoving her feet into them. "I need socks."
"Uh..." Foloran replies. "Well, I've got some of them, too." Pause. "Clean ones..back in my cot. Want some?" He's got a rather odd look on his face right now, though. Joslyn /is/ acting rather strange, at the moment.
Shaking her head rapidly, Joslyn re-ties the laces as tight as she can and makes sloppy knots and then stands up real quick-like. "Haven't got time. Sands and stuff," she informs a bit vaguely - strange to say the least. And then she runs off at once, leaving her towel behind.
Jayla has socks, plenty of socks right here in her cottage. In fact, she tripped over plenty of them just this morning. But she won't say a word at all. She's temporarily lost her voice, you know. With a small twist of her back, the starsmith sits down on her porch all silent-like.
You walk toward the Courtyard.
Kinoa follows Shasta's glance upwards and raises her eyebrows. "Shasta?" she says in reply.
Dragon> Southern Weyr sense that Muinyth's laid back, unruffled, voice reaches across the background mutters of the Weyr's complement of dragons. << Jeuneth has called me to the Sands. I believe it's time. >>
Foloran walks over from the Garden Cottage Clearing.
Jayla walks over from the Garden Cottage Clearing.
Jeuneth> Jeuneth has already made herself quite at home, sort of guarding the farthest wall of the Sands as if that is now HERS so don't go near it. Never one to wait, she's not at all concerned by the lack of an audience or lifemates or any of that. It's time, the end.
Kinoa blinks once and then ohs in understanding. "Oh. D'you need me to hold her, or something?" she offers, waving to the others heading through the courtyard.
Joslyn runs about as fast as anyone will ever seen her run ever again, quite winded by the time she cuts across the courtyard and veers toward Shasta and then skids to a halt. "She'll do this without us, you know," is informed before she runs off again. Guess.
You walk over to the Lakeside Meadow.
You walk toward the sizzling hot sands.
From the Galleries, Jayla walks over from the entrance to the hatching cavern.
See? Joslyn made it and before the first egg, even. Jeuneth's over there being fussy, looking irritated as ever though there is a hint of gratitude in the whuffle that goes Muinyth's away - such an understanding fellow. Out of breath, the goldrider takes the risk and trots over to her dragon, a not noticing the galleries just yet.
Shasta walks over from the entrance to the hatching cavern.
Shasta dashes after Joslyn, catching up only after a few moments. In her arms is the reason for her lack of speed, little Khysta's got a fistfull of her mothers' hair, but at least the three month old child looks none the worse for wear for the jog over. Unused to being on the sands themselves, likely not having set foot upon them since Muinyth broke shell, the brownrider skids to a halt just barely into the wide expanse.
From the Galleries, Kinoa walks over from the entrance to the hatching cavern.
From the Galleries, Jayla sighs as she comes jogging into the galleries, skidding to a halt before picking up a good walking stride. "What a lovely day..." is her muttered comment, dripping in sarcasism. Running was what got her back into this condition today and her she was doing it all over again. Oh well...
From the Galleries, Foloran, on the other hand, doesn't have clue one what's going on. Well..he's sorta got it figured out, seeing as how there's an egg-heavy Gold on the sands. He's not a /total/ idiot. Anyway, he finds himself a good vantage point to watch from, and stands there.
From the Galleries, Kinoa just slips in and takes a seat near the back, not looking like she wants to talk to anyone.
From the Galleries, Marila grins at her sister and her dragon proudly. She leans her chin on her fists as she watches and waits.
From the Galleries, Visaan strides over from the entrance to the hatching cavern.
From the Galleries, Mitta stands at the top of the stairs, gaping at the sands in wonderment a moment before she snaps her mouth shut and plunks herself down onto a seat.
Now that she's collected an audience, Jeuneth makes a point of taking her time. This little hill is shoved aside - that lumpy looking stone is flicked aside with the spade of her tail. And Joslyn, looking hot and out of breath, starts to look a little irritated at herself. "Figures," is mumbled, a glance back to gauge how Shasta's doing.
Something of a breeze, barely perceptible as it passes through the seemingly unbearable heat, stirs minute grains upon the Hatching Sands, leaving Jeuneth with those haughtily purple wings fluttering. When she stills again, there's the wisp of an egg in her wake, intangible as cirrus clouds.
---*** Core of Intelligence Egg ***---
The colors of the egg have no distinct shape. It seems to be all one 'cloud', like someone can pass through it and come out the other side. The blues, greens, reds, and whites seems to have been swirled around and around to the point that one can no longer discern where one color ends and another begins. But don't be fooled by this outer shell, for inside there is some sort of depth, some sort of intelligence that only one knows about - warm and living and thriving, just beneath the surface.
From the Galleries, Jayla finally comes to a stop next to Foloran, where she promptly leans against.. something. "Can I take a refund on that for a another day?" She may be acting a touch selfish right now, but her back is rather sore. Don't be mistaken, though, she is watching the sands intently.
From the Galleries, Marila grins down at the egg, "Beautiful."
Shasta's looking rather hot, to put it mildly, and rather irritated herself. But eventually, she untangles her daughters' fist from her curls, and hands her to an auntie bustling past with a quiet muttering of directions to find Marila. So, the sire's rider's back is turned when the first egg appears upon the sands, but not for long. "I missed it!" Shasta cries, and only then heads all the way onto the sands themselves.
From the Galleries, Telinda oohs and ahhs as the first egg is lain, waving down frantically at the two expectant parents and their riders.
Joslyn points to 'it' then, to get Shasta going in the right direction 'cause Jeuneth doesn't stay all that long with the first egg. "Come'n see!" A wave catches the corner of her eye and she turns some, realizing there's people up there and one of them is the Weyrwoman and she wavewaves back all happy-like.
From the Galleries, Foloran is rather taken aback, actually. He's never seen anything like this before, and it's having a profound effect on him right now. So distracted is his current mental state, that he doesn't even hear, much less acknowledge, Jayla's question.
From the Galleries, Kinoa grins happily as eggs begin to pop out, watching Shasta and Joslyn and their dragons intently.
Some sound, strange and almost irritating, issues forth from the queen's throat - and even Jeuneth seems taken aback by it, as if she can't quite believe these noises come from HER. But then explanation for said sound follows in the form of a velvety black egg settled to harden on the Sands.
Muinyth rises from his recline off to one side, granite head snaking low near the heat of the sands. His wings partially extend backwards, as though thoroughly reluctant to brave Jueneth's wrath, yet drawn by curiosity, and he paces forwards towards the egg, slowly.
---*** Velvet Void Egg ***---
The outline fuzzy against the sands, even moreso than heat distortion could account for, this ovoid seems almost as if it should be a rich velvet, finger sinking into it when they touch. It is soon found to be hard as any other, however, and smooth as glass. Still, even after the proof of its texture, the look does not change, nor its impression. Hues of deep midnight coalesce into a soupy, onyx center, the graduations of color so fine as to be almost indistinguishable. And here is where the attention constantly strays--directly to the center, as if all life, all matter... everything and nothing... will be inevitably, inexorably drawn into the abyss at the heart of the thing. Textured just barely, hardly enough to notice, it appears as a soothingly smooth blackness, minute hints of color at cap and base fading the edges into their surroundings, leaving its true size indeterminate.
From the Galleries, Marila bounces her neice on her lap. The three month old burbling
From the Galleries, Mitta watches captivated.
From the Galleries, Foloran isn't doing it on purpose, mind you. He's simply too taken with this wondrous moment to do much more than stare at the scene unfolding before him. He barely remembers to blink, for the fear that he might miss something if he does.
Shasta heads across the sands, as curious as her lifemate is, with a smile of gratitude towards Joslyn. "Shells," the weyrsecond breaths, moving sandalled feet quickly as the heat seeps through.
From the Galleries, Telinda combs her fingers through her hair, happy to see eggs arriving at last. As another arrives she gives it her due attention, then turns to the others in the galleries, grinning, "Good start to the clutch!" she remarks, then gestures to the girls and boys of the weyr, who are currently weaving around the flooding of people in the galleries, "Everybody help themselves to drinks and snacks!"
"You relax some," Joslyn says with an impressive shake of her finger at the big dragon, finishing the gesture by wiping the back of her hand over her forehead. "Come over and see," she adds, beckoning Shasta over with nothing but the sigh of a snort from Jeuneth as she pushes hot sand around her pretty black egg.
From the Galleries, Marila smooches her neice on the cheek, "See there your mommy is with Muinyth on the sands while Jueneth clutches." She dandles the baby, which squeals happily.
From the Galleries, Jayla's rather subborn and won't let anyone forget that. Expect she won't now, at least, being captured by the latest egg. She'll remind him of that later probably. Though for now she plops down in a seat rather unladylike, still watching the sands. Even if her eyes do flicker eye now and then to Foloran, maybe even a small chuckle at how much his attention is drawn into it..
Muinyth pushes his nose close to the black egg, snorting softly as he moves slowly, giving the golden dam every opportunity to object. Meanwhile, Shasta arrives beside Josy, eyes rather wide. "Shells, Josy, they really did it," she says softly, though the sound likely carries far. "Smaller than I remembered them being."
The soft, harmonious rustling of red-lined wings filters across the Sands and up to the galleries as Jeuneth bothers with her crimson wingsails - lulling as a mother's song at bedtime. She settles back to her haunches, as if to rest, but only stays thus for a beat or two before she shuffles away from a small mound of sand now set with a perfectly melodious egg.
From the Galleries, Telinda peers across at Marila, "Better hope she doesn't pee in your lap!" she remarks with a straight face.
---*** Suite of Planets Egg ***---
Simple, and yet strangely elemental in nature, this egg sings out in a rich polyphony of colour, each hue balanced and harmonized. Red ochre blends in a terrifying vision of war, destructive and vindictive, and yet its complement twists encircles in ethereal whites, consoling the anger, muting the red to pinks, and gradually introducing the idea of peace. Silver darts across the ovoid, quicker than the speed of thought, almost mercurial in nature, and is reciprocated in turn by a trail of gold that descends down towards the base, it's plodding measures surer than a wagon's runner. Chestnut brown rings the circumference, and on closer inspection appear to be wrinkled with carefully detailed lines, bringing a vision of inexorable age to the shell. Purple seems to bumble towards the apex, striving to reach a goal, its eccentricity displayed in the brilliant bursts of amethyst, like small explosions, that are discharged from the wavering lines. Floating at the apex, deep jade greens transcend the other individual shades, rising above them, concluding this mystical contemplation of infinite time and space.
From the Galleries, Marila sticks her tounge out at the weyrwoman, "That would be alright. Just so long as she doesn't chose the other option messily."
Joslyn takes a step or two back at the wing-thing, watching her lifemate closely with a glance aside at Shasta as she arrives. "Tell me about it. Look! Three!" Just in case the Weyrsecond has forgotten how to count.
From the Galleries, Telinda grins, wrinkling her nose, "Well, don't dare her!" she adds, looking down at the sands with a smile, and waving once more to the two humans down there. "Isn't that pretty?!"
From the Galleries, Khysta squeals happily not particularly knowing what is happening. But this seems to be fun.
Shasta turns her head slightly, as Jeuneth fusses with her wings, against the wind stirred up. "Three, and many more to come." She agrees, giving her own lifemate a broad smile. The brown, dwarfed by the presence of his mate, chuffs with a laid back variety of pride, only just now relaxing his own wings. Eyes glinting with blues and greens, he turns his attention to Jeuneth, rumbling softly.
From the Galleries, Telinda grins at the little girl, then turns her attention to Mitta, Larbon and Lokee, "Welcome to Southern Weyr. Please, help yourself to refreshments."
Jeuneth allows a croon of sorts of Muinyth in return, mostly preoccupied and self-absorbed presently. She doesn't stay still for very long, being the fussy type, and so her weyrwoman dutifully scuttles around the Sands behind the queen. "All pretty!" she calls back up to the galleries.
There is no warning this time, no utterance or shift from Her Grace. It is only when Jeuneth moves away from her newest egg that it becomes visible, a small, soft sphere of scarlet nestled in a makeshift fox-hole in the Sands.
---*** Crimson Warrior Egg ***---
Small and red, this egg is alive with some internal strife - its own private war waged right there in the midst of the Hatching Sands. The surface seems to dance with fire, turmoil etched in the jagged lines of scarlet or crimson that shadow the already russet surface. Significantly smaller than its mottled clutchsibs, it is nonetheless a foreboding presence placed as it is in a small, solitary recess - nestled almost strategically in a shallow trench running a jagged course through the Sands. Fiery red on the seemingly translucent surface, it has a strangely butterscotch undertone, as if a truer hue colored its tannish core. Deceptive in both size and shade, it's a precise little presence, almost militarily detached from its fellows, a little general leading its clutchsiblings into battle.
From the Galleries, Marila whistles low at the new egg, "Looks like it got stained blooding or something."
From the Galleries, Mitta smiles shyly to Telinda, "Thanks."
From the Galleries, Telinda grins at the strangers, "You're all welcome. Feel free to stay afterwards for the party as well."
From the Galleries, Lokee smiles his appreciation.
From the Galleries, Larbon watches quietly from the back, seeing all the eggs appearing as if by magic.
Shasta heads for the second egg, returning Telinda's wave as she walks. Both she and Muinyth turn their attention upon the new, blood red egg, as they form a sort of procession behind the golden dragon. As the brown nudges sand about with his snout, in imitation of Jeuneth it might seem, his rider crouches down for a closer look.
From the Galleries, K'yam strides over from the entrance to the hatching cavern.
Jeuneth busies herself in the far corner of the Sands, her wings spread to hide her activities as if this were the most secret gem of an egg that occupied her time. She's over there several long moments, her goings-on a mystery of sorts until she steps away with a customarily haughty flip of her wings and leaves a glittering sphere in her wake.
---*** Diamond Eclipse Egg ***---
Precisely ovoid, the huge sphere which dominates this egg's shell creates an optical distortion which makes this almost impossible to discern. The sphere itself is for the most part an utter, desolate black, the darkest of dismal shadows which permits no illumination. It appears, however, that not even this can block the exquisite aura that shines from behind it, a perfect corona of radiance glowing in the glorious peach and blue of a intensely hot gaseous flame. At the very edge of the sphere, slightly offset from the egg's lower pole, the brightness has emerged triumphant over the shadow; two ovoids of white light so bright as to be almost blinding emerge, and are surrounded by their own flaming aura. The effect is as if they were priceless diamonds set in a ring of luminance.
From the Galleries, Marila holds her neice on her lap. The baby squeals again, her aunt glances over her shoulder, "Ohhhh there we go... there's your daddy."
From the Galleries, Larbon gasps quietly at the latest appearance.
And Joslyn is just stuck in the middle of the parade across the Hatching Sands, pausing a moment or two to look at an egg before she hurries off after Jeuenth again. The queen is quite oblivious to all of this, of course, leaving Muinyth to tend them. "How many you think, Shasta?"
Muinyth's more than willing to tend the eggs, nudging sand here, rumbling approval there. And with him, not far behind Joslyn, Shasta walks, lingering a few moments to appreciate each orb, and hurrying forwards as another is depostited. At Josy's questions, the brownrider shrugs, glancing back at Muinyth. "It'll probably be small, browns don't usually give huge clutches. Twenty five?"
From the Galleries, Marila shakes her head, "Betcha its a bigger clutch than that..." She murmurs that to the baby, "More like 35."
Naturally, "Wanna bet?" Joslyn asks, turning back to eye the Weyrsecond, grinning to herself. If only she could hear that murmuring up in the galleries - right up her alley.
As if it's sole purpose was to bother Her Grace, Jeuneth is troubled for some time before she's able to clutch the next of her children - distorted, pestered sounds that results in one mighty snort preceding the arrival of a predominately blue yet nonetheless mottled egg.
---*** Alluvial Ocean Egg ***---
Blues swath this large egg, with all the colours of the ocean, from the calm, clear blue of the shallows to tropical greens of the deeps, and even darker shades of a stormy sea. A whirlwind of paler shades curls and spins seafoam endlessly on the side down and around the poles of the oval, changing to the calm lavenders, cadets and lilacs of sunset. Flame flickers through in spots where blue burns and crackles into pale spring greens, flaming bronzes, and sooty golds. A long, sinewy tail of color slowly darkens from a pale sapphire through beryl and lapis, ending abruptly in a wash of thick klah brown. Sienna also gilds the base of this ovoid, deep sandy brown reeling into paler tan and peach before being swallowed up by the hungry ocean.
From the Galleries, Mitta sighs contentedly, "What beautiful colours."
Shasta grins broadly, calling, "I hope I'm wrong, believe me!" As she gestures beyond the weyrwoman. "Another!" Muinyth seems unperturbed by his lifemate's low estimate of his ability to sire a large clutch, in fact he seems to not have noticed. Moving with care now that the sands are becomming more populated with the fragile, soft-shelled eggs, the brown lumbers after Jeuneth, to attend to the latest arrival.
From the Galleries, Marila mutters something about Muinyth being whipped.
Joslyn pauses beside this bluish egg, head tilted to the side for a few moments as a laugh leaves her following Shasta's comment. "Was that a yes? 'Cause I got an eighth mark in my pocket I think..." She trails off suggestively and then wipes her face with her sleeve, noting Muinyth's activity at last and compelled to laugh again.
Quite calm about the whole affair, Jeuneth settles back to clutch her eighth egg - an almost bored flipping of her spaded tail in the hot sands. But a moment or two passes before the tendril of an egg, soft and leathery yet seemingly aglow with flames, is left to harden in the Sands.
---*** Ribbons of Fire Egg ***---
Standing apart from the others, this egg is rather brilliant; the shell gleams with a hard jet shine, almost as if it were a polished piece of obsidian. Marring the darkness on the right side, however, is a brilliant spire of reds and lavenders streaking over the egg's body, the colors wisping along the side with a certain whimsicalness, as ribbons dancing across the midnight sky. They're bright - almost as if they are set aflame, sparking a luminous glow along the ovoid shape. Then, placed delicately in front of the streamers, is the dark shadow of a runnerhead cast from some unknown source, truly striking as it appears from the darkness
From the Galleries, Telinda grins at Mitta and nods, "That they are."
Shasta looks up, curiously, from her inspection of the sixth egg, as the firey ribboned egg appears. "What's Jeuneth's opinion on this?" She calls to Joslyn, before glancing back at Muinyth. "He's not convinced dragons are in them, but positive they must be kept hot anyways."
Jeuneth takes a moment - for the first time this evening - to peer over at Muinyth, a funny little warble that's almost humored as she watches her mate. "Jeuneth thinks Muinyth's silly sometimes," comes the weyrwoman's relayed reply, the girl wandering back toward Shasta now to see what she's so interested in.
As if bored, Jeuneth settles to rest for a while, her red-tinged talons tracing patternless designs in the soft Sands beneath her. Passively, she shifts to allow another egg to leave her swollen belly - a truly breathtaking panorama depicted on this mottled shell.
---*** View to a World Egg ***---
Powdery blues, traced with ethereal lines of white, swirl out to embrace the camber of this egg, a miniature mimicry of clouds on a hot summer's day, but below, separated by a sweeping upward curve is the striking opposite -- dark, ebony -- forming a startling contrast to the lighter apex. These dissimilar polarities form the background to a dark collusion of colours that strives to be the main focus of the shell's images. Roughly cylindrical, and illuminated by the gentle kiss of light escaping from the parabola of sky-hued tones, it shadows the circumference, looming like a bizarre tree over the ovoid. Here and there, where the light seems to reflect from its surface, silvery protrusions loom, extending outwards like branches. No leaves decorate this trunk, instead brassy golds, delineated by fine lines, spread outwards, as if trying to capture the delicate patterning of light thrown from behind.
From the Galleries, Telinda grins, "And yet another pretty one. I guess she has the same hertitage as Tia, only a little more of Maristh, so I guess it's only right!" She beckons over one of the servers and grabs herself a glass of white, nodding her thanks.
From the Galleries, Marila chuckles softly. She grins, "These eggs are really lovely."
Dark as its dam, an egg is nestled into some shadowy niche in the sands - playing tricks on the eye as it's now impossible to discern if it's the shadows that leave it with the predominately shaded hue or the egg itself that presents the inky darkness.
---*** A Star is Born Egg ***---
The inky blackness of night is only broken by the few odd dots of orange. The rest is simply devoid of color, as if the surface itself were denying the existence of light, and defending its beliefs with solid proof. As you walk around the other side, though, you see the argument to the contrary. Flashes of brilliant blue frame the seemingly ordinary shape of a cloud. But there is nothing simple about this cloud. Throughout the colorful plume, the spectrum is completed - fading from a rich emerald green in the back, to a deep blood red in the front. But even that wonderful display cannot compare to the secrets held within the cloud. Small points of light mark the births of new stars within the gaseous envelope. Each new addition shines brightly from the depths of the natal cloud, pushing back the darkness, daring it to intrude again - and the inky blackness can do little more than submit to the domineering light.
Muinyth responds with a patient chuffff, moving onwards as Jeuneth shifts, head low to observe the latest arrival. Shasta, still by the ribboned egg, gives her dragons' mate's rider a smile, and crouches by the soft shelled object. "It's just so fascinating," she remarks, gesturing with her hand over the markings, though not daring to touch. "Oops, there's two more, I think."
Joslyn bats her hands after Jeuneth, her feet hot and sweat on her face so she's not chasing after the queen so attentively anymore. She's watching, mind you, just taking more time to LOOK at the eggs now. "At least twenty-five," says the goldrider certainly, going over to offer a little affection to Jeuneth who's not all that interested in accepting it at the moment.
One of the largest eggs in the clutch appears on the Sands before you even realize what Jeuneth is about, her tail lifting and arrow-straight for only the fraction of a second. And then there rests among the countless grains of sweltering Sands an egg swirled with infinite hues of crimson and magenta.
---*** Infinite Scarlet Storm Egg ***---
From this ovoid's surface one can interpret fire, storm, and menace - cloudy formations of yellow, orange, and white are swirling together in a chaotic, intricate, patternless dance. Yet there are fiercer pockets where the 'clouds' swirl in a tempestuous, spiraling funnel. The most striking of these funnel-shaped anomalies is a vibrant fiery red formation at the lower right side of the egg, seeming to pulse and writhe - one could swear it is never in the same place twice. A hundred thousand storms rage within this single spot, tendrils of crimson clouds circling angrily. This 'eye' is the most odd and puzzling feature of this torrential egg, staring out from the face of this surprising mammoth egg.
Shasta rises again, wiping the back of her hand across her forhead, then running fingers through now damp curls. Trudging though the sands, she heads for Muinyth, as the brown appropriately nestles sand around the brilliant blue egg. He pauses, to accept an eyeridge scratch, and nuzzles his rider with obvious affection, before lumbering off again. Yet another egg to fuss over, and this one as firey as its dam.
From the Galleries, Marila blinks, "Beautiful." She smoothes the hair of her niece softly.
Deceiving, as if one has stared too long at Rukbat and can now see only vague shadows of images, is the egg that appears after a shift of the Cimmerian queen's massive form - Her Grace done with that egg and dismissing it to contemplate clutching her next.
---*** Eerie Afterimage Egg ***---
Amid the sparkling grains of the Hatching Sands, amongst the mounds of mottled eggs, lies this orb of sharp contrasts. Dazzlingly incandescent, brilliant white and yellow halos a giant shadowed realm as deeply black as the corona surrounding it is bright, an apparent hole plunging deep into the center of the egg. A sculptured penumbra of brown marks the transition from blinding light to endless black - striations plunging into darkness - an iris ringing its pupil. Hovering about the uneven and seemingly randomly sketched border of opposites, a ghost of white seems to linger, shifting with the eye: an afterimage brought on by the study in contrasts that is this egg.
Muinyth follows after Jeuneth, minding where each lumbering step is placed. The blinding egg she leaves next is given due attention, brilliant yellow reflecting brightly in each facet of his blue and green swirling eyes. While the golden dam might clutch, and move on to the next, the brown sire lavishes care upon each in the short space between each appearance, nudging sand carefully around them, whuffling over them. And beside him walks a sweaty and hot looking Shasta, appropriately oohing over the eggs her dragon helped make.
From the Galleries, Telinda settles back as she watches, nodding and squinting to see the different colours on each newly clutched egg.
Deceiving, one's first impression of the egg that Jeuneth leaves when she makes to pad across the Sands in search of another warm hollow for the eggs yet to come might be golden. But a second glance reveals its true nature to be far to fiery for mere gold, fire and ice and obscurity is this egg.
From the Galleries, Oh. Foloran hasn't done anything in a while, has he? Oh well. He's still not moving.
---*** Nebulous Sunset on Ice Egg ***---
Fiery orange bands of light seem to coruscate around the egg, interwoven with a cool, almost glacial hue of bluish-green. Shadows roil throughout the pattern, lending texture and depth to what must be solid and smooth. Bright points of light radiate like varicolored stars from amongst the veil that obscures this egg with nebulous tenacity. On a curve of the shell, a brilliant sunset of bronze muted copper explodes in the heart of the largest portion of icy gauze.
From the Galleries, Jude nods to Telinda, Kinoa, and Marila
There's something feline about the way Jeuneth stretches, the great capes of her wings spread out to their fullest and then furled back against her sides in an agitated flurry. The serpentine gesture is completed by a strange squirm and there, on the Sands, is a truly mottled shell with the black undertones of its dam.
From the Galleries, Telinda either doesn't notice Jude, or chooses not to notice him, either, the effect is the same. Fingers curling around her wine glass she leans over the balustrade, looking down at the clutch gracing the sands.
---*** Intricate Iridescent Egg ***---
From amidst the darkest night, from beyond the blackest sky, colours enfold to encompass this ovoid, wrapping themselves around the smooth shell like a feline stretching out in front of a warm hearth. On the outer fringes, deep within the caliginous domain of the outer reaches of space, a nebula gradually emerges, three colours twisting around each other, which from a distance shows striking similarities to that of a feline eye. Like the pupil, a speck of amethyst remains solitary from all other influences, but veins of brilliant ruby span out to form an ellipse to infiltrate the void beyond, circling around each other reminiscent of an iris opening wide. Tiny fringes of dazzling emerald speckle the outer reaches, trailing gossamer filaments into the Cimmerian interstellar borders to frame this galactic vision in particulate light.
From the Galleries, Marila shifts her neice again as she watches the eggs, "I think the eggs are amazing."
From the Galleries, Jude burns a hole into the back of Telinda's head with his gaze. He never seems to notice other people not noticing him.
Muinyth settles down to tending the mottled egg, pushing sand to nestle about it with comforting and hardening heat. Again, the brown lifts his voice to croon at his mate, rustling his wings as he does so.
From the Galleries, Oh, Foloran's not ignoring Jude...though he likely would, if he knew the guy were here right now.
From the Galleries, Kinoa's just leaning back against the wall, watching the clutching through half-closed eyes.
Having found someplace central to watch now, Joslyn has to go back and recount what's already been Clutched, pointing the eggs one at a time and mumbling numbers. She shoots a very knowing grin to the papa, then turns a little on her heels to watch what's next. "This is great," she states matter-of-factly.
No matter how shadowed Jeuneth's hide may be, she has yet to clutch even one truly black egg - and this next is no exception. A weird croon issues from her muzzle, as if the expulsion of the next in her clutch caught the queen by surprise.
---*** Fire in the Sky Egg ***---
Even the darkest of nights is never truly black, and this egg is predominantly the shade of blue-black of the moonless sky. Descending from the uppermost pole however, is a blue streak: faint and ethereal at first, it gradually increases in intensity as it coils around the shell, culminating in a sphere that is so dazzling that it would seem that looking at it too long or too closely might injure the eye. A closer inspection reveals that the brilliant ball is in fact surrounded by a blue aura, and it is this, extended into a long, fading tail that has produced the spiral of blue.
From the Galleries, Jude taps Marila lightly. "What does that very black egg mean? Admittedly, I know very little about what goes on at a hatching ground."
From the Galleries, Foloran shoots Jude an odd glance for breaking his concentration. Ahem. Anyway, now he goes back to watching the wondrous sight before him.
Bothered by something, Jeuneth swings her head about to peer intently at the newest in her clutch. Bejeweled eyes whirl quickly, adopting the reddish hue of angry concern and then it fades, whatever bothered the queen about this tumbled egg vanishing readily that she can move on.
From the Galleries, Marila peers at Jude, "Its an egg, they come out in weird colors unless they are a gold egg."
---*** Crumbled Empire Egg ***---
Collapsed borders of granite and sandstone litter the bottom of this egg, piled in odd angles and tangled amongst each other with boulder-like and jagged edges. Laced with the tan of earth but tinged with the ferrous red of blood, this tragic scene gradually lightens as it reaches upward - fewer jagged lines and more smooth flows of a purer and newer cream - the warm glow of a fresh sunshine sprinkling down over the fallen scene with the promise of rebirth.
From the Galleries, Jude yawns at the slow procession of multicolored eggs.
Being the tempest that she is, Jeuneth takes her sweet time about letting the next egg present itself for viewing. Likely the last, the queen appears almost winded from her first, long stay on these heated Sands since her own Hatching. But she does issue forth one last egg today, letting it fall to a delicate cradle amid the hot grains.
---*** Alien Cognizance Egg ***---
It begins at the narrow end: silver, pure and cold, glitters at the cap, an aerodynamic tip of metallic hue glinting in the shadows. You can sense the life within this shell, feel the warmth of an inner intelligence burning just beneath the surface of the mottled egg. Crisp, calculating colors trace downward against a clear black background - outlining geometric patterns as if these simple shades were cognizant of their own designs. One clear red eye pierces the center, bright and unfocussed. Just beneath, the cold steel ceases abruptly, bathed in a tempestuous pool of intoxicating colors. Chaotic ribbons, bare flashes of bright colors, crisscross and tangle where the egg rests against the Sands - strangely rhythmic yet totally patternless. A short wall of hot Sand hides the very base of this egg, making the source of these tangled hues impossible to discern, buried in the sandy warmth.
From the Galleries, Jude whispers. "So all the different colors don't signify anything in particular. They don't provdide a peek into the egg's potential?"
From the Galleries, Marila nods to Jude, "Only the gold eggs do."
Joslyn looks over that one, and then hot-foots it (pun intended) to her lifemate, most likely beckoned though none of you would have heard that. "I think a good break is in order," she passes along, loud enough for Shasta to hear easily and the galleries to get wind of.
Joslyn spends most of the night scampering around looking at eggs, of course. If you're here REALLY late, she probably goes off sometime to get away from the horrible heat and grab some sleep in her cottage, too tired to stay and talk.
** END LAKE **