Wandering about the grounds of this large dragon area, both Lethe and Andy were given to gape in awe. The dragons came in so many colors and sizes... And so many attitudes, too.

At last, the hatching day came, and though they'd both been meditating and trying to relax, neither combat-mage could subdue the feeling of elation they had.

Even Andy, typically angry and balled up in a tense way, was almost bouncing with eagerness. He was practically embarrassing his partner.

The first egg hatched and it was so pretty - Lethe took as long a look at it as she could, before the brown-silver went off and bonded. During that time, she and Andy heard some rather harsh words coming from the search rider J'lenn, because his prized blue dragon had sired this clutch.

"Why is he so angry at the dragon, again?" Andy asked.

"Because I don't think he likes them coming in these colors..." Lethe said. "Now shush."

A second egg broke up, and showed off a lovely silver-on-silver hatchling. Then after she bonded, a cream silver did the same.

Strongly shattering her egg, a purple-silver colored hatchling came out into the red sands. She looked back and forth, and seeing no other competition on the sands for her bond, she strode to Lethe. Looking up into Lethe's green eyes, the dragonet bespoke something quite private, which Lethe responded to with but a word - her name, "Ravielath."

Shortly after another cream-silver broke her shell, a red-silver broke his own open, and dashed around testing his legs and balance. He was quite the excitable fellow. I'll take you all together! I'll take you all apart! He roared and snorted.

Andy laughed, "there's plenty of time for that later, Nilmarith."

They led their pair of dragons off, hoping that their energy didn't overflow too much, or leave them exhausted. Of course, having hatchlings would be as exhausting an effort as fighting for Tenth Circle status!
Ravielath mocked her red brother. You know I came first. That makes me best.

Nilmarith glared at his twilight purple sister and snarled. That makes you annoying! You aren't best at anything!

You are not good at anything I am good at.

I am so! I am really good at hunting!

I said at things I am good at, Ravielath smirked in her draconic way. Her red silver brother kept snarling until Andy dragged himself up to their den.

"What in the seventeen hells is going on up here? I can hear you two arguing from-"

She started it!

I did not. I merely pointed out that I am-

You are NOT better than ME!

"Ah. That's all this is about then." Andy nodded, turned away and was about to exit the den, when the pair of dragons both cornered him. He assumed a position that said 'ready to fight' but he knew that he couldn't possibly take down his own dragon.

And if he tried to do something to Lethe's, that would be... well, it would be sloppy and he'd be hurting for days. That's all he knew.

"Look, Nil, you're great at hunting. I'm good at it too. Ravi, you're really hot at flying right now. I know you can chase your tail in the air. That's great."

It's USELESS! Nilmarith bellowed, and at that point Lethe came into their den, saw the trio and almost walked back out again.

"Ravielath, you're going to have to stop taunting him." She said.

Why!?

"Because some day he might be better at those things than you, and you'll never hear the end of it."
That day came. The big silvered red Nilmarith spread his great shaded wings and stood before his purple-twilight partner.

And this time, she didn't say anything other than, Oooh. In a manner of speaking, she was impressed.

Lethe and Andy sat back and watched their dragons tussle about, but there was something on the backs of their minds. It wasn't the upcoming match, either. It was a match of a different sort.

"So...." Andy said, trying to be sly and casual, "do you think they're finally gonna, you know, do it?"

"Have you been sitting there waiting for it?" Lethe said, slightly more irritated than she ought to have been about it.

"Yeah, probably." Andy said, smirking. Fiercely, he pushed Lethe's shoulders back to the ground. They'd been there before, looking at the cloudless sky above their little pocket universe home. "Wanna beat them to it?"

Lethe wasn't much amused. "Not right now," she muttered. Andy's eyes went narrow.

"Something wrong?"

"Yes, she's ... I don't want to be sitting here like this. If you haven't noticed, the dragons have very strong emotional ties to us."

"And since when is an emotional tie to me a bad thing?" Andy said, mockingly wounded.

"It isn't you, Andy," Lethe said, "It's that I don't want to have to do something, just because she's experimenting with it."

"Admit it," Andy said, "you're just as frustrated as she is. Maybe even more. I mean, we've been kind of ... more or less celibate for a while."

"And you remember what happened when we did?" Lethe said, a faint grin on her face. The event was rather like a child walking in on their parents for the first time and having nothing but endless questions for them...

At that point, though, right about the time when Lethe was going to tell Andy to stuff himself and walk away, Ravielath began a tumbling dive that landed her right into Nilmarith's arms. Lethe didn't walk off, and Ravi didn't much want to insult her partner any more.