| Emaeliass |
 |
| Emaeliass paced back and forth anxiously as she studied the rocking eggs. They had been like this for sometime, and the clutch mother had neglected to called the bonders, and, however few there were, these eggs would need bondmates. Emaeliass couldn't stand to see another hatchling go through what she did. Bugling deeply in the back of her throat, she called the remaining bonders to the beach. There was only one human amidst the three chosen for this clutch, and she was shortish, prettyish, and well-acquainted with the water. Vrana came at a dead run, dark blonde hair flying in sunstreaked ripples behind her. "What? Emaeliass, this isn't some trick, is it? They've been happening all day…" "No," asserted Gliaoz, the last bondsearched, in the blue's place. The violet seadragon from Vallen Cove stretched leisurely, eyes warily on the snarling Khaness. "They're hatching, well and true." The navigator-seadragon shuddered his pebbled hide delicately. He did not deign to come up out of the water. Perhaps it was the color that Gliaoz was chary of. The sand of the beach was dappled and spotted and flecked with a dozen brilliant dyes, and they had trickled over the bone-white grains to form snails'-trails in a crust over the area around the eggs. The first egg, brilliant with pastel yellows, pinks, and blues, flower-strewn and dainty, split primly down the center, revealing a slender and lovely indigo. Purplish-blue, like the twilit band dividing the last sliver of night from the new day in the west, the hatchling blinked its moist eyes as Emaeliass crooned a welcome. Chirruping softly to itself, the indigo lowered its eyelids and gave an odd, draconic half-smile at the welcome-singer. He sat there for so long that Emaeliass flung her head in irritation. "Well, are you going to get on with it, or not?" she demanded, her expression dangerous. "But I already have," said the hatchling peevishly, its high, clear voice piercing. Her eyes flashed, and the Lathis Covers feared a relapse of the brat that had once haunted their shores. "And? What's your name, and who's your bond?" The hatchling stared inscrutably at her for several minutes, until the blue looked ready to explode. "Cietoss, idiot. Do you really think that any of them are worthy of me?" Its tone was bored beyond comprehension. "Cietoss," Emaeliass tried to grit, but there was too much satisfaction lurking in the depths of her alto to manage it properly. "Come into the water before your limbs drop off, you smarmy little creature." With a slow sway, the indigo promenaded off into the surf, showing…the bumpy neck of a male? Indeed… *** |
 |
| Cietoss snarled harshly at Reiss as she tried to take the food Emaeliass had given him. The blue snapped at her bond to apologize. The indigo hissed in displeasure, but apologized to Reiss as Emaeliass had told him. "You're going to let that yellow pick on me?" Cietoss growled. "No, but she wasn't picking on you. She was hungray, and Gliaoz just wasn't feeding her fast enough for her taste," Emaeliass crooned as she smacked Gliaoz playfully with her tail. "Keep up with her so she won't have to steal from my boy." Cietoss chuckled as he started eatting again, I love you, Emaeliass, He thought to his bond. |
| "I love you, too, Cietoss," Emaeliass crooned, watching her bond with adoring eyes. Continue... |