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Arinza
The candidates were soon rushed onto the sands and Arinza found herself caught up in a whirl of excitement as each and every one of them wanted to be in the front. She didn't care where she was, she understood all this well enough to know that the right dragon for her would find her no matter where she was in the crowd. So she let herself be jostled a bit and ended up in the middle of the group. "The eggs will hatch. But I learned something from the secret clutch at Talor Cliff that I never found in the books about altered clutches. It might take a while for the dragon’s to get out. Some of the adults present here may help get the hatchlings out, as I have asked them. Don’t be afraid to help a struggling hatchling. We hope that our work pays off and we get more of the rarer dragons; their are none of the common five colors here, I promise you that," said the oldest of the scientists. He then added with one of his rare smiles, "Good luck to you all!" Arinza found herself grinning in excitement, but then her thoughts strayed momentarily to Kirfon and that wiped the grin off her face. She still had not heard a word from him and was furious at him for being so wherry-brained. Part of her tried to reason that he might have an excuse but the rest of her knew she wouldn't ever give him a chance to explain himself, she was that angry. Suddenly she cringed as one of the dragons raked a nail across the shell of a rocking egg. The sound emitted by that gentle scratch had everyone cringing and wincing. Her attention now pulled back to the current proceedings Arinza gasped as the egg hatched to reveal a proud looking amber hatchling. The hatchling picked the young man from Earth, Tristan, who Arinza still had never really spoken to. But she smiled happily at the look of confounded joy that spread over his face. The next two to hatch were two toned males. The blue-black was found by his new bond mate and the bronze-copper didn't have to wait long either. Then a black hatched and he chose from among the boys as well. Arinza was just wondering if any of the dragons would turn out to be female when a gold-bronze female hatched and chose a young woman from the crowd. Arinza smiled as she watched the pair walk off the sands and completely missed the next few hatchings as she wondered what color dragon would choose her. When she finally pulled her attention back to the proceedings she watched as an amber hatchling chose from among the girls. Dragons began hatching left and right and Arinza had a hard time keeping up with them all. None of them looked her way so she just relaxed and waited for the ranks to begin thinning out. Before long Arinza was watching a cream impress to a young girl who was very emotional about it. There were fewer candidates left now, as well as fewer eggs. Arinza looked around to see a black that was struggling to get free of her shell. The black was crying and creeling in frustration and fright and Arinza's heart went out to the poor thing. She dashed across the sands, crying out to the little black before she knew what she was saying, "Hold on Ciryatanth!" 
Oh, Arinza! Help me! It’s trying to eat me!
Arinza laughed as she pulled thick pieces of shell away from the hatchling. "No, love. It protected you for a long time," and she gave one final pull and Ciryatanth was free. "Now, are you ready to eat?" Ciryatanth nodded enthusiastically and Arinza led her from the sands. She settled down with a bowl of meat and fed it to the hatchling bit by bit, making sure to encourage her to chew. Poor Ciryatanth was so hungry though that she kept getting frustrated when Arinze told her she had to chew the meat. Ooo...but Arinza, I'm SO hungry! It was hard work getting out of that shell, especially when it seemed it wanted to eat me. "I know, love, but you have to chew or you'll have a terrible stomach ache later." Oh, if I must... grumbled the hatchling and Arinza stifled a chuckle as she handed the little black another piece of meat. |