Bauden
:Story::Search::Hatching::Weyrling::Adult:
:Moon Shadow Weyr::Tripaldi Weyr

Bauden was tumbled out of his bed in the middle of the night. He jumped up cursing and looked around him. As the sleep slowly faded from his eyes he realized the rest of the male candidates were putting on their robes and leaving the room. Wide awake now he hurried to throw on his white robe and thin-soled sandals. Bauden nudged another candidate as he did so and the young man, Nulkon, Bauden remembered hearing him called, turned to look at him.

"This means the eggs are hatching, right?" he asked, eyes wide with excitement.

"That's right man, you better get your rear in gear. Shards but I think you must be able to sleep through anything. The other guys were shaking you and it took me knocking you on the floor to wake you up!" replied Nulkon with a laugh. He slapped Bauden on the arm and rushed from the room, Bauden not far behind him.

Bauden strode out onto the sands at the back of the group and shoved his way forward. He wanted to see everything that happened. He'd heard Laureth, the golden mother of this clutch, had some rare genetic heritage and he wanted to see if his calculations were correct. He'd snuck down into the records room and looked up her heritage only to find it was very vague. But he'd done some calculations none the less and wondered if he was right.

Just then the first egg shattered and a brown sat in the sands atop the remaining shards of his shell. Bauden held his breath and shook his head as he realized he was doing so, forcing himself to take slow, easy breaths. It wouldn't do for him to miss Impressing because he passed out from lack of oxygen.

The brown looked for reassurance from his mother and once he got it he chose from among the boys. Next to hatch was a blue who chose very quickly. The blue was followed by a green and another brown and Bauden again had to force himself to breathe. The brown watched as his sister rushed off towards the girls. The green looked up at one girl who started to smile, but then looked crestfallen as the green dashed off towards someone else. Bauden frowned, thinking that was very mean of the little green to tease the girl like that.

The newly impressed girl and hatchling hurried from the sands and all the boys crowded around the brown as he made his way among them. Laureth bellowed angrily and they all took a step back. Bauden watched in amazement as the brown hatchling stopped in front of him and looked up at him expectantly.

Don't worry B'den I will never abandon you like others have, I will be with you forever!

"I know Croluth, lets go feed you," said Bauden, realizing he was now B'den as the dragon had called him. He grinned down at the hatchling and led him off the sands to where people were waiting with bowls of fresh meat.

B'den fed Croluth the meat all the while watching the other dragons to leave the sands. It wasn't until the brown was stuffed and dozing happily at his feet that he saw what he'd been waiting for. His calculations had been correct, there was a rare in this clutch! But the manifestation of the rare genetics surprised even him. The young woman who had been snubbed by the green led a rainbow colored hatchling from the sands and was obviously the envy of all. B'den grinned, resolving to get to know the girl better so that he could examine the rainbow dragon more closely...