Sival spent the next several days branding new calves as they were born, each day watching with pleasure as the female dog in their household, Whipper, grew heavier and heavier with her litter of puppies.
"I say that they'll be like Twist," Sival's father said, and Sival shook his head. Twist's gene was probably rescessive, because he was a blue-gray color, while Whipper was black with brown markings.
"Marked like Twist, but with Whipper's colors," Sival replied, and his father chuckled softly. "I mean, won't the blue be overridden by the black, since black is darker? I thought that was how it worked."
His father clapped Sival on the back. "Sival, that's how it should work in theory, but most of the time, theory doesn't work. Just like enerald-colored dragons shouldn't clutch golden and bronze eggs. Go check out Ocean Side Island's records, and look up Nioralth's mother and father. A green and a blue."
Sival nodded, knowing that what his father said was right. "But don't alibis usually have a clutch with an alibi in it? Just like a queen dragon will usually have a clutch that has a queen egg in it."
The older man chuckled softly. "Sival, you're talking to the wrong man for dragon genetics. The closest that I've ever gotten to one was when a Searchdragon came for Ocean Side Weyr, when you were just three or so Turns."
Sival smiled, remembering the green that had come. The green had spoken to him, and he'd wondered if he could be one of the rare people that could hear all dragons. It had turned out that the green wanted to speak to Sival because she was bored, and he'd been disappointed about not being a Hear-All-Dragons. "That lovely Mayeth, right?"
"Mayeth, with her rider, Amaykala. They've been the Searching pair for Ocean Side for a long time, and I think that they're on Search for two clutches." His father gently scratched behind Whipper's ears. "One of them has an alibi in it," He added, and Sival smiled.
Ever since Mayeth had come, he'd dreamed of being Searched, but the Searchdragon hadn't returned to the cothold. Sival was 17 Turns, old enough to be Searched, and still occasionaly scanned the sky to see if he could spot a dragon winging in. He told no one about his childhood dream, for it seemed stupid whenever he thought about telling someone. But he still wouldn't give up.
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