.

"I cannot understand why there are so few people here, for these eggs," Eteh muttered to anyone who would listen. He was diligent in learning what he would need to know about care and feeding of a Moire Dragonet, he thought about how he'd be riding - with a harness most likely, and he could shape his rump to lose the tail to sit in a saddle better... Something like that. Maybe.

He was distracted, all the time. There was a female felinoid, hardly a Kin by the strange looks of her. She had no head hair, and that seemed to be the thing that changed Eteh's feelings that she was a domestic-feline Kin. Sith did seem able to see into his soul - something that disturbed Eteh to a point.

But then the dam of the clutch bugled her hatching - people came running, and set up shop in the big egg spire.

And waited. As felines, the two of them were more patient than the semi-humans around them. Eteh noticed long before that only one was fully human, and he was cool as a cucumber. Whatever that meant. Eteh wasn't big on vegetables.

The eggs began to hatch - excrutiatingly. One just didn't seem to want to break through his shell while another smacked right into others. One of those eggs burst open first and allowed a brilliantly colored male to hatch first. He didn't bond first, though. In fact, while everyone looked on, he just layed down in the warm Moire sands to dry off.

A second egg broke open, and the male that came from it bonded to one of the adventuring party nearby. A female bonded off to an elfin shifter. The next to hatch... he was the color of swampy water lit by the bright sun, seen through a sheen of fog. Or something like that.

The records keeper described him differently, but Etehmaro thought that he'd seen that color just exactly on a day fishing with one of the Jaguars. The dragonet however had caught himself on a piece of shell left by another hatchling, and didn't seem able yet to walk away from the nest. Meanwhile, the first to hatch was approached by the single human in the bunch, and bonded off grudgingly.

Then oddly, a small hatchling (especially small compared to some others!) came bounding off to the pair, and for some reason - the little dragonet creature on the man's shoulder had paired up with it. And it was the right word - It had no gender, apparently. That almost shook Etehmaro, but there were more pressing things going on.

The silver-blue-green dragonet having finally freed himself from the egg shard limped a bit toward the candidates left. Etehmaro stepped forward now, knowing in his heart that this would be the bond for him.

"I should have helped earlier," he said. "But there was so much happening at once..." It was a lame excuse, he should have come forward.

It was my task, and my hatching. I would not have wanted your help then. He leaned up against Eteh's legs, I am so tired, Etehmaro! But the trial has been worth it, as I have found you in it. My name is Erilainen. You are weary too, and scarred where none can see, but I find you glorious - I name you glorious, name you victory. And we may lean on each other as we go our glorious way, yes?

While the batch of people watching were stunned enough by the bonding of the little beastie and its genderless spice-colored dragon, Etehmaro silently told Erilainen, that's a lot of dedication from one so young... I hope I can live up to that. I think you'll help me. He knelt and took hold of the slender hatchling's body, warmly embracing his new bond.

***

Though the days were long, and the work was indeed very difficult at times, Etehmaro set himself to working with the others and training with Erilainen. He dearly missed his tribe, he wanted to be back with them - they would come back a day later in their Plateau lives ... but it would be so long apart otherwise! They'd been together for just about six years...

Tell me about them all, Erilainen bid his partner. I wish to know why you see each of them the way you do... What do you think they will think of me?

"I think," Etehmaro said while scrubbing the shedding hide off his half-year old dragonet, "that they'll say you're the most beautiful creature ever to come from an egg," he grunted, shifted into a taller Humanoid form unconsciously to reach a spot away from him, "and that you and I are paired properly."

What about our bravery? What about our --

"We haven't done anything very bold yet, my friend," Etehmaro reminded the dragonet. "While I do think that other dragons will remember your hatching as a long and difficult one... um, we've got to prove ourselves in other ways once you're up in the air."

Oh. Well. Erilainen sat on his haunches and lifted his wing so that Eteh could scrub under it. They would be fledgelings soon enough, and then they would just have to set about proving themselves. Wouldn't they.

***

His wings were large, his tail was long, and the slender neck of Erilainen was ideal for the Kin to sit behind. The gigantic Felinruad was a bigger dragon, surely, but Erilainen was even more beautiful in the light of the Plateau. They landed on it together, Etehmaro having decided that he could no longer bear to be away from the Plateau, he came back first even though he might not have bonded the soonest.

Felinruad helped the younger dragon learn how to command the air below his wings. They lept up again, riderless, as Etehmaro and Irole watched them. Irole had some choice comments about the color scheme that both dragons had - stripes and spots and watercolory washes...

"I told him that you lot would say that," Etehmaro chuckled.

Irole perked his ears, a silly gesture since he was recieving something telepathically and not hearing a sound. "The Zekirans say that there is another ship approaching - a Kin dropper. Shall we see who they let off?"

"That sounds great," Etehmaro said, his heart thumping wildly in his chest. It would be the chance, he knew. They could make such an impression on the newcomers... "Do we want to show off the dragons to the ship's crew? Won't they see us?"

"Of course they will," Irole said, and he was surprisingly echoed in Eteh's mind by Erilainen. Naturally they should see us!

The dragons came back to the Plateau's ledge overlooking the northern Spotted Hand territory. They were indeed stunning. This would be great...