[Candidates] Egg Watching

[Windra]

Radagast of Blue Radask - @ Naxen, broadcasting to other whers

Whers! Hey whers! Got chewtoy runnin' in Weyr! Go get 'im! Big snake! Radask stood, snapping jowels at empty air. He faced the evildoer's point of egress with determined eyes swirling red. We gunna getcha, chewtoy!

There was relief in seeing Arena joining other dragonhealers on the sand. Nebulaeth would be a fool to turn them away from her child, so of course she would not. The egg would be fine. At least he hoped so. Dragons could withstand so much damage from threadfall and keep going. But a baby, not yet fully developed?

He nodded politely to Naxen's request. "Sensible, of course," he told her with several nods that sent leafy debris and bits of branch scattering from his tangled beard. "After this situation has been dealt with, I would love to invite you all for a roundtable at the dining hall - with Naxen's permission, of course!" His head cocked to the side, for he could already hear the banter of other whers responding to his blue's call.

Zinsk, on patrol!

Crunched egg! Terrible omen! This hatching befouled! Disaster! Tragedy! A moment of silence and then, as if engaging into a back and forth with her handler, NO! I will not! Sent to face death?! Naught! Barrack safe! ... Of course I am wher! ... Not being unreasonable!

"Radask!" called Radagast as he descended into the depths, swirling his cloa behind him. The blue trotted happily after him.

Snake! Hey snake! Come out an plaaaaay!

--

Candidate Petraxen - @ Naxen, Scolding Joffrey

Yeah. He should have expected that. Of course Naxen wasn't pleased with him, but he could rest easy knowing that he wasn't the one running up to the snake like a damned fool. Those blades they wielded were mere toothpicks to that big thing! Still Petraxen wasn't about to argue with his mother, especially since they were quite obviously in the wrong on this one.

"You know, we did see something back in the candidate latrines," he said aloud, recounting the stint with Brua delving a hand into the muck. "Didn't really see what it was, but it sounded like a snake. A big one. Unfortunately didn't catch a glimpse." Petraxen ground his teeth suddenly, a shared emotion flitting between him and Honeysuckle and filling them with dread. "Small enough to fit in the bathroom ... I wonder if it could have been a baby of big momma?"

Hearing Joffrey's claim, he rounded on the other candidate with Renkestuous, eyes narrowed and jaw tight. "You are so full of crap! You were right there with the gaggle of ones wanting to go look! It's a good freaking thing I decided to tag along!"

Even though he wasn't able to do much ... After all, Hamun had pulled free from his grasp.

[Arcane]

Candidate Sylvia

Sylvia hadn't yet been on many adventures in her life, but she'd always imagined them being a lot more fun. It should end with some kind of bang and a celebration and a smile, not a disappointed candidatemaster, anxious healer murmurs and an egg maybe-slowly-dying.

All this fear and sadness and negativity were mingling together in her head to really, really stressing her out. What if this was their fault? Had they brought the tunnelsnake here somehow?

No...that didn't even make sense...It had already been here when they got here, right?

Maybe they'd even done a good thing, showing up to wake Nebby and fight the snake.

But maybe if they'd been just a little faster the egg wouldn't be dying...

What would happen to the egg's candidate, if it died? Bad things happened to riders without their dragon but this was just an egg. Could an egg dying hurt a candidate?

She didn't know. She needed a drink. Or maybe a nap. A long one.

She went to join the other candidates, visibly lost in her own head.

Naxen of Blue Anitoth- Candidates, Radagast

"I don't think this is the right time for a field trip, Radagast," Naxen said, "You need to focus on your hunt. And this lot is already out past curfew."

No doubt some were shaken by what they had seen. They could process their feelings in their barracks, away from prying eyes and out of the way of the gathering hunting party. The ones who needed it most could speak to a mindhealer, in the coming weeks.

Naxen wouldn't punish or lecture the lot of them tonight, with images of horror still fresh in their mind. But she wasn't going to reward them with a party and bubbly pie either, for being somewhere they should never have been to begin with.

She raised an eyebrow, as Joffrey, Petraxan and Renkestuous bickered over the exact sequence of events, "I recognize emotions are running high now. So I will give you all tonight to decide if you want to come to me with your allegations."

The other candidates surely had more on their mind right now that litigating personal feuds of he-said-he-said.

"Nobody really knows what's inside an egg, this soon after it is laid, or what the liquid is for, beyond that it is necessary," Naxen said. Those eggs that failed to hatch were respectfully disposed of, rather than cracked open for their secrets, "But eggs of most species have some structure, from the time they are laid, that grows gradually more complex over time."

Mazurka squad sometimes made diagrams of the process, that had spoiled Naxen's breakfast more than once.

She ordered Anitoth to pass on the candidates' toilet snake story to the hunters. If there was more than one out there, they couldn't leave survivors, "Our stray bronzerider also mentioned seeing something that matches the description. A clutch would be a logical explanation. But we won't have any answers until we find it."