Reach Out and Touch Fate (1/3)
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Aaron, Devin, Duskdog, Francesca, Halyonix, Heather, Iluva, KC, Shawna, Sia
Date Posted: 19th July 2025
Characters: R'lor, Nidre, K'daen, Zaidi, Cirina, Chandrany, Vianne, Rhysalen, Tindral, H'yazi, Th'reyos, Z'vallan, Lindora, N'jen, Vikirin
Description: The Candidates get some face time with the eggs (and then some)
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 5 of Turn 12
R’lor explained the rules, again, and waited until the large group of Candidates had settled before stepping up to the entrance of the Hatching Grounds. “Weyrwoman Second Nidre, my duty to Jossenth. May we enter?”
Nidre looked out over the Candidates. She was always idly curious about them -- where they all came from, how they were feeling about all this, what their hopes were, and how it would all turn out once the eggs hatched. Realistically there wasn’t really much difference between one group and the next, and she recognized many faces returning and trying their luck again, but still, it was something she thought about often. It seemed so long since she was a Candidate, herself.
}:Oh please do let them in,:{ Jossenth urged, shifting impatiently.
Nidre chuckled to herself. “Yes, you can come on in. Jossenth is eager to see you. She likes showing off her eggs, and she’s not as threatening as some queens can be about it, but don’t let that go to your heads, Candidates. The rules R’lor has laid out for you are there for a reason. And…” she glanced back into the Caverns, “the clutchfather is here, and I believe he’s much less tolerant than Jossenth is.”
Jossenth, looming just behind her clutch so that she could see the whole spread, raised her head and gave a welcoming rumble from her chest. She would protect her clutch, but wanted to see her babies paired well, and the Candidates fascinated her. So long as they were respectful, they could touch.
Kaedin stood among the group of Candidates, hands clasped neatly behind his back, his expression composed"but his eyes, those sharp amber eyes, flicked across the Hatching Grounds with quiet intensity. The heat rising from the Sands wrapped around him like a heavy cloak, familiar and humbling all at once.
He had stood here before. He knew the steps. The rules. The silence between expectation and disappointment. And still… still, his heart beat faster as R’lor and Weyrwoman Nidre spoke.
As Jossenth’s warm rumble filled the cavern, Kaedin felt it vibrate through the soles of his boots. He inclined his head respectfully toward the gold, a quiet gesture of gratitude and reverence.
For the first time in his life, Zavallan wished he had the gift of artistry like other harpers, because the view of the majestic Jossenth and her clutch of eggs was an image that the young harper never wanted to forget. He also wished he’d brought something to write on as he wanted to detail and remember every moment of this experience for his studies.
Zaidi stood behind a good number of the others like they were more shields than peers, nervously glancing around Kaedin at the biggest, hugest, most beautiful dragon she'd ever seen in her life. She hadn't seen many _this_ close before, and already her feet were on fire, her toes tingling from the rumbling. The gold's rider seemed nice, and she hoped if she did everything _exactly_ as she and Weyrlingmaster R'lor said, she would be fine. Just fine.
After a long moment she peeked around Kaedin again, this time at the dozens of eggs nestled in the hot sand. They were bigger than she imagined, though she hadn't seen anything quite like them before, wouldn't have known what to imagine in the first place. But there were dragons in there. Baby dragons coiled inside, and they were going to _touch_ them_. Zaidi's eyes were saucers as she waited, patiently, nervously for others to take the lead.
“Get out of the way, kid,” someone muttered to Tindral as they stepped past her. She instinctively cowered a little. She was definitely the smallest of the Candidates and easily the youngest -- just barely old enough to Stand. Why was she here?! The eggs were almost as big as her! She should have stayed at the Hold and gone into Harpercraft instead! She hung back, somewhere near the Weyrlingmaster, because she was scared to move forward.
Rhysalen completely ignored the child hiding behind R'lor's knees, instead admiring the solid build of the man basking in the heat of the hatching grounds. He missed the summer heat and the lack of layers that followed it. This was an okayish alternative. Ugh.
His gaze lingered a little while longer before he finally, reluctantly, turned away, doing a polite bow to Jossenth and Nidre before starting to approach the eggs.
Cirina bowed to both Nidre and Jossenth, pairing it with a cheery wave at the gold, “Hello Jossenth. Thank you.” She didn't wait for or expect a response, waiting only a polite second before making a beeline for the egg she's decided to fixate on. It was a little one, surely a perfect little green.
It was weird to be here, without Tirraze or Saedyna, without Oriene a constant present next to her in the barracks. She tried to ignore all that, instead focusing on the egg in front of her, putting both hands on it and drowning as if concentrating hard on something.
Chandrany didn’t want to appear too eager (somethingsomething “boys don’t like it when you seem desperate”, her mother’s voice ringing in the back of her head, but she doesn’t know why her brain wants to apply that to dragons), but she couldn’t really help herself -- she _was_ eager. It wasn’t even Hatching day yet, and her stomach was churning, her palms and the back of her neck slick with sweat. Nobody could say for sure that touching the eggs meant anything… but maybe it did, and that maybe was enough to make her intent on it.
She touched Cirina’s shoulder on her way by -- a silent “good luck” -- but otherwise left her to it. She wouldn’t poach someone else’s chosen egg. Instead, she moved amongst the others, gently trailing her fingers along the shells, searching for one that caught her eye and heart, one that seemed _right_.
Surely if she felt inexorably drawn to a certain egg, it could only mean that the dragon inside felt the same pull towards her? There was no other way for it to be, if it was all as beautiful as they said it was supposed to be.
Vianne, on the other hand, did not quite grasp the concept of stealing someone else’s egg. She did, however, want to stay near Cirina. Of all the other Candidates, she felt she had become closest to her since they arrived.
“You've done this before,” she said. “What should I be looking for?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t still be here,” Cirina said, her tone a little sour, Vianne having hit the sorest of spots. “I usually touch them all. This time I’m just picking one.” She gave the other candidate a slightly pointed look when she emphasized, ‘one’. This one was hers.
“Oh! That’s perfect. Then I’ll pick this one.” Vianne settled in with the egg nearest Cirina’s. “We’ll have to stand together at the Hatching so they remember we were next to each other today.”
Vikirin had done this so many times he could do this in his sleep. He was old enough to know the rules, know how it would go, and knew more than likely how this whole thing would end - failure, disappointment, and yet another reason to get black out drunk in the barracks after. Touching eggs did little to touch something unknown in him these days, or the small weight that flared everytime he thought about it ending in any other way than it always had.
Nijen was nervous, too. He’d felt his mother’s eyes linger for just a moment as she’d looked over the class, but he wasn’t sure what it meant. Just acknowledgement? Curiosity? Did she hope he Impressed one of Jossenth’s babies? Did she _expect_ him to? He wasn’t sure if he wanted her to say anything to him here or not. Was it better or worse for him if people knew that she was his mother?
Maybe it didn’t matter -- and even if it did, now wasn’t the best time to be worrying about it. The eggs were right in front of them, waiting to be touched.
He stepped forward, only hesitating when he realized that another young candidate was hanging back, clearly frightened.
“Hey,” he said to Tindral, “Is it your first time? It’s okay, you can come with me, if you want.”
Hayazi was not at all sure how to proceed. He felt almost as though he were doing something he was not supposed to do, despite the explicit permission he had just been given. He knew Nijen was not speaking to him. But he sidled closer to him and Tindral anyway, just in case. Safety by proxy? Vicarious comfort? Something.
After a few months at the Weyr, Lindora still hadn’t really made friends with any of the other Candidates. She was friendly enough, but slipped away to see her daughter as often as she could, which meant she missed out on much of the informal socializing. She was concerned about the young nervous one and glad when someone offered to help her.
Lindora gave Jossenth a small bow, although she didn’t think the gold noticed, and then walked to a smaller egg. **Hi,** she attempted to think at the egg. **I look forward to meeting you in a few sevendays.** While she wasn’t sure she would continue with Candidacy after the Hatching, she tried to keep her thoughts calm and positive. After a moment, she moved to another egg.
Kaedin waited until the younger, more eager Candidates began to spread across the Sands before he moved. His steps were unhurried, deliberate, the ritual etched into his bones after so many Turns of doing this very thing. Touch. Breathe. Hope. Repeat.
He drew in a slow breath through his nose, then exhaled carefully, as though letting go of the weight he didn’t dare name aloud.
His palm settled gently on the nearest egg, warm and solid beneath his fingers. Reverent.
It never got old. Not really. But it no longer felt new.
“I’m still here,” he whispered, barely audible. “I’m still waiting.”
Zaidi almost yelped when Kaedin stepped away, because now she was exposed and in swept the realization of just how massive the cavern (and the dragons in it) were. Okay, okay, okay. She… she could do this. She wasn’t afraid. This was… normal… by the looks of things.
Everyone was spreading out now and not wanting to be the last person to make it onto the Sands had her putting one tentative foot in front of the other until she finally made it to the edge of the clutch. Others seemed far more certain, more confident, and she felt like a little stone stuck in a river rushing by her. She had to do something. She didn’t want to miss out. Pushing a lock of frizzy brown hair off her slick forehead, she took a deep breath and finally _did_it_. She let her hand reached and a fall across a shell. And frowned.
Zaidi glanced at the candidate nearest her, then back at ‘her’ egg.
What was the big deal? She wondered. It just felt like a big hot rock. Oh, jays, maybe she wasn’t supposed to think that. Maybe the parents would _hear_. Everyone else looked like they were having this wonderful, transcendent experience… was she doing something wrong? Okay… Okay, it felt amazing. Or, well, the _idea_ was amazing. The truth, even though she couldn’t quite touch it or know it in this instance, wouldn’t know it even if it was there, was that there could be a lifemate for her in there. For her. At that, Zaidi smiled brightly, a wave of excitement finally rising between the nerves.
“Pretty cool, huh, kid?” A voice as warm as the cavern called.
Somehow realizing it was directed at her, Zaidi looked up at the tall blond-haired man lounging in the lowest bleacher of the Stands. “Y… yup!” She called back, but quickly went back to doing what she was supposed to be doing - touching this ginormous egg.
Th’reyos just grinned, feeling almost as proud as his brown at this clutch and none of edginess. **They’re a nice looking lot.**
Zarkarth begged to differ. But Jossenth was excited and it was good for their eggs, supposedly. He watched each one of them with careful precision, and slow growing disapproval, his massive head swinging slowly from one side to the other from his place at the far corner of the cavern.
Last updated on the July 29th 2025