The first egg to hatch was a bronze, which Amontillado nearly missed, because she had been in such a hurry that she had fumbled quite badly with her hatching robe. But she still arrived in time to see Juaben announce his name and walk out proudly with his dragonet.
After that Amontillado's heart gave a jump, for the queen egg was rocking! She held her breath as the hatchling unfurled her wings and studied the Candidates. The magnificant queen walked gracefuly over to the girls, still considering them, but she had made up her mind before she reached the girls.
Kiya.
Not a bad choice, though; Kiya would do well with a queen, Amontillado thought a bit sadly. But wouldn't she of loved to have it.
The rest of the hatching was rather chaotic to Amontillado, who tried to watch the white-black, green-blue, and frosted bronze dragonet pick their riders rather quickly. A blue and a burnished brown then went to their Candidates, and Amontillado flashed a quick grin to Aundar, who had walked away with the brown.
The last two eggs hit against each other, and a gray-black and green dragonet hatched. This was her chance to Impress. Looking around, she suddenly realized that there were three Candidates left.
But the gray-black ran quickly to Toroy, while the green chose Olorica. Amontillado hung her head softly, but watched as Alyia demanded something of her queen. The great golden Karenenth made some sort of reply, and lifted up her wing to reveal a large egg, which was rocking furiously.
The hatchling inside gave one tremendous push, and a large, rather bright red hatchling landed on the sands. Amontillado gaped, but the hatchling quickly ran over to where the bits of her eggshell lay on the ground. She picked one up with her teeth, and brought it over to Amontillado, setting it down at her feet, then looking up into the young girl's eyes, making the bond.
"You were well worth the wait, Kiotinath," she said, kneeling down to give her red hatching a hug, and she knew full and well that the
Weyrling