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Ok. He had been mauled. Mal merely wanted to know if he could go home now. He had clearly already experienced all the joys this Hatching would offer and didn’t want to be here any more. It would just be greedy! At least the numbweed took effect quickly, getting rid of most of the pain. Now he just had to convince himself that, since the worst had already happened, he could quietly slink off and go to sleep somewhere. Using the wall as a support, he got up, shaking a little still, and looked for an escape.

Anything would do right about now. Just because he could Stand didn’t mean he should. “Um… sir?” he asked the Healer quietly. “Can I go now? I seem to be oozing a little…”

~.~

Cordel fixed his iciest stare on the whiner, vaguely recognizing him as the Candidate with the bitey firelizard.

And that was all it took, since he was quickly distracted by the new maulings. Not to mention the Brown dragonet was staring at him with a look that plainly said, ‘My way. You are in it’.
~.~

“…” well, Cordel made a very good argument, Mal decided. He hurriedly scurried----or limped quickly, more like it----towards the back of the group. He had tried to do the brave thing and it HURT. A hero might die only once compared to a coward’s thousand deaths, but it was the one death that really counted.

In something akin to an unpleasant routine, Inaari had made plans for her little Ryka, and the moment the Queen's scream rang through the caverns, she was on the move. Friendly hands would soothe and coddle the little green while her bonded mistress went to Impress another life partner on a grander scale. Her white tunic had been carefully folded into a clean bag, to be thrown over what she was wearing at any given moment. The pale blond had lucked out today, and been wearing one of the new ensembles she'd dubbed "Vera dresses". The voluminous pants were as modest as any gown, but allowed for freer movement as she ran towards the burning Sands.

But even with all of her preparedness, she arrived in the back-end of the crush, and was trying to worm her way through towards the front where she spied several familiar female faces. Suddenly, however, Inaari was thrown back into the group as they all moved back, as if something horrible was happening! Summoning up her strength, she jumped once, catching a glimpse of brown and gold before she was jostled back down into the press of bodies. Truly, there were too many Candidates!

From the small glimpse she'd gotten, it looked as if the brown was a mauler, and the gold...well, who was paying attention to the poor girl when her brother was a dervish of repressed anger? Hearing female wails of fear, she could only assume that the new queen was not much happier! The wherry b***h who'd put them all in this situation was to blame! Inaari fervently hoped that whatever happened here, all the payment would be taken out on that person. Kymae? Kyllae? If a dragonet went between, there would be hell to pay, for all of them!

Okay, now her face twisted into a disgusted frown as she watched the ferocious little queen tear into another girl. Without much reason in her head, Weiwin moved forward. It wasn’t that she was afraid to be mauled, no, she just didn’t have much patience for being ill (or wounded) as it generally meant that one had to be out of action for some time. And with the way this hatching was unraveling, it would be a long down time.

Weiwin moved closer to where the queen was. The young one really needed to learn some manners. At that thought, Weiwin's mouth moved into a grave little smile.

... And leave it to the cruel fates for suddenly sending one frantic dragonet right at her, immediately compelled to bolt, but locked in place as she realized the small mass of people still behind her. Moving would have just sent the queen barreling into someone weaker, and thus, Canthry met her head on... sort of.

Until she didn't quite.

Okay, so it seemed the brunt of the whole mess had been received by a smaller girl that, despite the chaos, she instinctively ducked over to at least try assisting, her mind even going so far as to contemplate shoving the gold dragonet off by force. Shard it all, this was such a mess!

"... Are you alright?" And now she was the closest one to the victim-- still shaken, herself-- and quietly offered her a hand to get off her back Torn robes and some shredded skin, but... that seemed like about it, for what she could tell. "I'm sure a healer can tend to you soon, Miss..."

And in the meanwhile, she could just play the (outwardly) calm gentleman.

"No it doesn't serve them right, dummy! See?" Just then, Dolmin added his bit about the Queen meaning to hurt them, and at this Kagiya nodded. "Yeah, she did it on purpose." He was, of course, correct. For now. Pouting when someone got in the way of her view, she watched as the Gold seemed to deliberate, unsure of where Hers was. "Do they always... not know where t' go?" she asked, seeking the 'wisdom' of her friend. ... If you could call him a friend, really.

--

"Vera, I need to go down there," S'van said, trying to get to where he could see Mal, at the least. "Let's go down a little more, please?" Vera sighed. There seemed to be no convincing the dimglow that he shouldn't be near the Sands. "Fine. But... you realize that if anything happens, you're at fault right?" And Xeran was not going to be happy. He wasn't going to be happy at all. Still, Vera led the dragonrider down the risers, until they were close to the the Sands, and tugged on him to get him to stay. "Mal..." S'van bemoaned, aware that his friend was hurt and frightened. ... And, frustratingly, unable to hear him.

"I wonder if candidate blood smells good to them." Inaari heard this, and smiled grimly. She was moving up now, not close enough to the gold to lose any of her freckled skin, but enough that she could see what was happening. "Well we are beasts too." she said, arm wrapped around her body in an almost defensive position. The gold was lovely, even in her anger, but the teen wasn't quite sure what to do. Some were moving up, as if to corral the little one, and it seemed a mistake. If you were not her Chosen, she would simply rip you to shreds!

But if you were the chosen, and hung back, would the little one then go between?! Inaari was not comfortable with her thoughts, and shared the morbid humor that hung in the air at that moment.

There was a time and place for everything. And it wasn't for N'tos. Those hatching grounds were lethal! He winced, glad not to be a candidate this time around. Those were some angry dragonets... contrasting with the last gold from N'to's hatching. There were helluva lot more injured, this time around too!

Mrrr... Can we not help? Asceth rumbled, his distressed thoughts pouring into N'to's body. "Not this time around." N'tos said, trying to soothe the small dragon. Neither of them were healers, and the best they could do was to take someone to the infirmary. And, it was sort of an unspoken rule that hatching were allowed to take their course... with maulings, more or less.

So far, most of them didn't have life-threatening injuries. Not that it wouldn't hurt ... but there was nothing to be done about that. He looked at Asceth, wondering how browns could be so different from each other!

It's because I found mines right away... Asceth answered his unasked question, pragmatically. N'tos let out a chuckle. However this hatching went.. they would have to observe and see. A good outcome did not come, simply because you wished it. You had to face the more difficult facts of life, and this may be one of them. Lifting his head back towards the sands, N'tos continued to watch as a bystander.