Taleraen and Legang continued to expand their sudden friendship as they waited for the clutch at Caer Catena to hatch. They busied themselves by taking on jobs in the caer's working quarter - Legang of course in the kitchens, and Taleraen found that people liked her to deliver messages because she was polite and sensible.

It took weeks of waiting. Apparently the dragons weren't all that happy with this fact either - the dam of the clutch would shift around and grumble, while her rider was ever more snippy.

But at long last, the eggs began to shake apart. The call went out to the bonders, and they were brought down to the dunes. Everyone important was there too - making some of the bonders nervous. But Legang and Tal remained calm. This would be their proudest moment.

A big cream hatched first and bounded off at a girl who was also from Paniya. "It seems there are a lot of us here," Taleraen commented, as the next to hatch wandered past her sister. A silver wandered toward that girl, completing the pair. It took a while after that for the other eggs to get going. A lovely red male broke out and bonded, to an oddly nonhuman bonder.

A pair of eggs broke apart, one with a lot of energy and the other as though they would take all the time in the world to hatch. The red female who came from the first egg scampered up and down around the bonders remaining, and settled before Legang. She looked up at him, and he gazed at her with a bemused expression.

"I'm Biadth," the red said, "and I'm hungry. You can cook, can't you?"

With some surprise, Legang answered, "yes, but if you're hungry now, I think they've got some food over that way." Biadth glanced to where he pointed, and saw the other hatchlings already gobbling down their food.

As she was escorted by her pale bond, she asked, "just why is your skin that weird white color?" Because she'd obviously noticed everyone else had some kind of pigment.

"Wellllll..." Legang said, "why is your skin that color red?"

That got her to shut up and eat.

Meanwhile, another hatchling, the small brown female who had broken shell with Biadth, went towards Taleraen. She had wandered from her hatching place only after her sister cleared away.

"You came here looking for Nalen?" She asked.

Taleraen nodded, but only after a moment's thought and a glance at Legang. "Sort of." She said. "I ended up coming here because I was looking for him. Do you think he'll ever come back to me?"

"I don't know really," the brown said. "But we can go look for him. I'm Nachtilleth."

"I'm Taleraen," she said, and glanced again toward Legang who beckoned her over. Now, they'd be able to join back up with their friends and see how they fared!