Keum sat in bay two, where the smaller dragoness and her smaller clutch had resided the past months, somewhat irritated. Linaeas had, again, stolen the glory for himself by taking the much larger dragoness and her much larger clutch for his own recording. He and his dragon, if those xenomorphs could be called dragons, were still organizing things for eleven eggs and arriving candidates. Keum had finished ages ago; not only did she only have five eggs to worry about dealing with bonding, recording, and feeding, but she had two assistants. Three, if you counted Lao's little shape-shifting familiar. How she had ever thought that Lao bonding Gicuceth was a bad thing was beyond her, for the three-legged dragon had proved eager to help in whatever way she could. Today, she and Keum's apprentice were sitting beside her, watching the eggs and their mother.

Yellow, the two dragons' bond, came running in, out of breath, and darted across the moss to Undomissath's side. The six-winged dragon-- who had long since chased her trio of suitors away, according to rumor, whenever they tried to come calling-- rumbled at her irritably but let her stroke her neck soothingly. The poor young woman had been doing this for the past hour and a half, ever since the eggs started moving, running from one bay to the other, trying to share her time equally with both proddy dragons. Keum could only wonder why she hadn't thought to have the partition between the two bays opened already; perhaps she was afraid her dragons would get violent with each other. According to Gicuceth, they were hurling telepathic insults everywhere at each other and each other's clutches. Maybe taking away that line of metal between them would be too much to ask. It was, unfortunately, something of a shame; now the candidates would have to be split, as well, instead of offering the whole group to both clutches, and offering the hatchlings the best choice they could.

"Master Keum," Lao murmured, as if he'd been listening in on her thoughts-- impossible, of course-- "should someone tell the lady that the wall can open?"

"What?"

"She does not know," Lao explained shyly.

"Oh." Well, that thought simply hadn't occured to her. Well, then. As Yellow started to speed past, on her somewhat frantic way out to visit Kalturtinocth again, Keum opened a wing to stop her. Bright gold eyes blinked anxiously at her, and she tried to look as gentle and reassuring as she could. "Young lady, would you prefer that we open the partition between the two bays? That would make seeing both your dragons a good sight easier."

"You-- you can do that?" Yellow gasped, as much as because she was simply out of breath as because she was surprised.

"Of course."

"Oh! Then-- yes, please! That would make things a lot easier!" The girl flashed a brilliant smile, one of those that it was simply impossible not to return. How the poor thing had ended up with such feisty dragons was beyond Keum's understanding, though perhaps she was the only one sweet-tempered enough to put up with their bickering.

By the time they'd gotten the partition open, the eggs were rocking hard, looking quite ready to split their shells, and the stands were nearly full. The Minister of Flights and Hatchings had finally arrived, but she stood on the other side of the double-bay, avoiding Keum and her superior. Cats. Linaeas himself trotted over once the partitions were open, himself, for a brief few words. Keum figured he was just interested in why she'd had the partition opened, but he stopped beside her and, not even mentioning the partition, asked, "Did you get your earpiece?"

"What?" Keum said, feeling rather stupid for not knowing, and somewhat annoyed that she hadn't been told earlier. "What earpiece?"

"Siche was supposed to give you-- oh, here. You're the one with the nimble fingers, there's a spare in my harness pocket."

"I can do better, I think. Lao?"

"I heard," the boy whispered shyly, approaching the larger Farahan wolf with a faint smile. Linaeas held stock-still, smiling gently, while Lao found the miniature radio, meant to be fitted inside and around a large, canine face and settled it snugly on Keum.

"There, now at least you'll know what's going on, on the other side of the room," Linaeas said smartly.

"And you'll know what's going on over here, too," she answered, trying not to snap. As if his clutch was more important than hers. At least her dragon-mother wasn't a bossy, prissy--

"Right. Happy recording."

And off he bounded to herd the widely varied candidates into one big bunch instead of two lop-sided bunches, much to the annoyance of the two dragon-mothers.

"Gicuceth says now Kalturtinocth is complaining that she cannot compare the sizes of their candidate groups," Lao confided with a little giggle.

"I thought you were supposed to be writing," Keum reminded him, sending him right back into his usual frantic scribbling.

Thankfully, her eyes hadn't left the clutch, or else she might have missed it, the very first hatchling in her own little bunch. A small, green and gold dragon tumbled out from its split shell, giving a squeak of surprise to find itself upside down staring at the crowd. It-- she, actually-- was rare for a dragon hatched at Star City: she had fur. Just along her back and head, and at the tip of her tail, but still: fur. Like her mother, she had more wings than most dragons, though not nearly as many as Undomissath, for as she flipped herself over, she flapped a set of four wings, tangling them up in each other. The audience let out a corporate aww as she looked around with a jaw-gaping dragon-smile, Undomissath let out a triumphant roar, and Keum grinned. Her clutch started first, even if it was smaller!

Just then, though, the green dragoness' roar was drowned by a similar, more deep-throated bellow from her larger sister, and the little radio Linaeas had given her to keep up communication between them during the hatching chirped. "First hatchling's out," the Master Archivist's voice sounded in her ear, a little tiny from the tiny speaker. "Looks like Kaltur-- Kaltur-- damn, their names are too long! The big one's clutch started first."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Linaeas, but Undomissath's first just broke shell, too," Keum answered with a little snort.

Apparently the dragon-mothers were having the same argument, mantling their wings at each other and screaming fit to take down the ceiling. It took a long moment for Yellow to calm them both down, and in that time the first two bondings had taken place. On Keum's side, a dark-haired girl was stroking the little green's wet hair, murmuring and staring blankly just past the hatchling. Keum recognized her as Sashine, the blind girl. The second candidate chosen was a foreign inventor who had come to live at the station fairly recently. Keum didn't remember his name, but as the young man and his white dragon with its brilliantly colored wings approached the food on Linaeas' side, and consequently Linaeas, she heard his and his bond's names over the radio: "Khaliq and Ondaggiris."

The little green hatchling on her own side was guiding her bond to the second, and smaller, table of food, with Keum, Lao, and Gicuceth in the way. "Name, please?" she said gently, so as not to startle the blind girl.

"Oh!" Sashine exclaimed. "Sashine Kalappa, and this is Otana."

"Thank you," Keum answered simply. "I'm sure Otana knows where the food is."

And she sure did, for the hatchling was already nudging her bond towards it. Keum chuckled lightly and looked back to the eggs. No more of Undomissath's had hatched yet, but fully three of Kalturtinocth's had broken open in the time it had taken for those first bonds to take place, spilling out a dark red dragon with wings as bright and sparkling as his mothers', an opalescent white with more confetti-patterned wings, and a yellow male with rainbow-patterns on hers. Keum watched impassively as the yellow made his way to the candidates and choose a frizzy-haired off-worlder, surprising her into nearly falling over but winning a smile from her in the end. Through the radio she heard the woman introduce herself as Maebe, and her dragon as Moth.

The red, meanwhile, was making a beeline to Kitaaya, the black-eyed fire-mage with the red metal cyborbird on her shoulder, the one who seemed to make everyone uncomfortable, just by standing near them. According to Linaeas in the radio, the little male red hatchling's name was Shkora. Keum, for one, was glad to see she'd be leaving eventually, at least.

Before she could find out what happened to the rainbow-sheened white, Lao gave Keum's wing a pat to get her attention and pointed. Two more of Undomissath's eggs had finally given in to the pressures of the hatchlings inside and split, revealing a very different pair of dragons. They still had fur, and four wings instead of the customary two, but one, the slightly smaller of the pair, was bright gold and orange all over, while the other had gold wings, the rest of him brilliant white with hints of green in his short, damp fur. They struggled out of the tangle they'd hatched into and gave each other arch, amused looks, to the laughter of the crowd, before heading towards the candidates purposefully.

The gold one perked up quickly and bounded past her sibling, nosing aside some of the candidates to get at who she wanted-- or, well, trying to nudge them aside but making no headway until they actually wanted to move, she was so small. The white one waited a ways back, watching the candidates with bright gold eyes, while the gold one nearly bowled over her choice, a little girl Keum recognized as Shanna, a child who often ran around the station, with or without her parents. The girl was giggling, her dragon nuzzling her and purring proudly, until she managed to get to her feet again.

Keum waited for them to make their way to her, but her eyes fell again on the white dragon, who hadn't moved any closer to the candidates, but who was instead staring straight up. Frowning, Keum followed his gaze, but all she saw was ceiling and the grating of an air vent.

"There is a boy up there!" Lao exclaimed quietly, staring at the vent, too. "Mossei just bonded to him!"

"A boy in the ceiling," Keum repeated.

"In the air vent."

"I thought they did sweeps for things like that," Keum grumbled. "Gicuceth didn't happen to catch his name, did you?"

"Jal C-C-," Lao gave up on the last name and continued, "but he will come down now, I think. Mossei wants him to feed him."

"Figures. Well, we'll get his full name after the hatching."

Shanna and her new friend had reached them, both grinning fit to burst. "I'm Shanna Lecava!" the little girl announced, "and this is Ashane!"

"I'm pleased to meet you both," Keum said, nodding gravely and letting them both pass.

Another two hatchlings had broken free on Linaeas' side-- the shimmery white one had disappeared to the food tables without having announced himself, so he probably had gone unbonded-- and both were busy bonding. One, a blue-black, iridescent male with rainbow-colored wings, had chosen a rather startled-looking young man. Keum squinted across the room at him, trying to remember who he was, when his dazed-sounding announcement to Linaeas reminded her: "I'm Damien, and this is Incath." No wonder she couldn't remember who he was; he wasn't actually a person: one of the station's androids had just bonded. Impressive, and quite a nod to his creator, to have brought to life something considered acceptable by a dragon.

The second hatchling, a slightly smaller, rainbow-lavender female, had chosen a pretty blonde by the name of Cassidy. "This is Inasath," she told Linaeas happily on their way to the large table of food.

When one of Keum's own cracked open at the same time as two more on Linaeas' side, she had trouble keeping her attention on both at once. The confetti-winged silver and rainbow-winged red were very eye-catching, and rather rambuncuous, the former crowing cheerfully as he bounded towards the candidates, the latter almost prancing as she tried to keep her paws from getting tangled in the bay floor's hatching moss. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the silver bonding to a sour-looking young man-- Oamuy-- and it was hard to miss the red bonding the largest candidate there, the dragon Isoshath-- but she had her own hatching to record, dangit, so she dragged her attention back where it belonged.

The fourth hatchling from Undomissath's clutch was green, like his mother, with bright gold wings and flame white-and-orange fur fringes. He took several tries before he chose his bond, a Galli by the name of Aottov who was as green as the dragon was. "Thisssss is Sssssateino," the alien hissed to introduce his bond when Keum stopped them on the way to the dragon's first meal.

"Usash," Oamuy grunted shortly over the radio, sounding like he was dearly trying to be annoyed, but failing.

"The red one who bonded Isoshath is Dolonae," Lao relayed from Gicuceth, who apparently could hear all the way across both bays to where Isosath had just shambled past Linaeas, red Dolonae trotting cheerfully along beside him.

"One more to go," Keum muttered, looking back at the final, frantically rocking egg. The shattering sounds from Kalturtinocth's side indicated at least one more was breaking over there; a glance proved that, actually, all three remaining eggs had broken. The last of the starry Danachian's clutch were a pair of purple hatchlings and a green hatchling. The first purple, slightly irridescent and with her mother's sparkling wings, gave the candidates a disdainful look, snorted once, and went towards the food with her nose in the air.

"That is Veris," Lao relayed for Keum's benefit, though Linaeas had obviously already been told, given that he didn't stop the hatchling when she flounced past him. "And she is not going to bond."

"Thank you, Lao, I think I can see that."

The boy flushed a bit and went back to scribbling again.

Keeping one eye on that last egg unhatched in both the bays, Keum watched the two dragons on Linaeas' side make their choices. At least that batch wasn't going to end on an unbonded; no one liked that. The second purple one, this one with rainbow wings instead of sparkly, modestly made her choice: a beaming young man with bushy, dark brown hair. "This is Jemvoath," he told Linaeas, and thus Keum through the radio, "and I'm Devron."

The last was obviously well aware that she was the last, and she was making quite a show of pacing up and down the line of remaining candidates dramatically. When she finally stopped in front of a dark-haired woman, striking a pose, the newly bonded lady started laughing. "Tiyle and Illacestith," she said, still smiling with amusement, as she walked and her dragon Illacestith strutted towards the meat tables.

It was down to Undomissath's final egg, then, and the remaining candidates were staring at it hopefully. The audience, those of it which were not satisfied by seeing a friend or a favored candidate chosen and had lapsed into chatting amongst themselves, held its corporate breath, watching, as well. Undomissath was shifting from foot to foot, obviously tense, anxious, and probably quite annoyed by the superior look Kalturtinocth was giving her, presumably because Kalturtunocth's eggs had finished hatching first. "Come on," Keum told the egg under her breath, eying it. "Hatch already." The last thing they needed was a dud egg, or a dud dragon.

As if answering her, the egg shattered with a sound like a gunshot, sending pieces of shell everywhere around it, and a bright gold hatchling with four rainbow-colored wings tumbled out. She rolled to her feet, shook herself vigorously, staggered a moment, then got her balance and trotted towards the candidates. At least she wasn't turning her nose up at them. Her choice was somewhat surprising, though: a pretty thing from some previously unknown planet. Keum didn't know her, though from where the Farahan stood, she looked like the kind that, though lovely, was more than a bit air-headed.

It was something of a shock when "she" introduced herself and her dragon in a voice that, though tenor, was distinctly male. "Kari dya chay-dya Lathan O-ama," she-- not he-- said with a smile, pointing to himself, in a language she didn't understand, though the meaning was clear enough: his name was Lathan O-ama. "Kari-cha ri chay-ri Supersyllaba," he added, pointing to his dragon: obviously, the dragon's name was Supersyllaba. At least she was as female as she looked, even if she had a very odd name.

"Ah, very good, thank you," Keum answered, wondering if he understood her. The way his eyes got big at the words didn't tell her yes or no, but before he could say more, his bond nudged him onwards and towards the food.

"Well, that's it, then," Linaeas said in her ear. "All that's left are the sponsorships."

"And thankfully we're not in charge of that," Keum agreed, watching with a slight grin as Siche Four was mobbed yet again. A bit of haggling, and she heard, relayed by Linaeas, "That white one, Noocith, is going to a place called the Obelisk, and the purple one, Veris, is going to Calyeni."

"Then we really are done, then," Keum said, satisfied, but couldn't resist a tease: "And Undomissath's still started hatching first." Her answer was a growl and, laughing, she trotted away, Lao and Gicuceth ambling along behind her, while the two dragon-mothers glowered at each other over the shattered shells of their offspring.