Might as well play the broody dragon-mother while I have the chance, she grumbled to herself, and continued as she had been: glaring at the candidates. There was, at least, quite a number of them-- the fact that most of them were just general candidates and unlikely to have signed up for her clutch, in specific, wasn't worth dwelling on-- and there was quite a number of people who had come to watch them attempt to bond, as well! Again with the mixed emotions: pride at attracting so much attention, annoyance at the racket the crowd was making, acute embarrassment for being stared at, and general uselessness.

There was, really, nothing better to do than play the broody mother. The Flights and Hatchings Ministry took care of ordering food and calling the candidates, Aldyss kept Kzats from eating said candidates and the slowly growing audience, the Archivist and her apprentice and his--surprisingly--birth-deformed dragon showed up without prompting, and Myokan--Hemlock, to most people-- had Shoel in hand, himself. Shoel seemed more uncomfortable with the mass of people: though once she'd caught sight of her old friend Aedelian in the crowd waving at her and smiled--he had a relative among the candidates--she mostly avoided looking at them all. Eshanath didn't avoid anything, but she was keeping herself busy glaring at candidates, anyway.

Suddenly, Aldyss, standing passively to one side with one hindpaw on Kzats' tail while the xenodragon snapped and lunged towards the candidates, burst out like some kind of announcer, ::And now, the big moment!:: The sound in the bay suddenly dropped several decibles as the majority of the people turned to face the "speaker" in confusion or amusement. Eshanath's own head whipped around and she cast a narrow-eyed glare on her "big brother" as he continued, ::Mercurial Wraith Eshanath's first clutch.... Oooo, I wonder what will come out?::

Shoel looked like she was torn between mortification and hilarity, but Myokan shot him a glare from where he was standing with Shoel along the bay's wall, along with a much more private mental comment of, ::Stop being a ham and shut up.::

Eshanath gave up glaring to snicker, projecting only to her own little "family". ::Hey, one of us has to be light-hearted about all this, right? Certainly not the pair of necromancers, or the constantly bitchy mother, or the conspicuously absent father. Why not the radioactive undead uncle?::

Aldyss fluffed up his crest, Kzats pausing from snarling to yowl piteously. ::Of course--that's what I'm here for,:: he said, looking rather proud. ::They're not here to see me, though. Wonder when these guys are going to pop out....:: He turned his attention back to the rocking eggs that were settled in the mossy covering of the bay, watching intently.

::Any minute now,:: Eshanath suggested, eying the clutch measuringly before going back to glaring, like any good mother should, at the candidates--including Aedelian's little relative, whichever one she was; she'd never play favorites, of course. And, because she didn't want them to feel left out, she cast a glare at the sponsor-hopefuls every now and then, as well--including her brother Adlaith, who happened to be among those sponsor-hopefuls! He knew it wasn't anything personal. At least, she assumed he did.

So busy was she glaring and ruffling her feathers and otherwise looking impressive and intimidating that she nearly missed the hatching of her first child. As it was, she heard the sharp crack of a splitting shell at her feet and looked down just in time to see a wet, furry, dark silver-and-blue hatchling tumble onto the sands. As a number of the audience members were watching the "parents" of the hatching with more interest now, after Aldyss' little outburst, it took the crowd even longer to realize what had happened. Only the candidates, who had been either ignoring or trying to ignore Eshanath's "brooding" routine in favor of keeping their eyes and minds on-track, were really ready.

::Congratulations, it's a boy,:: Aldyss said dramatically after a look of the moist, dark silver furball. ::Bold one, too.::

::Well, come on, I'm a bold one. Why not my cubs, too?:: Eshanath snorted lightly.

This one was bold in more ways than one. Once the hatchling had rolled to his feet and given himself a vigorous shake-off, sending bits of egg-insides everywhere, including onto his mother, he looked over the candidates with his muzzle held high. When he approached them, after a long and impressive-looking moment of survey, he was fairly strutting. Eshanath gave a snort of mixed pride and derisive amusement; the urge to deflate him a little was too strong, and she reached out to hook a foreclaw around his hind leg, sending him sprawling.

::Mo-ther!:: the kit yelped, and she smiled sweetly at him. He hmphed, climbed back to his feet, and continued on his way with his nose in the air. He stopped at the feet of a rather undistinctive looking young man, looking up into his face. ::Quick, Lysander, let's get out of here before she does that again!:: he told him, and cast Eshanath a wary glance over his shoulder. :: I don't like being embarrassed. I'm Ferheineth.::

Next to Shoel and Eshanath, Myokan laughed, a bit of a malicious chuckle at the dragoness embarassing her son. "That's a way to show him," he said, smirking. "Thank the gods all your pups are leaving. I'd hate to bring him back to the Ring of Fire." Shoel elbowed him lightly.

"Hush, I'm sure he's not that bad," she told him.

::I don't know, he's kind of cute,:: Aldyss muttered, for some reason sounding dejected. ::All that fluff.::

Eshanath didn't have more than a moment to spare a glance at her "big brother", just then, because during that first moment of bonding, three more eggs had hatched, dropping their occupants onto the artificially-softened floor. Two were as furry as the first, one pitch black, one black with silver splotches, and the third looked... almost exactly like Eshanath, who gave him a hard, mildly surprised look.

::Did I look that... silly, when I hatched?:: she asked of no one in particular.

::More, actually,:: Shoel answered with a faint smirk.

Eshanath snorted.

The little black wobbled to her feet first, shell bits stuck all over her albumen-covered fur. She blinked first at the spectators, then at the candidates, then at her mother with something that could have been a wink of her gold and red eyes. Eshanath blinked, back, not sure she liked having the uninvited attention of one of her children, for whatever reason. Unsteadily, the hatchling turned away from the candidates, sponsors, and audience-- and toddled right past her translucent mother, towards Kzats and Aldyss! Eshanath watched with narrowed eyes, already half-certain just what this, her second child, was up to.

For a moment Kzats mantled and hissed, but Aldyss caught him on the crown with a wing and the xeno whined, lowering his head but still glowering. ::Are you my daddy?:: the hatchling asked Aldyss as she stopped at his feet, sounding insanely child like and innocent, and completely oblivious to the dangerous xenoburster just between her and Aldyss.

Taken aback, Aldyss just blinked and stared down at the fuzzy pup, stuttering, ::I... err... no... I'm your uncle. Uncle Aldyss.::

::I remember... I think...:: the black said slowly, still staring up at him with marbled eyes. Then, suddenly, just what Eshanath had been dreading happened: she asked, ::Can I go home with you?::

::Of course she can't!:: she intervened. ::You're supposed to pick someone to bond, cub, not a relative.::

"Well, really," Shoel commented, "sometimes dragons chose someone without bonding them... don't they? There's nothing wrong with Aldyss taking her home, is there?"

"Do we really need another dragon in the apartment?" Myokan grumbled, looking at the hatchling uncertainly. They already had two and a xenodragon 'burster. "Much less another hatchling."

::I'll take care of her!:: Aldyss promised earnestly, the hatchling cuddled up against his lower leg while Kzats just growled. ::I can do it; I'm good with kids, you know that.::

::There's not room--:: Eshanath began, but Shoel stopped her.

"There's no reason Aldyss and-- what's her name?"

::Ohmentet!:: the hatchling interrupted.

"No reason why Aldyss and Ohmentet can't have their own set of rooms," Shoel finished with a firm nod.

And that was that, despite Eshanath's discomfort with the idea. There were other hatchlings to see bond-- or not bond-- at the moment; she could deal with this Ohmentet later. The black and silver hatchling, for example, was choosing his bond: he had made his way to the candidates, with much less show than his slightly-older brother, and was giving each one he stepped up to a serious, measuring gaze. By the time Eshanath had looked back at him and his wraith-like brother-- who had been following him, as if he had nothing better to do-- at the candidate's traditional semi-circle, he'd made his way halfway down the line.

As she watched, he sat down before an eagle-shifter and calmly said, ::Hello, Eceret. I'm Eranath. Shall we?::

"I do believe we shall," Eceret answered after a bird-like blink.

The little feathery wraith hatchling watched his brother and his bond leave for a few moments before sitting down in the ground with a very pouty look on his face. That was, he sat there until a noise from further down the semicircle caught his attention. It was much like the chirp of a bird, and the feathered hatchling immediately perked up, ears forward.

Curiously, he continued onward, as though in search of the source of the sound. After passing a few more candidates, he pounced the shoes of a little girl, rather younger than any of the other candidates. Eshanath recognized her as one Aldyss had brought in, signed up specifically for this clutch. ::Tachza!:: he chirped enthusiastically, nipping at the girl's pantlegs. ::You wouldn't mind another ghosty-thing in your house, would you?:: He was, of course, referring to her poltergeist friend hovering over her shoulder, who had first attracted his attention with that quite un-hatching-like bird-sound!

Giggling, Tachza knelt down and scooped the translucent bundle of feathers into her arms, eliciting a purr. "No! I like ghosts and wraith dragons! That's why I came!"

::Good, then! I'm Tralzefet,:: he told her, then paused, and added, ::Can you feed me now?::

There were three eggs left, and two of them shattered spectacularly at once, right next to each other. The two hatchlings who tumbled out fell into a tangle, covered in shell bits from each other's eggs. One--black, silver, and cobalt, a male who was truly a mix of his parents' traits--was laughing as he untangled himself from his multicolored, calico sister--who, like three of her previous siblings, resembled her father but for her feathered head--who was giggling just as hard. From the third and final egg, just a black-and-silver mottled head protruded: the hatchling was halfway free, and she paused to watch her siblings grin at each other. With a drawn-out sigh, she finished the job of hatching while the other two started towards the candidates.

The calico energetically bounded ahead of her brother, eyes fixed on one point of color amidst the group, already. ::Izwara! Oh, Izwara! Did you see? I got all tangled with my brother, isn't that funny?::

The orchid praying mantis bent down over the hatchling who tripped to a stop before her. She answered in a language of clicks and chirps, an insectoid language. Being a natural telepath had it's advantages; Eshanath translated instinctively: "I did see. Are you all right?"

::Oh, I'm fine! I'm Chzet. Take me with you? Pleeeease?::

"Of course, child," Izwara clicked, leading her new bond towards the tables of meat.

Meanwhile, the little male had not wandered towards the candidates, but instead towards the feeding tables, plumed tail waving behind him. A few of the possible sponsors looked down at him expectantly, but he ignored them all, instead hopping up onto the table where the food was laid out. Only one person made to stop him-- or perhaps she was just quicker--the presently human-formed Jascadei Jariane. "Hey! You can't eat yet," the half-Avengaean told the pup, forcibly removing him from the table.

::How could you be so mean?:: the hatchling whined at her, making puppy eyes. ::I love you, don't you love me? You don't want to bond me, then?::

"WHAT?!" Jascadei yelped, immediately dropping the young dragon to the moss-covered floor of the bay. "No way!" she exclaimed, backing away a few steps. "I'm not having another one of you things bond me! Even if you aren't undead, this time!"

::You love me, I know it!:: Jascadei's bond, Adlaith, said with a huge grin. Then he turned his gaze to the little fluffball, eyes narrowing. ::She's mine, though, so you can't have her, whether you're my nephew or not.::

The hatchling just began to laugh. ::I don't want her! All I wanted was the look on your face! Since you're my other uncle and I don't want to go with them, can I go with you, Adlaith? You can call me Merket!::

::All right!:: the gold and black wraith dragon agreed, his face a huge, fanged smile. ::Welcome to the family!::

"Oh joy..." Jascadei grumbled.

Eshanath smirked at the new trio, then focused back on her last hatchling, who had climbed free of her egg and had just finished giving herself a brief grooming. She caught her mother's gaze on her and commented, ::Well, I might as well look good for this bonding thing.::

::If that's what you want,:: Eshanath answered, though she suspected the kit was just surveying the candidates from farther away, with more stealth. Her suspicion was confirmed when the silver and black hatchling paced directly and deliberately towards one bronze-skinned young woman with long, smoky hair.

::Hello, Enyi,:: the smooth voice purred. ::I'm Amyrinth. If you think you're different now, just you wait until I'm finished with you.::

Enyi--Aedelian's relative, Eshanath guessed--seemed to understand that better than Eshanath herself did, for she stiffened with surprise and even a little fear. ::Don't worry so much,:: the hatchling continued with a purr, rubbing catlike against her new bond's legs. Hesitantly, Enyi responded by stroking her egg-damp crest feathers. ::Everything will be just fine.::

As the new and final pair started off the bay floor proper, Eshanath sat back with a sigh. ::Well, that's that,:: she said matter-of-factly. The others looked to her, and she added, ::So when can we go home?::