Clutch 04 Hatching

The most interesting thing to happen in regards to Clutch 04 was not the hatching itself, but the confrontation that occurred one morning a week after the last egg had been laid and the last liveborn kit had mewled itself into the world. By then all of the mothers but Twenty-Six had settled in their chosen patch of red sand, while the feline construct had high-tailed it out of there and off the ship. As soon as her kits had been born and she had rested from the ordeal, Twenty-Six had given them up. The Cavern Guardian Styx had become the litter's surrogate mother, allowing none but the litter's dark father to investigate the kits when he chose.

Well, him and Kednati Imoderi.

Due to the allergic light-sensitivity of Nightmourners, the forward Cavern had been shrouded in permanent night, thus the "morning" of the confrontation didn't feel much like a morning at all. That was when Kednati had confiscated--eggbound or otherwise--a child from each individual clutch of the grouping. The parents had no say in the matter, and any protests were met with the assurance that they would be expulsed from the ship and forced to leave all their offspring behind if they tried to stop the spidery lab-witch. As expected, this threat kept in line any parent who might've been inclined to get violent.

Besides, each egg or kit was brought back before the day was through, returned to their parents and siblings entirely unharmed. Along with the natural-borns, a new "magetwinned" egg or kit was added, though "twin" was a misnomer--the live kits, at least, looked nothing like the unnatural sibling that returned with them, and the magetwinned eggs were clearly marked with Rune-Brands. Some of the parents accepted these artificial offspring graciously enough, while others were less so, but in the end it mattered not. The magetwins were already Fated.

Come the hatching-day itself, the candidates and Chosen were rounded up the usual way, with fuss from some and compliance from others. At least those who had survived the massacre of Theurge 03 were relieved to see actual feeding tables in the Cavern this time. Stars glittered in the magical sky overhead, the nighttime appearance belying the actual midday time.

The two liveborn litters rushed out and staked their claims before the eggs had even started rocking, and certainly Dritanys and her assistants weren't about to try and enforce any sort of order on the proceedings. Katulinith was left with a kit from each litter at his feet, the magetwins went straight to the feeding tables, and the remainder located their bonds and sponsors with little indecision.

Veinvolt's children looked almost exactly like her. The only trace they showed of their father was in amberish streaks to their pelts, which were full and shaggy. Otherwise they were all Nightmourner, glowing brightly in the moonlit Cavern. Similarly, Twenty-Six's abandoned litter looked much like their departed mother, though they had less feline faces and some were also amber-streaked.

When the clutches of Zabeth and Senyen finally got around to hatching, the maternal dominance in the genetics continued. Zabeth's children were almost entirely avian balls of egg-wet featherdown, though they had stubby, draconic tails. Of all the clutches, Senyen's children showed their father's genes the most: they had Schattarneki spikes in place of wings and tufts of head-hair from which dangled glowing bobs.

Everything proceeded as smoothly as hatchings generally did when newborns weren't compelled to cannibalize each other and the Red Demon wasn't interjecting his horrific presence. At the end of it all, however, there were once again hatchlings that had gone unpaired--all of them from Senyen's clutch, which had been the largest of the four by far.

::Should we do anything about those?:: Chiaki asked the tycharan matriarch.

"Round them up with the magetwins," Dritanys snorted, eyeing the little glowing beasts. "The parents are not to claim them. We'll get some use out of the brats once their parents have left the ship."

::Purges, then?:: Chiaki's tone was bland and disinterested.

Dritanys nodded. "We'll see how self-sufficient natural-born dragons really are."