Seeking Harmony [E]

[Kaya]

| 75.07.23 | The Aerie's Sands | Noon |

Four cream shelled eggs sat upon warm sands like so many others had before them. However, these eggs were privileged to their own firsts. They would be the first to hatch on the Aerie's new Sands. Their mother stood near by, she had been anticipating their arrival for a few days now. But despite the silence of the eggs so far she remained vigilant, being a new mother did that to a creature, most of them, she was sure. Her name was Tramesh and her mate Redash, who she had promised to inform when the eggs showned signs of hatching.

So she waited while the rest of the world went about its business, the Aerie still working to make their new location in the valley feel like home. Perhaps the addition of new lives would help that process. Tramesh moved to inspect the eggs again, she was starting to become fixated (too much so according to her Rider) on checking them.

So when she nudged one egg it was a surprise when she heard something coming from it. She touched it again and the chick inside responded, trying to sing and push at the same time, which wasn't working out so well for either effort. Its attempts to hatch prompted the others to cheep and squawk and trill in response. They would be free, and sing that day. The delay between sound and entrance bought Tramesh time to alert the Aerie that her eggs were soon to hatch.

Redash! Aniris! The eggs. They're here. Oh, this is exciting. What do I, oh, tell everyone. I'll tell everyone. and she proceeded to call forth the few members of the Aerie that would attend to make sure things went smoothly. There was the Rider and his Linked who would oversee the new fledgelings in their first days, who would also check their minds as they waited in front of the feathers that guarded the entrance. And the Aerieleaders did decide to make an appearance, after all this was the first Hatching in their new home.

So it was that the examining LifeWing pair made it to the entrance to the sands before Redash, who didn't pay them any mind and went straight in to his love and their eggs. I arrive! Not quick as I should like, but here I am. And before they have hatched, excellent. Well then, Tramesh, darling, shall we sing them into the world? the green male asked with all the pride of a new father.

Yes dear, that sounds lovely. Begin, and I will call the Candidates. And so she did. Come, Candidates, and present your minds and your songs to the LifeWing at the door and thereafter those inside. The eggs hatch, come and let them Link to whom they will. Then Tramesh and Redash, whose songs were functional but not famous for beauty, outdid themselves and sung their utmost for their young who had finally decided that today they would arrive.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Ayasha had waited all her life for this moment. Sure, she would rather have had it occur in the frozen northern Weyr and Aerie that was her home, but, there were LifeWings here. Her dream would hopefully come true today. Her heart was still thundering, and she was suddenly struck by the idea that it might be better to just have had this happen to her the way it had to T’ruk, where she just showed up to watch others and didn’t know it was even a possibility until it happened. At least then you’d be spared a bad case of stomach butterflies while trying to focus on your inner song as you approached the rather magnificent looking LifeWing that had been chosen to stand before the door, and the feathers. One, the glossy black of a DeathWing, the other, smaller, a white feather from a LifeWing.

Moving as if in a dream, Ayasha started forward, raising her hand to lay it on each of the feathers in turn. It puzzled her, that at that time the darkness of the DeathWings had been so clearly marked, while a human’s darkness was only rarely so. Her mind wondered back to T’ruk, Tamaruk, he’d been then, and the way he had acted upon arrival at ISW. Sighing, she forced it back to contemplation of the symbolic differences between the feathers. Some part of her found it strangely comforting that the white one was smaller than the black one. It was as if the feathers themselves said that in order to make headway, evil needed large vicotries in which many struggled, whereas good could triumph through smaller actions, sometimes or even frequently through the small actions of a single person.

Yet at the same time, it was a warning, for failure to act, failure to decide, was just as likely to let evil in, and the bigger back feather could also be said to represent the supposed award of evil actions, always so much greater seeming than that of good ones.

[Terayne]

It was finally time. Turns of waiting, of being patient and learning, training, were coming to their head. Eyes like jet, intense, sharp, were on the two feathers, and the girl standing before them. Taking a deep breath, Querin closed his eyes, thinking, focusing, pulling everything he'd been told and taught together, within his soul. From within, he heard it, that shimmering thread of song, of life and love, that he'd been told he would hear when the time came, when it was most needed.

Eyes opened again, and he padded forwards, waiting his turn to contemplate and consider the feathers, to present himself to the guardian...

[Kaya]

As each Candidate reflected on the feathers the guard moved from one to the next individually, and asked them the same question. "Do you, Candidate, freely of your own will, consent to the final search of your mind and being, thus confirming the whiteness of your self and therefore your Candidacy?" This was the final turning point. Should a Candidate decline for any reason and wish to return home, or should they be found unfit, they would be unable to enter and seek to Link. As expected of the small group, the guard had received one yes after the other. He and his LifeWing tread lightly in the search of the Candidates, a life laid bare was a delicate thing to handle, like a badly wounded patient or a new and sickly babe. So far he and his had found them all, again, suitable. As all Riders hoped when looking at the eager Candidates, he wished them all to pass.

Having finished his examinations, he bowed low, arms sweeping up beside him in the manner of wings and said, "Go. The eggs await."

Behind the Candidates stood C'tor, Redash's Rider, waiting to walk in with them. Inside stood Redash himself and his mate Tramesh, looking lovingly and yet anxiously at their eggs. Aniris, the clutch mother's Rider stood off to the side against the wall, in every day attire. The formalities were all of the mind for this occasion, such was the way of the Aerie. "Enter," Aniris said, echoing the command the guard had given.

Tramesh, look! Our chicks. Redash announced, but his mate was already looking at the eggs. She had glanced at the Candidates and trusted the guard's judgement. She needn't look at them long.

Redash, dear, I see. Look, that one's beak has just made it though. she spoke tenderly.

Indeed, a pale and unremarkable beak had just pecked through the creamy egg shell. Dents and cracks in other eggs became larger and easier to see with each passing minute. The chicks worked with great effort to be free of their shells. Until finally, one damp feathered form cracked the egg enough for its head to be seen, and then laid there, resting from the great effort. The parent LifeWings sung, giving new energy to the tiring chicks. The one already out wiggled and cracked the lower half of its egg sufficiently to now have one foot hanging out. It rested there, it needed a moment. Hatching was exhausting work. A beak made its way through a second egg. The other two worked to bee free like their clutchmates. They wanted to know the world and find their place in it, but most of all, they wanted to huddle up under the source of the beautiful voice calling to them: their mother.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Ayasha had willingly, even eagerly, submitted to the final search of her mind. She’d tried to remain tranquil, tried to turn her mind to the lessons in Healing that she had taken for her entire life, but every few seconds her excitement and eagerness would take over. She kept thinking instead about how much she wanted this, how long she’d watched the LifeWing riders, dreaming of being one of them.

Everything about the Aerie had always fascinated her, as she recalled again, seeing the guard’s bow. She loved it. Stepping out into the room, seeing the two adult LifeWings waiting, one brilliant green, the other a beautiful deep blue. She took it all in, the room, the LifeWings, their riders, the colors…

Her eyes landed on the eggs, and there they stayed. She wanted to run to them, even knowing that you never rushed a hatch. That little beak, just barely showing… Ayasha felt some swelling in her chest, as if she, too, wished to sing with the mother’s song.

Be all that you can be, little one, she thought, watching that beak. Be all that you can be.

[Terayne]

Querin bowed respectfully to the guardian as he was told to pass, then looked ahead to the Linked of the Clutchfather, again bowing with respect. It was he and His who had made this possible, after all, and he knew when to acknowledge what must be. Taking a deep breath, he waited patiently as the other Candidates filed in, and once all were gathered he looked to the man, C'tor, he'd heard him called. His Linked was Redash, mate to Tramesh, Linked of Aniris. He knew them, knew their names, their Linkeds, and wished fervently to take his place with them, to aid those who needed it, to bring suffering to its end.

Shaking his head slightly, he forced his min back to the present, hearing the singing of the clutchparents echoing through his body. It was beautiful, their song of welcome and strength, and it gave him strength as well, bolstered the resolve he'd found faltering these past Turns as he waited for this day. He'd not been turned away though, which he found a good sign. He'd be among those he trusted most, treasured most, by the time this day was through...

Or so he hoped and believed...

[Darwin]

She'd heard about a small clutch on the sands of the Rainbow Mists Aerie. Ever since her last lover, who'd had a LifeWing, had tried to convince her to become a Candidate for a LifeWing, she had been curious about the LifeWings. She had thought about seeing if she might be worthy of one, but she'd never had the time, and no clutch had been available.

Until now.

She came to the entrance of the Hatching room and paused for a moment. Was she going in to see if she was worthy for one? Yes, and hopefully she was. Even though she was much older than some of the other Candidates. She sighed and went in, following Querin. She bowed like she saw the others before her doing. She stood off to the side, mostly wanting to watch.

[Kaya]

The chick furthest out, having rested a few minutes, set to wiggling and pushing again. He got his other foot free and in short order had wiggled out of his shell entirely. He let out a loud cheep and took an unsteady step towards Tramesh. The mother LifeWing sung happily, a welcome motif slipping into her song. This was her son, and he was so beautifully inexperienced in that moment. He took another step towards her, and the blue motherly wings descended and made a little cavern for him to fit into. It took the chick several more minutes but he made his way, if slowly, to huddle under his mom. Tramesh trilled and preened the damp chick and fluffed her feathers around him. On the warm sands and snuggled against his mother's feathers he would dry quickly.

While Tramesh fussed over her new hatchling the other three eggs did their best to catch up. The minutes dragged on as they struggled their way out of the eggs, but it was the challenge they needed to overcome on their own. It would ensure they were strong. LifeWings hatched considerably slower than dragons, and in another fifteen minutes a chick was out of her egg and stumbling over the other two. The pile of chick and eggs toppled about, much to Redash's amusement. The somewhat drier brother peaked out from under Tramesh to stare at his sister. He felt his father's amusement and laughed along with him, a young little trill. The other chick cheeped back at him, somewhat annoyed at their laughing at her. She picked herself up from the sands, wobbly, though less so than her brother had been, and made her way next to him under Tramesh. The mother set about poking and prodding at her chick, making sure all was in order.

The other two were partially out of their eggs now, a head and a wing, a head and a foot. They were jealous of the attention their siblings had and, with enough pauses, fought their way out of the eggs. Another little girl and boy joined their mom so that the whole clutch of four huddled under her, drying.

It was at this point that Tramesh and Redash changed something about their song, and Tramesh nudged the half dry eldest chick forward. He looked surprised, then looked over the humans in the room with new eyes. They were not merely fixtures on the wall, no, now he understood. The young chick opened his beak and let out a new song into the air. At that moment his parents fell silent and the only other sound in the room was the cheeping of the other chicks. It was a low, flutey song, and contained some quality of trickling water. He reached out with it, his song, being sung to the world for the first time. It resonated around the room from a beak so small. Candidates in the room shivered, feeling the song brush up against their own, seeking its partner. The chick looked at each one of them as he sang, reached the end of the line, closed his eyes and reached out with his mind, a final note ringing in the air like a bell...

[Terayne]

He was watching the hatchlings, smiling at how wobbly the first little one was, but at the same time wondering who would Link to it, the first to Hatch. The chick's strength was not in doubt, of that he was sure. As they hid under their mother's wings, drying off he was sure, Querin found himself looking around, examining every detail of the room around him. He wouldn't forget this day, he hoped, wouldn't ever have a reason to.

The change in the mother's song had his head turning back, and he watched as one of the chicks, the first Hatched, he thought, watching it, came back out and started towards them. The little flutey song it began to sing was beautiful, untrained, but beautiful nonetheless, and all the more pure for it being the only one, Tramesh and Redash having fallen silent. He met those eyes as they came to him, straightening unconsciously, and as the chick's eyes closed, as that final note sounded...

Q’rin, your song…It fits, as they said it would. Hm. I know you wish to remove pain from…this. A worthy goal. And I, Giosh, accept it.

His words were accompanied by opening eyes and wings stretching out to encompass the room, and Q'rin smiled. As he moved, kneeling down on level with his Linked, Giosh's feathers shifted. They didn't change much, but their color became purer, more whitish in hue. He remained fluffy, very much so, but there was a faint darkening of those on his neck, and his beak was tinted faintly with a reddish/blackish tone. "I am glad," he murmured, gently stroking the downy softness, and Giosh cheeped softly and pressed against him. "I've waited a long time for you."

[Darwin]

Taiton watched as the babies hatched. The songs the parents were singing was beautiful, if a bit rustic. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. It was a bit earie, she thought, but there seemed to be a joyful sound. She smiled when the first born chick came back out from his mother and started to sing. It was a lovely song as well.

She stood and waited. She had attended only one LifeWing hatching, she'd been excited about the Hatching. And she couldn't wait to see who all impressed at this Hatching. She watched as Querin moved off to meet the first born. Her eyes blinked as the feathers of the first born changed subtly. Would that happen to a LifeWing if it chose her? That was interesting.

She smiled when it was clear the first born had chosen. Such a lovely little chick. She moved slightly to see if she could get a glimpse of the other babies.

[Kaya]

Tramesh and Redash looked on, extremely pleased, as their oldest chick Linked. The other three chicks stared out at their brother, heads tilted this way and that as they tried to figure out just what had happened to him. He looked...a little different now. Tramesh encouraged the next driest chick forward (it would take them perhaps another hour or so for their egg dampened feathers to dry and fluff out). She cheeped a protest but moved foward onto the sands and looked out at the Candidates, but she didn't sing yet. She was nervous with so many eyes on her, so she stalled and looked back at her mother with that "Do I have to?" glance.

On the other side of the small Sands, near the Candidates stood the guard. Seeing one boy crouch and approach the young bird, he saw in their manners that they had Linked. It was clear as day to anyone who had seen it before. He moved silently to where Q'rin crouched and lowered himself next to the boy. "Congratulations. Q'rin now, is it? I'm H'vor, and I'll be looking after you and your Linked for the next several days," he chuckled and resisted the urge to ruffle the little chick's head feathers, it just had a look that invited him to do so. So he settled for letting out a noise after his chuckle that most young LifeWings found amusing. "He's a healthy young'un, that's for sure. He'll need to spend more time here with his mom and the others, drying off. He shouldn't be hungry for a couple days, but when it hits, watch out. You'll get a pang in your stomach like nothing else," the man laughed, cutting it off short, hoping he wasn't stalling the little female chick's search. "Why don't you ask--oh, what is his name? You should tell everyone. Much quieter than dragon Hatchings in here. If you announce it, we'll all hear it. And then well, he should go back to Tramesh and keep drying off and we'll get you fitted for knots, papers filled, and all that in short order. Perhaps by then this'll be finished and you can just sit and visit with 'im, get to know each other. And if you can find out what he wants to eat before he wants too, it'll be easier on the both of you. That's a lot, isn't it? Sorry lad, or-" he looked at the man again and decided that, given their ages he was a bit old for that label, "Well, Rider, shall we get started?"

[Darwin]

Taiton canted her head at the next chick that was almost all but pushed out to seek its Linked. She could understand how the little one felt. She'd been through the same situation when things had had to be done and she'd been pushed forward early on in her apprenticeship as a Healer. She'd shown immense promise of being a Master at an early age. She had talent for birthings and helping to heal most anything.

Her knowledge of herbs and healing soups and teas were extensive. She had been trying to acquire a firelizard, but hadn't been lucky. Though she is hoping to learn more about the LifeWings, and is hopeful that one will Link with her. She waited, a bit anxiously, for the second chick to make its decision and begin to sing. She always thought the songs of the LifeWings were beautiful.

[Terayne]

Q'rin listened carefully to, could sense Giosh also listening, and smiled as the chick cheeped in amusement for the sound made. Once H;vor had finished, he nodded, gently stroking Giosh's still damp feathers once more. "His name is Giosh," he said, still smiling, his tone happy, unconsciously holding a tone from his Linked's song as it's understone, light, airy and playful. He looked to Giosh and cocked his head slightly at him, and Giosh blinked. He could sense his Linked's unspoken question, and chirped. I do not know what is out there to choose from...

Chuckling, Q'rin nodded. "I'll find out for you, dear one," he reassured him. "Why don't you go back to your mother and finish getting that wetness out of your feathers. I'll be back soon." The chick cheeped, pressing against him once more in obvious affection before making his way back to Tramesh and hiding under her wings once again. Q'rin watched him the whole time. Having waited so long for his Linked, he wanted to be absolutely sure nothing happened to him. Reassured, the young man then turned to H'vor. "Whenever you're ready Sir," he said respectfully, not quite sure how he should address the other man.

[Kaya]

The little chick made a decision. She turned around, stumbled, and nestled her way back under Tramesh. She was not ready. Someone else should go. Maybe she should go last. Less eyes.

Tramesh crooned softly and lifted herself to preen at the little chicks. She was concerned for all of them, as a new mother should be, she thought, but if her littlest one wasn't ready yet then she simply wasn't ready. So she turned to the next chick, the other female, and nudged her out from underneath her. This chick, probably the most damp of the clutch at the moment, cheeped and shivered as her mother's feathers left her. She looked up at her parents as they started singing again, a short couple of lines before stopping. They looked at her expectantly and she realized that she did very much want to please them. She turned and looked out at the Candidates standing around. She opened her mouth to let out a whispy voice, like leaves in the wind, the notes rustled into the air and shimmered. Then sudden notes joined the others, like rain beginning to fall, until she rose her head up to let out a full, mellow arpeggio, first up the chord and then down to rest on the seventh. It had a full, beautiful, and a distant ring of sadness to it. She let the notes fade away, and found herself back to repeating the arpeggio, first, third, fifth, eighth, and then down again. Until finally...

[Kaya]

"Tis a good name," the man echoed, eyes darting from one place to another. The young man and his Linked were discussing something, he had a moment to watch the other goings on. H'vor saw the one chick decline, for the moment, to sing. She'll come around, he thought, a smile on his face. The next chick that came and so forcefully sang caused him to pause. He heard Q'rin state he was ready, so he rose to his feet and moved towards the wall, returning to the patch of it he had leaned on earlier to watch. "Looks like we might have another one to take with us. Kind of fast, for Hatchings, but I won't complain about getting two done at once," the man mentioned, watching the little chick fix her eyes on someone. Yes, they'd be leaving the little room with another, he had no doubts.