Only one?

[Panther385]

((It's about frigging time! D: ))


Kiri lay curled around a polished purple egg, snorting hot smoke onto it every few moments. Its surface was flawless- not even the ash from her breah marred it. Thread-thin veins of silver webbed across it, giving it the appearance of being inhabited by a very busy spider. It was cool (also despite the mother dragon's heat) and frictionless- like ice ona lake in winter, or hardened silk. She looked at it fondly, and gave it a small lovng lick.

For it was not a stone, but an egg.

Her egg.

She'd spent months waiting for it to come. Panther had originally thought there'd be more- most dragons had four or five children. This, however, was an exception. Even if there was only one, it didn't matter.

Kiri was situated in the back of a cave in the Black Forest. It had obviously been previously inhabited by wolven; the chewed-on bones gave it away. She created a nest with feathers from birds and dried grass. The dragon raised her large head as she heard someone approach.

"You alright?"

The familiar tom-boyish voice of Panther drifted her way.

~Yes.~

The shapshifter took a seat on the floor, around ten feet away from Kiri. "I invited a few people, if you don't mind." She grinned sheepishly. "I know that you aren't the overprotective mother, so I thought it'd be alright..."

~Don't worry.~

Panther shrugged and curled her tail around her feet. A small crack broke the silence, a few jagged lines making themselves known on the surface of the egg. The shapeshifter glanced outside, wondering when others would come.




((Jump on in, I don't mind. Just say Panther invited you or something. ))

[Panther385]

Crack

Crack

Peep!

The noises continued for some time now. Kiri had stopped heated the egg, and watched it was great vigilance. Two green eyes looked out from a newly-made hole, surrounded by bronze scales. Soon after a few more peeps, a piece of the shell wobbled as a head poked out of the egg. The dragonling was true to its foreshadowing- a gloriously shiny bronze tone, with white spines from nose to tail-tip. It lacked the common space were one would sit when riding a dragon; the area at the base of the neck to the wings had more spikes than the rest of the body. The newborn cocked his head from side to side at his mother, then puffed out a ring of copper smoke.

~Mother?~ It said, in the innocent tone of a young creature.

~Yes.~ Kiri sent a wave of ‘love’ through the link to her child. ~You, Supaiku. Her,~ She nodded towards Panther, who was sitting next to the nest. ~Panther.~

The aforementioned shapeshifter smiled sheepishly, waving.

[Leporidae]

Leporidae walked around puzzled, with a old tattered map in her hands. She was mumbling to herself about what could be made of as food, wolves, and killing. "Hmm, they should be in here, according to this map. She walks into the cave . . . dark so far. Then . . . there was smoke. "Eh? Some wolves they are." Some peeping rang through her ears, making her feeling even more creeped out before. "Hmm, must be a new subspecies . . ." She felt something under her foot . . . kinda chewed up. Her fears got the best of her as she screamed. "EEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeee!" Lep's vision got a little better, now that she wasn't looking down on the map. There in front of her was Pan and a family of dragons. "Oh. Eh heh heh . . . sorry. So, there are no wolves here? I got lost and thought I'd have a little wolf meat before I head back to the cave."

[Swix]

Fade faded into view, leaning on the wall in the cave. She hadn't been here for very long, just long enough to see the dragonling hatch.

It was strange, she thought, that she should come here to see this. She'd initially brushed off Panthers invitation, seeing it as non-essential. Yet she'd still come. Perhaps it was because she had never gotten to see her own son until he was four years old. In fact, she hadn't even known she'd had a son until then. Her DNA had been taken without her permission.

Fade quickly brushed these thoughts aside, cold watery grey eyes watching the young creature.

Outside, large flaps can be heard as a large, adult male dragon came in to land. It's long, large but rather narrow (for a dragon) wings beat incessantly to slow itself down. Four large, cruelly clawed and muscular feet touched down. He hadn't crashed this time.

This dragon was quite long and lithe, and perhaps a little serpentine. It's head was angular, and the end of it's muzzle was pointed. Sharp teeth poked a little over it's lips, and it's horns were long and very sharp. It's long body tapered out at the tail, where the spikes that ran along it's spine began to increase in quantity. By the time the tail ended, the spikes covered the entirety of it.

The dragon was black-scaled all over, bar the red scales that appeared on it's neck and covered it's belly. The underside of it's tail was also red-scaled, as were the undersides of it's wings.

Bright red eyes glittered behind smoke that constantly left it's nostrils, and Furnace took a step to move closer to the cave entrance. The darkfire dargon didn't go inside, but waited on the outside for the mother and youngling.

[Raven]

Aara stumbled into the cave, she had somehow made it up. Even if she was injured and weak. She shook her head, trying to get herself out of a daze and slowly walked towards Kiri. "Hey..." She whispered to everyone, deciding to be quiet. 'I wonder if it's easier to have an egg...' She thought, remembering... well, remembering her own children. She turned to Kiri, eying her condition. She seemed good. "How're you Kiri? You ok?" She asked quietly, willing to help if she wasn't. And, just willing to help her with anything if she needed it; as she remembered how she would have liked that herself.

[Panther385]

"No, sorry. Don't know what killed 'em off, but they're gone." Panther smiled at Leporidae, then turned a watchful eye towards Fade. "I thought I smelled someone else... Good to see you here, Fade."

Kiri tapped her tail on the stone ground as she heard Furnace approaching. She hadn't expected him to be here, but it was a good thing, nonetheless. Her pondering was interrupted by Aara's query. ~We're fine, thanks for asking. ~ She reverted her attention to Supaiku, who had now managed to clamber out of the egg. He stretched his wings and yawned; making a small squeaking as he did. The bronze dragon spread his ash-grey wings and hopped down from the nest. His round emerald eyes stared curiously at the occupants of the room- being a newborn; he’d never seen humans before.

The mother directed her attention to the different people.

~Her, ~ She nodded towards Fade. ~Fade. Friend. ~ She blew a small bit of smoke towards Aara and Leporidae. ~Left, Aara. Right, Leporidae. Also friend. ~ She looked outside into the inky blackness of the night. ~Out there, Furnace. Dragon. ~

~Fade, Aara, Lep-oh-ree-day, Furnace? ~ Supaiku replied, not yet grasping the correct pronunciation of Lep’s name.

~Yes.~

[Shaon]

In front of the cave, another mother-daughter pair appeared.

The most unlikely mother, with her child, Kaimyr, by her side.

Paranesia used this as a mostly democratic proposal. Her child befriending Supaiku would force an alliance with the time dragon. One she could use to her advantage.

Calmly, the fox entered the cavern, the curious kitsuma not far behind.

She reached the dragon quickly.

~It seems I have missed yet another hatching.~

Kaimyr, however, was not so lucky, stumbling on various rocks and her hooves. At this point, she finally caught up with her mother.

~Kaimyr, meet your new friend.~

Kaimyr cautiously approached the dragonling.

~Are you a friend?~

[Leporidae]

((Supaiku was quiet close with the pronounciations there, Pan. Just turn that oh into a poor and you got it right ))

Leporidae sighed kind of hungredly. "Oh . . . I was hoping there was something I can eat around here. It was all becuse of this stupid map that got me lost." She threw the map behind her and it flew onto the ground behind her. "It's a looooong story. I don't feel like telling it until I get a bite to eat." Lep looked searchingly around the cave from the spot where she sat, looking if something edible was lieing around.

[GBE]

Drone knew that Kiri was due to have a child at any time. Figuring it would probably be in the hives best interest to make an appearance, she landed outside the cave, a good distance from Furnace, who always made her a little wary, just because of his size, and his aggressive tendancies. She wasn't entirely afraid of him, it was just the flame, it didn't go well with her offspring.

She had been accompanied by several of her own offspring, albeit fully grown humanoid wasps, they were still her own offspring. She wasn't sure if it would be wise to let the others know that she'd gained yet another heir to her hive. The amount of daughters she had was more than hives are supposed to have, but then she did have DNA that wasn't exactly normal.

She had in fact left all her daughters at the hive, where they would get the most care from the nursing wasps. Treading through the cave, the darkness wasn't necessarily a problem for her, and she spotted the large outline of Kiri before she spotted Panther, and then the new dragonling. "Congratulations Kiri..." Drone felt there was nothing more to say, it was a formality to a fellow member of the EC. Although her tone of voice would have been a bit lighter than normal.
________________

Collator was stood in the nearby woods, hidden enough by the flora to hide his presence there. He was interested in one thing, adding more data to what he already had, it may help in the future should he ever need it. There wasn't anything spectacular to scan, and with so many others being here, he was adding quite a lot of data to his already collated information on some of them. Someone's got to do it, and the way he saw it, there might be data to help people in the future. For a price...
________________

Josh had had a funny feeling for some time now. It was niggling at him all the time. He'd felt it many times before, and he was sure he knew what it was. Following the instincts of his ancestors, he had found himself deep inside unfamiliar territory. He'd already had to try and outrun several weird creatures that saw him as a potential meal. Finally coming into a clearing he saw a cave with a large black and red dragon sat outside.

Impressed he cautiously walks towards it from the side, where he'd expect to be in full view. The closer he got to the cave, the more his face began to hurt as what he considered a curse upon him was trying to force him into the cave. He had one hand held out in front of him just in case the large dragon tried to do anything.

His face, a slight contortion of pain, had a strange glow flickering in out of view, as if it was hidden on his face somehow. It was in fact a tattoo of a dragon of one kind or another. The only reason he was here, a dragonling had just come into the world. Cautiously passing by the dragon, he makes his way towards the cave, fully knowing that not a single person here would actually know who he is...

[Falhado]

Another new life on Blackstar, another blessing. He did not need to be told by those withchild to find out that there were to bring a new life into the world, one that could play in events bringing a new joy to someones life. Landing far from view, he walks through the forest, his hood covering his head and face, with his staff in hand.

He doesn't stop walking as he exits the forest and walks right past the large dragon outside of the cave. He can feel the death of the wolves that once lived in the cave, that had given their life to feed another. Such is the way of nature. He walks to a position in front of Kiri, in full view, he lowers his hood, revealing his face, and looks into Kiri's eyes. "I come bearing tidings and blessings for your child. May I be permitted to give them?"

[addman]

Addman wandered into the cave, late as usual. He was wearing a bib which said "I like eggs" and he was carrying a spoon with a lunchbox full of toast soldiers.

"Hey guys, Panther said there was an egg in here big enough to feed 5000, so I..."

Looking past the group, Addman noticed that the egg seemed to have hatched into a dragon. Realising that this was Kiri's baby, Addman hurriedly took off his bib, and rubbed the back of his head in awkward embarressment.

"Heh, guess I must have got the wrong end of the stick. Erm, congrats Kiri! What's it's name?"

[Yoshi]

Yoshimasa comes in looking rather flustered and gasping.

"I'm sorry I'm late... Panther..." he said between breaths, "Awww, its so... cute... congratulations... Kiri."

He quickly sat down before he collapsed and looked around himself at the cave.

"You know, this cave could do with a tidying up. Its already filthy, and with the crowd that's growing, I wouldn't want your poor baby to be covered in celebratory garbage."

[Panther385]

Supaiku leaned his neck forward to Kaimyr, flaring his nostrils to get a good idea of her scent. ~Yes.~ Replied he, elated to meet a playmate. He pranced around in circles, before skidding to a stop and noticing the rest of the newcomers.

He hesitantly walked towards Josh- he nor his mother had any idea about who he was. The dragonling stopped, sat on his haunches, and wagged his tail back and forth; not unlike a playful puppy.

"Thank you," Kiri said the Drone, eyeing her child in case this new person decided to attack. "You may, Father. As long as it helps him make his way into the world, I do not mind." She nodded serenely, before turning to the nervous Addman. "His name is Supaiku. It means 'One of Strong Claw' in the old dragon tongue." She chuckled at this, highly doubting anyone to even know what she was talking about.

Panther came over to Yoshimasa and patted him on the head comfortingly. "Glad you could make it. Don't worry; it's supposed to build of the immune system or something..." She said, shrugging.

[Shaon]

~I'm Kaimyr. You are?~

[Raven]

Aara watched the dragons. She smiled, Kiri got a welcoming crowd. How nice. She was slightly taken aback by the creatures that entered, but didn't show it on her face. 'I'm probably to odd one here.' She thought, watching the magnificent beings. She moved away a little, letting the new comers get a closer look. "Oh!" She exclaimed, remembering the small gift she'd brought for Kiri and her child in her backpack. She swung it 'round, and unzipped it pulling out two hairs by the ears. She lay them in front of Kiri, hoping it wasn't offensive to give her them. "I brought you these, I wasn't sure if you'd like them but..." She said, uncertainly her confidence waining from her lack of knowledge.