Their Darkest Hour

[Shikai]

((As all of you may have figured out by now, this is the thread in which the Wher Hatching will take place, starting Monday. We have posted the thread early to allow you to view the eggs and enter the contest regarding their occupants, but please do not post in this thread until Monday. At that point, you're free to post as much as you like! Your candidates must hurry to the sands, alerted by a drudge sent by Neima. They will wear black robes so as not to hurt the eyes of the Wherlings with bright white. There will be no spectators in this Hatching. Good luck to you all...and I'm referring to more than Impression))



The steamy sands were barely visible in the dim lighting of the Wher Hatching Ground. For the safety of the Wherlings, only a single glow was provided to the candidates, mounted at the entranceway to guide them out, and it is almost completely shielded. Thus, the cavern is nearly pitch black. If one peers intently enough, they could make out the anxiously whirling eyes of the golden Wher, as she watches over her eggs.

What aren't so readily visible are the stalactites that hang threateningly from the ceiling. Even the eggs can be discerned as nothing more than lumps on the sand, which is a shame for the candidates. This will be their first time seeing the eggs, as Neima, the gold's handler, refused to allow anyone in the cavern, and the eager candidates won't even get to enjoy the radiant colours of some of the shells. If a few are more adventurous than the others, they might creep up for a better view before the eggs start cracking, but if they choose to do this, they better be wary of the mother. Not to mention the hatchlings that might erupt at any moment. It must be an ever-present thought for the unfortunate candidates...dragon Hatchings are dangerous enough. However will the Wherlings behave when they stumble into their dark world?



Status (snagged from Meah because I forgot to include it)
Earth—green bonded to Rain
Jupiter—Tansk bonded to Tanawic
Mars—Shask bonded to Shandar
Mercury—Emmesk bonded to Emmeline
Moon—green bonded to Keil
Neptune—Coresk bonded to Corenne
Pluto—blue bonded to Keveran
Saturn—Bask bonded to Baryn
Sun—Amisk bonded to Amika, brown bonded to Kolibri
Venus—Raisk bonded to Raina

Earth Egg



Although some eggs create reproach and others draw people to them, the Earth Egg offers nothing but a sense of motherly protection. If someone wishes to approach it, the egg will not judge, providing comfort to all. There is a deep trust in this egg for all living things.



Jupiter Egg



Easily among the largest of the clutch, this egg exudes an aura of power and domination that overwhelms anyone who wanders the slightest bit into its domain. Despite this overbearing air, it becomes clear upon second observation that it is not a bad-natured creature, for at times it can seem almost jovial. Visitors are well tolerated, if a bit ignored, so long as they accept its supremacy.



Mars Egg



Violent red swirls demark the shell of the Mars Egg, and the emotions that pervade its surroundings are similarly broody. Although it exudes a feeling of suppressed wrath, it does so in a quiet, cunning manner. This Egg obviously has ambitions, and it will do anything necessary to achieve them.



Mercury Egg



The Mercury egg is decidedly on the small side, with an outwardly quiet, reserved nature that often leads it to be overlooked. Should someone, by chance, pass close enough to it, they will be surprised by the light, friendly aura it will give off. Its feelings may shift quickly and without warning, but rarely will it turn against its visitors.



Moon Egg



There is nothing quite so awe-inspiring as gazing at the Moon Egg, for although grey in colour and quite small, its mottled, crater-like appearance is highlighted by a silvery glow. This egg is much quieter than many of its fellows, for there is a wisdom in its depths that suggests it is beyond the naïve, fiery reactions of the others. Do not underestimate this egg, however; it will be decisive in times of need.



Neptune Egg



Not quite large but not quite medium, this egg resonates with power. It's greedy consciousness seems to lust after everything around it. At one moment it might appear as level as unrippled water while at another it might be as explosive as a raging ocean.



Pluto Egg



This relatively small egg doesn't appear inclined to reach out to others. Pulsing with gloomy reservation, it's quite content to mull over the world from inside it's mottled prison. Those who do approach it, however, would be wise not to induce it's wrath, as it appears to have a surprisingly quick temper.



Saturn Egg



Not only is this egg large, but it demands respect and blazes with a smoldering intensity and desire. Those close to this shelled titan might be overwhelmed by it's command for superiority. It won't take kindly to any thoughts that undermine it.



Sun Egg



The Sun Egg seems to envelop all around it with a sense of warmth, drawing them closer to it with an undeniable allure. Even once approached, it remains vivacious and friendly, much more so than its broodier clutchmates. It is pleasant to be around, and if it has a temper, it has yet to show it.



Venus Egg



One cannot help but be drawn to the Venus Egg. Much like the planet it resembles, it pulls people towards it with a force akin to gravity, although with a seductive allure to it that is unlike any non-living force. There is a sweetness in its aura, but it also produces a glimmer of suspicion; does the Egg truly love you above all, or does it just feel that way for everyone?

[M'kel]

Darkness. Darkness seemed to be her life now. And yet, it had been so bright for a time. A short time, true, but this was a cruel twist of fate. To have it extinguished when she had scarcely begun to savour the taste. Only two nights ago, and nights were days now, Amika reminded herself, she had been a candidate. Well, she was still a candidate, it was true, but the role was inarguably different. Her arrival at the Weyr had been marked by fear, excitement, and most of all hope. She, Amika, the unwanted fourth daughter, might Impress a dragon and become a dragonrider!

But she was making her way now, through gloomy corridors with only a hint of glowlight to tease her senses, a careful hand tracing the stone wall to guide her, to an entirely different Hatching. A Wher Hatching. The drudge had shaken her awake, still unused to the night-time schedule of wher candidates, and shoved black robes into her hands. Black robes that now hung limply about her form, seeming to embody the despair in Amika's heart, as she neared the end of the corridor.

Amika knew little of Whers; few Holds bothered to maintain the stock, and those that did hardly advertised it. The creatures were nocturnal, explaining their invisibility at the Holds and the darkness she now found herself in. They were also, she had heard, ungainly creatures, a stark and painful contrast to the grace and beauty of dragons. They could not fly, they could not connect with their riders as dragons did... It would be a life of torment, coming so close to Impressing a dragon and yet being so far away. Whers were a world away.

But they weren't a world away for the candidate, now, as she stepped onto sand that seared her feet through thin sandles. The single glow in the cavern illuminated little beyond an arc of sand immediately in front of the entranceway. Suddenly, the girl hesitated. Where was she to stand? She couldn't even see the eggs! Although she fancied there were whirling eyes somewhere in that darkness, measuring her with a wary intensity, the cavern might as well be empty.

Where were the other candidates? She didn't even want to be here! Maybe, the girl thought frantically, maybe she could slip away before anyone else arrived. They wouldn't notice if she was gone...it would be too dark to count the candidates! But she failed to move, staring out at the cavern. Was that the sound of an egg cracking? If only she could see...

[Felina]

((Sorry 'bout blah post, I don't feel well but I just want to get something in here.))

So the day that had been looming over them had arrived, it seemed. These cast-offs of the weyr would finally get their shot at... at what? They would have neither recognition nor glory, status nor rank, but only the dim idea that they were doing something important, whether or not they be remembered by the rest of the weyr. They'd caused the Weyrleaders enough trouble, but then, they were the ones to whom those same leaders trusted their safety.

Corenne had come to the weyr a nobody, and had been swiftly all but forgotten by the one person who knew her name. Here she was, still a nobody, but now at least a nobody with a purpose. Or so she hoped.

Impression, she had heard, was like no other sensation one would ever know, achingly wonderful and giving a distinct feeling of permanence. But that was dragons, and whers she knew were different. Uglier, less developed, as though they were a mistake, though to her eyes there was no difference between the two; both were kin and both were, inarguably, Pernese.

She followed other hurrying footsteps to a cavern even deeper in the weyr, where the air had a smell she could not recognize and could assume only to be the smell of a wher. It was unusual, though not wholly unpleasant. Abruptly the footsteps ahead of her grew quiet, and she followed onto soft, hot sands. The sands, though not the same as those that housed the dragon eggs. Here, she knew, it would be dark, and in that darkness all were equal.

[C'lyn]

Keil jerked awake as the drudge called them to come to the sands. He rubbed his eyes as he sat up, more used to the dark, gloom of the room. He stood and pulled the coarse material of the black robe over his head. He frowned and ran a hand through his hair, trying to straighten the sleep mussed locks. He wasn't sure what time it was, the gloom down in the bowls of the Weyr had messed with his perception of time and he hadn't dared wander too far in case they were called to the sands like now.

He slipped his sandals on and followed the others into the dark Hatching Cavern. He narrowed his eyes, squinting to adjust to the even darker gloom of the cavern. He nearly ran into another candidate and wasn't even sure if he was near another male or a female in the dark. He shook his head, not thinking it really mattered for a Wher hatching...did it?

He sighed and looked deeper into the dark, just making out the whirling eyes of the gold mother and the lumps of the eggs. He didn't dare get closer to them for fear of angering the mother Wher or getting maimed by a flailing hatchling fighting from its shell.

[meah]

Emme nodded at the servant Neira sent to inform her of the hatching. Well, probably not her in particular so much as any whercandidate the poor girl happened to run into on her path. Emme couldn't help but pity the messenger, who didn't seem to enjoy the dark much more than the little glows did. If glows could think, she was sure they would hate the dark. After all, their sole purpose was to combat it with their bright...well...glow.

She slipped on her deep black robes, a feeble effort to darken her pale skin to the point where it would be comfortable for the newly hatched whers. Not that it mattered much, what with there being absolutely nothing they could do to cover all of her and her total lack of tan. At least they were comfortable, for standing on the sands that seemed far too hot for the cave-dwelling creatures they would supposedly be impressing. It seemed to her like whers ought to prefer cold, dark spaces to bright, hot spaces, and although it was certainly dark, it wasn't cold in the least. Which was kind of strange to her after living in the depths of the weyr for so long.

The girl wasn't sure whether she was looking forward to the hatching or dreading it. It made her nervous, either way, and that bothered her. She couldn't be nervous. She was in control, and no silly wher was going to change that. Because she had to be in control, not some infant creature who had never seen outside the cave of its birth, or, in fact, its egg shell as of yet.

The egg shells of dragons were said to be very beautiful, but she wasn't so sure about these whers. They could be absolutely hideous and disfigured, but she would never know because she simply couldn't see them. They could also be the most wonderful things she'd ever laid eyes on, but she still couldn't see them, and bringing any light into the room seemed like a stupid idea even to her. It would bring down the wrath of the mother, obviously, when the poor wher was blinded by glows or some such brought by an unkind candidate who wished to see the small creatures. There would be time for looking, later.

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Tan smiled, walking along in the dark beside Raina. After they'd changed into their darkened robes, the pair made their way down the dark tunnels to the hatching grounds. It was going to be an interesting experience, and one that would surely be mystified and lied about after by those who swore they snuck in to the supposedly private affair. But he was going with Raina, and little else mattered to the boy who was almost a man.

Slipping inside, or where he hoped was inside, he stood beside her, resisting the urge to take her hand in his. To calm her nerves, he told himself, because she must be scared or nervous. He was nervous, but he would endure it. Someone had to impress the whers, so it might as well be him and his mates, who danced their days away in dreams of better places, in dreams of the sun they might never see again.

[M'kel]

A soft rustling sound was all that permeated the hushed silence in the Hatching Cavern. In the darkness, it was almost eerie; there were no murmurs from a watching crowd nor humming from a welcoming group of dragons. Instead, the only warning the candidates had of action on the sands was that rustling sound: eggshell scraping against sand as the occupants of the eggs fought to be free.

And then, a new sound permeated the thick air: a hiss slipped through the dark, the mother wher's response to the arrival of others in her cavern.

Seemingly in response, a loud crack suddenly pierced the air. This was followed by a crumbling sound and the scrape of claws, as the young wher worked at the hole it had formed, widening and prying at it. The Neptune Egg had been shaking with only mild vehemence, and yet the wher within must have approached his shell with the right strategy, for it was nearly free.

Another egg was almost overwhelming the sounds of this progress, for its thrashing brought it into contact with a number of adjacent eggs. The Jupiter Egg was obviously very determined and not concerned for any of its siblings, but unfortunately, it was doing more to crack those eggs it struck than its own shell.

Thus, a dark blue wher was the first to shed the remnants of his shell, leaving the shards of the Neptune Egg behind as he stumbled forth. A loud imperative screech filled the Cavern, a mix of pride and demand in its tone. He swiveled his navy-dipped snout and easily located the candidates, their light faces seeming to glow above their dark robes. As he began to slink forward, the ungainliness of whers was proven, for the young wher tripped over his own stubby wing, which had twisted around in front of him in the fight to exit his egg. He lay struggling in the sand, his cries no longer confident. The world was darker than he'd expected.

[Shikai]

This was the last thing he wanted.

Well, maybe not quite the last thing. He was getting his wish, at least – he wouldn’t impress a dragon. Yet as he made his way down further and further into the dark, the only available light emitting from the gaps between the fingers that clutched the single glow he had been provided, he had to wonder if this really was the better alternative. A lifetime of darkness, living as an outcast of the weyr? He supposed he deserved it. At least this way, if he failed again, it would be a wher rather than one of Pern’s all-important dragons.

In a way, this suited him. He had been trained to guard a hold; now he would live a life guarding the weyr. In a twisted way, he was getting his dream. But really, Shandar didn’t want to be responsible for another being at all. Not again. And that was why his expression, although barely visible in the dim light even if someone was around to notice, was dominated by apprehension.

He didn’t even seem to notice as his shoulders, cloaked in black as they were, scraped against the stone walls of the passageway as he bumped into them on occasion, more preoccupied with his thoughts than where he was going at the moment. He had gotten more adept at navigating in the near-darkness, but his nervousness over the hatching he was soon to attend was manifesting itself physically for the first time in turns.

Shandar quietly joined the others, alerted to their presence only by the muffled glows they carried, in the hatching ground. His wary expression was quickly replaced by a blank, unreadable one as he tried not to bump into the other candidates. Shandar was fairly successful, until a girl seemed to materialize out of nowhere. He barely managed to catch himself, and somehow avoided collision save for lightly bumping her. He scowled, struggling to make out the face. He had never been very good with names, but at least there were precious few wher candidates to keep track of. A…Amika?

“Sorry.” He grumbled quietly, turning toward the eggs. “Hard to see in here.” His hazel eyes swept the hatching ground, but all he could see were hazy, indistinguishable shapes. The eggs, as he supposed they were, loomed ahead of the candidates, mounds that looked more foreboding than welcoming.

And the first wher to emerge did nothing to improve the morbid atmosphere. Shandar’s training kept him from taking a step back as the creature burst onto the sands. Yet after getting past the initial shock of the sight of the strange newborn, Shandar supposed it wasn’t quite as repulsive as people seemed to think. It was no dragon, that was for sure…but it was a fate he could accept.

[M'kel]

The Jupiter Egg's thrashing had intensified, so violent it knocked over the Mars Egg, which had originally been leaning towards its fellow. This egg rolled a short distance before coming to rest against the larger Saturn Egg, the cracks created by the Jupiter Egg's blows forming rivulets all down one side. With no more restraint on one side, the Jupiter Egg tipped precariously before righting itself and crashing down in the other direction, striking the Earth Egg once again.

This egg, which had already suffered the Jupiter Egg's abuses as long as the Mars Egg had, seemed to have had enough. The wher inside had already been struggling for some time, and the helpful cracks weren't enough to assauge its frustration. Instead, it thrust a forearm out through the weakened shell, knocking the Jupiter Egg forcefully away. The hole was quickly widened using silvery claws, and a sleek green wher slipped out.

Meanwhile, the blue wher had, after struggling uselessly to rise for some time while standing on his own wing, tried a new tactic. His desperation was growing as his stomach was growling, so he thrust himself forward, performing the closest stunt to a somersault a wher could ever manage. He landed in a tangle of limbs and wings, yet after tentatively attempting to stand, found that everything was where it should be now. He reveled in the joy of this for only a moment longer, then lunged forward. The candidates were so close, and he could smell meat.

Apparently whers didn't quite understand the concept of a Hatching, though. Instead of going for a candidate, he went for the meat. He was hungry; why would a white floating orb be able to help that? His jaws parted, the blue charged the drudge skulking against the wall, behind the line of candidates. With a shriek, she dropped the bowl and ran. Ignoring this annoying sound, the blue began to ravenously gobble down every piece of meat he could force between his teeth. The feast didn't last long, though; he began to choke. With a garbled squawk of fear, the wher stumbled sideways into Corenne, whirling eyes gazing up at her in desperation.

A harsh voice cut through the air, bringing humanity back to a cavern seemingly abandoned to these bizarre creatures. "Pick up the meat! Everyone! Don't make the whers feed themselves." It seemed that Neima was better able to see what was happening than everyone else, even though she stood on the opposite side of the Clutch.

The green wher out on the sands froze from shaking off clinging shards at the sound of first a shriek, and then the sound of something eating. Quickly. She responded with a mirrored haste, beginning to scamper towards the source, but was forestalled.

It seemed that its abuse of the other eggs had finally paid off for the Jupiter Egg. The final blow delivered by the green wher's forepaw had achieved that crack the wher had been unable to produce on his own. Immediately, it had turned its attention to this point of weakness, and it wasn't long before the crack had lengthened all along the egg, finally splitting it in two. It was one of these shards that fell into the green's path, halting her progress. Hissing in displeasure, she turned to the bronze wher now lying in an exhausted heap on the sand.

There would be no challenge there for her progress to food, though! Reassured, the green slipped around the egg shard, moving far more lithely than her brother had been able to.

Unfortunately, the bronze was unwilling to let anyone pass without a challenge. And he could smell meat. With a sound approaching a bugle, though far rougher, he pulled himself to his feet and darted forward, surprisingly quick for his stocky build. He dwarfed the tiny green, who scudded to the side to avoid his charge.

After passing her, the bronze turned, eyes whirling in a clear threat. Only after assuring himself that she would not move until he was sated, the bronze turned back to the candidates, who now (presumably) held the dripping meat in their hands. His eyes whirled fiercely as he considered them all. He was not one to beg a strange creature for food. So, he moved towards Tanawic decisively and opened his maw to engulf the dripping meat. He didn't bother with daintiness, going for hand and all if the boy didn't release the meat quickly enough.

[meah]

Emme gasped at the sight of the whers. Even in the dark, they seemed so strange and foreign, but they had a beauty to them she hadn't expected. Part of that was the fact that everyone in the caverns that she knew had taken getting stuffed there to be a sort of punishment, and these creatures could be nothing more than a reward. They were amazing. Fascinating. She wanted one. No, that wasn't right. She needed one. She craved it the way some people craved food or klah. But not in the eating way. No, she wanted one just to have one. Have one as a pet or to do work, it didn't matter. As long as she could count one of these beautiful creatures as her own.

That craving came to a sharp ending when one of the beasts came roaring past her to nearly consume another of the candidates in its efforts to get the food out of her hand. Well, perhaps it wasn't quite that gruesome, but it certainly looked that way in the dark of the hatching cavern. If a wher couldn't even tell a person from its meat, perhaps it wasn't something she wanted. It just wasn't smart enough. It was pretty, but they just seemed so sharding stupid. Still, she held fast to the raw meat in her hand.

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Tanawic held an arm around Raina gently, his remaining hand clutching a monstrous steak to feed to the first wher that approached him. The meat was the groups vain attempts to please the creature into not chewing on them accidentally. The arm was to comfort the poor girl, who seemed terrified of the dark realm they were in and the horrifying destruction prophesied for this hatching.

He shivered involuntarily at the scream, and held tighter to both his meat and his friend, unsure of which he would release first should a wher approach. He didn't want to let Raina go, but he would have to push her away if a wher approached him. It could hurt her, after all.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, he didn't have much time to contemplate his reaction before a monstrous bronze roared its way over to him, making motions to swallow his hand whole. The one containing the meat, that is. And before he even realized it, his fingers were in the great creature's mouth with the meat, and when he pulled them out, they were bleeding. That could have been the meat, but it didn't feel much like it. Not that they were bleeding heavily, but they were, in fact, bleeding.

But that didn't matter much, because somehow he knew that this was his wher and he knew it. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he knew it. It was nothing like the bonding he had heard of when one impressed a dragon, but it was something nonetheless. It wasn't as if nothing in the world suddenly mattered except the creature he knew would be called Tansk. Raina was still his everything, but just not quite as much everything. Reaching out his free hand, freshly recovered from the girl's side, he reached toward the beast with the intent of stroking it softly through a compulsion he didn't quite understand.

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Status, because I like keeping track
Earth—green unbonded
Jupiter—Tansk bonded to Tanawic
Mars—unhatched
Mercury—unhatched
Moon—unhatched
Neptune—Coresk bonded to Corenne
Pluto—unhatched
Saturn—unhatched
Sun—unhatched
Venus—unhatched

[C'lyn]

Keil was finally getting his vision back in the dark, able to make out morethen just vague shapes and lumps. He couldn't see clearly, but it was better then being blind in the dark. He couldn't help jumping when he heard the drudge scream and he looked toward the source of the sound, finding the blue wher eating from the dropped bowl.

He almost didn't move to pick up the meat when the order was given, not wishing to be foolish enough to come between the blue and its meal. He took a deep breath and shook his head, moving carefully to pick up a handful of meat, not moving too quickly to draw attention to himself, but quick enough to be away from the blue before it noticed a part of its meal was taken.

He moved back to his spot and turned his attention back to the eggs, seeing a green and a bronze had hatched now. His eyed widened as the bronze lunged at one of the candidates, closing its jaws around the boys hand. He shakes his head and turns his attention back to the unhatched eggs, mindful of what they could do to him now.