"Thisss isss getting ridiculousss..." Oehler thought as he watched the yellow turning her small clutch of eggs on the black sands. Keelie agreed, and Tuli just scampered about, hunting eggs of some small creature here or there. The firey beast had nearly been squashed when, in a fit of greed, he'd made the foolish attempt to steal one of the eggs on the sands. Both the yellow dam and her rider, and the blue sire and his rider nearly had kittens over it.
"I think they were just a little touchy over you, the man doesn't agree with the Eyrlass allowing you to carry your axe around." With a snort, Oehler gripped the handle of his battle axe tighter and withdrew his free hand into the cloak he wore. "Ssshe barely let me keep it asss it isss." He could understand her reluctance, however. It seemed that this place was far more peaceful than his home planet had been, they only saw the need for daggers or small swords in times of crisis. Besides, they had the dragons for any quarrels that might arise. A large, sharp-taloned, fire-breathing beast was far more persuasive than any blade.
It was mid-morning, and Oehler had been up since dawn, watching the waves crashing on the shore. To many his fascination with large amounts of water was amusing, but they had never had to live on a planet as dry as three-day old bread. Naturally-occurring rain was scarce, and the water-bringers never caused wide-spread downfalls. He marveled at acres of green plants, fat wherries and huge roasts they'd had over the past weeks.
Abruptly, loud humming coming from the yellow startled Oehler from his thoughts. He'd been told that this ment the eggs were soon to hatch, and hurried onto the sands before many arrived. The blue sat broodily in the corner, perhaps unwilling to give up his fatherly role so soon. One of the largest eggs cracked first, yielding two twin shimmering blue dragonets. On Wareiph'a, twins were a wondrous and exceptionally lucky occurrence. The pair hatching first was a good sign to Oehler. He stood still, however, holding strong in his belief that fate would draw his bond to him. Tugging the hood a little further down to shadow his face, Oehler watched the second egg hatch and a yellow identical to her mother choose one of the females and wrap herself around her leg.
The other twin blue bond the only other non-human candidate, a young man with the form of a feline of some sort. With another indifferent sigh, Oehler wasn't prepared when the other largest egg shattered with a particularly loud and energetic explosion. Bits of shell bounced off his helmet and hood. The newly-born dragon snarled as it attempted to right itself, causing Oehler to once again grip his axe. He had no intention of using it on a newborn creature, it was merely a reflex borne of years of battle. Suddenly, Oehler felt another mind flowing rather invasively into his, and binding tightly. I'm hungry, Oehler. I need food if I'm going to be big enough to carry you into battle, right?
The voice was one of simple reason, without emotion to color the words, at least within Oehler's mind. In his hood, Keelie chuckled. "I believe this Utath suits you well." the rukel remarked as Oehler led the red-obsidian off the sands. "Utath...how did you know hisss name?" With a wink, Keelie smirked. "The Kjahath did not only make its intentions known to you, my friend." Tuli came scampering around a corner, chittering madly. He ran up Oehler's leg and sheltered in his cloak, trembling. "What hasss gotten into him?" he wondered, when a cook rounded the corner, brandishing a rolling pin. "Where is that fardling creature? You! You're the one that owns that filthy vermin, it ate all the eggs we had in the kitchen!" Shaking the rolling pin up at Oehler, the cook ranted on until Utath howled and made to snap at him.
Leave my rider alone, or I'll tear you limb-from-limb! he bellowed, and had to be quickly restrained by Oehler. "Go!" the Wareiphean demanded of the cook, who scampered just as quickly back to the kitchens as Tuli had. "Calm down, young one!" Oehler whispered to his dragon. "That man had no threatening intentionsss toward me." Grumbling softly under his breath, Utath settled long enough to be fed by Oehler. "Perfect personality match, I'm sure."
"Oh, ssshut up." Oehler growled.