All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright © Anne McCaffrey 1967,2000, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author. The Dragonriders of Pern(r) is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited. For more information, visit the Worlds of Anne McCaffrey.

26-05-01: Eggs
You climb to the top of the galleries and find yourself at their very highest, backmost level. Urei walks up...

You climb to the top of the galleries and find yourself at their very highest, backmost level.

Urei walks up into the Galleries with a thing in hand, probably a test instrument for the real charms. A look and smile toard Saldia as he finishes climbing the stairs. "I got a charm!"

Karei hums. "I dunno which I'll touch first. I think I'm going to go see what the odds are on the colors, and such." No need to try to bond with an egg that might have a bronze in it, or something. Or so she thinks.

Hanneke skips after a pair of candidates that, by their expression, want her no where near them. As they scuttle to the other side of the galleries, she moves to follow, distracted by another group--that which includes Karei, Saldia and Urei. "Hihi!"

Saldia grins and waves at Hanneke and then looks at Urei and shakes her head "What sort of charm, does it work?" She pats a seat near her "Come sit by us Hanneke." She grins as Karei studies the eggs intently "I don't think anyone can guess what egg contains which colour"

Urei smirks toward Saldia and giggles as he nods, "It /must/ work. And I haven't gotten to try it yet, since it needs the sand from the hatching sands." The boy nods pointing down. "You're supposed to place it in the bottle and rub it three times. It'll bring good luck." He holds out the thin glass tube that has a string and plug with it, to wrap around the neck. "You wear it until the Hatching." Course he remembered to make sure of that detail.

Hanneke does exactly that: she sits, legs stretched out in front of her, clothes smoothed primly about her. "Only gold!" she pipes up, attempting to show off one fact that she does, in fact, know. "And I can't see a gold one." The eggs are given a brilliant smile; no nerves seem to settle within her expression.

Saldia grins and shrugs "Well as long as you don't forget to take it off on the hatching day, then it is alright but how do you know it will work, seems silly to put your faith in something that is just glass and doesn't do anything." She shrugs and grins at Hanneke "Urei thinks impression is all on lucky." She glances out over the sands "Yes doesn't seem to be a gold but I hear sometimes the mother hides the gold egg?"

Urei shrugs, "It has to work, the Aunties said so." He believes in those old fogies, even though they forget things sometimes. Just a smirk over toward Hanneke, "I don't think impression is luck, but its better to be lucky than be unlucky."

"Lucky?" repeats Hanneke, smoothing down her tunic once more. "Maybe it is!" Maybe it's easier to follow along with what other people say, too. "Maybe not!" Peering at Urei, she considers, then allows a brilliant smile. Her head moves into an enthusiastic nod, as she adds to Saldia, "The ballads say that, yes. I don't know, though."

Saldia shrugs "who knows, but I don't think a dragonet which is hungry and just hatched is going to be influenced by a piece of glass that you cannot even wear onto the sands." She shrugs "I just think its silly. There is no such thing as luck, everything is hard work and study." Saldia seems quite adament about this but she presses her lips together to stop a further comment "WHo knows what dragons think or do"

Urei smiles toward Saldia as he rubs his empty glass vial. "Well, one thing, it couldn't hurt could it? What bad could it do?" A smirk on his face, "Well, what about being Searched. I worked really hard and studied for that." Sarcastic smile on his face while he looks about the sands.

Saldia shrugs "Who said that was luck, I did work hard and study for that, for I was searched for B'roughs brought me to the weyr to help with Adria's birth and since I am a healer specialising in that, that is why I was brought here and well INigoth decided I should stay longer than I was supposed to." She shrugs "So it was hard work and study that made me get searched." her tone has a set of finality about it, almost a //so there// She shifts and grins at Hannke "They are pretty, I am still deciding which ones I like but I don't like that one" She points towards the spellbook one

Urei turns back from eyeing the eggs carefully, "Well I was Searched just by surprise to both me and the rider. I just happened to be swimming with Yebanth and she searched me." A hmph, 'what about that?' look on his face.

Hanneke worked hard and studied--well, maybe not. The candidate makes frantic nodding gestures, as if emphasising a point that she hasn't made, and beams, "Inigoth is--" she pauses, then emits, "cool!" Words have a habit of springing up out of nowhere. She grins, nodding rapidly towards Urei. "You don't?" she asks of Saldia, wrinkling her nose as she glances in the direction of that egg. "Me, either."

Saldia grins and shrug s"YOu happened to be in the right place at the right time, even if it was luck, did you have something that you rubbed that helped you gain this luck." She shakes her head "I just think what happens if you don't impress, you blame a trinket?" She pauses and ohs softly and decides not to press her point any more and turns back to Hanneke "I don't like the colours, the ones you pointed out were pretty, that one is quite nice" SIlver Chalice egg is pointed at.

Urei smirks toward Saldia and nods, "Actually that day I rubbed a canine three times and ran around it once. The Auntie told me that everyday if I did that it'd bring me good luck." A believing nod before continuing, "Well its better to blame it on a trinket than saying that you weren't good enough for them. Eh?"

Karei eventually decides to speak up again. "I like that egg." Stardust egg gets a handwave, and the Candidate leans back carefully. "...um. I got Searched because Jaspyth picked me up and T'paz asked me to Stand?" Karei didn't have anything to work at, so. Right. "And I don't believe in luck. Hasn't really gotten me anything, yet."

Hanneke, to be safe, makes no comment on the idea of luck--far out of her depth. So she just nods, and smiles, and beams. "They're *mostly* all pretty."

Saldia sighs "Then it is just bad luck that my mother died?" She shakes her head "Running and patting a dog would not help her, nothing did so I don't see what luck has to do it with it." She seems quite cross and shakes her head, her good mood over the eggs, upset for a moment.

Urei looks toward Saldia and sighs, "You believe what you want. I just think that believing in something makes you feel better than saying anything about it." Just a miserable shrug from the boy before looking out toward the eggs again.

"I like logic, personally," Karei states, peering towards another egg. "Though there may be luck. Or coincidence. Like in bets. I think that that egg --" A random egg is picked out. "-- will hatch a green. If it does, and I win marks, maybe I got lucky. Or it was a coincidence. And if it was wrong, it's just because I can't see inside the eggs because logically, you can't see through things that aren't transparent. So. Maybe there's both?" Or something. Riight.

Hanneke's face indicates an obvious lack of comprehension, since she continues to nod, up and down, up and down. "Exactly!" At least her enthusiasm is in the right place, although where exactly her comment is aimed it isn't quite as clear.

Saldia sees Urei stalk out "Oh dear, I think I hurt his feelings, I did not mean to just seems silly you know" She shrugs at Karei and then grins "Who knows." She settles down "OK so which egg or eggs do you like Karei?"

Karei ponders this for a moment. "..ah. That one and that one," Stardust and Death Tarot Card Eggs are indicated, and indigo optics flicker elsewhere. "And those two." Mysterious Orb and Deadly Nightshade, this time. "That one's alright, too." Where Shadows Lie is next, and last. "They're interesting. What about you two?" Hanneke and Saldia are peered at.

Hanneke again points towards her two favourites, these being the Sapphire Rose Egg and the Glittering Dust Egg. Where Shadows Lie Egg is given a long glance, and a wrinkle of her nose. "It's so dark--I can't tell if it's sand, or just dark shell." She peers after Urei, and shrugs, unharried by his abrupt departure. "Oh well!"

Saldia smiles "Oh I like that one" She points at the mysterious orb "and that one is interesting" Stardust is pointed at as well. She smiles "They are all so different and interesting, each have so many colours and I am sure close up they are even more spectacular"

"I like the dark ones." Karei's weird like that. "They're probably big, close up. Maybe it'd be better if there /isn't/ a gold egg. With my luck, it'd start rocking, and it'd roll over and squish me before it hatched." Ever the optimist.

Hanneke wrinkles her nose, stating firmly, "Dark is *icky*." Vocabulary, or, at least, an extensive one, must, ergo, be similar. "I bet there isn't a gold egg. And it's just rumours."

Saldia laughs at Karei "What is it with you and squishing, you are not allowed to be that close to the eggs so that can squash you, we are supposed to stay well back so that the dragonnets have plenty of room to move around and choose." She shrugs "I won't bet with you, I never right." She smiles "Darkness is not all bad."

"I like dark." A sage nod on Karei's part, and she shrugs at Saldia. "It'd probably happen to me. Just because." Hanneke is accorded with a wary glance, and Karei hrms with slight irritation. "I can't even tell if there's a gold egg -- isn't it supposed to look a lot different, if there is? I've never seen one."

Hanneke again wrinkles her nose, crossing her hands primly within her lap, and insists, "Dark is icky. I like pastels." That's fairly obvious, by her clothing. "The ballads say that we hold hands, and they come, and we run!" The concept is there, the reality of this probably not. "They're supposed to be gold. Gold eggs, that is."

Saldia stands and brushes down her outfit "They are supposed to look gold but all the eggs look different to me, anyway B'roughs is expecting me to babysit, I will see you all later." She yawns "Going to be a long night."

Karei peers at the eggs. "None of them look gold." Mutter. "Which means I've lost a mark. There'd better be a gold. Or a bunch of bronzes. Hmph." Karei doesn't want to lose any money. Sniff.

"No," agrees Hanneke. At least she knows what gold looks like. Or a gold egg, rather. "I bet there isn't. And I bet there's not many bronzes." Maybe.

Karei eyes Hanneke warily. Because she's contradicting Karei, and that makes Karei nervous. "What.... makes you say that?" Maybe Hanneke's got freakish amounts of statistical data locked away in her head somewhere. Or something. Ah-heh.

It's possible. Perhaps hypnotism would work. Hanneke beams her usual, vacuous smile, and shrugs. "I don't know!" Such intelligence. "But it's possible, so therefore, it's still possible, and stuff."

Karei takes a moment to look confused. "Oh." Pause-ponder. "Well. I hope there's a gold. Or a lot of bronzes. Or a lot of greens. Maybe there'll be a green that wants me."

Hanneke continues to smile, as brightly as ever, and smoothes her clothes down again, nodding her head with obvious enthusiasm. "I hope so, too!" Whatever she hopes isn't exactly clear--that's the charm of the whole statement.

Karei blinks, fiddling with her robe. "..you hope what? That there'll be a gold? Or a lot of bronzes?" She's confused.

Hanneke keeps nodding. Looks like more than one person is confused. "That."

Karei pauses. "That there'll be a gold?" Maybe if she asks one question at a time, it'll work better.

Hanneke nods once more. Still nodding. Up and down, up and down, that ever-present smile still regally imprinted upon her pretty face.

Karei watches Hanneke's head go up and down, up and down. And becomes mesmerized. Up and down, up and down. "...hum."

Hanneke bursts into a giggle at Karei's watching, and darts up to her feet. "Byeeeeeee!" How's that for a rapid departure?

You walk down the stairs to the entrance of the grounds.