Faith spotted Corey and Vyren heading towards the kitchens.

"I bet they had the same idea we did," she said to Lapis. "Come on, let's go join them."

'Will I have to share my food?' Lapis asked doubtfully.

"Probably not," Faith replied. It was a pretty safe bet. After all, the people who ran the place HAD to know best about how to handle dragon hatchlings.

'I will be annoyed if I have to share my food,' Lapis warned.

"I don't think you'll have to share," Faith said. She walked a little faster to catch up with Corey, making Lapis take a few stumbling hops to keep up.

Corey had just found a sympathetic cook who was willing to give up some meat for him and Vyren both. He thanked her profusely, making sure Vyren was eating fine before he started in on his own sandwich, hungry.

My food, Vyren growled, hunching over his 'kill' as Lapis and Faith approached. Corey swallowed his mouthful, about to ask what he meant when he spotted the two himself.

"She hungry too?" he asked, looking at Lapis with a little smile. It seemed like a good bet.

Faith nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "Then again, I didn't have much dinner, so I kinda wanted something, too." Lapis nudged her leg, almost making her stumble.

'Faith, where is the food?' she asked. Faith noticed that the dragonet seemed to like saying her name. 'I smell food, but I can't see it. Where is it?' Faith turned and looked at the cook that had given the meat to Corey and Vyren. She shrugged a bit helplessly.

She was grateful when the cook indulged them as well, giving Lapis some meat and handing a sandwich to Faith. Faith took the sandwich and sat down next to Lapis. Lapis glanced over at Vyren.

'My food,' she said.

Vyren hissed a little bit settled down to his own food, tearing off chunks and gobbling them up hungrily. He was a little bottomless pit.

Corey shook his head. "They're worse than we are," he said, grinning briefly at Faith as he finished his own sandwich. "But it could be worse, I suppose. No one's gotten into a tussle yet, so." He shrugged.

Once he'd finished his meat, Vyren yawned hugely, his jaw almost unhinging as he did, and he curled up on Corey's feet. Sleepy time now.

"It's still kind of hard to believe," Faith said, reaching over to pet Lapis again. The dragonet didn't even pause in her eating. "I mean... two weeks ago I was at home in the city minding my own business, and now look." She pushed her glasses up her nose again and took a bite of her sandwich. Lapis finished her meat quickly and cuddled up against her. She yawned widely, and was drifting off to sleep in moments. Faith blinked and looked at Corey.

"Alright, now how to we get them back?" she asked.

Corey sighed. "Well we could try to wake them up, or we could carry them. Either one." He shifted his feet, trying to get up, and Vyren swatted him.

'No moving. Sleep time now.' The dragonet shifted, his tail flicking like a cat's.

"Come on, Vyren. We need to get up and go back to your eyrie to sleep." Corey managed to get up, ignoring Vyren's indignant hiss, and tried to pick up the dragonet. He was freaking heavy.

"Yeah, that doesn't look like it's going to work," Faith observed as Corey tried to lift Vyren. She looked at Lapis. The dragonet was curled up with her wings tucked in and her tail over her nose, napping. Faith nudged her. Lapis stirred sluggishly.

'Naptime now,' the hatchling murmured, trying to go back to sleep.

"We need to get back to your eyrie first," Faith pointed out.

'But that's far,' Lapis whined. 'Sleep now, go back later.' Wrapping her arms around the hatchling's middle, Faith hefted Lapis to her feet.

"Come on, you," she said. "You can sleep in your eyrie. And afterwards, I bet they'll have more food." Lapis blinked a bit.

'Do I have to?'

"I don't think they'll let us hang out in the kitchen forever," Faith pointed out. Lapis seemed to consider that, and yawned.

'Okay,' she said.

Vyren growled but waddled out of the kitchen, heading back towards his eyrie. Corey walked next to him, shaking his head

"I get the feeling this is going to be normal," he said to Faith. They were heading for the same place anyway. "They seem kinda stubborn."

'Speak for yourself,' Vyren grumbled, getting back to the main Eyrie. He went to his own little area, gathering up his straw and fluffing it up just so.

"Normal flew out the window about two hours ago," Faith replied. Every so often, she nudged Lapis to keep her moving. The dragonet kept slowing down, and even tried to go back to sleep in the middle of the hallway at one point. Finally, they got back to the eyries. "This is our stop," she said as Lapis went over to her own little space and curled up to go back to sleep.

"Yeah, ours too." Corey looked over at Vyren; the dragonet was already curled up, prepared to go to sleep. He shook his head. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you around." He made as if to leave.

Vyren grabbed onto his foot with one clawed foot, making sure he couldn't leave. 'Stay,' he commanded.

Corey looked down at the dragonet, rather unamused. "I need to sleep too, you know."

'So sleep here.'

'Where are you going?' Lapis asked sleepily as Faith started to make her way back towards her new room.

"It's getting late," Faith replied. "I need to get some sleep myself."

'But... I want you to stay,' Lapis said, raising her head to look at her partner. 'I'll miss you if you're gone. You can sleep here, can't you? We can even get food together later too.' It was clear that Lapis was trying her hardest to entice Faith to stay. She didn't have to try all that hard.

"Alright," Faith gave in. Going back over, she settled down next to Lapis and made herself comfortable. Lapis immediately cuddled with her.

Corey settled down with Vyren, sighing in amusement and exasperation. They both fell asleep there fairly quickly.

The next morning when he got up he discovered he wasn't the only one to have stayed with his dragon; almost all of the newly bonded had stayed. They all exchanged half-sheepish half-suspicious looks before going off to breakfast, their dragonets accompanying them all.

Faith made a mental note to start carrying cloths to clean her glasses with, as she walked with the other newly-bonded. She scrubbed the lenses of her glasses with the bottom of her shirt, but the smudges were stubborn and wouldn't clear. With a sigh, she cleaned them as best she could and put them back on. She would give them a proper cleaning later when she had access to water and clean cloth.

Lapis stayed stubbornly by her side the entire time. Every so often, she would glance around at the other dragonets and their partners and move a bit closer to Faith. She was clearly a possessive creature. Faith glanced at them all, as well, trying to ignore the smudges on her glasses from having slept with them on. The dragonets were all different colors, although a few had some similarities in build and appearance aside from that. It was kind of interesting to see.

Corey walked with Vyren, the little hatchling nearly stepping on him a few times but otherwise unconcerned with everything around him. They stopped outside the large dining hall, where the older dragonriders started to separate the dragonets to feed them separately.

Vyren hissed when one of them approached him, flaring his wings out and flapping them a few times. He had a temper. However, one of the older dragons rumbled at him, a much more impressive sound, and started to shoo the little dragonet away.

Lapis didn't want to move, at first. She was confused, why were they trying to separate them from the group? Would they try to take her away from Faith next? Once she realized that the other dragonets were getting food, though, she relaxed and followed.

Faith was just trying to figure out what was going on. Nobody had actually told them what was going to happen once they had been chosen by their hatchlings, so she wasn't entirely sure what to do.

While the dragons herded the dragonets away, the riders herded the new bonded towards the mess hall. Corey just kind of went with it, taking a seat next to Faith and looking around. All the rest of the riders were sitting and soon platters of food were put on the tables to be passed around.

"Does this strike you as kind of bizarre, too?" Faith asked quietly as Corey sat down next to her. "I'm not used to my routine changing so often in such a short time, I have no idea what's going on anymore." She glanced around at the other new bonded, and was a little relieved to see that she wasn't the only one who looked a little lost.

"I think we'll get into a real routine soon," Corey said quietly. He hoped so. It was kind of diconcerting to just be led around and told what to do and not have a real routine. He was used to having a routine, he liked having a routine. Not having one was really kind of throwing him off.

"I hope so," Faith replied. Taking a sip of water, she looked at her glass. "You know what I kind of miss? The Artists' blend from the tea shop. I don't know what exactly they used in that blend, but it was my favorite one. Green tea, black tea, mint, maybe... Other things, but I have no idea what." Then again, she kind of still missed the city in general. It was a big change, going from the technologically advanced city to weyr life. It wasn't necessarily a bad change, but it was still a lot.

"Yeah. I miss the whole tea shop." Corey smiled a little sadly. "I don't miss the bar, but I miss a lot. It's just all so different. But I can see why people love it here."

'You are upset,' Vyren said, sounding confused. 'Why are you upset?'

'Don't worry about it, Vyren,' Corey replied soothingly.

"I can definitely see why people love it here," Faith agreed. "But at the same time..." She bit her lip a little. "I mean, I know my parents were told that I was chosen, and why I haven't come back, but... I'm sure they're still worrying, you know?" She stopped when she heard a tentative voice in her mind.

'Faith?' Lapis asked. 'Something is wrong, why are you sad?'

"I'm not used to that yet..." Faith mumbled, mostly to herself. 'I'm alright, Lapis, don't worry about me,' she thought back to the dragonet.

Corey shrugged. "Maybe we'll go check in with them later, once these two are big enough to fly us there. I bet that would be fun."

'I can fly,' Vyren said indignantly. 'I will show you later.'

'Uh huh.' Corey kind of doubted that, but okay.

"That would be fun," Faith agreed. "Or somehow getting my parents out here. I think that would cause less mass-hysteria than me showing up back home with Lapis."

'But this is home,' Lapis broke in, sounding confused. 'How can you be here and somewhere else at the same time?'

'I used to live somewhere else,' Faith replied. 'That place was home before I came here.'

'This is home,' Lapis said, with an air if finality. Clearly, there would be no arguing with her.

"Yeah, but dragons do fly over cities all the time," Corey pointed out. "They never come in to town, but they do fly over frequently." He shrugged. It made sense to him.

"True," Faith conceded. She started to munch on a strip of bacon from her breakfast, finally remembering that she actually had food in front of her. "So, what do you think is going to happen next? I mean, obviously we have a lot of lessons in front of us..."