"This is very true," Faith agreed. She watched as Lapis got out of the water on her own and shook herself, sending droplets everywhere. The dragonet fanned her wings a little to dry them before moving over to Faith and nuzzling her.

Corey shook his head, amused. "Alright, whenever you want to head inside," he said with a shrug. Vyren was having fun attempting to catch fish. He was failing, but it was fun.

"I think I am going to head inside," Faith said, petting Lapis a bit. "Maybe change into something that's not damp and covered in sand. I think my boots have enough sand in them to start my own ant farm." She petted Lapis affectionately again. "Come on, you," she said to her dragon. "Let's get you settled into your eyrie."

Corey waited patiently, watching while Vyren got out and shook himself off, ambling towards his eyrie.

"Yeah, I'm definitely washing off really quick. I have sand in places I don't even want to think about," Corey said with a shiver. Luckily it wouldn't take him long to get clean again.

"Yeah, I think that's the one thing I'm not going to miss," Faith agreed. "There's sand in places that sand just shouldn't be." She waved to Corey as she went with Lapis into the eyrie. "I'll see you at dinner, alright?"

"Alright, see ya."

After taking his quick shower and heading back inside in clean, dry clothes, Corey took a seat next to Faith. An excited murmur had been running through the gathered riders already, and he blinked.

"Um. What's going on?"

A young rider across from them answered. "The eggs are going to be hatching soon. Myra, our weyrleader, thinks maybe tomorrow." He grinned broadly. "So we all may end up with the day off."

Faith grinned.

"Well that's exciting," she said. "I'll have to go and watch." The last hatching she was at was kind of a blur in her memory, and for good reason. She'd been so nervous, and then so completely astonished, that she didn't remember much else besides watching Lapis's egg.

Corey nodded. "Yeah, that should be really fun." He grinned. "Plus, you know, we don't have to do chores. Should be awesome."

"Yeah, we all get the day off while the newbies get initiated and feed their dragons and everything." The other rider grinned.

"All sorts of fun stuff," Faith agreed. "You know, it's weird, I never knew dragons float in water. I never thought to take Lapis swimming." It seemed like an abrupt switch in topic, but it made sense to her. Her thought process jumped from the hatching to ocean dragons to floating dragons quickly enough that it made perfect sense.

It took the other rider a minute to catch up. "Oh, most of them do. Ocean, lake, and river dragons don't. Although river dragons fly too. I think lake dragons can, but I'm not sure."

"Ocean dragons don't?" Corey raised an eyebrow.

"Nope. They have vestigal wings, but they don't fly."

"Well that answers that question, then," Faith said. "We'd been wondering about that." She shrugged a little. "We're from the mountains, there's not much up there by way of major water besides a couple of small lakes and maybe a river."

"Yeah, I figured." The other rider shrugged. "I like the ocean. I don't think I'd leave if I had the choice."

"I dunno. I think it's pretty neat to go different places," Corey said with a shrug. "I like it."

Faith nodded her agreement.

"I like traveling," she said. "Lapis didn't seem to mind, either, so we may end up doing quite a bit of it, if we can."

Corey nodded his agreement, looking over briefly at the weyrleaders table when they got up. But then he just shrugged and went back to his own food. They didn't make any announcements, and the eggs obviously weren't about to hatch, so all seemed well enough.

Faith glanced at the weyrleaders as well, but when there were no announcements, she went back to her own dinner. She still wasn't used to fish every night, but she was sure she'd adjust eventually.

Corey went to bed at about the same time everyone else did after dinner and chatting around a fire for a while with some of the riders their age.

He had been having such a nice dream, too. Until they were all woken shortly after the crack of dawn when all the dragons started humming and gathering around the nesting site.

Xander and all the other candidates were rushed off to go get dressed and get over by the eggs before they could hatch, even though some of them were still half-asleep. They all woke up really quickly once they got onto the sands, though.

Faith had been sleeping peacefully when she was abruptly pulled out of her dream.

'Faith... Faith, wake up...' There was a note of suppressed excitement in Lapis's voice. 'Faith!'

"'M up, I swear," Faith mumbled as she sat up. She yawned. "What's going on? It's still practically o-dark-thirty."

'It's actually just after sunrise,' Lapis corrected. 'And the hatching is about to start.' THAT got Faith up and moving, and she was out with the rest of the riders in minutes.

Corey managed to get up and moving and went to go join Faith in the seats. He was kind of curious to see who all would be chosen, not to mention this would be the first hatching he'd attended after his own.

The first dragonet emerged, dark blue, and started waddling over to his future rider. The dragons all hatched one by one, until Xander was one of the last left, with only two eggs left. The second to last egg hatched and went over to another young boy, and everyone waited for the last egg.

When it finally hatched, Xander blinked when the dark hatchling headed for her.

'Sorry to keep you waiting,' the dragonet said. But now I'm hungry.'

"Aww, they're so cute," Faith cooed when she saw the hatchlings start to appear one by one. She felt an instant surge of jealousy from Lapis. 'You were even more adorable, my lovely,' Faith reassured her. 'And besides, I have you, why would I want them?' That seemed to placate Lapis, and she went back to being pleased and excited over the hatching.

"They are kinda cute. I don't remember Vyren being quite that unbalanced, though." Corey watched as a few of the dragonets, trying to walk for the first time, staggered into their newly bonded.

Xander was the last to leave with her hatchling. 'So do you have a name?'

'No,' the hatchling replied. 'Not yet.'

Hmm. Well how about we call you Calypso, then?

I like it.

"I don't remember Lapis being quite so clumsy, either, but maybe it's just a difference in type?" Faith said. "Then again, I think we were both a little too stunned to speak at the time, so our memories might be a little skewed."

"Yeah. Maybe. I dunno." Corey shrugged. "It makes sense that they're clumsier because they don't have the wings to really help them balance. At least it makes sense to me."

"Makes sense to me, too," Faith replied. She paused for a moment. "You know, I had the weirdest dream last night, and I'm fairly sure it wasn't mine."

"What do you mean?" Corey blinked. That confused him quite successfully, and he got up as everyone started leaving the hatching grounds to go get breakfast and properly wake up.

"It was really weird," Faith said again as they walked with the others. "Something about swimming and pretty shiny things, and really there was just Magpie Syndrome all over the place, and I really doubt I would dream about a pearl the size of my face."