Rumors flew across Pern, of black dragons upon the sands of Ista! Which.. given that the sands themselves /are/ black, and the goo-coated hatchlings were terribly sticky, is true enough as far as it goes.
After months of lurking upon mound-scattered sands, and forcefully keeping intruders out of the hatching grounds, not to mention keeping the weyr guessing as to the number of eggs - or even if there were eggs at all - Nziekilth and Raonardoth finally announced it was Time. The thrumm of dragons called Istans to the galleries and candies to the sands, where the mounds were shaking. Sand-covered as they were, the hatchlings that emerged were too coated in black grains to immediately recognize - and more than a few spectators mistook the goo-dripping things for whers! In the end, however, the final egg count was ten. With nearly twenty-odd mounds still left on the grounds, dragonhealers were of course called in to check, but it seems, Zeek and Rao had kept everyone guessing till the last minute. The eventual announcement, after all the little (and not so little) dragonets had been thoroughly washed and fed, was 3 greens, 2 blues, 2 browns, 2 bronzes, and.. a gold. Yeah, the clutchparents seemed terribly smug about that last, though in retrospect, given the way they had been guarding the largest mound, it's probably unsurprising.
Impressees were as follows:
V'lad (Vladimir) & Kindred To The Beast Bronze Tzimisceth
M'rin (Milarin) & Maurauding Mischief Blue Gremmlith
Nazimi & Ghostly Form Blue Geisth
Q'don (Quodon) & Stalker of Nightmares Green Gakreuth
R'mero (Romero) & Apocalyptic Unrest Green Cerebelluth
Y'ti (Yentil) & Bulbous and Slimy Green Brrith
S'kellin (Sakellin) & This is a Brown Jackth
Cr'bin (Corbin) & Furry Warrior for Gaia Bronze Tiwazth
N'rd (Nelisard) & ??? Brown Odoth
Tal (Taltosa) & Dire Monstrosity Gold Nictukuth
And the moment all their little ones were bonded, Nziekilth and Raonardoth were gone, off to the feeding grounds, leaving drudges and dragonhealers to deal with the remnants of their sandhold masterpieces. And word has it.. a certain junior goldrider has been getting very, very drunk in celebration of less paperwork in the future.
OOC: A huge thanks to all the awesome Istans who contributed to this NPC clutch! Too many to list in one place, but logs and credits should be up on the wiki soon. <3 Watch for rumorposts, as there's more in store for these spooky critters.
