Since I've got so much time on my hands with no internet, and I've almost finished writing Tainting (if I stick to the plan), I'm starting to plan the next Tennar Weyr story! I was wondering if you guys had a preference to which one I do next? (There's currently two I have the base plans for).

- The story of the huge war that broke Tennar in 2062. New bunch of characters, with a few familiar names/faces from this story.

- The next part of the Mutants story, that takes place about 20 turns after Tennar. Lots of familiar faces from Mutants.

Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! :D

Chapter Eleven: A Mutant's Clutch

Silence fell upon the mess hall. Not a soul dared to even breathe as they listened to the call from the dragons. Beside him, Kain felt T'oa start to shiver, but he didn't dare question it. At exactly the same time, Teya and Lucina flinched as they must have heard Gold Wakarenth's call in their minds. Yet, not a soul got out of their seat.

It was Nigh who moved first; her face solemn as she stood and clapped her hands together. "Come on Candidates," she called. "Go get your robes on before you're late!"

Her words were enough to shake the hall, and people began to move about once more. Lucina stood, but paused as I'sa reached out to grab his sister's hand. The two stared at one another, sharing some sort of silent understanding before Lucina pulled away and hurried out with Teya. I'sa's face was riddled with worry, but A'lus smacked him on the back.

"At least hide it like the rest of us," the brown rider told his friend. I'sa gave a nod, and swallowed it down. A'lus turned to the others but took one look at T'oa and decided to direct his words at Kain instead. "We'll head over now. Try not to be too late, huh?"

"Y-yeah," Kain agreed with a smile that seemed way too fake. The two dragon riders headed off, and Nigh placed a reassuring hand on Kain's shoulder before she had to leave too. She'd be on standby as a Healer with Dezetton this time.

Turning to his friend, Kain waited for some sort of explanation. It was perhaps with a futile hope that he stayed silent; after all, when did T'oa ever give Kain a straight answer? Even before coming to Tennar, the lad had always been one to keep things to himself. Honestly, Kain sometimes wondered if T'oa secretly enjoyed watching Kain stress out.

Eventually, the black rider stood up. Kain jumped to his feet too and cautiously followed as T'oa made his way towards the Hatching Sands with the rest of the weyrfolk. The lines of concern across his forehead made the Tanner feel very uncomfortable.

It wasn't until they'd reached the entrance to the Sands that T'oa came to a halt. Slowly, Kain watched and waited to judge whether he would be needed or not. T'oa ended up making the decision for him, as he reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him aside sharply. Weyrfolk glanced over at them, eyes narrowed in their usual suspicion.

"Kain," T'oa's tone was that bland, low one that appeared only when Aath was influencing his words. "How are you getting on with that harness?"

"Wha–?" Kain yanked his arm back. "This is hardly the time to be talking about–"

"Not mine. The other one."

Frowning, Kain folded his arms. He desperately tried to see past the black rider's strange mask. He used to be good at that, but these days it was like there was a second mask blocking T'oa's from view. Kain didn't need to guess who that second mask was.

"I've sketched some designs, and made a few testers," He shrugged. "It's definitely easier than I initially thought it would be."

"Good," T'oa's expression softened, and his tone changed again. Not back to normal though, to the side of T'oa that Kain rarely saw. He smiled. "You trust me, don't you?"

Honestly, Kain was completely taken aback. As well as a little unnerved.

"Well," He laughed in a cruel attempt to lighten the mood. "Not when you talk like that, I don't."

The corner of the rider's mouth twitched slightly, as if he was genuinely hurt or worried by Kain's joke. He gave a small nod, and began to walk away.

"T'oa!"

The black rider paused, but didn't turn to face Kain.

The Tanner felt his stomach tighten. "Of course I trust you," he begun. "I've always trusted you. Shards, I left my home and followed you to the little outcast Weyr on the other Continent! I'm designing this weird harness of yours: no questions asked. If I didn't trust you, I…"

He left it there, because he didn't have any idea what was supposed to come at the end of that sentence. Finished or not, it seemed to do the trick. T'oa turned back to the Tanner, his eyes full of more relief than Kain had seen in… well, ever.

"I trust you too."

With that, the black rider headed towards the main entrance of the Sands – seemingly planning to be on standby with Biime and the Healers; and Kain was left to make his way to the stands, wondering what that had been about.

I'sa and A'lus waved him over, and as soon as he sat down, Kain realised that there were already two hatchlings out on the Sands: a bronze, and a green. Two more riders to Tennar's ranks, and both looked perfectly normal. Not a scrap of Aath's strangeness about them. Even a child would have notice the ease that those in the stands had returned to.

Just as the third egg was shaking, a small form toppled into his lap – giggling manically as it did so. Gilla sat up and arranged herself more comfortably on Kain's lap, as the Tanner noted the trail of sniggering weyrfolk she had left.

"What did your mother tell you about clambering over people?" A'lus warned as he pinched the girl's nose and drew another laugh from her.

"She said only to do it if it was an emergency." Gilla nodded, proud of herself for remembering.

Kain smirked and bobbed his knees up and down to shake her. "I wasn't aware of any emergency right now?"

"Of course there's one!" Gilla defended herself and bopped A'lus on the nose in payback. "T'oa said I had to sit on Kain's lap to keep him in his seat!"

All smiles from the three men vanished as they each tried to work out what that meant.

"Why does Kain need to stay in his seat?" I'sa asked, leaning forward to see Gilla past A'lus.

Gilla was preoccupied watching the hatching, and didn't seem to be thinking too much about her answer. "Something about Kain always running towards problems."

The men exchanged an even more worried look; but before they had a chance to ask Gilla anything else, she squealed.

On the Sands, it was time for the sixth egg to break open. This egg was small, one of the darker in shade. It shook and trembled, until it rolled onto its side and burst open. The shell crumbled away as the creature inside it shook and violently fought to be free – it continued attacking the air even after most of the shell had fallen away. Finally, it realised it was no longer contained, and bounded up to its feet excitedly.

Silence had spread over the Sands. Not because of the humour of the dragon's hatching, but because of the colour of that dragon's hide.

It was a dark purple.

"Is that a… blue?" I'sa asked – strained hope clear in his voice.

"M-must be," Kain laughed.

"It's like a mix of Aath and Riath! Super dark blue!" Gilla threw her arms in the air as if she'd worked this out all by herself.

The dragon, who did seem to be the size of a large blue, peered around at its spectators. It let out a high growl, before staggering over towards the Candidates. One particular Candidate seemed to have caught its eye.

"Teya?" Kain gasped. He unconsciously went to stand up, but didn't get far before Gilla's surprised kick forced him back into his seat.

Sure enough, it was Teya's legs that the strange coloured hatchling was weaving between. The girl seemed to be wearing a conflicted expression of horror and joy. It wasn't until someone – Kain didn't pay attention to who – called her over that Teya moved to the sides of the Sands. The dragon following and nipping at her heels hungrily.

They barely noticed the eggs continuing to hatch.

"Female… blue rider?" I'sa asked uncertainly, looking to A'lus and Kain for some sort of confirmation.

A'lus response was hardly what they'd wanted to hear. "If it's even a blue."

Gilla was chatting away about how she hoped the WeyrHarper was staying awake so he could note this all down in the records, but Kain wasn't listening to it. He was staring at T'oa down on the Sands: his rigid stance, his unsurprised features, and, perhaps most terrifying, how his eyes remained locked on the eggs and not the strange child of Aath's.

Following the black rider's example – mainly because an awful dread was building up in his stomach – Kain looked back at the remaining eggs. They were hatching one after the other now.

Ten down, four to go.

Then, the Weyr went silent yet again.

The smallest egg, one written off a long time ago as a dud, began to shake.

"Impossible…" A'lus breathed. "Not even a green could be that small."

But it must have been possible, for the tiny egg was rocking back and forth now. No cracks had yet appeared on its surface, but there was undoubtedly movement. It moved faster, fiercer, but it still didn't begin to break. Then, it rocked itself so viciously that it dove towards one of its newly hatched green sisters, and shattered with the impact.

The green it'd hit start squawking angrily, flicking its tail towards the dragon that was still hiding underneath the egg remains. Uncertainly, a pale head poked out – mewing apologetically.

And that was when nearly every being in Tennar – beast and human alike – lost it. There were gasps, chokes, nervous bursts of laughter, but none of them made the sight before them any less real.

"An itty bitty gold!" Gilla exclaimed.

The pale yellow head lifted, whirling eyes locked on one of the Candidates. Crawling out from under its shell, it stood up on thin, delicate legs, and cried out. No one from the group of Candidates moved, and so the little dragon tried taking a step forward, only for its legs to collapse under it clumsily. As it hit the Sand with a soft thump, there was a panicked gasp.

Lucina, pale and small, sprinted over to the little dragon. Falling on her knees beside it, she cupped its head in her hands and stroked it reassuringly, muttering something the people in the stands couldn't hear.

I'sa stood, staring out at his sister with wide and terrified eyes. It was almost painful to look at him; his heart pouring out of his features as he gaped at the sight before him.

Sweeping his eyes back across the Sands, Kain found his gaze meeting T'oa's. The black rider looked at the Tanner strangely, paying no attention to Biime, who was trying to say something to him; it was almost like he was… apologising?

Then, the black rider – oblivious to Biime's or anyone else's calls – left the Sands.

"Gilla, move over to A'lus' knee, will you?" Kain asked as his stomach flipped.

"No! T'oa said to stay here."

"Gilla, please!"

"No!"

He didn't need to ask her again, as Gilla was suddenly yanked off his lap. A'lus clung to the shouting child and waved Kain away. The Tanner didn't wait any longer, and leapt to his feet.

"Look after I'sa!" he said over his shoulder as he began to run out of the Sands.

Weyrfolk moved to let him through without question; none were ready to leave their seats yet, Kain wouldn't be surprised if their legs weren't working at all. Outside, the new weyrlings were gathering in confusion; there was some sort of chaos that Weyrlingmaster B'ree was frantically trying to deal with. Kain tried to look past it, spinning and snapping his head round to try and catch sight of his dear friend. Even a glimpse of a dark beast would have been enough to calm his mind.

He was just about to run off to check somewhere else (preferably were there weren't newly hatched, hungry dragons), when a hand clamped around his wrist.

The hand seemed to shake him into reality, and he found himself blinking down at Lucina's reddening face. Her lips were parted in the widest smile he'd ever seen her wear, and her eyes were so unnaturally bright that he wondered if he'd just woken blurry-eyed from a dream.

By her side stood the (still wobbling) pale dragon he presumed she'd Impressed.

"Her name is Properth," Lucina said, her voice breathy and dazed.

"Pro…" Kain looked around, still slightly worried about where T'oa had gone. "She's a…?"

"Aath's child," Lucina laughed nervously. "Through and through… Mutant side and all. She says she's a yellow."

"There's no such–" He stopped himself as Lucina's smile began to fade.

"Yeah, I know," She scratched the yellow's headknob. "But there's also no such thing as a black, or a prism."

"Prism?"

"Oh!" Lucina covered her mouth, and then pointed towards Teya. She was in the process of feeding her own strangely coloured dragon – who gave up on waiting to be fed and dove its head into the bucket, only to earn a pound on the head from Teya.

"Teya says her name is Sinth, and she's calling herself a prism," Lucina went on to explain. "Good thing they all know what to call themselves, huh?"

"Y-yeah…" Kain shuffled uncertainly – Lucina's hand still wrapped around his wrist. He looked at it in hopes of pointing it out to her, but she'd fallen silent and seemed just as uncomfortable. "Lucina?"

Jumping at the sound of her name, the girl chuckled awkwardly and blushed again. "Sorry! It's just… T'oa said I needed to talk to you…"

"T'oa?" The suspicion was just piling up. "What about?"

"Um… he didn't really say," she shrugged. "Just that it was really important I talk to you if I saw you straight after the hatching."

There it was again; the awful dread building up in Kain's stomach.

"Lucina… did you see where T'oa went?"

"Um… he was heading into the Weyr, last I saw."

"Excuse me."

Kain turned on his heel and tore himself free of Lucina's hold. She flinched as he did so, but he didn't apologise, and focused on marching across the Bowl.

"Kain, where are you going?" Teya's voice called as he passed. She was on the floor, wrestling the grumpy 'prism' of hers.

"To get answers."