"Ssseemsss like it'sss been a long time sssince a clutch hass hatched, hasssn't it?" Kortrvan asked as he and Lian made their way to the Deep Caverns, where Tijenna had called for the aspirants for her newly-hatched children.
Lian blinked thoughtfully, then gave a casual shrug. "Hmm, nothing seems out of the ordinary to me. You're probably just overthinking it."
The earth drak snorted. "That's because you lose all track of time when you have your nose in a book," he told the archivist, but he said no more on the subject. They had already arrived at the chamber where the aspirants were waiting, anyway. There were three of them, a pretty decent showing for a single clutch, even if there were five eggs. At least Lian had had an offer from one of the Castle's resident couples willing to raise any unPaired draklings, so they didn't have to worry about any of the draks being left out.
It was a very short wait before Tijenna coaxed her children out of the deep cavern to meet their prospective knights; apparently one or two of the draklings were feeling rather shy. The first drakling rushed out ahead of her mother before the others had even appeared, as eager to meet the aspirants as they were to meet her and her siblings. She was a rain with a mottled grey hide, and she grinned a slightly toothy and mischeivous grin at the aspirants as though already planning some sort of trick to play on them.
An earth drakling stepped forward, already seeming to eye one of the aspirants thoughtfully, but had scarcely taken a step forward before being pounced on by one of the other draklings; this one was a fire, and as hot-tempered as his coloring would suggest. "Nuh-uh, I want to go firrrst!" the fire protested while ignoring Tijenna's scolding of him.
The earth drakling's only response was a rolling of the eyes, unimpressed with the fire's reasoning. After all, their rain sister had already beaten both of them out here.
It was the other two children that were reluctant to make an appearance, and in between scolding her son for fighting with a sibling, she was trying to convince the other two draklings to step forward so they could pair as well. She had limited success; a mud was the first to appear, but he still seemed reluctant to approach the aspirants too closely, and he ended up standing beside the fire instead.
The final drakling was a pretty, though small, female night, who seemed as eager to look at the humans in the room as her mud-colored brother. "Can we sstarrrt now?" the rain asked eagerly, and Tijenna nodded her head.
"Yaaaay! Alrrright, I'm going firrsst then, and I choosssse...Aidairrra! Come on, therrre's sssomething I want to talk to you about involving Darrrrinaun. Oh don't worrrry, it'ssss not going to hurrrt him, but he needsss to be taught a lesssson. It'sss forr hisss own good." Lian was fairly certain he wasn't supposed to hear the drak's comment, but he was the only other person close enough to the pair of them to have heard it. He tried to get the rain's attention. "Name?" he prompted her.
The rain blinked, then grinned. "Oh, right. I'm Balunna!"
Curiously, despite his earlier competitiveness, the fire drak (presumably Darinaun) was not in any hurry to Pair now that he had had a look at the aspirants. He hung back behind his siblings, chatting amicably with the mud drakling while the female night was encouraged to choose.
"Oh alrrrright, then," she said, stepping forward. She had seemed wholly unimpressed with Balunna's jokes and plans, and quite unlike the rain drak, her face was serious and humorless as she looked briefly between the two remaining aspirants. After a very short moment of deliberation, she turned to the pale girl on the right. "You, Taeshdhu. You'll be my knight. My name is Valshunna."
The earth was eager to take the opportunity to Pair, especially since the other two still didn't seem interested in doing so. The drakling went straight to Rimisu and dipped his head in welcome. "I ssssuppossse I didn't have to wait that long, but I alrrrready knew who I wanted, anyway. You imprrresss me. Let'ssss sssssee what we can do togetherrrr, yesss?" he said with a grin, before adding his name, which was Ushainaun.
With all the aspirants taken, Lian turned his attention to the fire and mud draks. "Well, looks like you two missed out on the aspirants."
The fire just gave him a cheeky grin. "Nah, it'sss fine. Claudinan and I have desscided to Pairrr with each otherrrr anyway."
The mud gave a calm nod. "Darinaun needs someone to keep an eye on him," he added, ignoring the fire's playful hiss.
"Hmmph," Lian said as he wrote down the names, "Alright then. You'll be reporting to Liundmore and Heaness then, as well as their knights."
Neither drakling had any problem with this, and were already occupied with their own little conversation again.