Naike

HATCHING
Satchy heard a muffled cry and got up. The walls had softened it, but it had sounded like someone was in pain. She couldn't remember her dream, but it hadn't felt like a nightmare, so she didn't think the scream had followed her from dreaming to waking.
"Hello?" she called.
Her door opened and Satchy crawled deeper under the covers. Maybe she was still dreaming! From the corner of Satchy's room, Naike tried to see his cousin, but the light that fell in the room was sparse and he couldn't see much more than that the room was furnshed. Why hadn't he come here more often so he would have known his way on this crucial moment? Probably because this was the girl's room and he shouldn't be in here in the first place.
"Satchy!" he called softly.
"Naike?" he heard the releaved call of his cousin.
"I'm here!"
"Did you hear the scream too?"
"Yeah, the eggs are hatching, apparently the scream came from the mother's knight, you know that strange girly man?
"I remember him!" Satchy laughed.
"Exactly, he was creepy."
"He seemed to know a lot about people though."
"That only proves that gossiping is a woman thing." Naike said.
"Do I have to remind you that Raf is a guy?" Satchy asked.
"Whatever he is, he sure isn't a man." Naike sighed, "Come on, get reay, they'll be here soon to pick us up.
Within a minute Satchy stood dressed and ready, though still kind of sleepy in the hallway waiting for the High Prince and Princess to get them.
They came and the four aspirants followed them. Down in te hallway, before they could move into the Pairing Cavern the doors of the Deep Cavern swung open and the aspirants saw Rain Nelladuar come out, leading her babies.
"Thisss wil be jusst fine." she said, followed by some high squeeky sounds from Raf and a lot of flapping hands that made Naike scringe and Satchy smile.
Soon the first drakling, a mud male paired and went off, his chosen being neither Satchy or Naike they remained in the hallway.
Satchy had trouble looking at the drak and her draklings since fog was spilling over the walls into the hallway from the towers. She could hear a faint hissing, but wasn't sure if that were the draks, or just the wind through the trees. She peered though the fog and wondered when a drak would speak to her, or which colours had hatched... She was getting nervous and hopped from one feet to the other. Her ankle still felt a little painful when she had to stand on it for too long.
"Hellossss... I want to ssknow you bettersss." Satchy thought she saw a grin on the little drak.  It seemed that the drak had a little s-problem. Even more than normal.
"Thisss isss Noulkarni!" Nelladuar added. Satchy and her Desert left to get some food.
Naike saw his cousin pair and hoped that she had found her match. Now he needed to find his and all would be ok. The wait on this clutch had almost made him crazy, and thinking of waiting for yet another didn't look to good for him if there was so much to do outside the walls. Not that he would get much done if he had to keep Satchy out of trouble.
Naike missed the plant drak that had come forward, sitting down, waiting for him to stop his thinking and ready to give attention to him.
"Sssssweetesssst Merlinarni... You can't ssssit their all night.." said his mother
"But I like sssitting... But I ssence sssome sssarcassm over there.."
"Are you talking to me?" Naike asked.
"Yessssss...." Merlinarni said in a low sarcastic voice.
"Ah... I guess you will do." Naike nodded, at leats the company would be good.


Plant Merlinarni

ADULT
Noulkarni popped his head up from the greenery where he'd lain in hiding. Though he knew his knight didn't much enjoy wildlife, Noulkarni liked to play hide and seek and when training requested they hide he was always one of the best. 
Today was different though. Today was real. Today was an actual job where they'd be monitoring some island around Castle DesCas where they'd joined the Desert Dawn Armada. Like Naike had once assured her there weren't much dangerous animals on these tiny islands, but sometimes bandits or pirates chose them as their hideouts which was why they were patrolling. 
Just a little bit further, Merlinarni was doing about the same though Noulkarni felt like the plant drak might be sleeping.
"Are youss awake?" he asked.
"I am." Merlinarni replied, "Keep quieth."
Merlinarni returned to his still, almost dormant state of mind and listened. There were insects scuttling about. The leaves whistled in the wind. Further away the sound of waves crashing on the beach. But there was something different in the air. Sneaking sounds around the cliffs. The flapping of cloth where there should be none. 
Signaling Satchy, Merlinarni used the gestures for communicating that they'd been thought and both knights nodded, getting up to investigate while their draks would offer support if the need arose.
Naike took up the front, rounding the corner and hugging the cliff with his back as he scouted the surroundings. Satchy stayed back, listening for any movement from the other side. 
Suddenly the voice of a child could be heard calling for his mother. A woman walked to the shore and a man sailed in from the sea, his boat filled with fish.
"They don't really look like bandits." Satchy said.
"Let's go verify." Naike answered.
The island was no longer unoccupied. Satchy and Naike got the names of the family and promised they would add them to the roster at DesCas so a knight would visit their little island more regularly to make sure they were safe. At the same time they notified the people about the appropriate signals and beacons they could use as a warning or distress signal. 

Story  -  Satchy


Back to Castle DesCas
Satchy and  Naike paired at Chindor Castle
Background image was found here