2024-07-20 - This battle is on all, You've made beautiful, Now hateful

The events of the Touching had drained Auth considerably. They had needed the full day afterwards to recover from the mental acrobatics they'd performed while learning about (or distancing themselves from) certain candidates. Thankfully Mother had ordered everyone away to allow her children to rest and recuperate, for which Auth was very grateful.

It wasn't until the following night that this peace was disturbed, and in quite an unexpected way.

Auth snapped awake at the sudden break in silence within the tent. They reached out mentally and found one of the candidates from the day before had entered. What was she doing here? Curious, and sure she wasn't meant to be here at all, Auth watched as she dusted herself off and made straight for the clutch.

Oh, interesting. She seemed to want a second chance to make a connection with them. At first Auth applauded her tenacity and willingness to disobey rules to do what she truly wanted. But then they noticed she had eyes only for certain eggs. This wouldn't have been a bad thing in and of itself, it was understandable to have felt a strong pull towards one or two particular minds. But this girl was clearly only choosing those that had a gold flare to their shells. She wanted only gold, the dragonet as an individual mattered not.

Irritation turned to anger as Auth listened to her murmuring to the three highlighted eggs. Her desire was only for gain, for profit. She was selfish and greedy. She didn't care what kind of dragon curled within these eggs, only what rank they would reveal themselves to be.

It was detestable.

Auth found that they very much hated this perception among certain humans and determined to stay as far away as possible from any like her. They rearranged themselves to face away from this girl and ignored her until she left.