[Poppy]

As the eggs came, Ceral took them as they were handed over to him. He wasn't really sure where a good place to take them would be until he remembered a small lake not too far off; it wasn't too deep, but it was deep enough that hopefully, the scientists and other staff wouldn't think to look there when the news broke (because the idea of all of these kits being a miscarriage would definitely sound preposterous). He shifted each time he went to the lake, tucking the eggs in a small hole he'd dug up with his claws. Luckily there weren't any predators in the lake, and he'd have to come back often to make sure they didn't get eaten... because that would be a real travesty, if he were to ever let that happen.

"How long do eggs take to hatch?" Ceral asked on a trip back, frowning as he took some more of the slimy eggs. He didn't want to not be there when they hatched, but he also knew he wouldn't be able to stay under the lake forever. He could already feel some of them moving around beneath the shell, so that meant they'd be ready soon, right? Or so he thought. He was no expert on eggs. Hell, all this made him worried for his own clutch, and the comment earlier from Ivy about warning him not to do this wasn't of much reassurance.

[Flayme]

"Ivan you did so well." Nym patted Ivan one final time before he quickly scooped up two of the eggs, holding them gently and gingerly to his chest, sure to keep them firmly stable as he stood up and began following Ivy to the lake where Ceral had disappeared to.

That had been one of the most terrifying and exciting experiences of his life...

When they met Ceral he handed off the two eggs he was holding to the smaller dragon, and watched as he placed him with the others that Ceral had already hidden. He was suddenly nervous about leaving them alone for the next return trip. It was cold out here... Well, cold for an egg, and there were all sorts of things in the lake that could snatch them. "Ceral, maybe-" Nym started hesitantly. "Could you maybe stay here and watch them while we get the rest?" He'd be happy to stay himself, but staying under water was unfortunately not his forte.

[labprotocol]

"About a day," Ivy told Ceral. "But I'm assuming that Ivan will take turns with you once he regains his energy."

--------------------
Ky woke up alone. He frowned looking around the nesting cave. It was still dark, no light was peaking through under the door. "Ivan? Nym?" he called looking around the cave as if his one massively pregnant mate, and his slightly pregnant mate could have hidden under the blankets or baskets of fruit. His head started to pound and he threw open the door to see that it was still the wee hours in the morning.

------------

"Ivy," Ivan said as Nym took the last of the eggs. "Can you go to gate and say that something's happened."

She nodded. "They're not going to believe me though."

------------------

Ivy went to the gate and called out to the night guards. "Help!" she screamed. "Help! Ivan's gone into labor early!"

The guard on duty jerked, quickly calling Han and Reva. He really didn't want to wake them up, but he knew they'd want to hear about this.

[Poppy]

Ceral nodded. He stayed at the lake as they eventually got him the rest, and when he'd gotten the last of the eggs, he shifted once more and settled at the bottom of the lake, sitting next to them in a slightly larger pit he'd made next to the eggs. He watched them idly, wondering if he should pull them closer? He wasn't sure how to incubate eggs properly, this was out of nowhere and it wasn't as if he'd had a lesson beforehand to prepare himself for this. Ceral nudged one of the eggs with his snout, watching it with interest as the shell seemed to move. He could stay under here for a few hours, but he'd have to go back up for a bit to recover. A day wasn't bad, and maybe they'd have actual kits to look after in less than twenty-four hours. Eggs seemed easy enough to hide, but kits would prove to be a challenge.

[Flayme]

"Ah bloody hell!"

Han was not in a good mood. This was one of the things he hated about this job. Most of the time it was fascinating, and it obviously was profitable, but getting calls in the middle of the night (Or what was now the wee hours of the morning.) like this was the worst. Especially when it was about one of the facility's prized dragons fucking miscarrying and losing apparently all eleven kits they already had buyers and reservations set aside for.

Therefore, it didn't take Han long to get ready at all. He had his pants and his lab coat flung in and he was out the door and in the car all the while still screaming on the phone. He reached the lab just twenty minutes later, seething. Was Reva here already?

"Reva!" He shouted as he entered. "Reva! Devin! Anybody, somebody! What the hell is going on?" He needed to get out to Avalon, and fast. Some was fishy, and it stunk.

[labprotocol]

After the others had all left, Ivan hobbled down the cliff path. As suspicious as things were, it would be more suspicious if he was away from the cave. He practically jumped out of his skin when a frantic Ky grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Where were you?!?! Where's Nym?" Ivan swallowed, looking away. He couldn't stand looking into Ky's dark eyes at that moment. He didn't have any energy to fight. And then Ky noticed Ivan's significantly smaller belly. "Where's our kits!!!!" He practically roared.

---------------------

Reva was in the room already, her hair out of it's normal neat knot and instead was a tangled nest around her face. She was scowling with a thermos of coffee in one hand. "Ivy came to the gate claiming that Ivan miscarried... all eleven. I called Devin and he's assembling a team to get Ivan and bring him back to the lab. There has never been a case where a dragon miscarried only a week before and definitely not the whole clutch!"

[Flayme]

"No definitely not the whole clutch." Han practically growled. "And at this point it would be a still birth, not a miscarry..." And they would know that it was a miscarry until they waited for the eggs to hatch, and even then, again it wouldn't be the entire clutch. The odds for that were a million to one.

"Has anybody actually checked Ivan over?" He asked. "To see if there's any merit to this? Or is he just blathering to get a ruse out of us?" He hoped Devin uncovered some information and soon. "This is way too much money to be flushing down the toilet. We have bids for those eggs that were skyrocketing just yesterday. A week before his due date, people are going crazy."

-----------------

Nym wasn't far behind Ivan. He wanted to make sure that he got back to the cave safely. He figured curling up in the cave and acting as if he knew absolutely nothing would be his best bet at not being suspicious. He waited outside for a moment as Ivan entered, and was about to follow, but was stopped when he heard Ky. He winced. The forest dragon sounded frantic and angry...

[labprotocol]

"I...Nym's fine. They're fine. I'll explain in the cave. " Ivan tried to walk around Ky, but Ky wasn't having it.

"No! You will tell me right now! Where are my babies! Where's Nym?"

Ivan shook his head, his legs wobbly. "Please, lets just go inside and I'll explain."

"Where are my kits IVAN!" Ky roared.

Ivan flinched. "I... I hid them. So that... that they can't take em." Ivan's voice was barely a whisper. He was shaking.

If Ky had been in his right mind he would have felt bad for yelling, but at the moment all he could see was red. "Where are they?!"

Ivan shook his head, which turned out to be a rather bad idea as black spots started to form. "Ky, please. Let's just go back to the cave. They'll be coming soon and..."

-------------
"Some of the handlers on duty are going in right now to check on Ivan."

[Flayme]

At that point, Nym had had enough. Enough of the yelling. If Ky had seen Ivan go through what he just had, then maybe he wouldn't be acting this way.

"Hey-" Nym stepped out from where he had been lurking, intentionally so Ky could see him. "I'm fine, Ky, I'm right here." His gaze was stern. "Your kits are fine, but they're not going to be, if you don't calm down and let us explain. This place is going to be crawling with handlers any moment." He pointed at the cave's entrance. "We should go inside."

-------------

"Perfect. I'm going to the observation desk then... If anything looks overly fishy, I want Ivan brought in so we can look him over." Han sauntered out of the room and down the hall. Each enclosure was monitored from every lab, Avalon wasn't any different. He'd be able to see clearly what was going on in most of the enclosure just from his chair.

-------------

"Devin, I don't see bloody anything."

Benjamin was a fairly new handler. A young man, with some over the top zeal, and a little trigger happy. Despite his usual vigor for his job, this morning was cumbersome. Avalon was bigger on the inside than it looked from the outside... Where were they supposed to find one dragon in the middle of it all? Let a lone a bunch of tiny eggs?

"Do we even know where this dragon hides out? What does he look like?" Benjamin marched along behind Devin, the five other handlers with them flanked out on either side. "How long will it take to catch the stupid thing and bring him in do you think?"

[labprotocol]

"As long as it Damn well takes," Devin snarled. He was getting sick of Benjamin's whining. "He looks like a water dragon. Petite feminine looking thing. White hair, perfect blue BJ eyes," he snickered. "As for where they hang out we'll call Han and ask. He knows the dragon's habits better than anyone." Devin shouldered his dart gun and pulled out his cell. "Yo! Boss where does this water dragon hang out?"

-------------------
Ky calmed a bit when he saw Nym, but he was also angry that Nym seemed to be involved in whatever this was. "Okay," he took as deep breath. "Okay. We'll go inside and then you talk."

Ivan smiled at Nym appreciatively and nearly stumbled to his knees when he tried to walk. Ky caught him, his eyebrows bowing together in concern. He finally noticed how tired Ivan looked. "Let's get you inside," he said softer than before helping Ivan down the last few steps of the incline and into the cave. He set him down on the nest, pulling him against his chest. "So what happened?" he asked as he could at the moment, which still sounded a bit rough and accusatory.

"I-I couldn't do it again, Ky!" Ivan broke down sobbing. "You have no idea. I wanted to tell you, but I knew you'd say no and it was the only way I could think of."

"Shhhh..." Ky soothed. "It's okay. What couldn't you do? What did you want to tell me?" Ky felt like his skin was going to tear he was so tense.

[Flayme]

Han slapped his cellphone up to his ear. "What do you want, Devin?.... No, he hides out in that cave." Han flipped to the image of the nesting cave as he spoke. He didn't see any movement, but that didn't mean Ivan wasn't inside... "Yes, check it." He switched his phone off again as he pulled it away from his face and set it on the table.

"Damned water dragon, causing this much trouble so early in the morning..." Han sighed. "Nonsense."

-----------------------

Nym wasn't sure if he should interject again. This seemed like a personal moment for Ivan and Ky, and the forest dragon seemed royally pissed off still. He waited for Ivan to explain the situation, and why he'd done it, and why Ky shouldn't be too upset with him, but the poor water dragon was suddenly sobbing again.

"He induced his labor, Ky..." Nym said quietly and then leaned up against one of the cave's walls. "To hide the kits... They're in the lake being guarded by Ceral right now." His voice went lower. "Ivan knew you'd flip out... But you should have seen him, Ky. He did splendidly, delivered each egg without hardly a problem."

--------------------

"Ah, so the cave..." Benjamin nodded. "The one with the door, that shouldn't be hard to spot... Hardly nuthin' in here has human made stuff on it." The man charged along with Devin until the aforementioned cave into view. He hoped that Ivan was in there. He wasn't in the mood to go crashing through underbrush and thickets looking for him.

"What do we do?" He snickered. "Just knock?"

[labprotocol]

Ky pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers and took a deep breath. There wasn't any point in getting angry. What was done was done and both his mates were safe and according to Nym his kits were too. "Okay," he sighed looking Ivan over. "Are you okay? You look tired." He pulled Ivan into his arms and laid down beside him. He was still simmering with anger and worry, but now was not the time. Ivan looked miserable. "It's okay," he said rubbing Ivan's empty stomach. "Everything will turn out okay. You... did what you thought was best and everyone is fine. That's all that matters." Though when Ivan got better he was going to give him a strict talking to about keeping secrets from him. Actually he was going to give both Nym and Ivan a talking to.
-----------------

Devin chuckled. "Nah, we're practically family. Family doesn't need to knock." He opened the door and rushed in, he quickly darted the seeder without warning. He didn't want to deal with a territorial mate.

Ky roared, letting go of Ivan as he shifted. He was darted twice more before the overkill of sedates flooded his blood and he blacked out, still yards away from Devin and the other handlers.

"Ivan," Devin said shaking his head. "I've heard you've been causing trouble."

[Flayme]

"What the-" Nym whirled around as the door to the cave swung open. To his horror it revealed Devin. The same Devin who had dragged him out of here to be drugged and forced into a heat a month prior. He watched in absolute disbelief as Ky was tranquilized and Devin stepped forward to loom over Ivan.

"What are you doing in here!" Nym spat, fully back up against the wall now. He had been sure that handlers would be looking for Ivan, but hadn't expected to just barge in here... Not so forcefully.

"Shut up." Benjamin rolled his eyes. "I'm going to dart him."

Without another word the handler aimed for Nym and let his dart fly. It hit him in the shoulder, which immediately went numb. "Hey-" NYm was already slurring. "Stop-" There was a pinch of a second dart, and Nym was out.

[labprotocol]

Ivan tried stand up, but his legs wouldn't hold him. Devin chuckled and motioned for several of the handlers to carry him out.

-----------------
Ivan was too exhausted to fight as he was taken to the lab and strapped onto an examination table, metal cuffs wrapping around his wrists.

Devin called Han. "We've got him. He's secured. Though he really isn't pregnant anymore." Devin pushed on Ivan's stomach making him gasp, and laughed. "He's ready for you whenever you want."

"Tell him to go searching for the eggs," Reva said. "I still don't believe that they've all gone missing."

[Flayme]

Han nodded in compliance. "Devin, listen to me carefully..." He muttered into the phone. "Whether those eggs are stillborn or not, they still have to be somewhere, and I want all of them found. All eleven. Every. Single. One."

He slapped the phone back down into his lap again and looked at Reva.

"Let's go take a look at this sneaky water dragon of ours, shall we?"

--------------------

What felt like just moments after he had been darted, Nym was blinking awake again. He was instantly frantic. Ivan was gone, Ky was still slumped on the ground next to him... There were human boot prints all over the cave, it reeked of Devin and his handlers, and Nym's arm was still numb.

"Ky!" Nym dragged himself up and over to the forest dragon, and started shaking him as vigorously as he could. "Ky! Wake up! Ivan's gone-" Nym suddenly felt sick. If Ivan was gone, had they found the eggs too? "Ky! Come on, please wake up." Nym was begging now. "We need to get to the lake. We need to find Ceral."

[labprotocol]

Ky woke up, groggy, blinking his eyes. His head felt like fog, thick and hazy. "Wha?" he groaned flipping over and trying to go back to sleep. His mind was spinning with disturbing imagines. Ivan, his belly flat, crying. Devin and the handlers. A dart. "Ivan!" Ky stood up, "Where is he?"

--------------------------

Ivan's heart was racing when Reva and Han stepped into the room. His mind spinning. He needed to get back. He need to be with his clutch.

"So...." Reva said slowly. "Tell us again what happened."

[BabyBelly]

(Man, this is getting really hard for me to catch up with you guys. My schedule was different today, so I couldn't do any RP earlier today. I'll do my best though.)

Lago had woken up when he heard some commotion going on in the early morning hours. He was still very groggy as a result of trying to adjust his sleeping habits to match his fellow day time dragons. He got up from his and Demus' mud, dirt and grass nest slowly so as not to wake up his mate. He stood up and stretched, taking a few tentative steps forward. He tilted his head up and took a big sniff. "What in the fucking hell?" He smelled EVERYTHING all at once and it was a doozey. He smelled eggs, Ivan's eggs at that even though he wasn't due for another week, afterbirth, Nym and Ceral running to and fro from Ivy's nest to the lake, Devin and a bunch of human guards at Ky, Nym, and Ivan's cave, but what disturbed him most was what he didn't smell. Ivan was gone. He hurried back to the nest and started shaking Demus'. "Babe, wake up! Something went down last night! Ivan's had his eggs and Devin took him!". He didn't wait for his mate to respond. He knew Demus' sense of smell was just as strong as his so he knew Demus could follow him with little effort.

Lago ran as fast as he could to the lake, since that's where he smelled the eggs going. Once he got to the lake, he shifted to his dragon form and dove in, sinking to the bottom where he saw Ceral sitting on top of the eggs. A mixed look of shock, fear, and dismay shot across his face, as he was still trying to play catch up with what went on last night. He came closer, practically walking on the bottom of the lake. Having a big lung capacity, he spoke as best he could through the water, "Ceral! What happened! Why are the eggs here, and why are you nesting them?"

[Flayme]

(( Ok, so, I think to stop surging ahead without people, we should set goals with each other, let each other know what scenes we want our dragons to all be a part of, and once he hit one of those key scenes, and someone isn't there to write right away, we should wait? D: I'm not sure. I just want to make sure that everybody on this thread is having fun. <3 You're all too awesome and too great of writers to lose just because schedules don't match perfectly. <333 Y'all are awesome blossom sauce. :3 ))

"What?" Demus was hardly aware of what was going on for the first few moments that he was awake. He had been peacefully slumbering beside Lago, curled up and warm. What was so urgent that it needed to be interrupted? He blinked a few times and stretched to step out of the nest. As soon as he took a deep breath, everything that Lago had been talking about hit him. All the strange, strong scents of birth, Demus was familiar with it.

"What the fuck happened?-" Demus started to ask, but didn't even get the chance before Lago was bounding away. "Hey!" Demus shot after him, shifting to his lanky dragon form as he went. "Lago!" If Devin was out and about, he didn't want to let Lago go anywhere alone. "Stop!" He was almost growling as he almost caught up with Lago but was stopped at the lake. He immediately balked and backed up. There was no way in hell that he was getting wet. He watched as Lago slipped into the water and made his way down to the bottom somewhere, he couldn't quite see what was going on, which was maddening. "Ah, what the hell?!" Demus began pacing the bank wildly. Things were definitely not right...

--------------

"Yes, Ivan why don't you tell us what really happened to those eggs of yours?" Han leaned to loom over Ivan. "I don't think I believe this story about you miscarrying all eleven of them." He drummed his fingers on the side of his jaw as he spoke. "I think... We would have been seeing signs of that much earlier if that were the true case...."

Han circled around the table that Ivan was strapped on and then stopped to poke at the dragon's belly... Definitely empty.

"You know, whatever you're trying to pull Ivan dear, isn't going to work."

-----------------------

"Ky, I don't know where Ivan is." Nym said breathlessly. "Devin took him-" He snapped his gaze around to look towards the cave's opening. The door was swung ajar. "I don't know where Ivan is." He repeated. "But I know where the kits are... Come one."

[labprotocol]

Ivan kept his mouth shut.

Reva sighed. "It would have been much easier if you told the truth," she said as she looked him over for injuries. She took some blood for lab work and sent it off. She turned to Han and frowned, "He shouldn't have gone into labor early. There's no signs of complications." She looked back at the empty dragon. "What did you do Ivan?" He better not have killed his eggs, some dragons did that with the misguided belief that their kits would be better off dead than in captivity, or there was going to be hell to pay. "If Devin doesn't find all eleven eggs in perfect health," she threatened her eyes flashing. "Then we're going to artificially inseminate you with the hardest brood I can find, and lock you in isolation under constant watch until the eggs hatch. We're going to get every dollar out of your hide possible. Even if it kills you."

Ivan flinched, but remained quiet.
--------------------------

Devin started unload weapons out of the van. If the dragons were hiding the eggs they weren't likely to give them up without a fight. He pulled out a harpoon gun, gaff, and a handful of double bite darts. If he ran into that damnable swamp dragon he'd be ready.

He also pulled out several gas masks for his team. "Watch out, the female and little purple one spit poison."

He was dressed in a lightweight fire resistant material.

[Poppy]

((Oops I totally missed your post lab. I'll edit it in a bit cause I gotta go to school now ;w; ))

Looking at the eggs, Ceral was actually kind of curious as to what the kits inside might look like. He hadn't seen many kits in his life save for his own clutch mates, but that had been years ago. Hybrids were unheard of in the cave dragon culture, and the thought of him committing some kind of wrong against his kind was a little laughable. Ky was a forest dragon and he could remember Ivan telling him he was a water dragon. He had no clue what kind of combination that would be, but he supposed his and Ivy's kits might be kind of similar. He expected the eggs to be blue or something, but they were all different colors, and he eyed over each one of them with interest as he watched small, fluttery movements under the shells. "And this one shall be... Speckle." He snorted as he nudged the speckled egg, nudging it closer to the others. "Or Dotty..?" Oh yes, his favorite past time - talking to himself. The eggs were easy to hide, but Ceral felt sorry for Ivan because there was no way he could get away with hiding the kits, and he wondered just what kind of punishment they'd all get (because they wouldn't get away with this with a slap on the hand).

He startled when the sound of someone splashing into the water sounded above him, and Ceral scrambled to gently move over top of the eggs, hoping to hide them if in fact it was these amateur trackers that liked to lurk around every now and then. When he saw Lago, though, he relaxed, shaking his head. "Come up," he instructed and swum to the surface of the lake with one easy push of his wings. He sneezed once, a natural reaction to do to clear his nose of any water. Seeing that other dragon not too far from the bank, Demus, Ceral waited for Lago to follow before he spoke. "If you guys can just calm down and maybe not attract attention with your freaking out," he frowned, letting his wings keep him afloat on top of the water. "Ivan made himself go into labor and told me to hide the eggs, so I'm keeping them here until they hatch." He ran his tongue over his razor-like teeth once. "But once they hatch, I'm not so sure they'll be as easy to hide as they are now." He didn't tell them how sure he was that they'd be found out sooner than later. This felt like a lost cause. If they could figure out a way out of here beforehand - and Ceral had yet to try his tunneling theory - maybe next time they'd be more prepared to at least make sure the kits weren't inside the enclosure. "So I'm gonna watch them as long as I can."