Chapter Eleven: Birth-Day

Lea is late, it was six weeks yesterday, and Darna at the morning meal said that today would be birth day.  He was so excited, a new Lair ready for him and Lea, to enjoy.  Their own nursery for the hatchlings, and privacy, lots of privacy.  But Lea is late, she should have been here yesterday.

            Darna knows today is the day of hatching.  She wakes early and makes her rounds, speaking softly to each egg.  The big one will go first, then the red and brown, the small one next, and on down the line.  Darna is ready to help if necessary, sometimes with small ones you have to help break the shell.  She knows these are all good eggs, healthy dragons, everyone of them.  Darna sends a servant for birthing supplies.  Lots of water, food for the hatchlings, and warm blankets.  Dragons are cold blooded, and need blankets to keep warm, especially right after birth.  Darna sends a servant to bring Saber and Cherna.  If Darna can time it right each set of parents could line up and wait their turn, she smiled as she thought.  The nursery would be very crowded if it all happened at once.  Yes, the big one is first, thank the Gods.

            Cherna gets to the nursery first, and listens to her egg making noises as it starts to vibrate.  Just then Saber crashes through the door, and literally falls into Cherna’s lap.  He looks up at her and smiles.  Suddenly the large egg explodes on one side, and a hatchling is thrown out with the force of it.  It’s not as large as everyone thought, in fact it was quite normal sized.  As the baby rolls over, Cherna and Saber see that it is a female, then they see her wings.  She is a beautiful shade of purple, almost lilac, and her wings are powder blue.  Their color is not what they notice; it is the wings themselves.  They are not dragon wings at all, they are feathers, giant bird feathers like no dragon had ever seen or had.  The hatchling squawks angrily, and stares past Cherna, at the egg or what was left of it.  Behind Cherna’s back the egg breaks one more time, and Cherna hears Saber gasp.  She turns with her daughter, and watches as her second child crawls out of the egg.  Two hatchlings, one egg.  It is unheard of ..... Twins.  The second hatchling looks up at Cherna and his sister and smiles.  It is a male, and the two hatchlings are an exact match, in coloring and their magnificent wings.  The female is average dragon size, but the male is ‘Cherna’s’ size, and he is the cause of the egg explosion.  He just needed more room to hatch, and his sister was in the way.

            Darna has said nothing, while the family was introduced, but seeing the hatchlings, she cries out, “There is an ancient legend of twins, that save the dragon race, and stopped all Dragon Wars, for all time.  Twins in the same egg has never happened before, always two separate eggs laid at the same time.  Like Glenna’s two eggs.  The legend speaks of twins in the same egg, and that they are ‘feathered’, twins with unusual abilities.  The male hatchling sneezed right then, and small fireworks surrounded the new family like sparklers.

            The hatchlings laughed.  It wasn’t dragon breath sparking, it was something different.  The hatchlings laughter caused even more sparkles to appear, the hatchlings looked to their parents for approval.  Darna realized the male was causing the phenomenon, magic of some sort.        As Darna started to say something more, a thought came to her head, that wasn’t hers, speaking in her mind.  “This magic is real,” Darna gasped.  The voice had come from the female hatchling watching her.  A Dragon with magic, and a dragon with telepathy.  The Twins of Destiny.

            It was almost time for the hatching to continue. Darna got back to business, after Saber and Cherna took their two amazing babies to their living quarters.  Glenna and Ryoch arrive together, just as the little one started to shake, with a soft crack, the egg split right down the middle.  A sweet rainbow colored hatchling emerged, and looked up at Glenna.  Glenna's heart melted, and she realized she had love for this wonderful innocent babe.  She was so tiny, a miniature dragon, with obviously her father’s pinks, blue and lavender, at various parts of her small body.  She had large wings for her small size, and as she yawned, her toothless mouth was white inside.  “Don’t let her bite, Glenna, she is a venomous dragon.  It must be her only protection, unless these wings indicate great speed,”  Ryoch cautioned Glenna. 

            Torch arrived unable to control his eager happiness.  The brown and red striped egg was due to start hatching soon.

              “No sign of Lea?”  Darna asked.

              “No, she is late and I am concerned,” Torch replied.

            The striped egg rolled onto its side, and pecking started inside.  Little bits of shell began breaking off.  Then suddenly, like the hatchling was impatient, a large ‘thunk’ cracked a good opening in the egg.  A brown head poked out, and Torch helped him the rest of the way loose.  It was a male half-breed Red Dragon, as expected.  His body and head were Torch’s soft brown, but he had red wings.  Torch gathered him up. He was a stout hatchling, low to the ground, with thick muscles and looked a lot like Torch as a hatchling.  Darna fell immediately in love with him.  Torch looked enormously pleased as well.

            Within the hour Ryoch's and Glenna's second egg started to shimmy and shake.  With one aggressive crack the egg opened a small hole.  The shaking continued as the hole widened bit by bit.  Finally a small nose poked trough and sneezed, cracking the egg even more.  It fell away, and Glenna and Ryoch gazed at the beauty emerging.  A beautiful deep forest green, with aqua accents stepped out of the shell, and looked towards her father.  Ryoch smiled and picked her up.  She was average size for a hatchling, but slender and sleek.  A graceful neck balanced a slender head, and she looked around for Glenna.  Her mother approached and said, “she is a forest dragon, but we won’t know how her magic will manifest, until a year old at puberty, just like Bella.”  Ryoch took it in as he cradled his daughter.  Glenna held the tiny one, and the family turned leave.                                  

            Just then the final egg broke open with a crack.  Torch, Glenna, Ryoch and Darna stared in shock at the final hatchling.  She was beautiful in an exotic way.  Her body was similar to Ryoch’s and Glenna's forest babe, but the resemblance stopped right there.  Her face was long and angular, with a fine bone structure.  Her eyes were bright yellow, standing out against the deep blood red of her skin.  She was almost feline in appearance.  A Pure Red Dragon.  Lea and Torch had done it.  They had bred a pure one, and she was gorgeous.

 

            Torch makes his way to the Castle.  He’s never been here alone, and he was a little intimidated, but his business is too important to be put off by nerves.  The Queen agreed to see him tonight, and he hurried not to keep her waiting.

            “You want me to keep them here?  Why not with Saber and your Mother?  Darna will be so disappointed.”  The Queen stated.

            “They will be safer in the Castle, until I return with Lea.  Please your Majesty.”  Torch had never called her ‘aunt,’ he had always been formal with her.  “I would not place their care with the clan, when there are so many hatchlings already.  I shouldn’t be gone more than a month with travel time.  I understand the Dragon War is a ten days walk or three in flight.  I must locate Lea; she would have been here if it were in her power to do so.  I am afraid she may be injured or worse, and either way I need to know.”  Torch pleaded his case.

            “I will come for them tomorrow, before I leave on sabbatical.  Have them ready by mid morning.”  The Queen gave in.  Red dragons in the Castle.....fate had stepped in after all.