Darkest EggA Chapter by ShadowFaux
Selana was a dragon queen. She was a different kind of queen. The queen of rock and dirt, of caves and mud. With scars and ribs that showed through discolored grey underbelly. After laying five eggs she was hungry and searched recklessly for food. Her mate was nowhere to be found, perhaps dead by Creg hands, Human weapons, or Dragon claw. What she found to eat were dredges of scum floating on insect infested water. Without reason she swallowed water and insects and lapped up a skinny fish. She needed more food.
When Selana had her fill of small creatures and bugs she returned, reeking of bats and pond filth. Scales so dirty one could not see the dark maroon beneath. When she returned Selana finally had a chance to see her little beauties, five eggs. Labour held her still for so long she feared starvation before she could finish laying them. The last one had been the easiest and allowed her to search for food, it had been small and she was worried about it. The first four eggs were fine, shiny with webs of thick fluids still sticking to them, beautifully colored with pieces of sky and fire melted into their shells. The colors were breathtaking and their size was fine. The fifth egg was a bad omen. It left her feeling sick, the color was all wrong, like dead Creg eyes and necrotic flesh, like the diseased and dried up blood of humans and many other vile things. Black. The word made Selana feel sick, like the depths of Hell, a place on the far side of the world that no dragon flew into, and when they did they never flew out, like the black ooze that is drawn from webs sacs after the giant spiders of Machsha have used their poison to turn victims to floating proteins and sludge. Unlike the ooze, known as Lyall, which had magical properties sacred to dragons, the fifth egg was not like liquid. There was no shine, no glimmer, not even the barest hint of a reflection. An abomination A scent wafted down the tunnel into the roomy cave that Selana was sheltered in with her eggs and abomination. She could smell meat. Fresh meat and oiled scales that in her minds eye glimmered with light from another world, a cheerful orange. One that she missed while alone she laid eggs, his eggs. Their eggs. "Selana," the voice of silk and running water to her ears, the orange scaled dragon was born with three legs and so his life with the small, scarred Selana had been hard and perilous... but one he saw as worthwhile, "Selana my Lapiz Queen," he said, speaking of the bright, intense blue eyes his mate held rather than the dirty maroon scales. With a slight flourish the orange dragon turned and lifted a heavy cow into the cave, a fat thing that made Selana's mouth water as thick saliva filled the space beneath her tongue. "Rajah," she said, looking up at him from the carcass, "I thought you might have..." Without another word her stomach out matched her love of the bright scaled dragon and tore viciously into the creature. "I'll always come back, Selana," Rajah assured and curled up around the bloody mass of his mate's feast, "I suppose I flew to far to find you this meal, nothing but small woodland animals is no meal for a mother... I suppose I could make the trip again if I had summer gales rather than winter storms, I was stranded in the snow for a week. "I forgot it was winter," Selana let her head emerge from the inside of the belly long enough to look at her mate, and then continued to tear apart at the beast until her small stomach could handle no more. Now on top of the dust and filth there was blood covering the little female. "Go to the cavern pools, wash up Selana and I will watch the eggs," he cast a glance at the nest of rock and ores, no gold, no gems, just rock and ores, "Four beautiful eggs of ours. We finally have a nest!" Quietly Selana slipped past her mate and said over her shoulder, "Five eggs, Rajah." And was gone. Rajah lifted his head slightly higher and then walked over to the nest, not believing the sight he had of the abomination. Black egg, black death, demon creatures are so from birth. They were rare and never hatched, but a curse be on the dragons who created it. A curse be on Selana and Rajah. He thought the trials of his life had been behind him, when he could not walk well with three legs and when he could not find a mate. When he spent years flying from one Colony to another, where dragons shunned him for his imperfection. Finally he had found Selana, finally he had found a cave for him and his mate. After years of struggle they settled and Selana had her first nest of eggs. The green eyes of Rajah narrowed, the black egg should have never existed. By the laws of magic and fate it should have never existed. Rajah heard his life playing again, he was ad luck, useless, impotent, inferior, even his children would suffer from his unworthiness. Rajah should have never hatched and the black egg should have never been laid. A decision would have to be made. "I am sorry, Rajah," Selana said to him from the cave entrance, he turned, green eyes cast down. "We'll take it to the Timeless ones, on the Reish cliffs, perhaps they can lift this curse. A week long journey and both of us must go. Do you understand?" "I'll use the cow skin to hold them," Selana said quietly. She needed to bring her eggs with her, she wanted to be a mother. "No," Rajah told her softly, pain in his eyes, triangular head turning in sympathy, "they will be safe here, alone, we must not have them near that thing." Selana uttered a defiant but useless growl, "There is no other way!" "No!" Selana screeched, vocal chords shriveling to cause a shrieking sound of agony, the cry of a dragon afraid for her young. "We will have other eggs!" he roared at her, not angry but fierce, "Other nests! We leave them here and if they are unharmed when we return in two weeks they will hatch like any other dragon and we will be okay." The roar had turned back into a persuasive and silky calm, "but unless we go all of them will surely die of our curse." When dragons weep there are no tears, but if there were Selana would have made rivers as she flew from her unborn children, away from the caves and into the cold night air she had long forgotten. The winter air made her long lungs heavy and stiff and her grief was sun into the air as the dragon mates flew wingtip to wingtip. © 2012 ShadowFauxAuthor's Note
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5 Reviews  Last Updated on September 17, 2012 Author
ShadowFauxLas Vegas, NVAboutI love fantasy with a passion and a little romance and if you don't like it back off my writing. I like reading poems and stories but I will tell you if I think it sucks or where it could use improvem.. more..Writing
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