Hatchling

Hatchling

“Did you really think we would ever let you esscape dragon?! You may fool thesse mortalss, but you will never fool uss. We know you want them to think of you a*s a god, but we need that to sstop now. You sshall come with uss back to relieve another life, or they will never be released, not even those dead,” The largest of the creatures slurs, having a half human and half reptile speech pattern.

“You’re foolish beast!” The dragon yells, “Why can’t you just let me become a god! I swear I will get you for this, I swear that I wi-ista? Krista? Krista? Krista wake up you’ll be late!” I open my eyes, waking from my nightmare to see my sister’s overexcited face above me. She continues to shake me to make sure I am up for good.

“Marissa, I’m awake, now get off of me already!” I glare at my sister, realizing what day it is, and more importantly, how early in the morning it is. “Now, what exactly will I be late for? It’s Saturday in the middle of our winter break, Yule isn’t until Monday and there’s no birthdays for at least another month!”

“They’re hatching, Isabelle’s eggs are hatching!” My little sister squeals in excitement. Isabelle is our mother’s dragon, who had laid her eggs seventeen years ago on the day I was born. As a red dragon, and without us knowing what color her mate was because she wouldn’t tell, her eggs were never expected to hatch. Only yellows, blues, and amethysts were guaranteed living hatchlings, reds, greens, and obsidians, would only be gifted hatchlings if they mated with one of the other three colors. Hearing that Isabelle’s eggs were hatching was a shock I had been dreaming of for as long as I can remember. She had a yellow, a blue, a red, and an amethyst egg.              Three o’clock in the morning? Are these hatchling’s crazy or something? Isabelle herself would have just gotten to sleep herself on normal occasions.

“I’m coming, I’m coming, just go up and make sure we aren’t missing anything important. I will be up as soon as I get more clothes on.” As my sister fled from my room and up to the nesting area we have on the roof of our house where Isabelle and her eggs stayed, I quickly got dressed, throwing on a pair of jeans, a heavy and too big t-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. Having been at the Bonding Days and the Hatching Days of the late season, I knew that it would be dangerous if Marissa was up there by herself. Hatchlings can be lethal when they first hatch, hungry and half awake, and even having been hatched for years, will be grumpy if the wrong person tries to bond with them. Marissa was too young to go to one of the public Bonding Days or Hatching Days, and hadn’t shown interest in them anyway, and may never show interest unless she was a late bloomer.

Leaving my room and running up the three flights of stairs to the roof, I couldn’t help but think.  Though I had yet to ever attempt a bond, I was capable of it, but I had never felt a pull towards a hatchling, or even towards one of the older dragons. You had to be careful, those who weren’t careful often got hurt, or killed. I was supposed to have bonded with a dragon late this summer, before the late public season ended. Not everyone knew how intelligent dragons truly were, or how strong they are even as hatchlings. Because of their intelligence and their strength, dragon hatchlings were allowed to be extremely picky about who approaches them. They had absolutely no limit as to what they would do if the wrong person tried to bond with them, including kill them, and then rip them to shreds because they were dumb enough to try.

My sister, being ignorant to this, and thinking that dragons were just big, dumb animals that are kept as a mode of transportation, would be dumb enough to try. After ‘flying’ past my parents still dark bedroom and sleeping forms I reach the door to the roof, and see my sister within a foot of the shaking eggs, which have now formed cracks in their shells. Without thinking I run out and grab my sister, not stopping until we were back behind the plexiglas door and she was sitting secured on my lap.

“Sissy what are you doing?” She asks me, without a single hint of fear in her voice, just confusion.

“Nothing except for trying to keep you safe sis, eggshells hurt when they hit you.” I only tell her half of the truth, she doesn’t need to know everything quite yet.  I look back outside, to see Isabelle still asleep, no wonder she wasn’t growling at Marissa, and realize none of the adults are awake.  “Marissa, why aren’t mom, dad, and Isabelle awake?”

“Well mommy and daddy were sleeping peacefully and I know that they need their sleep, while you were having enough of a nightmare to throw a glass of water against the wall and wake me up. I didn’t wake Isabelle up because she scares me. It’s not like the hatchlings can do anything or go anywhere though right?” I can’t help but laugh at her ignorance, I want to yell at her for stupidity, but I know she doesn’t know any better. Through the corner of my eye I see an eggshell go flying past where she just was, all the way off the edge of the roof, at least she was right about them hatchling.

“Actually Marissa, without mom, dad, or Isabelle awake when they finish hatching, they will start attacking each other because they’re hungry, or they may crawl off the side of the roof in search for food, so can you be a good girl, and go wake up mom and dad? If you do that I’ll wake up Isabelle, Okay?”  When she nods I let her off of my lap and she bolts back down to mom and dad’s bedroom.

With a deep breath I open the door and leave its safety, running across the roof to Isabelle’s side, where I run my hand along her wing gently. A dragon’s wing is one of the most sensitive parts of their bodies, second only to their horns and spines, made entirely of overactive nerves. With the blink of a single eye she looks at me dumbfounded, and all I can do to explain why I’m waking her up is point at her eggs. In a flash of movement that can’t be understood by human eyes, she has one of her wings shielding me, a group of flying eggshell fragments hitting it less than a second later. My mother and I are the only ones in the family, who are able to speak with purely our minds to Isabelle, though I have been training myself with mental silence, a defensive and offensive tactic. I give Isabelle a nod of thanks, and run back to the other side of the nest, and get behind the plexiglas door. As I close the door I turn around, and watch the eggs explode from within like fireworks, the majority flying off of the side of the roof as the hatchlings begin trying to stand.

As the hatchlings shake themselves free of any remaining shell or membrane, I hear my pregnant mother and asthmatic father jog up the stairs behind me. I silently start to open the door again, feeling a need to be the one to go out and feed them. My father, huffing and puffing, places a hand on my shoulder, stopping me only long enough to put a bucket of raw meat in my hands, to feed them with. Exiting the safety of the stairwell, again, I walk towards the group of hatchlings, not looking at them, instead staring at Isabelle’s wingclaw. I start tossing the meat out towards the three hatchlings directly at my feet, and they move away as they get a piece, munching happily away until they see the others eating as well. Despite telling myself not too, I look to my right, and lock eyes with the calm, and gorgeous, amethyst hatchling.

Author's Note

There is a repeat, a recap, from the prologue, so that if you stop between the prologue and the first chapter, and forget you don't have to reread the prologue to know where you are.