A New Beginning: Passing The Torch

Chapter 2

Taureen's fancy scanner was able to determine their gender, but not the color of their scales. There were three possible colors for a female; gold, red, and green – and thus, three possible names.

I moved my tail to form a shield around Dirk as his sister's egg exuberantly careened right in his direction, almost as if she had him on her radar. My tail gently deflected her egg even as I started to lightly rub warm sand across Dirk's damp wings to dry them. His scales would be very soft and delicate for the next day or so until they hardened.

His neck seemed far too flimsy to hold his head up, and his head bobbed unsteadily when he tried to move it. The soft, blunt claws would soon harden, although it would be a few weeks before they got sharp.

He had the appeal that most young creatures had, and like most mothers, I was convinced that he was as cute as a button. His over-sized and uncoordinated wings made him look particularly adorable.

It didn't take me long to clean up Dirk and help him settle down for a nap. He managed to curl up into a tiny ball all on his own, although he had needed some assistance with his wings.

His sister's egg was currently rolling around me in laps.

Her laps weren't exactly intentional. I had curled up around her sleeping brother, using my tail, body, and wings to form a barricade, and she was simply rolling against my scales since the now-raised sides of the nest finally kept her contained in the nest.

I bumped her egg with my snout, humming more deeply. She responded with a few more rather-energetic rolls before pausing, likely to rest. Keegan poked his head into the entrance, and I stretched out my neck to bump noses with my mate.

He reached further in to gently nuzzle the blue hatchling before backing out of the entrance momentarily. There wasn't enough room in the stump for both of us to fit comfortably, but it wasn't long before Keegan returned with a small bowl of fruit and stuck his head and shoulders in the entrance.

I ate a few pieces while Keegan nudged Dirk awake with a croon. Dirk may have been soundly asleep, but the sound had an immediate effect as he woke up and began creeling for food.

It was kind of surprising how much food he managed to eat before instantly falling into a sound sleep. Keegan reluctantly backed out of the entrance; he didn't want to leave, but even though his head and arms fit in the entrance, the small opening pinched his wings and sides. My daughter's egg did another lap around me.

Several laps later, I finally pinned her egg between my hands. The activity inside stilled, as if in shock that I had curtailed her movement. It didn't last long though, and shortly afterwards, she resorted to knocking around inside the egg once more. With her efforts no longer being converted into momentum, the cracks spread rapidly across the egg.

Finally, at long last, one corner of the shell broke open, and a scarlet snout stuck itself out of the hole as she took her first real breaths of fresh air. The small egg tooth on the end of her nose would fall off within hours, but it was needed to break out of the hard shell. I sent a mental image of it to the others, trying to include them as best I could when my protective motherly instincts were in overdrive.

Tessa's nose withdrew into her shell as she began rocking and banging around again. I carefully broke a few pieces away from her air hole as I enlarged the opening somewhat.

It was as much assistance as I dared to give her. Forcing the hatching of any bird or reptile was often detrimental to their health, and I wasn't about to take a chance with my daughter when she was doing a fine job on her own.

Before too much time had passed, she managed to break free, squeaking in alarm at the sudden lack of confining walls. I quickly dried her off as Keegan brought more fruit. She ate just as much as her brother had before falling asleep.

I finally stood up with a tired sigh, regarding the two tiny balls of blue and red scales that were curled up side by side. My wing muscles were stiff, and I really wanted to stretch – something that wasn't possible in this small shelter.

Considering that they were sleeping soundly and shouldn't wake for at least another hour, I decided to take a break while I could. I squeezed through the narrow entrance before spreading my wings in a wide stretch, arching my back as my claws sunk deep into the sand. Finished, I shook my scales until they chimed as I looked around.

Taureen was still on the couch beside the end table, as he had been since the eggs had first started seriously rocking. The sun hadn't set yet, so I assumed that roughly three hours had passed, which was about average according to the other dragonets.

The long wait didn't seem to bother the ever-patient Kymari as he asked, "How are they doing?"

"They are sleeping at the moment. Although I doubt that will last long." I looked at the bowl of fruit on the edge of the table. "We are going to need more fruit than that before the sun rises."

He looked at the bowl in mild surprise; it currently held more than what I normally ate in one sitting. "I'm not sure how they can possibly eat that much, but I will bring more out before I go to bed."

Having previously helped feed several nestlings, I knew what I was up against. Thankfully, there was always a large stockpile of fruit in the kitchen, so it wasn't as if we would run out. I was capable of getting the fruit out of the preservation shelves and cutting it up, but I knew that Taureen preferred to do it.

I asked Keegan, "Can you watch the nest for a moment?"

"Of course."

After three hours, I really needed a bathroom break and quickly flew to the bathroom. The Kymari lavatories were fairly similar to the old human ones, and it was possible for the dragonets to use them. A shallow dish of water and a soft towel on the counter allowed us to rinse off our hands and feet.

The youngsters would use a litter tray filled with sand until they weren't so clumsy, although I would be cleaning the nest for the first couple of days. Taureen had been kind enough to sew small scraps of leather into gloves so I didn't have to touch their 'presents' with my bare hands. The wild dragonets usually used leaves for this chore.

I was just thankful that I would only have to do it for a couple of days. They would be mobile enough to walk within two days. By the end of the week, they would be able to fly; a clumsy flight, but flight nonetheless.

Dragonets grew up quickly. From what we had seen so far, by the end of their first year, they were basically young adults and almost as big as their parents, although it would be about five years before they were fully grown and mature.

But that was a long way into the future; they weren't even an hour old yet, and they had a lot of growing ahead of them.

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