Wings of white fire

Chapter 3

-Zara-

I felt an insistent nudge and fluttered my eyes open. I glanced up the blue scales of my mate to see Kai blinking tiredly. He wavered on his feet and looked as though he was about to collapse.

"You okay?" I asked with a yawn. I leaned into my mate as we lay together tiredly for a moment.

"Yeh, just exhausted. It's only been a few days and their hunger is endless." Kai muttered as he shut his eyes. We stayed resting but a moment later, we heard chirping and crealing from the nest nearby.

I sighed and staggered to my own feet. I nudged noses with Kai in a kiss and trotted over to the nest a few inches away. In the beginning we had slept beside the dragonlings, but they begged so often and made so much noise that neither of us got any sleep. Now we took shifts resting beside them and tended to their endless needs while the other slept fitfully. After a couple of days of this, Kai and I were basically sleep walking.

I dragged myself into the nest and licked Hane who was wiggling and crying. He was making all the noise but quieted instantly after I made my presence known. My son just chirped quietly while I moved to his sister. Nevada snuffled and chirped happily when I licked her face. Both nestlings had opened their eyes a day or so after they had hatched, but only Hane was wobbling around on shaky legs, trying to escape the nest. Nevada was much smaller and weaker than her brother, her range of motion consisted of her lifting her head on her fragile neck and shuffling millimetre by millimetre. My little girl's eyes were a cloudy violet and her eyesight was blurry. Her albinism meant she squinted and had to sniff things to get an idea of them. Her cries were also so small and barely heard over her brothers, and I got so worried for my weak daughter.

At this moment, Nevada shuffled to me and nuzzled into my leg. I licked her face again while Hane crawled up to my other leg and whined insistently. I let out a reassuring purr and picked up a piece of fruit lying on a large leaf just outside the nest. I gently brushed Hane to the side and pressed the small chunk of fruit to Nevada's lips. She licked the juices experimentally and took a small nibble. She squeaked in surprise and dug straight into the chunk, gnawing at it hurriedly. I mentally checked this piece as an edible fruit. Nevada was a fussy eater and wouldn't eat anything unless she deemed it edible. I looked down to her gobbling the fruit and changed that thought from edible to very much enjoyed. I smiled. It had taken so long and so much worrying to find things my snow white daughter would actually consume. I fed Nevada as much as she would eat until her belly became distended and fell asleep a few minutes later.

All the while, Hane hadn't stopped begging for food. He squeaked and whistled for attention while I fed Nevada, but I couldn't feed Hane before Nevada. My silver son could gobble mind blowing amounts of fruit and by the time he was full, his sister's appetite would fade and Nevada would just fall asleep. It seemed all she did was sleep, nibble a bit and sleep some more.

Now that I was done with Nevada, Hane ate piece after piece of colourful fruit, not fussy at all, until he conked out with a distended belly. Hane curled up around her tiny sister, a protective older brother as always.

I sighed. They were asleep again and I sat down to watch over them. My post was curled around, intensely staring at my children but with an ear tuff flicked back to track any outside noise. Nevada was a little snowball, still accept for the rise and fall of her breath and Hane was a shiny circle of silver encompassing the snowball. I smiled and looked at them adoringly. Like any mother, I wholeheartedly believed my children were the cutest things on this planet. But as a I watched them; a niggling worry ate at my mind.

When Nevada was first born, all we could do was wait and see what would happen. But as the days passed, it became clear that our daughter didn't act like a normal Dragonet hatchling was supposed to. Our albino daughter was fussy, for the first few feedings, she wouldn't eat and shook her head, avoiding any attempts to try the fruit. She could barely move and just shuffled about the nest and bumped into things. At any impact, she would quietly cry and whimper until Kai or I comforted her. Also, her ability to see was weak and she mainly sniffed her way around. She hadn't even attempted to stand, while Hane was experimentally standing after just a day. It was all worrying and I kept the whole flock up to date so they could give any advice to help.