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it was a moonless night when the egg started to crack open. It laid in a nest of cool green leaves beside a small river in a remote forest. They squeaked. The air outside their shell was cold. Huge talons lifted them, and the eggshell splintered more.
They felt themselves being submerged into warm water. The dragonet squirmed.

Now it's warm. Now I can hatch. They thought, though not in actual words.
They pushed against the blue walls around them, and felt the shell break apart at their touch. Soothing blue water rushed in, and the dragonet swam with blind instinct upwards.
A splash sounded as they broke the surface. The big claws reached for them again, and the dragonet let the talons scoop them up. Green eyes and dark blue scales filled their vision as the dragon looked them over.

She warbled something that they didn’t uderstand, and set them on the ground. The dragonet reached up, wanting to get back to the warmth of their mother’s arms. But the big dragon turned away. She fiddled with something that they couldn’t see. The dragonet purred on delight when she turned around again and picked them up.
She set them in a sturdy cagelike nest of sticks. The dragonet turned around and looked back at their mother as she walked silently away into the night.


“Chima! Quit dawdling and get on with it!”
the voice, sharp as ever pierced their thoughts. Their eyes flew open as Mother snapped her tail in exasperation
They squinted, locating the fish. They stabbed their tail fireward, spearing it with the pointy end.

Furthet down the river, Lumine was stalking his own fish.
Orchid and Nile had already caught theirs and were eating under a tree. Chima was walking over to them with their fish, when a scavenger burst into the clearing, waving a silver claw-thing.
It charged at Lumine, who shreiked and jumped back. Orchid sprang up and ran at the scavenger, roaring. The scavenger sqeaked and shrank down for a moment; as Orchid snapped at it, it thrust its claw-thing into her throat.
She screamed.
Chima stood, unable to move. Lumine, on the other talon, was now a ball of fire, shouting and roaring and running at the scavenger. He smacked it with his tail and it thudded into a tree. It crumpled in the ground, unmoving.
Chima looked around. Mother was sitting under the tree, looking but not helping. She hadnt even blinked as her daughter was slaughtered.
Chima felt their blood boil.
Mother doesn’t care?! Orchid just died!
as they jerked back to reality, Chima walked slowly over to their sister’s body, and laid down besides her with Nile. Lumine was panting heavily as he came to press close to the others.
Chima felt a lump in their throat.
Orchid was gone.
And Mother didn’t care.