But someone got careless. They didn't gather enough penguin feathers to make a proper nest. They had five eggs that millennium, already having cared for them for hundreds of years. The five would hatch soon after they reached their desert retreat. Baby dragons needed lots of warmth, not the frigid wind of the icelands.
So imagine their surprise when they arrived and found only four eggs. Even worse, the missing one was the largest, and most probably a rare Golden Dragon egg. Those eggs occurred randomly to the various types of dragons, but there had not been one in at least five thousand years.
The dragons were upset.
The rock trolls, on the other hand, were quite surprised when a lovely stone rolled into their home cave and came to rest just before the cooking fire.
"Odd rock," Olga the troll said as she neared it. The 'rock' rolled away from the fire. "Smart rock."
By then, Chief Petof had been roused to come and take a look. Pretty and smart rocks didn't often just fall into their home.
He took one look and backed away in such haste that he almost fell and shoved the egg into the flames. Lucky for everyone, both rock troll and dragon egg avoided each other.
"What's wrong?" Olga asked.
"Dragon egg!" the chief shouted. "Get it out of here before they think we stole it!"
Although it was only about five foot long, Olga couldn't pick it up on her own. It took her and three more hefty Rock Troll women to get it hoisted up and out the opening. Then, at the chief's orders, they took it along the ridge line by two miles, put it down, and pushed it off the cliff.
Imagine the faes' surprise when the egg rolled into their forest camp. Several Fae leapt out of the way, but one woman stepped forward and stopped it.
"Are you crazy, Kerris?" someone demanded. "That's dragon egg!"
"Golden Dragon egg," she said with a nod as she squatted before it. She tapped lightly. It tapped back. "And ready to hatch, too. We don't want a baby golden dragon lost in the woods, especially when the other dragons come looking for it. Is it migration time again already?"
"I suppose it is," Sherist said as he came forward. "The time passes so quickly. Does anyone know where their desert refuge is? Can we get the egg there quickly enough?"
"And safely," Kerris added. "We need to move fast. I see a crack. Unless we want to spend most of eternity raising a baby dragon, we need to get the egg there now."
The twenty fae move fast, forming a square around the egg and carefully starting to lift it into the air. The local bard sat on the dragon egg and lulled the babies into a quiet sleep.
"Twins," Redkin the bard warned the others. "Two golden dragon babes. Strong ones. Let's go."
Sherist knew the general direction of the Dragon refuge in the desert. They went quickly over Europe, the Mediterranean, and then began looking --
It was surprisingly easy to find dragons that hadn't been spotted in over three thousand years. They had kicked up so much sand and dust that it looked like an unexpected storm. It was so much wind, too, that it was impossible to sweep down in and give back the little ones.
"Hey!" Kerris shouted down into the heart of the trouble. "We found your egg."
Everything went still, the golden sand drifting downward and half covering a dozen huge dragons, all of whom looked up.
"About to hatch. Twins. Where do you want them?"
That got the dragons moving -- and arguing again, but they quickly dug a bowl out of some stone and the fae were twice as fast to put the egg down and back away. They never did spend much time with the dragons, which seemed a mistake to Kerris. There was no other creature that lived as long as the fae and the dragons. They could have discussed the old days before humans.
"We are indebted," a dragon said softly - or what passed for soft for their kind. "How did it come to you? We can scent Rock Trolls, too."
"It just rolled into our camp," Kerris said. "We realized it would be important to get it to you immediately. Our bard says you have twins. Congratulations. Best that we get out of the way now so that there is no chance they bond with any of us."
The dragons agreed and the fae left just at the first soft cries of baby dragons.
Back at their forest retreat they settled in and celebrated getting out of such a close call.
They hadn't expected the dragons to stop by.
"Music," an older Jade said but with a snarl that showed what she thought of such fae-ish things. "They heard fae music, and now they won't sleep until they hear it again."
The bard stepped forward. The two young golden dragons were not in a good mood, having not slept in weeks already. Redkin began to sing a soft lullaby and in a few moments all the dragons were asleep.
The fae decided this was a good time for a nap.
The nap lasted a few weeks and even the Elder Jade Dragon pronounced it wondrous. So the dragons stayed until the baby Goldens were old enough to sleep on their own and a few of the other dragons had learned the magic of music.
It was an interesting four centuries for all of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment