Creatures Of Sonaria: Sands Of Time

Prologue

       A dark, sandy colored knarliki is drinking at Coelienth pond. Her spines are a light yellow, and her stripes are obsidian black. The moon is high in the sky, illuminating her spines and making them look like opals under the night. After she had got her fill, she trotted over the dunes back to the small sandstone cave. 

       When she saw  her home over the dune she was standing on, she saw her mate sprinting toward her. "Fylan!" he shouted, only halfway from her. "The egg is hatching!" 

       Fylan didn't ask any questions. She began running at full speed, her barbed tail whipping behind her. Her mate sharply turned and began running alongside her. 

       When they arrived at the only cave in the Carrion desert, and in her nest, a small, sand-felt egg was cracking open. Out came a head and underbelly the color of a viper's shed skin, spines the color of simple darkened yellow, and scales the color of white sandy beaches that stretched for days. Fylan picked up the little hatching and kept her close. 

       "Congratulations Fylan and kellion," their leader said, stepping through the other two sand knarlikies in the pack. The leader was a perfect sand yellow that blended easily with the sandstone around them. Even his stripes barely show because of how pale yellow they were, but they were darker than his primary scales. His spines were a dark and pale brownish yellow. 

       "Thank you, Asmore sir," Kellion said. Kellion looked much like Asmore, their leader, but with a darker tint. Kellion was the leader's son, and Fylan's mate. The other two knarlikies were Kellion's mate and her brother. Fylan was the daughter of Asmore's mate. They were like one big family, and now, there was one more to add. "We can't wait to raise our first child."

       Asmore shook his head. "Sorry, but pack rules clearly state that a SandSwept pack can only have five members. The little one's gotta go." He pointed at Fylan's child, and she only held her closer. 

       "What? But she just hatched! We can't let her go now." Fylan was hugging her child. Kellion went to join in, and looked at Asmore with a pitiful frown. 

       "We already have too many bellies to fill. The hatchling will be fine on her own, it's instinct."

        "But during a war?" Fylan said, stroking her daughter's spines. "What will become of her? She's most likely in danger!"

        Asmore looked at his mate and step-brother, then back at the grieving family. "If you do not do what the rules state, we will be forced to kill the offspring ourselves." All three of them circled Kellion and Fylan. Fylan looked down at her daughter, who was nuzzling into her mother's shoulder. 

       "Alright," Fylan said. "I'll let her go. Kellion, stay here. It'll put us at risk if all three of us go." Kellion nodded and unwrapped his arms from Fylan. 

       She carefully picked her daughter up in her jaws and went out to look for a place to hide her newborn. At night, it was much cooler than the daytime. Fylan ran and ran, looking for the perfect place to hide her child. Soon, up in the distance, the tallest mountain in the desert loomed over them from a distance. Fylan went to the underside of the mountain, where a large opening seemed to look as if something burst out of the mountain's base like an egg, and left stable rocky legs that grew and joined together to rise into the clouds. 

       Fylan quickly made her way under the mountain. A small canal lead to the lake that lead to the plains. She set her hatching down on the black rock carefully and tried walking away, but her daughter only grabbed her tail and sat there being dragged. 

       Carefully, she undid the hatchling from her tail and set her back down. "I mustn't keep you, or you'll be killed," Fylan said softly. "If you ever meet someone who means the world to you, always be there for them. Support them in everything, and stay by their side at all costs, ok?"

       The hatching tilted her head. Fylan went to a few melons growing out of the sand, pulled one from it's roots, and handed it to her daughter. She let out a joyous squeal and began feasting on the fruit, forgetting her mother was there.

       "I love you, Dune," Fylan said, and she snuck off, back to her pack, praying to the aeries above that they would protect her from any harm to come.