The Land of Dragons

Chapter 18

Of course the picture above is my attempt at photoshopping, but it fitted the chapter :) (and also I own none of the pics used, so tell me if you have a problem with it)

After Chapter 17

Suddenly, all the eggs had stopped moving. Everyone looked at theirs, puzzled. Then in the silence, a small cracking noise could be heard. Then another one.

Carlos looked at the brownish-reddish egg and took a sharp breath. There was a crack on the side of it.

The next one was Pierre. His sky-blue egg also cracked and a tiny claw was visible.

Nearly at the same time as Pierre's, Alex's egg began hatching, too. The Thai's face lit up curiously as he saw a dark blue snout busily widening a gap.

Max's and Charles' eggs followed the others. Max was again a bit untrusting. Charles, in contrast, looked genuinely curious.

Finally, Lando's egg also cracked. Lando crouched down next to it. He sensed something amazing was going to happen and he was very excited.

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While the youngsters were watching the eggs, none of them noticed that they are also being watched. Hidden by the thick foliage of the forest, two people were watching, holding back their breath. When a small, triangle-shaped head emerged from Carlos' egg, the two of them exchanged an excited glance.

On the other side of the clearing was another person, hiding behind the trees. While the other two paid attention to every driver, this person only had eyes for one. As his egg broke in half, the person smiled, memories of a faraway time coming into his mind.

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Carlos examined the creature that had just climbed out of the egg. It was skinny and bony and its head was two sizes big for it. It had a reddish, squirrel-like colour. It opened its eyes and looked up at Carlos. The Spaniard smiled at the openness on its face. He began humming the song. The creature's face lit up and it joined him with its chirping voice. It even made some clumsy dance moves in which Carlos joined in happily.

Pierre's creature clearly hadn't come over the fact yet that it almost got eaten. As soon as it climbed out of the egg, it climbed straight onto Pierre's lap.

After some rest it finally gathered its courage and continued climbing up his arm and then it perched on the Frenchman's head, much to the delight of Charles. Pierre tried to make the creature climb down, and it actually did - just to go another round and climb up again.

Alex observed the creature like he usually did with any animal he came over. This one was dark blue, with a lighter, sky-blue streak with some turquoise in it across its back from the head to the tip of its long tail. It was the size of a chihuahua. It had four legs and talons with pointy claws. It had no fur - its skin was similar to lizards. Also, it had two long bumps along its body on each side of the spine. Alex couldn't guess the use of those - he assumed they were just for decoration.

Max eyed the dark green creature sceptically. Sure, it looked a lot harmless than the spiders and even the crows but it was still moving and doing weird things so Max decided to keep his distance at first. The creature looked like it noticed his uneasiness and hid behind the Dutchman. Max turned to keep an eye on it but it made its way behind him again, clearly enjoying the game.

Charles was curious. The deep red creature climbed out from the egg and frowned, then looked curiously at Charles. It seemed like it was trying to read his mind. Then it climbed onto his lap and looked inside the kangaroo pocket. Then it looked back at Charles.

"You can't climb in there, little one," Charles said. "My arm's hurt."

As if it had understood what he said, the creature made perfect puppy eyes. Charles gave in and pulled out his arm, laying it on his lap with a wince. The creature approached his arm cautiously. Charles frowned. Didn't it want to climb into the pocket? Clearly not. It slowly and deliberately stepped over the Monegasque's injured arm, glanced at Charles...

...and let itself collapse with its belly on his wrist. Charles took a sharp breath as pain shot into his arm. He was about to scold the creature when he realised that the pain had lessened considerably. A spark of thought came alight in the back of his mind and he glanced at Alex. He was sitting with his back to the tree trunk and his creature was lying on his ankle just like Charles'. The Monegasque looked at the red lizard-something on his arm. Its face was as if it was saying I told you!.

Lando's creature was a deep blue, the stripe on its back a sunny yellow. It's almost like McLaren, Lando thought and smiled. The creature had a mischievous light gleaming in its eyes. It seemed to be born for mischief. With a challenging chirp, it jumped away from the Brit, who laughed and began chasing the little one around the clearing.

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In the meantime, the sun had began setting in the sky. Pierre surveyed the scene on the clearing. It looked definitely peaceful, although he couldn't get out the tiny doubt from his mind that the creatures could get them into a lot more trouble than any of them had thought.

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Some new characters :)

Hope you will like them :)

Edited 14.04.2024