Bonds of Fire

A Meeting of Magic

Drekken stood at the side of the small courtyard in which he had found his new charges and watched as they all mourned. Besthan had passed almost as soon as the children had been retrieved from his protection and Drekken had withdrawn to keep watch as they paid their respects. He could not allow them long, since the Feras warrior would not have been alone, but a few minutes had been begged of him.

The two youths had their arms around each other and around the small gaggle of hatchlings of different ages and races. Despite the mountains around the valley being old dragon country, Drekken was surprised by the hatchlings' diversity. There was one Blue, stocky and already growing his wide, flat crest, clearly the oldest of the babies. He was gently nuzzling two pale Sandys, as their long, spiny tails flicked in fear and they hid their narrow heads against their human carers. The Sandys were flanking an iridescent River Dragon hatchling, who was whimpering quietly and looking up at Besthan's body. A little female Hawkhead, although standing with her companions, was looking under Malachi's arm at Drekken, her yellow eyes regarding him with suspicion. He gazed evenly back for a moment, reviewing the intelligence he saw there and then inclined his head to her.

His move was received with a frown: it appeared more would be needed to convince the young lizard that he was friendly. Yet, his senses on alert, Drekken was distracted from his silent exchange by a sound coming from the house behind him. The crunching of rock on rock was not enough to be a human footfall, but the Feras had remote units to do their scouting for them and Drekken ducked into the doorway quickly to find the device before it transmitted anything back to base. He paused on entry, letting his eyes adjust to the shadow and cursing the fact his helmet and therefore his scanner were in pieces. It was movement that caught his eye, a shift on the surface of a pile of stones in a box in the corner and, quickly, Drekken crossed to it, arm out ready to fry any hostile find. However, there was no glint of metal in the box and, as the stones crunched again, falling towards the edges of the box, Drekken sank to his knees and took a closer look.

The container was full of small pieces of volcanic rock that, once he was nearer, Drekken could feel giving off heat. The surface moved once more, some stones bouncing over the side of the box, and, this time, Drekken saw something pale appear up through the centre of the dark brown pile. When that something moved on its own, Drekken realised he was looking at a tiny, struggling snout. His reaction was instantaneous, he reached to help and began rapidly clearing stones away from his discovery. His big hands made short work of the light pebbles, and soon he was looking down at the delicate, miniature crest of a baby Grey Wing, broken shell still clinging to her egg-horn. Drekken's heart went out to the small creature as he saw his own dragon reflected back at him and it was pure instinct that meant he scooped the baby out of her nest and cradled her against his chest. He could feel her life, as tiny as her body, and her magic reached out to him, but, as her head fell against him, Drekken felt the baby struggling.

Drekken knew very little about young dragons, but he did know this one needed help, and so he stood quickly and hurried outside.

"Hey!" he called as loudly as he dared, trotting over to the youths.

He held out his find, who fitted neatly into the palms of his hands and told them, "Help her."

The two young men were on their feet quickly and Malachi took the dragon from him. Drekken sat on an illogical instinct to grab the baby back, but he couldn't hold down an anxiety that just wasn't his normal reaction to anything and he asked, "What's wrong?"

"I can't believe she hatched," Malachi looked surprised and happy at the same time as worried, which didn't make Drekken feel any better.

"We didn't know if the egg was even fertile," Yakov added, gently wiping away bits of yolk and shell from the little creature's body as Malachi examined her.