35. Aurora
AURORA
I stood there stunned, unable to answer. I’d been warned that Impression happens in an instant—that the moment the shells of the eggs hardened the drakelings inside would be seeking their rider. But I still just couldn’t process how a ten-minute delay had cost me my entire future at the Academy.
Larson won, I thought numbly, surveying the shiny black Hatching Sands and all the happy cadets, stroking their eggs. He won—it’s over. Leesbruck was right—I was never meant to get an egg. I’m too small, too weak. I could never…
And then I heard it—floating through the air like a melody for my ears alone, I heard a soft, plaintive whisper in the back of my brain.
“come…please…need you.”
It was so faint I could barely “hear” it and yet it tickled my brain and wouldn’t stop.
Ignoring Master Yarsmouth, who was still trying to comfort me, I walked out onto the burning sands, looking for the source of the tiny mind-sound.
I walked past Jorn-o, who was stroking a medium sized green egg with a beatific smile on his face and Leaper who was squatting beside a large, amber colored egg that shimmered bronze in the golden light from the overhead glows.
Toady and Bugs had eggs too, but I ignored them all as I followed the tiny musical wail only I could hear.
It led me to the back of the vast cavern and when I looked down, I realized I was standing in front of all the abandoned golden eggs—the ones that never hatched. Squatting down beside them, I looked at their shiny gold shells, wondering which one was speaking to me.
“here…here!” I heard a tiny mind-voice cry.
I was almost certain it was coming from the smallest egg of all—the little one I’d noticed on my first trip to the Hatching Grounds—the one that was half the size of all the others.
Stooping, I laid one hand gently on the smooth metallic shell. At once the little voice got louder in my mind.
“waiting so long!” it—no, she, complained. Because somehow I knew without asking that the drakeling inside was female.
“course i’m female,” was the indignant reply and I realized that—at least while I was touching the shell—the little dragon inside could hear me as well as I was hearing her.
“what took you so long?” she wanted to know. “been dreaming of you…so many years waiting…why you took too long to come to me?”
“I’m sorry, little one,” I said softly, knowing she would hear the words with her mind as well as with her ears. “I didn’t know you were waiting.”
“well you should!” The drakeling inside sounded cross—almost imperious. Also absolutely adorable. As I stroked her shell, I could already imagine holding her in my arms and looking into her big, golden eyes.
My drakeling—because I felt very strongly that she was mine—seemed to catch this mental image because she sent one back to me.
I abruptly saw myself feeding her a big bowl of raw meat and scratching her behind the eye ridges as she ate and hummed with pleasure.
I couldn’t stop my swell of amusement.
“Hungry, are you?” I asked, laughing.
I got a burst of indignation from the being within the golden shell.
“course i’m hungry! been waiting for years and years for you to feed me!” she exclaimed. Then, more plaintively, she sent me feelings of extreme hunger pangs.
Suddenly, I was so hungry myself I felt like I could eat a ten-course feast. So this was what it meant to share emotions with a dragon. Hers were so strong they could easily bend mine to match—if I wasn’t careful. I would have to guard myself carefully, so I didn’t do anything foolish.
But there was one emotion I didn’t even try to keep a check on and that was the absolute love I already felt for the little being within the golden shell.
“I can’t wait to hold you,” I whispered, stroking the smooth, warm surface. “Can’t wait to see you.”
The drakeling informed me that she was building strength as fast as she could. She was absorbing the last of the yolk sack, which she’d been saving for years. Hopefully, it would give her the strength to break through the shell soon.
I was just about to answer when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder.
“What do you think you’re doing, lad?” a stern voice said.
Looking up, I saw Master Yarsmouth looking down at me.
“Sir?” I said. I didn’t understand why he was upset, though I could tell he was by the way his brows were drawn low, and his mouth was curved into a frown.
“Just because you missed Impression doesn’t mean you can take an egg from the back,” he warned me. “I know it hurts to be the only one without a dragon, lad, but these eggs are in deep hibernation. They can’t help you.”
“But I’m talking to this one,” I said, stroking the shell of the smallest golden egg. “There’s a little girl drakeling inside—she’s already speaking to me.”
His frown deepened.
“That’s impossible. That egg was laid over a century ago! And it’s so small, the drakeling inside is probably malformed. It can’t talk to you.”
“She,” I corrected him. “And I swear to you, Master—she is talking. She’s telling me how hungry she is and how she can’t wait to come out so I can feed her and scratch her itches.”
He drew back but there was a skeptical, sorrowful look on his face.
“Lad, you’re only making things worse for yourself. Think how this will play out on Hatching Day when all the other cadets’ eggs hatch and that one just sits there.”
I felt anger building in me at his stubborn refusal to believe me but somehow I swallowed it down.
“Master Yarsmouth, I swear to you, I’m not lying,” I told him. “I heard her calling me. She’s in there and I can hear her voice in my mind.”
He gave me a pitying look.
“Well…very well, if you wish to fool yourself, I won’t try again to stop you. Hatching Day will come soon enough and then you’ll have to admit you were wrong.”
I swallowed a lump of anger and the desire to tell him that he would be the one admitting that he was wrong when Hatching Day came.
“Just let me stay with the egg,” I said instead, keeping my voice level through a monumental effort of will. “Let me talk to her. She tells me she’s been waiting for me for a long, long time.”
Master Yarsmouth only shook his head sorrowfully.
“As you wish, lad.”
Then he walked away looking sad, which only made me angrier.
But when I touched the shell again, the little drakeling inside felt my emotions.
“why mad?” she wanted to know.
But when I tried to explain, she got angry too.
“bad old one! tell him I am coming! tell him i will break the shell soon!” she demanded.
“I tried,” I told her. “He didn’t believe me.”
“i will break the shell and bite him! he can’t make you feel bad like that!”
And she sent me a vivid mental image of her sinking her sharp little fangs into Master Yarsmouth’s skinny leg. I realized she must have picked up from my mind what he looked like, but this was a bad start—she was already getting bloodthirsty!
“No, no—you can’t bite anyone,” I protested in a low voice, hoping no one could hear me. The other drakelings were asking for lullabies and cuddles—mine was already planning an assault!
“i will too! i will bite anyone who tries to hurt my rider!” she promised.
I felt a surge of love for her wash over me. She was already showing the protective, possessive instincts that made dragons so unique.
“You won’t have to bite anyone,” I told her.
“You don’t have to protect me—I’ll be the one protecting you.
I can’t wait to meet you, little…” I trailed off because I hadn’t thought of a name for her yet.
It was tradition that a rider should name his dragon when he or she broke the shell.
I would have to think of something good for her—something regal and grand and befitting her fiery temper.
But my little drakeling surprised me again.
“L’eesha,” she informed me. “L’eesha is my name and i am coming out soon! i will order the other eggs to hurry so we can hatch together and meet our new riders.”
I had never heard of a drakeling naming herself—or of one who could order the other drakelings from inside her egg. Was my little one having delusions of grandeur?
Maybe so, but her imperious nature made her absolutely irresistible to me. I couldn’t wait to hug her and cuddle her and feed her and bathe her and immerse myself in her completely.
“soon,” I heard her promise. “soon i will break the shell. be ready for me, Auri. i am coming!”
So she knew my name as well as her own. What a marvelously clever little creature she was!
I felt like a proud mother as I cradled her little egg in my arms. It was so small it fit in my lap, and I didn’t even care that the sands were too hot against my bottom as I sat to hold and stroke the golden egg.
Soon she would be mine and I would be hers. In the meantime, all I could do was wait for Hatching Day and hope that my fierce little drakeling was strong enough to break through the shell and find me.