Part 1 - Hatchling
#1 of Reincarnation: Dragoness
Our mother laid 12 eggs. 6 of us hatched, the others did not. At first it seemed only five would hatch, I was a week late. Which is normal for dragons. The others were destroyed; they never had a chance to hatch.
I only knew four of my siblings. One, the first-born had died shortly after birth. She had been named Star, being black with a silver star on her forehead. My uncle said I was an incarnation of her, seeing I was silver with a black star on my forehead, but as I grew the star faded.
Our family was small, only my father Cloud, uncle Seth, and my four brothers. My mother had died before I had hatched. We were a close family, except my uncle. My father didn't have much love for him. If he wasn't my father's brother they would have cast him out, or killed him witch was much the same thing in those parts. Dragons aren't much loved by humans and other such creatures. There was at least one Knight a week coming into our section of the forest.
I liked uncle Seth; he was very kind to me. As I grew, he took interest in me, being the only female in the clutch. He had female dragons around a lot, you could always tell because his behavior would be very strange. When ever he got into one of his "moods" my father would make him leave our cave until he took care of his urges, keeping me as far away from him as was dragonly possible.
Uncle had strange friends, many of these female dragons, some times a male, and some humans too. One being a man named Cyrus. Father never cared for Cyrus.
"Seth, I've told you about bringing humans to our cave. Think of the hatchlings!"
"Oh, don't worry so much. I've known Cyrus since I was barley out of my egg. He's a good lad, and he won't do anything to hurt the young ones. You worry too much. Just because a party of adventures killed Star doesn't mean every human in these parts will attack you. Think about it, wouldn't it be better to have some human friends to keep those who would hurt us away?"
At that my father had nothing to reply, and let the argument die. I stayed close to my father when Cyrus was around. My uncle acted even stranger when there were humans around, even worse then when he had a female. He would watch me, and it scared me.
When I was a little older, a group of knights came upon our cave. Father was out hunting, and Uncle had left us alone to talk with Cyrus. My brothers, being about a year old now were large enough to fight, or at least they thought they were. I hid in one of the back caves while they defended our home.
Father came back too late, the knights had slain all three of my brothers and taken their heads as a trophy. He found me hiding shortly after, glad I was alive, but saddened by the loss of our family, his feelings turned to rage when I told him of how uncle had left us right before we had been attacked.
When Seth returned, father attacked. I had never seen two dragons fight together, and I hope I never again. Both were wounded, and both survived...
My father picked me up and took me away. I was still small, even for a female, so he could still carry me easily. We moved to a forest full of creatures. There were many small animals like rabbits and squirrels, some times foxes, wild cats, and wolves would come as well. Other dragons and magical creatures would often come, mostly speaking with father about what humans were doing, how close they were getting to our forest, and other things like that. Often I would hear Seth's name, but never caught more than that.
It was there that I met a Faun. She was the first creature I had ever seen that was half animal and half human... I was scared at first, thinking her a human, and she was scared of my being a dragon. We laughed at that fear later, I was never sure which of us was the more scared.
It was good having a friend, for Gwen the faun was my first friend. We would travel through the forest, exploring as far as we were allowed. Some times when we would travel far Gwen would grow tired. When that happened we rested, and sometimes I even let her ride upon my back, between my wings.
To Be Continued...