The Egg Assignment, part 1
#43 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl learns an important life lesson--how to take care of an egg
Author ramblings: I think I said in the last journal that I was going to write a story mini-series for Jarzyl's parents, but writing explicit scenes is honestly kind of boring for me. Worldbuilding or silly character development stuff is much more fun. So here's a story about Jarzyl the dragon fledgling, learning about fledgling things. (4,936 words)
Not really related image, but cute
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Jarzyl Mintaka trotted quickly after her schoolteacher, taking slightly quicker steps to make up for a shorter stride. As a fledgling, Jarzyl was_almost_ as big as a fully grown dragon, but still almost. Using her tail, she tugged along a trolley cart on which large squarish cardboard boxes were stacked. Jarzyl dutifully pulled the trolley behind her as she followed Drak Tasilus, who was pulling an identical cart with yet more of those same boxes.
"Thank you for your assistance, Jarzyl," said the drake, as they approached the classroom.
"Glad to help!" Jarzyl cheerfully replied. She glanced curiously at the cardboard boxes--there were about as many boxes as there were fledglings in her class group, but without any label or marking to indicate their contents. "What are all these boxes for?"
"For the special lesson that's coming up next," Tasilus replied cryptically. He used his shoulder to nudge open the classroom door, then the drake strolled into the classroom. Jarzyl followed, and at her teacher's bidding, the two carts and all the cardboard boxes were left at the front of the room. "Just leave them here... thank you, that's all."
Jarzyl strolled back towards her desk. Including herself, there were just under two dozen dragon fledglings currently occupying the classroom. Some were seated at their desks and diligently doing schoolwork. Then there were other fledglings who had their heads resting on their desks or tucked under a wing, sneaking a quick nap between classes to catch up on sleep debt. And finally there were a few other young dragons who were just standing around, chatting and socializing.
Jarzyl tapped her paws against her floor cushion to get the stuffing evenly distributed, and then she sat down at her desk. As she sat down, a fledgling with dark, leaf-green scales leaned over--her friend Caden. "What's in those boxes?"
A lazy shrug of her wings and flick of her neck frill was Jarzyl's response. "No idea. Drak Tasilus asked me to help him bring some things from the staff office over to our classroom, but he didn't say what it was. He only mentioned that it was for some... some special lesson we've got coming up next?"
"Oh.That. Ok, I think I can guess what's in those boxes then." Caden shook her head dismissively and rolled her eyes.
Jarzyl nudged her friend. "Hmm? What? What lesson do we have next?"
"You don't know?"
"All I know is that our schedule today is supposed to be for math class, but that it was cancelled or rescheduled? What's going on?"
"Hah." Caden laughed, and she gave an amused, faintly smug grin to Jarzyl. "If you don't know, you'll find out soon enough."
"How_unhelpful_, you are," Jarzyl grumbled. She leaned towards her other neighbour, sitting at the desk towards her left side. "Atlas!"
Atlas had sooty dark scales that seemed to absorb all light, but by far the most unusual aspect of his appearance was that he was missing his left foreleg--he was a three-legged dragon, from some childhood injury or congenital defect that he had never been quite clear about. Regardless, just like Caden, he was one of Jarzyl's close friends.
Atlas had his tail coiled forward, using it like an ink brush to write on an assignment sheet. With his dark scales it was impossible to see the black ink staining his tail tip as he used the dextrous appendage to scribble out sentences. "Yes, Jarz?" he murmured, not looking up from his work.
"What class do we have next? It's not math. There's some special class scheduled instead this week, and I think for next week too?" Jarzyl asked.
Atlas shrugged. "I remember it was something called_Fledgling Developmental Skills_? Or Fledgling Development Skills? I don't know. Let me finish this assignment--I'm almost done and I want to complete it before the next class starts..."
"Huh." Jarzyl leaned back towards Caden. "Caden, what's_Fledgling Developmental Skills_?"
"What do you think?" Caden still had that faintly amused expression. "Come on, use that magnificent brain of yours. We're not hatchlings anymore, we're fledglings--you know what_development_ means."
Jarzyl frowned, and her neck frill perked up off her head. "Uhh... It means that... that our wings are stronger and we can fly? But they teach flying in flight school, so that can't be what this next lesson is going to be about."
Caden just laughed. "Hahaha. Not flying, no. The other part of growing up."
"Magic?" Jarzyl guessed.
"No, magic is taught in vocational classes. The other,_other_part of growing up. Are you just playing dumb?"
"You are not being helpful!" Jarzyl declared, but answers were to come shortly.
"Good afternoon, class! I know it's just before lunch and you're all hungry, but this is an important lesson." Drak Tasilus thumped his tail against the ground for attention, and the chatter of the classroom slowly died down. The young drakken returned back to their desks, and those who had been napping blinked their eyes open.
"Welcome to the Fledgling Developmental Skills class. Over the rest of the semester, we'll be having these classes once or twice a week. Welcome to growing up. There are some things you should know, specifically regarding sexuality, relationships, and the like." Sitting back on his hindlegs, Tasilus placed one of the cardboard boxes onto the teacher's table. "For this week's lesson we're going to begin with something simple."
Extending a single claw, he sliced open the box's sealing tape and opened it up. Much of the box's inner space was filled with some sort of spongey foam padding. Tasilus then reached into the box to lift out its contents--a single large white ovoid, which he carefully held with both paws. "There are going to be more lessons about how you might make one of these, but for today the lesson will be straightforward--how to take care of an egg."
Murmurs went around the class, and Jarzyl blinked. "Oh...!"
"Any other questions? No? Then we shall move onto your assignment for this week." Tasilus gestured towards the egg atop the desk, which throughout this lesson had been serving as a visual prop. "You are all going to be getting one of these. These are not real, obviously, but instead artificial training eggs. They are made to match the size, weight, material, and feel of a real egg, and you'll have to take care of them exactly as if they were real. Observe."
Tasilus picked up the fake egg and pressed down on a small, barely noticeable indentation in the shell which turned out to be a button. The egg let out a soft beeping, then a muffled artificial voice sounded from within. "Beep. Monitoring now active. Too cold!"
Jarzyl had rarely seen all her classmates as attentive as they were now. Some of the other fledglings were embarrassed while some were openly curious, but no one was distracted or bored.
Tasilus continued. "These training eggs will sound out if you don't treat them right. This one is a little too cold because I've left it out of the box as I've been talking. Remember what I just taught you--eggs need warmth, humidity, fresh air, and they need to be gently rotated ever few hours. And they need_care_! If you don't maintain the correct conditions, the training egg will tell you. Real eggs don't have warning alerts--they_die_ if treated too poorly, so learn well. Observe again."
Tasilus picked up the egg, held it up over the teacher's desk, and then he simply let it drop. The egg landed on the hard surface with a sharp_crack_, and Jarzyl heard several of her classmates gasp. Sitting beside her, Atlas visibly flinched. Even if it was fake, you weren't supposed to treat eggs roughly--that seemed wrong.
"Beeep! Hard impact!" announced the fake egg.
"Exactly." Tasilus pressed the small button on the egg again.
"Bleep. Event reporting: One... temperature too low. Keep me warm! One... hard impact detected. Don't drop me! End."
Tasilus nodded solemnly. "Each of you will take home a single egg today, then next week bring it back to class and we'll see how well you've managed to take care of it. How exactly you do this will differ. Each clan, each sub-clan community, and even each family has its own methods to take care of eggs--so ask your parents or guardians about what is expected. Many clans will leave their eggs inside incubator boxes in a city medical centre. Some of the apex clans have their own community facilities for that task, and some families even have their own incubators in each household. And of course, instead of using an incubator box, some prefer the traditional nesting method where the egg is kept warm and safe by its parents, or by clan caretakers. Each of you will have to find out!"
Jarzyl swallowed nervously. She hadn't ever thought about any of this. She knew about which city sectors Mintaka controlled, or some of the politics with their dominion and banner alliance clans, and about the latest advancements in airship technologies which were making their way out from Mintaka shipbuilding facilities--but as for something so basic and mundane like how her clan took care of its eggs?That she knew little about. Jarzyl glanced at her friends. Atlas seemed calm but alert, while Caden had a sceptical expression, but neither of them seemed nervous.
Tasilus placed the first egg back into the padded cardboard box it had come in. He picked up another box and opened it up. "I shall now distribute them. Once you have gotten your egg, you are free to pack up and head off for lunch. Stay back if you have any further questions you wish to ask me. Who wants to go first? No volunteers? How about you, Jarzyl?"
"Uhhh." Jarzyl hesitated for a split-second, then she hopped to her feet and scampered to the front of the classroom. The box which Drak Tasilus had opened up was identical to the first, but the egg it contained looked slightly different--it was a faintly yellowish tan colour instead of a pale white, and its ovoid shape was marginally pointier.
Tasilus pressed the small, barely noticeable button on the shell, and the egg beeped. "Beep. Monitoring now active." Then he slid the box across the table and towards Jarzyl. "Here you go, Jarzyl. Your egg."
Jarzyl hesitated again. Never in her whole life, had she ever held a dragon egg before. She could feel the curious gaze of her classmates on her, and that made her tail tip_swish_ nervously from side to side. Sitting back on her haunches, Jarzyl reached into that box and lifted the egg out from the foam padding it was nestled in. The shell was mostly smooth but rough enough to easily grip, and the whitish ovoid was heavier than it looked.
Jarzyl stared at the egg she was holding, then she stared at her teacher. Although she was wearing her flight harness, she didn't think any of the pouches were big enough to fit the egg. "How do I... Drak, how do I carry this thing?"
"With great care," Tasilus replied, unhelpfully. He picked up another box and beckoned for another student. "Alright, come on. Come line up and get an egg each. Don't be shy. This is a practical homework assignment for a basic life skill."
Still holding her egg with her forepaws, Jarzyl reared up on her hindlegs and walked awkwardly back to her desk. Dragons normally walked on all four paws, but they could balance on just the hind two if needed. Jarzyl passed by Atlas as he made his way to the front of the class, and the two fledglings exchanged a glance. "This is weird!" Jarzyl hissed.
"Haha, Jarz..." Atlas laughed, and he shook his head before continuing.
Still walking only on two limbs, Jarzyl almost managed to return to her desk, but then her hind paw got caught on the leg of Caden's desk and she tripped up. "Ooohh!" As Jarzyl tumbled to the ground she rolled in mid-air to land on her back, and she managed to keep a hold of the egg with both paws. Her quick reaction avoided the egg smashing against the floor, but it was hard and heavy as it slammed against her chest.
Lying on the ground, Jarzyl let out a groan. She probably hadn't landed hard enough to bruise any scales, but falling still hurt. "Oww."
The egg was unappreciative of her efforts. "Beep! Medium impact!"
Caden leaned over the front of her desk to stare down at her friend. "Are you alright?"
From the front of the class came the voice of Drak Tasilus. "Jarzyl Mintaka, have you sustained any physical injuries? Do you require the school nurse be summoned?"
Jarzyl let the egg rest against her chest. "I'm fine! Oww. I'm fine. Medium impact? It felt more painful than that. But I'm fine. That was embarrassing."
Tasilus clicked his tongue. "Tsk. Class, I would like to reiterate what I said mere seconds ago, which was something to the effect of--take great care."
Jarzyl sighed. She carefully put the egg down on the floor beside her, then she rolled back to her feet and picked it up again. Though she could see amused grins from several of her classmates, she ignored them and took the few last steps back to her desk before sitting back down. She put the egg onto her table, though apparently not with sufficient care. "Beep! Light impact!"
"No it wasn't!" Jarzyl grumbled. "How am I supposed to transport this thing?"
Caden chuckled. "Something like that?" she suggested, pointing.
Jarzyl looked over her shoulder to see Atlas trotting back to his desk. The sooty scaled fledgling had his own training egg, but it was still sitting in the padded cardboard box which he was pulling along with his tail. Gently--much more gently than Jarzyl had--he used his forepaw to pick up the box and put it on his desk.
"Oh. Those cardboard boxes have carrying handles! I should have thought of that. Let me go get my box." Jarzyl trotted forward again, but she had barely taken three steps when her two friends exclaimed.
"Jarzyl!!" said Atlas and Caden together.
Turning back, Jarzyl saw that her egg had started to roll from the moment she'd left it alone on her desk. Caden was reaching with a paw, while Atlas had stretched out his wing, and together they had just managed to stop Jarzyl's egg from rolling off to crash on the floor. "Oops. My bad." Jarzyl hurriedly returned to her desk and grabbed the egg. "This seems like a poor design choice. Why do eggs roll? Why aren't they a... square shape, or something?"
Caden and Atlas exchanged a look, before they both stared at her. "Drakka lay eggs," Caden drily pointed out. "Jarz,you're a drakka. How would you like it if you had to lay a big square thing with pointy edges, instead of something round and smooth? That would be uncomfortable, to say the least. You know eggs come out from the_genital slit_, yes?"
Jarzyl's neck frill perked up as she considered this. "That... makes sense. Though honestly I don't think I want to lay anything of any shape. Uggh, weird." She put the egg down on the floor, against her desk where it wouldn't roll, then she went to grab her box from the front of the classroom.
As Jarzyl walked away, Caden grinned slyly. "There are two things that are naturally meant to fit through a drakka's slit. An egg is one. The other is..." Caden smirked at Atlas, and she made a slight nod of her head towards Jarzyl. "You'd be more familiar with the second. And you could familiarize Jarzyl with it if you wanted."
Atlas held his neutral expression. "I'm sure they'll be teaching that in one of the upcoming lessons of Fledgling Developmental Skills."
With an impatient motion, Jarzyl plonked the padded cardboard box onto her desk, and then she picked up her egg. This time she was gentler as she set the egg down into the padded insides of the box, and no beep sounded. "There. Pesky thing, this fake egg!"
Around half of the class had gotten their eggs so far, though now a queue had formed at the front of the classroom, so Caden still hadn't gone to get hers yet. She leaned over to curiously examine Jarzyl's egg, using her paw to touch the ovoid, and even sniffing at it. "Hmm. It really looks exactly like a real egg. It even smells like an egg."
"Oh?" Jarzyl stuck her nose close and sniffed at the egg. It had a fresh, faintly sweet scent that was oddly pleasant. Though given her lack of experience, Jarzyl had no clue if that was how a real egg was supposed to smell like. "That's kind of a nice smell."
Caden nodded. "That biology playing tricks on you. It's nature trying to get you to protect and nest up a newly laid egg."
"Oh?" Jarzyl didn't feel any urge whatsoever to protect this fake egg, even though it did smell nice.
"It's all manipulative, really. Not just biology. I mean this lesson and assignment. I heard from some of my friends in upper classes. The school has always taught about relationships and sexuality and all that, but this is the first year they're giving out fake eggs as an assignment--this used to just be a short essay about how your clan does egg caretaking." Caden glanced at Atlas and Jarzyl, and she gestured around the classroom. "Its population planning and control. They're teaching us about how to take care of eggs because that makes you more likely to be a parent in the future, and the city and all the apex clans are having demographic generational issues."
Atlas tilted his head in thought, then he nodded. "Yes...? Yes, that's true. But isn't it still a good thing to learn?"
"I suppose so. I just don't like feeling like a_statistic_rather than a person." Caden shrugged her wings. "More education and knowledge is good, yes."
"Don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine," Jarzyl insisted. She hefted up her egg and sniffed at it again. "I wonder how they make these things. Do you think these are expensive? They must be quite good replicas." She lifted the egg up and down, feeling its hefty weight. And as she moved it about, she noticed something else. "Hey, I think there's even some water or liquid inside it, just like a real egg." Jarzyl shook the egg to feel the sloshing.
Atlas winced, and he hurriedly reached over to stop her. "Jarz! Noo...!"
"Beeeep! Shaking!!" went the egg. Jarzyl's neck frill drooped flat against her neck.
Caden shook her head and laughed. "Hahaha. Clearly I see why these classes are necessary."
Jarzyl really did try. Flying back to her home, she carried the egg inside its cardboard box, hugging it against her chest with both forepaws. The skies were calm with no turbulence, so the short flight from school to house was easy. Instead of the speedy, quick landings she normally preferred, Jarzyl even flared her wings early to try for a gentle touchdown right on the balcony of her house--but she performed the manoeuvre too soon, and then to avoid hitting the protruding ledge above, she hurriedly flapped her wings upwards and slammed herself down onto the balcony.
Instead of a gentle touchdown, Jarzyl landed_hard_ and nearly tripped up over the cardboard box she was holding with her forepaws. She stumbled forward on her hind legs and her right wing clipped against the house wall, spinning her sideways and making her wince with pain.
"Beep! Light impact!" went the egg ungratefully, with its voice extra muffled from being inside the box.
"I tried." Gritting her teeth, Jarzyl checked her wing--one of the large flight-control scales that made up her right wing's leading edge had been cracked by the collision, probably beyond the limit where a scale might heal. Instead it would be shed and a new scale would regrow, leaving her wing looking mildly unsightly for a couple of weeks. All things considered, she would have had been better off just doing a normal landing.
Jarzyl put the egg box down, then she fished out her keys from her harness pouch and unlocked her room's balcony doors. Strolling across her bedroom, she stuck her head into the corridor. "Hello! I'm home! Oh, wait..."
Normally Jarzyl would get a response of some kind, but for these few days her parents were away on vacation together. The house was all empty but for her.
The amber-coloured fledgling used her hindpaw to scratch an itch on her side, then she yawned lazily and stretched herself out. "Hmm." Jarzyl had been planning to ask her parents about what to do with the fake egg she was supposed to take care of, but obviously that wasn't possible since they were travelling in the outer colonies. No matter. She was a_fledgling_now, which meant some level of self-sufficiency and independence was expected.
"Ok, no problem. I can handle this," Jarzyl assured herself. She scampered back out to the balcony and dragged the egg box into her room.
Then she forgot about it.
Jarzyl striped off her flight harness and kicked it to the side of her bedroom, then she went to the kitchen and searched for food. She found a half-eaten sandwich that had been her breakfast yesterday, and which now could be repurposed as today's lunch. As she munched on her food, Jarzyl sat down at the dining table and flipped through the day's newssheet.
Just as she was nearly finished with her sandwich, a repeated beeping emanating from her room made her jump to her feet. "Beep, temperature! Beep, beep. Temperature too low."
"Drat." Jarzyl hurriedly stuffed the last bits of bread crust into her mouth, then she ran back to her room. She opened up the box again and placed her paw on the egg's surface--it didn't feel that cold to her, but it had been left near the open balcony doors and there was a cool draft.
Jarzyl held the egg against her neck, then she hugged it against her belly to let some of her body heat warm it up. But that seemed so primitive--there had to be a better, proper, technological way of doing this.
"How to keep an egg warm...?" Jarzyl wondered to herself. Back in the kitchen again, she curiously opened the oven and put her egg inside to see if it would fit--and it did. But the oven was heated by fire crystals, and Jarzyl wasn't sure if the heat would be too uneven or simply too excessive for an egg. For a moment she contemplated turning the oven on at the lowest setting just to try--it wasn't a_real_ egg, and it would simply beep if it was getting too hot.
But no, that seemed silly. An oven was for heating food, not for keeping an egg warm. Jarzyl pulled her egg out from the oven and continued her search.
Her parents' bedroom was quiet, and Jarzyl felt a faint pang of loneliness from their missing presence. Her mother's flight harness was resting by the side of the room, and brochures and leaflets were partially scattered over the bedroom table advertising tourist attractions. The bed was neatly made up, though it still smelled faintly like them. Jarzyl knew her parents would surely have known how to take care of an egg, since obviously they'd done it once before, but they weren't here to guide her now.
There was a storage room connected to the bedroom, with its doors already ajar. Trotting over, Jarzyl peered inside and saw a myriad of random things--floor cushions and other furniture, seasonal decorations, sealed old boxes with faded labels. Sometimes Jarzyl helped her father when he decided to reorganize the house or move things in and out of storage, and she was fairly certain she'd seen the disassembled parts for an egg incubator--a nesting box--left all the way at the back of the storeroom.
The nesting box wasn't at the back of the room. Conveniently enough, it was right near the entrance of the small storeroom, and it even seemed to have been reassembled. The device resembled a rectangular glass box on four metal legs with wheels. Inside the glass box there were heating lights at the top and small padded rollers at the base, specifically intended to incubate an egg as it developed from a mess of yolk and albumen into a chirping little hatchling ready to face the world.
"There we go!" Jarzyl carefully rolled out the nesting box from the storeroom. Her own egg had been incubated at the Avaeria Medical Centre (since her mother was a healer and very much trusted the facilities there), except for the last few weeks where she'd been taken home and incubated in this exact nesting box until she'd hatched. Not that she remembered any of that, but her parents had assured her that was how it had happened.
Idly, Jarzyl noted that the nesting box had not just been reassembled, but it also appeared to have been cleaned very recently. The glass surfaces were clear, with not a mote of dust to be found inside. Jarzyl briefly pondered this. Perhaps her parents had been planning to sell or give it away? An egg incubator wasn't a cheap device.
Jarzyl carefully opened up the access panel on the side of the nesting box, and then she lifted up the fake egg and put it inside. It fit easily, resting on the small, padded rollers that would slowly rotate it every few hours, and with the internal heat lamps pointed at it from above. Now if only she knew how to turn it on.
There was small windup crank that turned a clockwork spring, to occasionally rotate the egg as was necessary. But as for the heating, Jarzyl wasn't sure how to get that working. The looked to be slots in the top for some sort of energized crystals, but it wasn't clear whether those were for flame, electricity, or some other type of magical store.
Jarzyl frowned at her fake egg as it sat in the nest box. She briefly looked around the storeroom for a manual or instruction guide, but none was to be found. The one thing she did manage to find was a carrier sling made from padded, insulating cloth, designed so that a dragon could carry an egg against their chest with convenience. But that wasn't what she was looking for.
As Jarzyl was glancing around the room, she noticed something else--a display cabinet with shelves was right beside the window balcony, filled with stone carvings of varying sizes. Jarzyl's father had stone affinity, and as a hobby he used his magic to create intricate, highly detailed stone carvings. They were tiny models of airships, flowers, dragons, abstract geometric shapes, and all other sorts of things.
Strolling over to the cabinet, Jarzyl took out a stone ovoid that represented something special--rather than a complex shape or intricate details, this carving was just a plain ellipsoid, but it was unique because her father had carved it in the exact likeness of Jarzyl's own egg before she'd hatched. Jarzyl hefted the stone egg up and down. So many years ago she'd been tucked up in an egg just like this one, and here she was so much bigger and older, now supposedly learning about taking care of an real egg.
Jarzyl carried the stone egg back to the nesting box and compared it with the fake egg. What she found made her neck frill droop, and she made a hesitant noise. "Ehhhh..."
Back at school, she had already been thinking that the fake egg was overly large and impossible to lay, but the stone replica of her_own_egg was half again bigger. She'd hatched from quite a large egg, and hopefully that sort of thing wasn't inheritable, because otherwise she would have trouble in the future. "How...!? There is no way something this size fits my genital slit. No way at all. I definitely am never going to be a parent. Uggh."
Jarzyl let out a sigh, and she put the stone egg back into the display cabinet. Then she stared at the nesting box and the training egg she had to take care of for her homework assignment. This problem was too big for her to solve on her own. And since her parents weren't available, perhaps her friends might have figured out how to take care of their eggs. Jarzyl nodded to herself, then she grabbed the carrier sling and slid the fake egg inside. It was heavy and weighed down her neck, but it rested gently against her chest with a special flap that could be opened so that the egg was touching her scales and could be kept heated by her body warmth. Carrying the egg with her, she headed for the door.
Jarzyl briefly returned to her bedroom to pull on her flight harness, minus most of the pouches which contained class notes, homework, or other schooling material, and then she took to the air.
TO BE CONTINUED
Four chapters total. I'll upload the next chapter in 2 days.