Chapter 1) The Hatch Date; Wyrmlings Come Forth
#1 of Chronicles of Lamok
This is the first installment of a series about me, Lamok, a lone hermaphrodite opal dragon, how I came to be, and how I survive in a world that would have no objection to the extinction of all dragons everywhere.
Note: At the bottom is a glossary for various words present in this chapter.
Chronicles of Lamok
Chapter 1) The Hatch Date; Wyrmlings Come Forth
I tasted first air. Cool and dry compared to the dampness of the egg's interior, its strangeness set me aquiver.
I had only just discovered a new world in the slow awakening, one so different from the muted patterns and colors, muddled echoes and stale tastes of the old. I had been snug in my dark little space, drowsing and dreaming, when sharp, cracking noises had woken me. I suddenly hated the enclosure I'd been floating in for so long. Instinctively, I tried to uncurl my neck. I jerked my chin upward, feeling the growth on my nose strike the inside surface of the eggshell. Three more taps, and the shell cracked.
The air relayed so many new, simultaneous smells that my senses rebelled, and I gave a tiny sneeze.
I wiggled my nose and widened the hole enough to get my snout well out of the opening and took a breath. My lungs, running almost the entire length of my back billed with air. It zest, the new feeling of my lungs inflating and deflating, invigorated me as much as the rich dose of oxygen to my bloodstream. I pulled my head back, and the sawtooth on my still-wet nose widened the opening further, allowing me to get my head out.
The light, dim as it was, hurt my eyes. Once my eyes adjusted, I took in my surroundings. There were other eggs among my own, six...seven all together. Somehow I knew that to be a good number.
I sensed a presence overhead, surrounding me and the other eggs. I turned my head. It was huge and navy blue. Strange yet familiar. And beyond that, I sensed an even larger enclosure of rock and shadow. 'Another shell, many times larger that the first?' Somehow I knew it to be called a cave. Echoes bounced off the hard stone, chasing each other through the great expanse.
I wiggled my head free and now could use my neck to look around. The ground on which the eggs rested was solid rock, taking up only one-third of the entire chamber. The rest of the chamber floor was dirt. There was a large hole in floor where crystal-clear water sparkled even in the dim light.
The sounds of conflict drew my attention to two unseen shapes behind me. Curiosity drove me to further free myself from the egg. I ducked my head back inside and used my sawtooth along the already formed cracks, widening the hole. With the large hole already made it took little time to widen the space enough to get my entire form through. Climbing out of the egg was a little difficult, however. A wet mass sagging from my belly kept causing my Saa to slip out from under me.
Once I was out, and I'd freed myself from the deflated balloon of an umbilical sac, I worked my way between the other eggs - two of which bore large holes in the sides - to find two creatures just like me fighting with each other, both writhing. Like me they had a mixture of grey fur and pink scales, long necks and tails. I cocked my head in a mixture of curiosity and confusion. 'They shouldn't be fighting. Why are they?' I felt the need to stop the fighting somehow and, without thinking, through myself into it. I gave a threatening hiss as my griff became erect from under my still-wet fur, drawing their attention away from each other as I approached them. I came to a stop in the middle of the two combatants, hissing at either one of them. Now that I was this close to them, I could tell that I was slightly smaller than either of them. The smaller of the two, a mess with bloody claw marks and swelling, submitted after a second or two of reluctance, folding his griff against the top of his skull and backing away from myself and the bigger one, while the other wanted to fight me now.
He faced me, his mouth open and declaring the challenge with squawks of fury. I had no choice it seemed.
We circled each other. Neither of us taking our eyes off the other. I didn't particularly like the idea of fighting my own sibling, but this one was just too dominant. It would end up getting him killed sooner or later...
Brother was the first to strike, launching himself at me. I dodged, targeting his neck as he passed. My bite was a few centimeters off, only pulling a few hairs from his mane. I then twisted my body, slamming my tail into his side. With a screech of pain, the strike sent the male flying several feet to land on his side. A bloody line quickly forming from shoulder to hip where my sail had pierced him. Bubbles formed in the blood each time he took a breath which followed the blood as it flowed in a steady stream to pool on the pitted rocks on which he lay. Apparently the spines in my sail had gone deep enough to puncture a lung.
The scent of blood wafting from brother made my mouth water and stomach rumble. I was transfixed by the sight before me. Brother struggled to stand, but the pain of the too deep wound I'd given him, and the fact that I'd also cut some tendons in his fore and hind leg, prevented it. Blood began to drip from the corners of his mouth.
I saw movement in my peripheral vision. It was my other brother advancing toward our crippled brother. I quickly got in front of him and gave a threatening squawk, my griff raised to maximum height. He quickly stepped back a few feet. He may be the bigger of the two of us but, due to his fight with our not dieing brother, he was in no shape to fight and backed off.
I turned my attention back to our dieing brother. I came up behind him and gripped his head between the eyes and horns in my jaws. I gradually applied more and more pressure to my bite until his skull collapsed in on itself, blasting a wash of blood and brain matter into my mouth and spilling out either side to join the pooled blood at my feet.
The nameless brother immediately ceased his struggles, his body going limp. I had killed my clutch mate.
The sound of eggs breaking drew my attention to the four unhatched eggs. Two female and two male, all had their heads out, squeaking weakly. My griff extended at the sight of the males and all four ducked back inside their shells, only their eyes peeked out at me. Submissive. I then glanced over at my beat-up brother who was now lying down watching, waiting. 'He will wait his turn.'
I relaxed and turned my attention to the corpse before me. I now knew hunger. I began to chew and pull at the scaly flesh in attempt to widen the long cut and expose the meat within. Audible ripping noise accompanied my success as the hide gave way fairly easily - being hatchling the hide is very thin compared with that of an adult's. I pulled away a mouth full of meat and swallowed it whole. I devoured the meat chunk after chunk until the feeling of hunger had left me and a new feeling of fullness replaced it.
The others, those who'd hatched after the fighting had ceased, took forever to get out of their shells. I let them eat along with our wounded brother who seemed to still have some fight in him, showing his dominance over the two late-coming males.
Feeling the urge to drink I made my way to the shallows of a large pool where water flowed into from an underwater cave. I rinsed the blood from my snout while taking my fill of water.
After the drink, I took in the entirety of the immense chamber. The cavern floor was mostly dirt save the flat rocks where the empty egg shells rested and the large waterhole I stood beside. Spires jutted up from the floor and down from the ceiling in random spots, water dripping from them. Small blue-green fluorescents appeared at randomly placed puddles and as well as the water whole. It turned out to be odd slow-moving blob-like creatures. 'Slugs, they were called.' They seemed to thrive best near one of the cliff walls where I smelled dragon waist. Waist that was strange, yet familiar to me. The ceiling was populated by tiny, winged, furry creatures. 'And they're called Bats.' This new world fascinated me.
"Dear Lamok. My young drakonet. My hope."
And thus I learned my name. I swiveled my head from side-to-side, searching for the source of the voice. 'Who said that?' With no source in sight I determined the sound had come from above and gazed up toward the ceiling.
There. A creature like me, only its scales were a dark shade of blue. "My name is Lavisatie," she said, "and I am your mother, Lamok." My mother, big enough to be a world all on her own reclined against the cave wall. I could taste the rich aroma that radiated from her. It was intoxicating, smelling even better than the coppery tang of the bloody corpse that had once been one of my clutch mates and her offspring.
"You can not speak yet, but you will be able to once you've grown some. You can, however, understand and, thanks to my inherited memories, you'll learn quickly." Her voice was calm, soothing. "Come now. You must rest and grow, my little drakonet. Do not worry. You, your brothers, and your sisters are safe here." I joined my clutch mates in the circle of mother's tail where we all curled up for sleep. "Your father from the nearby monastery is the only one who comes here. He watches over us with the other monks." She began to sing, the tune I recognized as being the same one she'd sung to me and my clutch mates while still encased in our eggs. That combined with fatigue quickly sent me drifting into the abyss of sleep.
Well, I hope ya liked it. It took forever for inspiration to strike me. I'll post the next chapter as soon as possible.
I'm always open to constructive criticism, suggestions, or requests for future chapters.
The following is a glossary of various words found in this chapter.
Glossary: (Drakine)
Dragonelle: The term used for female dragons.
Drake: The term used for male dragons.
Drakonet: Also referred to as a "Divine Mother". The term used for hermaphrodite dragons. Extremely rare and highly prized among any dragon breed. Supposedly possessing special powers no other dragon has been known to wield.
Griff: The armored fan that descends from the jaw and rises from the forehead, connecting to the spinal sail at the base of the skull. Present on male dragons only.
Saa: The rear legs of a dragon. The three rear true-toes are able to grip, but the fighting spur is little more than ornamental.
Sii: The front legs of a dragon. Five digit claws (similar to human hands) that are dexterous enough to grasp objects.
Sail: A rigged fan running the entire length of a dragon's spine and tail. (Not present in all breeds.)
Sawtooth: The bony horn between a hatchling's nostrils that assists in breaking through their eggshells.
"True Color": The time in which an Opal Dragon ages to the point that it looses its pink scales and gains a pigment to match its personality.
Wyrmling: A baby dragon.