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A new Life awoke. The first thing his senses picked up were noises. Muffled cracks, meeps, squawks and something... else. He couldn't make out what it was, it seemed like a follow up of noises that were supposed to make sense. Instinct told him that it was the noise of his kind though, it already seemed familiar. Curiosity urged him on. What is that?

Instinctively his eyes opened, for the first time ever, searching for the answer. They picked up dim light, but it didn't send him the answer he sought. It only illuminated something that his instinct called a prison. A grey, dim prison that was filled with a slow flowing, sticky liquid. A strong urge spread through his entire body. Out. Out! I must get out.

His claws scratched at the grey walls around him. Light shall not be dimmed eternally and he had to find out what the noises were. Every fibre in his newly awoken body was shaking with the will to break free.

His scratching became eager it could even be seen as desperate. Instinct forbid him to stay even a second longer in this small, dull place.

The first results were noticeable, the prison showed cracks. It wiggled around with his efforts, he felt that. It was a new sensation to move around so much. The noises grew louder, but they still made no sense to his young mind and remained dampened.

"Oh, look! The big one is at it now," a soft, but ragged voice said. It was followed by wheezing coughs.

"Yeah, I wonder how big the hatchling will be, considering how huge the egg is compared to the rest," a second, softer voice said. It spoke without effort.

"It'll be a strong warrior surely," a third voice reckoned. It was louder, deeper and startled him for a moment, making him pause his efforts.

Then he went right at it again with even more vigour! Those noises, he had to find their origin. More cracks were showing on the surface. He pulled himself together, then threw his head at the weakened spot. I must be free! His instinct yelled at him to finally break forth and escape.

With a loud burst, his snout broke through the shell. Air, warm and dry, flooded his lungs for the first time as he took a deep breath through his nostrils; scents assaulted his sense of smell. It overtaxed both, his unused muscles and his sensitive nose, causing a stinging pain. He took shorter, less deep breaths afterwards to try and lower the pain in his chest. The things he smelled were many different things, but many of them seemed like they were the same, yet they were not, while others were completely different, but none of them he could really attach to anything. Except the many similar ones, they seemed familiar in a way, he wanted to get more of them.

Since his eyes were still in the prison, he could still only see the inside of it. He retracted his snout from the hole and, grasping the edges of the hole he created with his claws, he pulled it apart, widening the gap. Pieces of the walls broke off and fell onto the ground or into the prison. Slowly but surely he pried himself out of it, until finally his head fit through the gap. With a firm push he forced it through the opening, with a loud meep and eyes closed, then began panting from the effort with his short tongue hanging out of his maw. Slime dribbled from his head and left his eyes and their lids, but it took a few blinks to get rid of all of it.

While he rested in the half broken enclosure to regain strength he opened his eyes outside of the shell for the first time, finally taking in the light without its walls dimming it. He looked around curiously to inspect this new, wider space. The light itself was still dim except for a very bright circle in the middle of the building that he appeared to be in. This made it easy on his eyes that weren't used to unfiltered light yet. The building had brownish walls and was shaped like a small dome with a wide circular opening in the highest point that let the sunlight in, causing the bright circle in the centre. The ground was sand. For him, this dome was gigantic compared to the prison. It felt relieving to be in it.

Around him were eight oval, sand coloured things. Three of them didn't move at all and another three showed cracks and wriggled, as if something were inside and tried to leave it. The last two were already in pieces. A black and a red something were writhing on the ground next to them, while someone licked the slime off of them.

The black thing had yellow paws, the red something had orange stripes along its back as well as orange paws.

That someone who was cleaning them was of way higher importance than the two writhing beings to the freshly hatched dragon. It was a dragoness. Mother?

His instinct left no doubt that this is female of his kind, but he was not sure if she was the one female that his instinct longed for. Her scales were black except for her paws and the stripes along her back, those were of a dark red. She was licking the writhing beings clean when her eyes fell onto him, after he attracted her attention with loud squawks.

"Oh, he managed to get out! Well, partly. Look at him though, he has such a big head and neck." She smiled while moving her head near his to take a closer look at him. He felt her warm breath wash over his scales as she started to sniff at him. A shiver ran through his body at this first taste of warmth from another of his kind. "It's a male, as you expected." The female raised her head as if she was looking at someone behind the hatchling. He, the freshly hatched Drake, only had eyes for her, staring at her, making soft happy meeps towards her. Mother! ... Mother? Her smell, his instinct didn't find it to be right, but she had to be mother, right? She's the only female around.

"Come out of your egg fully so we can see all of you," said the deep voice from earlier. It startled the Hatchling again, but now made him curious. He figured that those noises that seemed to make sense, yet didn't, but yet seemed organised, belonged to his kind. Now to see who that is. The Hatchling turned his head towards the entrance of the dome. It was just big enough for a single dragon to crouch through it, but right now two heads were looking into the hut through it. One orange head with six short but thick horns also arranged like a crown and a dark reddish blue one with two straight, longer horns. The dark blue was washed out though, grey scales were showing. The head shape reminded him of the dragoness that sniffed him, so the dark blue must be female, too.

His instinct was already familiar with the slight differences in an adult's head shape and he recognized the orange one as a drake. His gaze shifted between the orange male and the black female a few times, meeping loudly! He wasn't sure what to think of the drake.

After regaining his strength the urge to free himself fully returned and the Hatchling started to struggle more firmly and he pushed at the edge of the gap in his prison's shell in order to finally get out of it with all of his body. Due to his shifting, the prison, that now more seemed like a nuisance than a cage, fell over and instead of bursting the thick shell he slipped out of it onto the warm sand where he laid for a few moments, breathing heavily. Immediately, the black dragoness started to preen him. Her tongue felt so very soft and warm; it was a lovely feeling to have it brush over his body. It caressed his young scales, soothing him after he has done such great effort in order to be part of this world. It caused him to close his eyes again and purr joyfully. Meanwhile the other eggs cracked open and the rest of the very young dragons hatched, but he had no interest in that. All of his attention was taken up by being cleaned carefully.

The three eggs that hadn't moved earlier still didn't move. She looked at them with a sad sigh before pushing them away behind her with her tail. Afterwards she began preening the others while letting the drake inspect the new generation, especially the biggest one of them.

The orange drake spoke again, his voice sounding surprised: "He's all red, no patterns, no nothing, just a strong red from snout to tail tip. That is odd. A rarity."

The dark blue female nodded in agreement and seemed thoughtful. "It only happens to our hightribe though, so it is clear that he is one of us," she replied to the drake's concerns.

The Red Drake looked at himself as he noticed the drake's surprised stare. He wasn't fully red, his chestplates were black as he could see. Now he was curious how he looked, but there was no way he could see his whole self. Instead he used his paw to touch his head. He felt his own scales but also noticed four smooth stubs that did not feel like scales at all, but were more comparable to the teeth in his maw that he felt with his tongue earlier. Along his own back he saw very small fins, the writhing things and the adults had them, too, but the adults' were bigger.

"True, it is clear that he's a Fireclaw," the female that took care of the hatchlings said with a warm smile. "So all is fine and he'll become a proud warrior of the Gul tribe, surely."

The Hatchling and his peers tilted their heads first at the caretaker, then tilted their heads the other way, to look towards the two dragons at the entrance, intrigued by the sudden mass of noise between the older dragons.

The drake cleared his throat and spoke with a gentle voice: "Hatchlings. That lovely dragoness over there... ," he gave her a friendly grin, "... is going to take care of you in your young years."

"My name is Sara. Sara Gul Fireclaw." She nodded her head as a sort of bow towards the little dragons who simply meeped and squawked at her happily. They and the Red didn't understand what they were saying, but Sara's soft voice simply made them happy. It had something soothing, something attracting.

Sara? Mother. But she smells so different than me. Are the others my siblings? He wished he could sniff them to figure that out, but they weren't right next to him and he hadn't stood up yet either.

She gives each of the hatchlings a lick on their forehead. "I might not be your mother, well, not of all of you at least." She looked up at the orange drake with a shy smile before returning her attention to the hatchlings again, "But I'll take care of you as if you all were mine own. Such is tradition for Blazkul." That word made him perk his head up by instinct. Blazkul. Fire Dragons.

"And I, on the other paw, will teach them how to hunt, fight and about their own kind," the drake at the entrance said with his head turned towards Sara before he went over to watching over the little ones that now all turned towards him with big eyes. "That is one of the tasks I have to fulfil as the new leader of the Gul. But it'll be a while until then."

Not soon after he stopped talking the short attention span of the little dragons was used up and they turned towards Sara again, who churred at them. They started to feel a bit cooler, even though it was very warm in the hut, but just not as warm as mother's affections felt. Again instinct guided them, including him, this time to try and get to her to be close to her warm body.

The Red Drake attempted to stand up. Now that he had rested on the ground for a while it didn't take too much effort. He shakily got onto all four legs and stood on his first try! Meanwhile the other hatchlings around him kept falling over or managed to stand for a few moments before following the same fate. After a bit they all got it figured out and they all moved closer to the caretaker with shaky, uncertain steps, settling down against her flank after she raised her wing invitingly. A few had to crawl the last bit though, having fallen over on the way. Luckily she wasn't too far away, not even two hatchling lengths at the furthest point. The Red managed to get to her in one go.

They cuddled up to her side. It felt like warmth flooding his system as the Drake did. Every fibre that had contact to her immediately warmed up and spread the wonderful feeling through his body.

Now that he was settled and warmed, a new feeling came to him. Hunger. He and the others seemed to share that new feeling, all of them started squawking loudly, demanding food from Sara who he still thought of as their mother.

"I've something for them.", the dark blue female, that has mostly just been watching the scene, said and her head retreated from the hut. Moments later she poked her head back in with a dead worm in her maw. It wasn't a small worm though and was three times longer than the Red, if not more, and quite thick. A feast for the six headed group of very young, hungry dragons. She tossed it towards the hatchlings.

"Eat, little ones, you've to grow big and strong." She chuckled, then broke out into a coughing fit again. "Mref. I should rest. I'll look after you some other time, Sara." With those words the dragoness turned around and walked away. The Red barely gave her any attention before he started sniffing at the meat. Edible. With a meep, he dug his tiny fangs into the meat and attempted to rip a piece of it out.

The adult drake looked after her before turning back to Sara. "I'll go out and hunt. I do not think we have enough food stored to feed six hungry maws." His gaze fell onto the hatchlings that hungrily started to devour the worm. Fights over the meat didn't happen as the worm was easily large enough to satisfy the first hunger of the hatchlings.

The meat was tough, but filling and quite tasty for the Red Drake. It took some effort to get some of it separated, but that didn't stand between the hatchlings and satisfying their new craving.

Sara watched them eat while she spoke to the drake, "Alright. Be safe, Druk." Druk. Sara. Parents.

Druk being the only male around, it had to be the father. With stretched out necks they managed to touch their snout tips in the hut and rubbed them against eachother. Watching that confirmed the instinctual thought and the action allowed the Red to sniff at Druk's chin to notice what a male dragon smells like

Also smells too different from me. That conflicted with his instinct and he meeped curiously. Then the drake left and allowed the curtain made out of a dry flexible material that rustled while it moved to fall back in place and cover the entrance. But before it completely blocked the view the Drake noticed that Druk had yellow paws. Now the hatchlings were alone with Sara.

The Red pushed himself as close to her flank as he could and curled up. The sand beneath him was warm, but her body was warmer and nice to lean against. He felt the other hatchlings' scales against his own as they all cuddled together under the caretaker's wing. Sleeping was not a thought that came to their mind, though; instead, they eagerly sniffed at eachother, taking in the scents of their peers. Comparing their scents to Sara's and Druk's scent, his instinct identified that three of them were female, the other two male. That made three males total including him. He now was also able to place what the scents that seemed to be the same yet weren't are. It was the scents of dragons! They all seemed to be the same; yet each dragon had their own personal twist to it.

This moment of sniffing eachother gave the Red the time to inspect what he thought to be his siblings. The black and red both had six horn stubs arranged exactly like Druks horns were, like a crown. All three females looked pretty similar, the Red found. All three were purple and only their markings differed. One had black stripes and paws, the other had red spots and paws, the last one had no markings but red paws. The chestplates of all of them, hatchlings, Druk and Sara, were black though.

Now with his first curiosities satisfied, their stomachs filled and his body warmed by Sara's, tiredness overcame him and apparently also his peers as all of them fell asleep pretty quickly. The Red fell asleep last, watching over the others.

*

Huthatchlings. He heard this word a lot because the adults referred to him and the other ones like him as such. They spent all day in the dome and have yet to see more of the outside world than the glimpse they see when an adult moves the curtain. Said glimpse wasn't much, just brighter light.

Many, many times the light in the building has switched between bright and dark and the huthatchlings didn't do more than eat, sleep, and playfight, but they grew quite a bit. The Red loved to playfight with the others, especially when he pushed down a male after a fight. He always meeped happily when he managed to do that and he did so often. Sara always rewarded him with loving licks to his head and neck when he won a playfight, showing great approval of his actions. He did enjoy the act of playing with his hutsiblings itself, too, though and they all curled up together beneath Sara's wing when the light turned dark, when the surrounding space became colder than it was when the light was bright. He was cold every time he wasn't close to Sara around that time. When the light started to become red, so before it started to darken, they also covered the opening in the ceiling with a thatch plate.

Before the huthatchlings slept Sara often spoke to them. By now the Red figured that the noises the adults made were words. Noises with sense. He, nor the others, managed to use them or even fully understand them yet, but they picked up a few things and their caretaker often showed them things. She pointed at her claw for example and simply said: "Claw." Slowly but surely the bunch learned to at least understand a few words.

Sometimes the other female, the dark blue one, stuck her head into the hut to ask Sara how she's doing and if she needs anything. She always nuzzled and licked the hatchlings, making them purr and wriggle. Occasionally, she helped Sara preen them. The Red always avoided her though, he preferred to get such attention from Sara. She was gentler and it felt nicer. Caresses from mother are best.

Even after understanding Sara when she told them that she isn't their mother, he still referred to her as such. It simply felt natural to the Red. Probably feeling the same, the rest also still called her mother. Sara didn't seem to be bothered.

Druk brought the food. Worms, lizogs, and others. Lizogs tasted great, the Red found, so it made him drool eagerly everytime he saw Druk enter with one in his maw. Lizogs had scales like dragons and somewhat looked like them, too, but their legs seemed different. He couldn't describe it though, having seen nothing to compare it to. The head and paws looked sort of draconic as well, but the muzzle was slimmer and longer and sported bigger slit-shaped nostrils. They weren't wingless dragons though, Druk told them. He described them as "Scaled wolves". The Red wished he knew what a "wolf" was; they sounded like interesting creatures. Druk said they hunt intelligently in packs and are great predators. They didn't live in the desert though. Druk saw them in the forests when he was scouting years ago. They also had fur, which Druk explained as a soft, vulnerable form of hide. What does having fur feel like. Or touching it? All creatures that were shown to them so far had scales, too. This is normal for most of the desert life that one can find in the sands, Druk explained, after one hatchling manage to utter the sentence, "Do all here have scale?"

Sometimes the orange drake even brought living creatures to the huthatchlings, like a snake or a very young lizog. The young bunch enjoyed watching those creatures try to threaten or run away from them in the hut, when the hatchlings chased them around. Sara and her mate always watched carefully to make sure the creatures wouldn't hurt the hatchlings. Often they killed the living creature in front of the hatchlings and let them eat them. The hatchlings' natural urge to hunt awoke slowly and sometimes one of them dared to attack the beasts brought to them, except the Red. The Red never bothered to kill them or even just chase them. He just watched the others do it, if with clear interest in his eyes. Sara always nudged him forward, trying to get him to move, but he stayed put. With a disapproving look she shock her head, but this didn't bother him much. It did saddened him, though, that he got less affections than the successful "hunter" as Sara called the one who managed to slay the small creature.

Today, Druk brought a rather large six legged creature for the group this time. It was actually bigger than the young dragons. This intrigued the Red, because usually the creatures that Druk brought were easily killed by the huthatchlings once they grew bored of it and preferred to eat it. This one on the other hand seemed like a real threat, especially because it didn't seem very afraid of the young dragons, not at all. Instead of trying to get away it raised its pincers and lifted its stinger threateningly above its head.

The females cowered and retreated closer to Sara while the males looked questioningly to Druk, not sure what to do. Said drake just nodded his head towards the creature with a growl, while looking at the hatchlings. "It's a scorpion. It won't be easy to kill this one, but you might manage." The Red did not look up to Druk, but instead hopped up from his position beneath Sara's wing, leaving more space for the females who huddled closer together. He kept eyes on what was called a scorpion, watching its every move. With meeps directed at the other two males, he tried to get their attention so they focus on the opponent, too. They squawked, unsure if they really want to attack the vicious creature.

The Red huffed at the cowardliness of his peers. He moved closer to the scorpion, watching every tension of its legs, every slow closing of the two things he was holding towards him, which looked like two big, blunt talons that can snap shut.

"Watch out for the pincers." He barely heard Druk say, his heart was pumping too loudly and rapidly already, letting adrenaline flow through his entire body, preparing it for the effort of the coming fight. This was a new feeling, one he couldn't quite grasp. It was energetic, made him tremble, made him strong, made him want to pounce, leap, claw.

Quickly moving its six legs, the scorpion shifted its body more towards the Red and snapped its pincers at him, but he was way out of range. It was just a threat. Bravely, the Red Drake hopped forward towards the side of the scorpion and tried to bite at its right claw. Quick isn't even close to describing just how fast the scorpion reacted. It dodged and slammed the stinger down, digging the tip right into his flank. Squealing, the huthatchling writhed on the ground for a moment, startling the others so much that they hopped back with a scared squawk, but then caught himself again and bit right at the scorpion's tail. This was the first time he experienced such pain, it was a new sensation, but it didn't bother the young Blazkul, it urged him on to bring down this opponent, to take revenge for every bit of blood spilled that was his own. Something changed in his mind, he could finally place the feeling from earlier, it was the urge to... kill.

A cracking noise signalled that he pierced the chitin armour of his opponent and dug his fangs into the flesh, locking his jaws around it. He tasted the life juice of the opponent as it ran into his maw, fuelling his instinct to kill further. The beast within took control, rationality had no place. You will die.

Annoyed, the six-legger tried to lift its tail again, ripping the stinger out of the wound. The hatchling didn't let go though and kept the tail in his jaws, despite the throbs of pain coming from the fresh wound. With the tail weighted down by the Red, the scorpion couldn't lift it up again and shook it angrily.

Finally, the other two males leaped at the scorpion with a loud meep, the battle cry of a hatchling, and each bit into a pincer. This prevented the scorpion from trying to hurt the Red with them and basically disarmed it. Full of anger, it shook itself vigorously, trying to throw the attackers off, but they were too many and too strong.

The Red dug its claws into the tail base of his foe and started clawing at the chitin armour until it gave way to tearing at the flesh beneath. His two hutbrothers realized what he was doing and started tearing at the pincers of the disabled creature, mimicking the Red.

Greenish splatters started covering the ground while the fierce drakes tore the writhing creature to bits. With a firm tug of the Red's maw and a loud squelch the tail came off, quickly followed by both claws. The scorpion simply writhed on the ground, dying as it bled out. The huthatchlings paid the beaten opponent no further mind.

Triumphantly, the Red Drake strut around with the tail in his maw, emitting muffled victorious meeps. His hutbrothers followed his example, but with the scorpion's claws in their maws. He wasn't even bothered by the bleeding hole in his flank, the feeling of a proper first victory overpowered the pain. Superiority. His instinct praised him for his victory, it meaning that he survives while the scorpion dies. A feeling of great happiness spread through him as he stood in front of Sara and dropped the tail. A wide smile spread across her muzzle and she nuzzled the Red before nudging him on his side to inspect the wound and then began to lick it clean. "I'm so glad he finally caught on, I bet he was just waiting for a worthy opponent. He really will be a strong warrior of our tribe."

Druk looked at him with an equally wide smile, but it contained more pride than anything. "I have high expectations for him. I cannot wait until I can teach them all how to hunt properly. It'll be great to show them tricks and take them along."

Sara nodded in agreement and started tending to the other two dragons by also giving them approving licks to reward them for tearing off the claws. "It's certainly a good generation for the Gul." She looked up at the drake and that same shy smile, which she first had when the bunch at her forepaws hatched, returned to her features. "And we contributed to it."

He gave her a firm nuzzle, growling amiably. Through the entrance the Red could see Druk's tail swish. Happiness. The males started gnawing on the parts they ripped off, while the females came out from beneath Sara's wing, bit into the still slightly writhing scorpion and tugged it under her wing to devour it there. Eating the meat he fought for tasted better for some reason.

Successful survival.

*

Druk told them that every time it turned dark, something called a day was over and after many days are over, a month is over. More details on that would follow soon, he promised them. He also notified them everytime a month had passed and told them that after six months they would be allowed to leave the hut. The brown walls apparently were called a hut by the adults. Three months had passed when they fought the scorpion, according to the orange drake.

Not much happened in the next three months. The hatchlings grew more and they slowly started to speak more clearly and way more often. They were properly acquiring the gift of speech. Sara and the elder female assisted them by telling them more simple words than before in the hopes that the huthatchlings repeat them. It started to work more and more often. Entire sentences began to take form more often than just occasionally. Now that they started speaking they started referring to eachother with words, since they had no names, nor did Sara or any other adult gave them any.

The Drake was just called "Red" due to his lack of any markings. The black male hatchling was just called "Black" and the other male hatchling was called "Orange Paw" due to his orange paws. "Spot" was the name of the female with the red spots, "Black Paw" became the name of the female with the black paws and "Red Paws" became the name of the female with the red paws. Simple names for young minds.

Druk still simply provided food but brought tough prey to them more often. Once he brought a young but still large lizog into the hut and one of the males was badly bitten during the ensuing fight. It was nothing serious though and within weeks the hatchling was allowed to sprint and jump around again. The lizog was killed by the effort of all hatchlings, even the females assisted. Red often directed them some; he told them to go for the legs to disable the lizog, just like they disabled the scorpion by tearing off the claws and the tail. With approving nuzzles, Sara rewarded the hatchling's actions further. She mentioned something about him, from which the hatchling only understood "learning" and "experience". All of the hatchlings were joyful after their victory, even the badly bitten one meeped happily.

Red grew to be the dominant one of the bunch. He got to eat first and he was always in the middle of the bunch when they curled up to sleep as they attempted to get close to him. He enjoyed it greatly to be surrounded by his hutsiblings like that. It made him feel warm and like they were family. The attention gave him another feeling though, the feeling of an...

... Alpha.