The Egg It was a typical winter evening.
By: Shatakshi Sharma
Tags: Emotions, Fiction, Short Story

The Egg

It was a typical winter evening. The hardened snow was all over the tarmac. Kiera was walking along the road face down, lost in her own thoughts while the vehicles passed by. After a deep sigh, Kiera raised her head, tears falling down from her cheeks, I must forget and move on, she said to herself, suddenly the headlights of a car flashed in her face, bringing back the whole incident.

You know this is not the most appropriate time to go out specially for you, said Max.

Hey don’t blame me, blame her, said Kiera pointing towards her baby bump. And if I may add, I think she got this from you.

Me? What on earth made you say that?

You yes you, the king of inappropriate timing, said Kiera laughing away.…Max watch out!!

But it was too late, a reindeer had come from nowhere. Max jerked the wheels in opposite direction to save the animal but had lost control over the car.

Hold on, shouted Max as the car fell into the ditch.

Tears came out of Kiera’s eyes reminiscing the incident. She placed her hand on her flat stomach, that accident had taken everything from her.

I think I’ll take the forest road and fall off in a ditch and finish this story once and for all.

She started on the forest path when she stumbled upon a rock, what’s this, she wondered.

This doesn’t look like a rock. As Kiera dusted away the dirt over it, it’s shiny blue surface began to emerge. It looks like some sort of an egg but I have never seen anything of this kind ever before.

Kiera brought the egg back to her home. Let’s get you all nice and comfortable. She hurried to the closet and took out the blankets. Hurriedly, she started the fireplace and made a nest of blankets and placed the egg within.

There you go now, she said relieved.

Kiera was finding it hard to get her eyes of the egg, like it’s gonna hatch any moment, silly me, she thought and strode into the kitchen to prepare her dinner.

When she came back in the hall with her dinner she was shocked to see that egg had started melting slightly. Gasping heavily, she removed the blankets. The metalic blue covering of the shell has started dripping, the engravings had become almost invisible.

This cannot be a man-made artifact they don’t melt away at such low temperature, but neither do natural eggs, I mean it’s not like I placed it into the fireplace, exclaimed Kiera furiously.

I am cursed, you had better chance of hatching out in the cold than in here with me. I guess I am not meant to bring any life in this world, hell I can’t even help any life come into this world.

Disheartened, she threw away the egg out in the snow.

That night was the night of the biggest and the baddest storm in the history of storms. It felt like nature was wrecking havoc.

Finally the storm stopped after two days and the sun emerged. Kiera stepped out to bask in the much awaited rays of the sun.

What’s that? A strange gnarling sound seemed to be coming from behind. Kiera moved towards the window, it seems to be coming from under the ground. She started digging the huge pile of ice and soon she found it.

It was a strange looking animal. It’s metallic blue skin shining in the morning sun. That’s where I threw the egg, she pondered. Kiera hurriedly took the animal inside, took out her laptop and started searching for it.

You are too scaled for a bird, too alive for a dinosaur and too impossible for pretty much anything else and still here we are.

Kiera kept searching the net, from fossilized animals to mythical but a precise description of any such animal was nowhere to be found.

This is the last one I am opening, you better have the answers. Looks like a dragon encyclopaedia, scrolling down, down... down, wait...she was staring dead in the screen. I think I found you, metalic blue skin, icy clear wings, emits ice rather than fir from its mouth.…an ice dragon, the rarest kind of dragon to have ever been mentioned in the texts, so that’s what you are. They need sub zero conditions to hatch, she read on...that’s it, that’s why you started melting at the slightest heat.

Kiera turned around to look at her mythical friend. Hey junior, I see you have made your own icy playing field on my couch, she exclaimed looking at the tiny creature.

The dragon flew straight in her arms and cozied itself in her laps, it’s big bulging icy blue eyes looking straight into her.

Is this a gift from you Max? she thought, her eyes started watering as she looked up, thank you God..thank you!