The Dragonets’ Hatching

10 days before the Brightest Night…
Webs collapsed on to the cave floor, panting. He was vaguely aware of the other guardians prodding him anxiously, but all he cared about was safety. Safety. The word was strange on his tongue.
Before, safety had meant a comfortable spot inside the Deep Palace, away from Burn’s troops or Blister’s IceWings. A place surrounded by family. But now, his family was far away. His wife had been killed — Webs’ heart ached at the memory of her beautiful face — and he had no idea where his son Riptide might be. 
Now, safety meant being far away from any of the Tribes. Now he could only feel safe around the Talons of Peace. 
He clutched the egg closer to his chest, trying to catch his breath. 
“ARE YOU OKAY OR NOT?!” Kestrel’s voice shrieked. 
Webs groaned. “Fine,” he muttered. 
“Then get up and stop acting like a stunned scavenger!” The SkyWing snapped. 
A maimed SandWing peered out from behind Kestrel’s tail. “Do you have the egg?” He asked anxiously.
Webs looked at his talons. He was squeezing the RainWing egg so tightly it was a wonder that it didn’t burst. Still, he held it out for the other dragons to see. 
The SandWing gave an audible sigh of relief, but Kestrel frowned disapprovingly. “I don’t see how a RainWing, of all dragons, can stop the war,” she muttered. 
The SandWing glared at her. “You know Scarlet smashed all the other SkyWing eggs to be born on the Brightest Night,” he reminded her. “And with Hvitur dead, we don’t have the one we were meant to get.”
Kestrel only grunted. “You’re only happy because we found the SandWing egg easy enough, Dune,” she hissed. “I don’t think Morrowseer will be all that happy to see that we don’t have the right egg.”
Webs felt a twist of fear in his stomach. He’d at least felt safe around Morrowseer, albeit a bit intimidated. Now was he going to have to hide from the NightWings, too?
”We need to have five dragons,” he said nervously. “Morrowseer will at least see that. Besides, fate will play out the way that it should.”
Dune shook his head. “You know how Morrowseer’s like, Webs,” he sighed. “If he sees the RainWing, we’re dead.”
Webs winced, recalling the NightWing’s awful temper. Dune was probably right — Morrowseer would never let them live if he found out they’d gotten the wrong egg. “So what do we do?”
”Nothing,” Kestrel replied grimly. “Morrowseer will never know. We’ll say we got the SkyWing egg before Hvitur died.”
That wasn’t how Webs would have handled the situation, but when he thought about it, he realized it wasn’t such a bad idea after all. 
“We can’t just hide the fact that we botched the prophecy,” Dune protested. “Morrowseer is bound to come by sometimes to check on how the dragonets are doing.”
”We’ll hide the RainWing.” Webs surprised even himself by answering. “Or maybe get them to camouflage as a SkyWing. Whatever. It’s our only option.”
Dune looked unsatisfied, but Kestrel changed the subject. “Do you have all the other eggs in their appropriate nests?”
Webs nodded. The other eggs were bound to hatch soon, and then he and the other guardians would have their talons full taking care of the dragonets. 
“Well, let’s get this over with.”
The Brightest Night…
The egg creaked again. This time a crack appeared in its red-brown shell. Kestrel leaned forward anxiously, tapping the crack apprehensively. 
“Is there something we’re supposed to do during a MudWing’s hatching?” Dune asked. He was pacing back and forth along the perimeter of the cave. 
Webs shrugged. He didn’t know anything about MudWing eggs. “Let’s just trust the process,” he suggested.
Kestrel glowered at him, but luckily kept her loud mouth shut. 
Meanwhile, another crack had opened in the MudWing egg. Slowly, a piece of shell fell away. Webs leaned forward, craning to see the newborn dragonet.
Then the egg split in two, and standing before the guardians was a mud-brown dragonet. 
He looked at Webs, his wide eyes blinking innocently. Webs was reminded of his son’s hatching, that he’d never gotten to see. He felt a fresh burst of loss as homesickness settled through him once again. 
Suddenly the MudWing launched himself at the SeaWing egg, tackling it to the ground. It was almost as big as him, but the MudWing spshowed no mercy. 
“What do we do?” Dune screeched. 
Kestrel reached for the dragonet, but he snapped at her scarred talon and continued ferociously head-butting the other egg. 
“Fierce little monster,” Kestrel cooed.
Webs gawked at her incredulously. Seriously? That’s what Kestrel’s first impressions of him are?
Suddenly Webs noticed a crack in the SeaWing’s egg. Did the MudWing cause that? But I risked so much to find it!
The last of the SeaWing eggshells fell away, reveling another small blue dragonet, slightly smaller than the MudWing. She snarled at him. 
At last, Kestrel leaned forward and caught the MudWing. He wriggled angrily in her talons, but she held him fast.
What do I do? Webs wondered. He couldn’t help with the SeaWing, since she was already hatched, and he had no idea how to deliver a RainWing or NightWing. Dune was already bending over the SandWing egg, gently coaxing the dragonet inside and warming her with his naturally warm SandWing scales. 
On the other talon, the RainWing seemed to have no problem climbing out of her egg and staring around at her home. Colors radiated across her scales, and for a moment Webs forget about the chaos around him. He stared, mesmerized, as her scales shifted from a bright yellow to a grumpy gray and then a glaring red, before shifting took match the rocks below. 
RainWings are pretty cool, he noticed. Maybe including a RainWing in the prophecy wasn’t such a bad idea after all. Plus, it wasn’t like she’d be raised in the environment the other RainWings were raised in, so she didn’t have to be lazy like them…
But he was jerked from his thoughts by a cry from Kestrel. The NightWing’s head was peering over the rim of his eggshell, but the rest of his body seemed to be stuck. Webs hurried over to assist her, but before he got there, the MudWing dragonet leapt forward. He clawed at the shell, biting and scratching it. 
“He’s trying to attack the NightWing!” Webs shrieked. 
“Get him!” Kestrel gasped. She lunged, but the dragonet swerved away. Soon Kestrel was playing an elaborate game of tag with a newborn MudWing. 
Webs pried open the NightWing shell, eying the dragonet warily. Being a NightWing, he had no idea what to expect from the young dragonet. Was he going to start belching out a prophecy?
But the NightWing just blinked, glancing fearfully around him before burying his head under his wing.
From behind a rock spire, Kestrel appeared again, now carrying a writhing MudWing dragonet in her talons. 
“I finally caught the little monster again,” she panted.
“What should their names be?” Webs asked. 
“They should go along with their tribes,” Dune suggested. He stared fondly at the little SandWing cowering beside him. “I’ll call her Sunny.”
”What’s wrong with her?” Kestrel asked. 
Webs blinked, looking closely at the dragonet. She was an abnormal shade of golden, in sharp contrast to the soft sandy color of Dune’s scales beside her. And—Webs gave a sharp gasp of shock—the trademark SandWing tail barb was missing from her tail.
”Not only do we have a missing SkyWing with a RainWing replacement, buuuuut we also have a mutant SandWing,” Kestrel muttered. “Great. Just great.”
“It’s fate,” Dune insisted. “She looks different because of the prophecy.”
Kestrel rolled her eyes, but just then the MudWing dragonet made a leap for freedom, and the SkyWing had to turn all her efforts to keeping him contained. 
“I’ll call her Sunny,” Dune decided. 
“That’s too cheesy for a Dragonet of Destiny!” Kestrel snapped.
Webs sighed. He hated it when the guardians started arguing. “Sunny’s fine,” he insisted. 
Kestrel just scowled. “I’m calling this one Clay,” she replied. 
Webs looked at the SeaWing. She was lashing her tail as she glared around at the other dragons in the cave. “I guess… Ripple?”
Kestrel huffed angrily. “Why can’t you all come up with something better? Her name will be Tsunami.”
”Then, how about naming the RainWing Glory?” Webs replied. 
The SkyWing huffed. “Name her what you like, because she won’t be around long.”
Webs felt a chill run down his spine. Would Kestrel kill a dragonet just because she wasn’t part of a prophecy? Besides, they needed five dragons, even if they weren’t from the right tribes!
”And Starflight for the NightWing,” added Dune. 
“I guess it’s settled, then.” Webs was pleased that Kestrel wasn’t arguing. “Sunny, Clay, Tsunami, Glory, and Starflight.”
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Fanfictions (Canon)
Category:Fanfictions (Completed)