Please note that I have no ownership over any characters or settings from Wings of Fire, just my original characters. Also, any characters I include are either canon or from my own creation; any similarities between characters are strictly coincidental.

Wings of Fire is owned by Tui T. Sutherland.

This fan fiction takes place shortly after the events at the end of Darkness of Dragons.

Chapter 1: The Hatching

Any SeaWing in the Summer Palace on that night would have known something big was about to happen. More specifically, they would have known from the numerous comments that Trickle had repeatedly told to anyone who would listen, and then some that wouldn't. That night was the night on which her first egg was due to hatch, and she certainly wouldn't let it go forgotten.

"Oh, it's almost time! Can you believe it?" Trickle exclaimed to yet another passing SeaWing. The SeaWing simply gave her a tired, but not unkind smile and continued on her way.

"Well, fine, if no one else wants to listen…" she trailed off, lost in thought. Suddenly, Trickle cried out,

"OH MY GOSH! My egg! I have to get to my egg! It should be hatching any minute now!" She began to run full force through the palace, not caring who or what she ran into, earning her a fair share of confused and irritated expressions.

"Hey, Trickle! Where are you going? What's with the rush?" called out one light blue dragon in particular.

Wait, who is that? Trickle thought, still preoccupied with her frantic mission. Oh, of course! She abruptly stopped, nearly crashing into the walls of the palace, and turned around to address the SeaWing who had called to her her.

"Oh, Seaweed, just the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me in my life!"

"Wait, do you mean…?" Seaweed said, her voice rising, sharing in her friend's excitement.

"YES! It's my egg! It's due to hatch TONIGHT! I just know it!" Trickle practically shouted, hopping from one talon to another in pure delight.

"Well, don't let me stop you!" Seaweed responded, her voice holding an air of amusement alongside sympathy for her friend. "You've only been talking about this moment since you've had the egg. Go see how it is! We can talk about it later, after I see that adorable little dragonet that I know you'll have."

"Oh, thank you Seaweed! I'll see you soon!" Trickle burst out, already starting her run towards her cave, and her egg. Ooh, I love the sound of that. I can hardly wait!

My egg, my dragonet…

My future.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to her, Trickle arrived at her room where her partner was waiting with the egg. The room was more or less circular and of modest size, roughly the length of two or three adult dragons from snout to tail. A large hole in the ceiling cast a warm glow throughout the room, for in addition to the countless stars peeping out, beginning to pepper the dimming sky, one of Pyrrhia's moons began to rise brighter than the others; it would be soon be a full orb, a miniature sun for the duration of the night. A dark shape was resting near the center of the room, where the egg, which was beginning to make faint noises, sat comfortably in a nest.

"Reaper? How is it? Is it hatching, is it hatching? Oooh, I can't wait!" Trickle panted in an excited whisper, still out of breath.

The black dragon picked up its head, smiled at the sight of his beloved, and replied to her,

"Trickle, calm down. I'm excited too, but it will be just a little longer. Don't worry though, I have a feeling it will be tonight, so it shouldn't be that much longer," Reaper gently replied. "Just settle down; come sit with me, and we can wait for it to hatch together."

Trickle opened her mouth as to say something, stopped for a moment, took a few deep breaths to calm herself, nodded, and went to sit down by Reaper, keeping her eyes on her egg, barely being able to stand the wait.

"So, how do you think it'll look?" she asked Reaper. "I mean, I know that there have been a few hybrids before, like that Darkstalker figure, but have there ever been any SeaWing-NightWing hybrids?

"Well, not to my knowledge, but I'm sure our dragonet will be the best looking one from either of our kingdoms, even all of Pyrrhia. Don't worry about a thing," Reaper assured her, leaning into her warmth.

"You know, that's why I fell for you as soon as I saw you," Trickle whispered to Reaper.

"Why, was it my dashing good looks?" joked Reaper, flipping his head back a little.

"Trust me, it was more than that, luckily for you," she teased jovially, flicking her tail at him. "No, it's the way that you talk. You're able to calm me down like no one has been able to before. Not to sound all lovey-dovey and mushy or anything."

"Aw, I love you too," he said lovingly. He leaned in and kissed her.

"Well, if I'd have known that this is what I would have walked into, I would've left you two to yourselves," stated a voice coming from the doorway. Reaper and Trickle both jumped slightly and backed away from each other, looking towards the door as a figure emerged into the light of the moons.

"Oh... Seaweed! Come in, come in!" Trickle invited, still flustered. "Moons, you startled me just now!"

"I'm sorry, I meant nothing of the sort," Seaweed apologized. "I was just wondering if I could watch your egg hatch with you; I couldn't sleep and didn't have anything else to do."

"Well, of course, as long as it's all right with Reaper," Trickle replied, sending a questioning glance at Reaper, who responded with a friendly nod. Seaweed obligingly came in and sat near the egg, close enough to not appear rude but still allowing Trickle and Reaper to have an area to be close together.

"So," Reaper started, attempting to start a conversation. "There's a full moon tonight. If he's part NightWing, he should get powers. So, Trickle, do you think it'll be a mind reader or a future teller? Personally, I think that having a mind reading dragonet sounds like a pretty interesting adventure."

"Well, I honestly hope she's a future teller, because having a mind reader in the family would be so weird… Wait," Trickle replied with a mischievous glint in her turquoise eyes. "He? No way, my first dragonet will definitely be a "she" and that's that, hands down. I just have an odd feeling."

"Well, I guess we won't need to wait much longer, will we?" Seaweed cut in before Reaper could make a remark. "Seeing as it's about to hatch and all, of course."

"WHAT?" Reaper and Trickle shouted in tandem. All three of the dragons turned looked at the egg. The egg, which was originally blue with black stripes, had exchanged any black present to a vibrant, shimmering shade of silver, and starburst cracks were progressively becoming larger more prominent on the surface of the egg.

Crick

A little claw broke free from the shell.

Criiiick

A tiny talon kicked out a small section of the egg

Snap!

The egg burst open, and with an indignant Awwk! a little dragonet came tumbling forth out into the world.

Author's note: Hello, and thank you for reading my fan fiction! I know it might not be that good, but since it is my first one I acknowledge that I have a lot of room for improvement and I feel that I'll definitely get better as this story progresses (assuming anyone wants it to progress, of course!). Please let me know what you all think; I personally think I might have had a bit too much dialogue as compared to information, but as this is somewhat of a prologue, the dialogue helped to begin to develop the characters introduced. Anyways, that's all for now, and thanks again for reading! A new chapter should be out every couple of weeks, depending on how creative I feel.