Disclaimer: Temeraire is not mine. Iskierka is not mine. Laurence is not mine. Granby is not mine. Then who the hell is mine?!
Hey, guys, you know what? I'll be the first one writing in the Temeraire category of . I am so very proud of that. I'll try to be worthy of Temeraire and his wonderful author.
Chapter 1
It quite enjoyed being in the Sultan's palace, where everyone was walking very reverently around its egg and kept repeating that it would make a wonderful dragon once it broke the shell. The still unhatched dragonet did not doubt its glorious future – it was, after all, a Kazilik and Kaziliks were one of the most renowned kinds of warrior dragons. Besides their spikes – and there were many of them and each one was highly dangerous – they were known to be one of the most dangerous firebreathers in the world – adult Kazilliks could breath a neverlasting flame for ten whole minutes without resting, if the women in the harem could be trusted. The little dragonet was sure that they could – it felt its still unformed body shake with eagerness and bloodthirstiness each time it heard one of their takes; one day, it would won eternal glory for itself, it was sure.
Anyway, one thing that it did not like about the harem were the women – always giggling stupidly, spending their whole time in the bathroom and touching its shell just for luck. They were loud, and boring, and stupid, and the dragonet hoped it would not turn out to be a female. But even if it was a female, surely things were different with dragons? Unfortunately, it had no way of knowing, because there was no one who could tell it, it could not ask, because it was still in the shell and anyway, even if it managed, the stupid women would probably faint before running out screaming.
Then, the Great Rocking came. The dragonet had no idea what was going on, because it could not make out the language which the men who had obviously abducted it shouted in – it knew only that they were carrying it somewhere, rocking it furiously along the way. And there was some noise outside – wait, that was a battle! They must be fleeing for somewhere, the little dragonet thought and felt a wave of excitement so hot that it could almost burn the shell. The danger was real! There was a battle outside! A danger that was really, really existing! It wanted to get out and take part in it! But it had yet to grow – the egg was supposed to break in two months at the earliest. It was not fully developed yet, that was the sad truth, so it could only listen to the battle from the inside. It hoped that its abductors would win and take it away from the harem and the women.
At one moment, everything became still and the dragonet was left to wonder in solitude what had happened at the end of the battle. But after a while, a new voice spoke directly to it and the little unhatched dragon almost jumped in its shell. It was another dragon, it could feel it! It was so excited, it wanted to hatch right now, but unfortunately, it was still too early.
The new dragon spoke dragon-speech and a few Turkish words which made it possible that the soon-to-be hatchling understood what he said; he used that to teach it English – the language its kidnappers spoke. It understood that they had been afraid that it wouldn't be able to grasp English, having found itself in their hands so close to hatching. That thought made it huff angrily in its shell: it was not that stupid!
The other dragon presented himself as Temeraire and started talking to it about battles – which impressed it greatly – and harness, which did not impress it at all. It didn't mind being harnessed, though, because that would make it considered ready for battle. It simply could not understand Temeraire's frustration with harnessing. It couldn't understand what Temeraire meant when he told it he was black – what were colours supposed to be? It was hard to tell from a shell.
Some members of Temeraire's crew often came to talk to it. It quite liked Temeraire's captain, Will Laurence, and it was especially fond of Kayes, the dragon-surgeon who accompanied the group. The children who came to talk to it and touch its shell were just as ill-mannered as the women from the harem. At least they were not boring, while the harem women could talk day and night about the Sultan and something called 'makeup'. These two were talking about real things, battles mostly. And that made the dragonet very happy.
Yet, its favorite was Temeraire's first officer. He would not be allowed to have his own dragon and maybe that was the reason that he was acting so caringly around the eggs. He had a nice voice, too.
The hatching was expected to happen any minute now. One day, the dragonet realized that it was female. She had no idea how it had happened, suddenly all she knew was that she was a female and that she would never, ever be the dragonic equivalent of the women in the harem. She would be a worrier. She would gain fame. She would… she would name herself Iskierka! Yes, yes, Iskierka, just like the song that a random girl was singing somewhere around right now…
She wanted to see all wonderful things that Temeraire had told her about. She wanted to take part in the battles that were happening almost on a daily basis. She felt that she was ready!
"Not now!" Temeraire's voice came sharply and she angrily tossed her head aside, causing the whole egg to rock back and forth. "We must leave at this moment, you cannot hatch now and anyway there is almost no food."
He shouldn't have said that. 'You cannot hatch now.' Yet, he could be forgiven for this little mistake, because how was he to know that telling Islierka 'You cannot do something' meant 'You are due to try it anyway?' He would finally work out the truth in his own time.
She broke the shell.
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
A. N. And so, that was the first story in Temeraire's category. I hope you liked it and I hope you'll send me reviews to tell me what you think about it.
3