So, I've been gone for a while. Had lots of things to do, but you're not here to listen to me ramble on and on about that now are you? This is sort of new ground for me, being a self-insert, with a twist as I am wont. I figured, nothing ventured nothing gained. Please note, you don't have to take this story all that seriously, it's an idea that was inhabiting my head for a while and I put it into words and onto a document. To me, it's fun and a project I want to do since I was playing around with OCs for this fandom for a while before writing it.

Copyright: I do not own the Age of Fire series nor the canon characters contained within. They belong to E. E. Knight.

Without further ado, please read, review, and enjoy.

A New Age

By: Immortal Drake

Darkness, all I could see was darkness, 'That's not right,' I thought. I thought I had opened my eyes after getting a good night's sleep, at least I thought I did, my mind ran blank when I tried to remember anything. 'Oh no, I'm blind,' I thought, I had to move, and I moved what I thought was a hand, and it immediately came up short against something. It was hard, and in here it was warm, but it was too constricted, my thoughts only focused on getting out and something came to me from nowhere, my head. I focused on moving my head, and almost as if it was mounted on springs, I launched it against the walls of my prison, and was rewarded with the sound of it giving way, a muted crack.

It wasn't enough, so I hit it again, another crack and now some light was coming in, along with air that filled me with vigor. 'Can't give up,' I thought, and I launched my head with everything I had, which didn't feel like much at that moment, and my head was free. As my head exited my prison, I was hit with the full effect of the light, making my eyes hurt. I instantly regretted exiting my confinement. There was still a compulsion to free the rest of my body, and with the hole made in what I assumed was the top, the rest was easier to break with my limbs and back.

I slid out of my prison with a wet sound, and immediately turned, to find an unfamiliar body behind me, and what looked like the remains of an egg behind that. 'Holy crap I'm a lizard,' leapt to my mind unbidden, and indeed that was what I saw. Four limbs, my front legs had what looked like four digits, with three toes and what looked like a spur-like thumb, and my rear legs only had three toes with spurs on them. I had what appeared to be scales running along my body, green with silver edges, very nice to look at. And my tail was somewhat thick for my body, and felt powerful, for my small size anyway. My entirety was covered in what looked like slimy netting, attached to the remains of the egg. Since I just came out of an egg, I could only guess that I was small and not very powerful, so I stopped admiring my scales and looked around, I could see other eggs around me, and smelled what I assumed was the nest a little, my brain registering "Mother" and "Father."

"Thank the Spirits, she lives," I heard from above me somewhere, causing me to squeak in surprise as I looked around for the source, and came face to face with a huge green dragon.

This dragon, who my brain told me was Mother, was a whole other world, literally from my perspective as she sat on a small ridge above the nest, small projections of stone arranged like teeth hanging from it. 'Now how does evolution expect me to grow that big from this,' I thought to myself. Deciding being tied to an egg was not going to help figuring out the situation, I tried pulling the netting off with my limbs. When they proved too weak, I arched my neck as far as it would go and started worrying at the netting with my small teeth. Once they were free, I tore at the rest with the claws on my front limbs. Getting my feet under me proved to be harder, as each limb seemed to want to go a separate direction. Getting my rear legs under control, partially sticking my rump in the air, I felt a foot step on something slimy, ignoring it as spare membrane, I pushed away, and felt a tug on my belly.

But then something occurred to me, Mother had called me a she, a pit formed in my stomach as I suddenly began to panic, 'Okay, can have that mental breakdown later, but it does explain why things feel rather reverse.' I didn't know why that mattered, but the thought calmed me for some reason. The cord came loose and the spot on my stomach stung, but it wouldn't hurt too much as I worked on getting the rest of the membranes off of me. Once free, I stood and gave myself a good shake as my scales lightly rustled, the way the eggs were arranged, my view only included two other eggs nearby.

It was then I heard angry squeals and squawks coming from beyond the eggs, 'My brothers are fighting no doubt, well, nothing to do with me,' another strange thought told me. There was a crack from the two eggs next to me, and I tensed in preparation. I heard Mother address the female hatchling, and I heard the name Wistala. I felt a strange dropping feeling in my stomach as that name, along with Auron, Jizara, and the Copper echoed through my brain. Wistala fought her way out of her egg and slid out like I had. I observed her from around the other egg, Jizara's egg I would bet. The hatchling inside seemed to be having trouble cracking the shell, a green head with pale pink fringe poking from the top, 'Too hard Momma, I-Jizara can't get out,' I heard from somewhere, or someone. I peeked around the egg, and saw my sister dragging herself around with her front limbs only.

Slightly impressed, I took the time to look around the rest of the nest. It was stone and rather bumpy. Movement drew my attention to what I initially thought was some oddly shaped stones, but then they resolved themselves into another hatchling, grey with black stripes looking over the edge of the shelf the nest was on. An image assaulted my vision, a grey dragon big enough to dwarf my current state flying over ice encrusted mountains. Shaking my head to clear it, I found myself under the scrutiny of a pair of red eyes below a hard-looking crest.

The other hatchling looked between me and Wistala, his eyes wild, and I could feel twinges of nervousness in my stomach. With a small flick of his tongue the other hatchling, who I knew to be Auron, marched over to something I figured was the corpse of a red hatchling. A quick inhale of my nostrils brought a sharp smell to me, my brain giving me blood, and food, my stomach grumbling. 'Go Riveia or your brother will eat it all,' I heard from Mother.

I couldn't help my mouth watering a little as my stomach growled at me to eat as I watched Auron tearing at the corpse. I turned between the meal and Jizara's egg, my new sister having managed to fully free her head and neck; her fringe matted and folded in different directions.

Looking to Wistala I found her standing next to the egg as her tail lashed back and forth. Then with a sharp crack her tail went crashing into Jizara's egg. Three blows later and Jizara was free, the small hatchling trying to slink her way to eat. After some mental encouragement, Wistala let Jizara latch onto her tail with her teeth so she could pull her, our, sister who couldn't seem to get moving on her own. Going the route of the decent sibling, I started pushing against Jizara's rump with my shoulder. Despite Jizara being small and gracefully built, her limbs delicate and long, she was a little harder to push than I thought she would be, but with Wistala's assistance it was easy. Wistala looked at me curiously, I looked her in the eye, and squeaked to her while trying to get a handle on my apparent telepathy, "Stronger…Together," I managed to send to her.

"Thank you Riveia," Wistala responded.

Once our little trio reached the corpse of our brother, we let go of Jizara, who tried to inch her way to eat. I almost rolled my eyes at the sight, we could have dragged her right up to it, but it was then I had my first scare. Just as Wistala and Jizara started to eat as I searched for a spot, the Copper, my brother flashed into existence upon the corpse, practically standing on it as he looked at us. I looked him over, he and I were about the same size, but his left sii was held tight against his chest and bleeding, evidence of his injury at the claws of the red corpse. My brain wanted to instinctively get away from him, but as I was on his left and Wistala on his right, I told these thoughts to shut up for the moment. Wistala and I had him outnumbered, but I felt I couldn't depend on my sister; she immediately flattened herself against the nest as the Copper leapt. 'Oh HELL no,' I thought, and leaped to intercept the other hatchling, the two of us colliding.

The Copper gave a pained yelp as he landed to the right of Jizara and Wistala, I landed just in front. If anything, the Copper looked supremely confused that I had hit him, he had probably been expecting me to back off as well. Shaking stars out of my vision, I was able to get up and Wistala stood as the Copper tried to get after Jizara again. This time Wistala rammed into the Copper, sending him towards me and I found myself instinctively snapping my jaws at him. Our brother immediately backed away at this assault, tearing off a piece of the corpse's tail as he fled. Auron came bounding up screeching like the devil after the Copper, his tail swinging back and forth with such violence that it actually caught me across the snout with a small smack. In immediate reaction I swatted a forelimb at it with a squawk.

Auron immediately took his tail out of my reach. Then he returned to the corpse, he didn't seem to mind sharing with myself and his other sisters. The flesh actually tasted good, the warm blood and torn flesh practically gliding down my throat, as I continually pushed back the thought this was cannibalism that threatened to make me gag. Once finished with our first meal, I watched Auron going to sleep as Mother sang, Jizara went to sleep as well while Wistala remained awake longer, I noticed the Copper huddling in a pile of refuse, I felt sorry for him I truly did, but when he saw me his eye burned with hatred.

I heard Mother and Wistala conversing mentally, my sister asking about the Upper World and getting complimented on her improvisation. Left alone with my thoughts, I remembered one thing, Mother hadn't named me as soon as I had hatched. I was content to just go to sleep and forget about it, but Mother nudged my mind, "Riveia, what troubles you, you seem distant."

"You had no name for me," I thought, getting the hang of the telepathy, the words slow.

"Understand Riveia," Mother started, she somehow sounded sad, "You had no dreams in the egg, your sire wanted to squash you before you hatched, but I would convince him otherwise every time," she said. Now it clicked, it was unnatural for there to be no dreams from the hatchling while in the egg, I couldn't blame Father for wanting to smash my egg, but was grateful Mother stopped him. "I believe he will be impressed by your accomplishment in defending your sister," Mother interrupted my thoughts, "And how you keep your thoughts to yourself, that will serve you well in the Upper World," she said.

"Thank you Mama," I thought to her.

"Sleep now Riveia, and leave worrying to me," Mother thought as I gave a yawn that stretched my small jaws wide. Curling up with my nose almost touching my tail-tip, I fell asleep.

Pronunciation Guide:

Riveia: Ri-vay-uh

Well, that was something else, hope you enjoyed it. Hope I haven't stepped on too many toes. If there's something that could make this a tad more canon friendly, please let me know, since it's been a while since I've read the books. And on that note I will see you all next time.