Hatchling

by DragonTailser

I'm a unique, immortal sky serpent. There's only one of me. So what do I do when I find a green egg sitting close by, one with my own patterns on it? I don't know how it got there, but there it is. Is it really my egg? What do I do when I find out that my life is drawing to a close, and that the egg is my replacement? I... I refuse to accept it, of course.

1. Egg

EGG

There was no way I could have laid an egg. It's just not possible.

I quickly retraced my steps, so to speak, but there were hardly any steps to begin with. First I had woken up—which was odd enough already, since I never slept, ever—and then I had started to uncoil lazily. As I loosened up, I noticed my body was coiled around an egg! The egg's shell was dark green, with yellow lines that glowed faintly. They looked considerably like the lines running down me, but I refused to believe it was my egg. I don't lay eggs.

I was immortal. I didn't make offspring at all.

I was tempted to destroy the egg, but I had been in a rather protective position before waking up. Some mystical process might've been underway, one that I didn't understand or even know of. Even so, I couldn't just sit and watch over it—it's not even my egg! No, the skies were calling me—the wonderful, sparse air of the upper atmosphere was waiting! I was caretaker of the air and weather, not of some spontaneous egg. If it was my responsibility to guard the egg, someone should've told me. Or I should've known already.

The egg's owner, whoever it was, decided to leave it at the Sky Pillar of all places. I couldn't fathom how they managed to slip in the egg while I was sleeping. No one comes to the tower—the last visitor was a human, years ago, and all I had to do was roar a few times to scare them off. What a lunatic you'd have to be, to come and leave your egg with a sleeping sky dragon. And then expect the dragon to take care of it! I heard birds can occasionally end up taking care of other species' eggs, but not me. I was no bird, and nurturing wasn't exactly my specialty. To the contrary… I would've just gulped down the egg and solved all my problems that way! When your food is the sun and air, though, a digestive system is pointless—I had no stomach. I wasn't sure where the egg would even go, exactly, if I swallowed it. Probably back up. And then I'd be a mess.

So with a low yawn I stretched one last time and flew off, still tired, making sure not to brush the egg with my tail.