Chapter 3

She let out the breath in a huff, as Alexis eyes unclouded and the egg was passed to the next in line. Why did she ever think that something amazing like that would ever happen to her? The goddess eye had blinked when she was born, she was not even important enough to be greeted into this world under her gaze. Only her blind eye had been open, looking upon her birth.

With her hope dashed, she lost interest in the proceedings. She was sure she would hear the commotion of the hatching and turn her attention back in time.

The dragons where what caught her attention, without the sun, the glow of their silver eyes glimmered in the darkness, especially the ones not light by a torch. They were just like shining twin moons. One by one, she focused her attention on the ones she could make out, amazed at all the different variations there was. The most noticeable was their colors, every color of the rainbow was given their due, in just about as many shades. But with so many of them close together, she also noticed other variations. Some where skinny, and long, others short and fat. She had a hard time holding in her giggles when she thought of the human equivalent.

The dragons facial ridges where what shocked her the most. She had thought that most would have the same kind of look, but the distinction between male, and female was drastic. Even without the pouches you could tell the females by the feathery frills, compared to the males plain spikes.

She was almost to the end of where she could look without actually turning, when a spot of white amongst a sea of blue caught her eye. A baby was sticking its head out of its mothers pouch.

It was so cute! The fact was in her mind everything was cuter as a baby. A hand reached out to stroke the dragonet, and drew her eye away from the dragon, to the boy. This must be the one chosen two years ago. He was sporting an eye patch, which made her wonder what he did before. Her guess was on he had been a mine kiddie. Though the dragons insured that the caves where safe, a rock chip was known to fly up, and cause damage. That was the most likely cause of a lost eye.

Before she could think anymore about them, in the corner of her eye, she saw the old lady pass the egg to Ambrosia and gave her best friend a great big smile. She could not believe she was next. Was it really going to hatch? There was only twenty-two of us left. What would happen if the egg chose none of us?

Breaking the rules Ambrosia took the liberty to pass the egg onto her. Giving her thigh a squeeze before departing. Katina's heart started to pound, and her hands started to shake, as she lifted them to rest upon the egg. As soon as Katina's hands clasped that egg, all the nerves stopped. She was filled with the special glow one feels when your parents hug you. With that wonderful feeling, she did not even mind the throbbing in her head.

Then even that discomfort floated away, as she heard a voice in her head :We are one, my chosen.: A crack sounded, causing a flurry of activity to erupt. The roaring elation of dragons, and the exited chatter of the children. She was enveloped in Ambrosia's arms, then Alexis's she absentmindedly leaned into their embraces but most of her attention was fixated on the small cracks forming along the shell. Shell fragments flittered to the ground, as a slimy yellow nose poked its way out of its shell.

She only had a moment to see it, before red was all she could see. Parthenia had decided that she had enough of waiting, and was fiercely licking the egg, clearing away the shell, and the slime. The dragonet issued a cry and Parthenia regurgitated pink slime into its waiting mouth. It gave a happy gurgle and snuggled up into the nook of her arm and promptly fell asleep.

Katina was pulled to her feet by the old lady. "Welcome new Sister. Let us being the celebrations."

Unable to resist the temptation anymore, she ran her hands along the length of her new dragon. His scales were so thin, that she could feel his heartbeat against her fingertips. One of the first dragon to glide off the ledge was a violet dragon. It rubbed muzzles with Parthenia and then bent to sniff the newborn. She felt a pain in her forehead as a deep rumbling voice filled her head. :I welcome you to our nest little one.:

Under the light of the moon they celebrated, She was the guest of honour and was swarmed with congratulations, she even received one from Heliodors. It grew late and the party started to wind up, Ambrosia, and Alexis were the last to leave and had tears in their eyes as they said goodbye. They knew it was a final good bye.

She was torn between loss, and joy. On one hand she was venturing into this amazing new life, but she knew she would never have the close bonds of family that she had grown up with.

He was so light, it was hard to imagine that something the size of a cat would soon be as big as any house. A house she would be riding. She looked up at the old lady, "Do I get to name it?"

:I don't need someone to name me, my name is Zephyr. Let us go to bed.:

Though the other dragons had glided down the mountain to reach their nests, Parthenia, and Theron accompanied her though the mountain.

They turned off the main hallway, into a smaller passageway. There were nests on ether side.

They only had to walk a short way before Parthenia turned into one of these nests. She curled up in the nest hay, and then the most amazing site happened. Her wings simply dissolved. Seeing the shock on her face the old lady laughed, "Dragons manifest their wings to fly, but it takes a lot of energy out of them, so they let them dissolve when they are not needed. Zephyr will get his wings during the blossoming. I'm sorry, I have not introduced myself yet, my name is Chloe."

Theron was behind her so Katina had no choice but to follow her in. "The first night is all about bonding, so you will be sleeping with Parthenia and Theron." Now that she was all the way into the room, she could see a bed made up in the corner. Chloe removed the blanket, and moved over to Parthenia. "Come, I will tuck you in."

Although she had a great love for the dragon in her arms, she was a little weary at the thought that she was to sleep between the two gigantic animals. If they rolled that would be the end of her. But the same could be said for the dragonet so rationally she knew she had nothing to fear. Taking a breath she went and laid her head against Parthenia's stomach, and draped Zephyr over her chest so that the blanket would cover neither of their noises. After she had settled Theron curled around them encasing Katina in dragon flesh.

The combined heat of all four of them, made a warm bed, and Katina fell asleep for the first time believing that the moon she was born under mattered not at all, this was ultimate proof that the goddess did shine favorably on her.