Chapter Thirteen: First Hatched
Remy was woken by chirping and the almost unnoticeable sound of an egg breaking.
She rolled over in her sleeping bag, peering through bleary eyes. The smallest of the eggs was pipping. A loud chirp from the hatchling chased away the remnants of sleep. Remy climbed out of the sleeping bag, sitting on top of it as she watched the egg.
A brown head cracked open the egg. The hatchling's forelegs and creamy-white chest broke through the fragile eggshell. It shook the eggshell from its snout and looked up at Remy with large eyes the color of the sky. Crawling the rest of the way out of its egg, the hatchling wandered a few steps forward and then plopped down on the ground, squeaking for food.
"Hi, little one," Remy greeted, crawling off her sleeping bag to get a better look at the hatchling. "Come here. I'm not going to hurt you." She ran a finger down the length of the hatchling's back, following the grey stripe that started from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail. The little brown hatchling looked up at Remy and chirped again.
"I guess you need some food. Hatching probably took a lot of energy out of you." Remy pulled a few leaves of grass from the ground and offered them to the hatchling. "You just need to stay here until my friends come back. Then they can figure out who you really belong to. You'll be with your parents soon, snuggled up in your nest, maybe with your clutch-mates or older siblings."
Not understanding a word the girl was saying but sensing she would not harm them, the hatchling approached. Hesitantly, it nipped at the grass. After a few nibbles, it settled down, calmly eating the grass in Remy's hand as it stared at the fresh world around it.
"So, what exactly are you?" Remy ran a hand down the hatchling's back, looking over its brown and grey body. She tickled its creamy underbelly and squeezed its forepaws. "You're obviously not a horn-face, a long-neck, a flyer, spike-tail, or a dome-head." She brushed the baby's head and rubbed its tiny paws between her fingers again. "I don't think you're a spike-thumb. You don't have any thumb spikes unless those grow in later."
Remy let the hatchling finish its meal, continuing to study it. "I guess you could be a singer, but you don't have a crest." She rested her head on her knees, lips pressed in a thin line in thought. "These are the times I wish Heather was here. She'd know exactly what you were. Maybe."
She offered the hatchling another strand of grass. "Ducky did say there was another singer egg, but I can't tell the difference between eggs and which ones she was holding. Oh well. I'll find out what you are sooner or later."
When the little dinosaur finished its meal of grass, it yawned. It stumbled over to its own eggshells and curled up on the edge of the blankets and dried reeds that they were nestled in. Remy smiled, sitting back as she watched the hatchling and the other two eggs. As she followed the grey trail that colored the hatchling's back, a thought occurred to her. "You wouldn't happen to be Maia's baby, would you?"
The hatchling didn't stir.
"Well, no matter whose baby you are, you're fortunate to have survived outside your nest. You could have got eaten or just not done well without your mom." She bopped the hatchling on the nose. It sniffled and rubbed its snout with its hoofed forepaw.
Remy sat back, watching the hatchling. "For some reason, I have a feeling the Shards might have something to do with your survival, especially if that odd egg hatches." She glanced at the egg that had glowing blue specks throughout its shell.
The bushes rustled, and a small green head peeked out from the leaves. It was followed by broader shoulders and a tank-like body lined with large plates. It was Spike. He grunted, spying the broken eggshells among the two eggs.
"Hi, Spike." Remy looked up from the snoozing hatchling. "One of them hatched. Isn't that great?" She pointed to the singer baby.
Spike nodded and pulled off a clump of leaves, settling down to graze as he usually did.
"Who do you think the hatchling belongs to?" Remy asked, hoping the spike-tail would have an answer. "Do you think they might belong to Maia? She did lose an egg a day or so ago. They kind of look like her. They have the same brown scales and a back stripe too."
Spike continued to chew, his magenta eyes narrowing ever so slightly in thought. When he swallowed his mouth full of food, he heaved himself to his feet and approached the hatchling and the eggs it was sleeping among. He sniffed the hatchling and sat back.
"Yes."
"It is Maia's baby?" Remy sat up, face alight with relief.
Spike nodded and returned to the bush.
"I better take this little one to her then. She'll be so happy to find out her hatchling is safe and sound. You wouldn't mind watching over the other two eggs, would you?"
Spike shook his head, taking another mouthful of leaves.
"Thanks so much, Spike."
Carefully, Remy scooped the hatchling in her arms and walked to the yellow-backed singer's nest.
After a journey through the Great Valley's meadows, Remy found herself standing some ways away from Maia's nest. The crestless singer was curled around it, but her other two eggs were nowhere to be seen. At a closer glance, two light brown hatchlings were nestled against her belly, fast asleep. Her eyes were nothing but loving as she gazed down at her children. One possessed the same bright yellow stripe down their back as Maia's, while the other hatchling had a grey stripe, just like the hatchling Remy was currently holding.
Hesitantly, Remy approached the doting mother and cleared her throat. When the singer looked up, Remy offered the half-awake hatchling in her hands. "Excuse me. I think this one is yours."
The mother stared at the hatchling in Remy's hands as if she didn't believe her. Her dark eyes narrowed, but she did not get up. Instead, she covered the two hatchlings sleeping against her belly with a forepaw.
Remy stepped a little closer, holding the hatchling nearer to Maia. She mentally kicked herself for not thinking of an explanation beforehand. The mistrusting singer was not the first dinosaur she wanted to tell about the Valley's thieving claw-hands.
"We found some eggs. This one hatched," was all Remy managed without spilling precious details.
The singer still hadn't moved, but she seemed curious about the hatchling. Remy stepped even closer, holding her breath, just waiting for the mother to lash out. She took another and another until she was standing only a foot away from Maia's nest. She held the hatchling out as far as she could, making sure it did not fall from her grasp.
Maia leaned forward, sniffing the hatchling and gazing at it. She nosed the baby awake with her beak. They blinked away the rest of the sleep and yawned. Blue eyes stared up at the mother. The hatchling squeaked and curled back into the warmth of Remy's hands.
Maia ever so carefully grasped the hatchling in her jaws, taking them from Remy's hands and placing them among her other hatchlings. She stared Remy down, tucking the three hatchlings closer to her belly and under her forepaw.
"How did you find him?"
Remy sighed. "There are claw-hands in the Valley. They've been stealing eggs."
Maia stiffened, anger burning in her eyes. "Egg stealers? How long have you known about this? How did they get in?" She nearly stomped her foot but instead curled tighter around her hatchlings.
"Last night."
"Last night?" Maia hissed. "And you weren't planning on telling anyone if this hadn't been my hatchling? Thin-skins only look out for themselves. Get out of my sight. I'll inform everyone about the vermin in our Valley." She nuzzled her hatchlings. "They are as much as a problem to hatchlings as they are to eggs."
Remy backed away, the plants around her slowly rising, her fear fueling the unique magic of the Shard that hung around her neck. The foliage didn't have a chance to raise farther than knee-high before Remy turned and swiftly walked away from the singer's nest, Maia's gaze burning into the back of her head.
The moment Remy stepped foot in the grove where Spike was waiting, she slumped to her feet, leaning against the grazing spike-tail.
"That was stressful. I had to spill to Maia that there were egg-stealing claw-hands in the Great Valley. She almost attacked me. Good thing she didn't ask where I found the eggs. I'm not sure if she's going to connect the rest of the gang with me or not. Oh, well. Nothing I can do about it now." She further leaned against Spike, watching the remaining two eggs.
"What do you think the other two eggs are, Spike? Hopefully, they're from Valley residents and not just some random dinosaur outside the Valley. That would be a pain to deal with, wouldn't it?"
Spike grunted in reply.
"Well, if you're okay with watching the eggs, I should check on the rune-weaver family and make sure they know that I'm okay. Do you think I should tell them about everything that's happened since last night, or should I keep everything a secret until the other hatchlings hatch?"
"Tell," Spike mumbled through a mouthful of food.
"Okay. I trust you." Remy pushed off the spike-tail. "You're okay with watching the eggs for a little longer?"
When he nodded, Remy slipped from the grove and made her way to Suri's home. When she stepped into the small house, she peered into the kitchen.
"Anyone home?" When there was no reply, she walked back outside, glancing about the cabin. "They must be busy." Remy walked around the house once, pausing to admire the growing vegetable garden, which was boarded off by a wire fence to keep hungry hatchlings out. "I guess I'll say hello later tonight. Hopefully, nothing too exciting happens. Though, I could use something to eat."
Remy walked back into the house and prepared a quick meal. It wasn't until she was washing dishes that Laok, Suri's father, walked into the house.
"Remy! We were wondering where you had gone. You weren't in your room this morning." The man commented as he rummaged through a room down the hallway.
"I was with Littlefoot and the others. Something...came up really early in the morning. I just got back. But they were about to start a game that I wanted to watch. How has your day been?" Remy asked, placing the washed dishes on the rack to dry.
Laok walked out from the room with an armful of glass jars. "Busy. Very busy. Had three nests hatch this morning, one with a very, very, very fretful new mom. Then a youngling was running somewhere they shouldn't have been. And then I had a sick dome-head family to deal with because they decided to try a new plant they had never eaten before. Iam's working with an injured adolescent who got a little too rough with his friends and is all scratched up. I'm delivering her herbs right now before I look at the dome-heads again."
"Busy day," Remy breathed, feeling the man's exhaustion through his words. "I hope it slows down soon."
"Thank you, Remy. Off to help my wife." Laok waved goodbye, stuffing the jars in a satchel as he exited the door.
Remy stood in the doorway, watching the man walk away until he was far in the distance. She ducked back into her room, grabbed a journal, and then made her way back to where Spike was waiting in the grove.