The doors to the private nesting chambers opened accompanied by loud, gasping wails of an infant. Two sets of heads turned to see Strun, a large aging male Nadder who was just coming into his middle age in life walking in, cradled in his large leather wings was a tiny bundle of cloth from which the source of the wailing was coming from. Faad, his wife, cautiously approached her husband who could only look to her, then to the bundle then back to her with a look of helpless confusion.
Mul, their son, approached his father with far less worry than his mother had and eyed the bundle curiously. The teenager nudged the bundle of cloth with his large nose earning him a growl of warning from his sire who pulled the wailing ball closer to his chest. Faad looked to her husband and nodded her large head to give permission for him to show her what exactly he had brought into their nesting chambers.
With a gentleness that no one would think the creature capable of, Strun peeled back the cloth to reveal a tiny, reddish pink human infant who couldn't be any older than a few days. Faad recoiled as if the sight of the child had struck her. She looked to her husband to ask what this was but he had no answers for her. He could only look at her with a confused pity as he cradled the child, gently rocking her to try and sooth the infant's ear splitting cries.
Mul paid his parent's distress no mind as he stared at the tiny baby crying in his sire's wings. This creature was weird to him. It was clearly a hatchling but it didn't look like any hatchling he had ever seen before. Then again most females wouldn't dare allow their newborns out of their sight much less around an irresponsible young male. Despite all of this he couldn't help but be fascinated by the small child that was finally starting to quiet down.
Despite his better judgement he decided to speak up and voice his liking of the child that was held close in his sire's wings. This earned him a sharp glare from both of his parents who were arguing amongst themselves about what to do. Strun wanted to keep the infant as the child had been literally thrown at him by the cowardly humans who birthed her. Faad shook her head and wanted to be rid of the child. She was not a dragon, she couldn't thrive here. She reasoned that it would be better for the child that she be raised by her own kind.
Finally Faad grunted in annoyance and carefully plucked the infant from her husband's wings which caused the baby to start crying again. Faad looked down at the infant screaming for all she was worth in her wings and she found her resistance wilting as the infant cried helplessly. She simply didn't have a heart made of stone and the baby in her wings reminded her of when she held her own son when he was a hatchling. She missed being a mother. She and Strun had certainly tried for more children but fate seemed to see fit that she would only have one.
She cooed softly and rocked the child who calmed in a rather quick manor, looking up at the Nadder with a tired fascination. Strun knew in that moment that his wife would sooner part with her wings then give up her new daughter. She hummed a soft lullaby that she had heard when she herself was a young chick in her mother's nest. She walked into their private nest and set the infant gently in a crib that she couldn't seem to part with from when her son was a hatchling. The crib had been passed down to her from her own mother as a part of a tradition, a well wish from your mother for many children. The infant was tiny in comparison to the massive crib that was made for the much larger dragon hatchlings but she looked so cute as she cooed back towards the dragoness.
Strun quietly walked into the nesting room as his daughter fell asleep to his wife's gentle humming. It was rare to see his normally fierce and stern wife show her much softer, more motherly side. She had long since made peace with the idea that she wouldn't have any more children and Strun couldn't help but think that she was far more hurt by this then she had let on.
Strun himself wanted a big family, in the earlier years of their partnership they would often bicker and fight, pointing claws at each other as the reason for their lack of hatchlings. It had nearly ended their relationship until they had gotten lucky as one of their eggs had managed to survive and lead to their son Mul being born. After the stress of worrying if they're son would be born they had a very long, very painful discussion that ended in a mutual agreement to stop trying for more children as it would only lead to more pain.
Since then they had grown closer bonding over their love for their son and the time they could share together because of only having one. Maybe this was a gift from their ancestors for being able to get through one of the worst rough patches in their lives together. Once he was sure that their daughter was well and truly asleep he managed to all but tear his wife away from the crib.
She very reluctantly joined him in their main living quarters where Mul had been patiently waiting for his parents to come out. He looked towards his parents silently asking what was going to happen next. Mul had just very recently left his parent's nest a few years ago now and moved into the guard recruits barracks as a guard in training. While he no longer lived with his parents, he wasn't completely independent yet.
His sire and dam both looked at each other and nodded in agreement. They would ask for the council's blessing in the hopes that they could adopt the child. Strun was a respected member of the council that decided on matters around the islands and his wife was a stern but well liked record keeper for their dragon's colony, surely the court would allow them to keep the child who was so callously abandoned by her human parents.
Even with the ever present concerns of not being able to keep their child they simply couldn't allow her to continue on without a name. It could possibly make it so much harder for them if they couldn't keep her but that was simply a risk they would have to take.
After an hour's long discussion over possible names they decided on the name Kah. When their son was born he was a source of strength that neither had in a very difficult and painful time of their life, Kah would be their pride after having literally been thrown into their lives. They would raise this child who was unwanted by man and would show that she was too good for them, that her place was with the proud family of dragons that would love and raise her as a Nadder.