Greetings, my lovelies! It's Dragon Tuesday yet again! Both Werewolf Friday and Dragon Tuesday are provided to you by me, the wonderful Solora Goldsun. This is the last of the hatching chapters. After that, we'll get the names of the dragons and see some interaction, both with the dragons and with the other characters.
I'm going classic with this week's dragon recommendation: "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien. If you haven't read it, do it immediately! It's basically required reading for anyone who likes books. Unlike the longer, denser "Lord of the Rings" books, this one has a much quicker pace and a simple, concise story with an awesome dragon. I…would not recommend the Peter Jackson trilogy. It adds a bunch of stuff that isn't in the book *cough* Tauriel *cough* and completely changes or eliminates certain other scenes. If you want to see a movie adaptation, check out the Rankin Bass animated version.
In the meantime, enjoy!
Neptune was abruptly awoken by the bugling cry of Nautilus. He sat up with a mumbled exclamation of surprise. Next to him, Sun groaned.
Thank goodness he just shouted, and didn't douse us with water, Neptune thought, looking at the water dragon with an inward shudder. He wasn't necessarily terrified of water dragons themselves, but water dragons usually meant being soaked. They meant having to train in things like swimming, riding underwater, and manipulating rain. These were all things Neptune desperately wanted to avoid.
Sun grinned and punched Neptune's arm as he started rolling up his sleeping bag. "This is it, man! You ready?"
Neptune grinned. "Totally." His heart leaped as he watched the professors' dragons bring the eggs in. As everyone headed toward the bathrooms, he kept glancing over his shoulder to look at them as they were being carefully taken out and put on a line of incubators. The two were joined by their friends Scarlet and Sage. Scarlet was practically bouncing as he walked.
"I've been looking forward to this for years!" Scarlet said excitedly. "This is going to be so amazing!"
Sage smiled easily. "Everyone says that this is the moment we'll always remember."
"Yeah, I'm just tired of waiting." Sun looked toward the line of eggs. "Let's hurry. I wanna get a good spot."
They returned to the arena, marveling at the sheer number and variety of eggs that were sitting there, just waiting to hatch. Blue, green, gray, and turquoise water eggs. Red, gold, orange, and yellow fire eggs. Wind eggs with pale yellows, whites, and greens. Earth eggs that looked like stone, wood, or the deepest depths of soil.
It was impossible to tell which dragon would go to each person, but people tried to guess. Sun stared at a shiny gold egg nearby and grinned. Neptune found his eye drawn toward a light green wind egg. Scarlet couldn't decide whether the bright red one to his left or the dark blue one to his right was more appealing. Sage looked at the earth eggs with interest, wondering which tiny creature would stumble across the arena in his direction.
When Ozpin started to lecture the students, most didn't listen at first. However, his sharp voice eventually drew everyone in. Even Sun felt his large grin fading a little as he was reminded that the dragon that would bond to him wasn't just something awesome to show off. It would be his responsibility. It would depend on him in order to live and grow and learn how to fight.
I guess, at the beginning, it's more like being a parent than a partner, he mused. It didn't ruin his excitement in the slightest, however. He was ready.
In the moments between the initial lineup and the first crack of a shell, the silence was as thick as fog. Then, the tension only rose as the sounds of cracks and shatters and squeaks filled the air like a cacophonous wave.
Sun saw the gold egg shake and knelt down, gazing intently at it. It shook once more, then shattered as a perfect, gorgeous golden fire dragon with gleaming blue eyes emerged. It took a step forward, then immediately veered to the far end of the line, chirping loudly.
Eh. Sun shrugged. The odds of actually guessing one's egg were pretty low. It didn't matter. He just wanted a dragon. Despite his preference for a wind or fire dragon, he'd honestly be fine with anything. I mean, who gets picky when it comes to having your own freaking dragon?
He had been looking to his left, so didn't notice the creature approaching him from the right until a set of fangs chomped down on his hand. He jumped, his tail going rigid for a brief moment, then looked down.
It was a fire dragon, slightly smaller than the gold one, but with very muscular legs. Its eyes were a smoky gray color. Instead of the more common, bright colors one would expect, this one was mostly black with lines of red, orange, and yellow creeping along the surface like lava-filled cracks. It gave Sun's wrist a shake, hissing softly.
Sun touched the dragon's brow with his free hand, ignoring the sting of its tiny fangs. When the hatchling didn't move away, he scooped the little creature up and brought it to his chest. "Hey, buddy! Are you hungry?" he asked as he walked toward the food bags.
The dragonet let go of his hand, leaving a series of bleeding dots on his skin, and growled.
"I'll take that as a yes!" Sun laughed, not even bothered by the pain as he grabbed a handful of apple slices and put them down for his new charge to eat. While the dragonet was distracted, he started toweling down the wet scales.
"Look at you," he muttered as the hatchling scarfed down the apples and glared at anything that came near. "You're already a little badass." When the dragonet finished the apples and started barking again, his grin widened. "Okay, okay. I'm on it."
Scarlet noticed Sun leaving with his dragon and felt his heart thump wildly. This is really happening! We're actually getting our dragons! Focus, Scarlet. Focus. He quickly turned back toward the eggs, eagerly scanning the sea of adorable hatchlings for the one pair of eyes that would be looking right at him.
He saw a dark blue water dragon tearing across the arena toward a boy further down the line. Its large, flat tail knocked a shaking egg from its incubator, causing it to shatter as it hit the hard ground. The dragon inside struggled to its feet, a piece of shell still covering its face as it tried to find its way in the sea of squeaks, chirps, and voices.
Scarlet couldn't help but laugh at the little creature's persistent struggle. Spunky little guy, he thought. Then, he froze as he realized that the hatchling had turned abruptly in his direction when he had laughed. His throat went dry.
"Hey!" he called. "Over here."
Immediately, the dragon ran blindly toward him, trying to dislodge the shell from its face as it moved. Scarlet's reached out and caught the stumbling dragonet, pulling the shell from its face.
It was a pale blue wind dragon with tiny patches of white that looked like clouds. When Scarlet wiped the egg goo from its face, it stared up at him with a pair of pale lavender eyes. It blinked a few times, then squeaked happily.
Scarlet giggled, a little breathlessly. "You're a funny little fella." He stood up and ran toward the drying area. The scent of apples caused his new charge to twitch and bark with excitement. He knelt down and handed the creature a few slices. "There you go." He eyed the dragonet as it ate, frowning a little with concern. "Huh. You're a bit cross-eyed, aren't you."
The hatchling tilted its head, its lavender gaze unfocused. Then, it shook itself and started chirping, craning its head toward another dragon in the distance.
Scarlet followed its gaze and his grin widened. "Sun!" he called. "Bring that little firecracker over here. I think my little guy wants to meet it."
Sure enough, when Sun walked over, his foul-tempered fire dragon allowed the googly-eyed wind dragon to lick its face, though it flashed a very human-like grimace. Sun and Scarlet grinned at each other.
"Yours looks a bit goofy," Sun noted. "Think it'll be able to fly straight?"
"Well, at least mine doesn't look like its mentally cussing out everything it sees," Scarlet protested. "Did you see Neptune or Sage yet?"
"Not yet," Sun said, turning back toward the line. "It shouldn't be too long now."
Sage, meanwhile, was kneeling on the ground, carefully scanning each dragon that came near him. The line was starting to dwindle, but he wasn't worried. There was a dragon for each person, after all. There was nothing to fear.
Then, a loud, terrified squawk caused him to turn his head. One of the fire dragons had turned on a smaller earth dragon and was hissing menacingly. The earth dragon was cringing and backing away, its tail causing it to trip repeatedly. Thankfully, the fire dragon seemed to spot its partner, because it turned abruptly away and ran off.
The earth hatchling, on the other hand, remained frozen in place, shivering as it let out a series of distressed squeaks. Sage watched it, then made a clicking noise to try and rouse it.
It jumped, spinning around, eyes darting back and forth frantically before resting on Sage. It blinked, tilted its head, then started to hesitantly make its way over.
Sage smiled, holding out his arms and continuing to click encouragingly. Another dragon ran by, causing the earth dragonet to yelp and run the final distance between it and Sage, jumping into his arms and hiding its face against his shoulder.
"Hello, there," Sage murmured as he stood up. "You're certainly skittish. Don't worry. We can work on that." He rubbed the dragonet's back slowly as he walked over to an unoccupied drying pad. He had to pry the hatchling's claws from his shirt in order to put it down. "There, now. It's okay."
As he started drying his dragon and feeding it, he looked at its decidedly-pretty coloring. It was a dark, earthy green color with stripes of yellow-green covering it in a tiger-like pattern. Its eyes were dark amber, and blinking rapidly as the creature cringed away from everything it saw.
He saw Scarlet and Sun approaching with their dragons, and felt himself smiling when he noticed his skittish dragonet sniffing the air eagerly. "Looks like there are two dragons here you aren't scared of." His suspicions were confirmed when Scarlet's dragon jumped from his arms and started licking the earth dragonet's striped neck.
"Hey, teammate!" Sun said with a grin. "Want to go watch Nep? I think he's still over there."
Neptune was still in line, and was barely resisting the urge to just grab the next dragon that came near him. That's not how it works, man. Just let it come to you. You'll be fine. You'll be fine.
Right in front of him, a water egg started shaking. He didn't pay it any mind. That dragonet wouldn't be his. His would be anything but a water dragon.
He noticed a gray-blue wind dragon looking around, and tried clicking at it. It looked at him, then turned away again, causing his heart to sink with disappointment. To his left, a fire dragon was stumbling around. It didn't even turn toward him, though.
The water egg hatched, and a very pretty hatchling emerged. It was pale blue with silvery patches like wet pebbles decorating its scales. It shook itself primly, then opened a pair of dark blue eyes, fixing them immediately on the human in front of it.
Neptune's stomach dropped, and he averted his gaze immediately. No, no, no. Not me. Choose someone else. Go for the nervous-looking blond guy down the line. He'll like you just fine.
Tiny, webbed feet walked resolutely across the arena. A flat tail thumped the ground. Then, a cold nose touched Neptune's hand, causing him to flinch.
"Shoo," he muttered.
The dragonet squeaked.
"Seriously, go. This won't go well for either of us. Trust me."
The dragonet started to whine.
"Dude, what's wrong with you?" Sun called over from where he and the others were watching. "Pick up your dragon!"
Neptune groaned, reluctantly turning to look down at the water dragonet, who was staring at him with wide, sappy, adoring eyes. His shoulders slumped in defeat. "Last chance to walk away," he muttered.
The dragonet tilted its head, then crawled into his lap, purring happily.
Neptune let out a long, loud sigh. "Well, it's official: My dragon has the worst judgment ever." He stood up, holding the water dragon carefully against his chest, and started looking for a pad he could put it on.
A hand clapped his back as he started pouring warm water on his new charge. Sun knelt next to him, obviously trying not to laugh.
"Come on, dude. This must be fate," Sun said in a serious voice, though a quiet snort betrayed him. The fire dragon in his arms stretched its neck out and sniffed at the water dragon before nodding appreciatively. "Look on the bright side: You're with us!"
Neptune shook his head mournfully as he fed an apple slice to his dragon. "You don't get it. This is terrible! Training this thing is going to be hell, and I'm going to be afraid of it half the time! I'm gonna screw up the team, and this dragon!" He glared at the hatchling. "Why couldn't you have gone for that blond kid?"
The water dragonet yawned, seemingly unconcerned with its partner's mental turmoil.
Sage knelt next to him. "Sun could be right about it being fate, though," he reasoned. "I have heard it said that dragons often make up for their partner's shortcomings, and visa versa. Maybe this will help you overcome your fear."
Neptune sighed. "I hope you're right." He scratched his dragon's blue and silver chin. "Because this dragon deserves way better than a useless aquaphobe."
Scarlet was still standing, and was staring at the line of incubators, a frown on his face. "Hey, something's wrong."
The others stood, holding their dragons against their chests. "What's up?" Sun asked, craning his neck to see what was happening.
There was only one person in the line now. It was the blond boy that had been standing between Scarlet and Sun. They faintly remembered that his name was Jaune. He was kneeling on the ground, staring intently at an unmoving earth dragon egg.
"Oh, man," Neptune whispered, his eyes darkening solemnly. His dragonet chirped softly, tilting its head as it looked at the egg.
Sun saw Ozpin starting to walk over, and his heart sank. "Looks like that one's a dud," he muttered. "Man, that's rough."
"They'll give him another egg, right?" Scarlet asked, brows furrowing.
At that moment, Jaune ran over to the egg and started hitting it with his Scroll. Sage winced, hugging his own earth dragon close. "It doesn't matter. The death of that one will surely haunt him."
The newly-formed team was silent as they watched Jaune pull a stunted, barely-alive dragon from the broken egg and transfer it to a nearby pad. Sage closed his eyes and muttered a prayer. His cringing dragonet was shivering against his chest, whimpering in agitation, as if it could tell that another dragon was hurting nearby.
Then, after a long, tense silence, they heard Jaune's exclamation of relief, and allowed their shoulders to relax. Scarlet hurriedly wiped his eyes. "Thank goodness," he muttered.
Ozpin walked by them after talking to Jaune's team, and Sun stopped him long enough to ask what sex their dragons were. It turned out that Neptune's pretty water dragon was the only female of the group.
"So, you said she has bad judgment," Sun teased. "Can we say the same about any girl who throws herself at you?"
"Oh, shut up!" Neptune snapped. Now that the fiasco with Jaune's dragon was over, his mind was back to worrying about his upcoming future with his water dragon. He looked down at her trusting little face. I hope we can figure this out, girl. And I really hope you're ready to be patient with me.
Once all of the dragonets were dried and fed, and all of the teams formed, the students were led from the arena and to the dorms. As they settled in, pouring bedding into each of the divots in the wall and letting their dragons curl up, Ozpin came by each room. He stayed long enough to inform the teams of their name and leader.
"You will be Team SSSN, led by Sun Wukong. Congratulations."
When Ozpin left, Sun let out a whoop. "You hear that? Led by me, and named after me. Who's awesome? This guy!"
"Hey, Mister Awesome? Your dragon is burning your shirt," Neptune said dryly.
Sun spun around to see that his fire dragon had crawled from his divot and had pulled one of Sun's shirts from his open suitcase. Several scorch marks already covered the fabric. "Hey! No! Bad dragon!" Sun tried to take his shirt back, only for the dragon to clamp his jaws down on the fabric. "No, this isn't tug-of-war! Give it!"
Scarlet's dragon barked excitedly, bounding from his bed and scattering feathers everywhere. He started spinning in circles, then fell on his side with a yelp.
"Careful, boy!" Scarlet scooped up his dragonet, which started wriggling and squeaking as he tried to run over to his brother.
Sage's dragonet whimpered, backing further into the divot. Sage noticed that the hay where it had been sitting was wet, and let out a sigh. "We'd better set up the litter boxes next."
Neptune looked at his dragonet, who was curled contentedly in her bed of white sand. She looked at her brothers, then rolled her eyes while giving her partner a look as if to say "Aren't you glad I'm not like that?"
At least she's even-tempered, Neptune allowed as he stroked her brow. Maybe we can make this work. He watched his teammates, listened to the different cries of their dragons, and reflected on the fact that this would be his life for the next four years.
Despite his nervousness, he found himself smiling.
So, I knew already that Neptune would be stuck with a water dragon. Giving Sage an earth dragon just made too much sense to not do. I based the design and personality for his dragon off of Cringer from He-Man, figuring that Sage would have the patience to deal with that. Since Scarlet is based off of Peter Pan, I had to give him a wind dragon. That left Sun with his badass fire dragon. For Sun and Scarlet's dragons, I decided to base their personalities off of Michael and Gavin, whose Rage Quit vids introduced me to Rooster Teeth in the first place.
If you like what you see and want to show support in exchange for rewards, my P/atreon is Solora Goldsun.
Peace out!