I WOKE UP TO a crackling sound. It took me a couple of minutes to realize it didn’t sound like a fire that was busy dying and I put two and two together. It was the egg. I jumped up and saw a big black burned egg inside the ashes.
The egg cracked again and it felt as if my insides wanted to jump out with excitement.
This is so frawesome!
My hand searched for Becky, as I didn’t want to miss one second of this, and found her arm. I shook it.
“What? Where…” she sat up and leaned closer to the ash pit. “Is that?”
“Yes, it’s busy hatching.” Excitement laced my soft tone.
A loud crack made Paul and Sammy lift up their heads and then they too couldn’t take their eyes off it. Becky cried out softly when she saw the top of the egg breaking into a diamond shape.
Two long, catfish whiskers and a part of a small nose slowly rose from the egg.
We all gasped and went “aww” at the same time.
Sammy had tears in her eyes.
“Blow softly on it, Sammy. It might be cold.” Paul leaned closer to the egg.
She breathed gently again and the baby Elemental pushed the rest of its egg into a couple of pieces. It collapsed and it was legs and a tail everywhere.
It tried to stand up, but kept falling over as its tiny legs weren’t strong enough yet. It had a long snake-like body and his color was the most beautiful red I’d ever seen. Sammy blew softly on it again with her breath and we laughed as it followed her fire.
Its legs still wobbled slightly as it tried to gain its balance and kept tripping over the long whiskers that came from its snout.
It was simply gorgeous and I wished that we could have taken it with us to our dorms, but for it to stay a secret and safe the cave would have to do.
Paul scratched it softly behind its ear and started speaking in a completely different language to it. It had a funny clucking sound, but the little Elemental responded and curled up on Paul’s jacket that he had put right next to the fire pit.
“I should really make him that paste, this little guy is going to get pretty hungry soon.”
“You sure it’s a guy?” Sammy asked.
“Yes, the males have two beards underneath their chin, where the females only have one.” Paul smiled and left.
I got up too. “Do you need any help?”
“No, I’m much faster finding them on my own. Stay here,” he whispered and left.
Sammy stroked the Elemental softly. She was really such a gentle person and I could see by all three of their expressions that this was indeed something that happened only once in a lifetime.
“He is so amazing, Elena,” Sammy cooed.
“I know. To think in a couple of weeks we are going to have three more of these little suckers.”
They all laughed softly.
“So, I was thinking, during school and at night Paul should stay with them.” Becky spoke in that leader-voice of hers. It was something she did from time to time, especially around George. “If he needs to eat every two hours then we’ll have to take turns. George and I will take two and eight o’clock, right after Warbel practice. You and Sammy can take four and Paul will have to take Sammy’s place at six o’clock on the days we have Warbel practice. He is the best to take the ten o’clock shift too then he can just stay for the night and feed him as he needed it.”
“What about breaks? Paul will get caught if it’s during breakfast and lunch time.
“Then one of us needs to come alone. We’ll take turns, and we have to find different paths so that we won’t get caught,” George answered.
“Sounds like a plan,” I said.
We waited about an hour for Paul to return. He took a wooden bowl from his backpack and we all helped break the herbs into small pieces. He ground everything in the bowl with a rock and broke in the shell. It was a lot of powder, something that would keep the little guy sustained for a long time.
“Do they have human bodies too?” I asked Paul as he poured tiny drops of water into the powder to make it into a paste.
“No, they are the only dragons that don’t have a human form. You see, where dragons have the essence of life, Elementals are the opposite. They only have one purpose, to eliminate danger. Once they have fulfilled this, they only have one day to live before they turn back to stone.”
“That is so sad,” I said and watched the little Elemental’s body expanding every two seconds. His eyes were still closed and he snuggled himself so deep into Paul’s jersey that only his snout stick out. The two whiskers hanging over Paul’s hoody almost touched the ground.
“Is it true that they reach their full size in only a couple of months?” George wanted to know.
Paul nodded. “The next two months will be the hardest. They don’t grow that fast but from the third month to the six they almost triple their size.”
“What are we going to do with them, Paul?” I looked at him.
“This cave isn’t big enough for all four of them.”
“Don’t worry about that. I will tell Master Longwei about them when the time is right.”
I blew out air softly, so did Becky and we smiled at each other.
When the paste was ready Paul took out a syringe and pulled up about a teaspoon of the goo he’d diluted with liquid. The little guy was hungry but couldn’t even finish the entire syringe. It took about half an hour to feed him.
Paul gave us instructions about how much we should give every five minutes. It was almost nothing. When the baby Elemental was done slurping up, he took a huge yawn which made us all sigh again and then he turned on one spot like a cat on Paul’s jacket until he found his place and fell back to sleep.
“For the first five days we don’t give any water, only start from the sixth day, and also only about a teaspoon. I will prepare his food for him every day and we’ll have to find the perfect spot where we can pick it up.”
“Not in the open Paul. Why don’t you make his food in our room?” Sammy suggested.
“I agree. We can’t take a risk with him like that. Someone is bound to see one of us and might try to find out what we are hiding.” George seconded Sammy’s suggestion.
“So, everyone’s fine with picking it up from our room?” Becky put her hand in the air as if this was a vote.
“I would feel much more secure with that too.” I lifted up my hand, like Becky’s.
Everyone lifted their hands and the deal was done.
We went back to the Academy around eight and thanked our lucky stars that breakfast was still being served.
The first day was easy. I took my turns with Paul so that I could learn the woods and path to the cave. George, Becky and Sammy went together. We all had our little landmarks of where to go, besides, I wouldn’t be alone. I was on feeding duty with Sammy.
“So what are we going to call him, or are we going to keep calling all of them little guys and little girls?” Becky asked during dinner and we all laughed. Paul sat on the pillow next to me. There was a rift between him and Blake and I made a mental note to ask him about that.
“What do you suggest?”
“He reminds me of a Herby,” Becky answered and we all looked at her awkwardly.
“Herby can work.” I seconded it. “Just as long as Herby doesn’t go bananas.”
They all laughed.
“Okay, Herby it is,” Paul said.
We said goodbye to the boys as we went to our dormitories.
Stealthily, Becky and George disappeared for the eight o’clock feeding.
None of us could sleep that night. We worried about Paul and whether he’d made it safely to the cave to feed and stay with Herby. I tried to check in with him through my thoughts but I really struggled connecting with him.
That night the dragon appeared in my dream again. It had a soft purple color to its scales and had the friendliest face I’d ever seen. I wasn’t scared of it and we just stared at each other for a long time.
It mimicked my movements the entire time.
The dream made no sense. It couldn’t have been my dragon, Paul was mine and the dragon in my dreams looked nothing like what Paul had described to me about what a Wyvern looked like. It had four legs and two huge wings, so what was it?
The weekend went great. We slept the entire time in the cave, all of us. It was fun and felt like camping out. Sammy bonded more than the rest of us with Herby. It was as if he saw her as his mother and loved it whenever she blew a soft stream of flame in his direction. He would stretch out his little body and bathe in the hot temperature.
On Monday morning we found Paul chatting to Blake around his table. He nodded in to our direction and I hoped it meant that all was good with little Herby. He turned his gaze back to Blake and it went serious again.
George squinted in their direction. Becky nodded just as I was about to ask him what they were speaking about.
“He wanted to know if Paul found something,” George whispered and at that moment Blake turned his gaze to all of us. Our heads snapped forward and we started to laugh softly as we had all been eavesdropping.
“I’ll ask Paul later what’s going on.”
On our first break, Sammy and I made a run for the cave. Paul had left a syringe in our fridge and when we found Herby he was already making funny clucking sounds. I hoped he wasn’t starving.
Sammy fed him while he snuggled himself onto my lap.
It was hard to say goodbye and to leave him there, but the stuffed toy Sammy had brought with her seem to help. He made friends with the little pink elephant quickly and we found a gap to sneak out.
Becky and George took lunch time and I could see her wiping away a tear as they entered the cafeteria forty-five minutes later.
So the big, fierce Dragonian does have a heart.
She plunged herself down onto the pillow and Paul just looked at her with a soft smile and a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t,” she warned him. “The elephant didn’t help. It was cotton balls everywhere when we got into the cave.”
“He ripped up Sandy!” Sammy said and we all laughed.
I gave her a hug. “You tried.”
Paul got two o’clock and Sammy and I four again. She brought him another toy, and something inside of me knew she wasn’t going to give up until she found him one that would make him feel not so alone.
The entire two weeks went perfectly and I hardly thought about Lucian and what it was he had to do. Herby took all my worries away and I knew Lucian would find a way to come back to me.
On Friday morning, we found a note underneath our door.
Becky picked it up and her eyes grew slightly as her lips turned into a bright smile.
“It’s time for the water dragon to hatch.”
