Chapter 14: Harsh Reality

Yet in her eyes, no traitor gleams, But sorrow forged in broken dreams. She lifts her veil, she speaks her name, And dares to voice her house’s shame. Skylar I really don’t have time for this. Do they not understand how long it takes a person to walk versus fly? Do they not understand that I’m trying to stay incognito so no one finds out who I am? The sweet red dragon already thanked me. That’s enough. She got her egg back, that was the point of all of this. Yet, here I am, walking to her nest with several dragons and a rider. “What’s your name?” I ask the rider. “What’s yours?” he asks defensively. “Skylar,” I say, looking at him like he’s being ridiculous. “I’m Ryuki.” “Hi, Ryuki. Your dragon is pretty sarcastic.” I watch him grin, then look up at his dragon. The grin widens. I don’t have to hear the dragon to know he’s disagreeing with my assessment of him. “He has his moments.” “Yeah, well, can you put in a good word for me so I can get out of here. I need to get back before I’m missed.” “What happens if you’re missed?” he asks, sounding worried. I look at him, then at the two silvers who are following behind us. “The royals have proclaimed loudly that once the dragon thief is found, they will be put to death publicly. I’d rather not lose my head tonight, if it’s all the same to you.” “Then why do you do it?” Ryuki asks me. I stop and look at him. “Because it’s the right thing to do. Because these eggs shouldn’t be forcibly taken from their mothers, especially by idiots who don’t know enough to keep a dragon egg warm." The bronze, Nyyh, the one who told me I wasn’t going anywhere when I said I had to leave, flies overhead, carrying the blue egg. I hear him land in front of us and hear the clicks and croons of a happy mother dragon. ‘I can never repay you,’ the mother, Scyrlyt, says to me. ‘You shouldn’t have to. Your egg should never have been taken in the first place,’ I tell her. I realize that the dragons and the rider stop as I continue forward. I turn and look at them. “Why are you stopping?” “Nesting mothers don’t like others around their nest,” Ryuki says. “Soooo, what? You’re sending me to my death?” ‘I won’t kill you, Skylar,’ Scyrlyt says. ‘I’m trusting you,’ I think, turning in her direction. ‘My dragon’s honor, I will not harm you.’ I turn and look at Ryuki. “What is dragon’s honor?” He looks shocked. “It’s their most sacred promise. Who gave you their dragon’s honor?” he asks, looking at his dragon. “Relax, rider. I’m not stealing your dragon,” I say, although I wonder if that’s possible. “It was Scyrlyt who gave me her dragon’s honor, so I’d know she’s not going to kill me.” “Ah,” he says, not looking convinced. Feeling a bit more confident, I continue forward. ‘Would you kill the others if they followed me? They seem concerned about coming too close,’ I think, hoping Scyrlyt is still listening in. ‘Mothers don’t let others around their eggs,’ she says. ‘But you’re letting me get close to your eggs?’ I ask, still walking forward. I turn a corner and see her standing over her nest of eggs. Her wings are expanded, like she’s trying to cover them all with her body. “Oh, wow! They’re beautiful.” ‘I was wondering if you could tell me which of my blue eggs you rescued,’ she says. I look at her nest. She has several eggs, blue, red, green, and one bronze. I look up at Nyyh. “Are you the father?” ‘Yes, Skylar.’ I turn back to Scyrlyt. “May I come forward?” ‘Yes.’ I step forward, looking over her eggs. I extend a hand toward her eggs. “May I?” I ask. She extends her face to me. She draws in a deep breath, making me once again feel like I’m floating and dizzy. When she’s done, I reach out and carefully touch her face like I did with Yttyc. She seems to like it as much as he did. ‘Yes, Skylar, you may touch my eggs.’ I reach out and touch the first one, a green. I laugh as I feel him move closer to me. I walk through the eggs, touching them all, feeling them inside their eggs. I find the blue that I rescued, but that’s not the one that I focus on. “This one is in trouble,” I say, looking up at her. Instantly, she brings her face to her egg. She takes a deep breath, then looks at me. ‘I don’t smell anything wrong.’ I lean over the red egg, laying my body over it and feeling the little dragon that is struggling to hold on to life. “She needs … I don’t know what she needs. I just know that she’s struggling,” I tell Scyrlyt. She lifts her head and looks over to where the silvers are standing back. ‘Bynym!’ I feel the air shift above me and a moment later, Bynjym lands near the nest. “Something is wrong with her, Bynjym,” I tell him. ‘Step aside,’ he says. I do, walking away as he sniffs the red egg. He carefully rolls the egg away from the others. Scyrlyt begins making a sound that is so sad it hurts my heart and soul. ‘Bynjym, are you sure?’ Nyyh asks. ‘Look here,’ he says. I can’t tell what he’s looking at, but Nyyh seems to realize the importance of whatever he showed him. I watch as Bynjym leans over the egg and croons softly to the little dragon. Then in a swift movement, he slams his foot down on the egg, crushing it and the little dragon inside it. “NO!” I scream, racing to the crushed egg, the place where the little dragon was alive a moment ago. Bynjym intercepts me with his head, holding me back. “No! NO! Why did you kill her? Why would you do that?” I scream, beating on his face. ‘She was dying a slow death, Skylar. She would never have survived. I did what needed to be done to give her a quick death,’ he says. “Maybe she could have survived,” I say. “No. A sneak-snake got its fangs into her egg. Her placenta was slowly leaking out. If she were closer to hatching, she might have lived, but she was too far away.” I push past him and go to the crushed egg. There, around the egg pieces is the small body of the little dragon. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know I was giving you a death sentence. I thought I was helping you,” I say, pulling the embryo into my lap. ‘You did help her,’ Bynjym says, gently. ‘You saved her from a slow, painful death.’ I stroke the little dragon’s head long after I know I need to leave. Finally, I lay her back down on the ground, and I stand. ‘Skylar,’ Bynjym begins. “Don’t. I have nothing to say to you right now,” I snap. I’m so angry that if I could blow fire like a dragon, I would blow my fire over him until he screamed in pain. But I don’t have fire. I have no weapons. I just have the blood of a dead baby dragon soaked into my clothes. ‘I’ll take you back,’ Yttyc says, flying overhead and plucking me out of Scyrlyt’s nest. I don’t say anything and I don’t fight it. Right now, I don’t even care if I get caught. I can still feel that baby dragon’s life inside her egg, there one moment and gone the next.