*Crack*

*Crack*

*Crack*

"Scraaaw"

Tumi and Vali held each other's claws tightly as the egg before them began crackling and a mouth poked out to screech at the world.

Within a thatch hut, crowding an egg next to a fire, was a gathering of many scaled folk. Much chatter had been about the room, from hopeful to grim. Hopeful for the egg, the last of its clutch to survive the harsh winter and marauding of the Night Terrors. Within this hatchling lied their desire to see the village grow. Grim were the rumblings of the ill omen that it would bring. The shaman Saw that this egg, left by the beasts of the night, would spell great change in the times to come. The last of its kind, while long ago, had not faded from the old shaman's memory.

But those dissenting voices were few here as, ill omens or not, the hatching was a sacred occasion. The head came out fully shortly after. It moved its head around, taking in the new world around it through its limited senses. Eyes still stuck shut and nose still full of slime, its head cocked toward nearby sounds - the crackling of the fire, someone speaking a little louder than the rest - scrawing here and there before it started picking at its prison.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Once the hatchling was free, the shaman stepped forward and scooped it up. While her lids were squinted and jaw clenched in displeasure, she would not abandon her role in favor of her distaste. After licking its eyes clean until it opened them, she lifted the hatchling up and stared into its eyes. It initially looked around frantically before being drawn into the gaze of the shaman. She peered into its fledgling soul.

After a moment, she sighed and turned to the Tumi and Vali who were looking towards them anxiously.

"He is yours, and he has a strong Destiny." she said, resigned. She knew where this would lead, but no one else remembered. It was also not her place to stand in the way of Destiny, as it wasn't when she was a fledgling shaman in her youth. Perhaps it would go differently this time, as she resolved not to interfere as she did before.

Handing the hatchling to those who spawned him, she left the hut. She did not miss the elation in the room, just as she did not miss the apprehension in the room. One way or another, the village would change.

After scrawing at the people that began crowding the hatchling, no one noticed its eyes linger on the back of the shaman until she was out of its sight.