On a midsummer morning the sea breeze carried the tang of steel wires snapping, of brittle iron cracking under strain but lacked the acute smell that followed metal work. The sound carried, bouncing off the small mountain side, rolling over the surrounding hills with a strange sharpness that pricked the ear of both animal and nearby traveller alike. A brief tension over taking them as a fear of conflict rises within before moving briskly to the closest hidey hole of their nature, seeking solace and presumed safety.
The sound though far reaching and almost directionless originated from a farmstead nesting on the gentle rise of the nearby mountain. The farmhouse, spacious, singled storied and constructed out of trimmed wooden logs looked sturdy, well fashioned from the exterior with dashing’s of summer colours around its windows and doors giving it a warm, family friendly vibe to its varnished exterior. A flock of sheep bleated contently within a circle pen of simple make undisturbed by the harsh cry’s of steel echoing from the affixed shed of the house happy to graze one the lush green grass of the gentle slope, ignorant to the birth taking place just out of their sight.
This barn unlike the house it rested upon was crafted planks of wood though still thick and heavy in make was large enough to almost double as another yet smaller house. Its two swinging doors remained shut to the outside world but vibrated and groaned with every sound that rang from within its depths. Its interior was cast in twilight, light finding gaps between the boards to provide a faint luminance.
Sitting on a short stool leaning back was a man in simple farmers garb of plain replaceable cotton cloth. Skin tanned brown from a life of work under the sun with strands of grey working their way through a otherwise late twenties individual. His eyes though where sharp lacked the bearing of a farmer that his lifestyle proclaims but held the natural authority of nobility, of someone with a natural commanding charisma.
These eyes focused on the bundle before him.
Cushioned by many blankets sat that many would know on a general level as an egg but of what would leave many guessing. Its far larger an anything mundane stood tall as the farmers knee. Its shell when on first look seemed rough and a little misshapen but upon a closer observation one would see what appeared to be overlapping plates of hard iron with sections of thick shield like slabs of raw mineral covering the gaps in its defences.
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The groaning of metal oozed out the egg as small shifts and flexes were made by its current prisoner, an occasional a snap of steel cable would sound from shell and gaps between plates would begin to show as the inner integrity was gradually gnawed away.
His back leaning on what passed as a wall the farmer watched and waited, glancing at every crack made in the mineral coating and measuring the growing divide between plates. Showing no discomfort to the ear-splitting, bone rattling progress before him. And for several hours this continued, the farmer patient and unmoving other than the movement of his eyes until there was a sudden Pop that silenced the previous racket. And like puzzle pieces falling out of place segments of the egg fell away, dropping onto the blanket with a small watery pop of their own.
Shifting, the back wall moved the small beams of light catching on the near silver scales as the shadow draped draconic head drew it’s self-closer to the egg to bear witness to its first step into the world, the rest of its body circling the hatching sight.
Scaled foot followed by almost fragile looking stone-like wing breached the exterior, squawks and hisses insulting the sturdy casing before a head to sspop out with an indignant growl. The head free at last turned on its captor started biting, tearing the rest of its self-free before devolving into a frenzy that is its first meal. Feasting on the remains of its birth.
Meal had, blanket shredded the young wyrmling turned and regarded it assumed to be parents as they too have been observing it. One sitting on a stool leaning forward with his hands on his knees gazing at the hatchling with a pointed focus. The other staring down with its glowing blue slitted eyes, the force of its breath brushing against scale and stirring the shredded blanket around its young.
Dull burnished metal scales resembling cheap iron shone faintly with a wetness carried from its egg over its lithe body, thick plates and slabs of rough looking mineral cover its joints, digits and along its head traveling down its spine to tail giving it an unfinished and unrefined appearance. Standing with a feline grace and posture on four long wiry legs, its wings overburden with lumpy slate of flexible mineral weighing the wings to the ground, hanging awkwardly by its sides. It gazed at its parents with large silvery eyes on a surprisingly expressive reptilian face openly showing the curiosity and slight awe within its features.
A stillness overtook the three and the world around them grew silent. Then tension built, a pressure on the surroundings grew. Air gained substance, the wooden panels of the shed trembled and dust and dirt of their surrounds swirled into a dance. But like the world exhaling all this ceased and settled back into place but not without a single word being brought with it. Carried by the breeze and fading from the ear it was spoken by both parents and acknowledged by the now named.
“Andaz”.