The slow, rhythmic beat of its heartbeat, the only stimulus in the void-like world, the only one it had ever known, kept the creature company as it floated in its eternal darkness.

Time had no meaning as there was no way to gauge its passage and so, in the beginning, the creature drifted alive but without thought. A living body of flesh without a sentient mind of its own.

At some point, the creature started to become conscious, eventually contemplating what the darkness and the thumping sound was, yet as it could not work anything out, it quickly gave up and returned to its slumber.

Ultimately, after what felt like an age, or it could have been mere moments, the creature began to develop self-awareness. It wasn't long before it could differentiate between itself and the darkness. It discovered it was housed in a water-like substance and could feel that, very slowly, its body was growing in various places.

The seemingly endless wait continued, yet the creature was in no hurry.

To it, if it ignored the instinctual sensation that it wasn't ready to do something, nothing else existed and so did not suffer from curiosity or temptation that one might expect of being confined in such a place.

It just was.

Stuck in a loop. Its body hardening over time, eventually feeling an immense pressure that would continue to build until its surface split, resulting in more space and enabling the process to start again.

Soon.

The thought appeared in the creature's mind, confusing it greatly.

The desire to do something, something it didn't quite understand almost overwhelmed it, yet what could it do? Stretching its thin, weak limbs, the creature reached out into the void, only for that instinctual pressure to re-appear.

Not yet.

It wasn't ready.

What it wasn't ready for, the creature did not know, but it couldn't help but feel the anticipation build as it continued to grow and develop.

The thoughts and ability to feel continued to improve, buzzing through the creature's mind and showing that it had developed significantly since its first, simple thoughts. Surprisingly, the creature recognised this change and knew that not only was it linked to its brain, but it also had something to do with the strange thing buried deep in its centre.

The object had a sphere-like shape and sucked in strange, powerful streams that made the creature feel stronger and fulfilled.

The streams, each slightly different, gave impressions of earth, stone, various metals and more recently, that of decay.

These streams... no. The creature realised the correct term for the strange energy was essence, flowed into the creature's core, and it was shocked to discover that words and concepts, things that it had never learnt, had begun filtering into its developing mind.

One of the inheritances from its bloodline, a vague concept that it couldn't quite grasp, was the answer that floated to the surface unbidden.

Yet, instead of feeling content with the information it grasped, the creature discovered that it only had more questions.

What was essence? It was the world's spirit energy that had been corrupted by elements from the physical plane.

What was a core? An organ to refine this essence, removing the incompatible taints and refining it into the host's affinities.

What was an affinity? It was the element or elements that were most suited to a monster, generally inherited from its parents. They were similar to taints but much more powerful and enabled the monster to use spells, skills and abilities that would otherwise be impossible.

What was a monster? A spell? An Ability?

This time, no answer came to the creature. Its thoughts met with only with silence.

After much trial and error, having nothing better to do, the creature soon realised that the knowledge that was available to it was fundamental. It contained concepts and theories that were linked to its existence, a basic grasp of a single language, and nothing more.

How did it know that the knowledge it possed was rudimentary? The creature had the revelation, after analysing the information it had available repeatedly and finding it woefully incomplete.

It took another dozen decades for the creature to realise that it was standing at the tip of the proverbial information iceberg and a sensation it had never known before, an uncontrollable hunger, erupted in the depths of its soul.

The desire for knowledge, to improve itself, was almost as powerful as its natural instincts yet it didn't know how to satisfy this newfound need and could suffer the mental torment in silence.

Eventually, with its new knowledge, the creature started to examine its surroundings, starting with the mysterious tainted essence that was slowly filtering into its body.

The largest taint, by far, was from earth and stone, releasing an old, almost timeless sensation. The essence resonated with the young creature's core and helped nurture its body, becoming more and more in tune as it grew.

The next, though much fainter, could only be categorised as metals. Initially, this taint was harsh and did not feel as pleasant as the rest, but eventually, the creature felt its body adapting as it absorbed the taint with increasing ease.

Not long after this change occurred, the creature found a strange sense of comfort from this taint and felt attracted to it. Especially from the essence that gave off a perceived, golden hue.

It was soft and welcoming, yet, at the same time, cold and hard. A contradiction that enamoured the creature for many years and led to another, subconscious, yearning.

The taint that it only had only absorbed for a brief moment was the taint of decay. It had vanished as quickly as it appeared, but ever since, the creature could still feel the cold, chilling essence.

It would often regain consciousness, after returning to the place where it did not think, remembering the haunting sensation as it whispered dark, unintelligible words as it was slowly refined away in its core.

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Time continued like this for the creature until one day, a sudden thought appeared in its mind.

Its egg was underground.

The creatures growing intelligence helped it draw conclusions with the limited information it had and link them together with reason and logic.

This theory was generated mainly due to the types of essence being absorbed combined with the absence of others.

However, this was immediately forgotten as the shock of realising that it was inside an egg rippled across the creature's heart, causing it to open its eyes for the first time in its life.

Though nothing changed, the void-like darkness still blinding, new information leaked into the creature's mind and pieces of a long forgotten puzzle started fitting together.

My egg shouldn't be underground, and even if it was, it should still be able to see the light through its shell and hear some sound, even if it was distorted.

The creature knew that it was its parent's job to ensure that an egg had access to beneficial stimulation so that it cou...

Wait... parents... Where where they?

A forboding tingling flowed down the creature's spine and towards what it now knew to be, its stomach as the memory of the decay essence returned.

It knew there was something terribly wrong with its situation.

The urge to escape the confines of its egg and get answers caused the creature's heart to beat rapidly, however, moments later, the thought was suppressed by its instinct.

I am not ready to leave. If I do, I will die.

Trying to calm itself, the creature attempted to understand the situation, figuring that if it knew what was going on, it could reason out the best course of action.

Decay essence meant death. Death was the end of life. The creature was alive, and so was other entities that could move, eat and think.

The creature reasoned it in simple terms. Live was good, dead was bad.

However, the fact that he had absorbed decay essence meant that something nearby was dead. No, not only dead but rotting.

Rotting was a process that occurred over time to dead things. It was food that should not be eaten as it would make you sick. Being sick would lead to death, and so, it shouldn't happen as everything would want to live, and so eat what it had recently killed.

But it also indicated that the threat was already dealt with... or was it the entities also known as its parents? Those that were meant to protect and nurture it until it was strong enough to survive on its own.

If the threat killed its parents, then it was in danger of becoming food. It would die and lose all of the information it had painstakingly gathered, returning to a mindless nothingness.

Fear and anger flooded creature before being suppressed once again as it reasoned that its previous line of thought didn't make much sense.

To live, you had to eat, to eat you had to kill but if something were to be consumed, then it would not decay thus, it would have meant that the dead animal died meaninglessly. This suggested that the essence was generated by an accident that couldn't be capitalised by another had occurred. One that no entity had bothered to remove from its presence.

But if it wasn't a death that had been instigated or capitalised on, then what had happened?

Confusion marred its reptilian features as the creature frowned, failing to make sense of the information it had available.

The fact that it was still alive, at least it thought it was, meant that it shouldn't be in any immediate danger, but that didn't answer the question of what was going on.

The unanswerable question vexed it without mercy along with another. Where were its parents?

It knew that a dragon would never leave its egg willingly, keeping it in a hidden pouch on its body so it could feed off the excess essence and let it learn from the stimuli generated by the surrounding...

The creature's thoughts abruptly stopped.

It finally knew what it was...

A dragon.

And along with it, came the realisation of what it didn't, but should have.

Dragon's eggs were never left alone or put at risk, their bodies much weaker in their early lives compared to the other, shorter-lived, animals.

With this knowledge, the dragon knew, it was alone.

Not only that but from what it now knew about its species, it had been so for a very long time.

A mixture of emotions welled up as the dragon flexed its tiny, clawed fingers in frustration.

Fear of the unknown, of what its isolation entailed.

Sadness, the loneliness it only just realised it felt.

Anger. An unbridled rage and the injustice of its situation.

A flicker of white light forked outwards, momentarily illuminating the inside of its egg.

For the first time in its life, even if it was only for a split second, the dragon could see. Its gaze flowed down its black, scaled back and the curved spikes that protruded from its spine.

The dragon was confused until it realised that its neck was flexible enough for it to loop around and rest on its shoulder.

Though it knew what it was, it didn't have any reference to what a dragon should look like, but it was able to tell from its quick glance that it was reptilian in nature.

Pushing a question on what the strange light was, or why it felt like it had come from its core, the dragon's mind returned to its seemingly precarious situation as its small world returned to darkness.

Had it been stolen? Were its parents dead? Was its egg in a safe location? Was the only reason it was still it alive because something was waiting for it to grow? To become worthy of being a meal?

If so, was waiting until it was ready to hatch the best option? But, at the same time, if the dragon was wrong, then it didn't know what impacts its early emergence would have on its growth.

A burning hatred for the unknown welled up from deep within the dragon's soul. It knew it didn't have the information required to make a decision, but at the same time, it wasn't convinced that doing nothing was the right choice.

After cooling down, the dragon decided to re-analyse the situation and see if it could spot something it had previously missed.

From what it knew, a dragon was meant to be at the top of the food chain, almost untouchable when it reached adulthood and able to breed so, the thought that its parents could have been killed became less likely.

However, like most of its pondering, this raised another dilemma.

If that were the case, then the next plausible explanation would that it had been abandoned.

Questions and doubt bombarded the young creature's mind as it started to question its own worth.

If it had been abandoned, why? Was there a fault with it? Did it suffer from a mutation or some sort of disability? Was there not enough food to keep its parents alive or did they use it as food so something wouldn't consume them instead?

The instinct that told it that it was still early to leave the egg was strong, yet the young dragon was forced to repress the urge to smash his shell once again as its body began exhibiting signs that it was preparing for fight or flight.

It knew that the stress its mind was creating was being projected onto its body and that it would hinder its growth and the absorption of its bloodline's ancestry, but it was powerless against its rampaging emotions.

An indeterminable amount of time later, the creature was shaken from its thoughts when the entire world, at least the egg it has spent is life in, shook violently.

The sudden event caused the already tense dragon to flinch, uncoiling its tail and, with a small amount of resistance, stabbing through the leathery shell by accident.

Utter disbelief washed over the dragon as it looked at the light through the small hole while its life-giving yolk slowly leaked away.

The debate, which had lasted for decades had come to an end within a single moment. The dragon's decision had been made for it.

Relief flooded the tiny dragon as its muscles tensed and relaxed in a controlled manner.

The indecision created by its intelligence, knowledge without context or experience, fighting its instincts had finally ended as they finally came together in perfect unity.

The only thing it needed to do now was to survive.

The dragon uncoiled itself and approached the opening cautiously, its body still big enough to move around inside the egg, displaying just how early its emergence was.

As it got closer, the pitch black, reptilian pupils contracted within their snowy-white iris' as the creature felt its scaley lips pull back in a primordial snarl. Flashes of what appeared to be tiny, white lightning flickering from its scales, illuminating the faint, black mist that seemed to seep from its scales.

It didn't know what was waiting for it on the other side, but if it even looked at it funny, or was deemed to be a threat in any way, it was going to kill it. Edible or not.

It would fight.

Fight to survive, fight to prosper and claim its place in the world outside its shell, fight for knowledge, so it was never put into such a distressing situation ever again.

Two tiny, clawed hands reached forward, along with its tooth-filled snout, to try and extend the hole in the shell.

A smile, one only a dragon mother could love, appeared on its features.

It was time to hatch.