She cringed behind the stalagmite as screams rent the air. Clutching a tiny piece of egg shell, colored in a light electric blue, she listened as her people were slaughtered.

  “Is that all of them?” asked one of the top-siders. Its feathers gleamed in the strange light they brought with them.

  “I believe so, your grace,” came an answer, from a small, crystalline person.

  He almost looked like one of them, which was why they didn’t attack immediately. Iolite knew that anything that approached their caves was normally killed immediately, and brought to the great Dragon Xoannaedainth, as an offering to keep him pleased with them. It was rumored that the great dragon had saved their people long before, but no one remembered how, or why.

  “Good. This hunt was worth the effort, but not worth repeating. Leave the bodies for the other denizens here to feast on.”

  Iolite waited, in the small hidden crevasse as the intruders retreated from her home. After hours of being cramped up in the small hole, her body was stiff to respond when she finally left it. With the last of her eggshell held tightly, she wandered the cave now filled with the bodies of her people. They had been cut down with strange weapons that went through their crystal hide like butter.

  What should she do now?

  As she wondered this, she found herself before the mouth of the great Xoannaedainth. Shivering, she wanted nothing more than to flee, but it seemed to have already sensed her.

  “Come closer, little one. Your kind don’t normally shiver.”

  “I’m the only one left,” she whispered, drawing closer to the heat emanating from its mouth.

  “What happened?” it asked.

  “The top-siders came and killed everyone. The weapons we had, didn’t work against them.”

  “Bring me their bodies, those of your fallen, and I will bless your people again, to live once more. I did this once, a long time ago, because you are like children to me. Bring them to my belly, and lay them out for me. Then I will do this for you.”

  Iolite knew that the dragon had always been revered by her people, and she had no reason to disbelieve it now, so she went to work, dragging the bodies, one by one, into the mouth of the great Xoannaedainth. Yet, no matter how many she brought, there always seemed to be room for more.

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  Sometimes, she didn’t know what limb went with what body, so she lay it by itself, so the real owner wouldn’t be insulted in the afterlife. Other times she sat and cried when she found someone who had been a good friend, or greatly kind to her.

  As she worked, her tiny piece of shell crumbled a little more, and a little more, until there was only the barest speck left when she was finally done. She clung to it tightly, lest it too disappear.

  “Now I need something precious to you, in order to work this great magic,” rumbled the voice of the dragon.

  “But you have all of my people, what more could you take from me?” she asked in a small, frightened tone.

  “Perhaps, the shell fragment, you have in your hand? It would be a great help in allowing me to recreate shells for each of the fallen.”

  Iolite clung to her shell piece, as tears gathered in her eyes. The shell was all she had left from her hatching, and she was loath to part with it. For once the shell was gone, she would be considered an adult, regardless of her actual age, and expected to do whatever was necessary to help the clan.

  Looking down at the tiny blue shell, she sighed. The tears never fell, as she realized, everyone was gone. That automatically made her an adult. Closing her purple glowing eyes tightly, she held out her hand, and felt the figment of a breeze. When she opened them again, the blue shell was gone, and before her, filling the room, a change had occurred.

  Where every body had lain, filling the entire room, farther than she could see, new eggs of every color lay waiting to hatch. Even the spots where she had just left an arm or a leg, there was a new egg. She could almost see the smallest of babies growing in the middle of the lighter colored and translucent eggs.

  Wandering the room in amazement, she lost track of time as she touched their warm surfaces and dreamed of the day when they would all hatch.

  Straightening her shoulders, Iolite knew the hatchlings would have a voracious appetite, and there was only so much to eat, so she would have to work hard to make sure there was enough. It should only take a few weeks for them to be ready to hatch, and she still had to figure out how to find the right things to eat.

  One of the reasons why she had so little shell left, was because she had eaten some of it, instead of food, when the adults stopped bringing her some. The food they brought had tasted better, but she had been hungry.

  Remembering the flavor and color of the correct rock was important. If she brought the wrong minerals, the babies might get sick. With the memories of what was good and what was not, flowing through her head, she got busy.

  It was almost time, and she had gathered a literal mountain of ore for the babies to eat when they hatched, when she heard the cockroaches go crazy. They had filled the main living area when everyone died, and she tolerated them only because they gave her warning if anything approached. Though, with the eggs incubating inside the great Xoannaedainth, she didn’t think anything could bother them.

  Maybe if it was more top-siders, she could lure them back to the dragon, as a type of thank you for helping her. Maybe she could even trick them into helping her raise the babies for a while. That would be nice, too.