Vidian’s eyes narrow, turning into tiny slits. Wanting more answers, he reaches for me to interrogate, but I slip out of his grasp and move to the first human my sights land on. Shock registers on his face, wide eyes and then pale when I yank the dagger from my buckle, expose his hand and slice the blade across.

“What the fuck, wood elf?” The blonde human says, but it’s too late.

With a forceful shove, the human I cut stumbles forward, falling into a shallow pit. Jumping in after him, I land on hundreds of hollow twigs and sticks.

“Wood elf!” Vidian roars.

On my feet, I move with swiftness in the darkness, unknowing where to go, but anywhere away from the bleeding human. Thus, my padded, knee-high leather climbing boots with soft soles are light against the clutter. From behind me, I hear more jump into the shallow pit and the sounds of hollow sticks rolling across each other with every sunken step they take.

Another stir rumbles nearby, vibrating the ground and trembling the sticks until they sound like bamboo slapping together. After the rumble, deep flames erupt, gushing a bright orange and filling the cave with dense smoke.

The dragon, as black as night, shines with a glossy finish, glimmering like diamonds when the flames move down like rain. Black eyes with no iris cause a sickly stir, unknown of which way she’s looking. One metre-long spikes shoot out from her spine, quivering with microscopic senses, a distress call to alert nearby dragons in the area.

She rises, monstrous feet with sharpened claws slam into a sea of bones littering the pit. And her tail, long and thick, slams into the ground, sweeping bones across, creating a dust storm through her anger.

“Rialdranth, the Dark,” the blonde human quivers. “Run!”

The orange spark slowly fades, dimming and drenching the cavern with shadows. As it falls, my focus lands on the dragon and two eggs underneath her belly.

Only two. Norlon told me of twelve in this nest. Who took the others? The Kirninon?

Gritting my teeth, I race toward the nest. Rialdranth, the Dark, has her focus on the bleeding human scrambling up the pit, but the blonde human has already fled, and the other is not too far on his tail.

Rialdranth, the Dark, does not notice my light as a feather step, so when I land in the nest, eyes on the midnight blue egg, the incompetence of my surroundings gets the best of me. Like stone, someone barges into me, and I fall onto bones, old, rotten, picked clean from meat. And as I glower up, Vidian grabs the blue egg and legs it.

“High elf,” I spit. Scrambling to my feet, I grab the last egg—a white, scaly texture of rough bark—and dip underneath the lashing, ferocious tail.

Another glow of orange sparks, flames flicking in the air, ash sweeping from charred bones, and the wailing of painful cries from the human. Flames rain down, sparking near the exit on the other side of the nest. Vidian’s halfway there, the egg I wanted underneath his armpit.

Slinging my pack in front of me as I run, I carefully slip the white egg inside, zip it up and then run faster without worrying about losing the egg in the process.

My breaths hitch when Rialdranth’s shadow moves across the wall, showing a torn body limp in her mouth. She turns her head in my direction, and then an outrageous, panicked screech vibrates the cave walls, but no flames come with it.

Vidian hops up the ledge and heads into the tunnel, but he hesitates. Turning toward me, he goes onto his knees and lowers his hand. My heart stutters for a beat of a second, and when I get to the end of the pit, I step up on the wall, reach up and grab his hand.

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I’m light; he lifts me quickly until I am planted on the ledge. A silent thanks move between us before we run down the tunnel.

A deep, resounding growl trembles the walls and floors again. Dust mites slip from the cracks, resting on our dark hair and shoulders. Then… heat burns from behind. Looking back, I pick up the pace when I see Rialdranth, the Dark, with her mouth open, and a swirl of frothing fire oozes down her teeth.

“Fuck, fuck. Fuck!”

Moving ahead of Vidian, the shallow tunnel opens, my heart spluttering at the significant drop before a landing area with a tunnel reveals itself on the other side of the cliff.

My footsteps become lighter, like a feather resting on the ground, and when I get to the ledge, I leap. My legs flail in the air, and my arms do the same, but my focus lands on the ledge on the opposite side of the drop.

When I am near it, my stomach stops spluttering, and I hit the edge, stumbling forward until I am at the tunnel entrance. Then I spin around, my eyes widening further at the flames frothing out of the tunnel and toward me.

A firm grip has a hold of my arm, yanking me toward them and into a crack in the tunnel. Vidian’s body presses against me, and his arms press on either side, tense arms straining with bulging muscles.

The roaring flames move past us, heat penetrating my face, glowing across my skin but dripping Vidian in shadows. Dark brown eyes settle on me, and his shiny, long, black-plaited hair falls down his shoulders. The midnight blue egg underneath his armpit.

My finger twitches, wanting to steal the egg, but it’s too late. He’s held it long enough. If I were to take it and the egg hatches, it may reject me because I was not the first to hold it long enough and for the unhatched dragon to feel my thrumming heart and voice.

The flames die out, and we drip back into the shadows.

I eye his arms on either side of me and then up at him. “Do you mind?”

Vidian’s tightened arms relax, and he slips out of the gap and into the opening. Shuffling out after him, I crouch, swing my pack in front of me, slide the zipper to the side and cup the dragon egg from inside.

Vidian leans down, flashlight in his hand and shining it on his egg. I twist the egg around in the dim white light when my heart splutters. Near the top of the egg, a crack splits the egg in the slightest and reddish blood seeps out.

“Shit,” I mutter. “My egg has a crack.”

“Karma for betraying us.” Vidian rises. “We should leave before Rialdrenth comes in search of her eggs.”

Gently placing the egg in the pack, I rise and glare down the tunnel. “At least the Kirninon have not overruled her. But I was told there would be twelve eggs. These were the only two. I worry some of the Kirninon took most of them back to Nerkactor to raise. If so, their army grows stronger while ours stays stagnant.”

“Especially if elves like you kill whoever gets in your path.”

My teeth grind. “Wyl has no dragons. Unlike Amralatha, Umitain and Dwoltren, my country has nothing to protect us from Nerkactor and the Kirninon. We were defenceless… until now. Hopefully.” I step away from Vidian and groan. “There’s a crack. The dragon is likely dead, and the egg rotten.”

He places his hand on my shoulder and squeezes tight. “You won’t know until we make our way up the mountain and have the Shrine Maidens bless the eggs. Best prepare before then, wood elf. We have a long journey ahead of us if we are to become Dragon Riders of Ellarian.”

My smile tightens. “I’d rather not see you again, but it would be nice to see a familiar face when the journey begins. Until then, we best get home.”

We are silent for the remainder of the journey. As expected, sunlight seeps from the end of the tunnel, opening up to tall hyperion trees clustered together, towering above us and hiding us from the dragons circling the sky, crying to one another.

“Hibernation is ending,” Vidian whispers, more to himself than to me. “I hope we have more Dragon Riders than the Kirninon do, or else our New World will fade quicker than we want.”

Standing before one of the many tall trees, I take out the Runic Stone from within my pack and slide it down on the tree. A portal opens, shining brightly until the vibrant, saturated colours of Wyl come from the other end. There is a sense of longing, and my heart stutters a beat, erratic and excited to go home after six months of trying to steal an egg from a dragon.

To think I stole from Rialdranth, the Dark. But it could be a rotten egg.

Norlon will know what to do.

I take a step when Vidian calls, “Inari.”

Facing him, I arch a brow expectantly.

He stands before a tree, portal open to Amralatha and the City of Iron and Stone, with its New World technology Wyl fears.

Vidian’s lips upturn in a smirk. “See you in two months.”

With a breathy laugh, I step into the portal and into Wyl… my home.