Within a month of Glacia taking in an orphaned dragon egg, the weather had warmed and life had returned to the land in the starting of spring, so the young facultative bipedal water dragoness had returned--egg in hand--to her thawed-out lake. She instinctively wanted to take the egg to her hoard in a small cave at the bottom of her home, however she had to remind herself that, unlike her own elemental’s eggs, this one would most likely need air. The shell may contain it long enough to travel a short distance underwater, but not to stay there.

If the deceased dragons she had found by the egg in the neighboring forest were truly its parents, it was a cross between a seer dragon and an earth dragon, both of which had no connection to water outside of drinking it. Earth dragons in fact were known to stay clear of it lest they sink and drown from their heavyweight muscles. Glacia didn't know too much about seers, though, given their rarity in this land.

Aquatic dragons in general had more self-regulating body temperatures, which extended to their eggs as well, although Glacia in particular detested the cold. In her initial discovery of the egg, which had been freezing in the snow, she found out it needed constant warmth, which the depths of the lake wouldn't provide regardless of its need for air.

Should I have stayed with it in the forest instead? Am I being inconsiderate for bringing it to my home when it's not a suitable place? she wondered. No… I'd dry out and die if I stayed out of water for too long. I don't want it to become an orphan all over again... The only season water dragons were built to last through on land was winter, since they couldn't swim in the water of their homes while it was frozen solid. Their survival on land for that long was only possible because snow was a form of water, which kept their scales hydrated.

The light blue dragoness considered her options, and briefly wondered if adopting the egg herself had been a mistake, instead of just rescuing it. Maybe I bit off more than I can chew, she thought solemnly. I’m not even prepared to hatch eggs of my own, let alone one born of entirely different elementals. I guess that's another reason why cross families are frowned upon...

Her red irises looked at the tough pale green shell, which easily passed off as an earth dragon’s egg. Earth dragons had an established territory at the base of the mountain range southeast of the forest, which was much closer than the one of the seers’, the latter residing on a tropical island in the sea to the north. Traveling to the island would be possible for her, but not the egg. The trip to the mountains would be fine for the egg, but near impossible for her; in the water she was light and swift, but outside of it she was heavy and would grow sluggish after extended periods of exercise, and again she would dry out before reaching it.

But it won't hatch into a pure earth dragon, either… Hybrids were rare, but were viewed as 'knock-offs' of either of their parents' pure elementals: weak as adults, and as hatchlings, a burden to raise or teach the natural skills they may not have fully inherited. Since they resulted from cross pairings, society's disdain for hybrids extended to them. In the off chance that I do manage to bring him there, as soon as they discover his seer heritage, he'll probably be exiled–or killed.

She stood on her hind legs and held the egg as close as when she first encountered it, sharing her body heat that had initially revived it from the brink of demise. Glacia had gotten attached to it from the start. Even if she did find someone else who would take care of the egg–which the water dragoness didn't need to be a seer to know such a future was extremely unlikely–she wasn't sure how willing she would be to part with it. Her choice to save and raise a hybrid would be scrutinized by the masses, making both her and the future hatchling a potential target if they happened to be discovered. Regardless, Glacia was determined to make this work.

She placed the egg on her back, sandwiching it between her two large purple-and-teal fins above her yellow dorsal fin-sail so it wouldn't fall off, and entered the water. The light blue dragoness used her webbed hands and back paws to steer as she chose to rely on the teal fins at the end of her tail to swim smoothly toward one of her three sun-basking rocks near the center of the lake. When she reached the limestone pillar, she began climbing; the movement was so habitual that she had to catch herself before she'd follow through with reaching the flat top to lie on in her momentary forgetfulness, instead stopping just under the highest ledge at a crevice wherein she had stored a few fish bones she'd used as toothpicks. With one hand, she brushed the bones and loose rubble into the water, then carefully brought the egg forth from her back. To her relief, there was more than enough space inside for it.

The rock pillar itself was wide, and if she had been an earth dragoness, she would have been able to use large strong paws to chip away at the crevice and make more room for herself to properly incubate the egg inside. She shook the thought from her mind; her imagination often got away from her. Will the egg be okay with the sun’s warmth by itself? Maybe I could bury it in the sand and lie on top? No–if it'd suffocate underwater, it'd suffocate underground, too.

Glacia was at a loss as to where she could safely store and incubate it. Then she spotted one of the fish bones she'd missed behind the egg. With excitement, she dove under the surface and used her back fins as wings to ‘fly’ into the depths, entering the cave at the lake bottom and sifting through her hoard. Perhaps she could find a makeshift chisel among the various pieces of junk that had flowed in through the underwater cavern that sourced the lake. After a few minutes of searching, she gave up, then resurfaced to check on the egg.

It was still warm.

Then she got another idea, but was less thrilled about it than the first. The aforementioned underwater cavern was how she ended up in the lake as a hatchling in the first place. But it was pure luck on her part, being pushed by the current in total darkness. The cavern branched out in many paths, mostly dead ends, but she had been washed up multiple times onto land with air pockets, and once into a small cenote. If it weren't for the flooding of an endless storm and her inability to fly, she would have stayed there as a hatchling, rather than continue to be washed away. She had a very bad sense of direction on top of it all.

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The experience had been traumatic for her, so she had never attempted to explore it again. But until now, she never had a dire reason to.

Glacia gently rubbed the egg before drawing a breath and once again submerging. She didn't want to leave it for long despite the warmer weather, so the dragoness promised herself that if there wasn't an air pocket close enough, she would turn around before she got lost.

The entrance to the cavern was smaller than she remembered; or rather, she had grown bigger over the nine years since she had last been in it. She could fit through comfortably, at least, and the current was still, unlike during the storm. The only issue now was how dark it was. Her vision was great in dim lighting, especially in the depths of her lake, but that was only because there was lighting in the first place. The cavern had none.

I'm doing this for the egg, Glacia reminded herself. For my egg.

Ignoring her second thoughts, she went in, keeping a hand against the rock wall on the right side as she swam so she could find her way back. She hadn't made it far before the wall ended; her past trauma took hold as she pictured herself a spec in a void with no way out.

Glacia reached out blindly in her panic before finding the wall again; it was a corner piece, and she realized it continued to the right. Her hands were shaking and she wanted nothing more than to retreat. After a moment to try to regain composure, she forced herself onward. The passage narrowed between two walls, and the wall she was following led to a dead end…or so she thought. It turned out to be another bend, just to the left this time.

That's when she saw it: a single light source.

In her haste and excitement, the water dragoness abandoned the wall to swim swiftly toward the light, and her paddling hands touched the sandy earth despite her having kept to the same depth level; the ground must be sloping up. Her fins breached the surface as well until she was standing on all fours. The slope leveled out into the same space she had remembered from nine years ago: a small patch of land in the water with a cenote allowing sunbeams to filter down into the deeper waters ahead, but far enough from her that flying dragons wouldn't see them if they looked down the hole. When she was last here, it had been dark and storming, but in the calm daylight she could admire the beauty of the lush spring plant life climbing down from the ceiling. Best of all, she knew now how to reach it.

Glacia followed the same route back to the lake. She had only been gone for a total of thirty minutes at the most; she immediately surfaced to check on the egg. Placing her hand on it to confirm it was still warm, she prepared to pick it up so she could take it to the cenote, but her motion was cut short by sudden movement from inside the green shell. It wasn't unusual, but this time it was aimed directly at her touch, and was much stronger than before. The dragoness pulled her hand away, unsure of what that meant. Then the egg rocked again, and a pip formed where her palm had been.

Glacia suppressed an excited squeal at the hatchling’s emergence, but also panicked, as she wasn't prepared for it so soon.

It wasn't long before a small green head poked through the shell: slightly spiky like the seer’s, but with backward-facing horns formed in an S shape on either side of his head similar to the earth dragon’s. A dark green stripe ran back from the top of his head and continued down his neck. It–or rather, he–had blue eyes with a lighter blue stripe horizontally through his pupils, which almost immediately focused on her. His adoptive mother watched in awe as he broke the rest of his body free piece by piece.

As usual for an earth dragon, he had big paws in proportion to his body, which was the slightest bit thinner than a pure blooded one’s. What Glacia didn't expect were the wings he had.

She remembered the wings of his biological mother: the seer dragoness had a long wingspan and the tips were clawed. But the hatchling’s wings were small, even in proportion to his body. They were short, and while the thumbs of them were tipped with a blunt horn, they lacked claws.

Glacia briefly wondered if the seer she had found near his egg was truly his biological mother, despite his green coloring matching hers. Earth dragons didn't have wings, so she knew he was a hybrid, but between which elementals she was now unsure.

The dark stripe down his neck extended to his back and shorter tail, wrapping around the front of each leg. The hatchling kicked the last piece of the shell off of his hind paw before looking up at her once more.

“Hey, little guy,” the water dragoness greeted him with a wide grin. “Welcome to the world!”

He took an unsteady step toward her…then nearly fell right over the ledge she had hid his egg on. Glacia caught him in a single hand, since she was still balancing on the footholds of the stone pillar. She placed him on the base of her neck on one side of her yellow dorsal fin-sail and just above her shoulder blade, then paddled toward the shore. On her way there, more doubts regarding her decisions filled her mind. She had been anticipating this day since she found him, and she was truly happy to see his emergence. But…

Now what…?

Glacia had no idea what she was doing. Now that he had hatched, she couldn't risk him drowning on their way to the cenote. There wasn't much shelter in her home outside of the water, though, either. She slowed to a stop and glanced back at the hatchling. He was calm, and seemingly amused by the occasional droplets she had kicked up around him. He likes water?

Growing curious of her theory, she didn't think twice before taking the baby dragon in her hand, letting him sit in her teal-padded palm as she lowered the bottom half of his body into the water, keeping him at that level and studying him intently. His striped blue eyes sparkled like the waves in the sun as he joyously splashed around. She beamed, relief and hope welling up inside. Encouraged by his reaction, she slowly pulled her hand away, eventually letting go completely to see if perhaps his mixed heritage would allow him to float or swim despite half of him being an earth dragon.

He didn't.

He sank like a stone, and she freaked out, diving after the hatchling and cupping him in her hands to bring him high above the water. The whole ordeal lasted maybe three seconds, and after he coughed out a few droplets, he only seemed confused by what happened…happy, even.

But Glacia’s heart was beating out of her chest, and she berated herself for even considering that an earth dragon hybrid could swim, and felt ashamed for putting him in danger all out of her selfish hope that he could live with her at the lake. That hope was now gone, and the realization crushed her. This can't work after all, can it…? He only just hatched, and I already almost killed him…

When she finally calmed enough to stop trembling, Glacia placed the hatchling on her back and continued to shore, her mind blank. Once there she rose out of the water on her hind legs, taking the green baby dragon in her arms, where she absently cradled him as she'd done for the past month. Her red irises stared into the distance at nothing in particular.

Then she felt the hatchling nuzzle into her striated yellow chest, and she snapped out of it. Her eyes watered with emotion, and she embraced the moment, watching him drift into sleep before casting her gaze across the plains to the forest she had initially found him in with pure resolve.

I'll make it work.