Light consumed the dark. He squeezed his eyes shut against the onslaught as the walls fell away, leaving him to tumble headfirst into the new world. He hit hard. Oww. This is getting kind of annoying.

Scents flooded his nose. Musty air, earthy mushrooms, and many sharp scents he couldn’t identify. He opened his eyes. The blinding light was gone, replaced by a luminescent glowing lichen creeping up the sides of the smooth rock in front of him. Milky-gray stalactites hung from the ceiling, their centers aglow. Am I in a cave?

“Hello,” a gentle voice rumbled from behind him. “Welcome to our home in The Valley That Hums.”

Huh? The hatchling whipped around, coming up on his feet and face-to-face, or rather face-to-ankle, with something huge and scaly.

“Whoa!” He stumbled back, tripped over a rock, and landed on his back in soft moss.

High-pitched cackling erupted from his right. “Looks like we got ourselves a newb!”

“Shut it, Viseral,” an equally high-pitched voice said from his left. “We don’t know that for sure. Besides, everyone’s new at some point, and getting a new Dragon Rebirth is pretty exciting.”

“That’s right.” A large, horse-like face came into view. Smooth, iridescent purple scales ran up the muzzle to two oval, green eyes. “We haven’t had a new Dragon Rebirth in ages! But this one might just be new to Dragons. Or maybe we simply startled them.” The scaly muzzle drew closer, blowing a hot gust of air across his entire body. “So, what say you?”

“I… uh….” The words came out in a squeak capable of calling dogs.

Viseral cackled again. “I was upset at having to sound ridiculous again, but at least I don’t sound like I’ve been sucking helium!”

The hatchling cringed. He really did sound ridiculous.

“Don’t mind him,” the horse muzzle said in a honeyed tone. “What were you going to say?”

“I… I think I am. I don’t remember what happened.”

“Well, duh, you died. Idiot.” Viseral snorted.

“Enough, Viseral,” someone new boomed. “Don’t forget, we don’t have to care for you.”

“Ouch. Here I thought you two were nice Dragons. Whatever. Coddle the newb, then. I’ll be over here waiting for something useful to happen.”

Wow. The hatchling swiveled his head toward Viseral and frowned. He glimpsed a small orange and yellow tiger-striped tail with a gold frill running down its middle right before it slipped out of sight. That one sounds like a ton of fun to be around. Probably a griefer.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The horse head pulled away. “I know this must all be very confusing, but we promise to help you get acquainted as well as we can.” The other two agreed.

The others seem okay, though. He scrambled to his feet and promptly fell on his rear.

“Try standing on all four legs,” the nice squeaky voice said. A tiny red dragon, looking straight out of a European fantasy book, trotted in front of him. “Dragons can walk on two legs if you practice, but it’s pretty awkward, especially as hatchlings.”

Makes sense. After all, human newborns can’t walk, either.

The red hatchling cocked her head.

Oh, right. I should probably say something. “Thanks, I’ll try that.”

The red hatchling nodded and stepped back as he lurched forward onto his front legs. For the first time, he paid special attention to where each part of his body was. He swung his head back and forth as he took stock. It was bizarre. His mind still firmly believed him to be human, yet, like the red hatchling, he looked straight out of a fantasy story, albeit a lot more stumpy and round.

Instead of red, his scales gleamed in a gradient of blue, green, and purple. Do I like those colors? He killed the train of thought before it strayed into zapping territory, instead focusing on a detail he’d missed. He glanced at the red hatchling, then back at his own body. His enthusiasm fell. “We don’t have wings.”

“Not yet, but you’ll get some soon enough.”

He turned, far more carefully this time, to finally see the entirety of the horse-head dragon and the one who’d chastised Viseral. He looked up and up and up, trying to take in the two massive dragons. Both of them sat back on their haunches and regarded him with curious, but patient, expressions.

The purple one looked like a scaly purple horse over most of its body, with a bright blue mane laying down its neck. A serpentine tail rested along draconic feet and hands. It tucked two giant bird wings against its body. Blue, green, and purple feathers glittered in alternating layers.

Where the first one was equine, the second was feline. Orange, red and gold stripes wrapped from its scaly, blunt muzzle, past its slit-pupil blue eyes, to the end of its twitching spiked tail. Fire-patterned bird wings stretched, half unfurled, from its sides.

The two big dragons looked majestic, awe-inspiring, powerful. Everything his tiny, blunt body was not. Maybe Viseral isn’t that bad after all. Maybe he’s just frustrated from being so pathetic compared to that.

“There you go. Now that we can all see each other properly, let’s introduce ourselves,” the feline dragon said. “I’m Oncian. I’ll be acting as your father while you grow.”

“I’m Cavua,” the horse-dragon said. “I’ll be your mother for as long as you need.”

“I’m your sister, Arianrhod.” The red dragon moved back up beside him. “The jerk is Viseral, in case you didn’t hear. He claims he was some bigshot Dragon before he got ganked and sent back to character creation.” She rolled her eyes. “As if that never happened to me, but you won’t find me whinging about it.”

“I’ll admit, I’ve had some irritating deaths,” Cavua said. “So, I can’t fault Viseral too much. I’d rather he not take his frustrations out on a new Rebirth, though.”

Death. That word sent tendrils of ice down the hatchling’s spine, tendrils which brought searing pain in their wake. He jerked back as light flooded his vision, the squealing of machines and the yells of people filling his ears. “No, I don’t want to die!”