“Ahaha, come here little one!” My supposed ‘Grandpa’ said as he came over and without resistance from my mom, picked me up and held me above his head as he examined my body.

“Hmmm, He is a cute little bugger but I sense something wrong with him…. You said someone tried to snatch his egg and ended up causing him to hatch early?”

“Yes, it was a creature that I have not seen before. Solace has an spell active that constantly alerts him of any new creatures entering the territory but this thing was within our home and gone without so much as a noise. I was in the restroom and came back to find a missing egg and saw as the thing was just about to exit the cave.”

“What did it look like? Was it small and furry? Did it look like it was made of shadows?” My grandfather asked a few questions with a tone that suggested he knew what this thing was, but with a tone that suggested he was hoping he was wrong.

“How did you know what it looked like? I don’t ever remember seeing something like this before, even in the bestiaries the humans gave us, these aren’t in there.”

Grandpa sighed heavily as he ran his hand through his hair and he seemed to visibly age. His eyes turned very serious as he started to inspect the forest around us and then turned his head towards the top of a mountain that was just as big if not bigger than the mountain I now lived in.

The only difference was that this mountain was perpetually covered in darkness. The light of a clear sunny day seemed to shy away from even touching the base of it as if it were afraid.

By this time my dad appeared from a path leading towards the forest with a grave look on his face. He was so lost in thought that he didn’t notice us until I made a small squeak noise trying to get his attention. He raised his head in surprise and smiled when he saw us, but frowned when he saw grandpa looking towards the mountain.

“I just came back from the forest father. Something has been rampaging and killing everything. I found a kill site that was filled with the bodies of half-eaten bodies of differing species.”

“I figured son…. Natali, why don’t you go take the little boy back inside for a nap then come back, I have some things to discuss with you two as the current guardians of this area.”

As me and my mother went inside I caught a couple words being spoken just barely enough for me to hear. My grandpa was saying something about ‘Void Beasts’ and how the time for another invasion was upon us…. What did that mean?

Not really caring anything about that right now I was more focused on the sudden cracking sound I heard as we came closer to the two nests. Mom instantly gasped and started hurrying towards the eggs and we saw as all the eggs had cracks all over them and I even saw as a claw started clawing through the egg on the two that I could feel strong energy coming from.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Oh god they are hatching! They weren’t supposed to hatch for another week at least, stay here and watch over your siblings honey while I run and get your father.” Mom said as she sat me down near the eggs and ran off towards dad.

Watching my siblings hatch from their eggs reminded me of that scene in an old dinosaur movie I loved to watch, you know the one scene where they watch the velociraptor hatch form the egg? Yea just imagine that egg being roughly the same size as your body and now think how terrifying that experience would be……

“I can’t believe they hatched already. Two of them are even giving off a powerful aura for a hatchling.” I was startled as I heard grandpas voice from above me. At this time it was almost like a trigger as the eggs were finally broken through and suddenly there were 7 hatchlings looking around. My focus was on the two powerful auras, one was a green scaled one but unlike our moms scales that resembled the greenery and color of leaves or grass…. This ones scales resembled more of an emerald green. The scales looked like it could take a hit and still be just as pristine.

Then there was the other one….. The golden one….. That’s right, this hatchling was covered head to claw in golden scales, even it’s underbelly which was usually left with weaker scales or none at all in some cases was covered in the same golden scales.

“OOOH, honey look at the golden one! How long has it been since dragonkin has birthed a gold dragon!?” Mom exclaimed as she bent down and picked up the gold one up.

“Now that all of them have hatched I think it’s time you two give them names.” Grandpa said as I saw that he had a huge smile on his face.

“Your right dad, I say we call this guy ‘Aurelius’.”

As dad said that name I could have sworn his voice sounded almost warbly? Almost like it was bass boosted suddenly, at the same time I saw as a little spark of light surrounded Aurelius and a shine coated his scales and the powerful aura seemed to solidify and condense inside of his body.

“Great name honey.” Mom set down Aurelius and picked up the emerald scaled hatchling. “I feel like the name ‘Viridis’ fits this one.” The same thing happened to mothers voice and the spark of light covered Viridis this time as well. It’s emerald scales condensed and hardened at the same time the color of it brightened until it was almost like a translucent gemstone.

As this was happening I noticed that mom started to pant and had to set down Viridis quickly and soon dad had a hold of her and was setting her down.

“I told you that I could name them honey, I have enough strength to handle the naming ritual.” I heard dad say with worry clear throughout his voice.

“He’s right Natali, the naming can take a huge toll on the parents and under extreme circumstances, the parents could even die under the stress.” Grandpa chimed in.

“It’s fine you two. I needed to name atleast one of them, how was I supposed to know that naming one of the stronger ones would take so much as a payment.”

I heard all this and my brain was already dredging up all the possibilities of why this was happening…. It also brought up an anime where this same thing occurred.

“I’ll take it from here, just write down the names of which ones and I’ll take on the toll for us.”