Alice stared.

The egg was about half as large as Prim’s had been — the size of an anemic chicken egg. Mint green in color, it was speckled with a blush of blue freckles.

“But…” Alice said helplessly, looking back at her dragon, “You’re too young to lay eggs.”

Prim didn’t seem concerned in the least. “You need help, and you had a free aspect token. This is how you grow stronger, Alice.”

It clicked.

“Because you’re an aspect of my class…” she murmured as she tentatively reached to take the egg. It was warm and dry in a way freshly laid eggs usually were not. The egg gave a little wiggle in her hand as if the little creature inside was trying to break its way out.

The moment she touched it, she received a notification:

Do you wish to hatch this aspect now?

Alice looked down at her lone meat pie she’d saved for her own supper. She couldn’t afford another hungry mouth to feed right now, but Prim was right. As She of Many Dragons, this was how she grew stronger.

This was how she protected herself.

Alice glanced at Prim who returned her gaze with expectation.

“Yes,” Alice murmured to the prompt.

If nothing else, a second dragon would help her keep a lookout. She couldn’t shake the feeling that her hiding place was not safe.

With a crack, the egg split down the middle. A deep green head popped out, no bigger than an olive.

She was shaped a little like an olive, too. The head was much rounder than Prim’s delicate, femininely pointed head. The green dragon had large protuberant blue eyes, large nostrils and a noticeable underbite displaying several snaggily teeth.

She was strong and easily knocked away the top of the shell before crawling out. Her body was green with those same blue freckles that had been on the egg darkening her limbs and tail. A tiny row of emerald green spikes were already visible down her back, and her wings were sharp and pulled back almost flush against her body when at rest.

Yes, she was built differently than Prim in almost every way. Alice felt bad for the comparison but the new dragon’s body was structured like a flat skittering lizard instead of a vision of a noble dragon, with limbs that turned out and long clawed feet for grasping.

There was nothing reptilian about the green dragon’s alert gaze, though, as she looked around once she was free of the egg.

“Hello,” she piped up to Alice. Her voice was different from Prim’s too. She spoke aloud instead of in Alice’s head.

“Hello,” Alice repeated, helping to pick off a bit of egg off the dragon’s back. While she was shaped differently than Alice expected, the little dragon’s color was striking. “You’re very pretty.”

“I know,” the little dragon said with easy confidence. “I’m Numismatis.”

“I’m Alice and this is Prim. Well, Primordialis,” she amended. “Do you mind if I call you… ah, Numi?”

The little green dragon’s forked tongue shot out to lick one of her own eyeballs. “Yup, that’s fine. Alice, I’m hungry.”

Alice’s stomach sank. She remembered what a bottomless pit Prim had been after she hatched – and now, still, actually. She doubted the meat pie would be enough. But it was better than nothing.

“Of course.” She reached for the pie, but Prim spoke up.

“First, Alice must give you skills so you’re useful. Then you may eat.”

“Prim, that’s unkind,” Alice objected.

Prim flicked her wings in a shrug. “You said yourself that we are in danger.”

“I would like skills,” Numi said. She seemed to be the easy-going, direct sort. “Give them to me.”

And the creepy-crawling feeling that wouldn’t leave the back of Alice’s neck said her dragon wasn’t wrong. They were not safe here.

Like Prim, Numi had three skill slots available. Also, like Prim, one was listed as a primary skill and was locked.

Skill Slots 1/3

Primary Skill (locked)

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Currency Forager

Available Skills:

Spatial Storage

Wise Investor

Lock Picking

Alice frowned as she looked them over. That last one didn’t seem to fit in with the other three, though after a glance at the padlocked door behind her, she could see an immediate use.

“I wish these skills had a detailed explanation.”

Was it always that way with skills? After all, her Cleaning and Strength skills she’d been assigned as a General Laborer had been obvious at face-value.

Perhaps a more thorough explanation would come if she ever received a high-rank identification skill.

Alice looked down at Numi. “Is there anything you like?”

“I like Currency Forager,” the little dragon said.

“Yes, you already have that.”

She bobbed her head. “And I like it very much.”

“She just hatched,” Prim said with all the benevolent wisdom and authority of someone who had hatched out an entire nine days ago. “She does not know what she wants yet, so you should choose the best for her.”

“Yes, choose for me!” Numi agreed. Wrapping her long-claws around Alice’s thumb, she looked up at her adoringly.

Alice hesitated for a moment longer. She felt a little bad about assigning someone’s skills for them, but needs were a must. Numi was her dragon.

She looked to the door behind herself, bit her lip, and nodded once. Oddball skill it was. “Lock-picking.”

As for the second skill… she was torn on Wise Investor because it would be nice to know what to do with money, if she ever had it. And although she didn’t want to say it aloud, she thought Numi might do with a little wisdom.

At the same time, for all her life Alice had heard wonderous things about spatial storage skills and items. Plus, she only had the slim pockets of her work smock to use.

That decided it.

“Spatial Storage.”

She felt the new skills slide into place.

Numi shivered all over and her blue eyes grew just a little brighter. “Oh, I like these.”

Prim jumped in, ever the leader. “The first thing we need is a safe place to shelter, right?”

“Yes,” Alice agreed, “But— “

Prim nodded to the padlocked door. “Numi, it’s time to use your skill. Hurry up.”

“If you please,” Alice said, wanting to be nicer. She was asking her newly hatched dragon to work on an empty stomach, after all.

“Will do!” Numi said cheerfully. Then, forgoing her wings completely, she scuttled down Alice’s sleeve, made a short hop to the floor, skittered across the floorboards like a lizard, and then directly up the wood just to the side of the door. Her long-outsized claws found every little crack and pit along the way.

Within a few seconds, Numi had made it level to the padlock. She looked at it with one protruding eye, flipped around upside down to look at it with the other, gave it a sniff, and then turned around to stick the end of her pointy tail into the keyhole.

“Are you sure you don’t want to use your claws—“ Alice started to ask.

A door slammed from down below.

Everyone froze.

Then came the sound of several pairs of heavy-footed steps.

Carefully, Alice crawled over to where there was a missing knothole in one of the floor-boards to look down.

There were three dirty looking men down below, casting around in the gloom. One had a rope in his hand, another what looked like a net, and the third a short club. All three had that generic Worker tag over them.

“You sure you saw the girl come in here?” one of the men asked. His voice echoed loudly in the empty building.

“Hurry,” Prim hissed to Numi.

Numi gulped. “Yes!”

The rough voices echoed up. “Well, I see no sign of her here. Maybe up those stairs?”

Alice froze feeling like a mouse trapped under the gaze of a hawk.

A moment later the padlock clicked open.

“Go in, Alice!” Prim said.

Standing, Alice crept back, wary of boards creaking. The padlock was open but the hinges on the door were visibly rusted and would make noise unless she opened it slowly…

Meanwhile, she heard creaking from the stairwell. The men were heavier than her and were taking the steps carefully, but they were still coming.

The moment the door was opened wide enough for her slim frame, Prim flitted in. Numi quickly followed.

Alice paused only to scoop up the meat pie left on the floor. She hoped she didn’t leave any crumbs behind to give her away.

Then she stepped inside the previously locked room and carefully eased the door shut.

The padlock was in her hand, and there was a place to lock it from the other side. She quickly did so then stood back, grabbing Numi in one hand, Prim under her other arm.

The room was dusty and empty except for a few bits of furniture covered by dirty sheets. Like the rest of the building, most of the window panes had been cracked or broken out from stones thrown from below. By the thick layer of dust that coated the floor, no one had stepped in here for years.

From the other side of the door she heard, “Fan out.”

“I heard something!” another man said, voice high with excitement.

Then there was a curse.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Just pigeons.”

Prim pressed her cheek against Alice’s own. Meanwhile Numi was quaking — no. She was growling softly in Alice’s grip.

They waited for what felt like an hour, though it had to have been only a couple of minutes, while the men argued and poked about. Twice, they tried the locked door — and the others nearby judging by the sounds — but didn’t seem hopeful that she had escaped within.

Alice didn’t think they were from the Earl’s Estate. They didn’t wear the Earl’s colors and they hadn’t looked official at all. No, they were searching her out for some other, darker purpose.

Finally, the men descended into arguing and decided to try another building nearby. The footsteps receded, but Alice didn’t trust that they wouldn’t return later tonight.

If she hadn’t been able to get into this room. If it hadn’t been for Numi…

She looked down at her newest little dragon. “Thank you.”

“Your work was adequate,” Prim added.

Numi perked up. “Do I get to eat now?”