PROLOGUE

***

The world was ending.

It was something they had known for years. They had hoped to be wrong, they had hoped they had more time, unfortunately, hope was a meaningless concept to the uncaring universe.

As the planet shook itself to pieces, the pair of scientists loaded their newborn child into the escape pod. To call it a spaceship would have been disingenuous. It was an ugly and rushed job, little more than a thruster with a preservation chamber bolted to its side.

They’d intended to build a bigger, proper ship, for themselves and their child. But the unfinished, gleaming skeleton lay behind them, they simply didn't have the time. Even their mangled, cobbled-together escape pod had been pushing it.

They sobbed as they watched the pod close and zoom off into the rich golden sky.

As the world cracked under their very feet, they held each other, praying desperately that at least their child would live on amongst the stars.

***

Under a cloudless night sky, a farming couple embraced each other as they wept on their porch. The sudden appearance of falling stars that raced across the sky went completely unnoticed by the grieving couple.

The traveling healer had just left their home, they had hoped that the new healer would have a different opinion from the healers that lived in the nearby villages. But it was all for naught, the traveler leaving nothing but lighter coffers, dark tidings, and shattered dreams in their wake.

“It isn't fair!” The woman wailed into her husband's chest.

“I know.” He muttered, barely keeping his own voice from warbling.

Their lifelong dream of having children and growing old together had been torn asunder by the healer's grim proclamation. They were both impotent. Seed and egg both.

“Haven't we been good?! We’re proper gods-fearing folk! Followed all the scriptures of the Nine, we did!” She shook in her husband's grip, grief and rage fueling her words. “And this, this is to be our reward! Pox on The Nine then!”

“Miya! You don't mean that!” He exclaimed frightfully, he knew better than to forsake the gods, for they could be spiteful. He had to tighten his grip on his suddenly struggling wife.

“Yes, I do, Carl!” She spat, “Pox to The Nine and all who follow ‘em. If they are so cruel as to punish loyal worshippers like us, then the whole lot of ‘em can burn! Let them strike me down now and be done with it!”

The hateful proclamation was punctuated by a sudden and foreboding boom in the sky, the entire farm was suddenly illuminated as if by a second sun. They looked up in fear to find a ball of fire streaking down from the night sky, hurtling straight towards them!

It moved so swiftly that the couple could do little more than flinch and tighten their grips on each other, a last-minute attempt at comfort before the end.

But the gods' wrath was not to be, as suddenly the blinding fireball drastically slowed its descent. A tongue of blueish-white flame shot from it towards the ground. The original orange fire dissipated enough for them to realize that it was in fact a metallic object the size of a horse.

The couple were so shocked at the sudden turn in events that they could do naught but stare as the ‘fireball’ came to a gentle halt right in front of them. The blue flame it spewed from its strangely shaped bottom made the dirt directly underneath it glow red, but strangely did nothing to the Couple standing only a mere arm's length away.

“...What- what is it?” Carl quietly asked his wife.

“I don’t know.” Miya offered, just as mystified as him.

Once it was properly settled on the ground, the blue flames cut out, plunging them back into the darkness of the night, lit only by a flickering lantern on the porch stoop. Now that it was no longer moving, they could get their first proper look at it.

The object was as tall as a man and roughly egg-shaped with a strange, flared cone-like bottom. The entire thing seemed to be made of one singular piece of metal.

“Is it a Dragon Egg? Or somethin’?” His wife muttered.

“Dunno’. Maybe?.” He muttered right back, unwilling to take his gaze from the strange thing in front of them.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Carl had never seen a Dragon before, let alone an egg, but he had heard from a traveling merchant that their eggs looked as though they were wrought from metal. Could this strange thing be a Dragon egg? He’d never heard of them falling out of the sky, but there had certainly been enough fire involved in its descent for him to believe it was of draconic origin.

Seams started forming and expanding all across the previously unblemished metal, streams of bright white light and gouts of steam shot out of the newly widening gaps.

It was hatching!

“By the Nine!” Miya cried, Carl pushed her back protectively as he imposed himself between them.

“Miya, let’s get out of-” His words halted as the unmistakably shrill sound of a crying babe cut the air.

They stared at each other in shock, eyes darting to where the sound seemed to be coming from. The now sizable opening in the metallic object.

Cautiously, the pair approached the strange object. Carl held her back a moment, so he could check it out first. Peering into its glowing depths, his eyes widened and he let out a gasp in surprise.

“Carl?! What is it?” Miya asked, he didn't respond, just staring transfixed into the metallic object.

Miya, having none of it and seeing that it was safe enough, edged around her still rooted husband and joined him in staring. But unlike him, when she realized what she was seeing, she practically dove into the opening.

“Miya!” Carl shouted at his wife's lack of caution.

When she pulled back, it was with a crying and tightly bundled baby, little tufts of blonde hair, and the most beautiful, startlingly blue eyes either of them had ever seen. She rocked the baby back and forth, trying to soothe it.

“A baby?” Carl whispered to himself.

Miya laughed joyously. “It’s a gift, a gift from the gods! Nine, be blessed!” She started crying as she stared up at the glittering heavens. “I am sorry for doubting. Never again!” She swore solemnly, tears streaming down her face.

“C’mon, let's get the child inside, it's too cold out for a babe.” Carl urged as he tugged his wife and the still-crying baby back into the house.

After only a few minutes of sitting by the fire in Miya's gently rocking arms, the baby was soothed to sleep.

“Is it a boy or a girl?” Carl whispered to his wife, hugging her to his side as he stared down at the now-sleeping bundle in her arms.

She hesitated, lifting the cloth a moment. “A girl.”

“We need a name for our fallen star.” He said softly, brushing the back of his hand gently almost reverently against a cheek softer than anything he had ever felt.

Miya's eyes widened as she took in her husband's words. She struggled to keep from raising her voice too loudly, for fear of the baby waking. “I’ve got the perfect name!”

Although her face was turned away, he could tell she held the most radiant of smiles on her face.

“Hello, Danica.” She cooed down at the sleeping babe.

***

Carl was in the middle of splitting logs when he heard a sound that curdled his blood. The distant but still piercing sound of a woman's scream drifted on the wind. He immediately began sprinting back to the house, his heart pounding in his ears.

Was it Goblins again? He cursed himself, he knew he should have bought that guard dog the last time he was in town!

Carl bashed the door open to their home, charging through the house towards the bedroom where the sound of his wife's pained sobs and the frantic cries of his daughter was coming from. He burst into the room, with a snarl and his axe raised agressivley, only to find Miya laying on the floor, hugging her hand to her chest as if it were injured. Danica was still in her crib, wailing, no doubt shaken by her mother's earlier scream.

“What's wrong!? Miya, speak to me!” He knelt next to her, gently coaxing her arm away so he could try to get a better look at her hand.

“I don’t know, I was playing with Danica when she squeezed my finger. Carl, she squeezed my finger! Carl, I think it's broken!” She sounded hysterical, her voice somewhere between laughter and crying.

“Miya, Danica is barely a year old, she couldn't possibly have broken you-” He froze once he managed to get her hand free. He stared at the purple and clearly broken digit, pointing in a direction it really had no business pointing.

His browed furrowed as he looked from his distressed wife to the small crib he had built in the corner of the room. A small wide-eyed face peeked back at him from between the bars, screwed up in stress, and tears still glistening on her cheeks. Carl shook his head, Miya must have fallen and hit her head, or maybe the pain put her in shock. She was just confused. He told himself.

He was not a healer by any stretch of the imagination, but he was a farmer through and through. Binding a splint on a broken finger was par the course for any seasoned farm hand.

Leaving his wife to rest on the bed, he went back for his still gently sniffling daughter. She was tightly hugging the wooden horse he had carved for her. He picked her up and bounced her comfortingly until she calmed herself, nuzzling herself into his chest.

He smiled as he carried her into the kitchen, quickly mashing up some vegetables for her breakfast. Feeding her proved a tad more difficult than usual as she refused to stop playing with the wooden doll.

With a huff, he pried her fingers away from the horse, she made a distressed little noise, her fingers clamping around the horse's middle with renewed vigor. He chuckled at his stubborn daughter, gently prying her fingers back.

His laughter ceased when with an ominous creak swiftly followed by a loud snapping sound, the horse exploded into a shower of splinters.

He stared gobsmacked at his giggling little girl, her chubby little hands still clenched tightly around a handful of wooden shards, waving them about playfully with the innocent delight only a baby could muster.

Perhaps he had hit his head too? He thought bemusedly.

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