I was terrified of what had just happened. I was all alone.

Another roar erupted from outside the cave, but this time it was from neither of my parents.

There were many flashes of light, loud booms and other horrific sounds. I couldn’t help but cower in fear behind the eggs, defenseless as they may be.

I felt bad for using my future siblings as shields, but my survival instincts were too much to overcome.

I coiled up into a ball, trying to ignore the sounds. It was just too much to handle.

I whimpered slightly, wishing for it all to just be a bad dream. Please survive, mom and dad...

I tried to keep an attentive ear on the sounds outside, but I couldn’t make out anything. It sounded like an entire war was going on out there...

And then a loud crack was heard.

It was as if the sound brought the entire world to a complete halt. All the other sounds I had been hearing suddenly stopped, as if someone had simply pulled the plug out of a loudspeaker.

What felt like an eternity passed, and then I heard one final thud. It was massive, as if a huge creature had just hit the ground.

It created shockwaves.

The vibrations seemed to be powerful enough to reinvigorate the eggs around me, and they started to hatch again.

I couldn’t keep my attention at my siblings, however, and continued to listen for any other sounds coming from outside the cave. There was nothing. All I could hear was the soft cracking of shells behind me.

Guys, I'm sorry for leaving you behind, but I need to find out what happened to our parents. I abandoned the eggs and cautiously made my way to the cave entrance.

As soon as my head turned the corner, the sight I saw was nothing short of bone-chilling.

My parents were there. They were both looking down at a massive creature. The creature looked like a huge snake.

Both my parents looked exhausted and heavily damaged. I could tell they fought hard, judging by the damage they had both seemingly sustained.

I was hopeless to do anything. As young as I was, I was far too weak to be of any use at all. All I could do was watch as my parents simultaneously collapsed to the ground, exhausted.

D-did they... die?

Tears began welling in my eyes. If only I could do anything, if only I could have helped them...

My gaze began wandering from my parents’ bodies to the field closer to the cave, panning across the ground around them. It was riddled with corpses, Human corpses. There were hundreds, no, thousands of them.

The battlefield was silent as a grave. Nothing was moving, nothing made any sound at all.

I couldn’t help myself. I had to get down there to know for sure. If my parents were alive.

I carefully moved my clawed hands across the cold, stone floor and out onto the grass of the field outside. Walking was still awkward, but I could do it.

The grass was red with blood from all the humans lying there. It almost looked like there was an entire army gathered here, the people were wearing armor and were armed with various swords and bows.

What happened didn’t really matter to me at the moment. All I could think about was the fate of my parents, and I ignored the corpses as I made my way over to the huge snake and my parents.

The journey took a while. My legs and body were very small, and they lay far away from the cave.

I made it to my mother first, whose eyes were closed. She was not breathing... But I could feel a pulse.

Oh, thank goodness. She’s just unconscious...

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

I rubbed my head against my mother's enormous snout before turning my attention toward my father. He seemed less damaged than my mother...

I had to make my way around the giant snake in the middle of my parents, and I did so with great caution. Its maw was wide open, and it was filled with needle sharp teeth which looked extremely deadly. The creatures’ skull appeared to have been bashed in. The wound looked charred, as if it had been burned with high-intensity flames.

I shuddered slightly as I passed the mouth of the creature, but I spotted the body of my father right afterward. His huge, red body was more damaged than my mother’s, but his eyes were open. He was breathing and his eye was looking right at me.

“Apocalypso... We told you to stay inside.”

I made my way over to my father’s massive head. “Meep.”

“We’ll live. I just need to... Rest... A little...”

My father’s massive eye closed slowly.

“You’re... Brave. I’m proud... I’m proud of you, daughter.”

Dad’s eyes closed completely, and I was left all alone on the battlefield.

Did he... Did he call me his daughter?

I nuzzled in close to my father’s snout, feeling his breath. I’m not leaving you...

I softly began to sob quietly as my father’s breathing gradually slowed. His heartbeat was still beating normally, he was just falling asleep.

Dad, don’t leave me... please...

I awoke next day, still lying next to my father’s body. I instantly jumped awake and pushed my body closer to his, feeling for a heartbeat.

Oh, thank goodness. It’s still there.

I sighed in relief and redirected my attention to the huge snake creature. I was perplexed, however, as I saw the creature had entirely lost its skin, flesh and organs. All that remained was a skeleton.

What the heck happened? Nothing could have eaten it while I was sleeping, they would undoubtedly have... gone for me first...

I gulped with fear as I moved closer to the skeleton. Its skull was still opened with the same burnmarks visible on the skull as they had been on its skin yesterday.

Something very strange is going on. Before I find that out, though, I need to make sure mother is doing okay. I walked through the snake skeleton, finding its ribs were spaced far apart as to give me an easy path straight through it. The inside was massive, and it looked like it could fit maybe 4 adult men standing on top of each other in there.

My mother was lying at the same spot she was yesterday, and I sighed in relief. Whatever did this to the snake thankfully left my parents alone.

I eventually reached my mother, feeling for her heartbeat. It was there, thank Goodness.

I thought about what I should do now. I wasn’t going to be much use to my parents in my current state, so I should probably just head back to the cave. My brethren must have broken free from their eggs at this point.

We can at least keep each other company, I guess.

I walked through the swaths of human corpses. There must have been an entire army here, all perished.

When my parents wake up, I guess I can ask them but for now I can’t really do anything for them. As the oldest sibling I suppose I should protect my younger siblings too, after all.

I eventually reached the cave. From what I could see, it seemed relatively untouched. I was relieved at that fact, if nothing else.

I peered into the cave, spotting the three empty eggs. My siblings were nowhere to be seen however... I panned my gaze around the stony cave, looking for any signs of my two relatives. Maybe they left the cave? God, I hope not.

I walked over to the nest, poking slightly at the empty eggshells. Where could they have gone...

I suddenly felt an overwhelming presence coming from somewhere behind me. I turned around and was immediately shocked as a tiny, orange dragon jumped upon me.

“Meep!”

I ghasped in shock as I hit the stony floor with a thud. “Meep!”

I let out a chuckle, looking up at my smiling sibling. “Me-eep.”

They moved their head toward mine, giving me a hug. “Meep.”

I rolled to the side, escaping the grasp of my sibling. Okay, so there is one of the two, now where is the other?

They couldn’t possibly be far apart... I once again felt the feeling that something was behind me. Determined not to be caught again I dodged to the side just in time to see a tiny, white dragon hit the floor with a thud. “M-meep!”

I skickered slightly, helping my grounded sibling to their feet. As I was doing so I snuck a glance at their hindquarters to determine their gender, and found they were a female.

My sister shook her head slightly, before facing me with a gleeful smile. “Meep!”

This form of communication is getting tiresome very quickly. Let’s hope we learn how to speak real words relatively fast.

After things had died down a little, I caught a glimpse of my other sibling’s behind as well. They were male.

I was now lying in the nest with my sister and brother, just snuggling together.

Judging by how playful the two acted, I assumed they had yet to see the world outside the cave. Seeing as they probably don’t possess fully grown-up minds as I do, I think that’s for the best.

While it was nice to spend some time with my siblings, I couldn’t help but think I should go out of the cave and check up on mother and father. It was an irrational thought though, as practically nothing would be able to harm them, even though they were asleep.

I shrugged the thought off and playfully bit my brother’s tail. He let out a pained meep before returning the favor by biting mine. I let out a pained yelp before meeping apologetically. He seemed to get the message and chuckled slightly before lying his head back to rest on the nest.

I let out a long sigh and dropped my head back to the nest. My eyelids were starting to get heavy again, and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

My last thoughts were of my parents. I hope they will come back to us soon...