I wake in my bed, my hair the usual bird’s nest. I groggily rub my eyes and then stretch out my long, slender limbs. The stretch feels both awakening and tiresome. I definitely did not get enough sleep.

My feet hit the floor as I slide out of bed and I begin my usual routine. I rake the my finger’s through my hair to tame it as I walk over towards my Drageck. The scaly egg, shimmers golden with magic. It is still warm to my touch this morning, just as it should be. The Drageck moves slightly in response to my touch, I have no doubt the dragon inside is happy to greet me.

I turn and move to my wardrobe. I grab my favorite clothes. Unlike the rest, the leather in these have been softened and stretched in all the right ways, molded perfectly to my body like a second skin.

I dress quickly and begin to braid my hair in the mirror. The black strands are rough and still somewhat knotted.

Crr-ack, crra-ack, cr-nch.

The sound behind me makes me whirl around to face my Drageck.

“No, no, no! It’s not time yet!” I run across the room, shouting as if I could will the crack away. But it’s too late, the egg is open.

My heart is filled with worry, and thoughts flood my mind of all the things that could go wrong. Dragons shouldn’t hatch early, it always goes wrong. It’s been 723 years since the last time a dragon safely hatched early. And I am not favored by Lady Luck.

I hold my breath, but no hatchling pops out. I peak over the edge of the egg, looking in through the small opening but it’s too dark to see anything inside.

Panic sets in and I run to the window, pushing it open and leaning out. “Everett! Come quick, something’s wrong!”

I whip my head back inside to check on the Drageck, but the egg still looks the same and no hatchling peers out. Head back out the window, “Hurry, Everett!”

Rushing back to pedestal where the egg sits in my room, I chew my lip and my hands flutter. I don’t know what to do. Should I touch it? Should I not? What feels like an eternity for Everett to arrive is really only a minute or two.

He burst through my bedroom door and analyzes the room quickly. When he spots me with the egg, his face pales. “Well, that’s… not great.” He tries to lessen the blow.

“The dragon wiggled the egg like it does every morning. I know they were alive. But then the Drageck cracked open and I haven’t seen the hatchling peek out.” The words pour from my mouth like a faucet, I can’t get them out fast enough.

Everett walks to my side and hesitantly reaches out towards the egg. At the brush of his fingertips against the golden scales, the egg wiggles.

A gasp, I’m not sure if it’s Everett’s or mine, falls into the silence. Everett doesn’t move a centimeter. Instead, we wait, breaths held.

When no movement happened, Everett continued to reach for the egg.