Wings of Fire: Legend of the OmeletWings

Waiting

Screaming rang through Embryo's ears, the screams of everyone in her village who had ever laid an egg echoing into the present. Screams of pure torture and angst, screams of dragons who could not bear another moment of their own existence. No matter how proud they had been when it was over, no matter how many they laid, not one had ever managed to keep it together while it was happening. When faced with Egg Laying, even the strongest of dragons were unable to avoid succumbing to fits of horrific screaming. And Embryo was next, not only far from the strongest, but also the most sensitive of her kind.

"Em? Embryo, are you okay?" Summit was calling to her. After Summit had broke the news, Embryo appeared to have dropped off into a fog of horrific memories, and Summit couldn't help but feel worried. He had known Embryo had had some reserves to egg laying, but faced with it now, he saw that those reserves went much deeper than he'd originally suspected.

Embryo tried to turn her attention to Summit, but she was still wrapped up in her memories. Her eyes still staring blankly, her chest began to heave with heavy breaths. After the initial shock, panic was beginning to set in.

"How can this be happening?" she gasped, "I didn't do anything to have an egg, did I?" She looked at Summit. "This isn't your egg, isn't it?"

Summit took a step back, "Of course not. You know we've only been..."

"I know," Embryo panted, "Just how then...?"

Embryo kept panting.

"Okay, calm down," Summit soothed, "It's going to be okay. You're not the first dragon to ever bear an egg without a father. It's completely normal."

"Okay!?" Embryo burst, "Have you ever heard a dragon laying an egg before? The way she screams? The way she basically begs for mercy rather than just being able to see it through?"

Summit stopped. Was it really that bad? He knew it wasn't the easiest task, but... Was it really that bad? "No," he admitted, "I haven't." He looked away, feeling a deep shame opening up in him. He'd always thought of egg laying as normal. As a male, he'd never considered it anything he needed to concern himself with but he'd always just figured, it just happened. Had he really just been unwittingly closing himself off from a secret world of suffering that half of all dragons inevitably faced, and just passed it off as normal?

Embryo closed her eyes, trying to make herself calm down. Finally, she opened them and looked at Summit. "Sorry, I just wasn't ready for this. I just wanted to leave my village and see if there was more to life than just Egg Laying, and now..." Her voice cracked. "I'm sorry, I'm not even having mood swings right now and I'm still acting like this."

Embryo paused. It now made sense now, why Embryo had been acting funny these past few days. Her natural instincts had been trying to get her partnered up in preparation for the coming egg so it wouldn't be left infertile. Summit had been there all along to father the egg, but their relationship wasn't yet to the point where they were ready to partner for life. And now it was too late, the egg was already beginning to take shape. The only purpose it'd be good for? A simple Omelet, highlight of a true OmeletWing.

She looked at Summit, suddenly realizing how awkward this once again was. She'd been pretty open with him at how awkward it was that girl bodies just so happened to be such great natural food producers, but it was quite different acknowledging such an embarrassing fact about one's own gender as opposed to the fact that she, sitting here with egg right now, was now specifically one of those food producing bodies herself. She crossed her legs, trying to avoid imagine how the egg would come into the world. Her face went red. Surely Summit must have some idea about that aspect as well. How could this be her body? The only body she had, now set for unimaginable pain, already set for humiliation.