Writing prompt archive

Broodmother (prompted start)

{“They may have been your dragon, m’lord, but I raised them from an egg.” The poor farmer dressed in rags said to the entitled king. The king smirks. “So be it.” He pats the mountainous dragon on the head. "FIRE."}

He commands the giant beast. The dragon glanced between the two before rising up to stand to its full height to where the king, who was taller than the average human himself, barely stood level to it's elbow. Taking in a breath, it shot a beam of fire above everyone's heads. It then glanced between the two humans happily.

The farmer smiled softly at the dragon while the king stared in shock. The king, not being able to believe his pet didn't follow his order, commanded it again. "NO, YOU STUPID BEAST! HER! FIRE AT HER! BURN HER TO A CRISP! I DONT EVEN WANT HER ASHES IN MY CARPET!" The dragon took a step back from the king, ears layed back in confusion as to why he was mad. It did what he asked it to. It didn't want to anger either its human-friend or its brood-mother.

The king continued to yell at the dragon, enraged at it's hesitance but only confused the dragon more. The poor dragon whined and cowered back from the enraged king who was still yelling at it to kill the farmer. The guards at the edges of the room didn't know what to do. Should they arrest the farmer? Try to calm their king?

The farmer watched for a short while before she had enough of the entitled king's whining. She turned to the confused dragon. Calling out to it softly, she used the name she gave it when it hatched. "StarScales." The dragon looked at her with wide panicked eyes. "Come here, dear." She opened her arms to the dragon. The titanic beast walked over and curled up as tightly as it could as it placed its large head against the farmer's chest.

The farmer shushed it and stroked its head as it tried to be as small as possible in her hold, crooning pitifully. It didn't understand. It did what its friend told it to do. Why was he mad? The farmer cooed softly at the large dragon, drowning out the voice of the enraged king. "C'mon, little one. Lets go home. Your siblings have missed you." The dragon warbled at the offer, nudging her a bit. The farmer stepped back and pat the dragon before taking a few steps to leave, the dragon following her.

The king didn't like that at all. "WHERE DO YOU THINK YOURE GOING WITH MY DRAGON!" The farmer calmly turned to level the king with her sternest motherly glare, making the king pause. "No, not your dragon. This is my child and I'm taking them home. Plus," She turned to fully face the king, leveling him with a cold stare. Her voice grew chilly with a confidence of someone who knows they have the most power in the room.

"Who are you to stop me?" Her head tilted slightly  right as the castle shook with multiple earth-quaking booms. The dragon perked up at the sound and threw its head back to trumpet out a ear-peircing roar. Multiple more, even louder, roars called back from outside the castle walls, only making the dragon even happier. The farmer ignored the panic all of this caused in the guards around the room and stayed perfectly calm as she continued talking with the fearful king.

"I'm not called the Broodmother for nothing, afterall." The king stared down at the farmer with terror-filled eyes. "WHAT DID YOU DO!?" The farmer calmly blinked at him with the small smile of a patient mother. "Think about it, child. Dragons don't just lay one egg. They lay..." She trailed off wanting him to fill in the gap. The king slowly answered like the confused brat he is. "....clutches..." She smiled wider as a stone wall shook and bulged a bit with a giant impact from the other side. "Good. And when dragons hatch they imprint ooonn..." "...the first adult they see..." "Very good." She gently praised as the bulging wall started to crack.

"And when that clutch's mother is in danger?" The king went silent at the realization. The farmer kept talking. "What about when one of their siblings has been taken from them?" A hole was opened in the wall from the force being thrown at it. "Now I've done this for may seasons and have raised many clutches. Im quite the experienced mother, if I do say so myself." A large snout, larger than the king's dragon's, forced its way inside the hole, snapping and snarling before it retreated and the forceful impacts resumed.

"Now, child." The farmer continued, undisturbed by the raging beasts forcing their way through the wall. "This can go one of two ways. One: you let me and my child go and we'll leave you to your own devices, or," A particularly violent hit shook the castle and an even larger sbout forced its way through the widened hole as a titanic paw reached under it and clawed at the ground.

"You try and stop us and-"  she was interrupted by the wall bursting open and a dragon of colossal proportions stuck its head inside, roaring for all its worth at the few knights left alive from the assault. The farmer calmly gestured to the raging dragon snarling at them. More dragons were seen swarming  the sky behind it. "Your thrown is forfeit."  The king stared at the farmer in rags before him, full of pure and utter terror.

"Now. Me, my child, and their mother are going to leave. And you are going to sit there on your fancy chair, and think you are important as we do." She smiled at the king as the colossal dragon leaned over and easily picked up the giant dragon like the baby it was. The farmer climbed up the jaw-horns on the sides of the dragoness' head to stand on it's head. The farmer then patted one of the dragoness'  horns. "Come along now, sweetheart. Lets take the little one back to the colony. I'm sure their siblings are quite eager to see them again. I'm sure m'lord won't mind." The colossal dragoness growled out a warble and pulled her head from the hole, taking both farmer and the kings dragon with her.

The king could only stare in shock as the farmer flew away with his greatest weapon. The entire thunder of colossal dragons following after them, leaving the king's indestructible fortress in ruins. He never should have doubted the lengths a broodmother would go through for a single dragonet.