Ethereal Flames

Late

A/N: Enjoy! My first book on wattpad, and I love it. I hope you love it too. ENJOY and maybe share with your friends okay um (September 21 2015; Revising so it's a bit longer sorry :I)

Pini slowly opened her eyes and blinked away the sleepiness that threatened to consume her once more. After her eyes adjusted to the intense darkness surrounding her, she noticed something extremely odd about her situation.
What she saw was a sort of milky-white, smooth, circular wall surrounding her on all sides.

This was mighty curious. She had awoken a bit early, or a bit too late, and was introduced to something new, a new feeling or emotion. It was curiosity and it was currently consuming her.

She poked at her fingers and poked at the wall. Why did she awaken? What was the wall?

The hum of hatching-song did not come to awaken her and tell her it is the hatching-time. Neither did the song of incubating come to greet her and sound of waiting to hatch it was a loud, but gentle humming rythm that all of her siblings took to when they were asleep in their eggs. Where were her siblings? They could not all be dead. There were too many of them; at least one should have survived any attack.

The wall was obviously her egg-chamber, rounded to the likeness of chicken-eggs that the many who went to the humans saw near them every day.

Her curiosity eventually won out and she decided to leave her egg-chamber and explore to see what was wrong.

She lightly stroked the two knots of horn-stubs on her head and got ready to head-butt the circle-wall of the egg-chamber. She backed up, and, to her surprise, fell right through the back bottom of the egg.

Why did she fall? She ran her hands over her horn-stubs to see if they were broken from breaking the egg-chamber walls and discovered a slightly alarming thing. 

Her horns were backwards. Am I male? Backwards horns make me male. She thought to herself with a bit of concern; those of her species usually knew their gender at birth by instinct, why are her horns indicating that she is male? She is obviously female. I am not male. I am female. She thought again with determination. Although I am a beta. Odd.

Small orange hands grabbed her waist and pulled her up into a sort of hug before she could continue her curious search of her body to tell if she truly was female.

"We have a late one!" The large male-of-her-species that picked her up yelled upwards towards the walls.

/I am late? How?/ she wondered to herself. /I shouldn't be late. The hatching-song did not wake me?/

"How am I late?" She asked the male holding her, who promptly dropped her in surprise. She yelped in pain as her back hit the floor and her tail got squished under her rear.

"Uh... Y-you hatched... Uh... Late..." The male failed to answer without stuttering. "How are you... Talking?"

"What do you mean? I am obviously talking with my voice-cortex" she answered, opening her voice cortex in show.

"Yes b-but..." The male stopped as a second male stepped forward and bowed his head in greeting.

"What seems to be the matter?" The second one asked the first with a brief nod. He had a large, booming voice that demanded authority.

"Uh.. The late hatchling can... Talk."

"Talk? Absurd. No hatchling can talk until 50 cortons of age." He replied incredulously. "You must be mistaken."

"You know," Pini spoke up from the ground, rubbing the sore spot on her back and massaging her squished tail. "I'm right here."

The second male stopped in his tracks and promptly examined the smallish hatchling.

"Hmm. You are male? You speak as though you have for many, many cortons." (Corton = roughly 3-4 earth years)

"You are mistaken. I am female. I have spoken for many, many cortons. It is only that no possible being could hear me through the thick walls of my hatching-chamber." Pini explained.

"How late is... She?" The second asked the first.

"27 corton-lites late." (Lite= basically minutes but a little longer)

"Oh. She is almost one corton late? She must begin training, now!"

"B-but-"

"We cannot wait for a talking one to be given a name. We cannot even wait to see if any others are late! We have to get her to her trainer, now! It is almost her one corton training test, and she. Is. LATE!" He second one almost screamed, picking up Pini almost forcefully and half-carried, half-dragged her away as she yelped in pain from the sudden movement.

She was set down in front of a yellowish-orange she-of-her-species with long, curly, dark-red horns that passed down to her waist-length.

"He is late." The she stated as fact.

"She." Pini corrected, calling a collective gasp from the half-fledged beings around her. 

"The newly-hatched one can talk?" The she asked the first and second who brought Pini in.

"Apparently." The two answered simultaneously.

"This makes my job much easier." The she mumbled under her breath.

"Follow me." She said as she scooped Pini up into her arms and started carrying her away.