Dragon

Chapter 26

Jaimin huffed as he finally stepped into the first entrance of the twin chambers he shared with Maay. When he'd first left, he had been hoping one of the knights had recently hunted for small game. All they'd brought in were deer and mountain goats. While his first meal had been a tender fawn caught by his dame, he had also been a much bigger hatchling and, whether male or female, whatever dragon hatched from such a small egg would not be able to consume an entire young deer. Not even a newly born one.

Hunting rabbits and hares wasn't something he'd done for a long time. Their burrows were tricky to find, making them hard to trace and impossible to catch unless he was lucky enough to seize one in the first dive. Failure meant gliding on until he found another likely warren.

He'd failed three times this morning.

The rabbits he now bore had not come from the success of a hunt, but rather in trade with one of the farmers living on the newly cultivated side of the forest that cloaked the foothills. Deer were easier for him to catch and would feed a human family just coming out of the harsh part of winter far better than a brace of scrawny conies could.

"Wait!"

Jaimin skidded to a halt as Maay's tiny bulk somehow managed to fill the dim archway leading to their sleeping cavern. Peeping came from beyond the spread of her wings. "It's already hatched?" Their first hatchling and he'd missed it breaking into the world. He glowered down at the rabbits in his hand. It would still be hungry. Stepping forward, he snarled at Maay's refusal to unblock his passage. Even going so far as to stop him when he tried to slip past. Why was she stopping him?

"I'll let you see him only if you promise me you'll take a proper look at your son before deciding anything."

He frowned, uncertainty gnawing at him like a large and persistent flea. Something was wrong. Jaimin could see it in her eyes. He gave a slow nod.

Maay backed away from the opening, allowing him to enter their sleeping chamber. Egg shell and albumen littered the ground in speckles of grey and flecks of red. Peering over the edge of the warming bowl, seemingly undaunted towards the drop before it, sat the hatchling.

No. Jaimin blinked, shook his head and peered anew at the reddish figure. It made little difference to what he saw. It can't be. He'd spent months tending to that egg. I was so sure. Not only wasn't the hatchling his, but it belonged to some wretched scaled. A male who must have done his wicked deed while Maay lay in a helpless state of unconsciousness. "I must inform the council." No doubt they would seek to kill it. He wasn't certain how he could stop them. Or if he wanted to.

"Not yet, please." She reached out and clasped his forearm, holding tight as if something as simple as her touch could stop him. "You promised to give your son a proper look."

"That is not my son!" he bellowed, the words echoing out the chamber and down the tunnels. He jerked free of her hold. "How can it possibly be mine when it's red?" And he'd been so sure. But no, not this time. "Females of a scaled dame could look like either parent." Jaimin could clearly hear his voice quivering. "Males always look like the sire." In this case, the old knowledge still rang true. Not mine. By the Great Ones, why couldn't it have been female? No one would've been able to tell if it had been female. No one would've cared.

"I know. But what of the eggs that never hatched?" Her head dipped, gaze steadfastly refusing to meet his. "What colour dragons do you think they held?"

"Never hatched?" What did unhatched eggs have to do with it? Had she ... "You aided its hatching?" Jaimin had a horrible feeling he already knew the answer even as spoke. "After what I told you could happen, you went and helped it?" Did she not think? It could've been without wings or missing a limb. His youngest sister had had the ill luck of aiding an egg who'd had the misfortune of lacking a full hide.