Wings of Fire Legends: Gulf

Prologue

      The sea crashed below the rocky cliff and the starry sky above it.

      A SandWing peered over the edge, This'll do. she thought, gazing at the brown and purple egg in her talons, her greatest regret.

      How could she have been so stupid, creating a fine example of everything that she despised.

       Verdigris had been dead for a year now, he would never know the monstrosity of what they had done.

      The SandWing pitched the egg into the churning black water.

     She turned away, it was over. One more hybrid down, right? She thought, unsure of why tears were welling up in the corners of her honey brown eyes, "Keep it together, Sirocco." she whispered, pulling herself away from the cliffside.

...

     Two hermit crabs scurried along the beach, one much larger than the other who was only about the size of a pebble.

      "I'm telling you, Mama, it has to be a dragon's egg!" the smaller crab chirped.

       The larger crab chased after him, "Grain, it was probably just yout imagingation. Come on, we need to find a safe place for the night."

     Grain turned behind a large rock, "I found it!" he exclaimed, running toward the brown egg with flamelike purple markings towards the bottom.

     The larger crab stood gaping at it, stunned.

      Grain looked up at it with his beady black eyes, "I told you, it has to be a dragon egg!"

     Suddenly, the egg began to shake, cracks racing down it's sides.

       Grain's mother pulled him back, holding a claw protectively in front of him.

     Then, the egg burst, revealing a dragon that looked like the kind the crabs had seen in the sea, but sand-colored with red, brown, and purple markings, a sharp and dangerous-looking barb on it's tail-tip.

    The biggest of the two crabs began to back away slowly, but her son pushed himself out from behind her talon.

      "Can we keep it, Mama?" Grain chirped, looking into the beast's dark red eyes.

     "Nooooo." she said, positioning herself inbetween the two, "How about a different pet, like a rock or a sea cucumber?"

      "Please Mama," he chirped sadly, "its just a baby, and you didn't leave me when I hatched."

     It was true that when Grain hatched too soon his mother could have left him to die, like most other crabs would, but she didn't, and here he was now.

      "Fine."