The Origins of Anusa

Chapter 7: The End

"Norbert! Nobert!" a voice called distantly a few moments later.

"I'm awake," Norbert called to no one in particular shaking the sleep from her slightly numb limbs.

"Um... Norbert, can you let me in?" the voice said in a normal voice level.

"I hereby give you permission to enter for your life," Norbert announced to the cave entrance where Azimu came walking in joyfully.

"Good morning, Azimu," Norbert began. "You know this water changes temperature varying on the time of day, in the morning it is a brisk warmth, but at night it is nice and warm. I felt it last night before falling asleep."

"Um... a brisk warmth?" Azimu tilted her head to the side as she spoke to Norbert, clearly not understanding the term a brisk warmth.

Norbert sighed before explaining this terminology, "A brisk warmth is the temperature of the water that feels warm, but you still get steam coming off your body and that slight tingle of your nerves adjusting."

"That does make sense," Azimu murmured as she felt the water. "Well, we must be off, or else you will not get the first egg, even though we all agreed on it, but you need to get it soon or else the egg goes to someone else. It is the law of the dragons," Azimu rambled quickly as she started to walk to the entrance of the cave.

Norbert followed Azimu into the bright, blinding sunlight. Norbert had to stop to have her eyes adjust to the new brightness. Norbert saw Azimu hovering in front of the ledge into the cave, and Azimu flew down near the lake where Norbert introduced herself to Ipota. Norbert followed Azimu, but at a slower pace than her. The valley was covered in a layer of yellow from the currently rising sun. In the forest around the edges of the valley, Norbert could see flashes of colors, mostly whites and browns, colors that were unusual for dragons. The Crystal Lake was shimmering purple, yellow, and blue with small amounts of reds, orange along the surface as more and more dragons came to the pile of smooth, flat, whitish-gray rocks that seemed to be the outcave meeting place

Azimu landed near the pile of rocks and positioned herself to face the pile of rocks. Norbert circled once before landing between the gathering crowd and the rock pile. There were many glances in her direction when she landed, but she didn't notice as she looked at the blinding sun peak over the mountains.

"Anusa. Good morning," Ipota said as she turned towards him. "How was your rest?"

"Good, um... what do I do?" Norbert asked Ipota, who knew way more about the dragon culture than she did.

"Come," Ipota whispered to Norbert as he glanced at Azimu, and Ipota led Norbert around the rocks where a small ramp looking rock led to the top of the rocks. "I am going to go up and announce you and you come up."

"Why can I not just walk up now?" Norbert looked towards the forest where a flash of silvery-white leaned into the blackness of the shadows.

"Um... I never really thought why. We just always did it that way," Ipota muttered as he paced at the base of the rocks. Ipota stopped pacing and turned to Norbert, "Here is the plan, I go back to Azimu and you walk up there and say hello. Good-bye, now."

Norbert watched Ipota go around the rock before she closed her eyes to watch him with her mind's eye that showed her that he just settled down. Norbert walked up the ramp style rock and looked out over the crowd of dragons. The few dragons that were looking up nudged the dragons nearest to them and nodded in Norbert's direction on the top of the rocks.

"Hello, um... ," Norbert stopped to collect her thoughts as a lone dragon landed in front of the crowd. This dragon was a grayish-green color with an off-white stripe down his spine. His spine unlike most of the dragons in the crowd had spines sticking out of his spine into a sharp, curved point. Norbert noticed he was carrying something pretty heavy that he just set on the ground with a slight thud.

When the dragon finally moved, there was a single, dark gray rock that Norbert knew was the first egg, her first egg. Norbert lept down from her vantage point to become level with the egg. "So, this is my egg to take care of?" Norbert asked uncertainly.

"Yes it is," Ipota said glancing at the crowd of dragons, who were deathly quiet.

"So, I just take care of this egg?" Norbert glanced at the many different colored dragons around her.

"Yes," the dragon who brought the egg said.

"Um... so I just take care of it with warmth to make a dragon, or just however I want?" Norbert asked the striped dragon.

"Yup, it is," he said glancing back at a silver dragon, who had a small stature.

"Well then I'm just going to go back to my cave to put my egg there," Norbert said, hefting the egg up and flying to her cave. As she was flying, Norbert saw the dragons shift uncomfortably. Once Norbert landed in her large, spacious cave she gave a big yawn.

"How am I already tired?" Norbert muttered as she made a wide circle of fire on the ground around herself and the egg. "Have a nice slumber my egg," Norbert murmured to her egg before falling asleep for the first time as a parent. 

(Sorry about this unsatisfying ending, as I said before I was really rushed at the  end of this story.)