Chapter One

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   Darkness

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Darkness. Just darkness. I tried moving one of my muscles. Still nothing. I tried again, but this time I pushed harder. Crrraaaaaacck. I pushed even harder. Crack crack craaack SPLIT. I kicked at the opening, weakening it. A stream of light fell through as the shell broke away.

There was so much light around me, that I had to blink a few times before I could adjust. There were three dragons next to me, and each one looked older than me. One of them was red, like me, another was brown, and the last was a bright gold.

Then there was the very large dragon standing outside the nest. She was a deep maroon, and had a tattered wing and a broken horn. Actually, both wings were tattered, but the scars on the right wing were much worse then the scars on the left. Her horns were black, and so were her tail spikes.

"Well well well," said one of my brothers, "Look at the late hatchling."

"Hey," my sister started, "Don't make fun of him just because he hatched late! You do know that late bloomers bloom the brightest, right?"

"Don't worry," my mother said, "We'll take care of him later."

We'll take care of him later?  I thought. What is that supposed to mean?

Another large dragon came and put chunks of meat in the nest. This one was more golden, like my sister, not maroon. Although he had some scars, they were not nearly as bad as my mother's.

We all clambered on the meat pile and began ripping chunks off it. The main piece of meat was large, almost big enough for one of the larger dragons. Nevertheless, my father gave it to us anyway.

"Hey! Get off me!"

"You were the one on top of me, eggshell!"

"Don't call me that!"

"Will you please  stop arguing!" My sister said.

"Aaacck!" I shouted as my brown brother stepped on my neck. He appeared to be fighting with my red brother over a bone. Even though my red brother was stronger, he did not appear to be winning. Every time my red brother lost concentration, the brown one would steal it from him. Finally, my brown brother took the bone too fast for my red one to notice and ran off with it.

* * * * *

After all the meat was gone, our names would be decided. Our parents walked over and asked us what our names would be. The red brother's name was Scar, while the brown brother insisted he be named Claw. My sister's name ended up being Diamond. "And what is your name, little one?" my mother asked. "Not that it matters, anyway," she muttered to herself.

What is that all about?  I thought to myself. Not that it matters, anyway? Why's she saying that?  "I guess I'll be Scratch," I said.

My parents walked off towards the waterfall at the back of the cave. I thought they were having a private conversation. I closed my eyes for a moment, basking in the sun. The cave we were in was high up, in a mountain. The nest was on a ledge that was sticking out of the mouth of the cave. Just then, my parents walked out of the room. I heard a couple sentences from the end of the conversation. "Should we do it now?"

"I don't see why not."

Suddenly, my parents grabbed me. "No! Wait! Don't do that!" Diamond screamed. But it was too late. My parents had thrown me off the cliff.


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