Short Stories

Eighteen: Explore

Walking through the forest, I whacked away another stray fern with the machete in my hand in front of me. I was looking through the forest, searching, exploring, really doing anything. Just anything to keep my boredom away from me. As I continued exploring the dense forest, I stumbled on a raised tree root and fell to the dirt floor. My machete landing a few inches away from me. My face planted itself right into the ground, and I groaned in pain. I turned my face to the right, not really wanting to get up; I was far too tired. I stared at the base of a large tree. There was a small hole burrowed in the tree. It looked...man-made. My curiously made me get up on all fours and crawl towards the tree. I looked closer at the hole. There seemed to be something shiny inside there. Something...valuable. I reached for my machete and dug the tip of the blade into the hole and started to carve a bigger hole. Almost a second later, the area around the hole collapsed and landed with a soft thump on the forest floor. Inside the tree was a nest full of eggs. Shiny eggs. I hesitantly reached for one and lifted it up.

It seemed like the eggs were encrusted with something glittery and valuable. What type of eggs were these? I eyed the other 2 eggs in the tree. I glanced around to see if anyone was watching. There wasn't anyone around. I grabbed the entire nest and put the large egg in my hand back into the nest and carried it carefully back to my makeshift home. I entered the tent and laid the home of branches and dead grass onto my table. Fishing out a pencil and an empty notebook, I wrote down everything I could about observe about the egg. The eggs stayed dormant for a few weeks as I kept on making new discoveries about them. Then, as I was munching on a pepperoni sandwich, quietly observing the eggs, I noticed a small crack at the top. My eyes widened at the crack. Sandwich forgotten, I grabbed my phone and started videoing the sight.

I watched with amazement as more and more cracks appeared on the egg, cracks also appearing on the other eggs. Then, with what seemed like a battlecry, a lizard looking thing kicked away a large portion of a shell. It pawed at the other eggs and clawed at the eggs. It helped the other dragons out of their shells. Once they were all out, I stopped the video and tossed my phone onto the other table with all my discoveries. I looked at the lizards as they explored the plastic table they were perched on. All the lizards had hard shiny scales with horns adorning their scaly head and spikes lining their spine and tail. My jaw dropped when I finally noticed something connected to their back. I gingerly poked a thin thing that resembled a wing. Te dragon looked at me and cooed something. It jumped at me and licked my face. The other dragons noticed their fellow sibling and jumped at me. I fell to the floor as they were quite heavy and just laid there, shocked at what I had just discovered.

The dragons all cooed and cawed at me as they roamed all over my body. I eventually was snapped back to my senses when one accidentally stabbed a horn into the thigh. I sat up quickly and gently moved the dragon away from me. It got the idea and moved away from me to explore the rest of the room.

For the next few years, I raised the dragons, exploring the anatomy and behavior of the dragons. I also discovered other species of dragons scattered around the world that I explored on the backs of my dragons. But in the end, they grew up and left me. But I will never forget the journey they gave me.