Siege's Journey

Prologue

Carnaline~

Carnaline gently ran her talon across the smooth surface of her two eggs, brushing small specks of dirt off of them. She was curled up in the SkyWing nursery, her eggs snuggled into the crook of her forearm. Firelit lamps hung from the low ceiling, and cozy hollows lined with straw lay scattered around the room. Other females were curled protectively around their eggs, either dozing or cleaning their eggs. One of Carnaline's eggs was a shade of dark maroon. Bright orange veins threaded out across the shell, and it felt warm to the touch. The other egg, however, was smaller, with a pale orange shell. This one felt cold, and this worried Chrysoco, her mate.

They had heard stories of dragons born with too much fire, and some with too little. The legends said that sometimes, when a pair of SkyWing twins are formed, one absorbs all the fire of the other, and ends up with extremely hot fire, and something called firescales. The one without fire would be weak and fragile, never able to breathe fire. Carnaline's mate was worried this was the case, and he often fretted about what would happen when they hatched. Of course, to Carnaline, her eggs were perfect, no matter how the hatching turned out. She would love and care for them anyways. 'I'll name the darker one Siege, and the other one Flicker.'

"How are the eggs?" Chrysoco's narrow face poked into the room. Chrysoco took care of the Kingdom's library. He wore a twine necklace, with the key to the Sky Kingdom library strung to it at the end. His brows were furrowed, as if he were calculating the possible things that could have happened to the eggs.

" Yes, they're fine." She almost rolled her eyes." The healer came in today." She added," She took a look at the eggs."

"Did she tell you when they'll hatch?" He fidgeted with his necklace.

"Yes, she did." Carnaline started.

"Well?" He pressed.

"Tonight." She said with a smile."They hatch tonight."

"Tonight."He repeated,"TONIGHT. Why didn't you tell me right away?!" He fidgeted with his necklace more vigorously.

"I didn't want to leave the eggs. Besides, it's not that urgent."

"THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT IT IS." He dug a small divot into the ground with his claws."What if the conditions today aren't good? What if our dragonet has firescales and Queen Scarlet terminates it?!" He continued clawing at the ground.

" Relax. Just relax." She placed her talon on his shoulder. Chrysoco shot a sideways look at her and smiled sheepishly. He then gathered himself up and began to exit the room.

" I have to take care of the library. Tell me when it's time." He strode out the nursery.

Chrysoco~

Chrysoco was in the library, reorganizing some misplaced scrolls. Dragons never take care of fragile things like scrolls, always dumping them in a corner. For moons' sake, how hard is it to walk over to a bookshelf and slide a scroll back into its section? He thought to himself.

He remembered how he met Carnaline, she was very interested in the language of the ancients, runes and such. He'd found her a book and taught her how to read write, and speak it. They had met each other once every week and practiced together, until one day, he fessed up his feelings for her.

The rest of the day was particularly uneventful in the library, stamping checked-out scrolls, returning returned scrolls to their racks and slots, reading some of them. He was a bit impatient, the thought that the eggs could be ready to be presented to the inspector, which would then present the unhealthy or deformed ones to hatch in front of Queen Scarlet, so she could figure out what to do with them. The other eggs stayed in the nursery, and hatched in the nursery.