The Titan and the dragonriders

45. six hungry mouths

"Steven put the egg back immediately before the hatchling hatches," said Michael energetically, staring at the magenta-red dragon egg with big eyes, as did the other Titans.

"Oh, uh, yes, of course!" the sergeant stammered nervously and put the cracked egg back to his mother with the greatest of care. She was quite astonished. *Unbelievable. It took Dekri three years to hatch and now they hatch only minutes later! she whispered excitedly and bent her head towards her belly where Steven had laid the egg and Dekri was already sniffing it curiously. "It's quite unexpected indeed," commented Mark as he stared fascinated at the growing gap in the shell. "You can say that again." Robert agreed. He stood directly behind Alina who watched the whole thing with her mouth open. Tymdek also leaned his head far down, positioning himself unintentionally between the soldiers and the nest. Everyone was completely fixated on the red egg.

Only the Admiral seemed to have kept the overview, because he meant seriously: "That was not only this egg, I heard several shells cracking! The black dragon listened and his ice-blue eye flitted over the fresh clutch of eggs on Lyath's flank. But no other egg seemed to be about to hatch. "Affirmative, sir. My sonar sensors detected five more activities, 25.34 metres to your right. Sound patterns roughly coincide with the egg breaking free in Mr. Coul's hands." Aidan noticed, whereupon both Tymdek and Mike turned their gaze to the fireplace. *Darkwing growled in surprise and took large steps towards the light blue fire. With the AI in tow, Forke followed him as fast as he could, but unlike the black dragon, he needed not only three, but a few more steps. However, he didn't need to stand right next to the flames to see that Aidan was right, as usual.

All five eggs that lay in the middle of the fireplace wobbled and on each one there was at least one big crack. *All five? This is a miracle! Tymdek exclaimed and let a low roar thunder through the cave. Then he immediately started to grasp each egg individually with his long tongue and lift it out of the fire. The light blue flames seemed to cause him no pain. "May I give you a hand, Tymdek?" Micheal asked as a precaution before he simply reached for the offspring of the dragon. Only when the dragon winked at him he helped to secure the eggs. It only took a few moments for the two of them to rest next to the fireplace.

They were a dark blue egg, a forest green, a turquoise, a matte gray, and a deep red. And all of them wobbled and made cracking, scraping noises.

"Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that your offspring are finally hatching, but why now?" the Admiral asked thoughtfully, waving Mark and Robert over to him, while Darkwing moved on to carry the eggs forward to Lyath, beginning the dull gray. *This cannot be explained to myself Micheal. Something must have changed for them to feel safe enough to hatch. After all, the three eggs from my last clutch have been lying there for two years, and Lyath's boys even three years.* the dragon replied excitedly and carefully placed the egg into the magenta one, whose shell already had several fine cracks and was observed with big eyes by Lyath, Dekri, Alina and Steven.

Forke shrugged his shoulders, giving up, when Aidan replied: "Well, sir, I guess you're to blame for the sudden hatching of the chicks. Mike frowned sceptically. "What makes you think that?" "Simple logic, sir. Dragon babies only hatch when they feel safe enough Obviously, this threshold had always been too low to initiate hatching. But now that they made some sort of protective promise to Mr. Tymdek a few minutes ago, the inhibition threshold has apparently been exceeded." "You mean they're hatching because of us?" The AI flashed purple briefly before reverting back to its normal blue. "This is just a hunch, sir. It could just as easily be a coincidence."

*I think your little friend is right about that. You Titans are strong, and even I feel as safe in your presence as I did under my mother's wing. * Lyath stepped in and made a soft hum echo through the room. "We're very honored, Lyath," Robert said respectfully and then looked at Michael questioningly. "Sir, would you be so kind as to tell me what Miss Lyath has told you?" Aidan curiously asked. "She thought you were right," Mark explained briefly and crouched down to take a closer look at the wiggly eggs. "Thank you, General. It's really annoying not being able to follow this telepathic communication." "I'm sure you'll think of something, Aidan, but that's not a priority right now. Mark, Robert, help to bring the eggs forward" Forke interrupted him and picked up one of the eggs, the dark blue one, and carried it to the others. The pilot and the engineer also took one each, the red and the green, leaving the turquoise one for Tymdek.