Not to mention whatever’s going to come out of that other egg, once it hatches.
Maybe Dusty’s emergence had started off a chain reaction – now maybe they wereallgoing to hatch, in quick succession.
That’s not exactly going to make things very easy…
“At least… at least we know what the dragons like to eat now?” Trent said, as another little blue snout began pushing its way through the crack in the egg, all the while making a tinycheep cheep cheepsound.
The sound seemed to rouse Dusty from his slumber. He lifted his head suddenly, yellow eyes opening wide.
“Cheep! Biiirup!”
“Whoa!”
Zina made a grab as Dusty leapt up, escaping her fingers easily. He fluttered down uncertainly on his clearly still frail wings – or wings he was unused to using yet, at least – to land on the box, lifting his tiny clawed feet to begin pulling at the hatching egg, helping the little dragon inside to emerge, all the while keeping up hischeeping, as if he was encouraging the dragon still mostly inside to come out and join him.
“Oh my goodness,” Zina said. “Do you think maybe they’re siblings?”
“Maybe so,” Trent said, nodding, as finally the second dragon popped its head fully out of its egg, looking around with the same wide, yellow eyes as Dusty had.
“It’s gonna be tough telling these two apart,” Zina said, shaking her head. Trent would have agreed with her, if at that moment the baby dragon hadn’t finished hauling itself out of its egg, revealing the rest of its body.
“Oh – look, this one’s spines are different,” Trent said, pointing. They were, too – whereas the spikes that ran down the length of Dusty’s back were long and pointed, the second dragon’s were diamond-shaped, almost like a tiny stegosaurus, though there was only a single row.
“Okay, well, that does make life easier,” Zina agreed. “Should we try the food test again? Dusty was pretty hungry when he hatched.” She looked down at the new baby. “Are you hungry too? I’m sure you must be. That was a lot of work to hatch like that.”
The little dragon blinked up at her, tilting its head as if it was doing its best to understand what she was saying. Zina wasn’t sure that itdid, but she hoped it’d take to the food the way Dusty had.
Trent reached into the Esky again, pulling out the ham, bread and banana and laying some morsels down before the new dragon. This dragon didn’t seem quite as bold as Dusty, however – it simply blinked as it looked at what Trent was offering it, seeming to draw back a little.
“It’s okay,” Zina encouraged it softly. “It’s just a little something to eat.”
The dragon didn’t seem tempted, however – at least until Dusty opened his mouth and let out a series ofcheeps, lower and softer than the ones he’d made before, and the new dragon turned to blink at him instead, as if listening.
“Cheep. Cheep!”
At his apparent encouragement, the newly hatched dragon made its way cautiously over to the food, stretching out its neck to sniff at it. Apparently it liked what it smelled, because a moment later it had opened its mouth wide to gobble down first the banana, then the ham, and then the bread, before sitting back to lick its chops in averysatisfied way, before it scuttled back to Dusty’s side, curling up beside him.
“Cheep? Cheep! Brrip!”
“Do you think he’s telling her that he told her she’d like it?” Zina laughed softly, her eyes still on the baby dragons, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. “Because she definitely seemed to!”
“Maybe so.” Trent joined her laughter. “So you think this one’s a she, then?”
“Well, I don’t know,” Zina said slowly. “It’s just a feeling I get. I might turn out to be all wrong. Dusty is a name that could go either way, though – what do you think for this one?”
“I got to name Dusty,” Trent pointed out. “How about you name this one?”
Zina nodded thoughtfully. “All right. How about… Goldie? Because of her eyes? And if it turns out she’s a boy, it’s not a big deal.”
“Goldie and Dusty, I like it,” Trent said, grinning. “They sound cute.”
“Theyarecute,” Zina said, her smile still in place as she watched the two baby dragons curl up against each other, Dusty’s head resting against Goldie’s, their tails weaving together. “And clearly, they already love each other. They don’t seem like they want to be apart.”
“You can carry them both like that, can’t you?” Trent asked, as he closed up the Esky again.
“Yeah – they’re so little I can just put my hands together and lift them up.” Zina reached forward, gently scooping the dragons up in the palms of her hands. Neither of them stirred, except to resettle themselves a little once Zina was holding them.
“I guess we better get going,” Trent said, as together they walked back toward the car. “We should get as far away as possible from here, while the serum still hasn’t worn off. Make it as difficult as possible for this Bloodhound joker to catch up to us.”
