“Hmm,” Trent said musingly. “I don’t really know. But I might have a theory.”
Zina sat up a little straighter. “What?”
“Well, I’m only going off of what my mate – that’s myfriend– Hector told me about what happened when he and his mate – that’s hismate– Myrtle found Ruby’s egg. Like I told you, Hargreaves were trying to buy it off some bikies. But when Hector checked out the egg at first, he wasn’t even sure it was real, or if there was something living inside of it. But then, as soon as he realized he and Myrtle shared a mated bond, it hatched.”
Zina pulled in a gasp, blinking at him. “Then… you mean…”
“A bit more than a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”
Zina nodded slowly. “Yeah. I guess I see what you mean.”
As soon as I realized Trent and I were mates, suddenly, the eggs hatched.
Maybe, somehow, they could sense the connection between her and Trent – and somehow, maybe, that had made them feel safe enough to emerge into the world.
“I guess I can see why that might happen,” she said.
“I hope they won’t mind when we have to give them to Tahnee’s colleague tomorrow,” Trent said softly after a moment. “If they reallydidhatch because they could sense the bond between us, they may not like it much if it’s suddenly taken away.”
Zina bit her lip. “I guess that’s true. Has Tahnee found her own mate?”
“No clue, sorry.” Trent began to shake his head, but at a slightgrrup!sound from Goldie, he quickly stopped. “All I really know about her is that she runs the sanctuary, and she takes her privacyveryseriously.”
“Hmm. Well, I guess all we can do is hope.” Zina returned to looking out the window, but she felt a little uneasy. Whatever the case, she knew that the sanctuary was the best place for both the dragonsandthe egg.
“How much longer to go until we hit town?”
“Not long – maybe three or four hours. But it’ll come out of nowhere – it’s just like the whole place was plonked down in the middle of the desert.”
“Three or fourhours?” Zina asked. “That’s not long?”
“Hey, it’s all relative,” Trent laughed.
Well, I suppose that’s true,Zina thought, feeling a small smile creep across her lips despite herself.
Trying to relax, she settled back in her seat to enjoy the next three or four hours, Dusty still curled in her palm of her hand.
* * *
“Oh boy, you weren’t kidding about this place being not there, and then suddenly just…there,” Zina said a few hours later.
There’d been no warning at all that they were arriving in Jackson’s Ridge, except for a dusty, peeling sign, and then, suddenly, where there’d been only desert before, there were now some run-down-looking buildings, storage crates, and rusted shipping containers.
“Yeah,” Trent said. “It really is an outback town – there’s nothing for miles, except mining encampments. And they’re kind of hard to spot, and few and far between. And most of the buildings themselves are underground.”
“Underground?” Zina asked, turning to him. “Like… the mines themselves?”
“Well, definitely the mines are underground,” Trent laughed. “But no, I meant the houses – the summer’s too hot and the dust storms can get crazy. So these days most people build their homes underground, though obviously there’s a few places above ground too.”
“Huh.” Obviously, it all made sense – people had adapted their ways to cope with a harsh environment. “So how does the mining part work out here?” she asked as Trent slowed the car as they moved into the town limits.
“Well, I’m not exactly an expert,” Trent said. “But as far as I know, the land is divided up into claims, and once you’ve gotten your prospecting license you can buy a stake in a claim – or claims, if you can afford to buy more than one. But it’s really a lucky dip from then on. Maybe you strike it rich, and find a seam of opal. Or, more likely, you don’t. It’s all a gamble, and some people go through a lot of money to try to recoup their initial investment.”
“Sounds a bit like a case of the sunk cost fallacy at that point,” Zina remarked.
“Yeah. I’ve only known a couple of guys who spent any time out here, but it was a bit like a fever with them – they were so sure they were only a few inches away from finding a huge seam, every time.”
“And did they?” Zina asked.
