At last I turned to survey the scene in front of me. Surely, I wasn’t too late, I thought. Larson had only managed to delay me for five minutes—ten minutes tops. Surely there would still be some eggs left, looking for a rider.
But when I looked around, I saw that every single First-year I knew was already standing by an egg. Some were stroking the colorful shells and others were humming or talking to the drakelings inside. A few were even crouched in the heated sands with their arms around their egg, heedless of the heat burning their legs.
Master Yarsmouth walked over to me with a regretful look on his face.
“I’m sorry, lad,” he said. “They’re all spoken for. Where were you earlier? I’m afraid there’s not a single egg left.”
35
AURORA
I stood there stunned, unable to answer. I’d been warned that Impression happens in an instant—that the moment the shells of the eggs hardened the drakelings inside would be seeking their rider. But I still just couldn’t process how a ten-minute delay had cost me my entire future at the Academy.
Larson won, I thought numbly, surveying the shiny black Hatching Sands and all the happy cadets, stroking their eggs. He won—it’s over. Leesbruck was right—I was never meant to get an egg. I’m too small, too weak. I could never…
And then I heard it—floating through the air like a melody for my ears alone, I heard a soft, plaintive whisper in the back of my brain.
“come…please…need you.”
It was so faint I could barely “hear” it and yet it tickled my brain and wouldn’t stop.
Ignoring Master Yarsmouth, who was still trying to comfort me, I walked out onto the burning sands, looking for the source of the tiny mind-sound.
I walked past Jorn-o, who was stroking a medium sized green egg with a beatific smile on his face and Leaper who was squatting beside a large, amber colored egg that shimmered bronze in the golden light from the overhead glows. Toady and Bugs had eggs too, but I ignored them all as I followed the tiny musical wail only I could hear.
It led me to the back of the vast cavern and when I looked down, I realized I was standing in front of all the abandoned golden eggs—the ones that never hatched. Squatting down beside them, I looked at their shiny gold shells, wondering which one was speaking to me.
“here…here!” I heard a tiny mind-voice cry.
I was almost certain it was coming from the smallest egg of all—the little one I’d noticed on my first trip to the Hatching Grounds—the one that was half the size of all the others.
Stooping, I laid one hand gently on the smooth metallic shell. At once the little voice got louder in my mind.
“waiting so long!” it—no, she, complained. Because somehow I knew without asking that the drakeling inside was female.
“course i’m female,” was the indignant reply and I realized that—at least while I was touching the shell—the little dragon inside could hear me as well as I was hearing her.
“what took you so long?” she wanted to know. “been dreaming of you…so many years waiting…why you took too long to come to me?”
“I’m sorry, little one,” I said softly, knowing she would hear the words with her mind as well as with her ears. “I didn’t know you were waiting.”
“well you should!” The drakeling inside sounded cross—almost imperious. Also absolutely adorable. As I stroked her shell, I could already imagine holding her in my arms and looking into her big, golden eyes.
My drakeling—because I felt very strongly that she was mine—seemed to catch this mental image because she sent one back to me.
I abruptly saw myself feeding her a big bowl of raw meat and scratching her behind the eye ridges as she ate and hummed with pleasure.
I couldn’t stop my swell of amusement.
“Hungry, are you?” I asked, laughing.
I got a burst of indignation from the being within the golden shell.
“course i’m hungry! been waiting for years and years for you to feed me!” she exclaimed. Then, more plaintively, she sent me feelings of extreme hunger pangs.
Suddenly, I was so hungry myself I felt like I could eat a ten-course feast. So this was what it meant to share emotions with a dragon. Hers were so strong they could easily bend mine to match—if I wasn’t careful. I would have to guard myself carefully, so I didn’t do anything foolish.
But there was one emotion I didn’t even try to keep a check on and that was the absolute love I already felt for the little being within the golden shell.
