“I can’t wait to hold you,” I whispered, stroking the smooth, warm surface. “Can’t wait to see you.”
The drakeling informed me that she was building strength as fast as she could. She was absorbing the last of the yolk sack, which she’d been saving for years. Hopefully, it would give her the strength to break through the shell soon.
I was just about to answer when a heavy hand fell on my shoulder.
“What do you think you’re doing, lad?” a stern voice said.
Looking up, I saw Master Yarsmouth looking down at me.
“Sir?” I said. I didn’t understand why he was upset, though I could tell he was by the way his brows were drawn low, and his mouth was curved into a frown.
“Just because you missed Impression doesn’t mean you can take an egg from the back,” he warned me. “I know it hurts to be the only one without a dragon, lad, but these eggs are in deep hibernation. They can’t help you.”
“But I’m talking to this one,” I said, stroking the shell of the smallest golden egg. “There’s a little girl drakeling inside—she’s already speaking to me.”
His frown deepened.
“That’s impossible. That egg was laid over a century ago! And it’s so small, the drakeling inside is probably malformed. It can’t talk to you.”
“She,” I corrected him. “And I swear to you, Master—she is talking. She’s telling me how hungry she is and how she can’t wait to come out so I can feed her and scratch her itches.”
He drew back but there was a skeptical, sorrowful look on his face.
“Lad, you’re only making things worse for yourself. Think how this will play out on Hatching Day when all the other cadets’ eggs hatch and that one just sits there.”
I felt anger building in me at his stubborn refusal to believe me but somehow I swallowed it down.
“Master Yarsmouth, I swear to you, I’m not lying,” I told him. “I heard her calling me. She’s in there and I can hear her voice in my mind.”
He gave me a pitying look.
“Well…very well, if you wish to fool yourself, I won’t try again to stop you. Hatching Day will come soon enough and then you’ll have to admit you were wrong.”
I swallowed a lump of anger and the desire to tell him that he would be the one admitting that he was wrong when Hatching Day came.
“Just let me stay with the egg,” I said instead, keeping my voice level through a monumental effort of will. “Let me talk to her. She tells me she’s been waiting for me for a long, long time.”
Master Yarsmouth only shook his head sorrowfully.
“As you wish, lad.”
Then he walked away looking sad, which only made me angrier.
But when I touched the shell again, the little drakeling inside felt my emotions.
“why mad?” she wanted to know.
But when I tried to explain, she got angry too.
“bad old one! tell him I am coming! tell him i will break the shell soon!” she demanded.
“I tried,” I told her. “He didn’t believe me.”
“i will break the shell and bite him! he can’t make you feel bad like that!”
And she sent me a vivid mental image of her sinking her sharp little fangs into Master Yarsmouth’s skinny leg. I realized she must have picked up from my mind what he looked like, but this was a bad start—she was already getting bloodthirsty!
“No, no—you can’t bite anyone,” I protested in a low voice, hoping no one could hear me. The other drakelings were asking for lullabies and cuddles—mine was already planning an assault!
