Hatch (The Dragons Of Laton) (61 page)

Derek and Boris brought chairs over for them all to sit on while they watched the largest hatch ever recorded. Twenty-five swollen eggs lay in the Nest, and against the wall on the other side stood twenty-eight hopeful Knights, all waiting impatiently for the Hatch to begin.

Finally, the ripping sound of tearing eggshells filled the Nest, and all attention focused on the depression in the middle of the room. One by one, tiny black and gray dragons clamored out of the Nest towards their chosen link. Time passed slowly, and as the last minutes of the hour closed, three of the eggs remained.

Derek stood at the edge of the Nest looking down sadly at them. Lily stood holding his hand, her face wet with tears. Ammon, Boris, and El left their seats and gathered around Derek.

Ammon stretched to pat him on the shoulder. “Derek, you did very well, you really did. Twenty-two eggs out of twenty-five is far above average! You should be very proud! We knew that large egg probably wouldn’t hatch anyway, so don’t be sad, this is a happy day!”

The big man wiped his cheek with a massive hand and sniffed. “I know, but I wanted them all to hatch.”

El squeezed Ammon’s hand, a tear forming in her own eye. “Maybe next time Derek. Next time there won’t be so many eggs in one place, and maybe they’ll all have a better chance.”

The long beard wagged up and down as he nodded, and with a big sigh, he let go of Lily’s hand and stepped down into the Nest to remove the shells. Moments later Ammon recognized the tearing sound of a shell opening and turned quickly to see. A ragged gap formed along the top of one of the eggs and within seconds, a fat black dragon scurried up the Nest wall to stand in front of Lily, staring into her big wondering eyes.

Ammon felt his jaw drop and he forced himself to blink. The girl had just linked!  Before he could say anything, another very loud ripping sound echoed across the Nest. Derek was standing beside the large egg and watching in amazement as its sides began to split in every direction. As the shell peeled back, two dragons emerged one black and one gray. They clambered out the heap of eggshell and climbed up Derek’s legs to perch on each of his shoulders, both competing to look him in the eye.

Boris let out a low whistle. “Twins? This is unheard of…and both just linked to him at the same time! It shouldn’t be possible for more than one dragon to link to a single person! Theo will be sorry he missed this!”

Ammon gasped in amazement. Two dragons linked to one man and another linked to a girl barely five years old! He turned to El and shook his head. “El, can you imagine being linked to two at once! He’ll have his hands f…. oh!…OH!”

El stood, eyes wide, looking down over her swollen belly at the glittering silver dragon sitting at her feet. “Boris? BORIS?”

Boris turned, reluctant to take his eyes off the two dragons on Derek’s shoulder. “Yes? Oh! By my dragon’s teeth!”

Ammon hadn’t heard the tearing of the shell of the third and final egg over the noise the twins had made. Nor had he seen it climb out and stand in front of El, its chosen link. He looked at the dragon closely. It was definitely not gray. It was as shiny as polished silver and reflected the lights like a mirror.

Boris patted him on the back. “Well, it appears you are no longer the only one with a dragon of a different color!”

Dazed, El looked up at Ammon and put a hand on her head. She spoke softly. “She’s hungry…and said our daughter will be born in two weeks!”

Ammon’s knees felt weak as he turned to face Fulgid lying casually nearby. He could almost see the dragon smiling as the clear, golden sound of laughter echoed from the bubble in the back of his head.

END

A note from the author.

Thank you for reading Hatch! I am working on the next book in the series The Dragons of Laton, so please watch for it in the future! Until then, I hope you enjoyed this book and that you will leave a rating on Amazon/Kindle.

Sincerely

James Stevens