I count out my breaths in my head to try to keep myself steady and moving forward. It's late afternoon, it's hot, and breathing would mean the difference between getting there and pushing myself too hard along the way. I pop a rock under my tongue, a trick one of my trainers had taught me to keep myself from feeling too much thirst in the heat.
You might see one egg every ten years and the egg itself is precious, it's made from a material that's impervious to all the elements. Eggs are coveted among men, a material they'd like to use to form armour or sometimes kings would use them to forge their crowns. That's why there are so few dragons left, they'd been hunted for their scales and worse still, their young.
One final push. My legs burn with the effort.
I can feel the heat before I see the fire. The smoke. What the hell. The heat is incredible. The dragon settlement, which had been mostly reeds folded down into nests, is completely ablaze. Apalala is the only dragon left of the four that are staying there. She's in the corner of the field, curled around her nest defensively. Men in black polished armour surround my friend.
"Stop" I scream, willing my voice to be heard over the crackle of the flames. It's too loud. I strain my eyes for some mark, token, or house insignia but the soldiers have none I can see. Just solid black armour. They keep creeping closer around Apalala, nicking her with the butts of their spears tauntingly at any patch of her soft underbelly they can reach. Her cries break my heart as she pulls herself in tighter around her nest, unaware of my arrival.
I push myself to run faster to close the gap, the flames licking at my arms. Burning me. I just embrace the pain and keep moving. Apalala screams again, her tail strikes out to keep the soldiers away. My hands tingle. My chest feels tight. I reach and feel the familiar pulse. I need you, I whisper internally, coaxing it to life like sparks to a flame. Come, I whisper, and it does.
"STOP" I scream again, lashing out at the soldiers this time with every piece of my soul. The sound ricochets out like a weapon, knocking them from their feet as I draw myself the last few steps closer, panting and shaking with anger or maybe fear. Half of them turn to face me when they stand back up, their backs only to their comrades who still face Apalala. They form a small, contained circle like I'd seen a trained unit of soldiers in my father's army do once during drills.
"We were here first, we have claim to that egg, girl, best you move along." Screeches the man closest to me. His spear pointed in my direction as a clear threat.
"You have no right, and you'll depart, these are my lands. This incursion is an act of war against my house. The dragons here are under my protection." I growl back at him, my body, my words thrumming with the power punctuating every word. I try my best to straighten my spine, hoping that with my gold eyes and shimmering lips I'm the picture of danger. The picture of magic.