Chapter 4: The Shadows

The young dragon, Esther, was alerted to the smell of the intruders. Her first egg was gently nestled in the shadows. The white fur on her neck was slowly turning into scales to celebrate birthing her first egg. Those scales were turning a gray tint to mourn the loss of her mate. He was killed by intruders like these.

Esther's body was considerably small which was why she was being closely monitored by an Elder dragon from the Council that ruled over the entire species. Her mate should have helped her gain weight after birthing the egg, but he was killed saving Esther's life from intruder. She fled the scene to birth their egg somewhere safer a few days later, but those intruders came back?! She reared up on her hind legs and made a screeching noise that alerted the elder too late.

Esther stomped around in a warning display, but the intruder did not move. He just stood there. He was surely looking directly at her egg! The Elder was not close enough to straighten poor, hormonal Esther. She couldn't lose her precious egg too! That would be a death sentence. Her body would just give out with so much grief.

Esther ran into the man stabbing her long talons straight into his chest. The sharp talons shredded his heart into slivers of an organ before he could even mutter another scream. Esther began chewing on his torso to scare the other intruders away. The Elder watched their silent confusion while struggling to erase their memories of the horrific event.

The Council had happily and swiftly come to Esther's aid after her mate's death. There were sections of the Council all around the world. They maintained complete order over the entire species and the urgent secrecy of their species. Their numbers had dwindled so much during the Great War that the Council closely monitored all mated pairs especially when they expected their first egg to hatch.

The Council would never learn of Esther's extreme act of violence since that would also out her appointed Elder as a failure. Elders could manipulate memories, and humans had sketchy, easy to manipulate memories. The Elder would have to keep a much closer watch on Esther and hope that the humans stayed out of their territory. Luckily, the humans soon disappeared.

The Elder dropped a still flapping fish before Esther. She couldn't look away from that egg because it should have already hatched. What was wrong? Esther thought to herself. She couldn't bear to even listen to the Elder's voice.

She couldn't hear the words. "It might not hatch ever." Hours turned into months overdue. Had the trauma from losing her mate also destroyed her precious egg? The egg never hatched, and a hopeless Esther began her task of watching the human kids to avoid the wrath of another Elder.

--

There was this one kid that looked so much like the one she had killed to protect her egg. His hair was a different color, but he smelled so similar. He must have been related to that human. She watched him from the roof tops every night when he tried to get out the village.

She knew that he would be in greater danger if he left the village, so she always managed to hypnotize him into going back to the place he slept. One night, another rogue dragon had spotted him and went to attack him. The other dragon had sliced open his chest before Esther could even react. She grabbed the child in her talons and pushed the other dragon away with her tail.

She growled loudly at the other dragon and it slowly backed away. He did not want to mess with a grieving female. The fur on her neck was jet black against the rest of her. She had no choice that night, but to grab the kid and bring him back to the place herself.

It was so risky to even touch a human. He might get gifted and be able to see their kind. He might even try to kill her, but the Council had given her orders to protect this kid. She had fought the other dragon over the kid. He got scrapped up badly. Surely, the Council would credit her for that if anything worse happened to the kid.

She could only hope when she dropped him off at the place he slept and pushed her head on the door that someone would be able to pull him inside. She stayed close to the building and guarded the kid while the other dragon waited to attack. Esther pushed her head to the door making a tiny knock noise. A tiny dark human opened the door and pulled the kid inside. The dragon lunged at the door, but Esther stepped into the way.

"You protect this human?" the other dragon laughed.

"He's under protection of the Council." Esther said defiantly. "There's an Elder close by and you will face punishment for your actions." She bluffed.

"Sure. Do you know how many of us have died at the hands of these humans?" the other dragon said.

"This means nothing to me. I'm under orders to protect this group." She realized then that if she didn't say group that one of the kids would be killed that night. Esther puffed up her body as big as possible. "Back off."

"I'll be back when you're not around." The other dragon threatened. Esther flew around the place several times before she found a tiny open window and slid into the place. She closed the tiny window after entering the room. She rested in the corner besides Charlie's bed keeping her eyes open waiting for that other dragon to attack at any time.

In the days that followed, Esther managed to mimic the human Granny and treated his wounds. It was only a tiny manipulation of the kid's memories that made it possible. She just had to observe him more during the day to discover the language of humans. She also observed some strange creatures that looked a lot like young dragons, but made an annoying meowing noise.