Chp.2: Discovering the world

Haku woke up after a long time. When he did, he almost immediately leapt to his feet, moving his body to check that everything was working properly. He didn't remember what had happened; simply while keeping his eyes closed he had felt a strange feeling of exhaustion come over him, as if his energy had been drained away, and suddenly his consciousness had as if turned off and he had fallen into oblivion. Haku couldn't help but be scared: what had caused that sudden and frightening event?

Luckily, it seemed to be only a passing phenomenon, since none of his limbs seemed damaged or numb. Maybe it was even useful: Haku felt as if all the fatigue he had accumulated the previous day had vanished. His body was energetic again just like when he woke up inside the egg and started hitting the hard shell to get out.

He was tempted to open his eyes, but thought better of it; what if he made another mistake? What if the entity that had turned off the light got angry again? What if that entity decided to do something else than bring down darkness? It was better to not take the risk: the best thing to do was to keep his eyelids tightly closed and wait for his mother to call him.

While he was still brooding over these thoughts he heard Neytiri's voice: "Wake up, little ones. The time to sleep is over!"

Haku sighed with relief upon hearing his mother's words; he could finally open his eyes again. When he did, he saw that the light had once again filtered through the entrance to the cave, illuminating the room again and chasing away the darkness. Apparently keeping their eyes closed had worked: evidently the mysterious entity that had turned it off the day before had liked the fact that they had used the 'time to sleep' and had therefore turned the light back on.

Haku thought about the word. 'Sleep'. So this was what it meant to close the eyes and turn off the conscience. His mother had said there was a 'time to sleep', did that mean it was a frequent thing? Should they have done it again? If yes, when, and how often?

Many questions crowded his young mind, and unfortunately remained unanswered. Haku once again cursed his inability to speak, he could only hope to be able to learn how articulate words as soon as possible.

His siblings had also opened their eyes; some were stretching, some were yawning, and some were already frolicking around their mother. The great dragon made his way back to the cave entrance. "I'm going to get you breakfast. Don't go out"

His mother went away. Haku listened to her words again. His mother kept coming out of the cave, but she didn't want them to. Why did she forbid it? Why they couldn't while she could? She said it was dangerous outside, but if it was dangerous why did she go there? Why didn't she stay in the cave with them? It had to be remembered, however, that his mother was wise and she knew many things that Haku didn't know. It was better to listen to her and trust her wisdom.

Also what was that 'breakfast'? Haku didn't remember ever hearing his mother say that word before. It was a very complicated word that he struggled to remember correctly, and he wasn't able to relate it to anything he already knew.

His mother soon returned and regurgitated another juicy piece of meat onto the floor. "Come, little ones! Breakfast is ready!" she said. Haku's eyes widened. So that was the 'breakfast'! That's what it meant! But what was different from the 'meal'? To him, the piece of meat looked the same… although this one smelled slightly less fresh than the one that they'd eaten before.

In any case, he was hungry and wanted to eat, so he ran to get his 'breakfast'. He pounced on the carcass and began to strip it. He noticed that his siblings also did the same. Luckily, there was enough food for everyone, but Haku could see that his siblings looked slightly bigger than the previous day. Not longer or taller, but more muscular, more massive. Not much, but still a little bit. That meat was enough now, but soon that wouldn't have been the case anymore. If his mother hadn't brought more food and in larger quantities, the little dragons would have been forced to fight each other to be able to eat properly in the future.

Unbeknownst to Haku, that was just the future that awaited him. Even when they were just babies, dragons were trained on the 'survival of the fittest' principle, so the weak cubs would have been discarded in favor of the strong ones. This served to ensure that the dynasty would always have been strong, and would have allowed the parents to not waste too large quantities of their precious food. As a result, usually only half of a dragon's litter survived until they had to leave the protection of their mother, and then the dangers of the outside world would have further reduced the number of survivors. Only the strongest, most robust and intelligent of them would have managed to reach the adulthood.

And that wasn't even the worst part. Haku still didn't know that he and his siblings only had three more months of peace before their mother's maternal instinct faded. In ancient times, before the terrible mass extinction and the downfall of the dragons, when food was still plentiful, mother dragons would have cared for their young much longer, even if their parenting instincts had faded, but now that food has become scarcer neither Neytiri nor any other dragon would have allowed the babies to remain in her territory and consume her precious resources. When the three months were up and her maternal instincts faded, Neytiri would have chased her children away, or worse, she would have seen them as food.

But Haku didn't know these things yet. For the moment he could eat in total calm, without worrying about the future. Once he was full, he went back to exploring the cave and interacting with his siblings, as he had always done since he hatched. He spent the time playing with them, jumping on each other or exchanging gentle bites to play wrestle.

Then his mother flew away again and after a long time she brought more food. "Breakfast!" Haku exclaimed remembering the word. His heart leapt for joy. He had succeeded: he had finally been able to articulate sounds correctly!

"No, this is lunch" his mother corrected him. "There are three meals in the day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is the second one today, so it's lunch"

"Day?" Haku repeated, hearing that new word for the first time and curious to know what it meant.

"Day is that time when there's so much light. When the light goes out, it's night" his mother explained.

"Day... night... light..." Haku repeated the words trying to memorize them. Unbeknownst to him, dragon minds had evolved to learn quickly since they didn't have much time on their hands with their parents. While a Haku's counterpart from another species would have taken months, even years to learn how to speak, Haku just needed two days to be able to articulate meaningful words.

And while he was having that 'conversation' with his mother, Haku's mind was filled with tons of new, invaluable information. For example, he had just discovered that it wasn't his fault that the light had gone out before, but that it was a normal phenomenon and independent of him. And that even if his mother wanted to sleep, it was indifferent to the mysterious entity that made the light come. Apparently there was always a day and a night and they alternated at regular intervals, so there would always be a time of light and a time of darkness.

But what was the mysterious entity that governed them? This question still persisted and Haku wanted to have an answer. So he decided to take a quick peek outside the cave, in hopes of being able to discover something. He expected his mother to call him back, but she said nothing. She just lay on the cave's floor, even though Haku noticed that she was constantly keeping an eye on him. She evidently didn't want him to only go out when she was away, but when she was there it was fine. Perhaps, Haku mused, she could go out whenever she wanted because the mysterious 'danger' didn't exist for her, while he and his siblings instead had to wait for her to be present for the 'danger' to go away. In fact, they were much smaller than Neytiri, so it was possible that 'danger' didn't dare approach her, while they weren't so lucky.

It was much brighter outside the cave. It was everywhere and it came from above. Haku initially had to close his eyes to not be blinded, but when he got used to it he could see the immense landscape in front of him, and for a moment he didn't know what to think. There were so many things he had never seen before, so many colors and shapes and sounds, and he could see so many strange creatures flying or walking in the distance, and then there were huge blue spots that shimmered in the light which seemed to be composed of the same strange liquid that he and his brothers drank from the puddles that formed under the cave's stalactites, or streaks of the same color that flowed into those spots.

The outside world was so big!

He looked up and finally saw it. A big yellow ball in the sky, so bright that Haku had to look away because it hurt his eyes. That's where the light came from, all the light that lit up the outside world! That was the mysterious entity that brought the day and then went out by bringing the night and its darkness!

"That's the sun". His mother's voice roused him; Neytiri had approached, and the other baby dragons had also come with her, who, like him, were observing the huge and wonderful outside world in awe.

"Sun... light!" Haku exclaimed excited.

"Yes. When the sun rises it brings light to the world. Then it goes around the sky and sets over there" Neytiri said pointing to a point on the horizon. "At that point the night comes, and then the day begins again"

Oh, so the sun didn't choose whether or not to emit light. It wouldn't have turned off or on again at cyclical moments. It always emitted light, simply at a certain point it disappeared over the horizon and then reappeared.

Who knows why it did so. Haku don't understand. Probably the sun had its reasons.

"What's that?" suddenly one of his sisters, Sisna, asked pointing to a strange object with a very broad green tip and a brown but narrow and apparently very hard body.

"Oh, that's a tree" their mother replied.

"All those are trees?" another of his sisters, Tikka, yelled pointing to the immense green sea below them.

"Yes. Those are all trees, and together they form a forest. Inside the forest live many animals, many of them very good to eat"

"What are animals?" Malchia asked, curious to know the meaning of that strange word.

"Animals are living creatures like us, and they are what we eat. The meat I bring you every day comes precisely from the animals I catch in the forest"

"Even that is forest?" Rhaegal asked, pointing to the large blue spot in the distance.

"No, that's a lake. It's full of water and that's why it shines in the sunlight. Its water is very good to drink and inside it you can find many fish and other interesting creatures"

"And those?" Kialandì asked pointing the long, serpentine streaks that flowed into the lake.

"Those are rivers. They are made of water like lakes, but unlike them, their water is constantly moving. They too are full of fish and their water is good to drink, but less than the lake. This is because the water of the lake is still and therefore you don't risk drinking soil together with it, and the fish are calmer and therefore more numerous"

The little dragons were curious and interested in everything around them. The outside world was new to them and they wanted to discover it all. Neytiri was patient and answered all their questions. She explained to them what grass, rivers, lakes, animals, mountains and clouds were, and she enriched the explanations with various details; for example, she told them that sometimes water called rain fell from the clouds, while at other times it fell in a frozen form called snow; and that the trees and grass didn't stay green all the time, but there were times when they turned yellow and red and orange, and some times when they even flowered, and times when they covered themselves with flowers of all colors.

Haku and his siblings easily assimilated every notion their mother imparted to them. They were thirsty for knowledge and didn't want to forget anything that was explained to them. This is because, even if they didn't know it yet, in the future the more they knew, the longer they would have survived.