Hatching

Sam attempted to move his leg, and, at last, it responded. A sensation that he had nearly forgotten and had lost due to the extended period of being trapped inside an egg came back to him - the urge to breathe.

With renewed vigor, he thrust his arms forward and struck a solid object. Despite its initial resistance, he persisted in hitting the same spot until a cracking sound emanated from it.

' Finally, I did it, and now I'm sure I was indeed inside of an egg.'

After he said that, he awkwardly scratched the back of his head with his imaginary hand. He didn't know why he did it, but it was like his instinct, a long-forgotten one.

' Of course, I was in an egg; it seems the long period of time I spent in there made me doubt If I was really reincarnating as a dragon. Hehe.'

But he quickly pushed those distracting thoughts to the side of his mind and concentrated on getting out.

Punching again and again, he kept doing that same action consecutively until his arm broke through the shell, and dim light entered his egg.

He quickly took that chance and started to widen the hole with both of his arms while gasping for some air; even though he earlier didn't feel the need to breathe, he surprisingly did now, but he attributed it to the fact that he was a tiny baby that wasn't technically a life form yet.

Soon, the hole he was broadening for some time grew wide enough, so he promptly stuck his head through it.

A blinding light entered his eyes, causing him to squirm for a few seconds until he got used to it.

As he gazed upwards, he beheld a breathtaking expanse of stars illuminated by the full moon. Although not particularly luminous, his eyes, acclimatized to the darkness for an indefinite period, required some time to adjust.

After gasping for air, he felt a surge of energy and began vigorously kicking and flailing his limbs against the shell.

Finally, the shell broke, and he fell to the cold ground. He stumbled upon his four limbs and looked around him.

He was resting with his egg on stones carried by a river that originated from the snow-capped mountains in the distance. Although the mountain appeared peculiar to him, he couldn't pinpoint the reason for it.

It was like he could notice that something was amiss with it, but he didn't know what that something was.

' Weird.' He commented as he focused on his other surroundings, shifting his head from the mountain to other noticeable things.

'So my egg was probably brought here by a river. Was this his plan? To start in the wilderness and slowly accumulate strength before I come to meet humans?'

As he thought of that reasoning, he didn't find it strange since almost all of the time, everyone who got reincarnated as another life form except a human started his journey in the wilderness.

It was almost like a routine that everyone had to go through if they wanted to live and not suddenly die cause of his lack of experience.

' Well, he was able to reincarnate me, so maybe he was able to place me into a safe spot away from humans at first. Anyway, let's figure out how to proceed for now.'

Everything around him was looking so realistic that he shoved the idea that something was wrong with it.

The moment he moved his legs and arms in a rhythm to explore a little ahead of him, he was interrupted as his stomach squirmed in hunger.

His gaze fell upon the shell that remained out of his egg, and he instinctively knew what he had to do. It felt like when one looked at a tasty food that was impossible to resist.

For Sam, on the other hand, nothing came to mind; it was almost like he never ate something in his past life. He racked his brain to recall food he loved, and only after a few minutes of unending attempts did he make a blurry image clear.

' Lasagna, huh? Was that my best food? It surely doesn't look like this egg, but my desire to eat both of them is similar. It is a common trope that dragons eat their eggshell after hatching from what I have read...''

With great enthusiasm, Sam eagerly approached the shell and took a bite. The delectable taste filled his mouth, causing his eyes to widen in delight. He couldn't resist taking another bite, and soon all rational thought escaped his mind as he devoured the shell like a famished animal.

His reason only returned to him when the whole shell vanished into his stomach, even though it was bigger than him.

'Ohhh, that felt so good.' then he quickly approached a part of the river with still water to look at his reflection.

He was a small dragon the size of a small bycyle. His scales were pitch black with a metallic black luster. From his head grew a pair of short black horns. The pair of black dragon wings on his back was wide, and the fascia was as tough as a sail. The wingspan was slightly longer than his body., and his meter-long tail ended with a sharp-looking tip of a spear.

All the way from his neck to his tail, a line of black spikes that looked sharp as knives were growing. In the middle of his eyes was not the light yellow color of what almost all dragons had but a pair of resplendent platinum dragon eyes. They were bright and dazzling.

There were many different colors in the eyes of dragons. They were pitch-black, slightly yellow, brown, blue, dark purple, and so on. However, platinum was quite rare. If it was in a group of dragons, it would undoubtedly belong to the most beautiful child.

As he gawed a bit down, he noticed that all of his limbs ended in ten centimeters long claws, and his lizard-like mouth was filled with deadly-looking canines.

In addition, as he concentrated on his limbs a bit more, he noticed that they were thick and muscular.

Due to the fact that he had just been born, the black scales were even smoother and more translucent than adult dragons. There were no rough traces at all, and they were reflecting light like a mirror.

At the same time, Sam saw the thin ring of platinum scales on his neck.

'Haha, I am really a dragon!!! And I even have a natural necklace that looks quite majestic, not bad.'

At that moment, strong tiredness hit him out of nowhere, causing him to stumble. He instinctively knew that no predator would dare to approach a site near his egg filled with the smell of a dragon. Hence, he closed his eyes and fell asleep, like a baby who wasn't able to resist the desire to do so.