Page 117 of The Dragon Queen

“I’ll fetch Calista.”

She’s already on the way.

Calista emerged from the castle, walking as fast as she could with her swollen belly, holding Lily’s hand.

Lily broke free of her grasp and ran to Khazmuda. “Khazmuda!” From the moment she was born, she had no fear for Khazmuda or any of the dragons. She loved him like he was the family dog. She sprinted into his leg and held on.

Khazmuda dropped his snout and gently rubbed her with his scales.Little one.

I grabbed Calista’s hand when she came close. “Are you sure you can do this?—”

“I’m not missing this!” She grabbed on to the wedges in the scales and hoisted herself up.

I stood beneath her to make sure she didn’t lose her grip and slid down.

I won’t let her fall.

Calista finally made it to the top, visibly uncomfortable and out of breath.

“Lily, you’re next.”

Like the climber she was, she climbed up Khazmuda’s side and sat behind her mother.

I came up in the rear then sat behind the two of them, locking my arm tight around Lily. “Hold on, Calista.”

“I am,” she said.

Khazmuda took off gently, moving to the edge of the cliff before he glided down rather than up, knowing Calista was fragile at the moment. He slowly rose in the sky then soared to his lush lands that neighbored the kingdom.

Lily was never as happy as she was on the back of a dragon. She raised her hands in the air to feel the wind against her fingertips, not the least bit scared like other kids her age would be. “Go faster, Khazmuda!”

“Do not go faster,” I said simply.

After a short flight, Khazmuda glided down to a cave opening in the mountainside, the place he and his mate, Shardnada, called home. He made a gentle landing and lowered his belly to the earth to make it easy for us to get down. After I helped Lily and Calista, we ran into the cave and saw the bonfire in the center, the nest of eggs close by to be warm.

Shardnada greeted Khazmuda with a rub of her snout before she looked down at the eggs.

The eggs sat there still, and for a moment, it seemed like nothing was happening. And then they started to shake slightly, tilt a little farther to one side before they went still again. The movements were subtle and gentle, but they became more pronounced, and then there was a crack in one of them.

“Daddy, it’s happening!”

“I can’t believe it.” I looked up at Khazmuda, who watched with unblinking eyes, a dragon about to become a father to his own hatchlings. I remembered how I’d felt when Lily was born, and it was the greatest joy.

Black scales were visible in the cracked egg, and a little head pushed hard to break the rest of the shell. He pushed and pushed, and then he came free, a little dragon with black scales like Khazmuda and orange eyes like his mother.

I turned to Khazmuda and watched him.

His joy couldn’t be expressed with his facial features, but a tear pooled in each eye, slowly growing to the size of a large diamond.My hatchling.

The little dragon broke out of the shell completely then lay on the ground for a moment, looking around at the world like he didn’t know what to make of it. He looked down at himself then spotted Khazmuda’s snout above his face. He seemed to instinctively know that was his father because he rose on his weak legs and moved toward Khazmuda.

Khazmuda rubbed his snout against the little dragon, being as gentle as possible so he wouldn’t knock him over. Shardnada did the same, gently stroking him with her snout, letting their hatchling smell them and form an attachment.

The other eggs continued to hatch, and one by one, they emerged, one with purple scales like its mother, and another that was a beautiful teal. One at a time, they joined their parents, receiving the same love as their first sibling.

Then Shardnada rubbed her snout against Khazmuda, and their eyes locked in a long stare, the pride and joy of two beings that had achieved their dream of becoming parents.

“They’re so cute,” Lily said. “Look how small they are.”

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