When I woke up from my slumber I looked around drowsily before getting up to stretch my back and shoulder, letting out a shudder. I looked around and saw my siblings still sleeping, but my mother was gone. I looked down at myself and my scales were visibly more stable compared to the fragile softness of when I had just escaped my egg.
I looked over the ledge and felt it wasn't as tall as before, even if still super duper high. I walked over to my abandoned egg and realized I was towering over it.
'What's this all about? How long have I slept because growing this fast definitely isn't normal.'
As I was lost in my thoughts trying to figure out what was going on I heard the same loud pound sound my mother first made when she arrived. As she walked in she looked slightly relieved to find me awake. No idea why though.
"Wake your siblings, then we leave this cave immediately."
'What was that? Did she just speak to me? How did I understand her so well?'
My mind was swirling so much that I made a vow to myself to think as little as I could from now on.
I turned to head over to my stirring siblings, yawning and stretching without me having to wake them. I trotted over to them. 'How do I speak to them? Hello, I'm your big sister, mom wants to leave…' I thought. Oh! I have to speak out loud like my mother did. Oops.
"Hello, I'm your big sister, mom wants to leave this cave right now." My growl came out a bit more high-pitched than I intended but whatever.
My siblings looked just as confused as I did, while they figured out how to respond to me I looked at each of them and saw they were all kind of weird-looking. The only thing in common that we had was our scale pattern. But all the same time I can't see very well in these shadows.
"How do we get down from here? We can't leave." Chirped one of my smaller siblings.
For all the things I think about I'm surprised that wasn't one of them.
Well, surely there's a way down if Mother just left us alone? We probably just have to figure it out. Yeah.
I walked over to the ledge and stared at the drop. 'If I hit that ground full force I just know I'd die. So how do I get down?'. Maybe I could slide down the wall?
As I was busy thinking of a way to get down, my sibling with wings way too big for his body, had already jumped over the edge, startling me. 'I guess he could be my Guinea pig.'
When I looked over the edge to see what had happened to him I could just barely make out his wings spread, he was slightly gliding, but also just slowly falling.
'Thanks for making my life easier.' I Thought as I spread my wings and jumped after him.
Slow-falling is hard though because if I even slightly tilted over I would go in that direction. That wasn't very cool because being off balance while falling to the ground isn't such a good thing sometimes.
When I could see the bottom I felt an intense relief we were higher than I thought because I had been falling for quite some time. Oopsie…
The rest of my siblings were also slowly falling but waiting was boring so I padded out the den myself. The sibling that first jumped lumbered after me. Kind of looked like he had wings for arms. 'What a weird way to walk!'
When I finally made it out of the cave I was immediately flashbanged by the light and colors, by the time I was able to open my eyes I was utterly shocked.
I never could have imagined something so colorful and vast. Compared to the inside of my cave, everything was so bright and I could see it all clearly, especially this bright shining rock in the middle of the blue sky.
I could hear my siblings walking out behind me and immediately turned to see what they looked like.
The one that lumbered when he walked truly did have wings for forearms and thin back legs. He was bright red-orangish with flecked gray spots all along his scales, he had a longer bent neck and slimmer body and tail with long, shut eyes. Horns slightly curb upwards. While his wings were big enough to cover his entire body if he so wished.
How cool looking!
The next one was energetic, one of the twins. She had sharp cat eyes and a sharp jawline with a skinny snout. She didn't have anything too abnormal about her except for her rippling muscles and powerful wings.
She was sitting on top of her bland brother's back who wasn't very impressive... He was dull gray with a red-orange tint and his head was drooping. His horns were slightly fatter and larger than ours, and he for some reason had no wings.
'I had never met anyone besides us but something's telling me having no wings is very bad for our dragons, how did he get down from the ledge?'
Then the girl twins' amount of muscle finally made sense. 'Did she carry him down here?' She must be carrying the burden for both of them.
I left them to assess my other siblings too.
The next dragon was shaped the most like a mini mother, but his tail was odd. His looks were captivating. He was a humble red with long limbs.
Finally, the least impressive. A tiny black dragonet standing at half my sitting height, he was well shaped and had armored plates on his thigh, upper arms, and all along his spine from his snout to his tail and had little spiny fins sticking out from behind his jaw and ear. He was so small and looked so weak I couldn't stand looking at him for too long. But at the same time, he was just so cute and dainty I couldn't look away!
I turned hard and let my thoughts wander somewhere else. Weren't there seven of us?
Oh Yeah! Yes. Oh. Oh lord.
"You guys!" I called out to my siblings. "One of us is missing." Does anyone know where they went?
While my siblings looked around seeming just as confused as I was, the tiny dragonet spoke up. "He didn't have wings, so he can't fly." He quietly mumbled."I think he was left behind on the ledge."
Isn't that great how do we go all the way back there and get him down without having him meet his doom?
Just as I had that thought I could see a small figure in the sky gliding towards us.
No, something is flying towards us and quickly too! As they came closer I found they weren't as small as I thought but humongous!
And then I recognized Mom. Hi mom.
When I thought she was gonna crash into the ground she spread her wings hard at the last second and made an abrupt stop midair, sending a gust of strong wind towards me, knocking me strongly off my feet.
She charged towards me and lowered her head to my height. Having to bend down a bit to reach me. This way she was a lot bigger than I thought when I was on the ledge. She could hold me in her claws if she wanted to!
"I thought I told you to bring all your siblings?" She growled, "If so, why is one missing?" She said, exhaling a gust of breath so hot it chilled me.
"I-I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I swear." Yeah, I forgot my sibling. So what? The rest of them are here so why does it matter? I couldn't have gotten him down even if I tried!
She seemed satisfied with my answer, but I bet she would've chomped off my head if I said what I truly thought.
She walked into the cave- probably to get my brother. So while I waited I decided it would be a good idea to practice flying. Before I could take a step Mother was already back.
'That was fast. Or were we just really slow?'
The last brother that we left behind was a unique case. He had no wings and pitched black scales with the same armored plates as my tiny brother, but what set him off was the two extra heads located between his shoulders and behind his neck.
Maybe all dragons are this diverse and it's just me? Mother treats this as normal as well.
"For your first time out of the cave, we'll be practicing flying. It's only one of the requirements for a dragon before they even begin to live properly." She seemed to be aiming at my two— or four? Whatever, two brothers.
Mother swiftly gathered us together so we were lined up side by side. She did what I'd never expect anyone to have the audacity to do and in one swift bite grabbed all of us by the tail and raised her head back tall.
I'm sure it was a comical sight, me and my siblings dangling with our thick tail tips stuffed in mother's mouth. But her teeth hurt so bad. I could feel the pain shoot up my spine and burn there nonstop.
My body wanted to escape but my brain said 'Stay put and let mom carry you' or something like that because despite the pain I stayed dangling, with no resistance whatsoever.
With a powerful flap of her wings, she took off from the ground and flew upwards towards the fluffy clouds in the sky. The force of the take-off made me ask if I was meant to die then and there until she put this protective barrier around us.
I looked down at the passing scenery and felt the freedom of being in the air, no obstacles in your way or anything. Even if it wasn't me flying right now, as soon as I learned I knew I'd cherish it forever.
A lot of time passed, and the sun moved from one side of the sky to the other. We flew over some more forests, swamps, and plains until we finally made it to our destination. Mother made a sharp curve upwards and strongly beat her wings until we made it to the top of the mountain.
On a flat surface, she dropped us straight down, some of us falling straight on our snouts. She just wants us to be miserable, doesn't she?
"Before I teach you anything about being a dragon, it's only fair you know where you obtained your knowledge." She snorted amused at our clumsy landing. "From the moment you gain consciousness in your egg, the basic knowledge of the world is passed down from generation to generation, otherwise you wouldn't know how to speak or start flying."
She paused, thinking. "Of course, that doesn't mean you know everything from birth. It's just instinct, like how every animal knows how to fight automatically."
Yeah, I never cared about how I knew to speak and such but okay.
My tinier brother— let's just call him Tiny, on the other hand, looked more intrigued and was listening intently to what Mother was saying.
"Anyways before I throw you off this cliff, you're gonna flap your wings as hard as you can in place, and get the feeling of flapping your wings in the air."
Excuse me what? Throw us off the cliff is she crazy?
My siblings had frantically started flapping as if they were trying to beat the air to a pulp. I did too, I'm not trying to die. My two wingless brothers on the other hand just sat watching from a distance.
I wonder what mothers gonna do with them.
I quickly diverted my attention and kept flapping and flapping till my wings grew tired.
That's when my mother announced she was gonna throw us one by one.
"Wait!" The twin sister chirped, "I'm too tired right now. Can't we take a break first?"
I nodded my head vigorously, "How will we fly if our wings are too tired."
She rolled her eyes. "Did you pay attention to my flying at all? You flap your wings and fly. If you fall you die." She sneered at the last part making me wonder if she cared about our safety at all.
Before I could react she charged straight towards me, snatched me up by my tail, AGAIN twisted her head super fast, and threw me flying off the cliff.
I was so scared. I looked down and all I could see were clouds but I knew under them awaited certain death.
I screeched bloody murder as I spun over the cliff of the mountain.