The Last Egg

“There weren’t always dragons in the valley,” the driver states while raising an eye skyward. The cart lurches jostling them from side to side. With a flick of a rein the nervous horses keep moving along keeping wheels centered in the slush filled ruts of the road.

The driver looks over and asks the half frozen traveler he just plucked off the roadside, “What be your name and what brings you to Cascada De Dolor Valley?”

As the silence stretches between them, the traveler tilts his head skyward and watches the pair of dragons slowly circling. His body shivers involuntary. He tugs his hood further down over his face. With his feet he slides his pack under his seat and arranges his robes to hide it from view.

From beneath the hood in barely more than a whisper, “Most call me Ruberte and I am just passing through.”

With more enthusiasm than the gray day merits, “Well met Ruberte. I am Meknylan and some call me Ny. Well actually it be just my wife that calls me that. She is Brimya or Bri fer short. We hail from down the end of the valley about two days from here near Cascada De Dolor Falls. Where be ye headed?”

The question is left hanging unanswered.

A great shadow passes over them and Ruberte shivers again. Unphased, Ny rambles on, “Until about a week past, I would have sworn that dragons be extinct or only live in tales of far off lands where heroes hunt them for their treasure. As ye can see fer yourself, there they be, right here in our own valley. They showed up about three days ago and ain’t caused no trouble to no one. They just fly back and forth all day. When they arrived Bri and I just stood and stared mouths agape as they flew past the falls and out of the valley. We then said that no one was gonna believe us when we tell this tale and wondered if anyone from the Druid Colony in the next valley saw them.” He takes a deep breath and slowly exhales, “Then they came back. Just flew back into the valley following the River De Dolor and then started criss-crossing the valley from one end to the other. I have to admit to ya, a great sense of fear rose up within me upon seeing them.” He nods in emphasis of his admittance of showing weakness as he looks over to Ruberte. “But now I figure I just got used to them. It be like they are a looking for something. I can’t imagine what a dragon, let alone a pair of dragons, be looking fer in this sad old valley.”

After awhile Nu gives up trying to make conversation and they spend the remaining hours of the afternoon in relative quiet. With the shadows growing long Ny coaxes the horses off the road, “This be where we make camp fer the night.” He gets down and begins taking the tack off the horses and feeding them.

Ruberte surveys the area before getting down. He looks skyward and is relieved to see the canopy of trees blocking the view of the sky. He pulls his pack from beneath the seat, checks that it is securely tied tied shut and shoulders it. As he walks towards the small circle of stones, he picks up a few stray sticks and drops them to the side of the well used campfire ring and begins to look around for more fallen wood.

Ny generously shares his dinner all the while talking about how wonderful Bri’s cooking is. Ruberte and Ny settle down in their bedrolls on opposite sides of the fire. Ruberte stares into the crackling flames until Ny’s snores cut through the stillness of the night. Ruberte tosses a few more branches onto the fire and opens his pack. He peers into the blackness of the pack. As the branches catch, firelight dances across the surface of the coins and a half buried sky-blue dome. He reaches in and wraps his hands around the cabbage-sized blue gem. Coins clink against each other. The noise breaks though the stillness of the surrounding forest like his old schoolmarm shaking her bell to awaken him and all the other orphans. From across the fire, in response to the noise, comes a snort. A tense moment hangs in the air, Ruberte releases the breath he has been holding when Ny’s rhythmic snoring continues. Ruberte notices the gem is actually warm in his hand while the gold and silver coins adjacent to it are as cold as the surrounding mountain air. He gently pulls the enormous sapphire out and holds it in both hands before the fire. Mesmerized by the dancing flames that appear to be caught within as he turns it over and over in his hands. The closer he holds the stone to the fire the faster the fire within seems to wiggle about as if it’s alive.

A haunting wail of sorrow echoes its way through the valley. Ruberte stiffens, nervously looks around while he slowly places the sapphire back into his pack. As he quickly rolls up his bedroll, he looks across the fire at Meknylan wrapped in his patched blanket and pulls out a few coins from his pack. He weighs a gold coin in his open hand but decides that it’s too much and might cause suspicion. He exchanges the gold for three silver which he stacks atop a log. He figures the silver is more than generous for a day’s ride across the valley. In the days before he found the dragon hoard, he barely ever had more than a few copper rubbing together in his pocket.

Large snowflakes begin to gently drift through the night air. He turns away from the comfort and warmth of the crackling fire and walks into the darkness, away from the road, heading deeper into the woods. Thinking he might be able to reach the next valley over, he’d be free from the dragons tailing him. Once out of danger, he will be able to make his way back to Brysonheart Haven. There, his new-found wealth will surely buy his way into the Guild, despite not being of noble birth.

As he trudges through the night, the forest is suddenly lit up with pillars of light. Ruberte exclaims, “Shazbut!” and leaps into the shadow of a nearby tree. He looks around for the source of the illumination and glances skyward. He sees through the forest canopy that the cloud cover has broken and a full moon is giving its best imitation of daylight. In a skittish whisper he tells the tree he is hiding behind, “At least this Wolf’s Moon will make traveling through the forest faster.” He pats the rough bark a couple times and steps out into the light, doubling his efforts to climb his way out of this valley.

He comes across a fast flowing stream. The cool water is almost sweet in it’s purity as he drinks his fill . He follows it up higher into the the mountains. Ruberte comes out of the forest onto what looks like an open plateau. He looks out across the snow-covered open expanse before him and scans the sky. It’s twilight and dawn is just beginning to show a faint glow beyond the mountain top before him.

Ruberte weighs the options before him. He could stick to the forest edge and work his way around this open plateau which would probably take him the better part of the day. On the other hand, he could take the direct route and be across in an hour at most. He checks the sky again. Seeing just stars, he decides to risk it and steps out into the open. He looks around again and smiles. He starts walking faster then picks up his pace and starts to jog. His feet fly out from under him. For a moment he feels like a floating feather then a brick. Followed by an explosion of pain.

The sky is turning a deep shade of purple-blue as it begins to chase the stars away. Ruberte blinks a couple times then his body remembers to breathe. A big gasp of air refills his lungs. Ruberte sits up slowly, “So this is a frozen lake.” He gets up and begins walking again. Every few steps one of his feet tries to shoot off to the side. He stops picking his feet up and begins shuffling along. His shuffling slowly turns into a glide or a controlled slide. He starts making good time skating across the frozen surface.

A loud roar shatters the stillness of the morning. Ruberte looks behind him to see the pair of dragons. They are no longer lazily circling the valley but are now heading in a straight line towards him! Frantically looking around he sees that he is pretty much equidistant from any tree line. Stuck in the open. He starts gliding again as fast as he can. Every other heartbeat he glances behind to see the dragons getting closer and closer.

Another loud roar, this time it is deafening. Ruberte’s ears are ringing. A rush of wind slams into his body, nearly blowing him off his feet. The larger of the dragons passes over him and lands hard about a hundred yards ahead of him. The dragon turns to face him. Her head held low, her tongue flicks to taste the air. A wave travels across the ice, tossing Ruberte up before he staggers to a stop. A loud crack booms out across the lake. The dragon looks down to find the surface below her has broken apart. She begins to lash out with her wings and grapple for purchase with her talons.

Ruberte stands paralyzed, trembling at the sight of the flailing dragon. The second dragon sweeps down out of the sky and snatches Ruberte. The dragon rises higher and higher. Ruberte finds himself dangling upside down watching the ice continue to break apart. As she flounders and struggles to push off. She begins to sink.

A loud screaming comes to the forefront of Ruberte’s attention, as he looks around for the source, he realizes it is coming from him. He starts to struggle by beating the talons wrapped around his torso with his fists. All the while, he continues to scream.

In an effort to silence the screaming the dragon gives his talon a shake while squeezing tighter. The additional pressure forces the contents of the pack to burst free. Ruberte reaches out and the tips of his fingers graze the top of the smooth sapphire egg as it falls through the air, amidst a rain of sparkling silver and gold. Ruberte’s screams turn into a single word, “No!” as he watches all his hopes and dreams speed away from him. The egg hits the ice and bounces twice before coming to rest a few yards beyond the dragon, still trying to escape the dark icy waters of the lake.

She sees the egg and tries to reach for it. Each step separates the ice into floating islands. Soon the cracks surround the egg. She takes one more step and the cracks open wide. The egg simply slips beneath the surface with a “ploop.” The fateful sound seems to be amplified by the crisp mountain air. She quickly sticks her head below the surface searching the icy depths.

Hundreds of feet above the lake, the male dragon twists its neck to look at the human egg-thief clutched tightly in its talons. He tightens his grasp and releases a keening long wail of deep sorrow right into the face of the dangling human. After a moment he relaxes his grip and watches the egg-thief fall through the air.