User blog:Seagull the Sea-SkyWing/The Hatching

Seahorse knew he would be in trouble. Lots and lots of trouble. He could NEVER let anyone find out that he was in love with a SKYWING, of all dragons. No way at all. Who knew what would happen if someone figured out that a SeaWing prince was in love with the enemy.

This was why he was swimming as fast as his wings could carry him out of the deep palace and into a current that carried him toward the beach.

They always met there, and for good reason. It was not only shielded by a sheer cliff overhead, but it was probably the most beautiful beach in Pyrrhia.

The cliffs had glittering speckles of granite embedded in them by the powerful hand of nature. Tall, waving palm trees that dropped coconuts into your hand when you leaned into them grew everywhere, shading the beach even better. Pale sand collected at the base of the cliff and ran all the way to the ocean where it was met by wave after wave of salty ocean water.

He had to protect this beach, for if anyone else knew about it, it would violently be the end of his relationship.

His heart dropped into stomach when he saw talons pacing the beach.

This was NOT HAPPENING. NO WAY.

He collected himself, swam up to the beach, and submerged.

The guard on the beach had aquamarine scales and was much bigger than himself. He stood with a straight back and scanning eyes. He almost immediately spotted his own blue scales and snapped up even higher.

This was most definitely the end.

He paddled to the beach and stepped onto the sand, dripping. The guard shot a series of inspecting looks at him before speaking up. "Who are you," he asked, "and what is THIS?"

He held up a pale orange blue flecked egg.

"SUNRISE," he bellowed, "LOOK WHAT WE HAVE HERE!" A SandWing, orange gleaming under her wings and down her spine, flew down from the cliffs and his stomach drooped even lower. Suddenly, the egg rocked violently in his talons. Seahorse flinched and the SeaWing guard shot a puzzled look at the egg. The SandWing, Sunrise, grabbed the egg. A jolt of shock rumbled through Seahorse. Nobody, NOBODY, was going to hurt that egg, no matter how cowardly he was.

With a roar, he charged at Sunrise and snatched the egg. He immediately leapt into the air and beat his wings as fast as they could carry him. A blast of heat scorched his tail, and the horrible burnt smell filled his nostrils. He ducked into a dive and splashed down into the sea with a protective arm cradled around the egg. He spotted a coral reef and dove into it. The colors made him blend in snugly when he fitted himself between a pink, tall coral and a smaller, green one. He strained his ears. There was distant roaring and then a humungous splash. The guard swam past him, scanning eyes going over his horns and to the next coral.

After a painfully long time, the guard swam far away enough for Seahorse to be comfortable. He sighed and risked a peek above the surface. The beach was not empty. Sunrise was scanning the surface of the water, and once he realized she was doing this, he ducked back under the surface. But before he went under, he glimpsed, but it couldn't be... Once he was able to risk a peek up again, he knew. There was no mistaking her beautiful, maroon scales and her long, curving neck. She didn't spot him, and he ducked back under. He realized with a start that the egg was cracked. He screamed in shock. Had he been holding the egg too tight? How could he be so careless? How could he-

"Bluurbble" A small, pale orange and blue dragonet announced. A stream of bubbles floated to the surface from her- or his- mouth. He goggled in surprise at them and did it again. Immediately Seahorse noticed the luminescent spots and stripes along his snout and the gills on his neck. No matter what, he was going to protect this dragonet with his life.

"Come on," he nudged the dragonet. "We have to go meet mommy." The dragonet looked up at him and blinked his huge eyes. Seahorse cradled him in his arms and swam towards the shore. He swam to the other side of the island before flying out of the water. this side had grassy, muddy shores and the cliffs were much less sheer. And on top, waiting patiently, was the SkyWing he was in love with.

Maroon was the most beautiful dragon ever hatched. Her maroon scales stood out so beautifully and her mahogany wings gleamed. She smiled as she saw him landing, but the smile quickly vanished.

"Oh Seahorse," she began, spotting the dragonet cradled in his arms. "What are we going to do? You are an outlaw now; we must get out of here. And that one," She pointed to Sunrise, who was glowering on the beach, "I've seen him before. He knows Blister, and I'm sure he is working for her." She stopped, ears twitching.

"Do you hear that?" She asked.

"Look!" Seahorse pointed to the horizon. No, he didn't hear it, but he saw the SkyWings winging toward the island that the Summer Palace was hidden inside.

One of the SkyWings dropped something on the island...

And the whole place caught fire.

Seahorse screamed, but Maroon cupped a hand to his mouth. The baby dragonet's eyes were filled with horror as he watched the SkyWings dropping more flaming things onto the island. Seahorse pulled him closer.

A triumphant roar filled the air above them as Sunrise landed on the ground in front of them.

"Give me the dragonet," she said in a voice full of poison, "and I may just let you live."

“Never,” Seahorse spat. “You will never have this egg as long as I live. It is mine, it shouldn’t be illegal, and you should leave us alone.” His voice and hands were now shaking. “Leave, now. I am never going to give you this egg.”

“Fine, your choice,” Sunrise snarled.

Her claws leapt at him...

And sliced neatly through the membrane between the dragonet’s neck spines.

Rage ripped through his body, swallowing his thoughts. This was not going to happen. Nobody would get away with ANYTHING like this.

He gently handed the howling dragonet into Maroon’s talons and thrusted himself at Sunrise. The SkyWing attack in the background was the perfect mood setter as Seahorse ripped at her, scraping his claws at her underbelly and slashing any other visible scales as hard as he could. A sharp pain in his tail appeared, and he ducked just in time to prevent another slash at his tail. He noticed maroon and mahogany scales flashing by and stepped back just in time for Maroon to shove Sunrise off the cliff.

He gaped as Sunrise landed on her arm and roared in pain and fury. She shot into the sky and flew as fast as possible into the endless sea. They watched her pale-yellow scales get fainter and fainter until she was a dot on the horizon. For the first time, he noticed a strange variety of dragons winging away from the Summer Palace attack, two having green and blue scales, one having brown scales, as he realized with a wave of hate which he quickly beat out, one having strange gold scales, and one more having scales black as night. The seventh one had a strange variety of scales that made him think RainWing confusedly. Those, as he realized with a surge of hope, must be the dragonets of destiny, although he was confused why there was a RainWing and an extra SeaWing with them. A slightly larger SandWing was flying toward them, radiating fury and power. If that was Blister, she was certainly up to something. Sending a wave of horror down his spine, Blister stabbed her poisonous tail barb straight into the extra SeaWing’s side.

Whatever she was up to, she had apparently succeeded, or at least half succeeded, he thought, remembering ripping through Sunrise’s scales.

A small whimper sounded behind him and he turned around to see his dragonet (yes, HIS dragonet, and always his) being held by Maroon and rocked softly. The wound went through his membrane and past, scratching the scales on his neck too. There was a thin trail of blood still running down his neck. Seahorse rushed over and gently wiped it off. He let out another cry and flinched. He was awfully cute, and his scales were not just pale orange, but also had a hint of pink in them, like a salmon. Darker orange ran down the bigger scales on his neck, and there were hints of blue-green peeking between the bigger scales. He had gills, he noticed, and the bioluminescent spots and stripes that his SeaWing side had given him. A new trail of blood was making its way down his neck, and Seahorse gently wiped that off, too. The dragonets of destiny and their injured SeaWing friend were mere dots on the horizon, and there was no sign anywhere of Sunrise. The SkyWings seemed to be done attacking the palace and were slowly flying away in groups.

“Seahorse,” Maroon said, “We need a name. Something sea and sky related.” She looked out onto the horizon. The clifftop turned out to be a great lookout. She continued to stare out at the red and orange groups of dragons flying away on swift wings.

A sea and sky name, he thought. ''Something that can fly and swim? I can’t think of anything for that. Ooh, a seabird! That would be something flying over the ocean.'' He stared out at the shapes of birds flying around the island, apparently oblivious to the dragons perched atop the cliff. He spotted auklets, petrels, and seagulls. Seagull sounds nice, he thought.

“Maroon,” he called. She whipped around to look at their dragonet, who was sitting between them. The wound had stopped bleeding, but it would probably leave a nasty scar. “I have a name.”

“We’re going to call him Seagull.”