Hatchling

Harry will never regret helping Charlie understand the dragons because the skill had saved his life on more than one occasion, but he hated how it brought the other dragon tamers flocking to their doors asking him for help and trying to get him to move to the other territories. Harry didn’t like that he had to hide in the shadows and stay away from Charlie to keep from being spotted by the other humans. As a result, he was often found sitting alone as he watched the other fledglings play. 

Most of Harry’s nest-mates had begun venturing out to meet the other dragons of their clan. And as they began interacting with their age-mates more and more of them seemed to resent Harry. Not that he could blame them. While Harry had been accepted as a part of the clan, most of the dragons still didn’t trust him, especially the nesting mothers and that mistrust seemed to have trickled down to most of the yearlings. 

Harry knew to stay out of the way when tensions were high between the dragons, but the other hatchlings had also been targeting his siblings. They would never hurt Harry, but neither were they willing to be seen with him whenever they were outside the safety of their cave. It was a matter of survival to be accepted and protected by the clan and it was in their best interest to not be seen with “Helga’s odd hatchling.”  It was better to be ignored than to live in fear and be constantly beaten for being the “freak” no one wanted. 

The only one who stuck by him was his oldest sister. Hera was just as vicious and stubborn as their mother and she had already permanently scarred more than one young dragon that had tried to eat Harry. But he knew that if the other hatchlings saw her spending too much time with Harry, they would start to turn against her too.  So today he was on his own wandering the rocky sides of the canyon when he heard an odd noise.  

He had been sitting near the top of the ridge watching the distant shapes of his nest-mates gliding through the air from the low ridges over the valley.  It was one of the safest places for young dragons to take short glides and strengthen their wing muscles in preparations for true flight.  He could see Gavri tucking his wings into a corkscrew dive before opening his wings at the last moment to cushion his landing.  He watched their graceful movements through the air and wished he could fly like the rest of the dragons.  Even before he had found his way to the reserve he had watched the birds soaring over the garden with envy.  The thought of soaring above the clouds far away from anyone who would hurt him had always seemed like the ultimate freedom.  Now, Harry leaned over the edge of the canyon to feel the wind in his hair and spread his arm like imaginary wings.  Here at the end of the canyon the wind was always funneled upwards in a way that if he leaned far enough forward the updraft would keep him aloft suspended above the canyon.  The only thing keeping him from believing he had achieved true flight was his toes planted firmly on the rocky ledge.  

He took a deep breath of the hot dry air, smelling the sun baked stones of the canyon’s walls, and listening to the rustle of the evergreens below.  But as he did so he heard a distant voice.  “Hurry up, Radcliff!  Do you want the mother to catch up to us?”  Harry froze and listened closer.  That was not the voice of any of the tamers he had seen with Charlie.  

“Keep your knickers on, Curt.  That curse will keep the monster down long enough to give us plenty of time to get out of range.  Once we are beyond the barrier the mother will have no way of following us to retrieve her eggs, just like all the others.”  Hot rage filled Harry’s lungs as he heard those words.  No dragon tamer would harm a mother dragon.  Doing so and staying on the reserve would be a death sentence for any human.  And the only mother left on the reserve with unhatched eggs was Henna, one of the few nest mothers who had been kind to Harry.  Over the past several weeks, he had been hunting for the elderly mother to help her keep her strength up while she waited for her brood to hatch.  With her advanced age, this clutch was probably the last the elder would ever lay and as such she had refused to leave their side for even a moment.  

Quickly, Harry climbed down the ridge, hopping from one ledge to another with practiced ease of years exploring this dangerous terrain.  Half way down, on a narrow path carved into the side of the cliff he found one tall man carrying a sack and a large muscular man trailing after him like he was taking a leisurely stroll.  “You worry too much, Finnley.  The boss doesn’t expect us back until midnight.  We might as well stop at a pub on the way back to celebrate our haul.  We finally have the Horntail eggs Dolohov has been searching for.  These little beasts will grow up fast and we can sell off their hides to the highest bidder.  If we keep a breeding pair from the lot we will never have to work another day of our lives beside the one day every three years to harvest the new batch of leathers.”  

Harry saw red as he heard these Hatchling Killers laughing and as he dropped down to block their path he could taste the flames of his rage dancing over his tongue as if he was a real dragon.  “Give them here!”  Harry bellowed in a voice so gravely from anger that he was unsure for a moment if he had spoken English or Draken.  

The tall one startled and nearly tipped over the ledge, “What the fuck is a kid do’n here!”  

“I don’t bloody well care, you big dolt!  Just get him out of the way!”  

Harry growled threateningly as they both raised their wands and fired off spells.  He easily dodged the first, but the second managed to catch him in his arm,the cutting curse slicing through flesh and sinew.  He let out a screech of pain that reverberated off the stone and the one closest to him covered his ears in pain.  Furious, Harry focused on the heat of his anger and nudged it forward with his magic to give the fire life.  Flames seeped out from between his lips, swirling and coiling into a molten ball that with a simple thought Harry launched at the Egg Snatchers.  

The two men scrambled for cover, but with the path being so narrow there was nowhere to hide.  It struck them both head on, knocking the tall man off the ledge and catching the other’s robes on fire, but the larger man put them out with a simple spell.  The remaining Egg Snatcher raised his wand at him again with a deadly look in his eyes, but Harry was faster.  Using the distraction of the flames, he rushed in grabbing hold of the eggs and bit down on the muscular man’s meaty arm.  The wizard screamed and began pounding on Harry’s head to try and knock him off, but Harry refused to let go.  

The man finally dropped the sack, but as Harry regained his footing the Egg Snatcher shoved a wand in his face, pinning him to the cliff wall.  “I’m going to enjoy this,” the mad growled as his wand began to glow with a distinctive green light.  Harry had only a moment, but in that split second before the spell was fired he made his decision.  He dove for the ledge taking himself and the eggs over the edge.  The eggs were better off dead than in that man’s hands, but as he fell Harry did everything he could to ensure their survival.  He closed his eyes, curled around the bag and turned so his body would cushion their fall, begging his magic to do something, anything, to protect them.  

Suddenly, he was being crushed in a vice.  Scaled talons poked into his flesh and squeezed the air from his lungs.  Harry looked up in shock to see Henna soaring with him clutched in her claws.  The great mother was trembling and her face was covered in gore.  One of her eyes had been carved from her skull in a way that he instantly recognized as the same spell that had grazed his arm, but she flew steadily through the air back to her nest with Harry in her talons.  

As he looked down, Harry could just make out the bokeh remains of the Egg Snatcher he had killed, but the other was nowhere to be seen.  Henna growled under her breath as she flew, “The Kin Killer escaped while I dove to your aid, but he won’t get far.  I have alerted the others and they will take care of him before he crosses the border.”  

Her landing was not graceful, her eye inhibiting her ability to judge distance and one leg held aloft to protect Harry and her eggs, but she managed to keep them from harm.  As she limped back into the depths of her cave, Harry checked her eggs over for signs of damage and set them back in their stone nest with a sigh of relief.  None of them had been harmed in the struggle.  

Henna pressed her bloodied snout against his back and Harry leaned into the comforting vibrations as she hummed low in her throat to express her gratitude.  “Thank you youngling, because of you my hatchlings are safe.”  

Harry turned and hugged her snout, gently brushing the blood away from her ruined eye.  “I’m sorry I could not do more.”  

“Worry not, child.  It is a small price to pay for my hatchlings to grow up free of those shackles that evil humans use to break our souls and bind our fire.”  

Harry smiled sadly thinking of the darkness of his old cupboard, “I know what it is like to grow up caged and alone.  I would not wish that on anyone.  Protecting my kin is the least I could do, as you are the ones that saved me from that same fate.”  

Henna nodded and dipped her head closer, her tongue flicking out to taste the blood of his wounds.    Her lips parted to release the barest flicker of a flame that glittered with golden magic as it danced along his skin.  Harry watched transfixed as the flames devoured his blood and knit his flesh back together.  He knew the Old Ones sometimes developed unique magics, but had never seen something so beautiful before.  He could taste the hot coppery tang of the blood magic as the flame painlessly cauterized his wound and left behind a strikingly bright white scare.  “You bear many scars from your journey,  a long journey for one so young.  But this scare, this one you shall wear with pride.  For you have fought bravely to protect the ones you love this day.”  

Harry stroked her cheek watching his fingers turn red.  “I wish I could do the same for you.”  

Henna huffed a laugh, “Your gifts will come to you with time youngling, but I think for now you will have to retrieve your tamer for tasks such as these.”  

***

“What the FUCK were you thinking!”  Charlie roared as he examined Harry’s newest scar.  Harry winced as the redhead gripped his arm a little too tightly.  “Do you have any idea what that curse could have done to you? What that FALL would have?  YOU COULD HAVE DIED!!!”  

“I’m fine, Charlie!  It was only a scratch and Henna already fixed me up.  The eggs were more important than a little bit of pain.”  

Harry shook off his friend’s hand and tried to walk away, but Charlie grabbed his shoulders and spun him back around.  “You are not expendable, Harry!  We could have worked together to track down the eggs and bring them back.  Unlike the dragons we are not confined to the reserve!  But instead of trusting me to help you, you decided to put your life at risk!  Do you have ANY idea how your mother Helga would have felt?  How I would have felt, if you died?!  And then where would those eggs have been?”  

Harry sagged in his hold, properly abashed.  “I’m sorry, Charlie.  I didn’t even think about that.  Of course I trust you.  I was just so focused on making sure they didn’t take the eggs that I never even stopped to think if there might be another way to stop them.”  

Charlie wrapped one arm around his shoulders and hugged him tightly against his side.  “That is all I ask for, Harry.  That you ask for my help in the future.  You don’t have to fight alone anymore.”