The dragon pierced the thick barrier of his egg to take his first breath of air. Dry and cool, yet filled with strange new sensations, discovering it sent shivers down his spine.

All his memories consisted of the large egg he was now hatching from. They were cloudy and seemed almost distant to him as his mind began to awaken by taking in the crisp air, yet he could still vaguely recollect the most vivid of the lot. At times his egg had been warm, so warm he felt he would almost boil alive inside of it. Yet at other times, far more common recently than the previous, he had felt cold: a freezing, almost biting cold like that of the air he now breathed in. Swimming laxly in the often cool, damp fluid that was inside his egg with him, he began to slowly feel more and more constricted. Pushing outward with his 4 mighty limbs, massive appendages that filled the entirety of the world, he tested the vast walls that contained him. However, at the time the walls were far too strong for him to break. Even as he strained with all of his bulk, they remained unmoving. Fortunately, he felt himself constantly growing, and, trying once more, could steadily feel the walls begin to give way more and more to his might. Settling down, he tried to return to a deep state of dreaming. However, this time it was not to be. Before he touched the walls, his sleep was wild and filled with dreams of a world beyond comprehension. Now however, he could not fall properly asleep as the walls closed in on him further and further. Impatiently waiting, he tried to break free almost constantly.

After a seemingly infinite period of time, he finally lost his patience completely. Slamming upward with his neck, he felt the small horn on the very tip of his snout pierce into the shell itself. Not passing completely through it, the horn nonetheless weakened the prison that held him. Spurred on by his newfound success and the strange cracking he could hear from outside the egg, he brought his front legs to bear. Tearing into the egg further with his claws, he opened a crack in the wall. With emotions raging, he once again slammed his head into the wall, this time into the crack he had formed, and finally broke free.

Released from his confinement, he acted on his instinct and took in a vast breath. The air rushed down his throat, cooling yet electrifying him at the same time. He felt almost like he was waking from one of the deep dreams he had had in the egg, but now his mind was working even faster than it ever had before. Tastes exploded in his mouth as he could feel the air move down his tongue. Hundreds of new scents filled his nose, some damp some dry, some cold some warm, but over all of the others: a strange sharp scent that excited and somehow terrified him at the same time.

Pushed to full alertness by the strange scent, he opened his eyes to view his new world for the first time, only to be stunned back into closing them once more. The new walls were massive! Tens, even perhaps hundreds of times vaster than those he had just passed through! Carefully opening his eyes again, this time one at a time to avoid being blinded, he looked out upon his new world once more. The walls rose on all four sides of him, yet were flat on the ground and roughly the same up above him. Unlike the inside of his egg, which had been perfectly smooth before he cracked it, horns grew from the top and the bottom of the cave. Large sheathes of green scales that were strangely... fluffy, would blanket parts of these pillars as damp water flowed down from above.

Looking around him, he saw strange round horns interspersed throughout the cavern. There were 8 of these perfectly oval horns, that looked strangely familiar to him. Looking down, he suddenly realized what they were: more eggs! Surprised by the revelation, but neither excited nor unhappy at the prospect of gaining more beings like himself, he remembered what he had begun doing before he was shocked by the vast new world around him. Pushing outward with his front legs, he used his upper shoulders and back as leverage and cracked the egg open completely, shattering it into dozens of pieces.

Pulling himself out of the wreckage of his egg, he stands up on shaky, untested legs. Moving forward to take his first step and explore his new world, he tumbles forward as his legs buckle causing him to faceplant into a nearby horn -from-the-ground. Fortunately, although embarrassing, through this accident, he discovers an interesting property of the green, fuzzy scales: they are actually quite soft!

Leaving his head there for a few moments to assure himself that the motion had been entirely intentional, he eventually pulls himself up again and tries to take his first step again. With a successful first step, he slowly makes a second, followed by a third, and finally, with his fourth step, he let his legs fall into a natural pattern as he slowly walked over to the nearest egg. Observing it, he noticed that, unlike his own, this one has very thin veins of blue spread throughout its surface. Looking over to the other unopened eggs, he noticed that colors also spread through them. The most common color is blue with three of the eggs being that color, with red coming second with two eggs, the green, black, and gold with one egg each. Looking down at the remnants of his egg, he could see that surely enough, it too had a color: a sharp white like that of his scales.

Momentarily entertaining thoughts of helping his siblings out of their eggs, the hatchling is interrupted by the strange scent that awoke him wafting by his nose once more. He turned his head and pinpointed the direction it originated from. Slowly, and cautiously, he threaded his way through the pointy horns, until he finally reached the source of the odor. Lying there, frozen in place, he saw a sight that horrified him.

Hidden from his previous scans of the cave by the pointy horns and a small groove in the ground, there lay a ninth egg. Unlike the eight other pristine eggs, this one was shattered open, not from within, but rather pushed down upon from the outside. Through this hole the not-him within the egg had been pulled out and was currently being feasted upon by six small creatures. Unlike him and the not him, these creatures had no wings on their back. Instead, they had six legs and were covered in what almost looked like a brown version of the green fuzzy scales. Pulling off the not-him’s green scales to reach the meat below, they slowly tore it apart, rendering it a mockery of what it had once been.

Meanwhile, a far bigger brown-fuzzscale was slowly making its way over to the nearest egg, that of the remaining green. Somehow, it had not noticed his hatching or his stealthy approach and was unhurriedly continuing on its journey. Unlike the small brown-fuzzscales, it only walked on its four back legs. The two front legs arched up and ended in thick, blunt claws. He concluded that this was how it shattered the egg’s walls and pulled out the not-him within.

Rage began to overtake him. HOW COULD IT EAT THE NOT-MES! HOW DARE IT? This ends NOW! He roared out a challenge and dashed forward, towards the small brown-fuzzscales first. Being the size of his front foot, they were easy prey. Arriving, in one dash behind them, he grabbed the closest one in his jaws and swung it from side to side, shredding it to pieces. As it ripped apart, a red spray flooded the air and fell upon his tongue. As he tasted it for the first time, he remembered that it was the same as the strange scent. Now however, with the taste, he remembered its name from one of his dreams: blood.

Going into a frenzy as he recollects this, he swallows the piece of the cave lurker, the brown-fuzzscale’s name that floated up from the depths of his memory. A red veil descends across his vision and, turning to the remaining five cave lurkers, he quickly bit down upon the next and tore the rest apart with his claws. They had been completely helpless as they were brutally killed in under twenty heartbeats.

He left the corpses of the four uneaten cave lurkers alone, and turned his attention back to the large adult lurker. He was shocked to see that it had already reached the green’s egg! It had completely ignored the plight of its young, or perhaps was too dumb to have even noticed, and continued onward. Now, it was slowly raising its front legs above its head, readying itself to make the fatal blow that would shatter the not-him’s egg. Desperate to stop it, he launched himself forward and slammed into its side. Causing it to jolt to the side, he turned a shell-shattering blow into a glancing one that merely left a few cracks.

The adult cave lurker screeched with rage. Slowly turning to the side, it bashed its lumbering body into the hatchling sending him spiraling away. As it turned to face him, the hatchling finally saw the lurker’s jaw. It was a grotesque affair, with multiple rows of sharp teeth and hanging pieces of dragon meat. Unfortunately for the cave lurker, instead of the fear its jaw provoked in lesser creatures, the hatchling’s draconic instincts flared up at the sight. His anger for the monster that would dare to eat the flesh of dragons only grew, but not to frenzying levels as before. This opponent was nearly twice as large as he was and far more dangerous than the infants he had faced before. The two upraised legs could shatter his skull just as easily as an eggshell, and for all the contempt he held for those gnashing jaws, they were still a formidable weapon.

Strafing to the right, he pulled the lurker away from his sibling’s egg and into more open territory where he could circle around it. His mind worked in overtime as he tried his hardest to remember the dreams he had on hunting. According to what he did remember, when fighting something bigger than himself, he should never take attacks head on, thus moving to open space so he could dodge with ease. Other than that, he was left to his own devices as the memories receded.

Snarling, he feinted forward. The cave spider did not fall for it and instead began to slowly push ahead, into the open space. The hatchling allowed it to do so and smiled in satisfaction as his first trap was sprung. Slowly at first, but speeding up quickly, he moved around the lurker in increasingly smaller circles. As he got closer and closer, the lumbering beast could no longer keep up with him. Growling with glee, he jumped onto its side and latched on to the back of its throat. Using his back claws as leverage, he also tore away at the lurker’s front leg joints with his front legs and slowly worked on snapping the creature's’ neck.

Unfortunately, the lurker was too large to die immediately. Showing surprising agility for a member of its species, it turned and slammed itself into a nearby horn. Pinned between the lurker’s bulk and the horn, the hatchling felt his ribs crack, but not break, and he squealed in pain. Two answering roars sounded furiously from the far distance. Although they seemed familiar, he feared that he could have mistaken them for allies. Terrified of any foe massive enough to produce such a sound, he decided: This battle must end quickly.

Still pinned into the wall and being slowly crushed, he reached forward with his free front claws and tore at the lurker’s eyes. Screeching in agony, it let up the pressure on him for a second. That second was all he needed. Scrambling back up to his position, he once again bit down on its throat, but this time, instead of tearing at it crushing legs, he reached forward and clawed its remaining eyes.

At first, the lurker struggled mightily, bucking and almost tossing the hatchling off, but soon enough, it slowly but surely devolved into its death throes until finally falling onto the ground, unmoving. After continuing to clamp down on the beast's neck for a few moments to assure himself it was dead, the hatchling released his death hold and trumpeted his triumph into the air.

With a satisfied air about him, he began to bite into the fur, that was the word he was missing, that covered the beast to get at its meat, only to remember the two grand roars. Turning his head slightly, he looked up rather sheepishly at the two imposing figures standing over him.

To his left stood a huge Silver Not-him. She, for he instinctively knew she was not male, Was elegant and beautiful. Her spade-shaped head was quirked to the side as soft welcoming eyes looked down on him in what seemed to be relief and joy.

To his right, stood a far more imposing figure. Taller than the female Not-him by a fair margin, the male had to stoop his neck down to his shoulders in order to enter the cave at all. His scales were a rich Bronze and his head was far more rectangular. Two sets of massive horns grew from his head, and his huge bulk took up a massive space in the small cave. His expression held only joy and pride.

“Can you hear me my son?” A gentle voice whispered in his mind. The hatchling looked around in confusion. The voice had whispered into his thoughts but neither of the Not-hims had moved their jaw.

A gentle chuckle resounds and the voice continues,” Thank goodness you can hear me! I was worried the lurker had hurt you!” Relief was evident in her thoughts, and the young hatchling found himself comforted by it. With the fight over, the adrenaline and emotion that had kept him going from the moment he hatched finally faded away. Realizing that no other cave lurkers could get to him with these giants around, he carefully positions himself on the adult’s corpse, yawns mightily, and falls fast asleep, completely ignoring his parents.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Watching the hatchling fall asleep, the two new parents slump against one another in relief. Another couple of dragons had wanted to raise a brood nearby forcing the two of the to fly out and face them. Luckily, it had not turned violent and invading couple had been evicted without a fight after seeing two greater dragons set down on their doorstep. After assuring themselves that the couple had left their territory for good, they rushed back home to check on their eggs. Unfortunately for their smallest unhatched child, they had not been quick enough.

Keening softly at the sight of the shattered egg, the female dragon rushes over to check on it, only to fall, sobbing, to her knees when she realized there is no hope for the hatchling inside. Walking over somberly, the male attempted to soothe her.

“It’s okay Arina… It wasn’t your fault. Even the oldest of dams lose eggs to cave lurkers.” Bumping her softly in the side, he nuzzled her gently.

“But, Arthran, maybe if I was more thorough, maybe if I’d come…” she replied tearfully, drawing away from him.

“No!,” Arthran replied forcefully. Wrapping a massive wing around her, he drew her close. “Ari, that’s the past. You know very well that not even a dragon can turn back time. Look, here and now! We have a strong, brave son! We can rightfully sing that from the moment he was hatched he has defended his family and hunted his foes! He’s a white dragon too, just like your grandfather!”

“Yeah, you’re right.” she replied, smiling with just a tinge of sadness remaining as she cuddles into her mate’s side looking down proudly on her son’s sleeping form. Quickly replacing those emotions however is complete panic.

Arthran felt her tense close to him. He looked back over at her and worriedly asked,” What? What's wrong Ari?”

“OUR SON JUST HAD HIS FIRST KILL!” Arina answered in a panic, pulling away and pacing back and forth.

Still uncomprehending, Arthran tilted his head to the side and gave her a questioning look.

Arina sighed in exasperation.”Our. Son. Just. Had. His. First. Kill. Our firstborn, just finished his first hunt.”

Eyes bulging Arthran joined quickly her in her panic. Among dragons, it was customary to give hatchlings their name only after they completed their first hunt. Of course, according to the same tradition, the name had to be given immediately after the parents had assured themselves it was the hatchling itself that had made the kill, not simply stumbled across the corpse. Normally, this was not an issue: Hatchlings stayed with their parents inside their birth cave for a few months before daring to step foot out into the world above, let alone hunt. This gave the parents plenty of time to find a name befitting of the young dragon’s character; Time which of course Arthran and Arina did not have.

“Morranern?” Arthran tentatively suggested.

Arina scoffed,” Morranern? You want our son to be known as the killer of cave lurkers for his entire life? What kind of mate would he win with that Name?”

“Forslan?” He offered.

“Brave hunter? We can’t just name him that! Every pair of Lesser dragons in our hold has a son with that name!”

Slightly frustrated by her obstinance, he replies,” Well If my ideas aren’t acceptable, why don’t you come up with a name?”

Still pacing, Arina looked around the cave for inspiration. A name was one of the most important aspects of a dragon’s life. Imbued with the power of the language of magic, it would shape their growth, personality, and even their choices of evolution. As such, Arina knew that it was her greatest duty as a parent to find a proper one for her son. Her gaze settled upon the nearest egg.

Walking over to it, she saw that it had been cracked: most likely by the cave lurker. But how is it not shattered? A cave lurker of that size should have broken through with ease. Unless… She followed the path the fight took in her mind. The lurker shattered the first egg and let its children to feed on it. Then, it walked over to the second egg and had to have been interrupted by her son! Inspiration struck her, and she excitedly turned to Arthran.

“Israkur! That will be his name!”

“Are you certain? That is a huge name to grow into.” Arthran replied with a slight hint of doubt.

“I am,” Arina answered, nodding. “See here? He did not kill the lurker for food. He killed it to defend the egg! He deserves the name ‘Protector of Family’,” She continued, turning to show Arthran the crack on the second green egg.

Nodding in acceptance, Arthran joined her by the sleeping form of their son. Joining their mana together, the two of them declared in the Language of Magic,” As the ones who brought you into this world, we claim the right to define you. Through our power, from this day forth, you Shall be known as Israkur!”

The weight of their magic settled down upon the young hatchling. Burrowing within him, the magic joined force with his hearts and bound them together, shaping the identity of his soul. Unconsciously letting loose a small roar in his sleep, Israkur accepted the name given to him by his parents.