Chapter 3 - Birth of a Life

The sun started to show its face, a ray of light shining on Daniel’s face. His eyes opened gradually, and a yawn escaped from his mouth. Rubbing his eyes, he jumped off his bed.

“When did I move to my room?” he wondered.

He lifted his right arm and turned the silver door knob, heading towards his father’s study. The half-open door welcomed him with a view of his father working. Sensing his son’s gaze, Evan put down his dip pen and looked up from his paper.

“Good morning, dad.”

In his half-awoken state, Daniel walked over and hugged his father; Evan’s strong arms wrapped around him reciprocally.

“Good morning.”

Crack.

The young boy’s blue eyes drifted over to the eggs at the side of the room. One of the eggs had cracked loudly and forcefully.

“Can I help it out?”

Evan thought about his son’s question seriously. He remembered hearing that it was not advised to help a bird hatch from an egg, lest it damages the blood vessels all around the egg. Therefore, instead of answering Daniel's question, he picked his son up and walked towards the eggs.

Squatting down next to the eggs, he put his Qi into the crack of the egg, bypassing the natural Qi-absorbing barrier formed by the egg shell. Momentarily startled by the vitality radiating from the soon-to-be-born little dragon, he was assured that it would be safe to aid the baby creature in its endeavor to break out from its shell. Turning to his curious child, Evan nodded and was witness to the instantaneous apparition of a gigantic smile.

Daniel squatted down next to his father, quite unsure of how he should help the hatching creature. After a short while, as he reached toward the egg, a loud sound vibrated across the room, the crack giving way to a sapphire head and large glistening emerald eyes. Another crack gave way to streaks of red donning the now-visible front arms, making for quite a sight. The duo lost their breath, not unlike when people see extremely beautiful gemstones.

The dragon opened its mouth to roar, announcing its hatching to the world. But what came out of its mouth was more similar to a puppy's endearing bark than anything else. The father and son duo could not help but feel their heart melt.

The little hatchling curiously tended its head forward to inspect Daniel, dislodging the egg from its stabilizing contraption. Losing balance, the baby creature started rolling to side. Panic could clearly be seen in its luminous eyes. Daniel precipitated himself to catch the infant. Although the baby would not have any physical consequences from the fall, the ten-year-old did not want the cute infant’s first experience outside of the egg to be that of a fall. The green eyes relaxed in the arms of the young protector and rubbed its head to his chest.

The extremities of Evan’s lips could not help but go up as he watched this scene. But what happened next stunned the father. The dragon brought its head down, lightly bit at the top of one of its fingers, and tended the bloody tip to Daniel. The child was confused and panicked at this seemingly self-mutilating action. In all its childish innocence, the dragon had offered the highest form of contract that could be formed between beasts. Evan had never read or heard of this happening with humans.

“Give him a drop of your blood!” Evan exclaimed and unsheathed his sword.

While not understanding why, Daniel let his father poke his finger with the tip of his sword, wincing at the sight of a liquid red ball forming. The dragon put its own finger against Daniel's. The two drops of blood mixed and the two children fell unconscious as a feeling of warmth and comfort swept through them.