When the young dragon next awoke, he found himself curled up below his mother’s wing. He was rather comfortable, but the dryness of his mouth and the alluring sound of the trickling water rolling down the cave walls was just barely enough to get him to move.

He pried his way out from under his mother’s wing and hopped over the edge of the nest. Some parts of it were pointy and would cut him if he tried climbing up, so he learned to avoid them. He jumped up onto the side of the nest, grabbing onto the edge with his foreclaws, and kicking himself up with his legs. The nest was built to house his mother and a few dragon hatchlings, so it was quite a bit of trouble for him to climb out.

While scrambling his way over the walls of the nest, the young dragon poked its foot on one of the pointy metal sticks embedded into it. He wanted to cry out, but he knew it would wake up his mother. She would get him, find his cut, and make it better, but he was getting older. He needed to be tough. He gave his cut a lick. That’s what his mother always did, and that always made it feel better. After a few seconds, the pain went away, and he turned to face the cave.

He didn’t leave the nest alone very often. The darkness didn’t bother him, but the things hiding in it did. They didn’t dare go near the nest, but the stream was far away. Far enough where some scary things might try and get him. He patted his foreclaws on the edge of the nest wall, debating whether or not to take the jump.

His thirst overpowered his fear. Besides, he was a dragon. Dragons are the strongest things in the world. If anything tried to get him, he would just zap them and they would run away. He took the jump off the nest, and landed face-first into the stone, barely able to brace himself. It didn’t hurt as bad as cutting his foot, so he just shook it off.

Normally his mother would take him to the pond, so he had a bit of trouble finding it. He tried following the sound of the water, but it traveled through the walls of the cave, so all he ended up doing was getting himself lost. There was less and less light making its way into the cave the further in he went, and while he could see pretty well in the dark, he couldn’t see nearly as well as the things living deep in the caves. They screeched and hissed, and saw with sounds where there was no light.

The first sign he knew he was lost was when he could barely see. The pond had a hole over it that let in light, so it was never so dark that he couldn’t see on the way there. Also, the deeper he trudged into the cave, the more and more noises he heard that weren’t the water. However, the sound of the stream was getting louder, so he kept going. He had to find it eventually. He was really thirsty, and he didn’t want to go back to the nest with nothing. He trusted his ears, and kept heading towards the source of the sound.

When he finally smelled the water in the air, it was so dark he could barely see his claws in front of him. He charged some lightning in his mouth, which let out a little light. Enough for him to find his way to the pond. It was a different one than normal, much farther away from the nest, but he had found it on his own. He was proud of that, so he discharged his electricity, and stuck his face into the pond, taking multiple big gulps until he was satisfied.

The young dragon pulled his face from the water, and shook his head dry. That hit the spot. He started charging his electricity again, and it provided just enough light for him to see that he was no longer alone.

Hercules bats are native to the deep caves of the Southern Forest. They are given their name for their immense size, relative to other bats. At three feet tall, with a wingspan of a little over 8 feet, their size may scare many inexperienced adventurers. However, this fear is unwarranted. Hercules bats are not very territorial and would never attack a human. It is advised that you not let any small pets or familiars too far away from you. Hercules bats predate on small animals, like mice, rats, other bats, and even small cats, if given the chance. Therefore, they are classified as a threat level zero for adventurers. Scary looking, but they present no danger.

For the 8-inch tall baby dragon, the story was different. He threw himself to the side with all his force to dodge the dive of the bat, tumbling and rolling around. Even with that, it was barely enough to avoid getting grabbed. He was able to pull himself up just before the bat went in for another dive. He thought about running, but remembered what he was. He was a dragon! What kind of dragon would he be if he ran away from something as weak as a bat? Instead, he stood his ground, building up the lightning in his throat. Just as the bat swooped in, he unleashed it, and a loud crack echoing for seconds within the cave walls, illuminating the surrounding area. The bat, stunned by the shock, plummeted to the ground. It had already been diving, and it hit the hard stone floor with a crack. It would not be getting back up soon, if ever.

But it wasn’t alone. In the flash of light, the young dragon saw the roof of the cave was covered in bats. It didn’t matter that he was a dragon anymore. He needed to run. He took off as fast as his little legs could take him, but it wasn’t nearly as fast as the bats could fly. In only a moment, the mass of screeching and hissing caught up to him. One grabbed into his heels with its fangs, and another went for his head, catching his horns instead. They both lifted him into the air and pulled him in different directions. He shrieked out, calling for help, and firing off bolts of electricity at random. He started charging lightning, but instead of releasing it through his mouth, he let it course through his scales. The two bats clutching him plummeted to the ground, dragging him with them. They crashed into the ground with a thud, the dragon’s fall slightly broken by the bodies of the two bats, but one of their jaws still dug into his leg. He pried it open and pulled his leg free, whimpering with every step. This hurt way more than when he cut his leg on the pointy metal in the nest. It took everything for him to not curl up and start crying. He ran off, limping every time he stepped with his injured leg. The bats were still too fast, and they were on him quickly. They swarmed over him, and he stopped, curling up and protecting his neck from their bites.

Through the beating of their wings and the bites as they fought over which of them got to eat him, the young dragon charged his electricity. He poured everything he had into this last shock, hopefully enough to get all the bats to go away. He channeled it through his scales again, but before he could discharge it, a boom echoed throughout the cave, and lightning arced through all the bats surrounding him. A claw came through the darkness and grabbed him, carrying him away from the bats much faster than he could do alone. The bats didn’t bother giving chase, immediately turning around and heading back for their section of the cave.

Once it determined they were safe, the larger dragon landed, lightly placing the young one onto the ground. With no reason not to anymore, the young dragon curled up on the ground whimpering, with tears flowing down its face. He looked up, hoping to see the face of his mother, but finding his older brother instead. He wasn’t nearly as big as his mother, but was still much larger than the young dragon, at almost 7 feet tall. His older brother sat down, staring at him with a worried look.

“Why did you leave? Me and mom have been searching for you for ages!” His older brother worried in the draconic language. He wasn’t old enough to understand, though, only getting more stressed by the tone of his brother’s voice.

His brother lifted him up and placed him on his back.

“Hold on. We’re going back to the nest.”

The young dragon clung onto his brother’s mane as he sped through the tunnels of the cave. He squinted as his brother turned a corner into a chamber filled with light. His brother stopped, and the young dragon let go, sliding down to the ground. There, he found his mother waiting for him.

She couldn’t fit in the tunnel, so she had to wait and worry as her two sons disappeared into the dark depths of the cave. He ran over to her, and she craned her neck down to meet him. She scanned him and noticed the deep punctures passing through his thigh, gasping. She immediately gave it the best treatment she could: mommy kisses. Luckily for them, she was a dragon, so his wounds closed up shortly. However, he didn’t stop crying. While the physical damage was all healed, the mental damage was all there.

“Shhh, it’s okay. You’re safe. I’m here. They can’t get you anymore.” She cooed, curling up around the young dragon’s trembling form. She turned her head to his brother.

“What happened?”

“There were bats swarming him. I attacked them and brought him back here.”

“Where was he?” She quizzed. Her voice bounced throughout the much larger cave chamber.

“By the lake in the cave, the one deep in the ground. I don’t know what he was doing there.

“It’s a good thing I caught his scent so quick. I barely got to him in time.” The older dragon bragged.

“Be quiet, Obsidian, or I may need to change your name.”

“Please don’t. I rather like mine now.”

“Good.” She turned down and rested her head next to the young dragon. He scooched closer to her and leaned against her snout.

“What am I going to do with you…”

“Maybe you should name him trouble, or tremble.” His brother chimed in.

“Did I not tell you to be quiet? I should’ve named you babble.”

She nudged the young dragon up and they all started walking back to the nest.

The dragon’s mother sighed.

“He’s barely over a moon old. You weren’t much better at that age, you know. He’ll earn his name once he reaches a year old, same as you.”

The young dragon trotted along, blissfully ignorant of the conversation between his two family members. He wasn’t thirsty anymore, and he was the center of attention, and that made him happy.

Once they got back to the nest, his brother took a small hop, clearing the wall, and his mother grabbed him by the scruff with her teeth and gently lifted the young dragon over the side of the nest, leaving no scratches despite her razor-like teeth.

The clattering of armor and shuffling of feet caused the two older dragons to turn their heads to the mouth of the cave. In walked an adventurer party, composed of an archer, mage, cleric, and warrior, all clad in enchanted armor. The older dragons left the nest and readied their guard. The young dragon poked his head up to get a view of the fight.

His older brother started off with a blast of lightning, but the magic surrounding the human’s armor pushed it away, turning it in a different direction, striking the cave wall instead. The mage tried casting a spell, but before she had the chance, his brother was on top of her. In an instant, his claws slashed across her body, and she collapsed. The cleric tried to heal her, but was too late. She was already gone. The warrior charged for him, and was met with a claw swipe of his own. The warrior blocked the attack with his shield, and went in for a swipe of his own. Sparks flew into the air as the sword clanked against Obsidian’s scales, leaving a shallow scratch across them as the sword passed by.

And that was why he was named obsidian. His scales were hard as stone, and his claws were sharp as an obsidian knife’s blade. Within a moment, the warrior was pinned down, and Obsidian cut his neck with his claws.

The archer fired volleys of magically enhanced arrows at the dragon’s mother. Some lodged into her scales, and others merely bounced off. She tried crushing the archer under her claws, but he was nimble, dodging and rolling away just before she could reach him. He fired an arrow glowing with purple energy straight up into the air, and it curved its path, finding its way into her eye. She was able to swat it out of the air before it landed, and gave up on attacking the archer, shifting her focus to the cleric. She could feel magic moving from him to the archer, speeding him up. With a single stomp, she crushed the cleric into the ground, and the connection between the two adventurers was severed. She went for a swipe across the ground this time, and the archer couldn’t dodge. He was knocked into the air and slammed into the cave wall. The crunch of bone suggested that this encounter was over. An underpowered party fighting opponents that far outmatched them.

The two dragons took anything shiny or metal from the corpses, then removed them from the cave, cleaned themselves of any blood, and got back into the nest.

“Humans seem to be attacking more and more lately. I fear we may need to find a new cave.”

“What? Why? They’re all so weak, and they always bring shiny things with them!”

“How many times must I tell you not to speak on things you do not know of? These humans were weak. But one of them almost shot out my eye, and they weren’t hurt by our lightning. You don’t know humans. The next ones that come will be stronger; their weapons will pierce our scales soon. We also have your brother to worry about. His scales are still soft, and he is too small to fight a human.” The mother dragon scolded.

“Whatever. Remind me why we can’t just eat them? I’m hungry.”

“If you are hungry, go hunt some food. I’m sure your brother is too. We do not eat smart creatures. It is wrong. Would you like to be eaten?”

“Well, I mean, if something were to…” The older dragon stammered.

“That’s what I thought. Now go get you and your brother some food.”