Disclaimer: Temeraire and all other belong to Miss Naomi Novik
The Egg
Ever since Catherine was so foolish as to marry that ruddy sailor, Lily had known that there will be consequences to meet, but even so, she could have never imagined how awful these consequences would be. First, Catherine preferred to spend too much time with her new husband, thus depriving Lily from her presence. Second, even she was with Lily, she was constantly ill. That awful captain should have thought better before burdening her with an egg! But then, he was not a real captain, was he? Real captains were captaining dragons, not some poor ships. Anyway, if he had decided to give Catherine an egg, he could have at least done it the right way, without causing her too much discomfort. Lily did not like seeing Catherine fat, and bloated, and pale.
But it turned out that things could be worse. Much worse, because when the egg was hatched, everything became an awful mess that Lily did not like at all. And she did not like the egg either.
The egg was obsessive. It was constantly crying, ceasing only when sleep overcame it. It constantly wanted attention – Catherine's attention – and it did not care at all that she needed to rest and eat. Which was worse, it seemed to feed itself directly through Catherine's breasts, probably sucking her own food through her breasts. Lily would never understand why Catherine let it suck her. And it smelled! I was never smelly, Lily thought bitterly, and I've been well-behaved ever since I was first hatched, so why does Catherine prefer this strange egg? It only exhausted her further to hold it in her arms and rock it ceaselessly, when it wailed. And it never stopped wailing.
Lily had always found battles exhilarating – they were exciting and so on. Anyway, she had never fully enjoyed them – one might be killed in a battle and they were wounded on regular basis, - but she came to almost love them, because it was the only moment when Catherine was really and only hers, the way she had been before meeting the sailor. But when battles ended and they went back home, they were always there – that awful Captain Riley and the silly egg – and Catherine rushed to them, hugging them and asking how they were, and Lily resented them for that. She resented Catherine for that, too, if only a little.
Unfortunately, the egg seemed to be fascinated with Lily, always smiling and babbling in its stupid egg-ish way when it saw her. Catherine found that cute; Lily found it appalling. She was not something that the silly thing could drool upon… literally. But she had no choice, since Catherine often brought it to her head and pressed it to her muzzle. The egg made strange noises that showed excitement, and Lily barely kept herself from tossing her head aside, to escape its little fingers. At least there were five of them, so there was something that was right with the egg.
Later, when time passed, Lily found out that she did not dislike the egg so intently anymore.
The egg was amusing. It did not smell so much anymore – at least not the whole time – and it was trying to talk, really talk, and not just produce noises. It looked more human now, with its eyes being able to focus better and some hair starting to grow on its bald head. By that time, Lily had come to terms with the thought that the awful sailor and the egg would not leave and actually, they were not as bad as before. The sailor was trying, truly trying to be nice to her, even if it was only for Catherine's sake. And the egg was funny, when it was trying to walk for a first time, falling and standing up, headed for its mother, who was standing beside Lily.
"Good egg," Lily could not help but rumble when it reached them. Catherine laughed with pleasure, took it in her arms and held it close to Lily, who realized that she did not mind the little hand that was clumsily trying to stroke her hide – actually, it was more like hitting her but it was the intention that mattered, just like when the egg had offered her a piece of his bread, soaked in milk.
The egg was the only child nearby and somehow, all dragons in the camp took some liking to him – some of them stronger than others. Soon, it became quite a common site to walk into the boy watching the practices and later, talking to the dragons, snuggled against one or another's hide. Temeraire and Maximus told him about battles and what would be expected of him when he grew up and had a dragon of his own; Iskierka blew fire for him and hissed with all her spikes, because he enjoyed that immensely. One would think that the egg was as much the dragons' child as he was his parents'; every dragon nearby would die for him and would not hesitate to kill for him. So, it was not strange at all, when one night he sneaked out of his room and went to Lily's clearing. "I was bored," he said. "Mum and Dad are with Laurence, and Berkley, and Granby; they are celebrating Granby's endangerment," he announced. "Claire looks frightened, though; I think she's afraid of Iskierka. Why doesn't Iskierka like her?" he asked, stroking Lily's hide.
The dragon looked aside. "I think Iskierka likes her, Egg," she answered.
For all dragons and many humans in the training base, the boy was just Egg – a nickname that had almost replaced his given name. Actually, if someone called him by his own name, he probably won't even realize that they were talking to him.
"She doesn't," he insisted. "I've heard her. She thinks that Claire is a coward." They both knew that that was the biggest insult in Iskierka's book. "Why does she think so? I think that Claire is very nice."
"You would," Lily muttered and bowed her head within the easy reach of Egg's hand.
"She is," he said confidently. "Why does Iskierka dislike her so much? Is it jealousy?"
Startled, Lily turned her head to look at him. "Why on earth would you think that? Do you even know what jealousy means?"
"Well, no," Egg admitted. "But my Dad says that Iskierka is just being a jealous dragonet and that Claire should have patience. Dragons are always jealous, he said, but they overcome it."
"Did he, really?" Lily murmured. That awful sailor, talking as if he knew…
"Oh yes. And then Mum asked him what he meant, and he said 'Your dragon is a proof for that. You should take her for a flight tomorrow, you know.' Mum asked if he felt good, to make such a suggestion, and he said, 'I do. It's just, you've been having too much work her on the ground lately and as much as I would have liked to spend the morning with you, I don't want to upset Lily, just when she had decided to forgive me.' Mum looked at him as if she was trying not to laugh, and asked, 'Are you sure? She keeps calling you 'that awful sailor.' 'Yes,' Dad answered, 'but now she says it with love and besides, she omits the word 'stupid' that was always preceding the first two that you mentioned.' Lily, what does 'preceding' means?"
"Go before," she muttered, feeling Egg laying on the ground and snuggling close to her. Says it with love? What on earth was Captain Riley thinking? She spread a protective wing over the boy's sturdy body. "Sleep now. Close your eyes, Egg."
He looked at her, his eyes shining brightly in the moonlight. "Are you angry?"
"No. Go to sleep already!"
Egg finally settled beside her. "Good night, Lily," he murmured sleepily.
"Good night, Egg," she answered distractedly.
Decided to forgive the awful sailor? Ha! As if!
–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Here we are – Lily's story is over. What do you think? Be good and review.
3