Dragon's Song: Dragon Eggs, #5

Chapter 1: Sums

The newest dragon egg was now in a cage beside Violet’s.  Rose eyed the silent egg as her son and the other Deinonychus antirrhopus child played together, leaping on top of each other and biting each other’s tails.

A telepathic squabble broke out between the two.

Violet’s tail looked like prey!  Virgil would pounce on it!

Violet’s tail was not prey!  She was scared of Virgil’s pouncing!  She would smack him in the face with it!

Whack!

Rose chuckled.  It was amazing just how easily those two could be entertained by the simplest of games.  She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised; they were only five months old and three months old, after all.

Whack!  Virgil would hit Violet in the face with his tail, too!

Wham!  Violet liked playing tail face!

Thwack!  Virgil liked playing tail face, too!

As the two merrily continued their game, Rose found her mind and her eyes wandering over to the mysterious silent egg.

You woke up a few weeks ago, she thought, but unlike the other three who have awakened, you did not bond with a parent immediately, nor even seem that interested in doing so.  Who are you?  What sort of person are you?

It was a question Rose had wondered many times while in the presence of the egg, but, as always, there was no response.  The tiny female in the egg had woken up once while Rose had been here, but she had left behind only a feathery impression of hunger before her consciousness had drifted off again.

Which was another fascinating question Rose badly wanted the answer to: Did dragons in the egg feel hunger?  Theoretically they shouldn’t, since they should have all of the nutrients they needed until hatching, but Virgil had made vague references to hunger a few times while in the egg, which seemed to imply that eggbound fetuses might be familiar with the sensation.

Then again, those references from him might have only been an echo of his ancestors’ memories.  Such secondhand experiences might have taught him to remember how the sensation felt, even if he had not yet experienced it personally.

That was one thing that was deeply confusing about raising a member of a telepathic species.  Sometimes she wondered how much he had learned by himself, and how much he had learned from his ancestors’ memories.

She hoped there weren’t essential pieces of knowledge that Deinonychus antirrhopus society had led parents to hide from their very young children until they were older.

She hoped he wasn’t missing core memories that would be necessary for him developmentally.

There were no adults left of his species.  There were only a few hundred eggs scattered across the country, and it wasn’t even guaranteed that all of them would hatch in the same generation.  While Virgil could pluck Rose’s memories out of her head, whether or not she wanted him to, that did not mean she’d have all the knowledge he would need as he grew into adulthood.

There was a feathery impression of stirring, and a wispy impression of hunger.  Rose’s head turned immediately to the egg in the cage beside Violet’s, but nothing more happened.

She sighed.

A terrible scream shrieked from Violet’s cage.

Virgil had bitten Violet’s tail!  Violet was very sad!  Violet’s tail hurt!  Violet’s tail had been bitten!

Rose spun around in intense frustration.  Virgil!  No biting!

But Violet’s tail had looked like prey.  Virgil wanted to hunt prey.  Virgil would pounce again!

Violet let out another blood-curdling shriek.

Virgil! Rose shouted.  Stop it!

Virgil sulked and drew back.  His mother was thinking that if he didn’t stop, he’d have to go home right now.  His mother was mean.  He wanted to play tail face again.

Yes, Rose said with annoyance.  Tail face is fine.

Virgil would hit Violet in the face with his tail!  Virgil was hitting Violet in the face with his tail!  Virgil thought it was funny!

Violet thought Virgil was mean for biting her tail!  Violet didn’t want to play anymore!  Violet thought the tail in the face was funny.  Violet was going to hit Virgil in the face with her tail, too!  Violet was hitting Virgil in the face with her tail!

Thwack!  Thwack!  Thwack!  Thwack!  The telepathic equivalent of mischievous giggles rose up as the infants went back to being amused with each other.

Rose sighed and checked her wristwatch.  She’d promised Henry they’d stay out of the apartment for at least two hours after he got home from class, which would hopefully give him enough time