Chapter Text
The first thing that registered was the warmth.
It’s dark. Damp as well.
I’d struggle, but the energy to move isn’t available. It doesn’t take long for me to drift away again.
Noises and light seem to filter through a thick wall, and my mind seems to skip like an old record, fleeting moments of consciousness slipping through my fingers like sand. It’s warm, isn’t that all I need?
When I become aware again, I notice that my limbs feel odd, some bending at the wrong angles and others gaining a strange weight. I can feel my own heartbeat. It doesn’t feel right. It’s… too large, too strong, like my lungs have been pushed aside to make room for it.
Speaking of my lungs, I can’t really feel them moving. It’s odd, but I can still ‘breathe’ like this. I’m not sure how. I probably should be drowning.
…
I’ve decided I don’t like any of this.
I squirm against the fluid I can feel around me, but it’s like trying to move through pudding. Something new twinges on my back, muscles flexing where there definitely wasn’t any before.
It’s not a painful movement, but I freeze from the feeling. That is not me. Humans don’t have unknown things on their backs, and now that I think about it, they tend not to exist in dark, damp spaces unless they’re a baby.
Did I… get reincarnated somehow?? When did I die? How did I die?
Nope. Let’s not think too hard on that.
Calm down.
I take a moment to ‘breathe’ and get my thoughts in order.
Okay.
First things first, figure out what I am. Second, get out of… wherever I am. Third, prioritize food, water, and shelter. Then I can have an existential crisis and process… all this.
I stretch out with senses unfamiliar to me, blindly trying to get a sense of what I’ve got. I can feel something along where my pinky finger used to be. There’s a couple of pointy nubs I can feel with my tongue, along with two oddly placed things that also feel like teeth but different.
There’s muscles attached to them, but I don’t want to experiment until I’m out of here. I want to see what I’m experimenting with, after all.
There’s a tail of some kind attached to me, and it takes me a bit to figure out how to move it. There’s some odd muscles there too.
…
At least I can confirm that I still don’t like it.
I reach out with hands(?) that feel wrong, finding a shell keeping me contained.
Okay. Could be worse. I could be suffocating. I push against it to firm resistance, it doesn’t even budge.
I don’t fight it, not yet. So far, I know that I’m in an egg of some kind and I’m definitely not human. Whatever species I am is likely carnivorous, I didn’t feel any flat bits for my teeth. And going off of bird logic to judge on how much space I have, I’m probably not going to get out of this place immediately.
I think I can afford to doze for a while. I’ve slept a lot already, but it can’t hurt to try and nap off the looming dread hanging over my neck. Surely if I sleep, I’ll have magically processed everything by the time I wake up.
Or maybe I’ll sleep long enough to develop an egg tooth. That’d work too.
Well shoot. Surprise, surprise, sleeping did just about nothing. In fact, I think I’m stressing out more now that I’m awake again.
I’m also really freaking hungry.
How did I not feel it sooner? It’s like my stomach’s been put in a hydraulic press with spikes!
And… the egg. Is it more cramped in here??
Nevermind. That’s not important. I need to get out, preferably before I start starving.
I do my best to struggle against my container. I claw with fingers that feel too stiff, slam my face against the walls with a head that feels too long, bite with teeth that can’t quite get a good grip.
Okay.
It’s fine. I’m fine.
I run my tongue over my teeth, feeling at the flat parts again. Right. Maybe those are my ‘egg teeth’? I don’t have any other options, other than the Thing Attached To My Tail.
Best to play it safe. I’d rather mess with unknown factors that are directed away from me than the unknown factor that is currently curled up near my limbs.
It takes me a try or two to flex the proper muscles and- HOLY SH-SUGAR-BITS WHAT JUST CAME OUT OF MY FACE- HOLY CARP IT CRACKED THE THING-
I yank my head back, hearing the sharp crack of eggshell and oW WHY IS IT SO BRIGHT-
It takes me a good couple of blinks to rid myself of the stars, and then I take another good couple of blinks to register what I’m seeing.
Dragon eggs. Which means there’s actual dragons somewhere about.
There’s eggs everywhere, myriads of colors and littered about like pinecones. My cramping stomach sinks and suddenly, I’m not feeling too hungry anymore. More nauseated. Because these aren’t just any ol’ scaly winged lizard eggs, these are deathgripper eggs.
I look down at my arms, though ‘limbs’ would be a more accurate term. Sugar Honey Iced Tea. I’m a freaking deathgripper.
I’m suddenly tempted to return to being blissfully in the dark and unaware. Reject existential crisis’, return to egg.
…
Darn, humor’s not fixing the freaking shaking.
Welp, when in doubt, try to plan. Let’s categorize what we know. A, dragons are everywhere and I’m probably in HTTYD, or a universe adjacent to it. B, I’m a child, specifically of a dragon that is known for eating other dragons. C…
C, at least some species of deathgrippers are cannibalistic at birth.
I scan the surroundings again, slower this time. No food. No parent. No hatchlings other than me.
(Was the mom killed? Am I the first?)
I take a deep breath of stale cave air. (Better than egg air, I suppose.)
No blood, I think. Though I’ve never really been good with smells. Not to mention, I probably register things different because my body is different and new and-
Stop. Leave that for another time.
I crawl out of the egg, uncomfortably aware of every sound I make as I take a glance at my limbs. (Wrong, wrong, everything’s wrong and I’m HUNGRY and I want to go home.)
Stop thinking about it.
I’m… red. Firetruck red. Well… at least it’s my favorite color. Could be worse.
My stomach twists again, empty and growling and reminding me- That food is more important than focusing on things I can’t control.
I snort through my nose, shaking myself like a dog in the hopes that it’ll distract me.
I’m the First. The eldest. (What a new feeling.)
Planning time. First, learn how to use my limbs. Second, find food. Third, practice some kind of combat in the case my new siblings are cannibalistic. Fourth(?), obtain food for siblings as well so that I’m not their first choice of meal.
Ok. My priorities are set, here’s to hoping I don’t somehow die in five minutes.