Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 66904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66904 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 223(@300wpm)
“Most saurians in Grave City are hatched in the hatchery, and then raised in the nursery,” I explain.
“Parents don’t raise their children?”
“Servants do, sometimes. But most females lay their eggs and leave. The nursery is responsible for raising most of the saurians your crew knows. Myself, Alpha Thorn, and Enforcer Avel are all products of the nursery. This is what Wrath wants to avoid with his breeding program.”
“This is what you want to stop too, isn’t it?”
She’s perceptive.
“I was not well treated in the nursery. My eyes and temperament made me stand out in ways the nursemaids did not appreciate. I ran away when I was very young.” Re-telling my story in such an understatement is the only way to maintain composure and keep the pain from being evident. Somehow, she sees it anyway.
She puts her small human hand on me and looks at me with large round eyes, still watery from the expression of her own pain.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” she says. “My parents couldn’t protect me from the world either. They tried, but they died when I was young, and then a series of very bad things happened to me. My whole life, all I’ve ever wanted was to be safe and to belong. And now I’m not safe, and the only thing I ever belonged to, the crew, is gone.”
“That is not entirely true,” I tell her, patting her sore cheeks in what I hope will be a good reminder. “You belong to me.”
She blushes, and a little smile appears on her face. I have made an impression, and for that I am glad. She needs me. I need her. And we both need to understand one another because we are both full of feeling.
And then I hear it. The unmistakeable sound of tapping and cracking. I have been hearing little hints of it on and off for days, but I did not mention it to Lettie because I did not want to get her hopes up. I know she has found the whole process hard, and the last thing she needed was more disappointment. The sounds are stronger now. In fact, they’re so strong, I just know hatching has to be imminent.
“I have some good news,” I tell Lettie.
She looks at me dubiously, wiping wet tears away with the back of her hand. “What is it?”
“You’re not going to have to worry about the egg much longer.”
“What?” Her head whips around to stare at it, where it sits on a bed of twigs and moss. “What… oh my god!”
The egg wobbles again as our baby works harder at escaping. A little pink point appears through the shell, cracking it from the interior.
“What the…”
“That is the egg tooth,” I explain. “She’s breaking her way out.”
Lettie leaps off my lap and rushes over to the egg. In an instant, she has forgotten her disinterest. Instincts which have lain dormant are activated as she sees signs of life. She has forgotten everyone and everything else in the world besides the vulnerable creature about to emerge from its shell.
I know this period of incubation has been challenging and confusing for Lettie. She is a first-time mother, and the first time is difficult for mothers of all species. Grave City’s nurseries ensure that most saurians never get to raise their young, but I can already see her connection to the baby. Lettie has not yet laid eyes on our baby, yet she loves her.
“How do you know she’s a girl?”
“I can smell her,” I explain. “Saurians use scent to detect their mates and offspring and many other things.”
“You can already smell her? I haven’t been able to sense anything…” The egg shakes a little, the pink tooth disappearing for a moment. “Oh, come on, baby. Can I help her?”
“It’s best to let a hatchling make her own way out of the egg,” I explain. “She knows how to do it.”
“But it’s so thick…”
“It’s best to let her do it,” I say. “You’ve done your part. You laid the egg, you guarded it from danger. You kept it warm with me near the fire day and night. Now you let her do her part.”
Lettie gives me a look, but she listens to me.
We will never forget this moment. There is nothing more important than being here and witnessing the final arrival of our child. I am prepared to keep prompting Lettie’s patience. Hatching can take some time. Hours, sometimes. It is not uncommon for a hatchling to pierce the shell and then rest a while before trying to remove the rest of the shell. This is not something to be rushed.
“It could take some time,” I murmur to Lettie. “The hatchling will need to gather her strength, but we can trust her to rest and emerge when she is ready. The hatchlings in the nursery sometimes took…