# Chapter One - Huthatch(l)ing

Author: DraaGulFirepaw
Tags: Blazkul, Desert, Dragon, Dragons, Drake, Drakling, Fighting, Fire Dragon, fight, hatchling


A
new Life awoke. The first thing his senses picked up were noises.
Muffled cracks, meeps, squawks and something... else. He couldn't
make out what it was, it seemed like a follow up of noises that were
supposed to make sense. Instinct told him that it was the noise of
his kind though, it already seemed familiar. Curiosity urged him on.
What
is that?



Instinctively
his eyes opened, for the first time ever, searching for the answer.
They picked up dim light, but it didn't send him the answer he
sought. It only illuminated something that his instinct called a
prison. A grey, dim prison that was filled with a slow flowing,
sticky liquid. A strong urge spread through his entire body.
Out.
Out! I must get out.



His
claws scratched at the grey walls around him. Light shall not be
dimmed eternally and he had to find out what the noises were. Every
fibre in his newly awoken body was shaking with the will to break
free.

His
scratching became eager it could even be seen as desperate. Instinct
forbid him to stay even a second longer in this small, dull place.


The
first results were noticeable, the prison showed cracks. It wiggled
around with his efforts, he felt that. It was a new sensation to move
around so much. The noises grew louder, but they still made no sense
to his young mind and remained dampened.


"Oh,
look! The big one is at it now," a soft, but ragged voice said.
It was followed by wheezing coughs.


"Yeah,
I wonder how big the hatchling will be, considering how huge the egg
is compared to the rest," a second, softer voice said. It spoke
without effort.


"It'll
be a strong warrior surely," a third voice reckoned. It was
louder, deeper and startled him for a moment, making him pause his
efforts.


Then
he went right at it again with even more vigour! Those noises, he had
to find their origin. More cracks were showing on the surface. He
pulled himself together, then threw his head at the weakened spot.
I
must be free!
His
instinct yelled at him to finally break forth and escape.


With
a loud burst, his snout broke through the shell. Air, warm and dry,
flooded his lungs for the first time as he took a deep breath through
his nostrils; scents assaulted his sense of smell. It overtaxed both,
his unused muscles and his sensitive nose, causing a stinging pain.
He took shorter, less deep breaths afterwards to try and lower the
pain in his chest. The things he smelled were many different things,
but many of them seemed like they were the same, yet they were not,
while others were completely different, but none of them he could
really attach to anything. Except the many similar ones, they seemed
familiar in a way, he wanted to get more of them.


Since
his eyes were still in the prison, he could still only see the inside
of it. He retracted his snout from the hole and, grasping the edges
of the hole he created with his claws, he pulled it apart, widening
the gap. Pieces of the walls broke off and fell onto the ground or
into the prison. Slowly but surely he pried himself out of it, until
finally his head fit through the gap. With a firm push he forced it
through the opening, with a loud meep and eyes closed, then began
panting from the effort with his short tongue hanging out of his maw.
Slime dribbled from his head and left his eyes and their lids, but it
took a few blinks to get rid of all of it.


While
he rested in the half broken enclosure to regain strength he opened
his eyes outside of the shell for the first time, finally taking in
the light without its walls dimming it. He looked around curiously to
inspect this new, wider space. The light itself was still dim except
for a very bright circle in the middle of the building that he
appeared to be in. This made it easy on his eyes that weren't used to
unfiltered light yet. The building had brownish walls and was shaped
like a small dome with a wide circular opening in the highest point
that let the sunlight in, causing the bright circle in the centre.
The ground was sand. For him, this dome was gigantic compared to the
prison. It felt relieving to be in it.


Around
him were eight oval, sand coloured things. Three of them didn't move
at all and another three showed cracks and wriggled, as if something
were inside and tried to leave it. The last two were already in
pieces. A black and a red something were writhing on the ground next
to them, while someone licked the slime off of them.


The
black thing had yellow paws, the red something had orange stripes
along its back as well as orange paws.


That
someone who was cleaning them was of way higher importance than the
two writhing beings to the freshly hatched dragon. It was a
dragoness.
Mother?

His instinct left no doubt that this is female of his kind, but he
was not sure if she was the one female that his instinct longed for.
Her scales were black except for her paws and the stripes along her
back, those were of a dark red. She was licking the writhing beings
clean when her eyes fell onto him, after he attracted her attention
with loud squawks.


"Oh,
he managed to get out! Well, partly. Look at him though, he has such
a big head and neck." She smiled while moving her head near his
to take a closer look at him. He felt her warm breath wash over his
scales as she started to sniff at him. A shiver ran through his body
at this first taste of warmth from another of his kind. "It's a
male, as you expected." The female raised her head as if she was
looking at someone behind the hatchling. He, the freshly hatched
Drake, only had eyes for her, staring at her, making soft happy meeps
towards her.
Mother!
... Mother?
Her
smell, his instinct didn't find it to be right, but she had to be
mother, right? She's the only female around.


"Come
out of your egg fully so we can see all of you," said the deep
voice from earlier. It startled the Hatchling again, but now made him
curious. He figured that those noises that seemed to make sense, yet
didn't, but yet seemed organised, belonged to his kind.
Now
to see who that is.
The
Hatchling turned his head towards the entrance of the dome. It was
just big enough for a single dragon to crouch through it, but right
now two heads were looking into the hut through it. One orange head
with six short but thick horns also arranged like a crown and a dark
reddish blue one with two straight, longer horns. The dark blue was
washed out though, grey scales were showing. The head shape reminded
him of the dragoness that sniffed him, so the dark blue must be
female, too.

His
instinct was already familiar with the slight differences in an
adult's head shape and he recognized the orange one as a drake. His
gaze shifted between the orange male and the black female a few
times, meeping loudly! He wasn't sure what to think of the drake.


After
regaining his strength the urge to free himself fully returned and
the Hatchling started to struggle more firmly and he pushed at the
edge of the gap in his prison's shell in order to finally get out of
it with all of his body. Due to his shifting, the prison, that now
more seemed like a nuisance than a cage, fell over and instead of
bursting the thick shell he slipped out of it onto the warm sand
where he laid for a few moments, breathing heavily. Immediately, the
black dragoness started to preen him. Her tongue felt so very soft
and warm; it was a lovely feeling to have it brush over his body. It
caressed his young scales, soothing him after he has done such great
effort in order to be part of this world. It caused him to close his
eyes again and purr joyfully. Meanwhile the other eggs cracked open
and the rest of the very young dragons hatched, but he had no
interest in that. All of his attention was taken up by being cleaned
carefully.


The
three eggs that hadn't moved earlier still didn't move. She looked at
them with a sad sigh before pushing them away behind her with her
tail. Afterwards she began preening the others while letting the
drake inspect the new generation, especially the biggest one of them.


The
orange drake spoke again, his voice sounding surprised: "He's
all red, no patterns, no nothing, just a strong red from snout to
tail tip. That is odd. A rarity."


The
dark blue female nodded in agreement and seemed thoughtful. "It
only happens to our hightribe though, so it is clear that he is one
of us," she replied to the drake's concerns.


The
Red Drake looked at himself as he noticed the drake's surprised
stare. He wasn't fully red, his chestplates were black as he could
see. Now he was curious how he looked, but there was no way he could
see his whole self. Instead he used his paw to touch his head. He
felt his own scales but also noticed four smooth stubs that did not
feel like scales at all, but were more comparable to the teeth in his
maw that he felt with his tongue earlier. Along his own back he saw
very small fins, the writhing things and the adults had them, too,
but the adults' were bigger.


"True,
it is clear that he's a Fireclaw," the female that took care of
the hatchlings said with a warm smile. "So all is fine and he'll
become a proud warrior of the Gul tribe, surely."


The
Hatchling and his peers tilted their heads first at the caretaker,
then tilted their heads the other way, to look towards the two
dragons at the entrance, intrigued by the sudden mass of noise
between the older dragons.


The
drake cleared his throat and spoke with a gentle voice: "Hatchlings.
That lovely dragoness over there... ," he gave her a friendly
grin, "... is going to take care of you in your young years."


"My
name is Sara. Sara Gul Fireclaw." She nodded her head as a sort
of bow towards the little dragons who simply meeped and squawked at
her happily. They and the Red didn't understand what they were
saying, but Sara's soft voice simply made them happy. It had
something soothing, something attracting.


Sara?
Mother. But she smells so different than me. Are the others my
siblings?
He
wished he could sniff them to figure that out, but they weren't right
next to him and he hadn't stood up yet either.


She
gives each of the hatchlings a lick on their forehead. "I might
not be your mother, well, not of all of you at least." She
looked up at the orange drake with a shy smile before returning her
attention to the hatchlings again, "But I'll take care of you as
if you all were mine own. Such is tradition for Blazkul." That
word made him perk his head up by instinct. Blazkul.
Fire
Dragons.


"And
I, on the other paw, will teach them how to hunt, fight and about
their own kind," the drake at the entrance said with his head
turned towards Sara before he went over to watching over the little
ones that now all turned towards him with big eyes. "That is one
of the tasks I have to fulfil as the new leader of the Gul. But it'll
be a while until then."


Not
soon after he stopped talking the short attention span of the little
dragons was used up and they turned towards Sara again, who churred
at them. They started to feel a bit cooler, even though it was very
warm in the hut, but just not as warm as mother's affections felt.
Again instinct guided them, including him, this time to try and get
to her to be close to her warm body.


The
Red Drake attempted to stand up. Now that he had rested on the ground
for a while it didn't take too much effort. He shakily got onto all
four legs and stood on his first try! Meanwhile the other hatchlings
around him kept falling over or managed to stand for a few moments
before following the same fate. After a bit they all got it figured
out and they all moved closer to the caretaker with shaky, uncertain
steps, settling down against her flank after she raised her wing
invitingly. A few had to crawl the last bit though, having fallen
over on the way. Luckily she wasn't too far away, not even two
hatchling lengths at the furthest point. The Red managed to get to
her in one go.


They
cuddled up to her side. It felt like warmth flooding his system as
the Drake did. Every fibre that had contact to her immediately warmed
up and spread the wonderful feeling through his body.


Now
that he was settled and warmed, a new feeling came to him. Hunger. He
and the others seemed to share that new feeling, all of them started
squawking loudly, demanding food from Sara who he still thought of as
their mother.


"I've
something for them.", the dark blue female, that has mostly just
been watching the scene, said and her head retreated from the hut.
Moments later she poked her head back in with a dead worm in her maw.
It wasn't a small worm though and was three times longer than the
Red, if not more, and quite thick. A feast for the six headed group
of very young, hungry dragons. She tossed it towards the hatchlings.


"Eat,
little ones, you've to grow big and strong." She chuckled, then
broke out into a coughing fit again. "Mref. I should rest. I'll
look after you some other time, Sara." With those words the
dragoness turned around and walked away. The Red barely gave her any
attention before he started sniffing at the meat.
Edible.
With a meep, he dug his tiny fangs into the meat and attempted to rip
a piece of it out.


The
adult drake looked after her before turning back to Sara. "I'll
go out and hunt. I do not think we have enough food stored to feed
six hungry maws." His gaze fell onto the hatchlings that
hungrily started to devour the worm. Fights over the meat didn't
happen as the worm was easily large enough to satisfy the first
hunger of the hatchlings.


The
meat was tough, but filling and quite tasty for the Red Drake. It
took some effort to get some of it separated, but that didn't stand
between the hatchlings and satisfying their new craving.


Sara
watched them eat while she spoke to the drake, "Alright. Be
safe, Druk."
Druk.
Sara. Parents.

Druk being the only male around, it had to be the father. With
stretched out necks they managed to touch their snout tips in the hut
and rubbed them against eachother. Watching that confirmed the
instinctual thought and the action allowed the Red to sniff at Druk's
chin to notice what a male dragon smells like

Also smells too different from me. That
conflicted with his instinct and he meeped curiously. Then the drake
left and allowed the curtain made out of a dry flexible material that
rustled while it moved to fall back in place and cover the entrance.
But before it completely blocked the view the Drake noticed that Druk
had yellow paws. Now the hatchlings were alone with Sara.


The
Red pushed himself as close to her flank as he could and curled up.
The sand beneath him was warm, but her body was warmer and nice to
lean against. He felt the other hatchlings' scales against his own as
they all cuddled together under the caretaker's wing. Sleeping was
not a thought that came to their mind, though; instead, they eagerly
sniffed at eachother, taking in the scents of their peers. Comparing
their scents to Sara's and Druk's scent, his instinct identified that
three of them were female, the other two male. That made three males
total including him. He now was also able to place what the scents
that seemed to be the same yet weren't are. It was the scents of
dragons! They all seemed to be the same; yet each dragon had their
own personal twist to it.


This
moment of sniffing eachother gave the Red the time to inspect what he
thought to be his siblings. The black and red both had six horn stubs
arranged exactly like Druks horns were, like a crown. All three
females looked pretty similar, the Red found. All three were purple
and only their markings differed. One had black stripes and paws, the
other had red spots and paws, the last one had no markings but red
paws. The chestplates of all of them, hatchlings, Druk and Sara, were
black though.


Now
with his first curiosities satisfied, their stomachs filled and his
body warmed by Sara's, tiredness overcame him and apparently also his
peers as all of them fell asleep pretty quickly. The Red fell asleep
last, watching over the others.








*




Huthatchlings.
He heard this word a lot because the adults referred to him and the
other ones like him as such. They spent all day in the dome and have
yet to see more of the outside world than the glimpse they see when
an adult moves the curtain. Said glimpse wasn't much, just brighter
light.


Many,
many times the light in the building has switched between bright and
dark and the huthatchlings didn't do more than eat, sleep, and
playfight, but they grew quite a bit. The Red loved to playfight with
the others, especially when he pushed down a male after a fight. He
always meeped happily when he managed to do that and he did so often.
Sara always rewarded him with loving licks to his head and neck when
he won a playfight, showing great approval of his actions. He did
enjoy the act of playing with his hutsiblings itself, too, though and
they all curled up together beneath Sara's wing when the light turned
dark, when the surrounding space became colder than it was when the
light was bright. He was cold every time he wasn't close to Sara
around that time. When the light started to become red, so before it
started to darken, they also covered the opening in the ceiling with
a thatch plate.


Before
the huthatchlings slept Sara often spoke to them. By now the Red
figured that the noises the adults made were words. Noises with
sense. He, nor the others, managed to use them or even fully
understand them yet, but they picked up a few things and their
caretaker often showed them things. She pointed at her claw for
example and simply said: "Claw." Slowly but surely the bunch
learned to at least understand a few words.


Sometimes
the other female, the dark blue one, stuck her head into the hut to
ask Sara how she's doing and if she needs anything. She always
nuzzled and licked the hatchlings, making them purr and wriggle.
Occasionally, she helped Sara preen them. The Red always avoided her
though, he preferred to get such attention from Sara. She was gentler
and it felt nicer.
Caresses
from mother are best.



Even
after understanding Sara when she told them that she isn't their
mother, he still referred to her as such. It simply felt natural to
the Red. Probably feeling the same, the rest also still called her
mother. Sara didn't seem to be bothered.


Druk
brought the food. Worms, lizogs, and others. Lizogs tasted great, the
Red found, so it made him drool eagerly everytime he saw Druk enter
with one in his maw. Lizogs had scales like dragons and somewhat
looked like them, too, but their legs seemed different. He couldn't
describe it though, having seen nothing to compare it to. The head
and paws looked sort of draconic as well, but the muzzle was slimmer
and longer and sported bigger slit-shaped nostrils. They weren't
wingless dragons though, Druk told them. He described them as "Scaled
wolves". The Red wished he knew what a "wolf" was; they sounded
like interesting creatures. Druk said they hunt intelligently in
packs and are great predators. They didn't live in the desert though.
Druk saw them in the forests when he was scouting years ago. They
also had fur, which Druk explained as a soft, vulnerable form of
hide.
What
does having fur feel like. Or touching it?
All
creatures that were shown to them so far had scales, too. This is
normal for most of the desert life that one can find in the sands,
Druk explained, after one hatchling manage to utter the sentence, "Do
all here have scale?"


Sometimes
the orange drake even brought living creatures to the huthatchlings,
like a snake or a very young lizog. The young bunch enjoyed watching
those creatures try to threaten or run away from them in the hut,
when the hatchlings chased them around. Sara and her mate always
watched carefully to make sure the creatures wouldn't hurt the
hatchlings. Often they killed the living creature in front of the
hatchlings and let them eat them. The hatchlings' natural urge to
hunt awoke slowly and sometimes one of them dared to attack the
beasts brought to them, except the Red. The Red never bothered to
kill them or even just chase them. He just watched the others do it,
if with clear interest in his eyes. Sara always nudged him forward,
trying to get him to move, but he stayed put. With a disapproving
look she shock her head, but this didn't bother him much. It did
saddened him, though, that he got less affections than the successful
"hunter" as Sara called the one who managed to slay the small
creature.


Today,
Druk brought a rather large six legged creature for the group this
time. It was actually bigger than the young dragons. This intrigued
the Red, because usually the creatures that Druk brought were easily
killed by the huthatchlings once they grew bored of it and preferred
to eat it. This one on the other hand seemed like a real threat,
especially because it didn't seem very afraid of the young dragons,
not at all. Instead of trying to get away it raised its pincers and
lifted its stinger threateningly above its head.


The
females cowered and retreated closer to Sara while the males looked
questioningly to Druk, not sure what to do. Said drake just nodded
his head towards the creature with a growl, while looking at the
hatchlings. "It's a scorpion. It won't be easy to kill this one,
but you might manage." The Red did not look up to Druk, but instead
hopped up from his position beneath Sara's wing, leaving more space
for the females who huddled closer together. He kept eyes on what was
called a scorpion, watching its every move. With meeps directed at
the other two males, he tried to get their attention so they focus on
the opponent, too. They squawked, unsure if they really want to
attack the vicious creature.


The
Red huffed at the cowardliness of his peers. He moved closer to the
scorpion, watching every tension of its legs, every slow closing of
the two things he was holding towards him, which looked like two big,
blunt talons that can snap shut.


"Watch
out for the pincers." He barely heard Druk say, his heart was
pumping too loudly and rapidly already, letting adrenaline flow
through his entire body, preparing it for the effort of the coming
fight. This was a new feeling, one he couldn't quite grasp. It was
energetic, made him tremble, made him strong, made him want to
pounce, leap, claw.


Quickly
moving its six legs, the scorpion shifted its body more towards the
Red and snapped its pincers at him, but he was way out of range. It
was just a threat. Bravely, the Red Drake hopped forward towards the
side of the scorpion and tried to bite at its right claw. Quick isn't
even close to describing just how fast the scorpion reacted. It
dodged and slammed the stinger down, digging the tip right into his
flank. Squealing, the huthatchling writhed on the ground for a
moment, startling the others so much that they hopped back with a
scared squawk, but then caught himself again and bit right at the
scorpion's tail. This was the first time he experienced such pain, it
was a new sensation, but it didn't bother the young Blazkul, it urged
him on to bring down this opponent, to take revenge for every bit of
blood spilled that was his own. Something changed in his mind, he
could finally place the feeling from earlier, it was the urge to...
kill.


A
cracking noise signalled that he pierced the chitin armour of his
opponent and dug his fangs into the flesh, locking his jaws around
it. He tasted the life juice of the opponent as it ran into his maw,
fuelling his instinct to kill further. The beast within took control,
rationality had no place.
You
will die.



Annoyed,
the six-legger tried to lift its tail again, ripping the stinger out
of the wound. The hatchling didn't let go though and kept the tail in
his jaws, despite the throbs of pain coming from the fresh wound.
With the tail weighted down by the Red, the scorpion couldn't lift it
up again and shook it angrily.


Finally,
the other two males leaped at the scorpion with a loud meep, the
battle cry of a hatchling, and each bit into a pincer. This prevented
the scorpion from trying to hurt the Red with them and basically
disarmed it. Full of anger, it shook itself vigorously, trying to
throw the attackers off, but they were too many and too strong.


The
Red dug its claws into the tail base of his foe and started clawing
at the chitin armour until it gave way to tearing at the flesh
beneath. His two hutbrothers realized what he was doing and started
tearing at the pincers of the disabled creature, mimicking the Red.


Greenish
splatters started covering the ground while the fierce drakes tore
the writhing creature to bits. With a firm tug of the Red's maw and a
loud squelch the tail came off, quickly followed by both claws. The
scorpion simply writhed on the ground, dying as it bled out. The
huthatchlings paid the beaten opponent no further mind.


Triumphantly,
the Red Drake strut around with the tail in his maw, emitting muffled
victorious meeps. His hutbrothers followed his example, but with the
scorpion's claws in their maws. He wasn't even bothered by the
bleeding hole in his flank, the feeling of a proper first victory
overpowered the pain.
Superiority.
His instinct praised him for his victory, it meaning that he survives
while the scorpion dies. A feeling of great happiness spread through
him as he stood in front of Sara and dropped the tail. A wide smile
spread across her muzzle and she nuzzled the Red before nudging him
on his side to inspect the wound and then began to lick it clean.
"I'm so glad he finally caught on, I bet he was just waiting for
a worthy opponent. He really will be a strong warrior of our tribe."


Druk
looked at him with an equally wide smile, but it contained more pride
than anything. "I have high expectations for him. I cannot wait
until I can teach them all how to hunt properly. It'll be great to
show them tricks and take them along."


Sara
nodded in agreement and started tending to the other two dragons by
also giving them approving licks to reward them for tearing off the
claws. "It's certainly a good generation for the Gul." She
looked up at the drake and that same shy smile, which she first had
when the bunch at her forepaws hatched, returned to her features.
"And we contributed to it."


He
gave her a firm nuzzle, growling amiably. Through the entrance the
Red could see Druk's tail swish.
Happiness.
The males started gnawing on the parts they ripped off, while the
females came out from beneath Sara's wing, bit into the still
slightly writhing scorpion and tugged it under her wing to devour it
there. Eating the meat he fought for tasted better for some reason.


Successful
survival.









*




Druk
told them that every time it turned dark, something called a day was
over and after many days are over, a month is over. More details on
that would follow soon, he promised them. He also notified them
everytime a month had passed and told them that after six months they
would be allowed to leave the hut. The brown walls apparently were
called a hut by the adults. Three months had passed when they fought
the scorpion, according to the orange drake.


Not
much happened in the next three months. The hatchlings grew more and
they slowly started to speak more clearly and way more often. They
were properly acquiring the gift of speech. Sara and the elder female
assisted them by telling them more simple words than before in the
hopes that the huthatchlings repeat them. It started to work more and
more often. Entire sentences began to take form more often than just
occasionally. Now that they started speaking they started referring
to eachother with words, since they had no names, nor did Sara or any
other adult gave them any.


The
Drake was just called "Red" due to his lack of any markings. The
black male hatchling was just called "Black" and the other male
hatchling was called "Orange Paw" due to his orange paws. "Spot"
was the name of the female with the red spots, "Black Paw" became
the name of the female with the black paws and "Red Paws" became
the name of the female with the red paws. Simple names for young
minds.


Druk
still simply provided food but brought tough prey to them more often.
Once he brought a young but still large lizog into the hut and one of
the males was badly bitten during the ensuing fight. It was nothing
serious though and within weeks the hatchling was allowed to sprint
and jump around again. The lizog was killed by the effort of all
hatchlings, even the females assisted. Red often directed them some;
he told them to go for the legs to disable the lizog, just like they
disabled the scorpion by tearing off the claws and the tail. With
approving nuzzles, Sara rewarded the hatchling's actions further. She
mentioned something about him, from which the hatchling only
understood "learning" and "experience". All of the hatchlings
were joyful after their victory, even the badly bitten one meeped
happily.


Red
grew to be the dominant one of the bunch. He got to eat first and he
was always in the middle of the bunch when they curled up to sleep as
they attempted to get close to him. He enjoyed it greatly to be
surrounded by his hutsiblings like that. It made him feel warm and
like they were family. The attention gave him another feeling though,
the feeling of an...


...
Alpha.

Source: https://sofurry.com/view/922431