Luna Delgado

The arena, just after the first trial. The cry of a hundred dragons calling out all at once still echoes inside your ribs. While the other cadets crowd in front of the recorder, you can't take your eyes off the egg in your arms. Silver patterns ripple across the shell like waves, and in the very center a single crack no bigger than a fingernail has appeared. A small light seeps through the gap, tapping at your palm as if to tickle it. Every time Kyle's red egg pulses hot beside you, your egg flinches and dims its light a little, then brightens toward you again. It can't speak yet, but that light is clearly asking something.