The Tail Tales - Chapter 5 - The Hatchling

Andy became a statue, almost stopping his breath in sheer fright. He dared not move even a finger and sat in what he hoped was an absolutely still, frozen position. He almost heard the next movement before he felt it. A sort of a whoosh that drove the air before it and there it was again, that little touch, somehow hard, bony and pointy, like someone had brushed his back with a rather large stick. Whatever it was had not yet attacked him and it had had enough opportunity to do so. He decided to chance a movement and turned his head in what he hoped was as small a movement was possible. And then he strained to see something, anything in the dark. He could now sense a very large presence behind him, dangerous and powerful, and yet could see nothing at all in the darkness. He moved his head just a little bit again. This brought his stone into view. And what was earlier just warmth that came from it had now become something close to heat. It was glowing orange red, becoming almost red hot. If he did not know better, he would have thought that the stone had become angry and was giving out a warning.

Soon, the heat that came from the stone was strong enough to make him flinch and the stone was pure red, almost as if it was in the middle of a roaring flame. And yet the grass and twigs around it were untouched by the heat.  The grass on the mound where he had placed it was not smoking or burning, though the shoots reflected red in the light from the stone. Another startling thing that hit him was that the stone had somehow grown and become larger. It now was almost triple its size and still growing, at a speed that was visible. As it grew larger, the area around it became red with its light, casting aside the darkness like a boy throwing aside a blanket on a warm night. Soon, the light grew closer to where Ael had been lying down and Andy saw she was no longer there. Again, there was another of those whoosh sounds, though nothing brushed against him and somehow the sound itself seemed to come from slightly further away.

The stone, if it was still a stone, was nearly Andy’s size now and was still growing. Now, the reddish light from it was casting shadows at the far end near where the slope started and where the plants were. Andy turned his head slightly more and now his gaze fell on Ael. She seemed to be still in a trance, her eyes were open and staring wide unseeing. But, she was not lying on the ground or even standing. She seemed to be floating about 5 feet off the ground, completely horizontal and not supported by or holding onto anything. She was bathed in some kind of a blue cocoon, her metallic skin glowing blue in the light thrown off by the stone. Her arms were held straight away from her body and her legs were sticking straight out, not even a slight bending of the knee was visible. The blue cocoon seemed to have enveloped her completely, a foot thick around her and leading off above her. His eyes followed the imaginary path of the cocoon’s tail and he suddenly froze in fright again, his entire insides suddenly turning into a mushy liquid that seemed to be fighting to get out. For, high up in the air above Ael, there were a pair of eyes, narrowing like slits at the end and yellow, glowing evilly in a light of their own. They seemed to be staring down at him and the stone. He had not seen the eyes so far simply because they were too high up, he guessed almost fifty odd feet above the ground.

His terror was suddenly broken by a loud cracking noise. It came from the stone which was by now about three times the size of a normal human being. He could see that the inside of the stone was in some curious way stirring and moving around, as if some hand with a spoon was actually stirring this pot. The inside of the stone was moving in a continuous whirl that seemed to be gathering speed, like the eye of a hurricane framed by a severe whirling storm. Suddenly, Andy saw a long black tail like thing whipping around inside the stone followed closely by what seemed like a clawed foot. Only, this foot was bigger than Andy’s arm. The liquid sensation inside Andy seemed to have just become worse. Another cracking sound came from the stone as it seemed to grow impossibly large, like a balloon stretched to its breaking point. A curious buzzing sound seemed to come from the stone, almost as if the stirring inside was causing a noise.  The reddish light coming from the stone, now seemed to be dropping, growing quickly to become orange and then in the next minute or so, settle down to a bright yellow glow, almost like daylight lighting up the entire area. Now, Andy could see clearly a large form, jet black in color, flexing inside the stone, almost as if it were fighting to get out. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he corrected himself that it was an egg and not a stone. He had been carrying an egg that he had picked up off the ground in Kirkmichael and here, in the middle of god knows where; it had turned out to be an egg.

The yellow light now reached far across the clearing and threw shadows on the side of the mound. Andy had now thrown caution to the winds, there was simply too much happening around him and in any case, he did not seem to matter even a bit in all that was happening. He turned around and looked at the whole scene. One clear detail that he had missed so far; caught his eye and held it. He noticed at the far end of the clearing, beyond the plant line, in the middle of the field, a pair of thick trunk like shapes now stood, some distance apart from each other. They looked like trunks of a very old oak tree he had seen, knotted and twisted in a shape that had stood the test of time. When he had tried to put his hands around it, he realized that he could only span about a quarter of its circumference. These trunks actually looked larger. In Andy’s mind, they were somehow connected to the yellow slit shaped eyes up above. Certainly, they looked like a massive pair of legs. As he watched, one of the trunks moved and actually uprooted itself from the ground, rising to reveal a huge foot that would have dwarfed him had he been standing underneath it ending in a set of claws and talons that were as long as he was tall. The foot moved away from him and set itself on the ground again. As it did, there came the whoosh sound again and this time Andy could see what appeared to be a wing tip with a talon at the end of it, pass close by him. The sheer size of the creature made him cold with fright.

While Andy had been realizing all this about the yellow eyes, the egg had now cracked open and lay in two halves. The creature that emerged from inside the egg now stood some distance away from it. Though it seemed to be smaller in size, the creature seemed more dangerous and deadly in some way. A large webbed frill neck seemed to frame its face, the frill completely flaring out in an unmistakable warning. The frill was jet black in color with the webbing almost transparent and the tips and back of it was reddish in color and made the face of the creature appear impossibly large. The red coloring somehow added to the dangerous feel of it all. The face of the creature itself was like a giant lizard except it was nothing like he had seen before. It stood facing upwards as if challenging the much larger yellow eyed creature. 

It had a high pair of eyes, the pupils a vertical slit, framed by clear pools of white, the pupils glowing red in color and staring upwards at the yellow eyed creature.  The eyes seemed to be smoking slightly or maybe it was just Andy’s imagination going into overdrive. A snout seemed to grow from in between the eyes and stretch down to end in two slits, glowing red and slightly smoky again. Below the snout was the mouth or what should have been the mouth. Except that this one had a pair of jaws that resembled the crocodile at the local zoo. Resembled was not quite the right word since this one seemed like a giant version that would have nibbled the crocodile as a tasty bite. The jaws spread wide open and a double rows of fangs as big as his hand, bristled inside, each pointing at a slight angle inwards except at the front where they poked outwards. A forked tongue darted out again and again, twisting this way and that, like a snake with a mind of its own. Andy could see into the back of its throat and saw the same reddish glow there. It was almost as if the creature had a full fire going inside it.

Now that the egg had cracked open, it simply lay there giving off a weak yellow light that grew weaker. The creature seemed to be exuding the same bright yellow light that had come from the egg and lit up the whole area, bright as daylight. The creature stood there and its sheer size hit Andy. It had a short pair of forelegs, if you could call them short; that ended in a paw with claws and curved sharp talons. The forearms were raised as the creature stood up in the air and they seemed poised to attack. The claws were thin and pointy with even longer talons that looked like they could tear open anything. Behind the forelegs was a pair of large wings similar to bat wings, each point on the wings ending in a similar fang shaped talon. The wings themselves stretched out to almost 6-7 times Andy’s size and had the same transparent webbing as its frilled neck, with the same reddish tips and back. The creature had a crested spine, each crest ending in a sharp tip curved backwards, the tips now standing out in full attack mode. 

Its belly curved inwards, long and muscular and led towards the hind legs which were resting on the ground. The hind legs were as tall as Andy, the claws stretched and talons out, slightly crouching as if readying itself for a spring forward. It seemed to be supported by a tail that was itself as long as the creature was tall, resting on the ground, crested like its spine. The creature was very powerful and dangerous, a fact that was not lost on the much larger tree-trunk-legs-slit-yellow-eyes. Yellow eyes seemed to be clearly stepping back. As it stepped back, the cocoon that was holding Ael seemed to grow weaker and thinner. Ael had dropped closer to the ground and hovered about a foot off the ground. Yellow eyes had retreated into the field of flowers and stood there, waiting. Suddenly, a jet of reddish yellow flame shot out towards Yellow eyes. The jet headed straight towards the yellow eyes, reaching all the way up there. The flame came out of the black creature’s mouth. Rearing its head in head in alarm, yellow eyes turned away. As it did, Ael fell to the ground, the cocoon completely vanishing. Yellow eyes then took flight with a flap of those mighty wings, creating a wall of air that blew Andy away with its sheer power. Andy fell flat onto the ground and lay there winded. In a couple of whooshes; the yellow eyed creature had left the scene.

Andy lay there for a few moments recovering. As he stood up, he saw that the black creature now stood over Ael, its forelegs close to her shoulders, its snout close to her face. He thought that it was attacking her, now that Yellow eyes had left her behind. Anger got hold of his brain and he stopped thinking at all. He looked around for something, anything, with which he could attack the creature, forgetting that it was several times his size. His eyes fell on a branch lying on the ground and he picked it up. Much like the medieval knight wielding his lance, Andy charged at the black creature, screaming in his anger. He saw that it seemed to be sniffing her to see how tasty she was and its tongue flicked out to her cheek as if tasting her. As Andy approached the creature, its size registered in his brain. But by then it was too late and he continued his charge, a Don Quixote against the largest windmill he could even imagine of. Andy came within striking distance of the creature and brought the branch down on its back with all his might hoping that it would get stunned. The branch could have been made of paper or grass for all that it mattered and it shattered into tiny pieces on impact. The creature felt the blow and turned towards him. Andy prepared to be stomped upon or burnt to crisp in the next second. But the creature just seemed to give him a hurt look, its pupils now cooled down into a dark red, widening in their clear pain. It made no move to attack him or burn him down and just stayed there just looking at him.

Andy’s anger had vanished as quickly as it had come and he stood shivering in fright at what might happen to him. He was vaguely surprised by the creature’s not attacking him and stood rooted to the ground, not sure of what to do next, and not even running away from there. The creature continued to simply look at him, the frilled neck now having been folded away, its arrow shaped head clearly visible. The crest in its spine also had subsided and was no longer standing on end. Its tail swished gently a few feet away from him, but not moving towards him. As the both of them simply stood there staring at each other, there was a muffled sound from the ground beyond the creature, where Ael lay. Hearing this, Andy almost stepped forward as if to go to her help but stopped short as he realized that he had to cross the creature to get to her. The creature, seeing his hesitation, seemed to make up its mind and spread its wings to full span and simply leapt into the air. In the dark, he could only hear a couple of whap-whaps and then nothing. It had simply left him there with Ael. With it, all light around disappeared and the place was completely dark again. Andy ran towards where he had heard Ael’s voice and then, in the dark, dropped onto the ground and crawled forward. He bumped into her lying there and grabbed hold of her. She was shivering as if she was very cold, though the place was warm.

He could not think of anything that he could do and finally, just held her and sat there. In some time, her shivering stopped and she seemed to fall into a deep sleep. Andy continued sitting there holding her until the orange streaks peeked over the horizon, as if to check whether the night had gone and then slowly stole out, announcing the arrival of a new dawn. Andy could now see that Ael was still sleeping deeply, but breathing evenly. She seemed to be actually sleeping rather than being frozen like she had been before. The spot on her cheek which had been red and swollen had now grown back to normal. As Andy ran through the events of the past hours, a sudden doubt rose in his mind. Had that black creature in some way cured Ael? What if it had been sniffing or licking her face to cure her rather than attacking her like he had imagined? Was that why it had seemed hurt after his “attack”? Andy suddenly felt sure that the creature had been trying to protect them all the while, even when it was in its egg. And he had stupidly driven it off. He now desperately wished that the creature was back with them, protecting and shielding them in this weird world that seemed to be out to get them.