“No, I don’t suppose you can really see anything in there, huh?” she asked him then, sheepish that she hadn’t thought of it earlier.

     “Oh! Do you know what your parents looked like? That usually tells what a baby will look like when it’s born.” Aise nodded sagely, and was disappointed again when he didn’t know that either. That didn’t last long, however, and she cheered right up “It’s okay, vissaa; you’ll still be the very best dragon ever.” She beamed at him, patting the egg fondly, then hefted the sails.

     After a moment or two, she could feel the little tickling against her mind again that meant the egg wanted attention. She smiled and sat down, sitting him in her lap, practicing her own ‘telepathy’ and sending him a mental question mark.

     The egg sent her a pleased sort of purr for her effort, then paused a moment, trying to figure out how to put what he wanted to know. Aislin waited patiently, though very curious, until he finally sent a mixed jumble of questions. Apparently he’d been holding back until he just had to know.

     “Hold on, silly! I can’t possibly answer all of those at once!” Aise giggled, then started with the first feeling she could decipher and worked from there. “It is very big out here, much bigger than in your egg, yes. And yes, there is light, but only half the time. Sometimes it’s dark out here too. There are lots of things to see-” there she got interrupted, and tilted her head. “What is ‘see’? Well... it’s sort of hard to explain. It’s sort of like how you see things with your mind, only... with your eyes...” she trailed off there, unable to explain it any better.

     The little egg seemed disappointed, so Aise patted him reassuringly. “It’s okay, you’ll find out for yourself soon enough.” She said with a smile, and turned the skiff into it’s mooring.

     It was one of the nights that Aislin slept in the little skiff that it happened. She lay there on her back, half asleep, watching the stars and trying to explain them to the little egg, when it twitched violently. She jumped and sat up, suddenly alert and staring at her charge. The egg twitched again, wobbling in it’s nest of coiled ropes, and Aise pulled him onto her lap, legs folded. He’d wiggled before, but never so violently, or for so long. Aislin’s heartbeat quickened as she held him still, so that he could do whatever he was doing in there without falling into the lake.

     Are you alright? she sent tentatively, only to be startled again when he started rocking in her lap.

     *OUT!* he said, his first clearly heard word filled with the urgent desire to see the world first hand, without having to rely on Aislin’s sometimes less than descriptive explanations.

     After a bit more rocking he was tired, but he’d managed to chip a small hole in the shell. Aise held him close and murmured encouragement, her bright blue eyes excited.

     The little dragon fly, awakened by all the activity, perched on a rope, swaying back and forth with the motion of the gentle waves that rocked the skiff. It’s little ears were perked attentively, eyes glued to the egg, which up until now it had assumed to be a rock. But rocks didn’t suddenly start wobbling around and making squeaky noises. Or maybe they did. Who knew. Still, to this particular dragon fly, this was a very strange occurrence.

     “That’s it, ready to try again, vissaa?” Aislin asked, just as excited about finally seeing what color her little guy would be as he was about finally seeing the outside world. She got a very definite affirmative, and the egg rocked again. This time the soft chirps and high-pitched growls were stronger, more determined. The scratching sounds grew louder too, and Aise held the egg tightly, wishing she could do more to help than watch, but every time she tried, the little dragon would insist that he could do it himself.

     So, little by little, the crack grew, until Aise stumbled across a surprising discovery. Apparently whatever this dragon would look like was sharper than the ones she’d seen in that book. A long, sharp, knife-like... something... poked out the hole and snagged. Suddenly the wriggling stopped.

     A moment passed, then longer. Aise could tell he was storing his energy for another go at the shell. She didn’t know how long she sat there waiting, but the moons had long since risen, bathing everything in a silvery light, and then the smaller one, the one her uncle J called Vina, had set. Now the larger Ish’aar floated above, and still Aislin waited.

     The end to her waiting came suddenly, in a shower of eggshell and flailing dragon. Aise cried out in surprise, and then realized that some of the shards of shell must’ve cut her, because there were scratches on the insides of both arms. She winced, blinking back tears, but when she looked up at what had exploded out of the egg, all pain was forgotten.

     He was beautiful.

     The light of the moon illuminated him wonderfully, shimmering off greens and purples, and big, curious black eyes. In that first glimpse in the moonlight, Aislin thought he looked very much like the lake, shimmering with all the colors she had loved from her earliest memory. And on his back, glistening in the silver glow, was a line of very sharp looking spines. That’s what must’ve finally shattered the eggshell, Aise decided. Probably also what had cut her.

     Oops, the newly hatched wyrm had heard that thought and squeaked shrilly, distressed that he had accidentally hurt his bond. He wriggled over and tried to help take care of the shallow cuts, but Aise could almost have laughed at his clumsy attempts.

     “Shh, shh, it’s alright sweetling,” she said softly, pulling out the emergency kit and rifling through it for bandages. “I’ll be fine, see?” she pulled out a roll of bandage and began wrapping it around her arms. She paused after the first arm, however, because she didn’t have anything to cut it off with so she could do the other arm.

     The wyrm, sensing the dilemma, began bouncing excitedly, chirping. He moved closer, as carefully as his new muscles would allow, and let Aislin use his back spines as a knife.

     “Good idea!” she beamed at him, and he trilled happily. Aise finished bandaging her injuries and carefully gathered her new dragon into her arms. “Thank you, vissaa,” she said, and the newly hatched wyrm purred happily, closing his eyes and resting from that difficult struggle to free himself from the confines of the eggshell.