My Identity

I sat staring into the sky leaning against Somnolent, when I heard a branch snap. I snapped my head to the right only to see a bright orange reticent pushing Will into the clearing with me. He really did win over that timid little dragon. "I can't believe I didn't hear or smell you until you got so close." I said to Will, with a fake smile on my face. "Mama needs talk to my boy. He will help." I heard Reticent say. "When did he become your boy?" I said teasing the shy dragon. Reticent looked to the ground. "My boy gives me special snacks, and pets me, and isn't scary." he said. I giggled a bit. "I am happy you have your boy. He has always liked you." I said. Will stood awkwardly he could tell I was in the middle of the conversation, but had no idea where it was going.. Reticent lifted his head and pushed Will a little closer to me. "I uhh... I am sorry. I didn't mean to invade your privacy...Reticent pushed me the whole way, and he is a tad bit stronger than me now." Will said scratching the back of his head awkwardly.

"Don't worry about it. He says he brought his boy here to help me." I said still with a fake smile.

Will smiled "That's right I am your," Will started to say. Then gave a massive human dragon fist bump to Reticent "BOYEEEE!" He yelled happily to Reticent, who chuffed with laughter, then licked Will. I couldn't help but laughing either. This dragon and human had a bit of a bromance going on.

"Okay," Will said, then plopped down next to me against Somnolent. He scratched his chin as a sort of payment for being a back rest. "What am I hear to help Mama with?" he asked, saying Mama like Reticent to lift my spirits.

"I am not human, I will basically live forever, and will have to slowly watch my friends and family age and die." I said in a sad voice, not even trying to hide my pitiful state.

"Okay I can work with this." Will said. "First if you are some new species, you will get to name yourself, because your are sort of human, I think you have that right. Secondly living for forever means you can stay with your dragons longer. I know those two can live to be in their hundreds." he said pointing at Nymph and Wisp whom were asleep on my shoulders. Sure watching people die will be tragic, but thanks to you, those people will be remembered always. With that much time and you gaining so much knowledge, you can teach future dragon ladies what to do, you could travel, and make helpful brochures on each type of hatchling. Sure being in public will be difficult, but you can go into town when there is some kind of comicon or role play festival going on. People will think the horns and yellow eyes are a costume. Oh not to mention you are still rocking it with horns." he said excitedly.

I couldn't help but laugh at his logic.

"See my boy helped Mama." Reticent said in a bragging voice. I had never heard tone that from him. I had never heard him sound so confident.

"Thank you for the pep-talk, but mostly thank you for being with Reticent." I said.

"What do you mean?" Will asked.

I explained, "I have been trying to get him out of his shell since he hatched, but he has always been timid, even though he loves me. He feels my dominance stronger than the others, but thanks to you he seems to be less timid. He really loves you. You are his boy, I am Mama, but other than me you are the only one he has called by a name. All of the other dragons say: Mabel is Mouse, Mrs.Horn is The Scary One, your dad is The Man, Jasper is Small Male, and you are Large Male. But to Reticent you are his Boy. I finished. Will looked shocked. he had had no idea that he was so special to Reticent. I stood up from beside me and walked over to Reticent. He gave him a hug and scratched between his wings. Reticent seemed confused, but was happy. I stood up and put my forehead against Reticent's head, and rubbed the bony plate that protruded from his head. "You have found a friend. Tell me, are you closer to him than you are to Mama? Do you love him more?" I asked still holding my gentle position. He said back in a loving tone. "I love Mama the best, Blithesome next most, then my boy. I am closer to him, we spend all day together." He said the last part shyly, as though I would be mad at him.

"That is wonderful Little One. I am so happy that you have another friend. I don't have time to constantly pay attention to you, and I am glad you are getting more attention." I said. Reticent purred, though I am not sure if it was from me or because Will had scratched the perfect spot. I backed up and petted his face one last time.

"I should go back to the house where the others are probably sitting confused. Thanks for helping me...and Reticent Will." I said, with a genuine smile. Then I ran back to my house.

-----Back at my house

"I walked into the house gingerly. Mabel was now present, and I was more nervous than before. "I am sorry about my earlier behavior." I apologized. "I unlike most don't want to have a super long life. I am happy with life, and am not suicidal or anything." I made sure to make that apparent, "It is just...I know if I live that long, I will end up watching everyone I love age and die, while I still stand, still appearing young." I finished. At that Mabel ran up and hugged me. "Don't worry, we will get you a Spirit Speaker, and then you can talk to us forever. It will be like undead phone calls." Mabel said.

"What is a Spirit Speaker?" I asked, I can't remember reading about any dragon with that name.

"They are newly discovered dragons. If they stand upon the grave of a person, they begin to look like they are in a trans of some sort, then the spirit will speak through them." she explained.

"That is both terrifying and comforting." I said, tightening the hug.

"It will be hard to find an egg or hatchling." the older scientist said.

"Oh newer power, she can tell what kind of dragons are in the eggs. All she did was look at Wisp and Nymph's eggs, and she knew they were Shadow Sights, she said they didn't even look the same to her as they did to me." Mabel said. I elbowed her side. "I don't want anymore stupid tests. Stop telling them stuff." I grumbled quietly. She simply mouthed "sorry" to me.

"Hmm, that makes things easier on your part. As far as we can tell these dragons have extremely slow metabolisms as well, so they may have the same life expectancy as you. I smiled and a tear fell down my cheek. Everybody pretended not to notice, except for Mabel who wiped the tear off of my cheek.

"Would you like to come and find one with us?" The older man asked.

"I would love to take up that offer, but can it wait a few weeks until my Shadow Sights are grown?" I asked. I know that Mabel and Mrs.Horn are both capable of watching them, but I want all of my dragons to know me as Mama. If I leave these two won't respect and love me like the others." I explained. He nodded. It can wait for you after all you will probably be able to learn more about the species than anyone else could." the scientist said.

Just then I could hear multiple vehicles coming up the driveway. I turned around to run, but Mabel grasped my forearm. I knew to stop, or risk hurting her. I turned around. "What are you doing?" I said glaring at her. I didn't want to waste anytime keeping my dragons safe. "They are the men here to build my little cabin, they aren't threats." she said calmly, as not to anger me further.

I sighed in relief. "Okay," get on my back, we need to show them the way to the clearing." I said. She excitedly hopped on my back. "Bill can you by any chance move the camper?" I asked Bill. He nodded, and I took off.

Mabel clung to my back tightly as I went full speed. "Whoo Hooo!" she yelled happily. Then began choking as she had swallowed a bug. I laughed a little.

I got to the trucks, and put Mabel on the ground. All of the men quickly thrust their arms out of the windows, all holding badges or cards showing they were from the DDP. I laughed. Obviously the last few people here had given them warning of me. "It's okay guys, I know you are here to help Mouse." I said just loudly enough for everyone to hear.

"Follow us, we will show you where you will be building the cabin." Mabel said. I carried Mabel on my back again and ran about thirty miles an hour, giving Bill time to haul away the trailer. We got there just as Bill was pulling out with the trailer. I placed her on the ground, where the men had began to unload their trucks. This would be fun for her. I left her to socialize and order everyone around by herself. I climbed the cliff to get to my cave. I sat down and began to scroll through pictures on my old phone. I saw all of the selfies I had taken of myself or with friends, before I had horns. There were pictures of me and my brother, or me playing with Zeke. I opened my email to find mostly spam and trash, then saw the email for the ten year high school reunion. I couldn't go there, no normal people could see me anymore. Besides, I may have succeeded in my eyes, but I had to keep that a secret so to everyone else I was still "Least Likely to Succeeded". I sighed. Both of my Shadow Sights began to rub their soft fur on my cheeks to cheer me up. I was happier with dragons, and the few close friends I had anyways; no need to see all of the people I haven't seen since high school. None the less it made me realize that my life truly had changed forever, and there was no going back. I cried. I cried tears of confusion, tears of a joy with my new life, and regular sad tears. I didn't know how to feel, I simply cried myself to sleep.

------2 months later.

I woke up from a two day sleep. I was starving as you would expect after not eating for forty-eight hours. I walked to Bill's house to make a meal. Wisp and Nymph were fully grown now, as were most of my dragons. Neither of them ever developed a sense of independence though, and they were constantly on my shoulders. I imagine this is what that kid from Pokémon feels like with his Pikachu. They were constantly with me to some extent, but they literally never left eachother. They may have well have been one dragon. They weren't exactly the spies I thought they would be. Though they were always willing to help with anything michevious

As I appeared in the clearing a very excited Mabel came screaming excitedly and ran into my arms. "Hey guess what! Guess what! We got a huge surprise when you were asleep come on." she grabbed my wrist and dragged me to my house. "Mouse can't this wait for a few hours? I haven't eaten in days." I grumbled as she shoved me into the elevator. I rode down to the nursery, and to my surprise Mrs.Horn was down there too. "Oh good honey, you are awake. You are going to make this so much easier." Mrs.Horn said. I was still a little confused from waking up, and didn't quite grasp everything that was going on. I heard Mabel pop out of the elevator behind me. "Did you show her?" Mabel asked Mrs.Horn. with a smile on her face.

"No dear I will let you do that." Mrs. Horn said waving her hand in an unexciting dismissal.

"WE GOT MORE EGGS!" Mabel yelled happily. She grabbed my wrist once again and pulled me to the cave part of the nursery where I had raised my original eight hatchlings. There in the nest were eight more eggs. I thought I was going to vomit at the idea of raising another set of eight hatchlings. Then I looked a little further to the left and saw four more eggs on a temporary egg heater.

"We all get four!" Mabel yelled excitedly again.

"Are you sure? I mean there isn't anywhere for me to put my eggs." Mrs.Horn said, obviously trying to get out of working.

"Dont worry I have an ancient rudimentary egg warmer in my cave, you can use the nursery for yourself." I told her. I wasn't sure if I was ready for more hatchlings, but making Mrs.Horn do some work for once would be fun to watch.

"Why do I make this easier?" I asked, remembering that initially Mrs.Horn said that I would make this so much easier.

"Well you can tell what kind of eggs these are, then you can divide them for the easiest." Mrs.Horn said. I nodded. My abilities were truely going to make things easier for people for a change. I looked down at the eggs whichlooked different to me, though I couldn't tell what each of them were, as I had had probably never seen a dragon that these eggs would match. There were four There were four regular sized brown eggs with cream colored spots, for whatever reason, I thought they would suit Mabel. I noticed four of the eggs were large with a silver sheen, these must be Blade Runners. As much as I wanted to give Mrs.Horn a hard time, I knew this was her specialty in dragons, and I didn't want her screwing up any dragons on my watch. The last four were all different: One egg was large and a deep red, it was very shiny. Another large egg sat right next to it; it wasn't shiny like the other, but it was neon yellow and extremely bright, it paled the color of my Shadow Sight's eyes. Then there was a metalic egg, that seemed almost rusty. The last egg was medium sized, and it was a bog water green, it had grey swirls around it that were hardly visable. I watched my newest eggs closely trying to examine each detail of the eggs. Then I heard the all too familiar CRACK! This noise happened whenever I came anywhere near an egg. I looked to see that it was one of the eggs that I had assigned to Mrs.Horn. Mabel and I scooped up our eggs, and squeezed together in the elavator, to avoid any of Mrs.Horn's hatchlings imprinting on us.

When we got out of the elavator, we walked to Mabel's cabin, that I always pass on the way back to my cave, but had never actually bothered to go inside. We walked in, and she was excited to show off her own nursery. "My dad made sure all of your points for a good nursery were put into my own nursery. I held my eggs under my shirt to keep them warm, as Mabel took me to see her new nursery. A bookshelf slid to the side, and opened into a wide elevator that took us to her nursery. It looked like it was a rock cave, and the floor even felt like the stone floor of a cave. There were two trough-like nests, one looked like it was filled with hot coals, the other looked as though it was filled with snow. "You explained to dad that all nurseries should be prepared for ice dragons, and how annoying it was keeping up with Coruscant's nest; so he made sure I had an ice nest as well as a hot one." She explained as she put all four of her new eggs into the hot nest. He also took note of how you wanted to sleep near your dragons...so." she said, then pulled out a hidden bed that was in the wall. "oooh fancy." I said smiling.

"You haven't seen anything yet." she said. Next she walked beside me to a small handle that I hadn't noticed. She pulled the handle to the side and revealed a freezer, refrigerator, and large sink. She went to the opposite side and pulled another handle to reveal a counter space with a hanging shelf that was filled with books on dragons, a microscope, and office supplies. part of the counter was sectioned of from the small office side, and was stainless steel it had a knife set sitting on the counter as well. This place was fully equipped. "It's amazing right?" she said smiling. I looked around the nursery in a stunned silence. "It is...." I started to compliment the nursery, but then I heard CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! Thanks to my presence all of Mabel's eggs began to hatch. I tightened my grasp on my eggs, and ran out of her cabin.

I ran along the rivers banks with my eggs hoping I could get them to my cave before they hatched. "Wisp Nymph gather some sticks and bring them to the cave." I commanded. They both jumped off of my shoulders and ran into the woods, to gather sticks. I was grabbing branches with my one open hand while I was running. I needed to be able to keep these guys warm.

When I finally got to the cave I put the dragon eggs in the ancient clay bowl, and began to start a fire underneath. I hadn't gotten far when I heard a loud SMASH hit the cliffside near my cave. I peered my head out of the cave, and saw that Coruscant was clinging to the cliff side, with a large bundle of sticks in her mouth. I took the bundle into my arms and stacked it all and nodded greatfully. The clay bowl that the four eggs sat in had began to turn red. Nymph and Wisp returned each holding small sticks in their mouths. I snapped the long branches into smaller lengths so they would fit in the cave in a neat stack, and also fit under the clay pot. I watched the fire get hotter, and I pushed a large stone in front of it so the flames wouldn't spread, or lick my skin. CRACK! I looked down at the eggs, they had begun hatching. They probably took longer than the others because they weren't warm enough under my shirt. The egg that had began hatching was the deep red egg. I was prepared to identify anything that came out of these eggs a lot of studying was done in the last few months. Suddenly it shattered into pieces, all of the shells were smoking. Then underneath laid the smallest Princess Hoarder that you could imagine. Okay a dragon with fire, this would be difficult. The next egg shook and vibrated until it fell out of the nest, the impact cracking its egg. Out came a baby copper shredder. As soon as both dragons had gained their bearings they hopped into my arms. Then came the last two eggs, which started hatching simontaniously. From the neon yellow egg I could see a faint glow coming frome the cracks. Both eggs then crumbled open. The hatchling from the glowing yellow egg was a Mystic Whisper. These dragons were so rare, I didn't think I would ever see one, let alone raise one. The last hatchling however I couldn't identify. It was a smoky color with small spikes all down its spine. It had olive green eyes and leathery skin. Its front feet had toes splayed all the way around it. Both dragons hopped to me and nestled into my neck, sitting on my shoulders. I just hoped that my unidentified dragon didn't have toxic skin. All of the dragons fell asleep sitting on me. Wisp and Nymph crawled beside me and sniffed the new dragons. I slowly and quietly pulled out my cell phone to call Mabel. I wanted to know what kind of dragons she got, and I wanted to see if she knew what my unidentified hatchling was. I decided a video chat was in order.

"Hey Mouse." I whispered. "What did you get?" I asked.

"I thought you could tell apart the eggs?" she said, obviously shocked that I didn't know what I gave her.

"I have to have seen the dragon to know the eggs. I gave Mrs.Horn four Blade Runners, but I didn't know what any of the others were. I gave you the other eggs that there were four of, then I took the last four that were all different." I explained.

"Okay well I got four baby Herd Hiders. My dad stocked my fridge with five different kinds of milk, and now I know why. He probably just wanted to give me options if I got this species, but each one of these is getting a different one. It will make it easier to tell them apart."

I smiled as she turned her camera to show a baby camel, a baby goat, a baby yak, and a baby llama. Of course all of them were actually dragons, but the untrained eye couldn't easily tell.

"He gave me reindeer milk too, but I have a feeling that that could be dangerous, since Switch hunts deer." she pointed out. "So what did you get?" she asked.

"Well that's the thing. I am not sure about all of them." I said. she gasped. I flipped my camera screen to show her my hatchlings. "I have a Copper Shredder, a Princess Hoarder, a Mystic Whisper, and this guy. I zoomed the camera in on my mystery dragon. "I don't know what it is." I stated.

"OMG you are so lucky." she exclaimed. "Firstly do you understand how rare Mystic Whispers are? Their shed scales also have a million uses too. Secondly, you may not believe this, but that little unknown one, is actually a Spirit Speaker." she said shocked.

"No way." I said. I couldn't believe I had gotten the dragon I would need for the rest of my life so soon, and to boot Spirit Speakers are rare too. In fact I knew nothing about them. I didn't know what to feed it. I felt the same way towards this hatchling as I did to my very first ones... completely useless. "Mabel can you call your dad and have him email me every article available about these dragons ASAP. I want to be able to feed this guy when it wakes up. She nodded. "Will do." she said, then hung up.I gently put all of my new hatchlings into the clay nest without waking them. Wisp, Nymph, watch these guys while I go and get them food." I told the two dragons. They both nodded and walked towards the nest. I ran to the house and got hamburger meat out of the fridge. I knew my Princess Hoarder would only eat meat that stood on four legs, Then I went to a change jar to get some pennies for my Copper Shredder. I mentally yelled to all of my dragons. "Everyone try and get me some flying squirrels and bats!" I could feel their confusion, but I dismissed it, as I was in a hurry. I grabbed a can of beans and peeled off the paper label. This should entertain the Princess Hoarder. I began the run back to the cave. I dropped everything on the riverbank, and dove into the water to catch a fish for the Copper Shredder. Then up the cliff side I went. My arms were full with supplies. To my surprise Vainglorious was sitting in the cave with the Shadow Sights, and the new hatchlings. Next to him was a pile of dead bats and squirrels. I kissed his head. "Thank you for your help." I told him. He puffed out his chest proud of his hunt. "I'll leave now Mama." he said. As soon as he left, the hatchlings woke up. This was going to be interesting.