How to Raise a Dragon

Fire in the hearth burning non-stop wasn’t the first sign something was off. Still, it was the first moment that made Tovi think – Huh, I’m really doing this, then?

She stumbled upon the egg while trying to fish. Her attempts were pretty poor – like a child, she waded through the water in wide, clumsy steps that scared the fish away. Once the water had settled and she figured out she’d been something to fish with, instead of catching everything with her bare hands, she was soaked and angry. She’d seen people catch fish with their own hands. She’d seen them having fun! But Tovi hadn’t been having fun at all, and had just considered giving up. Still – she needed a new hobby, she told herself. Something to break the routine. Something new to challenge her.

And so she’d returned to the village before coming to the beach once again, with a net in hands. It wouldn’t be the same. The net required a lot less concentration than catching the fish with a rod, for example, and it certainly didn’t demand the same physical exertion that catching it bare-handed did, but come on. Tovi knew her limits. Mostly.

Setting the net up probably was another challenge, but she’d seen how some of her friends did that, too, and so she’d gotten to work. This was work that she could do gladly, that she liked, because it gave her time to sort her thoughts while she did something with her hands. She couldn’t dive, not really, but at least she knew how to dunk down and hold her breath. She really should’ve stuck to some active hunting but well, there she was.

And there the egg was.

Well.

She didn’t realise it was an egg, at first. She thought it was just a weirdly in-tact piece of metal, or perhaps a strange stone. Tovi kept her eyes open underwater, but all shapes were blurry and uneven. It was only when she touched it that something at the back of her head screeched at her. She was holding an egg. And she was fairly certain that she knew what the egg belonged to. She’d heard the stories, and all that.

She’d been a little confused then, but not dissuaded. She backed up, net still in hands, and spent a long while rooted in the same spot in shallow water. She contemplated what to do, and spent a little time turning around. She wasn’t sure if taking the egg counted as stealing, really, but no one was around to see it, anyway. The water was silent. The woods behind her were silent. She hadn’t seen a living soul in hours.

Besides, she’d take care of it. So she took it with her to her cottage, and that’s what she did.

So, really, the egg in shallow water was the first sign that something was off. The fire burning non-stop was just her making sure that the egg hatched.