Fiery pain lanced
through Drezhna’s belly, and she groaned, twisting and stretching her scales against the
cool cave walls to find a more comfortable position. Her eyes dilated wide, she
could easily see in the darkness. She stretched her neck and snapped up a bone
she had been gnawing, sucking out the marrow to appease her fast-growing baby.
Rest easy, little one, Drezhna
thought, hoping to sense a connection. Shouldn’t she be able to by now? If she
didn’t soon, would she survive?
The last few
weeks were the most dangerous, when the baby’s fire lit within the womb.
Usually the prime mother would burrow down with her daughter and seal them
within a cave until the baby was safely born. But Drezhna’s mother had fallen
prey to one of the great metal beasts that invaded from the southern skies. Drezhna
had sensed her mother’s silence as she returned from the deep breeding waters.
She had fallen out of the sky and floated on the choppy surface, not caring for
a long while if a sea creature attacked her there. Until she sensed her baby
for the first time.
Why couldn’t she
connect? Drezhna remembered floating in her own mother’s womb. Her mother’s
gravelly voice sounding even in her thoughts. Her mother’s prime mother easing
her out into the dark cave and leading her to the surface with a blast of fire
clearing their path, melting the rock and soil covering them into a smooth
tunnel.
Who would lead
her baby away from her, up to the surface? If she could not do it, the babe
would begin to devour her in its newborn hunger….
TBC?
Dogs
in House
|
Houdini
|
Time
writing
|
20 minutes, interrupted
|
April
word count
|
5,258
|
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