She poked the hard shell one more time. “Comin' Mama!” Shelby scooped up the large egg shaped rock and tucked it under her arm, kicking sand behind her as she ran to her mom at the top of the beach.
“What's that?” Billy asked matching her stride.
“Nothing.”
“Come on Shel, tell me,” he whined.
“Fine, but you can't make a big deal out of it, okay?”
Her little brother rolled his eyes.
“You have to promise!”
“I promise,” he grumbled, “now tell me!”
Shelby leaned in close and cupped her hand around his ear. “It's a dragon egg,” she whispered.
Billy's eyes grew wide.
“Like a real dragon egg?”
“Shhhhhh!” she stuck her finger over her lips. “Yes, like a no foolin', honest to goodness, cross my heart,” she said motioning an X over her heart.
“But how do you know?”
“When you get to be my age, and have read enough books, you'd be able to spot one of these a mile away. Just like me,” Shelby said. “But now you have to promise not to tell, or mom and dad won't let me keep it.”
“I promise.”
Once Shelby was home, she raced up to her bedroom and into her closet. Shoving piles of toys and clothes that had fallen off their hangers out of the way, she took an old blanket and made a nest on the floor. She gentle set the dragon egg in the center.
“You're safe now,” she whispered. “Just promise you won't hatch when I'm not home.” She waited for a response but the egg set staring back at her. She closed the closet door and climbed into bed. She tried to stay awake just in case it decided to hatch early, but hours of playing in the sun was catching up. As her eyelids drooped low, there was a small cracking sound. Her eyes shot open and she listened closely. A second crack sounded followed by a small squeal. She grabbed her flashlight, ran to the closet and swung upon the door. There, sitting in the old blanket, was a baby dragon.
Thanks so much for sharing this with me! It's always fun to write something from a child's prospective! For more info about freewrites, visit @mariannewest!
Much love,
Stacie D
Image by Andrea Stöckel-Kowall from Pixabay
Great story with a very tough prompt. All I could think of was a dragon guarding her egg and I didn't want to write about that. Thank you for the originality.
Haha thanks! Yeah, it was definitely harder. My son literally cheered, he's a huge fantasy fiction fan and he's been waiting for something like this. If you have a sec to read it...because of course I pimp out his writing haha...check it out, he's @thegreatdayne 😀
Interesting read. :-)
Thanks!
Ahh - see, reading books brings you wisdom and a baby dragon :)
Haha exactly! Imagine what other treasures it could bring?!
See who got a dragon!
Hahahaa...
Beautiful story.
Haha thanks!
Nice freewrite @freedomtowrite, thanks for sharing. This made me imagine how a Cambodian might handle this prompt, but then I quickly realized it would be come an exotic omelette.
Haha if they cracked the egg they probably would have found a dragon versus yoke haha And thank you!