Emily was only six when she saw her first dragon. She was climbing a tree in a park when she saw it. It flew high, stretching its giant wings. It roared like a titan, scanning the trees for food. Emily pressed herself against the tree, praying she wouldn’t be found. Luckily, the dragon was moving too fast to see the skinny six year old. As it flew above her, the air waves from its wings came to her. She was shaking, scared for her life. Yet the dragon chose to continue, ignoring her. That was the most relief she ever had.

Ever since, her family decided that dragons were too dangerous for this world. They had been roaming the continent, eating humans for centuries. The people mostly lived underground, eating food made of worms. Emily had snuck outside that day, and even though she was punished, her family also decided it was time to kill off the dragons.

One family member famously said, “If I have to, I will kill those dragons myself!”

That promise was true. By the time Emily turned fourteen, almost all the dragons had been brutally murdered, mostly by her very own family members. She was a celebrity for starting the golden age of humans, where they could finally eat real food and be free from the underground. Sometimes, Emily would go to the tree where she saw her first dragon, wishing the other dragons she had seen weren’t all dead. She really hadn’t wanted for that to happen. She had always loved the dragons that roamed the planet, and she had never wanted to see them go.

Meanwhile, her family members were the complete opposite. They even ate the meat of the dragons they killed. Emily hated seeing them doing that, and even though she was terrified of dragons, she had never thought that they deserved their fate. Obviously, because of this her family always told her to act differently. “When you were six, you were terrified of dragons!” her father would always say.

Emily had no choice but to smile and nod. She was terrified of dragons even now, and she hated them, but that still didn’t make it justified to wipe out an entire species. The dragons were dominant, but Emily had brainstormed plenty of other creative solutions to make peace with them.

She knew dragons were very intelligent, and they even had their own language, but she also knew it was insanely complicated. That was why if a dragon learned the human’s language, they could talk. Maybe they could split the planet, leaving humans to inhabit a continent and letting dragons take the rest. Perhaps, they could convince dragons to stop eating them. If they could show that they shouldn’t be killed, maybe none of that would have happened.

It was amazing to dream of things like this. They would never happen, but just thinking that they could make Emily hopeful again. Then, that hope would die out when she remembered that the only dragons left were the ones that lurked in the very depths of the seas, or in active volcanoes. Before they would even have a chance to talk, Emily’s family would kill the dragon.

By the time she turned thirteen, she had come to an agreement with how life would be. Emily would have to live with it, but at least she would be alive. She may hate it, buts he could ignore her individual thoughts and feelings if it meant she could live.

***

That was Emily’s mindset until the day she found a giant egg.

It was half of her body size, and she couldn’t even lift it. Emily had watched enough of her family breaking dragon eggs to know what this was.

It was a smaller type of dragon, though that didn’t mean it would be friendlier. It could spit out a deadly toxin, but that was the most dangerous thing about it. The dragon type usually lived in toxic rainforests, but something must have happened that made the egg end up that close to her family’s house. Emily knew that if she brought the crushed remains of the dragon egg, her family would be prouder. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to destroy this unborn baby.

Emily was part of the family that had brought the golden age of humans, yet she couldn’t bring herself to kill this baby dragon egg. She knew this was one of the last dragons on the planet, and she needed to protect it. Emily decided she would care for the egg and keep it hidden, and once the dragon was old enough, she would give it directions to fly to some far-away island. Hopefully, that would be enough.

Emily bottled up her feelings, threw them in the ocean, and decided it was time to stop being afraid of dragons.

It was hard to keep a secret from her family, but Emily kept her mouth shut. She hoped that everything would work out. She knew that she probably couldn’t keep what she had found a secret. Emily had always been very chatty. The only thing that kept her going was checking on the egg every day, seeing how long until it hatched, and making it more hidden. When she returned, she was questioned, but she did her best to pretend she didn’t hear them. She did this day after day, trying her best to be brave. She would tell herself that she was strong, and that she could protect the egg. She was nervous at times, but she shoved her nervousness down. She would continue ignoring her family until she could get that dragon away. It was the only way she could protect it. After all, Emily already disliked many of the things her family did. Her father called this the moody teenager stage of her life. Emily did her pest to play it off as if her dad was right. She kept on telling herself to wait until the dragon was gone.

That was until one day she went to check on the egg and there was a giant crack on it.

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A Hidden Hatching

Emily was nervous at first, overthinking if she could handle a dragon hatching. Eventually, she calmed down enough to decide that she needed to ignore her fears. Emily reminded herself she needed to protect this dragon egg from her family, and she couldn’t do that if she was this nervous. Emily started looking over the egg, seeing if there were any other cracks. The crack she had seen first seemed to be cracking more, and slowly expanding.

Suddenly, she heard a thud. Emily snapped her head around to see that a piece of the egg had fallen. The hole was big, but Emily decided not to look inside to spare herself of seeing anything disgusting. Soon, most of the egg had cracked, and she could see a tiny dragon wiggling out of the cracks. It was a metallic green, with giant wings that kept on making the dragon fall over.

Her first thought was Who knew dragons could be this cute? The little baby was already crawling over to her, continuously stumbling until the dragonet collapsed on her. Emily smiled, even though the dragon was heavy. She decided that the dragon felt like a female, so she would name it Cherry. She had heard that was a type of tree far down north, where they grew cherry blossoms. Apparently, it was a completely pink type of tree. Emily decided that fit perfectly for that little dragonet.

The dragonet blinked a bit, and Emily realized the dragon's eyes were a rosy sort of pink. Suddenly, Emily imagined this tiny little baby as a cherry sapling, and she smiled. She was happy she wasn’t like her family, because this baby was adorable. Not only that, but Emily would protect it. This little dragon was going to grow up and be happy.

Cherry moved a bit, wiggling around. Emily smiled again. For some reason, she couldn’t stop smiling. The little dragon seemed so peaceful and happy. Emily wished she could be like that, not knowing the dangers of the outside world. It just seemed so peaceful.

Even though Emily wished she could stay with the dragonet forever, she knew she had to return to her family. If she was gone for too long, her family would get worried. Emily slowly stood up, making sure Cherry was fine, and even though she felt a bit silly, she whispered, “Stay safe. I’ll be back.”

As she walked away, it almost felt like Cherry understood her.

***

Back at the giant mansion that her family inhabited, Emily had to endure a long lecture about staying out late. Not a single person, though, asked why she stayed up so late. They all just scolded her, telling her she was irresponsible.

Emily ignored them. She just kept on thinking about Cherry in the woods, all alone. She felt guilty about leaving the little baby alone.

When she was finally told she should go to sleep, Emily felt relieved. She went up to her room, but instead of going to sleep, she snuck out of her window and back to Cherry. The woods were dark at night, but Emily managed to sneak back to the little hiding spot she left Cherry at.

Emily was surprised to see Cherry sleeping peacefully in the shattered remnants of the egg. She also felt horrible for leaving the egg pieces scattered, so she quickly collected them and threw them into a nearby unnamed river. She gathered moss from the rocks to use as a nest for Cherry, and then she quickly returned.

She had hoped Cherry would remain asleep, but Cherry was wide awake, staring at her. Emily smiled, and Cherry tackled her. The small dragon was heavy, and she quickly knocked Emily down. Emily patted her.

After a while, Emily managed to get a nest set up for Cherry. She crawled next to it, letting Cherry rest her head on Emily’s body. Even though Emily was exhausted, she decided to stay next to Cherry to make sure Cherry could go to sleep. After a while, Cherry fell asleep, resting most of her body on Emily.

Emily petted Cherry’s scales. She was getting tired, but she chose to ignore it as she slowly lifted Cherry off of her lap and back onto the nest before she left.

Slowly, she sneaked aWay, trying not to wake Cherry up. The cute little dragonet was curled around the leftover pile of moss, slowly breathing in and out. Emily went back to the village, and she climbed back into her room.