The Arctic Book

Chapter 1 – Hatched

My story starts on the day I was born. I have no memories of being in my egg, but I believe I already had a connection with my parents before I was born. After being born I could walk within minutes. Flying however would take me several years. I had 2 brothers and 1 sister, all younger than me. (by younger, I mean minutes) we played a lot with each other, developing our fighting skills at a young age. We weren’t allowed to go outside, because winter was raging outside and would kill us almost immediately.
I remember the cave where I grew up was somewhere halfway up the mountain. When exiting the cave there was a small ledge, but big enough for my parents to land.
My kin mates for life, meaning they choose 1 partner and stay with him/her for the rest of their lifespan. Once every 7 years a couple could get new younglings. They lay their eggs in caves deep inside the mountain, to protect them from the cold. Father and mother switch duties constantly. One day the father hunts for food and the mother watches over the eggs, the other day the mother hunts and the father watches. With their body temperature and branches from the trees at the foot of the mountains they keep the eggs warm and alive.
When winter ended we were able to go outside and learn about nature, how to be one with Her and use things of Her, without harm. Although we still couldn’t fly, we got instructed about the wind and how it moves between the mountains and ravines. We also learned spiritual things, how there are Ancestors watching over us and other things I no longer remember.
Years went by and at the age of 5 our wings were strong enough and we instinctively learned how to fly, gaining the name of whelpling. Now normally a whelpling could leave his parents because he/she could fly and hunt for him/herself. But because of the extreme and always changing weather in the mountains and the bitter cold in the winters, the whelplings of my kin stayed a bit longer with their parents to gain more strength and protection against nature. At the age of 7 a whelpling was able to survive for himself and could search for a place for his/herself. Giving him the name of Young Adult. The settling could be close to the heart of the tribe or far away, at the other side of the mountain range. After finding a place for him/herself the Young Adult could ask for an elder to learn more about the ways of life. Finding an elder wasn’t that hard, for they also lived spread across the mountain range that was our territory. The choice of becoming a pupil was made by themselves; no one forces them to learn more. Of course most of the Young Adults choose to learn more, the curiosity and eagerness to learn won’t even stop when they become a full grown dragon. From this point the life a Young Adult should live is unknown for me. For life chose a different path…
When I was 5 my tribe got attacked by humans mounted on dragons. They attacked without questioning and killed many. In the chaos I lost my parents and brothers and sister. I saw one of the dragons landing near to me and the human on it jumped on the ground. I don’t know why I never tried fleeing, but something took a hold of me. The human grabbed me and I lost consciousness. From this day on I still don’t know what their intentions were, why they attacked us and why they captured me, many other whelplings and maybe even some Young Adults.

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