One Dino Egg, Over Easy

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. Matter of fact, there are so many now it’s hard to believe they weren’t always here. Thirty years ago, there was one little dragon egg uncovered and found in the Antarctic permafrost melts. The egg defrosted and two months later there was the cutest little female dragon you could ever imagine. With bird-like features, it was amazingly beautiful, yet foreign in it’s appearance. At twenty-four weeks, the feathers began to harden and turn to scales.

A year later four entire nests of dragon eggs, five to seven in each nest, were found and shipped to zoos around the world, but the zoos couldn’t hold them; they always escaped. About 15 years ago they began showing up in the Valley. Maybe it was the open spaces or maybe it was the many nut and fruit groves nearby or even the Crete Point Caves could have been a draw for them, but they moved in and never left. They seem to lay five to seven eggs every three to four months. There are literally hundreds of them there now.

While some of the females actually do spew fire, it’s usually shortly before their eggs hatch for about eight weeks after they hatch to protect them from males, who will eat them. There are claims that dragon eggs can heal anything, but they are far more effective on diseases of any organ. Because of the rumors about the dragon eggs healing properties, many people risk their lives to steal dragon eggs.

While it seems to be a simple idea to heal a loved one or yourself, it is extremely dangerous to steal a dragon’s egg. Dragons are very good mothers. A dragon will leave her entire nest of eggs to locate one stolen egg. She will shred anything near her eggs with her claws and if she has fire, she’ll burn anything she finds with her egg to a crisp and oddly enough, the eggs do not burn.

People have tried stealing an egg and leaving it for the mother to find and stealing her other eggs after she leaves to look for her missing egg only to find that the more eggs they steal, the faster she seems to find them.

The older the dragon gets, the bigger it seems to grow. That first dragon, Eve they called her, head towers over the tallest trees in the nut and fruit groves and when she flies, the wind from her wings is strong enough to sway the strongest trees.

Zareeon, a tall handsome man with keen features and long Nubian locks that frame his copper face, has just learned his daughter has a lung disease called Sprag and needs a lung transplant which they cannot afford. Sprag is a nasty disease resulting from climate change. First the patient experiences difficulty breathing, followed by months of declining oxygenation levels as the lungs begin to harden, leading to suffocation of the patient. Supplemental oxygen can help the patient but it is a horrible way to die, it’s extremely painful for the helpless family to watch as well.

Zareeon watches his wife and daughter sleep as he counts each breathe. Gently he closes the door to his daughter’s bedroom and goes to the next room to sit down. He takes a deep breath and touches his headset.

“Call Mark.”

In his ear he hears, “Calling Mark.”

The phone rings three times, “Hello?”

“Hey Mark.”

He could hear a smile in the voice on the other end, “Hey Z, What’s up?”

“We got the results of Candy’s test.” After a brief pause he says, “Man, it’s Sprag.”

There’s a long pause, “Are… Are they sure?”

“Yeah.”

After another long pause, “Can y’all afford the transplant?”

“No.”

“So what you gonna do?”

“I’m gonna steal an egg.”

“I’m in.”

“I can’t ask-“

“I said I’m in. She’s my niece. You’re my brother. Get some rest. I’ll be over first thing in the morning so we can start making plans.’

*****

DING! DONG! DING! DONG!

Zareeon looks over to his wife as she slowly opens her eyes. “Go back to sleep.” He lightly touches her face and gets out of the bed. He wipes his eyes as he walks down the stairs and glances at the clock. “6:00? Who’s here this early in the morning,” he mumbled to himself?

He looks through the peep-hole and sees four men, closes his eyes and shakes his head as he opens the door. “Mark, what are y’all doing here this early?”

Mark, looking like a mirror image of Zareeon, pushes his way in the door and the other men follow him. Speaking softly he says, “I called Harold to get in the sport shop early cause I wanted to buy some supplies.”

Harold a tall muscular man, made a fist and raised it to his heart. “Once he told me what was happening, I said I was in. Clyde and Eric heard me leaving out and asked what was up, and here we are.”

Zareeon shakes his head and lead the men down a hall and down stairs. “How y’all gonna buy supplies before you even have a plan?”

‘No matter the plan, we need harpoons and cabling, which we had to order,” says Mark.

“And a bolt gun, to bolt the cabling in the ground once we harpoon it," says Harold as he takes a seat.

Eric, a stout man of dark complexion, sits down in a recliner. “I have a couple swords from my martial arts classes, they need sharpening so we put them in for sharpening.”

Zareeon frowns, “A sword, really?

“Yeah a sword. Harpoon her in the neck twice and bolt her down. Hit at least one of her wings and she’s pent down. Hit the neck one more time, pull her down and cut off her head,” says Harold.

“WHAT,” snaps Zareeon.

As the other men take seats, Mark says, “What, what? How do you think we gonna get Candy an egg without the mother coming after us?”

Clyde, a very thin honey complexioned man, chimes in, “Dead mothers don’t look for eggs. We can use one for Candy, sell the rest and split the proceeds.”

Zareeon looks at each of the other men, closes his eyes and shakes his head. “Do you realize how dangerous killing the mother will be?”

Mark leans forward, placing his elbows on his knees, “Yeah, that’s why we’re gonna fight it in the cave.”

“Are you crazy,” snaps Zareeon?

Eric chuckles and his stomach slightly shook, “It sounds crazy, but we’re at a disadvantage outside. If she gets any height, bolting her down becomes almost impossible.

“And when she spews fire,” Zareeon asked in a sarcastic tone?

Mark smiles as he sits back, as if pleased with himself, “That's why we find a cave with faint sulfur smells, should be before she begins breathing fire."

Zareeon’s eyes lit up, “Without fire, we could hit her with the harpoons, bolt her down and make the other shots easily.”

“Hit her a couple more times with the harpoons, nail her down,” says Eric.

“Then Maria Antoinette that bitch,” says an excited Mark.

Clyde smiles, “We just need to get to the Valley.”

Everyone was quiet for an uncomfortable amount of time. There are no roads to the Valley, just an estremely dense rat infested forest. Sure there are other animals, but it's as if the rats actually hate humans. Whether it is one or a hundred, they attack humans.

Eric broke the silence. “We gotta find a way around the rats.”

Clyde shakes his head, “If we hike in, we might be able to avoid them, but if we run into a pack, we’re toast. If we take bikes in, we can out run them, but they hear us coming, giving them a chance to increase their numbers for an attack.”

Harold interrupts, “Electric motorcycles. It gives us the speed we need to outrun the rats and they’re quiet enough not to draw them to us.”

“So when we going to the range,” questions Mark?

“Range,” asks Eric?

“Yeah range,” answers Harold. “If I’m in the lead, I wanna make sure you won’t shoot me in the back if we have to shoot at the rats.”

As the morning slipped away, the five men began their plans to kill a dragon to steal her eggs to save Zareeon’s daughter, Candy.