The Price of Gold

Lenny had waited hours for the hen to abandon her nest in search of a meal. Drakes were known for “pumping and dumping” the hens, which meant that he only had to watch for the mother.

Their eggs were fetching millions on the black market.

Some buyers devoured them—scrambled, sunny-side up, balut. One egg was enough to feed an entire village for a week, but those who could afford them thought not about that.

Artists ground the shells into pigments for their paints.

Many attempted to raise the dragons, though never successfully. Most didn’t survive past the hatchling stage—the buyers, that is.

Lenny didn’t much care what his buyers did with the eggs as long as he was paid. Supply never met demand so he always made a killing.

These were unmistakably Garish Golds, the utmost coveted the world over.

This was Lenny’s first time dealing with Golds. He didn’t know much about them, but “dragons was dragons.”

As he hoisted the first egg into his cart, the ground shook beneath him. He looked up, horror-stricken by his miscalculation.

Dragons wasn’t dragons, he learned far too late. Garish Golds mated for life. The drake’s well-endowed maw crushed his every bone.