The surrounding area was liquid, but I could ever so slightly breathe. I was curled up tightly in a ball, a scaly tail curling over my head. I felt claustrophobic and needed to get out of containment.

 'How did I get here? What's going on? I need to get out.' Were the thoughts reeling through my head over and over. I got annoyed with myself for thinking so much until I finally attempted to find my way out

I was curled too tightly in a ball to move around with purpose so I used my tail to jab and push. Cracks could be heard, so I pushed harder till I finally made a large hole in front of me. It felt like it was too bright and I hid back in my egg. Though when my eyes started finally getting used to the 'light' I felt it wasn't much brighter than in my egg and that I may have overreacted. 

Now having room to push my tail out of the hole I made, I now had enough room to move around my limbs and pushed sideways with my forearms while pushing my head against the roof with my back legs. It eventually cracked but I felt very tired at the struggle at not being able to use my tail to crack the rest of the egg. It was clear that my tail was the strongest part of my body.

 Worn out I completely climbed out of the egg and flopped on the hard stone underneath and looked at my surroundings. There were about 5 more eggs a good distance from me. All placed on a dangerously high ledge close to the roof of a cave, the eggs equal distances away from each other.

Losing interest I focused on my own hunger and opted to find a solution to it. I didn't notice it before, but it felt like I was an empty shell of scales. There was nothing around except rocks, pebbles, eggs and doom so I turned my attention back to the egg that I just escaped from and looked at the liquid inside. 

 'Do I eat this? Is there nothing else? I'm too hungry to think.' After a moment's hesitation I slurped up the liquid, it felt thick and slightly jelly-like in my mouth, but overall surprisingly tasty. I finished the rest of it. Once I was content I sat and waited for something to happen. I don't know what. Just something. 

 Until that something did, I watched my siblings hatch one by one. Two had cracked their eggs and got their tail out, And one larger egg had fully hatched, it was a pair of twins with one more vibrant than the other. I was visibly bigger than them. Maybe by a whole head length.

Also losing interest in that I settled in a comfortable curled position to sleep when there was a big crash outside the cave that jerked me awake, fear immediately spreading towards my body.

The cave was shaped like a foyer, I could no longer see the light from outside, something was blocking it.

My eyes widened, now I knew why the cave was so big.

The dragon's horns brushed the top of the roof making an eerie scratching sound. Without even standing up all the way.

She stopped approaching, assessing the situation. Looking at me and my siblings

The glare in her eyes made me feel I was in danger one second, and then protected the next.

'Is this my mom? Why does she look so mad? Did one of us do something wrong?' 

She seemingly calmed down but I kept my guard up until she curled around herself and went to bed. 

Huh..? Moodswing much?

Feeling salty that my sleep was disturbed for no reason I also curled up and went to bed, not sparing my siblings any more glances. My final thought: I can't wait to get out of this cave!

…

…

…

When I woke up from my slumber I looked around drowsily before getting up to stretch my back and shoulder, letting out a shudder. I looked around and saw my siblings still sleeping, but my mother was gone. I looked down at myself and my scales were visibly more stable compared to the fragile softness of when I had just escaped my egg. 

I looked over the ledge and felt it wasn't as tall as before, even if still super duper high. I walked over to my clearly abandoned egg and realized I was absolutely towering over it. It was only about two-thirds if my current height.

'What's this all about? How long have I slept because growing this fast definitely isn't normal.'

 As I was lost in my thoughts trying to figure out what's going on I heard the same loud pound sound my mother first made when she arrived. As she walked in she looked slightly relieved to find me awake. No idea why though.

"Wake your siblings, then we leave this cave immediately." 

'What was that? Did she just speak to me? How did I understand her so well?'

My mind was swirling so much I made a vow to myself to think as little as I could from now on.

I turned to head over to my stirring siblings, yawning and stretching without me having to wake them. I trotted over to them. How do I speak to them? Hello I'm your big sister, mom wants to leave… Oh! I have to speak out loud like my mother did. Oops.

"Hello, I'm your big sister, mom wants to leave this cave right now." My growl came out a bit more high pitched then I intended but whatever.

My siblings looked just confused as I did, while they figured out how to respond to me I looked at each of them and saw they were all kind of weird looking. The only thing in common that we had was our scale pattern. But all the same time I can't see very well in these shadows.

"How do we get down from here? We can't leave." Chirped one of my smaller siblings.

For all the things I think about I'm surprised that wasn't one of them. 

Well surely there's a way down if mother just left us alone? We probably just have to figure it out. Yeah.

I walked over to the ledge and stared at the drop. If I hit that ground full force I just know I'd die. So how do I get down? Maybe I could slide down that wall? 

As I was busy thinking of a way to get down, my sibling with the wings way too big for his body, had apparently already jumped over the edge, startling me. 'I guess he could be my Guinea pig.'

 When I looked over the edge to see what had happened to him I could just barely make out his wings spread, he was slightly gliding, but also just slowly falling.

'Thanks for making my life easier.' I Thought as I spread my wings and jumped after him. 

Apparently slow-falling is hard though because if I even slightly tilted over I would go in that direction. That wasn't very cool because being off balance while falling to the ground isn't such a good thing sometimes.

When I could see the bottom I felt an intense relief, apparently, we were higher than I thought because we were falling for quite some time. Oopsie…

The rest of my sibling were also slowly falling down after us but waiting is boring so I padded out the den alone. The sibling that first jumped lumbered after me. Kind of looking like he had wings for arms. 'What a weird way to walk!' 

When I finally made it out of the cave I was immediately flashbanged by the light and colors, by the time I was able to open my eyes I was utterly shocked.

never could I have imagined something so colorful and vast. Compared to the inside of my cave, everything was so bright and I could see it all clearly, especially this bright shining rock in the middle of the blue sky. 

I could hear my siblings walking out behind me and immediately turned to see what they looked like.

The one that lumbers when he walked truly did have wings for forearms and thin back legs. He was bright red-orangish with flecked gray spots all along his scales, he had a longer bent neck and slimmer body and tail with heavy, shut eyes. Horns slightly curb upwards. While his wings were big enough to cover his entire upper body if he so wished. 

How cool looking! 

The next one was an energetic one, one of the twins. She had sharp cat eyes and a sharp jawline with a skinny snout. She didn't have anything too abnormal about her except for her rippling muscles and powerful wings. 

She was sitting on top of her bland brother's back who wasn't very impressive... He was dull gray with a red-orange tint and his head was drooping. His horns were slightly fatter and larger than ours, and he for some reason had no wings?

'I had never met anyone beside us but something's telling me having no wings is very bad for us dragons, how did he get down from the ledge?'

Then the girl twins' amount of muscle finally made sense. 'Did she carry him all the way down here?' She must be carrying the burden for both of them.

I left them to assess my other siblings too.

The next dragon was shaped the most like a mini mother, but his tail was stubby. His looks were captivating. He was a vibrant reddish black with long limbs, but had the smallest wings of us all.

Finally, the least impressive. A tiny black dragonet standing at half my sitting height, he was well shaped and had armored plates on his thigh, upper arms, and all along his spine from his snout to his tail and had little spiny fins sticking out from behind his jaw and ear. He was so small and looked so weak I couldn't stand looking at him for too long. But at the same time he was just so cute and I couldn't bring myself to look away! 

I turned hard and let my thoughts wander somewhere else. Weren't there seven of us? 

Oh Yeah! Yes. Oh. Oh lord.

"You guys!" I called out to my siblings. "One of us is missing." Does anyone know where they went?

While my siblings looked around seeming just as confused as I was, the tiny dragonet spoke up. "He didn't have wings, so he can't fly." He quietly mumbled."I think he was left behind on the ledge." 

Isn't that great how do we go all the way back there and get him down without having him meet his doom?

Just as I had that thought I could see a small figure in the sky gliding towards us.

No, something is flying at us, and quickly too! As they came closer I found they weren't as small as I thought but humongous! 

And then I recognized mom. Hi mom.

When I thought she was gonna crash into the ground she spread her wings hard at the last second and made an abrupt stop midair, sending a gust of strong wind, knocking us all strongly off our feet.

She charged towards me and lowered her head to my height. Having to bend down a bit to reach me. This way she was a lot bigger than I thought when I was on the ledge. She could hold me in her claws if she wanted too!

"I thought I told you to bring all your siblings?" She growled "if so, why is one missing?" She said, exhaling a gust of breath so hot it chilled me.

"I-I'm sorry, it won't happen again. I swear." Yeah I forgot my sibling. So what? The rest of them are here so why does it matter. I couldn't have gotten him down even if I tried!

Mother was very pretty out in the light. Aggressive bright red scales with occasional slits along her body that leaked out heat. She was tall and muscular with ginormous wings, both the length of her long torso and tail. Her green eyes didn't seem kind, but merciful enough.

She seemed satisfied with my answer, but I bet she would've chomped off my head if I said what I truly thought.

She walked into the cave- probably to get my brother. So while I waited I decided it would be a good idea to practice sneaking. Before I could take a step mother was already back.

That was fast. Or were we just really slow?

The last brother that we left behind was definitely a unique case. He had no wings and pitched black scales with the same armored plates as my tiny brother, but what really set him off was the two extra heads located between his shoulders and behind his neck. 

Maybe all dragons are this diverse and it's just me? Mother treats this as normal as well.

"For your first time out of the cave, after three weeks.. we'll be practicing flying. It's only one of the requirements for a dragon before they even begin to live properly." She seemed to be aiming at my two— or four? Whatever, two brothers.

Mother swiftly gathered us together so we were lined up side by side. She did what I'd never expect anyone to have the audacity to do and in one swift bite grabbed all of us by the tail and raised her head back tall.

I'm sure it was a comical sight, me and my siblings dangling with our thick tail tips stuffed in mothers mouth. But her teeth hurt so baddd. I could feel the pain shoot up my spine and burn there nonstop.

 My body wanted to escape but my brain said 'stay put and let mom carry you' or something like that because despite the pain I stayed dangling, no resistance whatsoever.

With a powerful flap of her wings she took off from the ground and flew upwards towards the fluffy clouds in the sky. The force of the take off made me ask if I was meant to die then and there until she put this protective barrier around us.

I looked down at the passing scenery, and felt the freedom of being in the air, no obstacles in your way or anything. Even if it wasn't me flying right now, as soon as I learned I knew I'd cherish it forever.

A lot of time passed, the sun moved from one side of the sky to the other. We flew over some more forests, swamps and plains until we finally made it to our destination. Mother made a sharp curve upwards and strongly beat her wings until we made it to the top of the mountain.

On a flat surface she dropped us straight down, some of us falling straight on our snouts. She just wants us to be miserable doesn't she!

"Before I teach you anything about being a dragon, it's only fair you know where you obtained your knowledge." She snorted amused at our clumsy landing. "From the moment you gain consciousness in your egg, the basic knowledge of the world is passed down from generation to generation, otherwise you wouldn't know how to speak or start flying or avoid danger."

She paused, thinking. "Of course that doesn't mean you know everything from birth. It's just instinct, like how every animal knows how to fight automatically." 

Yeah, I never cared about how I knew to speak and such but okay.

My tinier brother— let's just call him Tiny, on the other hand looked more intrigued, and was listening intently to what mother was saying.

"Anyways before I throw you off this cliff, you're gonna flap your wings as hard as you can in place, and get the feeling of flapping your wings in the air."

Excuse me what? Throw us off the cliff is she crazy? 

My siblings had frantically started flapping as if they were trying to beat the air to a pulp. I did too, I'm not trying to die. My two wingless brothers on the other hand just sat watching from a distance. 

I wonder what mothers gonna do with them? 

I quickly diverted my attention and kept flapping and flapping till my wings grew tired.

That's when my mother announced she was gonna throw us one by one.

"Wait!" The twin sister chirped, "I'm too tired right now. Can't we take a break first?"

I nodded my head vigorously, "How will we fly if our wings are worn out."

She rolled her eyes. "Did you pay attention to my flying at all? You flap your wings, and fly. If you fall you die." She sneered at the last part making me wonder if she cared about our safety at all.

Before I could react she charged straight towards me, snatched me up by my tail, AGAIN, twisted her head super fast and threw me flying off the cliff.

I was so scared. I looked down and all I could see was clouds but I knew under them awaited certain death. 

I screeched bloody murder as I spun over the cliff of the mountain like a frisbee.