This place was strange, I was bunched up in a tight ball. I tried to wiggle but the sides all around me were hard as rocks. I punched upward and nothing happened. I felt exhaustion heavy on my limbs and without even meaning to, I lapsed into sleep.
It went on for some time like this, I'd wake, wiggle and collapse into dreamless sleep.
This time though I awoke to the space being even smaller. I pushed with my back and arms. Something gave under the pressure and a rush of cold hit me.
I took a deep breath and tasted the earthy spell of a forest, the sharp pine smell, and something unfamiliar almost sweet.
I tried to turn toward it and found the sides crumbling away. I blinked several times.
The world around me was too green.
"It's happening!" I heard a high voice squeal. A pair of hands cupped under the base of whatever this hard thing was and then I was up in the air.
"Mother!" The voice spoke again, "Come quickly! Come quickly!"
The hands were warm and they held me tightly. I looked up into a face that felt familiar in a way I couldn't quite explain. The stripes on her cheeks were dark but didn't quite reach her bright green eyes. Her blonde hair framed her face in a fluffy halo. I decided then that I loved her.
"Ti-An," A new voice called out sharply.
The girl, Ti-An held me closer to her chest like I was the most precious treasure in all the world.
"Mother, my prayers have been heard," Ti-An pressed me to the skin on her neck. I inhaled her scent, smoky with a hint of tang underneath it. I would never forget this scent either.
"Let me see, Little Ti," The other woman spoke.
I felt myself being pulled away from the warm skin of the girls neck, at once I let out a shrill cry.
"I won't hurt you, my grandchild," This new voice soothed. I felt the transfer of hands and now I was looking into a grayed face. Her eyes were the color of moss, and the stripes on her face seemed faded and dark.
I let out a strange noise, not words but a coo of some sort.
"It is a girl, the dust on her forehead is still there," The woman touched a fingertip to my head as she spoke, "Her name is to be Lit-An."
I opened my mouth to try to protest, I had a name already. But nothing came from my mouth.
New voices could be heard distantly.
"Take her Ti-An, get back inside, I will hold them off," The woman pressed me back into the girl - my mother's - chest.
"They can't take her," Ti-An cried sounding agonized, "She is not a warrior child, she is like us."
The woman - grandmother - spoke in a quiet calm voice, "It will be as it will be."
I began to shiver intensely. The warmth seemed to have left my body. I peeked over Ti-An's shoulder to see a clearing in the woods, on the ground where several rounded objects.
One of them was split in two.
I had been inside an egg?
I shivered again even harder.
"Shhh, Little Lit," Ti soothed. Things went dark and I watched something sweep behind us. Only then did Ti stop moving. She knelt on the floor in the shadows. Quickly and wordlessly she pushed something on top of me. The thing tickled my nose and smelt like lavender. I pushed a hand weakly against it.
"Stay," Ti whispered, "Please, stay still."
Outside footsteps pounded around the edge of this structure we had hid in.
"Qui-An," A sharp voice said, "We heard the hatching was to be today."
There was a pause then the woman - grandmother - replied coolly, "We did not have success."
The next pause was loaded.
"You did not have success!" Another voice thundered, "Eight eggs and not a single hatchling! Where is the girl?"
Ti gave a sharp inhale.
"Please," Grandmother was now pleading, "These things happen, my daughter is young, she will have many more years."
"The Master needs hatchlings now! Without them, we would never take down Los-Ar or his people."
"I have nothing to offer you," My heart fell hearing her resignation, "I have given you seven sons. I have only my daughter here to care for me in my state."
"Count your fortune we let you keep her," Someone sneered, "She is a puny, worthless thing. Not one hatchling!"
There was more silence and I needed fresh air. Slowly I started to wiggle toward what I was sure was the edge of this thing over me.
Ti put a hand on my head.
"Please stay still, please," Ti whispered, "They can't know you are here."
Outside the talking continued.
"We could take the girl, she might be a good servant," Someone said.
"We should just leave her, she might be useful later," Another softer voice said.
"The house doesn't need more girls," Someone else agreed, "Besides we should reward the faithful, her mother gave seven sons. If not for the girl's sake then for the mother."
Silence fell again.
"We have others to check on, a whole list of them and we need to be back before sunfall," Someone else grumbled.
"Keep your useless eighth child, we do not need the runts," Someone snarled, "And count yourself lucky we were feeling generous."
"Thank you," Grandmother sobbed, "Thank you."
The footsteps carried off in the wind until she was sure they were alone again.
"Mother, that was too close," A voice said, all traces of anger gone, "I have seen the pieces, I know you have a hatchling."
"My son, Little Ti had but a girl-child. I cannot lose her, you mustn't tell the others."
"I will not," He replied, "May the skies bless us."
"May the skies bless us, my Ti-Ar."
Then they all listened as he walked away into the forest.