The cave was littered with the shells of large eggs. Some of them sat in what looked like a campfire circle of stones. Only larger with many, many more stones. Like a nest. The shells in the stone nest were more intact than those strewn around the cave, but someone had clearly broken them. I lifted my foot to see an old, broken shell beneath it.

  Druzzik cried out in horror and pain at the sight of the broken eggs. It was heartbreaking to hear his pain. I could only assume that he felt for the owner of the eggs. Though I didn’t know for sure, the kobolds that I had encountered all seemed like they would come from eggs themselves. So maybe it was like seeing broken and empty cribs in a nursery or a bombed children’s hospital. Something that any person would see and immediately feel empathy at the loss.

  “Great Dragon! Egg Clutch!” Druzzik sobbed and staggered forward. He knelt next to the stone nest and picked up a broken egg, cradling it to himself.

  What the actual fuck. It’s not just empathy, I thought. This is the clutch of his Great Dragon! I didn’t see it at first. He had recognized what the tracks were. His insistence on me completing my quest. Not just out of friendship or respect, but because his quest was directly connected to mine.

  “Finn. Help. You must help. Please. Fix!” Druzzik pleaded, his eyes filled with tears. He still held the broken egg close to his chest.

  “Druzzik, I can’t. I don’t have the power to do that. I’m so sorry.”

  The look in his eyes broke my heart. Like he understood, I couldn’t do anything, but he had hoped he was wrong, only to have everything dashed upon the ground. I wanted nothing more than to make his pain go away.

  He just nodded and looked at the wall, gently rocking the former shell of a murdered baby dragon.

  “This can’t be it,” Harper said. “The tracks led here to this clutch. There has to be something here.”

  “Harper, I know, but the trail just stops. There is no dragon here, and the eggs are all destroyed.” I replied.

  “Wait Finn, did you just say dragon? A fucking dragon is supposed to be here?” She replied.

  Jerseil stood there, nodding slowly. “Of course it was a dragon. That’s the only thing that makes sense. I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure out what could be so large and not have been killed by the dragon years ago. We would have heard about it from the kobolds otherwise. It could only be the dragon the Voice sent us after. Damn, why didn’t I see it before?” He said, excited.

  “Don’t you see? This is big! A dragon after all this time? No wonder the mages had never gotten that far. Even the ones who didn’t take the deal until later never got this far!” He chuckled, “I’ll be damned. Finn, we have to find the dragon! It’s the key to everything. You getting more powerful, getting the Light even! Let’s look around.”

  The bard’s excitement was enough to get Druzzik’s attention, and he put the broken egg gently back in the nest. He was more present than he was a moment prior, which was a relief. Jerseil surprised me with his enthusiasm. But he was right. Maybe not everything was lost and we could find some clue as to the whereabouts of the dragon.

  Carefully, so as not to drive Druzzik catatonic again, we examined the nest and the eggs within it. The top of each egg had been broken open, which I found odd. But it wasn’t the only odd thing. “The shells on the ground are older than the ones in the nest.”

  Druzzik nodded. “Old shells good. Babies eat, get stronger. Kept between clutches.”

  I let go of some tension I didn’t know I was holding. The shells I had stepped on were not an issue. There were eleven eggs in the nest, and each had been left there after they were emptied. Was it a message? A clue? I didn’t know. But it seemed like there should be more. The bottom of the nest was rock and gravel, probably more comfortable for baby dragons, but I started digging through to see if I could find anything.

  And I did. I found a bag of gold, buried in the nest. I pulled it out and set it to the side. It wasn’t really a clue, but loot was loot. I kept digging as Harper and Jerseil examined the floor around the nest.

  “Why dig, Finn?” the kobold asked. He had watched me going through the gravel and moving rocks with curiosity.

  “Looking for clues. We have a saying where I’m from: it’s always in the last place you look. So I’m starting with the places I wouldn’t look until I have checked everywhere else. Like in the nest’s gravel.” I replied.

  Druzzik smiled a little. “Like lost things. Me dig, too.”

  The two of us systematically dug through the gravel, moving around the nest. My hands ran into a clump of gravel right near the edge, and I picked it up. One of the rocks pushed up against the edge of the nest came up with it. A very light rock.

  “Hey Druzzik, you have any super light rocks down here in the caverns?” I asked. His eyes widened at the rock connected to the clump of gravel.

  “Finn. Look at it. Not rock.” He said, astonished.

  I turned it over and a little gooey liquid poured on to my hands from the hole in the rock. Egg. It was an egg. And fluid came out of it. “Uh, guys? We may have a live baby dragon in here!”

  ***********************

  Druzzik sniffed the egg white covering my hands. “Fresh. Maybe week old?”

  Everyone had crowded around to look in wonder at the hatched egg. And Harper had taken it out of my hands so that Druzzik could examine the stuff that had coated my palms.

  It was a surprise that it didn’t stink and wasn’t dry. I could feel it drying on my hands, but the inside of the shell was still moist. Harper was looking at the egg, careful not to get any on her hands or damage it.

  “Why is this egg a different color, Druzzik? Shouldn’t it be white like the rest?” she asked.

  The excited kobold grinned. “Don’t know. Maybe like Kobold. White when old, different before hatching. Many colors.”

  “What color do you think this dragon will be?” Jerseil asked. “In the stories, there were several different colored dragons, with different strengths that seemed connected to their color. But that could be an artistic license. It’s been a long time, and the beings that know aren’t sharing.”

  Druzzik looked thoughtful and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know, friend Jerseil. Don’t know color Great Dragon.”

  Harper looked around the cave, well-lit by our lamps. “Finn, are you sure the dragon’s tracks led here and then stopped? Does that mean the dragon’s still here? I don’t see anything but the nest, shells, and the walls of this cave. There’s not even another way out. Nor anywhere for the dragon, let alone a hatchling dragon to hide.”

  “I know that there is not a set of tracks leaving here, and I don’t see any sign of the body.” I replied. It seemed like there should be more. Is the dragon still in here, waiting? No, it disappeared at least a generation ago, I thought. And something that big needed a lot of food.

  What were we missing? The nest was checked inside and out. So were the walls. I took another look at the nest, looking for footprints or crawl marks of a baby dragon. And there, on the side of the nest where I had found the egg, was the slight glow of tiny footprints.

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  I crouched down on my heels. “I think I have a set of tracks here,” I said. Focusing on the small track, I carefully followed its hectic path first around the nest, stopping here to munch on a shell. Then to the entrance to the clutch space where the baby sat for a while, like it was waiting for something.

  My friends watched quietly, so as not to break my concentration. But I was so in the zone that I doubted they could have. The new dragon continued wandering almost aimlessly around and around the room. I almost lost it twice as it crossed its trail again and again.

  Finally, it stopped at the back of the cave. It seemed to curl up and sleep there. I didn’t see any tracks leaving the spot. I sat down, watching the spot.

  “What’s going on, Finn? We’re all tired, but we can’t leave without finishing the quest,” Harper asked, concerned.

  I kept my eyes on the spot where the baby dragon had scraped the floor in a circle and laid down. “It curled up and slept here. I don’t know how long or why I’m not seeing its tracks go any further. So, I’m waiting for a change,” I replied.

  “Okay. This is way outside of my knowledge base. I’ve never seen or heard of something like this. I guess we wait,” she said as she sat down, back to the nest.

  “Can we do a second dinner, then? Since my stomach has settled, I’m very aware of how empty it is,” Jerseil asked. As if on cue, Druzzik’s stomach growled in agreement.

  “Second Dinner. Agree with friend Jerseil.”

  “Nothing’s changed yet, so you might as well.”

  I sat there and watched the spot. Harper closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the nest. I was beginning to wonder if this was a quest thing, like we had to wait for the amount of time the baby dragon slept before I would see any more tracks. I didn’t like the idea, but it made a certain amount of sense. Especially since the tracks didn’t seem to exist before I followed them, which was an interesting thing in its self. Like I had to follow the infant around across time, if I was to find it. I was getting worried about the little dragon. If it was like other animals hatched from an egg, it would have some serious food stores, but not a week’s worth, or longer.

  On top of that, I hadn’t seen any rodents or insects that the baby dragon could eat. Unless it needed milk, like a mammal. Oh no, mammals needed a lot of feedings for weeks or months! No one here would know that any better than me. But I was really hoping the baby dragon was just napping in the tracking instance.

  It took three hours before the tracks of the baby dragon to start back up. I followed the tracks around the cave for another hour as it explored, gnawed on eggshells, and gazed out of the clutch area toward the barrier. The others tried to sleep during this time, leaving me to my tracking and plodding.

  I was afraid to fall asleep and lose the trail. I may have been over thinking it, but there may have been a possibility that I would have to start the tracking of the baby dragon all over again. Coffee would be nice, not as much as sleep, but hey.

  There wasn’t much I could do, however. And my stumbling did little to disturb my friend’s sleep. Druzzik had attempted to stay awake with me, but soon was nodding off where he sat, his chin and snout resting on his chest.

  I stayed on my feet, knowing that even If I got to my knees, I would be out. The tracks of the little dragon rushed from one place to the next, almost frantically. I went back and forth between feeling concern and annoyance, as I just wanted to know where it went. The combination of protectiveness and frustration was odd for me, as the only times I had felt like that were for my little brother. I spent so much time watching over him, taking him to school, or to his friends’ houses, or to the game shop, that I was familiar with the feeling. I’d driven him so many places…

  I have to fucking focus. The dragon, the beast. I have to follow it. Find it so that I can go home, I thought. The jumbles of my mind made it difficult to think or pay attention. I continued like this until it curled up, but this time at a different spot. It was odd, but I sat down to watch the point of the scraped floor of the cave.

  I wondered what it dreamed about. Its life was so small, its world the confines of this cave where it had been born. And where was the mother of this baby? Had she abandoned it in grief over the loss of the others? That made little sense to me. In grief, we hold on to small hopes. Mothers keep their kids as close as possible. As long as the mother is mostly healthy in the head. But I didn’t know, not having kids of my own.

  Come to think of it, I really didn’t know much about dragons, here or at home. Was I just trying to humanize a creature with such different psychological and physiological needs and bents? Based on what Druzzik had said and done, and the stance of the Cinderclaws, dragons, or at least this dragon, had cared about their young. I didn’t know if that was a part of being sapient. Hell, I didn’t know that much about psychology.

  I leaned against the wall, focused on the spot and how comfy the wall felt. Maybe I was going about all this the wrong way. This had to be a test of some sort, like an endurance test. Can Finn the Mage go the distance? Will he ever get the girl? Place your bets and tune in next time! I chuckled at the thought, imagining sports announcers analyzing my performance for billions of viewers. Or maybe more. Like a galaxy’s worth of viewers. Who knows? I wonder if I have a following.

  My mind wandered as I drifted off to sleep.

  *******************************

  “Oh shit, Finn! Wake up!” Harper said as she shook me awake.

  “What? Fuck, I fell asleep!” I said, disappointed in myself. I glanced to the spot where the baby dragon had curled up and the spot still glowed faintly. “Oh, thank God. It hadn’t moved yet.”

  “At least you got some rest. How long were you following that thing?”

  “I don’t know. An hour, or maybe three.” I kept my eyes on the spot. I had no idea how long I had been out, but I didn’t feel too rested.

  Harper patted me on the shoulder. “I wish I could help keep an eye on the tracks. This is a lot for you to do on your own.”

  “Coffee would be nice, but I don’t know if we can heat up water without a fire. I don’t have a spell like that.” My Firebolt spell was the closest thing I had, but functionally, I could only use it to start a fire. And there was no way I was going to make the mistake of using the eggshells as fuel. I knew the smell well enough, and down here it would just linger.

  Harper pulled an odd device from her backpack. “It’s interesting what things can be found in a mining town. Like liquid fuel stoves. Less smoke, adjustable heat.”

  “No way! Really? Harper, you are amazing!” I exclaimed, grinning.

  Harper grinned back. “I know, but it’s nice to hear. I’ll get some coffee going. It would be welcome for all of us.”

  With a cup of coffee in hand, I was in a much better state of mind to pay attention. I sipped the glorious brew and felt the gradual effects. This was a much better way to wait and watch, and I pulled out a biscuit to gnaw on.

  As I finished the coffee and biscuit, the baby dragon moved again, this time slower. Though not as fast, it began its search around the room once more, stopping at one point or another to chew on an eggshell. The bite marks were highlighted, though I could already see them. It was a little odd, but it explained the bite marks on the shells that hadn’t been highlighted before. And yet, the stuff on the ground, I hadn’t seen it until it was in sequence.

  Druzzik and Jerseil still slept, having not been aroused by the delightful scent of coffee percolating. I didn’t begrudge them their rest, as it meant they could get me out of here when it was time. I would really be out of it then, if this whole tracking marathon continued at the same pace.

  Harper sipped her second cup of coffee and watched me follow the tracks of the baby dragon from one wall to the next. I could almost hear the pitiful cries the poor thing might have been making as it searched for its mother. And with it moving slower, I doubt it will last much longer.

  “Come on, little one, show me where you are hiding before it’s too late!” I muttered to myself. But it was no use. The tracks followed the same pattern as earlier, checking everything within the room, but with longer stops. Poor thing was tired and probably starving. I didn’t doubt the eggshells were good for its teeth and possibly scales, but if they had any caloric content, it would be a wonder.

  Though I wanted more coffee, I knew that would really be bad for my bladder. I didn’t have to go just yet, but that would change if I drank one more cup. And I had to keep watching the tracks. I just hope it doesn’t try and go out the barrier into the area controlled by the Mole People. No sooner had I thought that, than it headed to the barrier. “No, no, no! Don’t go out there, it’s not safe. And it stinks,” I cajoled.

  As if it had heard me, it went up to the barrier and didn’t move for several moments. Then, when I was worried it was just getting its courage up, it retreated to the clutch room. “Good baby dragon! Now show me where you went to hide,” I said to the tracks.

  But the baby dragon wasn’t quite ready to show me. Instead, it wandered around for another half hour before going to the back wall again. But instead of doing the whole curling up thing, it walked right through the wall!

  “Holy Shit!” I said loudly.

  “What is it? What happened?” asked Harper, standing up.

  “Come here a moment,” I said. “The tracks went right into the wall, right there.” I pointed at the spot where the tracks bisected the wall and disappeared. Hoping she had an answer, I looked at Harper.

  “I don’t know, but it’s unlikely dragons can walk through walls,” she said. Putting a hand on the cave wall. “Seems solid enough. Just like it should.”

  “What’s all this noise about?” asked Jerseil with a yawn. He came over to us. “Did something happen?”

  “Yeah, the baby dragon just walked through the wall like it wasn’t there,” I said.

  “You saw it, Finn, the baby dragon?” He asked and rubbed his eyes.

  “I meant, the tracks went through the wall.”

  Jerseil reached out and touched it. “Hmm. It feels like stone. But I wonder,” he said, fully awake. “It might be like the barrier, only made to look and feel like the cave wall.”

  “Great. Does that mean I have to try to go through it?” I said, leaning against the wall. And I stumbled. Right. Through. It.