-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-
She wasn’t startled, wasn’t afraid, and he was fairly certain she didn’t even notice him at all. She wasn’t surrounded by treasures, hadn’t kidnapped any damsels or torn apart any armored knights in defense of her home, and as far as he knew she behaved just like any other creature he had ever seen.
However, she was feeding her seven hatchlings large pieces of raw bear meat after chewing and roasting it with her own fiery breath, but by the pound, that was the only thing that made it quite so obvious what he had.
It was a dragon. A gigantic lizard, its body matched the size of a whale yet had all the svelt shape of a serpent, save the two magnificent wings that curled around its body. He had seen it in flight, and followed it in his car, barely able to keep up with the magnificent creature as it swooped down into a canyon and through a massive hole into a natural cavern. And now, peeking out from behind a cropping of stones, he was the first person in years, centuries, in fact, to see a mother dragon feeding her young.
He held his camera up to take a picture, turning the flash off first to avoid startling her, and began snapping one after another. The dragon didn’t seem to notice, or if she did she didn’t care. It occurred to him that he could easily be torn apart by those massive talons at any moment, burnt alive by a spout of hot breath, which as it turned out ignited half a second after being exhaled at high velocity. Yet this dragon did nothing of the sort, curling around the tiny hatchlings like a cat keeping her kittens warm.
The hatchlings were remarkably small, barely the size of a fully-grown cat, and oddly enough made mewing sounds just like them. They squirmed about on the large dirt mound like serpents, clawing at the meat their mother had brought while tearing at the softened flesh with young teeth. For such tiny creatures, they ate tremendously, and their mother hardly ate any of her catch.
Then, quite suddenly, the massive beast reared itself up. He threw himself to the ground in fear as it passed by him, slipping out of the cave in a single fluid motion. When she was gone, he peered over his hiding spot, catching sight of the seven hatchlings.
He could take one…there were plenty of them, and a single one would be a monumental scientific breakthrough…
They all looked at him, as he looked over the cropping, tails twitching, heads tilting…
Yes, just one would be a wonderful find, as he crept his way towards them to select the healthiest-looking one…
Suddenly, all seven of them leapt at him, digging their sharp claws into his skin, biting at his arms and legs. He was down on the ground in seconds flat, flailing as the hatchlings bit and clawed at him. A single claw penetrating his throat silenced him for good, as the hungry hatchlings dragged him back to their nest to tear his flesh apart.
Later that day, his car would be towed away for being parked in a national wildlife reserve.
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