Notes at the end of chapter! :D

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Magpie was curled around her egg, humming under her breath. It was warm, and it was going to hatch soon, very soon. Perhaps tonight. She smiled, caressing the beautiful golden surface.
Then her ears pricked at the familiar scrape of talons on the hard stone floor. She turned her head, grinning to see Hawk sheepishly standing in the doorway.

"Hia Maggie, sorry I'm late..." The lethe Skywing said, hurrying over to the nest.

She chuckled, and her mate tented a wing over her and the egg. He sighed happily.
Hawk was a general in Queen Ruby's army, so he often came home later than he should.
However, this time was especially late. It was almost moonrise.
Magpie cast a look at him. He looked incredibly tired, and had a fresh, barely covered claw mark, surrounded by a burn, on his tail.

"Hawk, love, you can always tell me what happened." She said, looking at the bloodied bandage dangling off Hawk's tail.

Hawk started, looking over at her with an unreadably jumbled expression.
"I-it's nothing, honey. Don't worry about it. Just... Had to deal with a thing. For the Queen. Y'know, confidential things."

Magpie sighed. That was always his excuse. "Confidential things." She repeated, laying her head on her talons. 

Hawk furrowed his brow, frowning. "Don't be like that Maggie, you know if it was anything less than confidential, I would tell you."

She sighed again, twining her tail with his. At least he was here now. That was enough for her.

Suddenly, a horn blared in the distance. The Scorpions were raiding again. Hawk frowned deeply, turning to the door. He glanced back at his mate, who nodded sadly. He ran out the door, dawning his helmet and grabbing his spear.

Magpie was alone.

Well, besides her egg. She pulled it closer, keeping it warm. Was it just her imagination, or was it rocking on it's own? She smiled, but her face fell when she realized that Hawk wouldn't be able to see their dragonette hatch. She stared at the door, praying that he would return.

About ten minutes later, she heard the clank of armor and the scrape of talons. Magpie leapt to her feet, opening the door to greet her mate.

Instead, there was a ragged looking Sandwing in battered armor, holding a sword.

She struck Magpie down with her weapon, then shoved the body off of the ledge.

The young Scorpion raider marched into the cave, taking all food and valuables, shoving them into a sack.

When she found the egg. She put her sack down.
She felt sorry for it.
The raider knew what she had to do, she was instructed to take any eggs found, bring them back to the Scorpion Den, then was to be the assigned caretaker of it, teach it the ways of the Scorpions.
That was how she, Caracal, had become a Scorpion herself.

Caracal sighed. She hoped some Skywing or something found the egg. Poor thing. Besides, Caracal wasn't even an adult yet, she was only five. She couldn't exactly raise a dragonette.

She turned tail and flew after the departing raiders, clutching her sack.

Meanwhile, old Cuckoo, Magpie's father, had watched the whole thing. He'd seen raids like this before, and he could tell that the young raider hadn't taken Maggie's egg like she should have. Perhaps because of her age, perhaps because of pity. Likely both, the old Skywing speculated.

Cuckoo flew into the cave, ignoring the blood with a wince. Many of his children had died to the Scorpions, but that didn't make the loss any easier.

He swept over to the nest, where a small, gold-scaled talon was breaking through the eggshell.

Then the top of the egg crumbled, and a small, golden female dragonette poked her head out. Cuckoo smiled faintly, lifting her out. As he did, a crackle of energy went up his arms.
He stared at the little dragonette with wide eyes.

He knew what the energy was.

Animus magic.

Cuckoo knew what he had to do, according to law. He was meant to report this to the queen, then watch as soldiers threw the child off of a cliff, before she even learned how to use her magic.

He couldn't let that happen.

~~~

So! Did I forget to mention I love Wings of Fire?
...Yeah I did, whoops.
ANYWAYS!
Okay, explanation time. Like for the weird bits that you might not understand, not the spoiler bits. Five in dragon years is the equivalent of sixteen in human years. As for the Scorpions, I had the idea that with Thorn queen of the Sandwings and with the Outclaws living in the palace, the Scorpion Den would go back to being the mess it was before Thorn fixed it. So, huge band of raiders stealing crap from around Pyrrhia.
As usual, hope you enjoyed, and I will post chapter one soon! :D

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~Chat, signing off, for now!~