21st August 2017

Hey guys! Its been a while since I last uploaded, for which I am very very sorry. I'll try and make it up to you guys in the next couple of weeks. I've got some other ideas for short stories that I should be putting out, and I want to begin writing a few more books as well. I won't be posting any books for another couple of months though. Just while I finish my trip in New Zealand. There is a new book/series I've come up with that, if I manage to do it well, could be even better than the Silver Trilogy. But I'll talk more about that later. For now, I leave you with this.

This short story is set before the Trilogy, and around three years after A Modern Day Dragon. There isn't too many spoilers if you happen to be reading this before the trilogy, but it does explain some things that I missed, as well as leaving some very minor hints as to what Eldawin's story will explain. So without further ado, here it is.

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A bright afternoon sun shone down upon a small mountain range lost in the American wilderness. Lush green tree leaves soaked in its brilliance, and baked stone mountainsides reflected its glare. Light spun off a pristine lake, situated nearly in the centre of the valley, with groves of river brushes thriving on its banks and schools of fish speeding below the surface.

One of these schools of fish was suddenly startled as a wickedly fast flash of what could only be explained as steel stabbed into the water, spearing one, before flicking it up into the air. A boastful snort of satisfaction followed as the culprit turned toward her brothers with a grin of contempt.

"Haha!" Silver exclaimed in Drakin, "Told you I would do it first!"

The fish skewed on the end of her tail flapped itself one last time before giving up its life and falling limp. The hatchling dragoness was around the same size as a husky, no more than three years old. Her yellow eyes sparkled with a childish curiosity. Her tail and wings were still a little too large for the size of her body. The metal shell shone in the sun, reflecting the area around her with startling detail.

Her fire dragon brothers each had their own way of showing their annoyance at her boast. Raize snorted and turned back to the water, determined not to be outdone. He was the smallest of the lot, though not by much. His red scales were a little scratched and dirtied from a recent tussle with the other hatchling of the family, Blaze. Blaze was the biggest, and probably strongest, of the three.

The larger sibling growled at Silver and swatted the water angrily with his paw, scaring away half a dozen fish that had begun to slowly make their way over to the three hatchlings. Raize let out a yowl and snarled at his brother.

"What did you do that for?" he exclaimed, "I had one right in my paws!"

Blaze only grunted in contempt, "Well Silver's already won, so it doesn't really matter."

"I still wanted to catch a fish though," Raize let out a squeaky growl, before pouncing and dragging the other hatchling to the ground, the two of them falling right into the cold river.

Watching them, laying spread out on the bank, was the father of the three miscreants. A large metal dragon. Elron. He was around the size of a small bus, with massive wings each nearly the size of his body. Two horns were present on the back of his head, covered a metal shell that also enveloped the top half of his neck, back and snout, as well as the entirety of his wings and tail. He wasn't a very old dragon, maybe thirteen at the most, but there was an almost ancient sparkle in his eye, making him seem far older than he was.

Blaze and Raize scrambled out of the water and turned on each other almost instantly, scratching and bighting with growls and grunts. Elron let it go on for another couple of moments, until a burst of fire erupted from Raize's maw, before getting up with a sigh.

"Alright you two, enough," he said.

Blaze pinned his brother to the ground, both breathing rapidly. For a moment neither of them moved. But with a low growl from Elron they reluctantly removed themselves from each other and turned to their father. Silver watched, silently munching on her fish with a slight smirk on her snout. They were in trouble.

"This isn't a lesson in battle," began their father, "I want you two to learn how to hunt, not fight. It doesn't really matter who gets in first, as long as it gets done."

They were silent.

"Now, back to the bank. What you catch today is what you eat. That is the rule. Neither your mother nor I are going to be getting it for you," he continued, before leaning forward and with a challenging edge on his voice said, "Besides, you don't want your sister to show you up again? Do you? I promise there are far better fish in this lake than what she caught."

Both hatchlings glanced at each other, this time in slight excitement.

"It isn't always a good thing to go for the first thing you see. Remember that," said Elron with a grin, this time a little louder so Silver could hear.

The young dragoness snorted as she gulped down the last of her fish, but when the two boys hurried back to the river she hesitated, before sighing and getting up and running back to the bank herself. She wanted to see what else she could get before the day was up. Elron watched them with a smile. He enjoyed encouraging friendly competition between his children. It made them try at things they never usually would worry about.

Just as he was about to settle back down for a small doze a fury of wingbeats caused him to look up. A genuine smile crossed his face as a red dragoness glided down from the sky, her ruby red scales glittering like gems in the high noon sun. She landed softly on the edge of the bank, casting a quick glance over at the hatchlings, before moving over to her mate. They nuzzled each other with a soft rumble before moving back.

"So...?" asked Elron, "What is the news?"

The dragoness, Scarlet, took one last look at the hatchlings, making sure they were preoccupied, before letting her joyful façade fall away. Her wings drooped by her side and she simply shook her head, not trusting herself to speak.

"Surely... surely it can't be that bad," he said, this time worried.

"It's worse," she replied shakily.

"What did Liam find out?"

"Not here, lets move somewhere where we won't disturb them," she gestured toward their children.

Elron nodded. Together they began to walk around the bank of the river to a more secluded area. They were quite happy to leave the three hatchlings by themselves for a little while. The other dragons in the valley were reasonably trustworthy and there weren't really many other threats in the forest that could defeat a dragon, even a hatchling one.

"Scarlet?" the metal drake spoke softly once they were out of earshot.

She let out a shaky breath, "Elron... it's not going to be possible for me to have any more eggs."

"What? But...!"

"No... Liam figured out the problem. Apparently my body isn't... it isn't producing any more eggs. It's not even in the process of creating new ones. I'm... I'm completely barren."

A dragon's body works far differently than most other creatures in the way of having young. Instead of harbouring eggs from the day they are born, a female dragon's body, usually starting at the age of eight, creates eggs to be fertilised. Once lain it begins the process of creating a new batch to replace them. As a dragoness gets older the process takes longer. Between the ages of eight to ten it only takes two to three months. Eleven to fifteen it can take nine months to a year after laying to be ready for hatchlings again, then two years after fifteen. Once a dragoness reaches a hundred it could be up to ten to twenty years to be ready for more hatchlings.

However Scarlet was only thirteen, and the last time she had any children was two and a half years prior, with Silver and her brothers. It should have only taken a couple of months for her to be ready again, but she had been unable to bare any more hatchlings since that time.

"But... that shouldn't happen," Elron stuttered.

"A... apparently I'm not the only one," she said softly, "There are a number of other females with a similar problem throughout the valley. Liam thinks it may have been a chemical or something they used in the foods when we were captured that made this happen, or being overstressed, or maybe the environment we are living in. It's... uncommon but not strange."

There was silence between the two as the metal drake slowly absorbed what his mate had told him. The news shocked him far more than he wanted to admit. He had wanted more children, more hatchlings to call his own, and as the first known dragon of his kind he felt it was his duty to make sure his race continued. He hadn't expected this.

"If... if you want to have hatchlings with another... I... I understand," she said quietly, lowering her head.

"Don't say that," he hissed.

"But Elron... you're the only one of your species, besides Silver, and we have been trying for years now. I know you want more young ones. Your only chance now is with someone else."

"I don't want them enough to leave you Scarlet. You are the only dragoness I've ever been with. The only one I want to be with. Nothing will change that."

She smiled slightly at his words, "I know. I never said you had to leave me, but for the sake of your species..."

"There is still Silver," he said, "She's young and healthy. In seven or eight years she'll be ready to have her own hatchlings."

"You know that's not entirely true," she muttered, "You said it yourself. Silver is struggling a lot more with her element than you did at her age."

"There could be any number of reasons for that," grunted Elron, "I'm not exactly pushing her as hard as I was pushed back then. I had to learn, quickly. Here, its peaceful, no reason for her to really try and master her element."

"Yes but... I don't want to put that kind of pressure on her," Scarlet sighed softly.

"Then we won't," he promised, "She is not yet three Scarlet, she still has hundreds of years ahead of her."

"As do you."

"Yes, and I have chosen how I want to spend them."

They looked at each other, Elron with a confident and steady gaze, and Scarlet hesitating, unsure of what to say or do next. Eventually the red dragoness lowered her eyes, looking at her paws. She knew it wasn't fair to herself, but she felt guilty.

"But... but I can't hold you back Elron. You love being a father! I can't take that away from you. I can't be the one to hold that from you!"

"Scarlet..."

"And what about Silver?" continued the dragoness, the words just running from her mouth now, "I don't want to be the one to put the pressure of keeping her species alive on her back. She doesn't deserve that! She is still so young."

"Scarlet..." Elron said, a little louder this time, but she didn't stop.

"No! I love you, both, too much to do that. If I must swallow my pride for a little while, just so you can have a chance at continuing your species, then..."

"Scarlet!" The metal dragon roared, cutting her off.

She hesitated, looking up at him.

"I don't care. If I have to wait another ten years for our children to have hatchlings of their own, I can do that. We can spoil them when they are born. I can wait. And with Silver... if it comes down to it that is my responsibility. Not yours. Besides, there are a lot of suitors looking Silver's way, even now while she is so young. She may be headstrong and stubborn, but she will understand her responsibility, and she will handle it in her own way. You must trust me Scarlet... everything will work out in the end. The only thing that you can do to hurt me at the moment is make me take another female."

He lightly pressed his snout against hers, looking into her eyes. She was barely holding herself together. The realisation she was barren had come close to shattering her. There was even a tear trickling down the edge of her snout.

"Do you trust me?" he asked softly.

Her eyes lowered.

"Scarlet, trust me, please."

"I... I trust you."

He smiled gently and lightly nuzzled her chin, "Then don't worry. Please. Everything will turn out well. It always does."

She nodded slight.

"Now, come on. Let's go see what those three miscreants are up to."

She chuckled softly and shook her head. With a long breath she forced all of her worries away and used a wing to clear away the tear. This time she allowed a genuine smile to cross he face and looked at her mate.

"Thank you," she said.

He kissed her softly. She rumbled closing her eyes before pulling back, this time her eyes were brighter, less dismal.

"You know," Elron smirked slightly, "just because you can't have hatchlings, doesn't mean we don't have to stop trying."

She tilted her head, unimpressed at what her mate was hinting at, "Really?"

"What?" the metal dragon said almost innocently.

She rolled her eyes and got up from where she had been sitting, trying to keep herself from laughing at Elron's questioning gaze. She turned and began to pad back toward the where the hatchlings were still trying to catch their fish. A couple of moments later he followed, trotting up beside her.

"Hey, you didn't reply," he said teasingly.

"Hmm, let me think," she responded with a playful edge of her own, "Depends how good you are too me."

He laughed and shook his head before nuzzling her once more, "Alright then, I'll have to grab your favourite meal for tonight."

"You're going to have to try harder than that dear," she said sweetly, nudging his shoulder with her snout.

He snorted in fake annoyance. The two came around the edge of the bank river to quite a spectacle indeed, making them quickly change traces of thought. Blaze was yowling and roaring as only a hatchling could, struggling to bight through the neck scales of an alligator almost twice his size. Silver had her tail skewed through the reptile's leg, struggling to hold it in place, while Raize was busy with the front end, flaming and striking, trying to keep it busy as Blaze attempted to finish the job of killing it.

The two parents looked at each other in shock, before quickly rushing forward in an attempt to stop what looked like an incoming catastrophe.

"Hey!" Elron yelled out, "I said fish! Not reptile!"

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As requested by @Lauren0879 . Don't know if this was fully what you wanted to see again, but it'll probably be as good as it gets :)