An egg is sacred, something not to be touched by anything but the priestess - the mother of the egg. Death awaits those that break this holy contract
The justice of the kill belongs to the mother.

This is Our Law.

~ From the Dragonling Grimoire

Unfortunately, today Kirill was away, probably making things up with his mate, and we had Dmitri himself to teach us. It hadn't even been a sun leap yet and already I was exhausted. He'd started us running on a grueling pace that I could barely keep up with. I never thought I could miss Kirill's teaching style.

"Keep moving!" Dmitri called, his dark eyes watching my group's every move as we ran laps around the training room. "You're not getting paid to slack off!"

"Barely getting paid at all," I grunted to Mason, who breathlessly nodded his agreement.

"Anita! Mason! Separate!" Dmitri's sharp voice cracked through the air like a whip. "If you have the breath to talk, you have the breath to move faster!"

I rolled my eyes at Mason, but he just gave me an apologetic shrug and started running faster. Damn short legs. I wasn't particularly short, but this was ridiculous. Still, I didn't feel like getting yelled at by Dmitri again so I picked up the pace.

"Alright! You can stop now!" Dmitri called out. I could have cried from relief. "Get some water and catch your breath. Then pair up. You're going to practice using your weapons." Strike that, I could have cried from misery.

After drinking some water from the naturally-formed fountain flowing down one of the walls, I made my way back over to the others and let my legs get accustomed to not trying to kill themselves with excessive running. My sword was leaning against the wall in its scabbard, which I quickly tied to my belt.

My broadsword, like most of our weapons, was made out of a precious metal mixture that only the Mora blacksmiths knew how to create. I constantly wished it was fancy, with some cool designs, and had even asked Garik about it. He had just laughed and reminded me that Lord Edik wouldn't have ever bought me something so expensive.

"Mason!" I called.

The fyn looked over at me and grinned as he retrieved his battleax. "You read my mind." He said cheerfully. "Though it's obvious I'm gonna win-"

"You two are not fighting together." Dmitri's voice broke through our conversation. "This ,is practice, not time to goof around."

"Yes sir," Mason said automatically. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. He gave me a small smile before going off and pairing up with Ashley, who looked utterly delighted.

"Anita?" Dmitri said sharply. "Did you hear me?" I knew he was waiting for me to respond respectfully. Instead I just nodded sullenly, something Dmitri immediately noticed. "You." His gaze swept the arena. "You'll be fighting with Burian."

"But-" I began, but Dmitri's icy gaze shot back to me, the intensity managing to silence my retort. Even I had my limits.

Burian wasn't part of my group, but he happened to be in the training room at the time. Lucky me. After Dmitri walked over, both fyns came back, Burian now holding a flail and a smug look on his face. My stomach dropped.

"Begin," Dmitri said before moving away to observe the others.

Burian had at least a full head of height on me, and double the body mass. No matter what I tried, hitting him was like hitting a stone wall. With a feather. Whoever started that "brains over brawn" bullshit was obviously not a warrior.

Burian swung his flail, the spiked metal balls banging harshly against my poor abused shield. I jerked the shield up and jabbed at his ribbed with my sword. Unfortunately for me - I'm starting to say that a lot, aren't I? - a broadsword isn't made for stabbing.

To cut this short, I was fighting an uphill battle. With weights tied around my feet.

I tried to bash him with my shield, but Burian just pushed me back with a hand, swinging the handle of the flail at my head. Barely pulling my shield higher, I managed to cut the attack off with the edge. There was now a dent in the steel - a tribute to my poor melee skills.

Another blow hit the center of my shield, knocking me straight to the floor with the force behind it. I kicked out, managing a solid hit with his shin, but he swung his flail down and I had to jerk my foot back to keep it from being broken. The edge still clipped my foot, making stars dance across my eyes from the pain. Thankfully, the spiked edges were covered in training rubber and it couldn't do much serious damage. Still hurt like a bitch though.

"Stop!" Dmitri finally called after I was sufficiently beaten to a pulp.

I panted and laid on the floor for a few heartbeats, trying to regain enough energy to get up. Soon enough, Mason appeared and helped me to my feet. "Hey. Come on, you're missing the gossip." He helped me limp on over to the others, who were - unsurprisingly - talking about Kirill and Lady Mariya.

"She keeps getting underfoot every time we go to patrol." Burian was saying as he pulled the rubber covers off his spikes. I remembered that he happened to be in the same squadron as Kirill. "She even tried to tag along once. That was a disaster. We had to stop every ten candle marks to let her rest. Never let a Lira join a patrol."

Sammy, another Ryn who had joined in our training, shook her head and sat down. "I'm just glad I don't have that problem. Having Kirill in my patrol would be bad enough." We followed her example, forming a sort of circle on the floor, and I leaned against Mason's shoulder.

"I kind of feel bad for Kirill," Ashley said as she began to clean her throwing knives. "He never asked for... that. And we all know exactly why she's around so much."

Snickers arose through our group and we sent furtive glanced towards Dmitri to make sure he hadn't overheard. Thankfully, he was across the room, talking with some of the older Ryns.

Everyone knew Lady Mariya had a massive crush on Dmitri. It was the real reason she bothered to hang around so much - just so she could flirt with our leader and attempt to get on his good side.

"I can't imagine getting a mate just for her to chase after someone else's tail and ignore you," Mason said, shaking his head softly.

"And with your own cousin " Burian added in. "That's just... weird."

"They're not really cousins, are they?" Sammy asked. "I mean, they have the same name and all... but they're just so different. I was on the front-lines with Dmitri once. Her gaze flicking to the fyn. "Now that's someone I wouldn't want to meet in battle."

"Well Anita's headed that way pretty damn fast." Mason snorted, poking me in the forehead.

I sat up, putting a hand over my chest in mock offense. "Me? Impossible! Can't you tell he absolutely adores me?" Sarcasm dripped off of my words. I dropped the act and rolled my eyes. "Who knows? Maybe if I piss him off any more, Lord Edik would kick me out."

"Smart idea." Mason rolled his eyes. "Only the smartest of ideas from our own lovely Anita."

"More likely you'll just get demoted." Sammy sighed. Her face turned resigned and the mood sobered slightly. "It's hard as is to get a leg up here. You're lucky that your pay is fixed, Anita."

"Fixed is a relative term when you owe as much as I do," I said dryly.

Burian shrugged slightly. "Still. When I was at Lady Willow's city, it wasn't so cutthroat. I think Lord Edik makes it so competitive for his own amusement."

"It's been like this ever since I came home from Shkola," Ashley said. "I grew up here, but my mother said that it didn't use to be this bad."

"Why don't you move away?" I asked. "I mean, I'm stuck here, but if you guys are miserable..."

"Wish it was that easy." Mason murmured, shaking his head. "You have to formally resign and get approval to leave. If you don't, it's considered abandoning your post."

"And Lord Edik rarely has the time to look through the papers." Ashley snorted. "It could take an entire sun cycle to process, then he might not even accept that."

"Shouldn't that be illegal?" Burian asked, cocking his head curiously.

Sammy nodded. "I think so, but, I mean, have you really read all the way through the Grimoire? That thing's ancient and way too long."

"I knew someone who read the entire thing." Mason volunteered. "He was all the professors' favorite student."

As the conversation drifted away to days in Skhola, I slowly tuned out.

Suddenly despair rolled through me, like hot water pouring down my back. I gripped my knees and tried to push it down. During the past moon cycle, I had grown accustomed to the pangs of random worry for my precious eggs.

It happened often, and Alma assured me it was completely normal.

But this time was different. The anxiety built into a full-blown panic.

"Anita?" Mason's voice came from far away, hardly piercing my terror. "Anita!" He started shaking my shoulder, snapping me out of my thoughts. He gave me a smile. "There you are. I thought-"

I stumbled to my feet, pushing Mason away. "I have to go " I mumbled, then started jogging out of the training room. The terror rose more and more, making it hard to breathe, but I pushed through it.

A few people turned to stare as I broke into a sprint. Maybe a few tried to talk and ask what was wrong - I wasn't sure. A cloud of fear had descended on me and blocked out everything but one thought.

My eggs are in danger. My heart began to race as the thought touched my mind. All the mental coaching against running back to my eggs at the slightest hint of anxiety flew out the window as I shoved my way through the halls.

I didn't even realize when I shifted, only recognized the click of claws against the wooden floors, the hallways getting narrower, the people now diving out of the way to avoid me. A few angry snarls broke out behind me, but I didn't bother waiting.

As I skidded around the last corner, all of my fears suddenly came true.

My door was smashed in.

I practically crashed into my room, snarling as fury built in me. Intruder. Intruder. Intruder. The word pounded in my head in time with my heartbeat.

A pale gray fyn was standing over my nest. Flames were dying out on my nest, the blankets reduced to embers.

And my eggs. My precious eggs. That was the last straw, the thing that destroyed my control. Broken pieces of shell were scattered around, pale yellow yolk splattered on the ground with two half-formed bodies splayed against the hardwood.

Never before had I felt such rage, and I doubt I will ever again. Red tinged the edge of my vision as I slammed full-force into the trespasser, desperately ripping and dragging at his tail and legs, anything to get him away from my nest.

Blood-stained scales fell from the fyn's body and he screamed in pain, stumbling around and trying to swipe at me. Rage burned in my blood, cold and hot at the same time. The fyn turned to snarl in my face, his teeth clicking as he snapped at my throat. He moved too slow, too ungainly. It was almost as if he was in slow motion.

That was the last mistake he would ever make.

Instinct was running my body now, feral and hellish. As the fyn struggled to pry me away, my claws found the protective scales around his throat, chipping themselves to rip them off. I didn't care that the broken pieces - jagged like shattered glass - were cutting into the soft flesh of my paws. Nothing mattered but seeing this abomination dead.

My fangs found the fyn's throat and sank into his jugular. Blood bubbled up like a crimson spring, filling my mouth with a metallic taste and dripping down my chest. I tore and slashed at the sensitive flesh laid bare by my avenging claws, hunks of flesh dropping to the ground like dead flies. My claws ripped and tore at his shoulders and chest, every bit of skin and flesh that I could touch.

Somewhere, a thousand leagues away, I heard some people rush in. They tried tearing me away from the intruder, but something savage had possessed me. My mind had retreated safely away from this horror, leaving a fiend to take control.

The fyn's entire neck was nothing but a bloody mess; his chest and face fared no better. I had torn one of his eyes out, the sphere now one of the lumps of ground up flesh on the ground. His remaining eye was wide and shocked, surprise the last thing he would ever feel.

I turned and snarled at the newcomers, not sure if friend or foe. Everyone looked the same in my eyes - they wanted to get next to my eggs. I had to protect them. I had to...

One of the dragonlings stepped forward cautiously, his violet wings raised slightly. I lunged at him, my teeth snapping closed on empty air a hair's breadth away from his leg, then retreated back to my nest, pacing around it anxiously. I wasn't quite sure what I was defending now.

The thought struck a cord inside of me, and all at once my strength drained away.

The murderous rage that has consumed me just candle marks ago slowly leaked away, leaving just an empty husk. I wanted nothing more than to curl up with my mate and mourn, away from the bewildered gazes of those who stared, away from the voices of panic and dismay, away from everything. But Fate was a bitch, and I was not even allowed that comfort. Darkness seemed to blur my vision as I stiffly sat down, staring at nothing.

A few dragonlings crept forward, pushing me to my paws and nudging me away from my nest slowly. Among the twisting shadows that lined my vision, I almost thought I saw the sable-colored fyn, fangs bared, my mate coming to protect me. But he was gone in the next instant, replaced by a flurry of wyks intent of cleaning up the chaos that my nest had become.

I stared blankly at the shattered pieces of shells, the yellowish yolk, the obscene half-shaped forms. It didn't fully register that this... this... mess was what remained of my perfect eggs until a couple of the servants nervously stepped forward to clean it up. A spark of the remaining anger rose up and I almost lunged at them, snarling viciously. Paws immediately clamped down on me, holding me against the ground. Immediately the strength was gone from my body and I watched limply as the Inas did their duty. The now-terrified Inas hurriedly cleaned and then fled, glancing over at me with fearful eyes.

The other dragonlings slowly emptied out, spurred on by two of the remaining wyks. I recognized the motherly green eyes of Alma and the ceaseless rambling of Mara through the haze of nothingness that clouded my mind. Somehow they coaxed me into shifting into my human form and bundled me off to Mara's rooms.

They chased Mara's mates out before making me a bed of soft blankets. Not that I would have noticed if they had just laid me on the hard ground. Everything felt numb.

I laid against the blankets, curled up in a fetal position. For how long, it didn't matter. Not that I could tell.

The blissful nothingness was suddenly shattered by a dull click in my ears, followed by muted sounds of protests. I ignored it, hoping it would go away. A sharp clout upside my head proved that theory wrong almost immediately. I slowly looked up and felt a twinge of disgust to see Lord Edik kneeling beside me. Dmitri, Alma, Garik and some others were standing behind him, their faces varying from cold to pitying.

Words breached through my haze, though I couldn't quite identify who was saying what.

"...it's dangerous..."

"... not her fault..."

"... she killed him..."

"... have to give her time..."

"... won't be able to..."

I opened my eyes slowly, trying to see who was there. All I saw was Lord Edik, whose face was red and furious.

Lord Edik's lips were moving rapidly and I forced my ears to focus in on whatever he was saying.

"-can't have a useless soldier around here. Just get rid of her at this point!"

Murmurs of agreement and challenge passed through the crowd, but they stayed back. However, Garik shook his head with wide eyes and spoke out. "But sir! You can't just force her into working now-" He didn't get to finish his sentence.

Lord Edik slapped Garik hard enough for him to collapse on the ground, blood dripping from his nose. Anger ignited in me once more, though far more muted than the earlier fury. As he was talking, scolding Garik on something that I didn't bother to listen in on, I kicked out as hard as I could. My heel connected solidly with his kneecap, followed by a sickening crack as it caved in on itself.

The small crowd surged forward, all doing different things. A few reaching out to grab me, others reaching to support Lord Edik. Alma and Mara pushed their way closer to me, defensively standing over me.

There was a lot of shouting, but mostly I didn't hear it. I just felt... cold. Cold and alone, despite the whirlwind of activity going on around me.

Stumbling over his words in a fit of pure rage, Lord Edik tried to stand, but tripped and fell. It might have been comical, if I hadn't felt like all joy had been taken from me.

Dmitri stepped in then, grabbing Lord Edik's shoulder to steady him. "Sire, just leave her to heal." His voice was so flat, he could have been talking about the weather. "If she does, good. You'll have your money's worth."

"And if she doesn't?" Lord Edik said, his voice raspy and face red from his anger.

I felt Dmitri's cold gaze rest on me and I forced myself to meet his gaze. His eyes were blank, as if he didn't really see me. "If she doesn't, there's no point in keeping her alive."