Page 45 of Full Moon
"Possibly earth-dragon, the last of its kind," he replies, his tone devoid of emotion. I sense a deep betrayal in him, a bitterness toward Feray's father for hiding the egg.
"Is there anything we can do to help you or it?" I ask, watching the way his fingers trace the bronze scales.
"I think it's viable, but I'm not sure. It's been ages since I've seen an egg," he murmurs.
"Can I have it?" Feray extends her hands.
Diaval glances from the egg to her and back again before handing it over. Feray raises the egg to her ear, her eyes closing as a serene smile spreads across her lips. "I hear its heartbeat. It's slow, but it's there." She offers the egg back to Diaval and looks up at him. "How do we hatch it?" Her question makes everyone stop and turn toward him.
"You would raise a hatchling that's not yours?" Diaval's soft question surprises us all.
"I was raised by witches. Why wouldn't I raise it?" Feray's enormous heart makes me love her even more.
"We'll all help with it," I offer. In sleuths like mine, the village shared the responsibility of raising all the cubs.
"The short version is I would need two fire sources to get it to hatch," Diaval says. I turn to look at Easton.
"My fire is yours, old friend. I helped you hatch; why wouldn't I help this little one?" Easton says with a warm smile.
My eyebrows shoot up, and my mind races, doing the math. Diaval is over nine hundred years old. Easton has to be at least a hundred or two older than that, minimum.
"I see that look, Torben. Stop trying to figure out my age. I'm older than Diaval; leave it at that." Easton winks at me before moving away to examine the research.
Feray smiles, offering Diaval a pack that was on the counter. "This should do for now." She kisses his cheek, a tender moment that makes Diaval's usually stern face soften. She then moves off to search the downstairs.
I watch Diaval stare at the egg, his gaze intense and filled with a mix of hope and fear. He wraps it in material he finds on the counter before placing it carefully in the bag.
Turning away from him, I walk back to the table that had the bear skulls on it. It's a surreal moment, seeing what my bear's skull would look like after death. An icy shiver runs down my spine.
"Creepy, isn't it?" Khal says, coming up alongside me.
"You can say that. Does he have a basilisk skull here?" I glance around the room, not seeing anything serpentine.
"No, none of mine, Easton's, or Diaval's species here. The only thing that is dragon in origin is the egg." Khal shrugs, then motions to Diaval. "It hit him hard, finding the egg."
I nod. "It was definitely shocking to find it."
"I found something!" Feray shouts, holding up three sandstone cylinders.
"If I'm translating this correctly, Dad bought the egg from a merchant who was selling it as a statue. He knew it was a real egg by scent." Her voice wavers as she hands the first cylinder to Diaval.
"He was waiting for a response from Vasserdell to see if they were going to send someone to retrieve it. No response ever came." She hands the second cylinder to Diaval, who looks solemnly at her before going to explore the rest of the room.
"The merchant found it by a pile of dragon bones in the mountains, along with pottery and several pieces of jewelry. With the size of the dragon, he thought it was an offering." Feray reads from the last cylinder and looks up at Diaval, who nods slowly before walking away.
"Your dad tried to do the right thing," I say softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.
"I guess he was hoping a dragon would be called to investigate," she murmurs, shaking her head. Her eyes drift over to Diaval, who clutches the bag to his chest as if it might slip away. Her gaze then shifts to the table, settling on the massive Kodiak skull.
She looks back at me. "Yeah, it's surreal, isn't it?"
I huff out a laugh, trying to mask my discomfort.
"A room full of only wolf skulls was worse, I think." Feray shrugs, running her hand over the skull. She studies the suture lines, her brow furrowing with each pass of her fingers.
"What's on your mind, little wolf?" I ask gently.
"The notes here say that this is an extinct species of bear. Yet..." She spreads her hand across the skull plate between the eyes and looks up at me. "Your bear's skull is the same size and has the same distance between the eyes."
She squints, tilting her head as the pieces come together. "Easton, I think we have a problem..." Her voice carries across the room, drawing the attention of both ancients.
Their gazes fix on her, the weight of her discovery hanging heavily in the air.
