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Gray could barely contain her excitement.
Her children were finally being born!
The largest of her eggs shuddered, cracks running jaggedly across its silver-white shell.
With a final snap, the egg burst open, and a hatchling pushed its head through the shards.
A young winged dragon emerged, its body already covered in silver scales that shimmered faintly in the light.
Its eyes, twin rubies glowing with curiosity, blinked as they took in the new world.
The resemblance to Gray was unmistakable.
The hatchling was her mirror image, from the curve of its wings to the gleam of its scales.
Yet there was one striking difference: bold, black stripes running down its silver hide, giving it a fiercer, sharper look.
The newborn was immense by any natural standard, over ten meters long and weighing nearly thirty tons, larger than most fully grown Tyrannosaurs.
Compared to when Gray and Miraluz had first hatched just over a year ago, the difference was staggering.
Evolution had accelerated, perfected, and refined their line.
The little dragon tilted its head back and let out a roar.
It was high-pitched and still tinged with youth, but even so, it carried a raw, vibrating force that cracked the air like a sonic boom.
Gray's eyes widened in delight.
The hatchling had inherited the sonic emission ability, a rare gift from the Parasaurolophus genes that had been folded into her bloodline.
The hatchling's roar quickly shifted into a softer sound as he looked at Gray, recognition blazing in those ruby eyes.
He knew his mother.
Gray lowered her head, heart swelling with pride and tenderness.
For all her ferocity as a warrior, she could not hide the maternal warmth softening her expression now.
Then the hatchling's gaze shifted upward, to Miraluz.
The King of Dinosaurs loomed like a mountain of golden-glowing scales, his presence radiating power so intense that even the newborn instinctively shrank back.
The little dragon tucked his head low, pressing closer to Gray.
Miraluz let out a rumbling chuckle.
'Am I truly so terrifying?' he mused.
Gray glanced up at him, then back at her child.
"It's a male," she said softly.
She carefully nudged her snout under the hatchling's body and lifted him slightly, as if to show him proudly to her older brother.
"My eldest son."
Though Gray herself was only just over a year old, barely beyond her infancy, her intelligence was already equal to that of a grown human.
And like any mother, she brimmed with emotions too deep to hide.
The hatchling whimpered, his hunger already gnawing at him.
Instinctively, he opened his mouth wide, chirping like a massive fledgling.
Gray was ready. She pulled a slab of freshly killed meat closer, nudging it into her child's maw.
The dragonet devoured it eagerly, swallowing with surprising speed for his size.
Gray turned her eyes to Miraluz.
"Big brother," she said gently, "help me name him."
Miraluz studied the young dragon for a long moment.
The black stripes on the silver scales stood out boldly against the hatchling's sheen.
Finally, he rumbled in approval.
"Bahamut," he declared.
Gray's eyes softened further.
"Bahamut," she repeated quietly, as though sealing the name into her child's very being.
The young dragon roared again, this time stronger, as if answering the gift of his name.
He ate voraciously, tearing through an entire gluttonous beast soldier nearly as large as himself.
Even Gray blinked in surprise at his appetite.
But when he was finished, Bahamut wasted no time.
His wings, though still slick from birth, spread wide.
He flapped them awkwardly at first, then harder, determination burning in his ruby eyes.
With a leap, Bahamut rose into the air.
His body wobbled, the wind catching under his silver-black wings, but he adjusted quickly.
He beat them again, harder, sharper, until he steadied.
Against the crimson dusk of Isla Sorna, the newborn dragon soared, the black stripes along his silver wings glinting like war paint.
Gray's roar of pride followed him skyward.
"Fly, my son! Fly!"
Miraluz lifted his head to watch. A slow, rare smile spread across his scaled face.
This was no mere hatchling.
This was the beginning of a dynasty.
Human POV – The Pentagon
"Satellite confirms it," a trembling analyst reported.
"Isla Sorna is… is lively. Thermal imaging shows dozens of new heat signatures. The dinosaurs are hatching."
General Cavanaugh gripped the edge of the table.
His face was pale, his knuckles white.
"Hatching?"
"They've built a breeding ground," the analyst said.
"Sir, they're… They're building an army."
The room went silent.
Every man and woman there felt the same icy realization: the war was not against a single monster.
It was against a species.