The dark cloak the dragoness wore was doing well to conceal her, the train covering the full length of her long tail, but the thick canopy provided by the enormous, broad-leaved Dragon Scale Trees, almost completely blocking out the light of the moon, helped too. Under the darkness of the trees, it would have been impossible to see, if not for dragons having the keenest of night vision.
She paced a few yards from the tree line, her padded feet perfectly quiet on the forest floor, though her body all nerves and a twisted stomach, gazing to where the Kingswood dropped away, leading to the palace grounds proper, all manicured and verdant.
She turned away from the palace and sat back, the item she was cradling against her red chest scales peeking through the opening in her cloak, pale and oblong.
An egg.
Her egg.
She gently stroked the iridescent white shell, pressing it to her snout for a kiss.
Back at her hidden nest, she had seen the opaque shadow of the chick inside moving when she had held it in front of the flickering firelight through the translucent shell. She had committed the sight to memory; it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever beheld.
How can I do this? she asked herself. This is going to tear my heart out…
"Ignatia."
She gasped, fumbling the egg, her heart and stomach lurching before she managed to grab hold of it again. Realistically, dragon eggs were plenty hardy enough to survive a fall from a parent's front paws, but Ignatia wasn't in the habit of taking risks with her egg. In fact, quite the opposite.
"Thymeris save me, Stargazer! You frightened me half to death!" she whisper-yelled, the fright and the gravity of the situation making her voice sharper than she had meant it to be. "I'm so sorry, Stargazer. I am…not myself."
Stargazer smiled kindly at her.
"No, my apologies, my young friend." she tilted her head back, causing the hood of her own cloak to fall back. "I didn't mean to frighten you, poor thing. I know this…cannot be easy for you."
Unlike Ignatia's bright red scales, white horns, and green-yellow eyes, Stargazer had no need to worry about being spotted. Her scales were a very dark purple, her horns black, and obsidian eyes shined like polished river stones. The cloak was a bit superfluous, really, but she didn't want Ignatia to feel silly for having to wear one.
"It is," she took a wavering breath, trying to steady herself. "The hardest thing I've ever had to do. B-but I have no choice. She has to live this time. The magic dwindles from this world more and more with each passing second. If we don't get it right this time, I fear there will be no next time."
"All well and good to say, redbird, but you can't justify this to the aching heart of a mother. I know what this is doing to you. I know you must be brave, but you needn't be brave for me."
"Stargazer…" Ignatia said, burying her face in the older dragon's shoulder, letting her body shake with tears. She couldn't yell and scream and swear like she really wanted to, or they'd be caught, but she could at least cry. Even if it was quietly, it was to her best friend who empathized with her and really cared about her and her chick. "It's unfair, it's so unfair!"
"Oh, my little firedrop, I know. I know." Stargazer wrapped her arms and wings around her and the egg.
"I love her. I always have. But as-as p-painful as this is, it would hurt far worse losing her to death again. And I wouldn't get her back again, Stargazer, I know it. This is our last chance."
"And we will make absolutely sure you never have to lose her like that ever again, redbird. You will be reunited with her when the time is right. You know I will watch over her until like she is my own chick until then, don't you?"
"I…" she took a breath, trying to stifle the hiccups that threatened her. "I know you will, Stargazer. Thank you." Ignatia held her egg up to her cheek, closing her eyes, listening to her baby's subtle sounds from inside the egg. A fresh wave of tears overtook her, and it was useless trying to fight them, so she let them fall freely. "Know how much I love you, little one, with all my heart." she whispered to her baby before handing the egg over to Stargazer.
"Oh, redbird…" Stargazer said, tears shining in her own black eyes while she simultaneously tried to be strong for her friend. She reached up and wiped at Ignatia's tears with the dark pad on her thumb. "There, there, love. It'll be alright. You'll see."
She hoped she sounded reassuring and not like she wanted to throw up, which she absolutely did. This was beyond awful. What had the world come to where a mother was forced to relinquish her egg? She wrapped her free forearm around the younger dragon and squeezed her.
"I know. I know it has to be done. My heart just already aches from missing her."