A small egg...

Doe ran into the cave, and set the egg down on the rock ledge.

It was small, smaller than her, but only just the size of an ostrich’s egg.It was rocking forwards and backwards, but only just slightly. The shell was smooth and white, glinting sky-blue, emerald green and summer-yellow where it hit the light..

CRACK.

Doe’s hands flung to her face. It was hatching.. Already? She thought that she would have had more time.. But it was too late. The egg started violently rocking side to side, before a talon broke through the shell. The eggshell flew off, and onto the rock ledge. A head popped out, blinked slowly, and lunged at Doe.

“AAAAH!” She screamed, terrified. Nevertheless, she caught the dragonet as it lunged towards her, and cradled it in her arms. It blinked, before warbling.

“WRRBBLLEE RWOARBLE RRSS WRRRBLE!” The dragonet poked her nose, and only just then did Doe notice how beautiful it was. The scales were shades of yellow and gold, complete with flowery pink and sky blue on the scale patterns and horns. The dragonet spurted out a tiny flame, before unfurling its antennae. Antennae? Doe hadn’t known that dragons had antennae. She had a feeling this one was a female, though.

However, what was even more weird was that this dragonet unfurled feathery wings, gold with splotches of pink and blue. Bird wings. What?

Doe snuggled the dragonet closer to her, and the dragonet murmured, slowly snoozing off.

“Well, I don’t care if there’s anything wrong with you, little dragonet. You’re mine now, and I’ll take good care of you. I think.. I’ll name you Sylph.”

Doe looked out of the cave at the vast world beyond her.

It was just her now. Her and her little dragonet snoozing away in her arms.. They were alone.. But together.

2 years later..

Doe ran through the forest, sprinting and manoeuvring around trees. Sylph was soaring overhead, watching Doe’s progress. At long last, she soared down to land beside Doe, who had sat on the bare grass and was panting heavily.

“Great job!” Sylph said carefully in Human, as she was still becoming fluent in it. “Your agility was great, although you did nearly bump into a couple of trees.”

“Thank you.” Doe growled in Dragon, pleased. Not only was her agility becoming better, but she was also getting better at speaking Dragon.

Not too far away, a scream tore through the forest.

Sylph flinched, tension running through her scales. Her antennae flickered, sensing something not too far away.

 “Wh-what was that?” She stammered, her heart pounding.

“Let's go see!” Doe was already climbing onto Sylph’s back, holding on to her horns as she crouched on her shoulder.

“What? You’ve never rode me before. What are you doing?” Sylph’s face contorted into confusion.

“Well, isn’t it time we try?” Doe insisted, holding on more tight than ever. Sylph hesitated, before unfurling her beautiful, soft wings and leaping into flight.

A strange occurrence..

“Ok, what is that?”

Doe had just gotten off Sylph after a successful flight, her legs wobbly. In front of her was a gigantic structure, made purely of wood and stone. Which was strange- Doe had been in this part of the forest just a day earlier, and there had been nothing except a couple of hares.

“This thing is weird and extremely creepy. Can’t we go?”

Sylph was pleading with some sort of pitiful and dumb expression, but Doe didn’t fall for it. She opened the door of the structure with a ‘creak’ and stepped inside, beckoning Sylph to do the same. Sylph gulped, before following her.

 The curtains of the structure were ripped, the blankets on beds were torn while the bed cloth itself was stained with something red.

“Umm.. Sylph? I think you might have been right.”

Doe and Sylph had been backing towards the door when Doe’s back thudded against it- it was closed, which was unexpected considering Sylph had left the door open just a moment ago.

Suddenly, a woman-like figure emerged out of the dark, her pale face wrinkly and her hood obscuring only her forehead.

Doe’s eyes widened. She may not have gone to wizarding school, having been dumped by her village out into the open world for being a squib, but she knew what this- or who this- creature was.

A banshee.

The banshee was about to open her mouth, when Sylph and Doe both instinctively placed their hands over their ears, Sylphs having been taught the dangers of some beasts like the banshee by Doe.

The banshee started screaming, however Doe and Sylph were almost completely deaf to it. That is, they could hear some sort of muffled noise, but not enough to kill them. How had the screaming from the forest before not murdered them? It must have been a child banshee, little ones were not capable of murder just yet. So this one was a different one.

Doe suddenly remembered something. On the day Sylph had hatched, she had breathed out a tiny burst of flame… If Sylph could just do it now.. But how was she supposed to tell Sylph? Their ears were blocked, and the banshee was still shrieking without mercy.

Wait.. Weren’t dragons supposed to let out a spurt of flame whenever they sneezed? Doe had eye contact with Sylph, and made a sneezing gesture. Sylph looked confused but also squirming with laughter, even in a situation like this. Nevertheless, she forced herself to sneeze a couple of times when..

A burst of flame came out. Sylph only had her confused face on for a moment before she finally understood. She took a deep breath, before blasting a jet of flame right into the banshee’s face.

Doe and Sylph squeezed their eyes tight, not wanting to witness anything gruesome. At last, they unblocked their ears, and realised that the only remaining trace of the banshee was its cloak- the body itself had disappeared.

Doe and Sylph barely had time to say anything- they just squeezed each other in a restless hug.

“Doe,” Sylph said fiercely. “We are never ever ever ever stepping into a creepy house again. No, do you hear me?!”

“Yes.” Doe said. “Nope. Not trying that again.”

And they set off out of the house, into the forest, awaiting for more danger and peril to arise...

Written by Hazel Antler and proof-read by Billie Whateley