Thump thump. Thump thump. It fills me. It is me. Thump thump. Thump thump. It’s all I know. This, warmth, and the rumbles. The rumbles from somewhere else. They sound and I sense touch. I turn in my protective shell. Curled up in a tight ball, I’m protected.
Thump thump. Thump thump. It’s louder now. Something is about to happen. What, I do not know. Something is changing. Something big. I anticipate it, but I also curl up tighter with fear. This is all I’ve known since… when? The start of memory? Of feeling? Of life?
Suddenly I feel an urge. It pushes me to do something foreign, something unknown. I hesitate, then follow with all my being. I uncurl, I stretch. I push against my protective casing. I claw at it. It cracks, breaks. I leave the known and enter the unknown. I stretch my wings as if testing the water, then I open my eyes. The World.

Before me stands one of my own. She’s huge. Towering over me like a large serine tree. Scales, teeth, claws, wings; just like me. Then I’m overwhelmed by something powerful. I'm attracted to it. I instinctively recognize it, love. She leans forward and licks off the slimy parts of the egg. Another urge. This time pushing me towards her. I curl up next to her stomach and am joined by others. “Welcome to the dragon kind, my young ones,” says her whom I recognize to be my protector, my caretaker, my mother, “Welcome.”