Three Secrets to Keep [Harvey's Pillie Find!]

A gelatinous eggcase popped, and the warm delta sand flooded the occupant. He had a few strings of hatching fluid still wrapped around his legs, but if he wanted to survive he had to get to the surface and find water- fast! His shell wasn't completely hard yet, so he squeezed out the minuscule hole in the egg one segment at a time, closing his eyelids against the bite of the sand grains. From there he thrashed all eight of his legs, "swimming" up a few inches of sand to poke out of dune. He flinched one eye a few times to get the lids back open and peered around.

He blinked the other eye open shortly, and newborn sunlight filled him. The air blew sweet and salty over his segmented muzzle, and the beginning of the water was only a wiggle away. He hoisted himself out of the ground, took a step forward, then tumbled the rest of the way to the foamy shallows. He raised his head, straining to see the end of the big blue. But there was no end.

Deep, he observed. His voice ran very low for pillie, and especially for a baby.

Beep-beep! someone else answered. That voice was lighter, moderate even, but the pronunciation was on the quick side. The ocean's observer shuffled around to see a brown brother with his head and two pairs of legs sticking out of the dune. As he watched, a third latecomer wiggled her green snout into view. She shifted around and flexed her flowery jaws, but did not seem able to get anymore of herself out. The first pillie, a striped blue, began crawling up to help her. The brown squeaked out of his own hatching tomb and immediately zipped into a two-toned ball of shell and sticky goo. He rolled out toward the water, splashed a curve through the shadows, then hopped back into the sand and wrote a perfect circle before jumping clear and uncurling.

He looked expectantly toward the green. The blue had hauled half of her from the sand, and stopped to give her a chance to introduce herself. She looked from him to the brown, then waved her legs up as she took a breath.

...........k!

She collapsed back against the sand, panting with effort. The blue started digging the rest of her out, with the brown rolling a return to them as back-up. But to the blue's surprise, the green stopped panting and fussed at his legs with her own, switching her antennae against his head. He flopped back, shocked, and she added insult to injury by accidentally catching him right on the nose with another wild bat of her leg. Grumbling, he began slapping his own little legs out and the two of them pattered at each other's toeless feet with grave intent.

BEE-BEEP!

The brown, rolling (too fast) up the hill, smashed into the other two hatchlings and his momentum carried all three away, further inland, and into the company of vast shadows.

***

Halventh bobbed his head at the other dragons' assurances, standing up...only to find them both putting their backs to him and attending Lexy. He arched his neck and puffed at them, but they didn't turn around. Halventh snapped his tail from side-to-side, then jumped forward to thrust his head between theirs. This proved harder than expected, especially when Wenth had not an inch of give in her desaturated brown hide. He ended up wedged between opposing ribcages, and had to worm the rest of the way through. When his head finally appeared between Wenth's and Ablath's, Lexy raised a crinkled feeler toward him.

Then a ball of hissing, fighting pillie babies rolled in between the blue's front paws and smacked into the gray's head. The impact unstuck the three of them, and they all tumbled to a stop before the dragons, on their backs and still with shock. The blue was gazing up at Halventh's inquiring nose, the green was semi-curled before Ablath, and the brown was sprawled in front of Wenth. Lexy was behind the whole group, facedown in the sand.

Halventh thought about the implications of having very tiny pillies just dumped in front of them, then cracked his long jaws in a draconic grin. The blue pillie looked through the rows and rows of fangs for an end to the beast's maw. But there was no end.

Deep, he commented. His brown brother twitched at the sound, barrel-rolling onto his side and then upright. It was only then that he caught sight of Wenth.

Bee-beep... he added in quiet awe. Both male pillies glanced over at their sister for her opinion. She was still shaking some sand off her head, but soon noticed them looking. She eyed Ablath critically for a moment, then reared up on her hindlegs to give her lungs more room to expand as she took a breath.

...........k!

Only the exceptional hearing of the dragons could make anything out of that thin, pathetic wheeze. Halventh tilted his head at the green, then reached out and began clawing the blue pillie toward himself. The baby mumbled in low uncertainty as he was repeatedly buried in sand, then exposed again.

We could probably find other nests, Halventh said. But it would be easier to just take these! He scooped the blue up on the point of his talon and set it up on his shoulder. The blue began trundling up his neck from there. Halventh squinted back at the other two pillies, forked tongue running out over his lips as he considered each. Snorting to himself, he picked up the green, dropping her in front of Wenth. The brown took a few tries to grab, but eventually Halventh dropped him in front of Ablath.

Deep! the blue pillie reported as he looked across the island from his new perch on Halventh's headknob. The brown trembled in excitement, then shimmied himself up Ablath's arm to her shoulder.

Beep-beep! he agreed.

The green pillie was far more skeptical than either of her brothers, but she inched up to Wenth anyway. She touched one antenna to the tan's claw. Oh! Oh-oh! She could feel something right about this monster, much more so than the other two. She sprang forth and wrapped her legs around the chosen claw. She took a breath, and her voice rang out high and pure:

Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!