A/N: Hey everybody, LN here! This chapter story is a prelude to my fan fiction on called the Chimaera Dragons series. Now, don’t worry, you needn’t venture into the land of TMNT fandom to know the characters. All you need is a good understanding of Japanese, because there’ll be a lot in this story. Not that I know any more than you do, but we’ll see.

I’ll have to explain a few things: first of all, the five dragons are from another planet, but I’ll leave you hanging as to where. Read Dragon Moon if you want to know! And, they’re all siblings. That established, let’s dive into Feudal Japan!

1.

It was dark. And cramped, the little creature noticed. The warmth was fine, but she was through waiting for the day she would escape her black prison. She rocked a little, squeaking as she tipped and righted again. This was no good! She wanted to get out of here! She gathered strength into her tiny limbs and rocked the oval thing again with another squeak. Again, she had no success. Resting for a moment, she thought as only a hatchling can. Finally, she worked out that there were hard things on top of her head, pointy hard things.

She shrank down into the bottom as far as she could, then clacked the hard things against the top. She felt something give way. Elated by her partial success, she rammed the top again. Air rushed inside through a crack as she rammed the ceiling one more time. Then she tipped over, making the hatchling squeak in surprise. A chip of her prison fell off, letting gray light inside. She blinked furiously. Something that bright had never entered her home before.

Once more, she clacked the top with her hard things, breaking through and tumbling out onto hard rock. The cool air settled on her wet yellow scales, drying them. She looked around. Smooth, shiny ebony rock paved the cave floor. The rock led up to a narrow entrance, filled with pale pink. The little dragonet had never witnessed a sunrise, so this was something entirely new. What was that pretty light?

Bravely, she got to her paws, only to fall flat on her face. Her legs were still weak from being cramped inside her egg. Yes, that’s what it was. Wearily, she turned her head to see a mottled cream-colored egg on the cave floor. Surrounding it were four others. At the sight of them, she perked up, pointing her ears at them. They contained things! Excited, and forgetting about her handicap, she got up and took a shaky step, this time only landing on her rear.

Wrinkling her muzzle, she took another step. Her leg supported her weight this time. Gaining confidence, the little dragon crow-hopped to the biggest egg. It was a light silver, mottled like hers with brown spots. From inside there emerged deeper squeaks than she had brought forth. The egg rocked several times. Deliberately, the yellow dragonet reared up on her hind legs and pressed her forepaws to the egg’s hard surface. It pulsated on her scales with the beat of a heart.

She fanned her damp wings. How could she help the egg break? She raised her right paw and gave it a light smack. Then she had to run away in fear, for the egg had fallen on its front, a crack running up it. The hungry squeaks intensified as the egg split. The halves balanced on a wet silver-blue form before being toppled off when it reared its head to gaze at Yellow. Blue blinked several times. She was a larger hatchling than Yellow.

Blue jumped in startled terror as a masculine grunt came from a deep red egg. Yellow squeaked encouragingly at her and lurched toward the red egg. She ran into it with her ivory horns and watched the egg topple unceremoniously onto the rock floor. Blue, gaining courage, inched toward the madly rolling egg and put her paw on it. Frowning as only a dragon can, she raised a claw and tapped the thing.

A piece of the little prison popped off and out burst a red muzzle, snorting for oxygen. Seeing Red needed more help, Blue and Yellow each grabbed a side of the hole with their teeth and yanked in opposite directions. The egg split down the sides and Red tumbled out, crying pitifully. The two females squeaked at him and he looked at them both as if they were aliens from another world. After a long staring contest, Yellow broke eye contact and trotted unsteadily up the rock incline to see what the now blue light was.

Outside she saw a wide expanse of green plants with long tan stalks spreading in all directions. Several black and white creatures sat there, eating the leaves off the bamboo with gusto. Below the cave entrance were boulders rimming a spring of clear water. The liquid ran down the hill to a large pool filled with orange and white fish larger than Blue. The pool ran into the bamboo forest down to a steep rock hill rising above the plants and jutting into the sky.

Seeing the fish immediately made Yellow hungry, but hearing Red and Blue’s cries of excitement urged her back down. Another egg was hatching, this time a pale green one. It rocked less than theirs had, but maybe that was because it was trapped in a dip in the floor. Yellow and Red went to the egg, both pushing it down against a small spire emerging from the floor. It cracked it in many places, telling Yellow and Red that they had done their job.

Out burst a slimy green head wet with membrane from inside. Green looked at them in puzzled curiosity, his body still in the egg. Yellow and Red offered to help but Green brought his front paw out and braced himself against a wall, cutting their squeaks silent. With a hard jerk, he fell down, cracking the rest of it open. He crawled out of the wreckage with dignity, not making a sound.

Then all four turned to the lavender fifth egg, which hadn’t moved at all. Concerned, Blue put her long ear against it. There was a life beat inside, she confirmed, but no activity. Green curled his long fan-tipped tail behind him. Each dragonet asked each other what they should do about Purple through squeaks and head motions. None of them knew what the problem was, although they knew Purple was still alive. Finally, Green elected to stay with the egg and put it under his internally heated body to keep it warm.

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Truly not my best chapter. I do better with dialogue. Anyway, the plot will get off the ground as soon as Purple hatches, but when that happens, you don't know. (grins evily with the bliss of being authoress) Tune in next time!

Ashite Imasu,
LN