(yes. another one. don't like it? sue me. I got...hm. twenty five bucks. and good luck with the lawsuit, seeing as it's original fiction anyway. j/k. I'm bored. and nobody will read this anyway. so what am I afraid for? that's what I thought.)

Nimora never intended it to happen. Hell, half of them didn't believe their ears when they heard the news. She had clutched an egg, which was due to hatch at any moment now. She had cursed her foolishness, having gone into a Flight without properly choosing a mate. Now, a Fallen Angel was her mate and this poor child would be the end result.

The red, blue, and black egg trembled a little, indicating the soon-to-be-hatchling was testing it's shell. Nimora gently gave it a nudge with her snout, and the egg pushed back. It won't be long now, she thought.

She curled her long, lithe body around the nest of sand, twigs, and embers. She rested her head on her talon-like claws, watching with deep golden eyes. Two silver horns that gleamed on each side of her head seemed to give off their own eerie light. Creamy white feathered wings were folded loosely against her light turquoise body that had deep green markings of sigmoid running down her back. Whip-like tail twitched every so often, daring intruders to even come close to it or her egg.

She was Nimora, the Millennium Dragon, the only Dragon of Heaven that was bound to a damned Fallen Angel as a mate. Even if damning the already damned was redundant, it made her feel a bit better. She was the fiercest of all her kind in the war that had lasted a thousand of her years, against the other half of Dragon kind that were scorched in the pits of Hell. And here she was, nurturing something that was sired from a traitor of all things! It disgusted her to the fullest, but being a creature of Heaven, she was obligated to give it a chance at life. Maybe it could fill in the ranks as a warrior one day, those were always needed. Whatever the case, it was up to her now to raise it and let it become what it was destined to become.

The egg began to shake more violently then before. Nimora could hear it trying to claw at the shell. Yes, it would be born either tonight or in the morning. . .

Hours seemed to pass before the first cracks appeared in the rock hard encasing. It was nearing dawn before the first sightings of a small black claw on a pale flesh finger poked out from a large crack on the side.

Outside, Nimora could tell the signs of the rising sun, with the cavern opening faceing east and the horizion getting lighter by the minute. She and her egg lay in a cave, just outside of the Angel's territory of Heaven. Just beyond the furthest mountains that she could see lie Heaven's Gates, that would lead the way into paradise. The Dragons of Heaven were the most feirce creatures, so lived just inside of the Gates to be sure nothing made it in that shouldn't be there.

Nimora just lay there, sighing every once in awhile, watching the twilight break into day.

The sun had just peeked over the horizon when the shell finally gave way. Two pale golden eyes blinked into the rising sun, and two black ears that poked out from navy blue fuzz on her head twitched with every sound. Pale creamy skin was covered by deep blue wings with red sigmoid, which resembled Nimora's own, on the membrane that was stretched between long, dark green "fingers". A long black tail twitched every so often, enjoying freedom from being cramped inside it's shattered prison.

"Golden eyes," Nimora murmured. "No Dragon Halfling is to have such things. . ."

Her child blinked up at her, tail twitching expectantly.

"Quiet too," she observed. "Be not a mute, child. Let your voice be known."

Her daughter seemed to understand, and began to wail. That proved she wasn't a mute.

Nimora sighed, and dropped some meat from a fresh kill she had made the previous evening in front of her child.

The wailing stopped, and the child got up and unstably ran to the pile and started gorging herself until she was satisfied. Then, she sat up against Nimora, and almost instantly fell asleep.

"Senna," Nimora nodded. "Because of your odd golden eyes."

Senna looked at up at her sleepily after hearing her name, yawned, and was right back to sleep. Blood covered most of her small body, as did some residue from the egg. Nimora gave her a "bath" that almost all hatchlings received after the initial feeding. It was then she felt his presence.

"Nimora," a deep voice began on the outside of the cave, just out of sight.

"Kaggren," she growled.. "Get out of here before I rip you to shreds like I should have done awhile ago."

"She is my daughter too," Kaggren said calmly. "I have a right to at least know her name."

"Senna," Nimora snapped. "Now leave."

She felt the presence leave, and curled protectively around the still sleeping hatchling. She seemed unparsed by the little visit by her sire, which unnerved Nimora. Any full-blooded creature of Heaven would have immediately woken up and started wailing, but Senna did no such thing. Either she felt safe or she truly wasn't afraid since the darkness was in her genes.

Nimora puffed out some smoke through her nostrils in frustration of this situation. But it was hers and now she was stuck with it. Hopefully, this child didn't grow up to be like him, or even the like of his kind. Hope was what she was hanging onto as she finally let herself drift into a deep slumber, and dream like she never made that awful mistake.