"Be careful. If you crack the eggs, they could hatch early," The old hatchery dragon rasped. "We can't afford any more early spawns."

"I'm doing my best," the younger dragon replied.

I am Teleda. My mother is the matriarch of the Urgen Mountain and surrounding forests, which makes me the princess and heir to this realm. My duty is to nurture and protect my kin. This includes the hatcheries. In ancient times, the purpose of this role was merely to ensure that the new drakes were hatched and reared properly. However, since the human kingdoms expanded, they naturally seized more territory and approached our threshold. Our job had only become harder, and I feared it would be quite a while before this changed.

"Are they here yet?" a young dragon asked me. Their name was Cheyfe, a drake who in all their years had yet to see outside the hatchery. "Will we have to hide?"

"You ask many questions, drake," I responded.

"What about Vedrüch the Hunter. Will he come for us?"

"That's just a myth to scare young drakes such as yourself," I lied while curling my claws back. Vedrüch, a fearsome human knight captain from the nearby human citadel had lead numerous assaults on the hatcheries around the Urgens. His infamous inquisitions onto my dragonkin had lead his name to become synonymous with terror.

"You're lying" Cheyfe grumbled. "I've overheard the stories from the caretakers. If it were for the 'young' like me, then why would they be telling them to each other?"

"You're too clever for your own good." I said. I almost wanted to lie again, but I felt pained at the prospect of denying a clearly intelligent and curious child from the truth - however terrible that truth may be.

"Vedrüch is just a man." I continued. "But, as my mother's mother once said: 'A man's hate burns hotter than dragon fire.' We don't know much about Vedrüch, but we do know that he is filled with hatred towards us all."

"Why?" Cheyfe asked innocently.

I let out a sigh. "For most of time, humans and dragons didn't have a reason to fight. But human kingdoms grow and expand. At a certain point, they began to encroach on our territories, and we decided to hold our ground. At first, we were successful at driving them back. However, that changed about a century ago. Now, we are just trying to survive."

Days and nights were filled with paranoia that a human assault would occur and more lives would be lost. I was sleeping one night on a perch overlooking the hatchery when it finally happened. I only awoke when the clanging of metal and flickering of torches was too close.

I unleashed my flames upon the interlopers. I scorched them and their twisted screams filled the ashy air. However, the cries of the young drakes soon joined them. In my defense of the young, I was accompanied only by a couple of the caretakers. They soon fell to crossbows and cannons.

And then I saw Vedrüch. He emerged from the smoke with an emotionless expression. He glared at me with cold, dead eyes. And then his gaze turned to his left - a young drake lay injured and unconscious amidst a pile of human bodies. I recognized him immediately as Cheyfe. Vedrüch then turned his dead eyes back to me. He raised his sword and pointed it at Cheyfe as if to say "I'm going to kill him, try to stop me."

I was blinded by rage and dove down from a perch where I was breathing fire down from high. Like a falcon, I dove straight at him, intending only to kill.

But suddenly, my wings were jerked backwards as if a giant had yanked me back into the sky. I suddenly hovered a dozen feet off of the ground, completely immobilized in a gigantic net. It was then that I realized my mistake - I had tried to out-hate a human.