"So what am I supposed to do about it?"

Nesleh shuffled his good wing.  "I don't know, son, they just said something about getting a psychologist.  They said they have to act quickly so you don't have any more attacks like that, but I think you just need time to get over what was done to you.  I mean, yes, it was traumatic, but you haven't even had three days awake since then!  They just need to give you some time on your own."

Carnoc took a sip of water from a bowl at his side.  "Well, what are they going to do, then?"

"Ultimately it's your choice, but since you couldn't answer for yourself at the time and I'm your father, I told them not to schedule anything with the psychologist for a couple of weeks to see if you'll get better on your own.  Do you agree with that?"

"Not seeing humans is better than seeing them.  Even if they are helpful sometimes... the rest of the time they just aren't worth the trouble.  Like this harness, for example," he said, straining against it for the fifth time in as many minutes.  "I haven't had any problems for two days.  Can you get them to take it off yet?  It's not like I'm in any shape to go anywhere anyway."

"They know their work better than you do," he put a paw on Carnoc's shoulder, "and if they say you shouldn't be moving yet, then you should listen to them."

Carnoc paused and lowered his head.  "It's hurting me more than it helps, though, because it reminds me of...  I had to take medicine just to get to sleep last night because it made me feel like I couldn't defend myself, and that made me think of what happened."

Nesleh looked around for a doctor, but none were in the room with them.  "Well, didn't you tell them that?  They would need to know if it's bothering you like that."

"They knew I wasn't able to sleep...  They didn't ask me why."

"You should have told them anyway," he growled.  "Dr. Graves!"

The woman walked through the door a minute later.  "Yes, is something wrong?"

Nesleh nudged Carnoc's side.  "Tell her what you told me."

He gulped, but said, "I couldn't sleep last night, and you had to give me that medicine...  I think that was because of the harness.  It makes me feel sort of how I felt during... while it happened; I feel like I'm helpless and that something could happen at any moment, and I wouldn't be able to stop it..."  He shuddered and tucked his head against his flank.

"Hmm," Dr. Graves said.  "Well, that problem has to be balanced against the possibility of another panic attack.  If you had one without something here to restrain you..."

"Maybe he wouldn't have had one in the first place if he hadn't woken up with such a strong reminder of his torture there to worry him," Nesleh snarled, then turned to his son.  "It's all right, Carnoc, you're safe.  Nobody's here to hurt you, and I can protect you from whatever might happen...  Just relax."

Dr. Graves thought a moment longer, then said, "all right, we'll take it off.  Just...  Be careful with him, and Carnoc, try not to move around too much."  She walked over to one of the monitors and pressed a series of buttons, and Carnoc's harness detached, unraveling and disappearing into the floor.  "Happy now?"

"It helps," Carnoc said, picking his head back up and lifting one of his wings to examine what was left of the membrane.  Dr. Graves nodded, then turned and left again.

"It doesn't look all that bad, considering," Nesleh said.  "It looks like it's growing back in nicely."

"But nowhere near fast enough," he sighed, refolding it against his back.  "I guess I'll have to disappoint Melora again and tell her to come lay her egg here."

"Oh, it's not that much of a problem.  The doctors have agreed to get all humans out of the hospital from the time Melora gets here the night before until the time she leaves again with the egg, and they'll leave some food for both of you for a couple of days, too.  Well...  I'll be over in my room since my flying arm hasn't healed yet, and I am going to allow a small group of doctors to stay just in case, but you won't hear from them or me unless you want to.  Egg-laying can be a little tricky, you know, and if anything goes wrong I want you to call for them so they can help her with the delivery."

"...could something really happen?"

"It hasn't happened in my lifetime, but it's not unheard of," Nesleh said.  "The number of legends about strong, brave, heroic dragonesses who had to raise themselves because their mothers died during or just after egg-laying...  It's like a requirement to get into their legends," he laughed.

"As long as it doesn't happen to me," Carnoc growled, looking away.  "How many other eggs will there be?"

"There should be six, and if so it'll be a good cycle; just what we need to boost our numbers now that we aren't living in secret anymore."

"Well," he slowly got to his feet, "hopefully these mountains will have enough prey available to feed so many dragons...  The deer back home won't miss us, but won't we be crowded when it comes to finding food here?"

"The humans are apparently going to bring herds of prey animals into the valleys and lowlands nearby, then set them free to augment the prey already here for us to hunt, and they're supposed to monitor the prey to make sure their population is never too low for any of us to go hungry..."  Nesleh stepped back to give him space.  "Are you sure you should be getting up?"

Carnoc lashed his tail and stood up straight, then took an experimental couple of steps forward.  "They didn't tell me not to, so..."  His front paws felt strange without claws there for him to grip at the ground with and occasionally a little pain would run up through his forelegs, but other than that his legs felt fine.  He growled happily, then walked a circle around the room, IV bags rolling along behind him, before curling up again on his other side.
"Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine.  Could probably do without all these needles stuck in me too," he glared at the nearest IV bag, but didn't mess with it, or the line and needle injecting the painkiller into his bloodstream.

"You think so already?  You still have a little exposed bone on your paws, and the doctors said your electrical burns won't have healed until those black marks go away.  You're probably not ready to come off the drugs."

"I think I am," Carnoc snarled.  "Just call the doctors in so..."

A sudden weight pressed against his back, he heard sinister human laughter and lines of pain shot through his wings.  "No, get away!" he cried out and hid his head under his wing, trembling.  Simon was here, he was back, back to hurt him and humiliate him all over again...

Nesleh nosed at his neck.  "It's all right, son, you're safe.  It's just me, there's nobody here..."  He rubbed his tail against Carnoc's.  "Just relax."

The younger dragon didn't say anything, but after a little while he stopped shivering and folded his wing again.  "I...  I thought I could feel Simon...  I could hear him laughing, and my wings..."  He twisted around, but there were no new marks on him.  "I could have sworn he was right there."

"Just a bad memory," Nesleh said, nuzzling his neck again.  "Are you sure you're all right?"

Carnoc took a few deep breaths, then nodded.  "I should be fine.  I think I'll put up with the bags at least a little while longer...  Just go and call Melora so she knows I won't be able to fly to her."

He paused for a moment, unwilling to leave him in such a state, but sighed and walked over towards the door.  "I'll give her a call from my room, and let you know if there's anything she wants to tell you before she comes back here to lay."

A couple of minutes later Nesleh poked his head back through the door to say, "she's not happy about it, but she's accepted it and she'll fly here when it gets close to time.  She also said to make sure the doctors put together a nest for her, but I'll take care of that.  You just rest and try to heal, all right?"

He sighed and put his head down.  "I will."
 

Carnoc met Melora out in the lobby when she returned, Vical walking along at her side.  Vical nuzzled at her neck, then growled a greeting over to him.  "Right, well, good luck to both of you, and I want to hear what you'll be having as soon as you can let me know!"

"We will," Melora said.  "See you in a few days."

Vical left, and Carnoc took her place at Melora's side.  "You haven't started cramping yet, have you?"

"No, Vical was just along to make sure I didn't get too tired, and that nothing bad happened on the way over.  It'll be a few hours yet..."  She looked over towards a corner of the lobby and growled.  "Why are there still humans here?"

"They're on their way out," he pressed his snout against the base of her neck to reassure her, "they've just been explaining how they've left things for us.  Now, where were we, Dr. Graves?"

"The food.  All Nesleh's food is over in his room, and meals for you and your mate are in yours; there should be enough for each of you for three days.  Whenever you're ready to eat, just take the case you're about to eat from, press this button to open it," she pointed to a large button on the top of a case she had brought out to demonstrate for him, "and enjoy.  Simple, really."

"That's it?"

Dr. Graves nodded and motioned for one of her assistants to take the case back into Carnoc's room.  "I'll be back in a couple of days to see how you're healing.  Good luck to both of you with your egg."  She waited for her assistant to return, then left.

"There," Carnoc said, "the humans are all gone.  Come on, now, let's go into my room so you can lie down."

Melora shuffled over towards the door to his room.  "Did they ever put something together to use as a catch-nest?"

"Yes, they brought a big cushion-lined bowl for you to use.  You can look it over yourself once we're inside."

She stumbled, and Carnoc hurried to catch her weight against him.  "Are you all right?  You look tired," he said, nuzzling at her cheek.

"Very," she yawned.  "Let me look this bowl of theirs over, then I need to sleep.  It's going to take a lot of energy tomorrow..."

Carnoc held the doors open while she walked inside, then let them close and pointed at the bowl the doctors had set up for her.  "Does that look good to you?"

Melora sniffed at the bowl, picked it up to peer at the bottom, felt the thickness of the padding and the strength of the metal beneath.  She looked it over for several minutes, then said, "it will do."

She put the bowl back in its place, then yawned again and sprawled out on the cushion the doctors had set out for Carnoc to sleep on.  "Could you get some of that meat over here for me?  I'm not hungry now, but I'll need some as soon as I wake up."

"Of course, my mate."  He nuzzled her again, then went over to the corner where the cases had been left.  He couldn't pick them up without claws, but he managed to push one of the cases to Melora using his snout and forelegs.  He left it sitting by her head, then laid down against her and draped a wing over both of them.

"Comfy?" he asked, nuzzling between her horns.

She tilted her head, purring, and closed her eyes to rest.

Carnoc sighed and looked her over, from her narrow, angular snout to her gigantic wings, her belly--bloated from the egg inside, just waiting to come out--to her long, supple tail, the tip slowly curling and uncurling as she slept.  My mate, he thought happily.  My mate, and our egg.  I wonder if it'll be male or female...  It was easy enough to tell once the egg was out--the faint red or blue spots on the eggshell would show the gender of the hatchling inside--but until then, they had no way of knowing.

I hope it's a son, he thought, laying his head down by Melora's and closing his eyes.  To raise a son of my very own...  He smiled faintly and drifted off to sleep.

"My mate...  Carnoc, wake up."

Carnoc groaned and rolled over onto his other side.

Something poked him on the nose, hard.  "Ow," he said, picking his head up and blinking to clear his vision.  "What is it?"

"It's starting," Melora said.  Muscles in her flanks and belly were visibly contracting, and her face was tight with pain.  "I need food," she panted.

The urgency in her voice brought him to wakefulness in an instant.  He reached for the case he had brought over and pressed down on the button; the case hissed and the cover flipped open to reveal a fresh side of beef, which Melora buried her nose in immediately, heedless of the mess she was making.

"How long do you think it will be?" Carnoc asked when she paused to swallow and sip from the water bowl.

"Hours," she groaned, and finished off the meat.

"What can I do?" he asked, standing over her anxiously.  To see such pain on her face...

She shook her head and rolled onto her side, moaning.  "Not much...  Just move that nest the humans left so it's near my tail."

He moved the bowl with a sigh.  She was in so much pain, and this was all he could do?  Just sit there and watch while she struggled against the pain inside her...

"I know it must be hard to watch," she whispered.  "Just help me be strong."

Carnoc nuzzled her chin, then started licking her face clean.  "Of course you're strong.  You managed without a mate to provide for you for all these months while the humans had me locked up, and you never complained about it even once.  How many gravid dragonesses can say that?"

She smiled weakly up at him, and he nuzzled her again.

They pushed on through the hours, but any passage of time made little difference in the hospital room.  The lights never dimmed, there was no wind aside from the occasional cool breeze from the climate vents, and most importantly their privacy was never disturbed.  Melora's contractions came and went, each stronger than the last, until at last she snarled at a sudden, much more powerful contraction and climbed shakily to her feet.

"Are you sure you should..." Carnoc began, but she growled at him and backed away, hunching over the cushion-lined bowl.  She snarled again, then screamed in pain and nearly fell over.

He glanced at the bowl, but there were only a few spots of fluid; the egg wasn't out yet.  "Come on, Melora!" he shouted, leaning his shoulder against hers.  "You can do it," he said, softer this time, circling around to watch the bowl.  "Just push, push the egg out, come on..."

She closed her eyes tight, panting, and screamed again.  A moment passed, then the tip of the egg appeared.  "I can see it, Melora, keep going!  You can do it!"

Melora roared and clawed at the ground, the egg slid out farther, then it fell into the bowl in a rush of fluid and she collapsed onto her side, gasping for breath.

"Are you all right?" he asked, returning to her side, egg forgotten for a moment at her possible distress.  What if... he thought, then shook it from his mind with a growl.

"I'm fine," she panted, "just... tired.  How is the egg?"

"You did a great job," he said, stroking her belly with his tail.  "I'm proud of you."

She growled a little.  "The egg, my mate."

Carnoc chuckled.  "It's..."  He swung his head around to look into the bowl.  Most of the fluid had already soaked up into the cushion and the egg lay on top, still shining with damp.  The spots on the shell showed that--

He stared, mouth hanging open.  The egg's off-white shell was spotted with gold.

"Well, how is it?  Will we have a son, or a daughter?"

"I...  Oh, by the ancients...  Melora, you have to see this for yourself."

"What?"  She picked her head up to look.  "I don't...  Carnoc, I don't know what to say...  I didn't even think that was possible."

"Neither did I," he said, and slid the bowl so it lay between them.  Melora hesitated, then reached out and picked up the egg up in her claws--it was just large enough that she had to use both forepaws to hold it.  She sniffed at it.

"A golden dragon," she said after a while.  "Our little hatchling will be a golden dragon."

"There hasn't been one since Vidac himself.  I...  I can't believe it.  We have to tell the elders."

"They can wait," Melora said, pushing the bowl away, snuggling close to him and tucking the egg between their bellies.  "It's only been a minute...  Let's just spend some time with our egg."

Carnoc smiled happily as she nuzzled behind his earhole.  "You're right, and besides, I don't think either of us will be flying for a while," he laughed, and reached for one of the cases of meat.  "Now, are you hungry?  You deserve all the prey in the mountains after that!"