Day 27 - Golden Egg

Hey guys! Grace Nask here with Day 27 of the April Challenge. Today we have Golden Egg, a short story for teens and above. It's about a woman named Fiona trying to find a dragon egg. So let's get to it!

Golden Egg

She wants it.

Fiona stalked her prey throughout the supermarket, eyeing each aisle like poison dripped out of its walls. The supermarket units near her glanced at her with equal suspicion (from a safe distance), but she ignored them. If Fiona received a nickel for every time someone stared at her strange, she could prove her worth to Breeder hundredfold without taking on another job ever again.

From a supermarket unit’s viewpoint, produce gave way to nothing but the plants all grocers carried, but Fiona prided herself on being a bit more than the average shopper. She pressed the rice grain sized button embedded into her belt, designed for detecting protection spells. The screen shone yellow. Darn. Protective magical presence was close, but not close enough to identify its source. She walked on.

No, she needs it.

Fiona was by no means a pretty woman. Dirt and blood caked every available inch of her skin, and her shoes provided as much protection for her feet as leaves against a blade. She had a cut on her forehead, and another deeper one in her right shoulder. They hurt, but not enough to deter Fiona.

Beneath the skin of her right wrist a small computer chip rested, with enough electrical voltage to leave her body in permanent paralysis should she step out of line. Her ‘nondescript’ olive green jacket and skirt convinced supermarket units that this tourist proved stranger than most. When being hunted through a forest, however, the colors became quite useful.

Most, when being stared at like that, would say people didn’t like her, but it was less a matter of like and more a matter of trust. Something in Fiona’s eyes made most people stay back: this hunger there, as though Fiona saw something the world never meant to let her see. The six-inch dagger strapped to her thigh didn’t help, of course. People skirted away as she passed through the aisles, the button shining yellow: two, three, four.

And she’ll stop at nothing to save it.

Breeder refused to disclose his real name, let alone any piece of his identity. In fact, every interaction made by ‘him’ actually came from a higher ranked employee of his, never the same one twice. To divulge even his body build would give Fiona power, and Fiona was nothing if not powerless.

Still, the work wasn’t all that bad, provided she followed through with the job. As she would; holding this prize for a minute, feeling the power underneath, just might be worth her life. Now if only she could find it…. Still nothing but yellow light shone. The aisles flicked by, each one jeering her name. Five, six, seven.

She’s coming.

A dragon egg. The words barely felt real in her mind. In these shopping aisles resided one of the last known dragon eggs, and Fiona could bring it to power. She needed to hand it over to Breeder before a Dragon Keeper found her.

Stupid Dragon Keepers! They wanted to destroy this multitude of power before it could unleash its greatness onto the world. If put into the wrong hands, these creatures could be incredibly dangerous. Therefore, they must be destroyed. All citizens are expected to report any signs of these eggs. Failure to do so could result in penalties as serious as death. And they called themselves protectors! Her cuts screamed otherwise.

One tracked her through the forest. Dragon Keepers obliterate their names upon taking the summonings to protect the people from a beloved creature, but Fiona recognized this one. It was said that The Mute, whose voice was destroyed before legends could unfurl to tell about it, sneaked so well upon her victims that the only clue of their upcoming death flashed in silver ink on her right hand, the mark of the Dragon Keepers. Fiona might have been one of them had the silver not glinted in the sunlight between the trees.

Nevertheless, Fiona had outwitted her. Breeder would have his prize, and the world would understand the beauty and awe of the dragon race, all thanks to Fiona. She grinned, an unpracticed thing soiled by fang-like teeth, and the customers around her found engagements on the other side of the store. A yellow glow emitted from the screen. The aisles blew out a sigh of relief and smirked at her face. Eight, nine.

She’s here.

Fiona approached aisle ten, and the button shone green. Breeder’s source had been right. Her heart soared. It resided in the dairy section! She tapped the button an extra four times, and the light now shone red. Whatever protection had been cast around it, Breeder eliminated it with. A faint golden glow emanated from the egg section. Of course; what better place to hide a dragon’s egg then amidst actual eggs? She raced toward the unborn chicken offspring, the supermarket units left giving Fiona a wide berth. Her prize at last!

A gleam of silver flashed in the overhead lighting, but Fiona could not avoid it a second time. In a blur of motion a force swept her off her feet, destroying breath and hope in the same motion. Around Fiona, a supermarket unit screamed, and the few left in the aisle cleared. She grasped her knife, but the attacker smashed her hand. Fiona cried out and dropped the weapon as she heard the bone snap.

Pain flushed through her senses like a fire burning through the inside out. Some of it doused as a knee pressed into her chest. Some stupid supermarket unit had filled Fiona’s lungs with cement, and no matter how hard she coughed, it refused to dislodge. Eyes watering, she glanced at the eggs less than a yard away and located the dragon’s faint glow. So, so close.

She gazed up at her attacker, blinking back the darkness of failing vision. The Mute’s blue eyes flickered in every direction, taking in the supermarket units, aisles, and eggs. She located the dragon’s egg on the shelf as Fiona had and, releasing the smallest amount of pressure on her chest, cradled the glowing orb.

Fiona coughed and gasped from her position on the ground, grateful for the slightest amount of breath. Pieces of her vision returned as she watched The Mute’s movements. The Mute opened a small fur skin bag and eased the dragon egg inside. The care given seemed just as tender as what Fiona herself would have achieved.

But why? Unless…. Maybe the Dragon Keepers weren’t the monsters Fiona had heard of. Maybe they would take care of the egg as well as Breeder would, if for different reasons. She hoped so, for its sake.

For herself, however, care would not be exchanged. Fiona attempted to obtain a dragon egg, going against the Dragon Keeper’s ways. This was punishable by death, and since the criminal activity was clear, the most merciless legend out there would administer it. Intact hand shaking, Fiona took a breath and closed her eyes. Her best hope would be for The Mute, in her anticipation of restoring the egg to the Dragon Keepers, to make this quick.

A gentle finger ran over her good hand, stroking the slight lump in the center from Breeder’s paralysis chip. Against all instincts of survival, Fiona opened her eyes. The Mute studied it with the same intensity given to the dragon egg minutes before. Beneath her hard gaze, a drizzle of tears formed. She caught Fiona’s eye and, with a shaky breath, pointed to a spot on her throat near the voice box.

Fiona examined the spot. Old scar tissue roughened the area on The Mute’s neck, forming a small square. A square the same size and shape as the one in her wrist. Fiona gasped, but it came out more like a wheeze. She’d heard rumors that in the early days Breeder applied the chip at the neck, but to actually see it….

The Mute released her hold on Fiona, who laid on the floor, dumbstruck and gasping. At the insistence of Breeder’s former employee turned deadly Dragon Keeper, Fiona sat up, clutching her broken hand. The Mute held out Fiona’s dagger to her handle first. It seemed impossible to come out of this alive, but to have her weapon given back brought tears to Fiona’s eye. She took it with a smile of thanks.

Then, with an apologetic sigh, The Mute took out her own dagger from an unseen pocket and struck Fiona across the head with the flat end of it. As her vision failed once again, Fiona knew, for better or for worse, that she had acquired a friend.