Hatchling

The creature shrank beneath the dead black shrubs, crying and burying itself in the snow. Nya bent over whispering softly to it. "Come on, it's alright."

She heard light footsteps crunching the freshly fallen snow and turned to see her friend trudging through the snows, clutching his cloak around his body as the wind tossed his messy black hair. 

"What are you doing?" Sevren asked kneeling down beside her placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Hush you!" Nya hissed. "I've found a hatchling. You'll frighten him off."

At this Sevren jumped back and unsheathed his sword. "I suspect his mother's close by then. We should leave."

Nya rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh as she looked back to his scarf-covered face. "Dragons hatch their eggs in caves, eejit. If his mother were still alive she wouldn't have let him get this far."

The tiny dragon let out another cry, his breath formed a thin white frost on the black brambles. Nya should have known! The hatchling was an ice dragon! He was pure white with ice blue eyes, and lived this far north. Nya's hatchling was the first ice dragon to be seen in two thousand years.

"How long can a cold egg go unhatched, Sevren?" Nya asked offering a piece of salted meat from her belt pouch. 

"I...I don't know. No one's really ever written about it."

Slowly, the dragon sniffed the meat and left his safe haven. He ventured out into the open sky, despite his fears, his blue eyes darting around quickly. When Nya dropped the meat into her lap, the dragon quickly followed the food. Once he was satisfied no one was going to harm him, he curled up in her lap, nestling deep into the folds of her skirts.

"I suppose you're going to ask if we can keep him?" Sevren huffed sheathing his sword.

"No, Sevren."

Sevren knelt beside her and gave a relaxed smile. "I'm glad--"

"Because he's already ours. And his name's Aeglossion."