The Middle of Nowhere

The world is dark, and warm. Not enough of my consciousness is awake to recognize where I am or what's happening, but it feels safe as I glide in and out of wakefulness.

Seven humanoids stand around the egg that just fell from the sky.

One is a tall, blonde warrior plated in iron and gold. He doesn't realize how tightly he's clutching his lance as he surveys the area around the egg, stressed about what could reside in this foreign jungle.

One is an elf covered in black: black armor, black makeup, and short black hair. She simply waits; as an ex-assassin who would hang from ceilings for hours to reach her targets she is immune to the anxiety that comes with uncertainty and waiting. While she is waiting she surveys her companions, guessing at their strengths and weaknesses if she has to fight them, or more likely, stand with them in battle.

A second, shorter elf decked in leather armor with red hair cascading down her shoulders is sitting on a rock. Usually she might have been carefully exploring the new area, fascinated by new fauna. Instead she's grappling with the hope that her wish has been fulfilled. She can't bear to assume that it actually was fulfilled, for if that assumption was proved false it would break her.

There is a third elf, but she doesn't look like the other two at all. Her skin is blue and she's coated it in a thin, shiny layer of ice to protect her from the outrageous heat. She knows her wish has been fulfilled, unlike the previous elf, and is now content to patiently survey the jungle. Whatever happens to her now doesn't matter much, for her kingdom is saved.

The next in the circle around the egg is a native to this land. She doesn't know exactly which island they are on, but the orange bloodberries in the surrounding area have clearly been plucked off their vines by the jungle red-fox. If the red-fox thinks it is safe here than it is. She's absent-mindedly spinnning strands of light in her fingers.

One of them is terrified. She's spent the rest of her life in the ocean, where they are taught to stay away from land and the terrifying creatures that stalk it, each willing to stab or eat a siren like her. Now she's on land and doesn't know where the ocean is. And she has legs which have crumpled beneath her that she doesn't know how to use. And she's surrounded by humanoids, some of which are species she was taught to avoid, siren-killers. The others have tried to comfort her, but she's shied away from them, so they let her be.

She's also naked, but that doesn't matter to her, it's not something sirens care about.

The last is perhaps the most bizarre of them all: a naga. Her upper body is human, but a long tail starts at her hips instead of legs. She also has six arms, her skin is unnaturally white, and she carries six swords that she seems to not know where to put. All of this is the product of her being a specially-bred gladiator for the dragonlords. She is less interested in the jungle and more with the humanoids around her, wondering what their wishes were.

There is some tension in the air, but excluding the siren, not as much as one might expect considering all seven of them are complete strangers who could have been enemies had things gone differently. That's because of the egg they surround, observing or protecting. All of them were brought her by the egg, and therefore they must be allies, however strange it may be.

Although the jungle is noisy, the clearing is silent. Footsteps and crunching leaves seem loud, and so does the clanking of armor or the cracking of a dragonite egg.

I feel unnaturally tiny when I crawl out of the egg. It would look the size of a small hut if it wasn't stuck halfway into the ground, and I'm barely larger than a squirrel. There are six people looking down at me when I first glimpse light, and all of them look a little surprised when they see me for the first time.I push the top egg shard away and it clatters to the ground. I **** my way out of the muck, shaking my body from head to tail to remove it from me.

I ignore the people I've teleported here for a few moments, closing my eyes and breathing in the humid jungle air. I savor the air, the feeling of the wind on my new scales, the comforting hum of jungle insects.

"Hello, Elderia," I say quietly.