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Cautiously approaching Xangord, I spoke to her in Dragon Language, "You probably don't want me here--"

"No I don't," Xangord replied in the same language as I lay nose to nose with her.

"--but between the three of us, I'm the most experienced when laying an egg," I finished.

"You didn't lay Shalimar's egg. Nogard cut it out of you."

"I'm still the one with the kid though."

"You've got a point. ... Thanks."

"No problem. Know what you're going to name it yet?"

"Xink."

"That's a cool name," I said. Sensing Xangord stiffen, I began to hum an old lullaby that my grandmother had sung to me.

Opening my eyes, I realized that I had been brought back home. As it was the middle of the night, I quietly slipped out of bed and went over to my computer terminal. Hacking into Nerissa's system, I temporarily shut down her ability to track me.

Making sure Wynn was happily snoring away, I snuck out of the house. A few weeks ago, I had found an underground cavern that was naturally illuminated by some kind of moss or lichen that gave off a soft blue glow. The back half of the cavern was filled with water that glowed white.

Slipping into the cavern, I transformed into my anthro form and stared listlessly at the water. Something was happening to Mom and Aunts Xangord and Nogard. Something bad. The voices in my head, at least when I was in this cavern, were blissfully silent.

Crying out in pain, I grabbed my back as my wings burst into flame and my hair transformed into a willow bush.

Turning my android head to look at Rose, I could tell something was wrong but my sensors could not pick anything up that was actually wrong. "Rose? Rose what is it?"

Forming my hologram form in the room where Nogard was pinned to the ground, I said, "Nogard, I will let you up on one condition."

"You let me eat the faries?"

"No. The condition is you will stay away from the envoy that has boarded me. I need you to go to my android form and see what you can sense is wrong with Rose. She is acting funny but my sensors are not picking anything up."

"You can kiss my scaley--" Nogard said seconds before her hair burst into flame.

Just as I laid my egg, Dragon and I transformed into our human forms for a few seconds. It was enough to tell that we had finally reached the next stage of our evolution--Dragon's hair had turned into a wave of water and mine had turned into loose whisps of smoke.

"How much you want to bet Nogard's head is on fire?" I asked as we transformed back.

Chuckling, Dragon said, "She's one who I'd expect to have a beehive of--what about Shalimar. She's not normal. What if--"

Reaching out with one of my wings, I placed it on Dragon's wing. "She'll be fine. She'll age normally like us. But think about it. Now we're Elder Serpents."

Suddenly, the egg hatched to reveal Xink in his dragon form. Squalling, he blinked his eyes a couple of times and looked between me and Dragon. Cooing, he climbed up my side and curled up on my head and went to sleep.