It was rare for a true gold to hatch. Yet Maerissa knew with every ounce of her being that this egg she held so carefully in her mouth was to be one such dragon. The thing that made a true gold special is that the females amongst them were one of the few that became matrons. With a gold, however, she would be foresworn a protector of not only her progeny, but humans and elves that lived within her domain.
For that end, Maerissa was doing with this egg what she had not considered doing with the others she and her mate had laid. She was about to turn the care of her young dragonling over to another family.
She knew that she had enemies who would seek out the young dragonling if they became aware of her existence and circumstance. However, with great care, the danger was minimal. A family who lived on the remote outskirts of a fishing village had been chosen. The man and his wife had reminded her so much of her own parents when she had met them, that they seemed the perfect couple to choose.
The woman had been unable to conceive a child thus far, though she and her husband had been trying. That had made finding the ones who would be parents for her youngling easier.
The next part had been a bit more difficult. Memories are a hard thing with which to tamper. But that was exactly what Maerissa was having to do. There were many memories that would need to be persuaded to accept things differently than what reality had actually given them to be.
There were the memories of the woman and her husband. There were also memories of the villagers who had dealings with the couple. Those Maerissa had decided to touch as lightly as possible. The spell Maerissa had chosen would encourage those that came in contact with the happy mother and father to not look to close at what they remembered rather than actually introducing new memories. Fortunately humans were able to be nudged rather easily in this direction, accepting usually whatever they were told as fact. Goodness, they would even believe worlds to be flat if one declared it to be true long and hard enough. The simplest tale was usually the one they readily accepted.
A true gold, like all dragons, however were never so easily persuaded, not even by magic. And dragons remembered the moment they crawl from the egg to join their kind. The spell on her daughter would have to be one of forgetting, or better understood as The Binding of Memory. It would still be there, simply not easily or readily accessed, at least not until the time was right and she would rejoin her own to take her place as a matron.
The final spell would be cast upon her daughter after hatching from her egg and taking of a name for herself. This one was intended to give her daughter the appearance and form of a human baby.
Though dragons could easily shift from one shape to another, and some did to take on less imposing forms such as trees or boulders, that usually did not happen until youthfulness had passed and gone. Once changed to a human form, her daughter would remain thus until her natural abilities to shift took full sway.
So it was, that as Maerissa landed and gently laid the egg upon the ground, she hissed softly calling upon ancient magicks such as were called when stars were flung across the night's sky. These were the ways that were long forgotten by any but those of the most ancient of races. Carefully she wove the spell together, causing to be what was not.
As she continued the incantations of her desire upon the fabric of reality, the egg rolled on the ground to bump into her claw. She caught the faint sound of her young one as it attempted to remove the shell which impeded its progress into the larger world. Her daughter seemed quite eager to join in the celebration of life, so it was on the conclusion of the first spell that Maerissa glanced down to see the young one crawling around at her claws.
Now there is some things that most do not know about the names of dragons. It is rarely known that dragons actually have three distinct names. They have a Name of Binding, a Name of Knowing, and a Name by Which One is Known.
Soon after a dragon hatches, they choose their names, and each is given only to those who earn trust, or for whom society finds need.
The Name of Binding is given only to the most trusted amongst them. A parent will know the name of their young, as their young also know the name of their sires, and the importance of keeping it hidden and in trust. And so, one is bound to the other, generation to generation.
The Name of Knowing is one which all dragons will learn and know. Now this name is special because there are few that could even pronounce this name. Dragons, you see, are not limited to the simple notes and melodies that humans use for speech and other vocalizations. Nor are they limited as other creatures to only growls, hisses, and other cacophonous noises. It is also not well known that dragons" speech often ranges outside of those that such mortal creatures hear. A dragon's name of knowing is created from this very speech, and so when they tell a human, "You could not pronounce my name, though you practiced for a thousand years," they are being neither coy, nor obtuse, only speaking a simple truth.
It is also special because it is by this name that dragons can call each other in time of great need. Though rare to see the skies filled with dragons that will hunt as one being, when they do, it is usually because one has called the Name of Knowing for all the others in the hunt, the enemy is great and to be dealt with in a most expeditious method. Though consider this, if one dragon can induce fear in another, the sky filled with such horrible creatures is not one that any would wish to see for the terror that it would bring. And so, the dragon's Name of Knowing is the most rare of any ever spoken.
So it is that the Name By Which One is Known becomes the one by which a dragon is most often identified. This is a blending of sounds most easily replicated by humans with their limited speech. Even so, dragons, often being the capricious creatures that they are, will choose a twisting of sounds and syllables that leave a human creating a name of their own by which to call the dragon. So we end up with such titles as Scarr, Icewing, Shivver, or some such nonsense. So, a dragon has only himself to blame though when such are attached to their person.
Maerissa lowered to the ground and gently scooped the young dragonling into a foreclaw, lifting her up to gaze more closely at her. It was then that Maerissa began to teach her daughter the ways of dragons, in the giving and receiving of names. However, to even attempt to translate what transpired between the two would be most difficult, for it was not done in the common tongue of mortals, but rather in the high language of dragons. Once completed, however, both knew of the other's names, for they had been fully exchanged.
Then Maerissa laid her daughter on the grass once more and spoke forth the spell which would bind her daughter's memories and followed that with the spell to bind her to a human body.
It was only once these two final tasks were done that she shifted her own form to that of a human peasant woman and made her way to the couple's house to knock upon the door. When she heard what could easily be assumed to be the husband rising from his dinner, she laid basket with infant on the stoop and retreated to stand nearby behind a tree.
She watched the door open and the man stick his head outside into the cool night air.
"Hello?"
Looking a bit confused, he almost shut the door, and only at the last second did the basket catch his eye.
"Martha??
There was a pause as the young woman came to join her husband, and spying the basket, leaned over to glance inside. Upon finding the child, she quickly lifted it and turned to go inside, the door closing behind them both.
Of course, Maerissa was sure that the spell she had cast upon the couple, and any who knew them, would be in full effect by the next sunrise and her daughter would be accepted as their own child. So she turned about to begin the journey home.
