"Wyrmfiend!"
At this pronouncement, a flicker of commiseration touched the eyes of the other four hatchlings observing from below.
For them, endowed with their ancestral recollections, the grim significance of 'Wyrmfiend' was starkly apparent.
They understood, with chilling clarity, the destiny that befell any fledgling thus designated.
While the assembled drakes remained transfixed, I had instinctively consumed the entirety of the shell fragments that had once been my sanctuary.
Dabbing at the lingering vitellus upon my maw, I turned my gaze towards the colossal entity.
It was, of course, abundantly clear to me that the 'Wyrmfiend' she spoke of was, without any doubt, myself.
Yet, the true nature of such a creature remained an enigma to me.
Thus...
"What, precisely, is a Wyrmfiend?"
That I, the very fledgling she had just branded a Wyrmfiend, should speak, caused Winters a momentary pause.
"Creation Dragon preserve us, you can actually articulate!"
I regarded Winters with perplexity.
"Why should I not be able to speak? And furthermore, what is a Wyrmfiend?"
No sooner had I finished than, instead of an answer, I beheld the behemoth before me extending its formidable claws in my direction.
Comprehension dawned with sudden, chilling clarity, and I hastily scrambled backward.
However, with my diminutive legs, less than a metre in length, even had Winters granted me a ninety-nine-metre head start, she could have effortlessly apprehended me in a single motion, without so much as stirring from her spot.
Therefore, my resistance was foredoomed to futility.
I was captured.
Yet, an innate recalcitrance within my core rebelled against such ignominious capture, and so, I raked my claws against the scales beside me!
"Growl!"
After a pitiable yelp, I covered my maw and began to writhe.
Winters observed this spectacle, and a peculiar glint flickered within her dazzling golden vertical pupils.
Could there be some fundamental anomaly with this wyrmling?
The disparity in our sizes was patently obvious, sufficient for any creature to comprehend the chasm between us, yet I had still dared to strike her.
However, as she beheld me lying within her grasp, though I rolled and writhed, clutching my mouth, my eyes still harbored a spark of unwillingness and ferocity, a strange hue suffused her own.
"Little one, impart your name to me!"
Hearing the deafening resonance emanating from her, a flicker of fear danced in my eyes, yet I remained obstinate.
I was a Celestial Dragon of the Starry Expanse, born unto freedom; how could I be cowed by such a trifling display?
"Should you not first declare your own appellation before soliciting another's?"
Mm!
That was the proper way, quite authoritative!
However, I must endeavor to control the tremor in my voice in the future.
With this resolve, I stubbornly met the gaze of those dazzling golden vertical pupils, larger than my entire being, and strove to still the trembling of my tail.
Hearing my retort, Winters could not suppress a chuckle.
Having lived for eons, even if she hadn't overseen the emergence of tens of thousands of wyrmlings, she had certainly witnessed several thousand, yet this was the first instance of a fledgling bargaining in such a manner.
Contemplating this, Winters gently placed me back upon the ground.
"You may call me Mistress Winters.
And you should acquaint yourselves with your siblings."
At this juncture, the other four young drakes, who had been observing from the periphery, finally comprehended from Winters' pronouncement that the last of us to emerge was no Wyrmfiend, but a true Dragon, kin to them.
Consequently, they bounded joyfully towards me, only to be met with a draconic roar laden with vigilance.
Observing the four young drakes momentarily transfixed by my cry, I then directed my gaze towards Winters.
"Simply call me Vet.
And besides, I do not perceive them as my brethren."
At this, Winters' brow furrowed slightly.
However, she did not immediately admonish this peculiar wyrmling.
It appeared there was indeed something amiss with me.
"Can you elucidate your reasoning, Vet?"
Hearing her query, I scoffed.
"Do you take me for a simpleton? We bear no resemblance to one another, yet you declare them my siblings?"
Observing the wariness in my eyes, Winters finally grasped a crucial point.
"You possess no bloodline inheritance?"
Suddenly confronted with an unfamiliar term, I subconsciously inquired, "What is bloodline inheritance?"
Upon hearing this, Winters finally understood the singularity of this wyrmling.
Contemplating the educational endeavors that lay ahead, she couldn't help but pat her forehead.
But she seemed to forget that, given her colossal scale, let alone patting her forehead, even a slight movement would prove calamitous for us five fledglings.
Thus, predictably, the five of us were sent tumbling like gourds by the sudden gust of wind.
Fortunately, the draconic life force is indomitable; even a young drake fresh from its shell-breaking would not easily perish from an impact with stone.
In truth, in these collisions with the unforgiving rock, we nascent creatures were the ultimate victors.
Albeit, a useless victory.
Gazing at the wyrmlings rolling into balls below, Winters finally recalled that those before her were not her peers.
She hastily extended her claws, arresting our involuntary tumbles.
"Forgive me, I forgot your recent emergence."
I arose, rubbing my forehead where I had just struck a stone, though my attention was clearly elsewhere.
"Rather than apologies, should you not elucidate what bloodline inheritance entails?"
Winters pondered for a moment after hearing my question.
"How best to articulate it? Bloodline inheritance is a bequest from your progenitors.
It serves as an aid, enabling you to comprehend this perilous world more expeditiously."
Hearing this, I breathed a sigh of relief.
"If that is the essence of bloodline inheritance, then I possess it!"
"You possess it?"
After a moment's pause, Winters mused for a while and then inquired, "Since you have bloodline inheritance, can you tell me your lineage, your race?"
At this, my interest was immediately aroused, and I raised my diminutive draconic head high.
"I am a Celestial Dragon of the Starry Expanse!"
Winters regarded me with a speechless expression.
She ought not to have trusted the unreliable parents of this wyrmling before her.
Celestial Dragon of the Starry Expanse?
From whence did such a race originate?
Looking at my proud countenance, Winters felt compelled to deliver the unsparing truth.
"Little one, no such entity as a Celestial Dragon of the Starry Expanse exists in this world.
You are not a Celestial Dragon of the Starry Expanse, but an Argent Dragon, a Silver Wyrm!"
At these words, I could not help but stare, utterly dumbfounded.
"But... but... my sire himself told me that we hail from the cosmos, that we are Celestial Dragons of the Starry Expanse! How could we be mere Silver Dragons?"
Seeing me so crestfallen, Winters felt a pang of helplessness.
These matters had to be clarified; a flawed perception could ruin an otherwise excellent Dragon.
Thinking of this, Winters couldn't help but feel a trace of acrimony towards my parents, whom she had never met.
Although many Dragons jested with their offspring, she had never encountered one who deluded them so thoroughly.
"Vet, observe Ao more closely.
He is an Aurum Dragon, of the Metallic Dragon Clan, a Giant Dragon species.
The Argent Dragon Clan also belongs to this same Metallic Dragon Clan of Giant Dragons!"
Hearing this, I turned my head to look at the golden wyrmling standing aside, and then looked back at myself...