The crack echoed in the silent hut.
Kaz scrambled back, his heart hammering against his ribs. This was it. The moment of truth, the moment he had been waiting for. He'd read the texts on draconic imprinting, but facing the reality was different. His eyes darted to a rusted metal pipe leaning in the corner, if anything went south, that'd be his makeshift weapon. But he didn't reach for it. Instead, he sat perfectly still, his back against the wall, and wrapped his arms around his knees, just as he had at his father's grave. He was ready. If this was his end, at least he had nothing to lose.
The fissure in the shell widened, branching out like a lighting bolt. A piece of the impossibly hard scute-scale chipped away and fell inward. From the darkness within, a single, luminiscent blue eye, slit with a silver pupil, peered out. It looked menacing, yet curious.
With a final, splintering crunch, the top of the egg completely shattered. A small head pushed its way through the opening. It was not the fearsome, horned head of the great dragons from his book. This creature was slender, its snout seemed elegant. A crown of delicate scales formed a crest on its head, and its hide was the color of a deep twilight sky, dotted with specks that shimmered like stars.
The dragon unfolded itself from the confines of the shell. Its limbs were long, and it awkwardly stumbled on the mattress as it shook off flecks of membrane. And it was big. Standing on all fours, it was nearly the same size as the boy. One singular snap of its jaws, or one swipe of its claws, and it would all be over.
He held his breath, waiting for the fire, the innate Drifter instinct to kill.
It took a wobbly step forward. Then another. It lowered its head, and instead of attacking, it nurged its snout gently against Kaz's chest, letting out a soft, trilling sound.
Then it spoke, its voice a clear chime that resonated in Kaz's mind.
"You are here."
Kaz's eyes widened, his prepared acceptance of death shattered into a million piece. "You can talk!?"
The dragon tilted its head, its luminous eye blinking slowly. "You taught me. You talked about the sky, the stars, the moon. About your father, your mother and the flowers on the stone." It nudged him again, a gesture of pure affection. "You are my caregiver."
A sound escaped Kaz's lips, a half-sob, half-laugh that he hadn't heard in years. The tension drained from his small body, leaving him feeling lightheaded. He wasn't going to die, nor was he alone anymore.
Tentatively, he raised a hand and placed it on the dragon's snout. The scales were smooth and warm, thrumming with a gentle, powerful energy.
"I-I'm not your caregiver... I'm Kaz. And you... you're my friend."
The dragon trilled again, a sound of contentment. "Friend" it repeated. "If you're Kaz then who am I?"
"Uh..." Kaz looked around trying to come up with a name for his new best and only friend. "Miros... Miroslawy..?"
"I am Miroslawy. Hello, Kaz."
The years that followed were a bright light of hope in Kaz's life, years of survival with companionship.
Miroslawy was all clumsy in his early months. He'd trip over his own tail, sending Kaz into a fit of laughter that echoed through the deadzone forests, a sound so foreign, it scared away the nearby Drifters.
They learned to fight, back-to-back. Kaz, swift and cunning with his scavenged pipe, would create openings. Miroslawy, growing stronger by the day, would unleash a breath of shimmering, concussive force that could stagger a rampaging beast. They acted like a single unit.
Kaz started calling him "Miro" one evening after a particularly close call. "Your name is too long, I should've given it more thought." he'd mumbled, scratching the spot behind Miro's frilled chest. The dragon purred, a sound like rumbling stone, and the nickname stuck.
Nights were no longer a time of frightening silence. They slept curled together in the small hut, Kaz using Miro's natural warmth, sturdy side as a pillow, one arm thrown over his neck. The dragon's steady, rhythmic breathing was almost the one of a lullaby.
They shared everything. Kaz would share his scavenged canned food from looting the abandoned supermarkets in the area. And Miro, with his draconic senses, would lead them to hidden patches of edible, growing fungi. They'd sit on the roof of their crumbling hut, watching the strange auroras paint the sky, Miro's star-flecked hide shimmered in the otherworldly light.
A scrape on Kaz's arm from a fall was gently nuzzled and cleaned by a worried Miro. A thorn stuck in Miro's paw was carefully removed by Kaz's trembling hands.
Eight years had gone by. The scrawny, lost boy was far gone, replaced by a lean, sharp-eyes sixteen year old man. The original hut had been expanded in all ways, as it struggled to contain the being that had become his other half.
Miroslaswy was magnificient. The size of a small house, his twilight blue scales now as hard as steel, each one etched with the silver patterns that perfectly reflected the light. When he stretched his vast wings, he cast a shadow over their entire clearing. The once awkward creature was now a being of primordial power.
Yet, for all his power, they were still prisoners.
"We can't stay here forever, Miro," Kaz said, his voice deeper now. He was leaning against the warm, familiar curve of Miro's neck, looking at a tattered hand-drawn map spread on the ground. It was his most prized possession. Pieced together from old world maps and Drifter-sighting logs.
Miro's voice, now a deep, resonant hum, replied. "The hunting parties grow more frequent. I believe they are able to sense my growth."
"I know." Kaz pointed a calloused finger at the map. "We're here, in deadzone district #3. The Balkans, a complete loss." His finger traced a path northwest. "But here, Deadzone #7, in what's left of Southern Germany. It's completely different."
"How?"
"It's a 'Contained Deadzone'. The military cleared a perimeter. They let it exist due to the high dirft concentration. It'd be too much of a hassle to cleanse. However, they have walls and observation posts." Kaz looked up at his friend's massive eye. "It's right on the edge of a functioning human city. Neu Berlin."
The plan had been forming in his mind for years, born from the books he'd looted that spoke of the world beyond theirs.
"The problem has always been two things," Kaz explained. "One, I can't walk that far. The distance is over one thousand kilometers, and we'd have to walk through territory swarming with Drifters, we could cleanse them but we'd run out of energy quickly. And two, you can't get near a city."
"Is it because of systems?" Miro hummed.
"Yes, it is." Kaz's face grew serious. "When the Drifts opened, their energy reacted with... something, in people. A chemical reaction with the planet's own radiation. Most people got nothing. Some... like my mother... got sick with Drift illness and passed away... But a lucky few, they awakened Systems."
He gestured vaguely towards the world beyond. "These Systems give people power. Stats, skills, quests. And the single most common, most lucrative quest type for System users is 'Drifter Extermination.' The experience and gold bounty on a full-grown dragon like you..." Kaz didn't finish the sentence. He didn't want to think about that. "If you so much as fly near a city's airspace, a dozen System users would swarm you for loot. You wouldn't stand a chance."
Miro was silent for a long moment, the low rumble of his breath vibrating through Kaz. "So, we are trapped between the wild Drifters here, and the human System users there."
"Not if we're smart." Kaz said, a determined glint in his eye. He tapped the map on Deadzone #7. "We don't go to the city. We go here. To the contained deadzone. You'll be safe there; the humans don't go in, they just make sure nothing comes out. And I... I can get to the city walls from there. I can see other people. Maybe trade and get information. And then I can come back to you."
It was a desperate plan, fraught with risk. A long, dangerous flight for Miro. and an uncertain reception for Kaz.
"I do not like you going to them on your own." Miro's thought was thick with concern.
"I don't like you carrying me across half of Europe," Kaz countered, smiling weakly. "But it's the only way, and we'll do it together, like always."
Miro lowered his colossal head, nudging Kaz gently, almost knocking him over. It was their old gesture, scaled up. "We will fly at the next moon's darkest phase."