Alora

Would you believe me if I told you a seashell can give birth to dragons? Welllll.. a dragon, to be exact, since I've only ever seen it happen once and then never again.

Oh, it's the most astounding thing to witness! I wasn't the only one who saw it, either, so you can confirm my story with Prose and Cassiopeia if you still hold a speck of suspicion. Hold up, I'm trying to remember now exactly where that seashell came from in the first place. Was it.. the Blossoming Garden?.. the ruins.. no.. Naw, wait, I think it was the Redrock Cove. Yeah, that's where I found it.

It was the biggest shell around and pretty to boot, so I brought it back to our lair. Hazen told me it was a queen conch—that guy knows literally everything—and that it was unusually different. As I'm not a shell expert, I hadn't noticed it until he pointed it out. Normally a conch is hollow and has an opening, right, but this one had its cavity sealed. I showed it around to everyone, and we had to conclude that the opening was covered with a thin layer of.. um, sort of like an egg. It was a conch, but it was also an egg. I was very proud of myself that I never dropped that shell the whole time I had it with me!

The thing is, I don't know how to hatch a conch. Do you.. sit on it? Like how we do with our dragon eggs? It wasn't in a nest or anything when I found it, so I still thought it was just a seashell. But I didn't have anything better to do with it anyway, so I left the egg with Prose. A couple days.. then Cassiopeia called me over one afternoon saying, "Prose thinks it's hatching!"

I probably didn't blink the entire time because I didn't want to miss a second of it. Tiny claws broke through the layer covering the cavity, followed by a massively cute squeak. Alora was born. The conch itself—totally intact even after spitting out a whelp—was now just like any other regular old conch, but it was obvious we were keeping it as a memento.

I had the honor of naming the baby, and I still feel a bit shy and tingly thinking back to it. I don't know.. well, she's the first child I ever named. That's pretty darn special. Despite being conceived in a conch, Alora grew up fine and dandy; she's a strong one, and adventurous, too! Just like me and I'm so very proud of her.