egg

Egg is a small little fae who's very confused about the world. She comes from a cult who has one purpose, and one purpose only: To raise dragons to serve the deities. To avoid getting attached, the dragons are stripped of any sense of individuality. They're all merely called "egg", from the moment they're laid, to the moment they leave to serve a deity. They're treated the same, encouraged to be the same. Everything they get is the same, barring necessary distinctions like diet. It was here that Egg spent her early life.

She wasn't sure why it changed.

She was supposed to serve the deities.

That was her entire purpose in life.

But instead... she was sold. Or at least, that was her understanding of the situation. No one bothered to explain it to her. She was taken to a new lair. A new place. One where things were different. Everyone did more or less as they pleased. No one really talked about going to serve the deities.

Egg was confused.

Especially so when they told her she could be something more than a mere servant to a god.

Wasn't that the entire purpose of life? To serve the gods? In some way or another. Even those who trained dragons for exaltation were serving the gods. They prepared dragons to serve the gods. That was a service. Why would anyone dream of a greater existence than eternal servitude to a deity?

And yet, Egg stayed. She stayed and stayed. Trying to find another way to serve the deities while she stayed here, she had a few nests. Her hatchlings could serve where she was yet unable.

She took up hobbies.

She got a job.

She made friends.

That one was perhaps the most dangerous.

As time passed, she stopped thinking about serving the deities. One day, she suddenly realized this. How could she have forgotten her purpose? She frowned, contemplating. And came to a realization. She no longer wished to go and serve the deities. She wanted to stay here. She wanted to work. She wanted to play. She wanted to have friends.

Egg was conflicted.

Is this what they meant when they told her there was more to life than eternal servitude? There were things to do and things to learn and dragons to befriend? But... then why had she been taught to serve the deities?

When she came to the clan leader with all her questions, they were calmly answered one by one. Yes, that was precisely what they meant. That there was more to do and see in life than could ever be done merely in servitude. And the thing that raised more questions. The second answer. She'd been taught that because she'd been raised in a cult.

What was a cult?

A cult, she learned, was a group religiously devoted to a cause. Only more extreme. They pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, and sometimes went beyond them. They allowed nothing beyond complete and utter devotion to their cause.

That wasn't okay.

Why not?

Because it took away their potential. It stripped them of all else they might be. It wasn't healthy, wasn't right. It messed with one's mind, and sometimes hurt them in other ways.

Egg tried to reconcile all this.

She went to therapy. The others encouraged it.

She learned to pretend to be normal.

To pretend to be okay.

Maybe at some point, she started actually being okay.

She still didn't entirely understand the world. It was all so strange and confusing. There were so many different dragons, all with their own views of the world. So many different places and things.

She wanted to learn more about all of it, she decided.

Egg wanted to set out to learn more. She loved the home she'd found here, but it was time to move on. Maybe she would write. Maybe she would see them again. Maybe she would be able to rescue others and teach them about the world. She wanted to learn and teach others about the things she'd learned. And she couldn't do all that from here.

So she left.

She left to go and learn everything she could.

To try to make sense of the world.