[RiddleRose]: 298.Contest Entries.Dragta Underwater

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The Egg

   Sophie was documenting algae growth. It was, in a word, boring. She was still a junior member of the team, so she got stuck with all of the boring jobs. She was never allowed to go out in the sub or even with the scuba team to collect samples. No, she didn't have enough experience. What she wanted to know was, how was she going to get any experience by documenting algae growth?
   Well, she was almost done. She had been slaving over this tedious task for the past three days, copying the old data onto the new computer, referencing it, cross-referencing it, checking and re-checking until her head spun and her eyes felt like they were about to fall out.
   She got up, stretched, looked longingly at her scuba gear, sighed, and sat back down. There was nothing she would rather do right now than go for a swim, but she would finish this job first. She resumed typing.
   A few hours later she was finally done. She stretched, grinned happily in anticipation of a swim, and wandered out into the main complex. 
   As usual she stopped and gazed out of the Aquarium wall. It was a wall of clear glass, and she never got used to the view out of it. Fronds of seaweed swayed in the currents, and small fish darted to and fro. The sandy seafloor was littered with shells and broken bits of coral from the nearby reef. As she watched, a school of silver-scaled fish swam by, turning perfectly together.
   Often there would be pods of dolphins passing by, and a few times they even saw whales in the distance. Sharks were frequent visitors, and stingrays cast diamond shaped shadows on the floor of the Lab as they flapped their slow way along the wall.
   After gazing for a few minutes, she turned to the inside. Her friend and fellow scientist Lisa was bending over something round and green that rested on top of a pile of papers on her extremely messy desk. Usually when Lisa looked that absorbed in something, it was fascinating, so Sophie headed her way.
   "What's up Lisa? What've you got there?" she asked curiously.
   "Hi Soph! Have a look at this! Ever seen anything like it? I have no idea what it is!" Lisa bounced a little in excitement. It was rare that she got a challenge.
   Lisa was the obscure sea creatures specialist, but she also dealt with unidentifiable fossils and strange objects like this one. Usually she could take one look at something and identify it, but she seemed delightfully stumped this time. 
   Sophie grinned and took a closer look at the thing Lisa was so excited about. It was metallic and shiny, a beautiful peacock green, and perfectly round. It looked like some sort of egg, but she had never heard of an egg anything like this.
   "Well, the color is like peacock's tail... it certainly is beautiful, but I have no idea what it is."
   "Of course!" Lisa's entire face smiled, and she turned so fast that her long braid almost hit Sophie in the face. "Woops, sorry," she said distractedly, already searching her desk for what she wanted. Papers went everywhere. Eventually Lisa emerged with a laptop computer, three old mugs, and two chocolate bars in her hands. She threw the mugs into a basket full of more like them, presumably to be later washed and refilled with hot cocoa, then took an enormous bite of chocolate, and flipped open the laptop.
   She was muttering beneath her breath, and her fingers flew across the keyboard, searching files and documents, then giving up on that and searching the internet. Sophie watched with amusement. Lisa was so unbelievably disorganized and chaotic that it was a marvel she hadn't lost herself in the mess that was her desk long before this.
   Lisa interrupted her amused musing with a yell of triumph. "AHA! VICTORY!" she shouted, making Sophie jump, "EUREKA!" She shoved the laptop in Sophie's direction, but snatched it back before she had more than glanced at it. Once again her fingers flew, and then she sat back with the air of a satisfied cat. 
   On the screen was a picture of the egg, and an article from an old magazine. Sophie read it over Lisa's smug shoulder.

The egg of the Dragta has a metallic sheen much like a peacock's feathers. The Dragta itself has the tail of a peacock, along with the wings of a bat, the claws of a chickadee, the head of a mouse, the body of a cat, and the limbs of a lizard. It also has the breath of a dragon, although sometimes instead of fire it breathes ice, depending on the species. Sometimes the eggs are laid in a bad environment, in which case the egg simply won't hatch until it is relocated to a better environment.

   Sophie read on as the smile faded from Lisa's face. The Dragta was a wild creature, and was tamed only with great difficulty. She had no idea what they were going to do with this thing when - if it hatched. The Lab was underwater for heavens sake! They couldn't support a bird, or whatever this thing classified as.
   The egg rocked slightly. "Oh no," Sophie groaned. Lisa screwed up her face as if expecting to have ice water dumped down her shirt at any minute. It rocked, cracked, and abruptly shattered, leaving the small bedraggled creature floundering on the desk. 
   Without thinking, both Sophie and Lisa put out their hands to steady it. It coughed tiny shards of ice onto their hands, and rubbed against them, making a sound like a purring cat.
   Sophie and Lisa looked at one another, and Sophie voiced both their thoughts, "It thinks we're it's parents. What the hell do we do now?"