Timber awoke and checked his surroundings. The fire he was lying in was starting to die down and he was still clutching the black stone.
He instantly jumped back and began checking himself for any damage. Upon finding that he was just fine he looked towards where he had entered the cave and found that he could now see daylight. He started towards the mouth of the cave and listened for anything that might try to attack.
He reached the mouth of the cave and looked around. In front of him where there used to be a trail and a bunch of trees now was a deep crater. Across the crater was what remained of the trail he had found yesterday. He began his way around the crater to the worn trail so he could at least make it back to the clearing and hopefully, with the help of the new found day light, make out a way to get out of this forest.
He made it to the other side and began down the path back to the clearing. Along the way, he started to examine the stone he was carrying. The stone was about the size of Timber’s head and felt lighter than what Timber had been expecting, almost like it was hollow. Upon further inspection he found that the stone was made up of small scales, like the dragon had had.
He was pulled away from his inspection of the stone by the sound of something yelling his name. He looked up and found he had came to the end of the trail and instead of standing in front of the clearing like he was expecting, he was now standing in front of his tribe while they all ran to him.
“Where have you been?” bellowed Black Hoof “We all thought you had died.” “All except me.” said Flowing River smiling.
“I got couldn’t find my way back, so I stayed the night in a cave.” said Timber Hoof. “A cave? Do you know how idiotic it is to stay inside a cave in this forest? Anything could have lived there, wolves, bears, manticores.”
“I was fine, this creature called a dragon found me and-” “A what?” asked Black Hoof. Timber gave a brief description of what a dragon looked like. “He didn’t seem dangerous, he even saved me from the purple monster that tried to kill me!”
Black Hoof looked perplexed and he noticed the black stone the colt was carrying. “What is that?” he asked. “It’s something the dragon wanted me to bring to our tribe, he said it was a gi-” Black Hoof smacked the stone out of Timber’s forelegs and asked, “Why would you take such a thing from a creature like that? It could be dangerous!”
Timber looked down at the ground feeling hurt. Flowing River slowly walked over to the stone and picked it up and came over to Timber and asked, “Could you please take us to where you found this?” Timber’s eyes brightened and he nodded his head. He about faced and cantered down the trail he had came from.
As Timber made his way down the trail, he said, “Now watch your step when we get there, there’s a huge crater that the purple monster created.”
They made it to the end of the trail only to find the clearing Timber had found yesterday before he had found the cave. “B-but it was right here a few minutes ago, I swear!” Black Hoof came up behind him and laid a hoof on his shoulder saying, “I’m sure spending the night in this forest scared you beyond belief, you probably had a great nightmare. Still that doesn’t explain this stone though, maybe you had a night terror and found it in your sleep?”
“This isn’t a stone. It’s an egg.” stated Flowing River holding it up to the sun. The other two bison trotted over to her and looked at the stone. Inside the egg was what appeared to be a large lizard in the fetal position.
“Where did you find this?” asked Black Hoof. Timber told them about how he had came to acquire the egg and how the dragon had made it very clear that this was supposed to be a gift for his entire tribe. Black Hoof looked wary and said, “Timber, I don’t think we should have something like this near our tribe. From what you told me this creature could kill all of us.”
“Nonsense,” said Flowing River, “It is obvious the creature that gave young Timber this egg was a Manitou. Who would deny our tribe such a gift?” Before Black Hoof could counter her, she turned around and started back down the trail.
Black Hoof grumbled something and started to follow along with Timber. When they reached the rest of the tribe Flowing River held up the egg and said, “This is an egg given to young Timber Hoof. It was a gift from a great Manitou and we will treat it like such. No harm will come to this egg. Does anyone have any reason why we should not keep this egg?”
Black Hoof opened his mouth. “Anyone except our dear chief?” His mouth closed and he looked angry, but said nothing.
There were hushed whispers amongst the tribe, but no one objected. “Good.” said the elder, “Now, let us pack up and move on from this place.” Teepees started coming down immediately, even Black Hoof had given up for now and was helping. Although he was probably doing more to get away from the Everfree than following Flowing’s orders.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
That night they had set up camp near Ghastly Gorge and they all were sitting around the fire. Timber was holding the egg while Black Hoof watched him. “I still don’t trust that thing. What if it hatches and it kills us all?!” Flowing River gave him a look like he had a third horn growing from his head. “When it hatches it will be a baby, it couldn’t do any of us harm if it tried.” “What about when it grows up?” “Then we will teach it to live like a bison. We will raise it like one of our own.” said Flowing River.
Black Hoof jumped to his hooves, “I will not risk endangering my tribe just because an old cow could never have a foal of her own!” Flowing River gave Black Hoof a damning look but said nothing. Black Hoof made his way over to Timber, “Give me the egg.” he said. Timber looked between the egg and Black Hoof and shook his head. “I SAID GIVE IT TO ME!!!” Black Hoof roared. He pounced on Timber Hoof and ripped the egg from his forelegs.
Black Hoof made his way over to the fire. “Black Hoof,” Flowing River said icily, “If you hurt that egg you’ll regret it for the rest of your life.” Black Hoof snorted, clutching the egg with one foreleg, “I will not let the tribe my father lived and died for be destroyed by some monster, no matter how small it is now.”
He lifted the egg above his head and threw it into the fire. A loud crack was heard throughout the tribe, the egg had shattered. Timber Hoof stood there stunned, not believing what his eyes were seeing. “NOOOO!” he yelled and charged towards the fire.
Black Hoof put a foreleg around him, holding him back. “Have you grown dense boy!? You’re going to kill yourself.” Black Hoof effortlessly flung Timber back to where he was sitting and he suddenly felt the heat behind him grow.
The fire had started to turn green. Black Hoof stared at it awestruck, wondering what could make fire turn such a color.
FWOOOOSH!
The fire suddenly grew twice its size, embers splashing all over. Some of the green embers got into Black Hoof’s eyes and he started screaming, rolling around on the ground in pain. Everyone but Flowing River and Timber Hoof helped pull Black Hoof away from the strange fire.
Once Black Hoof had quieted down everyone looked back towards the fire to see that embers kept splashing around the fire. Timber Hoof got up slowly and walked over to the fire and looked into its eerie green flames.
Inside the fire was a black baby dragon with the remnants of its egg splayed around it. It was slapping its hands against the kindling making the embers splash all around it all the while making a high pitched giggling noise with a giant toothless grin across it’s face.
Flowing River finally got up and walked towards the fire. She got very close and showed no signs of stopping. Many of the tribe tried to stop her by yelling out to her, but she kept on. She put one hoof inside the fire and the entire tribe gasped. A second hoof, a third and soon she was fully inside the fire. She picked up the baby dragon and walked back to where she was sitting unharmed all the while the dragon was blowing green spit bubbles.
The whole tribe except Black Hoof, who had fallen unconscious, made its way over to where Flowing River was sitting. They circled her and looked down upon the dragon she had cradled in her forelegs. She looked over to Timber and asked, “What should we call him Timber? You’re the one who found him, so you should be the one to name him.”
Timber thought for a moment before putting his hoof next to the baby dragon. The baby dragon instantly latched onto with its black hand, tiny claws poking out at the end of the fingers, shaking Timber’s hoof with a strength that seemed unnatural for a creature so small. “Black Claw.” he said.
Flowing River held up the tiny dragon to get a good look at its face, all the while it still had its big toothless grin, making happy sounds. “I think Black Claw will make a great name.”