The first thing I heard was a heartbeat.

  It was strong and steady, thumping so loudly that it shook my entire being. Each pulse crashed into me, completely surrounding my tiny body.

  I was not frightened in spite of its power. I was frightened of what lay outside of it. The heartbeat brought warmth and consistency to my existence. Outside of its touch, there was an endless void of the unknowable cold.

  Over time I began to hear other heartbeats join the first. They were small and weak. Like me, they gathered around the first beat and clung to its warmth. It took a long time before I realized that there was something different about me, compared to them.

  Gradually, I became an individual. My heart beat to a different rhythm than the group. It was different to the first beat as well. In spite of this, the first beat continued to allow me to huddle against it and block out the biting cold. The others were able to crowd closer than me, drawing in more of that vital heat.

  I didn’t yet know the word for jealousy, but that is what I felt.

  Too late, I realized that the others were completely pushing me out of the circle of warmth. The further they pushed in, the more I was forced out. With each passing moment I was growing colder. I hadn’t been aggressive enough in my attempts to stay close. Perhaps it was kindness that led me to believe that we could share it equally.

  In time I would call it weakness, one that I would seek to never repeat.

  As the other heart beats grew stronger, I learned that I was small. Weak. A runt. In desperation I opened my mouth for the first time. I called out for the first heartbeat, for its mercy. It did not respond. My tiny cry echoed within the small confines I resided in.

  I had never felt cramped before. But suddenly, the space felt like a trap. The cold was creeping in from all sides. If the first heartbeat would not help me, then I had to free myself.

  My claws scratched at the walls that restricted me. They barely left a mark. I battered my small head against the hard surface. Again, I left only the slightest dent. I was too small. Too weak.

  The space around me was starting to feel suffocating. I had never needed to breathe before, but now my lungs screamed in my chest. My body woke from my first dream too small and weak to survive. If it had been the right time, breaking free would have come as easy as breathing. Neither of these were available to me.

  I began to panic. Screeching, my body flailed back and forth within my prison. For the first time I felt a change in my circumstances. Movement. My prison had moved further away from the warmth. Each thrash against its walls nudged me away from the only place I had ever known.

  There was nothing else for it. I was too weak to force myself into the circle of warmth. My only options were to fight or flee. Instincts that I did not know the origin of told me what to do. I could not fight, therefore I must flee.

  With one last crash into the side of my confines, I felt a titanic shift. My prison continued to move without my input. I was dragged along with it. The void opened up beneath me as I fell to an unknown location and future. I cried out in fear one last time to the first heart beat. It never answered me.

  The fall came to an abrupt stop when my prison smashed against something beneath it. Something harder than it. The small flaws I’d made inside its protective structure became fault lines. All at once, those fault lines broke apart. The walls shattered around me and the cold rushed in.

  A new world opened to me.

  I screamed.

  The new world was bitterly cold and unforgiving. Multi-lidded eyes that had never opened tried to blink away the mucous membranes clinging to me. A long tongue coiled out of my mouth to clean the rapidly cooling fluids. I didn’t need to be told to do this. Knowledge spawned from my gut told me that if I had hatched in the nest, a caring guardian would have done the act. But there was only me.

  Before, I had only known the comforting darkness of my prison. In this new world, I could see shapes and dull colors cast in reflected light. As I continued to groom myself, I learned more about the body I had been born with.

  My exterior was covered in a layer of hard scales. Each was similar in durability to the floor that had broken my prison. I had four limbs that each ended in four digits; three facing forwards, one backwards. Each digit ended in a sharp claw, sharp enough to prick my tongue. ‘Ouch.’ They were not sharp enough to pierce my scales.

  I became aware that I had two extra appendages on my back. A careful flex sent a shock of pain through my back. The same instinct from before told me that they weren’t ready. If I had hatched at the correct time, these wings would have helped me move around.

  There was also a tail extending from my hindquarters, which was about half of my total body length. It seemed to have a mind of its own, sweeping back and forth without me telling it to. I resisted the sudden temptation to chase it, for now.

  Lastly, there was the head and mouth from which my tongue extended. By slowly opening and closing my jaw, I could feel that there were complicated workings inside. My jaw could move in a variety of ways to perform various functions. To begin with, I could bite, lick, and screech. I could sense other possible actions, but their purpose would remain unknown until I had time to practice.

  Right now, I could feel my time was short.

  I was free, but a gnawing feeling was growing in my gut. Once, the vitality flowing from the first heartbeat would have sated it. I only dimly understood what this meant. This ‘gnawing’ sensation was something that I would be cursed with for the rest of my days. It would never fully go away, only be persuaded to be silent for a time.

  Nostrils flared at the end of my tiny snout. Chill air flowed into my body. Even though it was dulled by the cold, a tantalizing scent filled my awareness. It was far away from my current location, but my claws could probably carry me there. The circle of warmth and sustenance I’d left behind was far overhead, out of reach for my feeble body.

  That meant there was only one choice for me. Forward.

  I took a step forward and hissed in agitation. When I put my foot down, the cold stone immediately sapped the heat from my flesh. The warmth within me was a tiny flickering candle compared to what I had left behind. Each step made me lose more heat. In response I sped up, claws skittering across the rocks in a clumsy gait.

  In time I’d master this body. For now, I was just glad that no one was present to watch me wobble around. Even though I didn’t yet know the word for ‘pride’, I knew that I’d never forget the humiliation of clumsily flopping around on my feet.

  By the time I reached the place my nose was leading me, I was exhausted. What little stamina I had in my tiny frame was used up. The soft scales of my belly scraped the floor as I crawled the final stretch.

  The prize at the end of the scent was a figure larger than the boulders that dominated my new landscape. Though it was covered in frost, I could vaguely make out that it was a creature of some sort.

  That was to say, it was not a rock and it had multiple appendages. Rocks were not for biting. My teeth still stung from a small nibble I had attempted along the way. Unlike me, the cold had already taken this creature. I idly wondered whether it too had been abandoned. Either way, I needed to learn more about it to ensure I did not try to eat a second rock today…

  A tentative lick from my tongue confirmed that it wasn’t a rock. It was frozen, but the surface budged slightly when warmed by the meager heat of my tongue. The fur that covered its body was soft, unlike my scales. Even a small nibble of my teeth could pierce through its skin. Perhaps the fur was meant to protect against the cold? It didn’t seem to have worked, in the end.

  Further examination suggested that the creature was probably missing parts of itself. Great chunks had been torn out of its sides, letting the cold in. The wounds it bore could have been made by my teeth or claws, if I were unimaginably larger.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Hunger pangs knocked me out of my thoughts. With the last bits of my strength, I nestled against the creature’s frozen flesh. My mouth opened and I began to feed.

  My eyes snapped open. I had let oblivion claim me for a time. Except it wasn’t quite the same. Rather than a purely empty void, something had been calling to me from the abyss. Frustratingly, it had eluded my attempts to find it.

  I stretched out my claws and tail, maw opening wide. Something about me felt filled out, more complete. The stamina I had spent to reach this point was recovered.

  My eyes turned to my furry companion. More of it was missing now. It was still larger than me by far. Just one of its limbs was bigger than several of me put together. I contemplated eating more of it, but a warning tingle in my gut told me that was unwise. Eventually, the other heartbeats I had sensed would wake up and free themselves. They would be stronger and faster than me. They would also be hungry.

  If I stole their meal now, they may decide that I would make a good replacement.

  I stared for a few moments longer at the only other creature I had ever met. ‘Friend.’ The word came unbidden to my mind. My first Friend and my first meal. Silently, I thanked it for its hospitality and turned to leave.

  The location of my ‘Friend’s’ resting place was at the dead end of a narrow passage within this strange stone world. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all made from the same material, accented with a layer of frost.

  The only way out was back where I came from. My footsteps became more certain as I walked. The sucking chill of the floor was still present, but it would take longer to hurt me. Reaching the point where my prison had smashed on the rocks took less time than when I had left.

  As I approached, I looked up towards the cave ceiling. Far far above, there was a ledge. From it I could faintly hear the siren call of the first heartbeat. It was so quiet that my own heart echoed louder in my chest. A quick test of my claws against the stone wall proved that I could not climb it. My siblings would wake up long before I ever reached the ledge.

  Looking down, I gazed upon the shattered remnants of my egg. Once these fragments held my whole world. Now, I wouldn’t be able to fit inside even if I curled up. Each piece glimmered in the dull light.

  The egg shards and my scales are the same ruby hue, shining brightly compared to the dingy greys and browns of rocks and stone. Only the frozen puddles of liquid beneath my Friends body came remotely close.

  Without thinking, I began to snap up the fragments and crunch them between my teeth.

  Maybe I didn’t want to leave something that had been a part of me for my siblings to find. They could have used the fragments to follow my scent. Or perhaps the pieces just looked tasty. At the last moment, I snagged the smallest piece from between my teeth and held it in my claws.

  It glimmered like a gem in the low light. The unspoken instinct within said that I should find more things like this and keep them for myself. Far away from my siblings.

  A problem presented itself. I didn’t have a means to carry it with me, other than my claws. After some contemplation while working my jaw back and forth, I felt a possible solution within my mouth. It was worth a shot.

  The process involved opening my jaw and flexing my throat to ‘scoop’ the little egg piece into a tiny pouch just under my tongue. To start with, it was rather uncomfortable. After some time, a dull tasting sticky substance began to coat the inside of the pouch. With the fragment covered, the irritation slowly faded.

  Getting this to work took a couple of attempts. Once again, I was glad that no one was around to watch me. Accidentally choking myself on my own egg shard wasn’t something I wanted anyone to ever see.

  With that accomplished, I could finally make my escape. My escape to where exactly?

  One of the many lids surrounding my eyes slid into place as I looked towards the light. I could see quite well in the dark, but bright light was irritating to look at. Cold air was flowing into the cave from the same direction. Just looking that way made me shiver. It was much, much colder that way than the interior of the cave

  Once again, I had little choice. It was either go towards the light or wait here until my siblings woke up. If I was to let oblivion claim me, I would prefer it to be by cold rather than claw. With great reluctance my feet carried me towards the light.

  At the end of the tunnel, a gust of cold wind battered my snout. It bit into my flesh more deeply than my own teeth could accomplish. More lids slid into place over my eyes to protect them from the cold and glare. At long last, I looked out over the world.

  It was vast, far more than the cave. Impossibly bigger. There was the familiar dull grey and brown of stone, but it was covered in a new brilliant hue. Pure white light was reflected into my eyes from all sides by snow and ice.

  Above, there was an endless blue plane that contrasted with my ruby scales. Dotted across it were clouds, skybound reflections of the rolling snowdrifts below. I was mesmerized by the vastness of the open sky for several minutes before I collected my senses. My body desperately wanted to leap into the open abyss and let the wind carry away from here.

  Unfortunately, the wings on my back were not ready for that. For now, I was stuck to the ground. My focus switched to the snow in front of me. I tested it with a careful step. It was far colder than even stone, but yielded far more easily beneath my foot.

  I heard a soft crack from within the cave behind me. A flutter of panic coursed through my veins. My siblings were waking up. I needed to get moving. Two more tentative steps moved me out to balance unsteadily on top of the soft surface of the snow.

  Without warning, it gave way underneath me. I came crashing down from the entrance of the cave. My body rolled through drifts and bounced across the billows. I couldn’t do anything to control or stop my descent. Just when I thought I was coming to a halt, I heard a rumble begin.

  For a fleeting moment I thought it was the first heartbeat, awakened at last by my plight. Unfortunately, it was the snow making the rumbling sound.

  I had no prior experiences to tell me that when I stepped onto the snow’s surface; the soft material would shift and push what was around it. Clumps of snow would then shove what was nearby out of the way. Loose snow could compact to let a clawed foot hold firm. When instead, a clumsy hatchling lost its footing and went tumbling through untouched snow drifts, it could have consequences.

  Consequences, such as an avalanche.

  Mortal creatures can understand, but not fully comprehend, that there are natural forces which move you whether you like it or not. For example, if the wind blows hard enough or the water flows fast enough, you will move. Period, end of story.

  The snow was moving. All of it was moving, right now, at the same time. The snow had been content to sit there for untold years, hanging about and doing nothing in particular. But like how a break room magically clears the second the boss’s wife walks in the door, the moment I came tumbling in was the time to vacate the premises.

  There was no time to scream. No time to think. I was carried and tumbled with the tide of snow as it rolled down the side of the mountain. What started as a rumble became an earth shattering roar.

  Perhaps my small size and light weight kept me from sinking to the bottom as the avalanche crashed through each snowdrift and boulder it met along the way. At times I almost surfed along the top of the wave, though I couldn’t see anything through the blinding clouds of ice.

  My size did not keep me from being battered. Beneath the snow, there was an entire mountain’s worth of stone and rocks. I learnt another harsh lesson. When a lot of snow full of rocks hit a boulder, the boulder would shatter and send debris flying into the body of nearby hatchlings.

  I didn’t have time to scream in pain before I was carried away. Something that wasn’t a stone or a furred creature whipped by through the clouds of debris, gone in a flash. In that split second I got the impression it was tall, with a hard surface and something like fur stuck out the sides. Then it was gone into the white abyss.

  After what felt like an eternity, the rumbling stopped.

  I was buried in the snow. I wanted to panic, but this wasn’t the first time I’d been cocooned without a sense of direction. Tentative movements of my limbs confirmed nothing was broken.

  Incorrect. A lancing pain in my side reminded me that I was hurt.

  It took time to figure out which way was up. I could feel that the tip of my long tail was sticking into the open air. Doing something with that information proved difficult.

  I learned yet another new lesson. When you were buried in a hole, backing out of it feet first was difficult. When the hole was made of soft powder that kept caving in against you, it went from difficult to almost impossible. After much struggling, I started to believe that I was trapped for good.

  ‘Imagine that. I survived, only to be defeated by a hole made of cold dust.’

  Belatedly, I remembered that I had appendages other than my limbs and tail. When I tried to extend them, the same pain from earlier traveled down my spine. Being packed in frigid snow didn’t help.

  My wings had baggy skin that stretched between long thin digits rising out of my back. It wasn’t perfect, but these skin flaps were much better suited to shoveling through snow than my claws.

  With a series of painful flaps, each of which sent painful cramps coursing through my body, I finally freed myself from the snow drift. The last flap flipped me out of the hole and landed me on my back. I then slid down the rest of the snow drift, flailing around for purchase.

  Terror gripped me at the thought of starting another avalanche.

  Thankfully, my journey was interrupted by a tall furred thing. More pain shot through my head when I ran into it face first. In spite of this, all I could feel was relief. My claws dug into its hardened hide, allowing me to drag myself up out of the snow.