It had been a few weeks since her birthday and sweat poured from Nicole’s body as she checked the thermometer she’d jury-rigged into the old, indoor forge. Staring at the coals made her skin crawl, based on instinct, but she’d gotten used to the feeling in the past few days and hoped to entirely overcome that fear. Roughly 2,800 degrees was the hottest she’d been able to get the forge up to, so she took a moment to back away from the heat, for a rest.

  She lifted her welding mask, pulled off her work gloves and sat down with her back against the anvil she wasn’t using, pressing her bare neck against the cold steel, which felt heavenly! She had blue eyes and snow-white hair that reached just below her shoulder blades when it was loose. The whiteness of her hair was the only outward sign she was a half-troll; due to a quirk of genetics, all female trolls had snow-white hair, from puberty onward. Currently, her hair was carefully tied up in complicated braids all over her head, to leave no portion of it loose and keep it from the flames. She wore a heavy, long-sleeved coat, a pair of thick trousers and a smithing apron, all to protect her from harm. Hanging from her neck was a curiously crude-looking, multilayered necklace of bone and steel beads that she habitually wore, which had been a gift from her adopted mother to mark the completion of her magical training. She was dirty, covered head to toe in soot mixed with coal dust. She briefly examined the wounds on her hands; her fingertips were burned and wrapped in bandages, due to an early, botched attempt to rearrange the coals, when she’d gotten too close.

  An egg was nestled in the center of the coals, just as she’d been instructed, and she’d been carefully monitoring the temperature for the past week, at least once every two hours. The egg was about ten inches tall, with a pink-hued, metallic shell. It stood point upward, with the coals holding it that way.

  She’d gotten into a rhythm of short-term sleep, getting a nap in every two hours, after working the forge to its maximum temperature. At first, the work rhythm had been difficult, but she overcame it through careful application of the meditation training her adopted mother had put her through as part of mastering her magic powers.

  The dragon’s egg was special and important to her. It had been a gift, but it was also a great responsibility. To hatch it required prolonged, high temperatures, between 1,500 and 3,000 degrees. Under normal circumstances, the mother would have kept it warm with dragon fire, but the egg’s mother was dead.

  Nicole could have taken the easy way out, because the friend of her birth father that gave it to her had also offered to take care of incubating it for her, but she’d refused. If she was going to raise a dragon, she wasn’t about to miss any moment of its development. She wanted to do everything the right way, by hatching it herself; she’d read and heard so many stories about dragons, she couldn’t bear to let the opportunity pass.

  Both her birth mother and adopted mother had been quick to offer a helping hand, but Nicole refused. In retrospect, considering how hard she’d worked, she kind of regretted the choice, but in the end, she’d bought the old-fashion work shed of a retired dwarf blacksmith on the outskirts of town and prepped it for the hatching. After that, she found an excellent deal on coal, getting about ten times what she needed, along with a generous supply of coke, which she’d been using to increase the temperature before taking naps. She’d gotten it all at a price that was almost a steal, in exchange for a chance to see the dragon once it hatched.

  The dwarves from the city of Heart Forge had a strange fascination with dragons, it seemed, and wanted to learn more about their life cycle, all for the sake of hunting them in the wild. After all, the only thing more valuable than a dragon’s horde was a dragon’s egg and anyone that hatched a dragon was said to have a friend and companion for life.

  The egg glowed red hot, but that was the required temperature. It was strange to think any creature could survive such conditions, let alone need them to hatch in the first place.

  Nicole set an alarm on her phone and quickly fell asleep, dropping into a REM cycle almost instantly.

  “I am Kurg.” The voice rang out with strange harmonics, sounding flat, emotionless and artificial, almost like a computerized voice or possibly a recording from a passionless, gender-less individual.

  Nicole floated in a dark void above an illuminated brass plate that had been divided into seven hexagonal segments, arranged in an almost circular pattern, with one segment at the center and six surrounding it. She wasn’t exactly sure how she was flying, but neither did she give it much thought, because such was the way of dreams.

  The brass of the plate took on a molten appearance and structures flowed upward out of it, forming a building. The building was itself subdivided into hexagonal sections and she admired the way it vaguely resembled a small beehive, when seen from above.

  As she floated down toward the entrance to the building, she asked, “What is this?”

  As if in answer, the voice patiently repeated itself, sounding exactly the same as before, “I am Kurg.”

  That didn’t explain anything at all and while it may have been an answer, it wasn’t informative.

  “Uh, gee, thanks.” She grumbled, sarcastically.

  The huge double doors to the hive-building swung inward and Nicole floated through, drawn in against her will. Inside, the ceiling was supported on columns of sparkling brass, with a wide, open space in the center, complete with a smokeless, clean-burning, hexagonal hearth of brass that lacked a chimney, furnished with stone tables and chairs that were far too large for a human. On the opposite side of the large room was a wide stairwell leading upward.

  It looked cozy, but she almost felt compelled to comment, “It’s nice, but everything is too big!”

  Before her eyes, the furniture crumbled to dust and was replaced by slightly stone furniture, of a better design. That crumbled in turn, and the room began to flicker, moment by moment, the furniture replaced and rearranged faster than the eye could follow. Sometimes there were potted plants in the corners, but just as often, they vanished or were replaced with a different style of pots.

  At one point, she blinked and found the still image of a group of stone statues arranged around the room almost imprinted on the inside of her eyelids, because it had been the last thing she saw before she closed them. All of the statues appeared to be shaped like giant bugs.

  Blinking again, as an experiment, she saw a family living in the building, including crude furniture made from wood lashed together with leather strips, a mother and father at the hearth, preparing a meal, while a child slept in one of the other sections, which had mostly been curtained off. Their ears were curiously long and pointed, flopping down sideways, under their own weight. All of them were exceptionally, supernaturally attractive. She was absolutely sure she’d never seen their race before, though they looked almost human.

  When she opened her eyes, the blur of movement suddenly ended and Nicole found herself watching the furniture crumble in the passage of time, but the process was slower, as though the flow of time had been reduced to just a few years every second and she felt a strange sense of attachment to the lingering scene of the family of humanoids, as if they’d been something unique among all the others that had lived there.

  Before the last trace of furniture turned to dust and was gone, the scene of decay left her feeling hollow and empty on the inside, with a deep, unfulfilled expectation, followed by an incredible sense of passing time, making mere eons feel like the passing of a second. She was filled with a desire she didn’t and couldn’t understand, a longing deeper than the ocean itself, which she began to drown in, it was so oppressive and strong!

  She finally cried out, “It’s too much!” The feeling faded and she asked, “What is this all about?”

  The voice spoke slowly, saying each word individually, as though to a stubborn child, “I…am…Kurg!”

  It echoed through Nicole’s mind as the loudest voice she’d ever heard, even though it had been a whisper.

  “What does that mean?” She demanded, out of pure frustration!

  “I am Kurg.” It repeated itself, patiently and without emotion.

  Getting angry, Nicole shouted, “I don’t understand!”

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  “I AM KURG!” The voice shouted, and yet, retained its emotionless quality, eventually echoing as a continuous, soft murmur, “I am Kurg.” “I am Kurg.” “I am Kurg.”

  Nicole looked around, seeing the light of the hearth dim, until the room was completely dark.

  “I am Kurg.” It echoed, then finally, much more softly, as a barely audible whisper, it spoke for the last time, “I am Kurg.”

  Nicole’s eyes snapped open as the alarm blared away! She’d overslept by about ten minutes and it had taken that long just for the alarm to break through the strangely intense dream.

  She shook her head, put on her safety gear, then checked the thermometer. She immediately got back to shoveling coal into the hungry furnace, carefully arranging it around the dragon egg. Then she worked the bellows, feeding the coals more oxygen, to increase the temperature.

  An hour passed and just as Nicole was taking another break, to eat, the fires of the forge suddenly went out and instantly cooled, producing a sudden, inward rush of air! The sandwich fell from her hands, forgotten, as the bricks of the forge exploded, due to the instant change in temperature sending fragments pinging around the room, bouncing off the outer edges of the work shed!

  The egg still glowed, but it was fading fast! Nicole had been warned about this by Inorath, the friend of her birth father that had given her the egg. It was the final stage of hatching a fire dragon’s egg and also the most important! It was the point at which the mother and father would have been taking turns breathing fire on it, continuously, to warm it as much as possible, while it soaked up the energy as fast as it could, to mature! Without dragon fire or something equivalent, the egg would perish in minutes!

  Nicole hated using fire magic, but she had no choice, closing her eyes to fully focus her mind, imagining the egg enveloped in powerful flames! She focused until she felt magic flow out of her, then looked.

  When the egg quickly absorbed the fiery burst, Nicole gritted her teeth and continued, hitting the egg with everything she could! Ten minutes passed and the room heated up beyond anything the forge was capable of! Sweat soaked Nicole’s clothes, then evaporated almost as fast!

  Nicole stared into the heart of the flame, seeing the egg glow more brightly than ever! She began to tremble, having not quite overcome her instinctive fear of the blaze! In her excitement, she bit her tongue to distract herself from the fear and keep her mind focused!

  She began to tire as the roof of the work shed caught fire, but the work at hand was too critical to allow herself to be distracted! She tasted blood as she accidentally bit into her tongue just a bit too far! In a panic, she started to cry, because her energy was almost spent and it looked like the egg needed more!

  Gritting her teeth, she put the last of her energy into the fire spell, kicking the intensity up at the last moment, but the egg hadn’t yet cracked! Her spell wavered, began to fail and the egg still needed more!

  Fortunately, she’d prepared for the possibility and quickly grabbed a few bottles from the corner that were filled with an extremely flammable oil! Before the flames went out, she hurled them at the egg, each cracking and briefly exploding!

  She took a few deep breaths, watching as the flames went out and the egg began to cool, once more!

  She cursed and realized she had to give it more! She’d given it sweat, tears and every bit of effort she’d been able to muster, but it required more. It was time to give blood and soul!

  She knew it was dangerous beyond belief, but she’d long ago been taught by her adopted mother, a powerful witch and necromancer, that life energy itself could be used as a power source for magic. It was considered black magic, but it was only forbidden to use it to drain the life of another living being. Instead, she turned the power inward, using the energy of her own soul!

  It burned like nothing ever had before, all over her body, and was beyond painful, but she clenched her teeth together and blasted the egg with everything she could spare!

  Kazic, the dwarf fire chief of Heart Forge, stood beside a fire truck, outside the shed. He wore many layers of clothing to protect himself from injury and the outermost layer, his red firefighter’s coat, had reflective strips sewn into it, to make him more visible during an emergency. His traditionally-long beard was black and had been tucked into his coat, to prevent it from becoming a liability on the job, though it normally reached his belt. He stood a head shorter than human average, but like all dwarves, he seemed to make up for his lack of stature by being broader of shoulder and seemingly built entirely out of muscle, giving him an almost squarish frame.

  Since the Heart Forge fire department had been warned the final stages of hatching the dragon’s egg might involve an out of control blaze, they had two fire trucks on hand, but they’d been requested not to extinguish the central blaze by the crazy dragon lady. Instead, they were focused entirely on keeping it from spreading, liberally spraying down the entire area with fire-retardant foam and water. Fortunately, the old smithing shed was in a remote location on the edge of the city and there were no other buildings nearby. The coal merchant had already driven the coal truck to a safe distance, as well, just as the dragon lady asked.

  As the chief supervised his fire dwarves, there was a massive explosion inside and the dragon lady was forcefully blown through the steel of the shed’s wall, rolling and coming to a stop twenty yards from it! There was a secondary explosion inside and a monstrous, high-pitched screech, as every flame went out at once! At the same time, the walls of the shed fell outward, revealing a small crater at the center, where the forge had once stood.

  Kazic stared at the tenacious woman, surprised by the way she rose to her feet, looking punch-drunk! He was impressed, because she’d just taken a blow that would have knocked even the mightiest of dwarven champions unconscious! As she unsteadily walked toward the crater, checking her gloves along the way, Kazic felt great admiration for her resolve to see things through to the end. The dragon lady paused at the edge of the crater to look inside, then climbed down and out of sight.

  Kazic couldn’t help but feel a serious measure of attraction to the woman, based on how tough she was. He’d have to make a point of getting her name, to visit her in the hospital, since she seemed dead-set on working herself there.

  One of the fire dwarves stepped up and gingerly touched the melted edge of the crater, where the stones of the smithy floor appeared to have liquefied, then cooled very fast. They looked glassy, like obsidian, though it was still the red color the bricks had been. He pulled his fingers away and shouted in pain!

  Kazic ran over, “Did ye burn yerself?”

  The dwarf shook his head and showed the chief his hand, which was covered in a layer of frost and the stone he’d touched had a bit of frozen skin stuck to it!

  “It’s-” the dwarf cursed, “cold!”

  The frostbitten dwarf was rushed over to a waiting ambulance for treatment of his unusual injury, while the chief checked his gloves and knelt, to look into the crater. As he set his glove on the edge, he felt the burning cold of it trying to sting him, even through the heavy material!

  The dragon lady was at the bottom, with a tiny dragon cradled in one arm, like a baby. The dragon was adorable, with a pair of huge, blue eyes, a pair of stubby, white horns, four legs, two leathery wings, metallic pink and purple scales on its back and cream-colored scales on its belly, all wrapped up in a package the size of a large kitten. It stared at the dwarf, contemptuously, yawned and laid its head down on the woman’s breast, instantly falling asleep, appearing just as exhausted as she was.

  “Would you mind giving me a hand out of this hole?” The dragon lady whispered, “I’m a bit weak from overdoing it, but I had to be the first living thing it saw, so it would think I’m its mother.”

  Kazic grinned and lifted her out of the hole with one hand, lightly setting the dragon lady on her feet.

  “Me’s glad ye succeeded.” Kazic congratulated as he helped her walk out of the wreckage and then asked, “Me’s been wondering, what’s yer name?” He spoke slightly nervously, his heart thumping hard.

  The woman leaned on his shoulder for support as she walked and he got a whiff of her scent. Due to being a dwarf, born to a culture that enjoyed hard work, he wasn’t bothered by her sweaty aroma, but rather found it increased his attraction to the woman, because she was clearly no stranger to hard work. As Kazic looked up at the dragon lady, truly looking at her for the first time, the fire chief noticed she was also quite beautiful, in the slender way of humans. The soot on her face and clothes just made her more attractive. Kazic wondered what she would look like with a beard, but quickly dismissed the notion, because human women had trouble growing them, for reasons he’d never gotten a good explanation of.

  The dragon lady answered, “Nicole Jacobs.” As Kazic handed her off to medical technicians, who’d been waiting for the past few hours, just in case, Nicole smiled back, “Thank you.”

  As Kazic stepped out of the way, the coal merchant stepped over to get a look at the young dragon, which he smiled at, then commented to Nicole, “Thank ye. Me’s surprised by how cute it is.”

  Nicole nodded, “You’re welcome and thanks again, for the coal. You can keep what’s left. I don’t need it anymore.”

  She and the dragon were helped onto a gurney, where she promptly fell asleep. The gurney was loaded into an ambulance and EMTs checked the vitals of both woman and dragon, though they did so with a certain amount of confusion about anatomy, in the case of the hatchling. It wasn’t long before the ambulance set off, headed for the city center.

  Kazic stared at the ambulance until it disappeared, not noticing for fully five minutes that his fire dwarves were trying to get his attention and making jokes at his expense.

  When he finally turned around, they’d already packed away the hoses and were only waiting on him, at which point the natural troublemaker of the crew cracked a wide smile, “Our chief, he likes his women tall,” he held a hand high in the air, to demonstrate, “and slender!” He accompanied the word with moving both hands through the air to delineate an hourglass-like shape, which dwarven women never had without prolonged illness.

  The other fire dwarves erupted in laughter, while the visible portions of Kazic’s face between his helmet and beard turned bright red, with embarrassment, almost matching his coat.

  Kazic shouted, “All of ye, shut up, or me’ll make ye eat yer words, Nendal!”

  As the chief climbed into the passenger seat of the lead truck’s cab, so they could head back to the fire house, he felt troubled, knowing Nendal’s comment bore a kernel of truth, for he really was smitten with the dragon lady and it had come as a total surprise.

  “Just ignore Nendal, Chief.” The driver shrugged, “She’s a strong woman, tougher than any dwarf girl me’s ever seen, and if any dwarf can woo her, it’d be ye. If it doesn’t work out, then at least ye’ll have an interesting story to tell the next time we go out for a drink.”

  “Thanks.” Kazic nodded.

  The last traces of his embarrassment faded away and he resolved within himself to pursue his strange, new fancy for the dragon lady, Nicole.