{"id":656,"date":"2017-02-11T11:08:02","date_gmt":"2017-02-11T16:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/?p=656"},"modified":"2017-05-20T14:20:47","modified_gmt":"2017-05-20T18:20:47","slug":"dragon-mage-flash-fiction-biological-clock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/?p=656","title":{"rendered":"Dragon Mage flash fiction: Biological Clock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dragon<\/a><\/p>\n

Those of you on my email list may have already read this ultra-short introduction to the Change that spurred on the events of my Dragon Mage Chronicles<\/a>. If not, I hope you’ll enjoy this peek through Sarah’s eyes…and will come back to visit with her and her dragonets in the subsequent novels.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was selling clocks door to door when the vines appeared out of nowhere, rolling down the street like a crowd of kindergartners streaming out of school after the final bell tolls. I’ve lost my mind, <\/i>I thought, squinching eyes shut and smoothing down my pencil skirt.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it was hitting forty while lacking all potential reproductive outlets, but everything had started looking like babies lately. So when I opened my eyes, I wasn’t surprised to see that something else had materialized in front of the approaching tide of green.<\/p>\n

Yep, that really was an egg approximately the size of my overweight tom cat.<\/p>\n

I took a tentative step closer, ignoring the screams that emanated from the other end of the block. A vine crept up the closest telephone pole, ripped wires free to spark against the ground.<\/p>\n

I jumped, but stood my ground, staring fixedly at the tiny hole in the side of the golden orb. A beak pushed flakes of metallic shell aside one by one until a line of darkness nearly encircled the blunt end of the egg.<\/p>\n

Then a beady eye peered out at me, watery with effort and hope.<\/p>\n

My gut cramped with the realization that this was my baby.<\/i> Okay, sure, so there were scales covering that emerging snout. Claws on the tiny feet scrabbling against the opening. And wings tucked tight against the being’s sodden back.<\/p>\n

But, species aside, I was cradling the infant in my arms before I fully realized what I was doing. I was cupping it against my breast, not caring in the least that birth goo was ruining the breast of my favorite blouse.<\/p>\n

I expected the dragon to struggle. After all, it was a wild animal…or a wild something. <\/i>But there was intelligence in the tilt of its head. And as its chilled limbs warmed against mine, I could have sworn an emotion passed between us.<\/p>\n

Understanding. Fellowship. Love.<\/i><\/p>\n

Then fire streaked past my neck, singeing a vine that had crept upward while I was otherwise occupied. Ten more seconds and that plant would have strangled both me and my baby alive.<\/p>\n

They were everywhere. Covering the pavement. Latching into my pantyhose. Standing up under their own volition and swaying like cobras as they attempted to reach the dragon in my arms.<\/p>\n

I was no botanist, but I could clearly identify mean plants, ugly plants, and homicidal plants. Worse — every single one of those suckers wanted my baby dead.<\/p>\n

“How about a little more flame?” I coaxed the dragonet. But safe in my embrace, it had already fallen sound asleep.<\/p>\n

An overgrown rosebush took advantage of my distraction to reach for my wristwatch. I was almost out of time.<\/p>\n

Time. <\/i>Wait a minute. The floral invaders weren’t growing randomly. They were fixating on electricity.<\/p>\n

Ignoring the grasping tendrils, I knelt and opened the case in which I kept my wares. Simple clocks, fancy clocks…ah, there we go.<\/p>\n

Pulling out the device parents loved to hate, I powered it up. Flashing lights and whirling colors promised to teach infants about clockwork. As best I could tell, it mostly mesmerized the young and terrified the old.<\/p>\n

Like babies, the vines were stupefied. Taking advantage of their distraction, I cupped my baby closer to my chest.<\/p>\n

Then, leaving the destruction behind us, I ran.<\/p>\n

Not ready to leave Sarah’s world? Meet her dragonet Zane, all grown up, in Verdant Magic<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

And for more free stories delivered to your inbox, be sure to sign up for Shifter Secrets<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those of you on my email list may have already read this ultra-short introduction to the Change that spurred on the events of my Dragon Mage Chronicles. If not, I hope you’ll enjoy this peek through Sarah’s eyes…and will come back to visit with her and her dragonets in the subsequent novels. I was selling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,128],"tags":[9],"class_list":["post-656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-free-fantasy-and-romance-books","category-dragon-mage-chronicles","tag-free-stories","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":851,"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aimeeeasterling.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}