SCALES

• Sarah Ferguson, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

I’m awoken by a loud obnoxious noise blaring through the thick wall of slumber. I open my weary eyes to find my phone buzzing away on my bedside table. I hesitantly retrieve it. It’s Andrew, my co-worker at the Australian Science Lab. I deliberate whether or not I should answer it. It could be important. I tap the green answer button.
“Hmmm, Hi Andrew,” I mumble into the built-in microphone, exhaustion evident in my croaky voice. “What’s going on?”
“Hi Liz, um… you need to get to the lab quick, ah, th-the egg is hatching,” he stresses into my left ear.
“Mmhmm, I’m on my way.” After a few seconds my tired brain finally registers what my panicked companion had just said. “WAIT! WHAT!? The egg is hatching!?” I fly out of bed and scurry around the house grabbing my lab coat, shoes and car keys. “I-I’m on my way!”
At the lab we have been working on SCALES; an experiment that would soon change fiction into non-fiction. We’ve analysed over 10 000 species’ DNA patterns and finally found the combination to create the world’s first dragon… and it’s hatching today.
“I’m here!” I yell as I run and almost slip on the white marble tiles. “Have I missed it?” I shriek in panic as I slam open the doors to the science lab. Everyone directs their attention towards me. Some look annoyed and give me salty looks while others don’t seem to care and continue with their work.
“You haven’t yet, but hurry before we both do,” Andrew whisper-yells in my ear before pulling me by the arm. We enter another room that is illuminated by technology. Computer screens glow in every corner of the room as cords line the walls. It’s silent except for the typing of keyboards and beeping of monitors. The egg sits in the middle of the room in a glass case. It’s different from any other egg I have ever seen. Its shell shimmers with blue under the lights shining above it. I press my hands to the glass as I observe the mysterious egg from the outside.
“It’s beautiful,” I whisper, so softly that I can barely hear my own voice. My eyes are fixated on the unhatched creature that lies in front of me. The rest of the world falls into darkness as I stare intently at my creation. The egg shifts in its makeshift nest. A crack appears on its impossibly smooth surface and what followed was the most miraculous thing that has ever happened to the human existence. A tiny draglet crawls out of the broken shell. Its scales glisten with a deep sapphire blue. It stares up at me, its eyes like an unexplored galaxy. Everyone waits for its next move. The dragon goes rigid; nervous glances are shared discretely between lab workers. It twitches before sneezing out puffs of swirling smoke. The baby dragon looks back up at me with warmth.
SCALES will truly be revolutionary.