The Gaze of Unfathomable Evil

The first egg was light red in color and covered in blue spots. Beside the diagram of the egg was a picture of an adult female of the species, which the book identified as the bird-like Ehgus. This was clearly not my egg, so I moved onto the next picture. This egg was green and lumpy--definitely not a match. I sighed, running my hands through my disheveled dark-brown hair. Around this time I heard a loud thud far in the distance. I quickly dismissed this as the room was once again enveloped in silence.

And so I continued my search--egg after egg, page after page, species after species. Some eggs were brown, others were yellow; some were tiny as my thumbnail, while others were as big as a dinner plate. But none looked anything like my egg. The wicks from the candles I had set up some time ago began to droop, and, if not for these lights, the room would have been pitch black. I was scanning through a long column of dark blue eggs, when suddenly something moved. My eyes shot up from the book, scanning around the darkened study. The candles cast eerie shadows on the walls, but everything appeared still. Then, I heard the sound again. My eyes flew to the egg, and I saw that it was moving! Small, almost imperceptible cracks had formed on the egg's surface, and the egg itself was wobbling around. It's about to hatch! I thought. And yet I still didn't know what it was.

My eyes returned to the book, scanning hastily over the page. "Blue shell, white spots; blue shell, white spots," I repeated to myself as I perused the page. I was almost to the bottom, and still nothing. And then, finally, a match! My eyes followed the arrow leading from the picture of the egg to that of the adult female of the species. As I beheld the image of the animal, a gasp escaped my throat, and my fingers trembled in horror. Suddenly it all made sense! The animal in the sky flying toward the cottage, the loud thud I had heard not an hour past, and, most chilling of all, the egg itself! I scolded myself for my foolishness; why couldn't I have just left the egg alone! Why didn't I just do my chores like the Master said! But it was already too late. The egg was about to break open. The mother somehow must have sensed the imminent hatching, and had come to fetch her infant. I was doomed! My eyes were riveted on the picture of that monstrosity, and I was paralyzed in the gaze of those fiery red dragon eyes--paralyzed in that gaze of unfathomable evil.