Ovophobia
Link to Ao3 if you prefer to read it there.
It was a trap. She should have known.
Aunor Mahal watched in horror as the smooth surface of the large egg almost as tall as she was split like a jagged lightning bolt with the sound not unlike breaking stone.
She had no weapons, no access to the light, not even a knife to defend herself.
A wet claw began to force its way through the breach.
No. Not a claw. A beak with one sharp tooth on the end.
The egg shuddered and toppled over, pulsating with frantic movement. Two other eggs shuddered nearby, each with their own rhythms.
Aunor crouched low and began to back away into the shadows created by candle-lit sconces all around the room.
A low hiss came from the darkness beside her. She flinched and tumbled away. Easily twice the size of a Cabal War Beast, the flower-faced body of a newly hatched and dripping Ahamkara Whim stepped into the dim light.
From the other side of the room, two more hisses echoed back.
Aunor found herself backing into the centre of the stone floor, surrounded by large, well muscled draconic forms. Their four-lobed faces trained on her. Their tails swished.
She could feel it: the antagonism, the malice and, above all, the hunger. Aunor took another step back and her foot slipped in the curve of a broken eggshell the size of a dinner plate. She fell and scrambled, crab-like, on all fours, desperately trying to put space between her and the pack of small dragons slowly approaching her.
They were apex predators and she was defenseless prey.
Aunor knew who had caused this. It was the Drifter and Eris Morn. They must have known she was following them. They must have orchestrated the whole thing.
The queen's guards insisting she remove her weapons, the convenient doorway Aunor had stepped back into to avoid being seen, the unexpected and uneven steps she'd fallen down, the amethyst wall which had materialized seemingly out of nowhere, preventing her escape.
They'd led her to this, to the lair of Riven's progeny. And now Aunor Mahal was about to be devoured. There would be no trace of her. She could not summon her Light. Her ghost would, likewise, be unable to resurrect her here.
This was to be her end: eaten by newborn dragons. Deposited in front of them like a worm before hungry baby birds. Very, very large, hungry baby birds.
Aunor jumped up, her hands formed into fists as she prepared to fight back. But the first punch she threw at the first Whim who lunged toward her went wide. A tail wrapped around her wrist and tugged her further forward, pulling her off balance. Another tail, whip-like, wrapped around one of her ankles.
She fell, twisting, trying to land on her stomach but a tug of the tail around her wrist flipped her on her back. She felt a claw raking across her torso from one hip to the other. Gentle. Unwrapping her, like a present, or the wax around a delicious cheese. Her Warlock robes parted as though they were paper and her bare stomach stood out against the deep purple of her clothing in the dim light.
One of the flower-faces opened and sharp teeth descended to tear open her abdomen.
Aunor screamed.
"No." Mara Sov's voice echoed through the cavernous hall.
The sharp teeth barely indenting, but not yet piercing, Aunor's flesh, stopped. Warm spittle dribbled down into her belly button
"Drop it." Mara ordered.
A disgruntled snuffle came from the dragon with Aunor's midsection in its jaws. Its mouth opened wider, releasing her, and it backed away.
"Heel." Mara's voice commanded.
The draconic limbs pinning her down lifted and and Aunor, panting, stared up at the low stone ceiling for a few moments before her hands flew to her stomach. Feeling that her flesh was still intact, she pulled her tattered Warlock robes to cover the hole before sitting up to look across the room.
The Awoken Queen stood, eyes blazing, hands outstretched at her sides. All five of the newly hatched Whims crouched obediently at her feet. The two remaining eggs still shuddered on the floor, their bursting immanent.
Out of the nearby shadows, Eris Morn and the Drifter approached Aunor. The Drifter crouched down beside her with a smirk, his elbows on his knees.
"Well now, if it isn't our favourite Snitch. Did you come all the way out here just to spy on me and Eris? That's flattering." He licked his lips with a shit-eating grin.
Aunor glared at him.
"Oh, we knew you were there. Good thing Eris noticed you were gone and went lookin' for ya through the Ascendant Plane. Sure would'a been unfortunate if we hadn't been here to help ya out, now wouldn't it?"
Aunors lips curled into a defiant snarl but she said nothing.
"Might even go so far as to say you owe us one," he continued.
"Enough," Eris chided him. "Aunor is a Warlock of the Praxic order. I'm sure she would have been fine without our assistance."
"With all her weapons confiscated at the door by security and in a Light suppression zone?" The Drifter looked up at Eris with a smile. "Maybe... Good thing we don't need to find out."
Candlelight glinted off of his teeth much the same way it had the teeth of the Ahamkara. The Drifter's teeth were not as sharp, but his smile was just as mean and his eyes were just as cold.
"Eris," Mara called to her from across the room.
"My queen," Eris strode over quickly.
"Who is this?" Mara sounded tired.
"Aunor Mahal, a Praxic Warlock of the Cormorant seal, the same order as Eriana-3, from my fireteam. She is a member of the Hidden."
"And do you vouch for her?" the Queen asked.
Eris looked back at Aunor sitting on the ground for a long moment, her three eyes boring into Aunor's two. Aunor held her gaze.
One of the two Ahamkara at Mara's right hand made a low hungry growl. Mara tapped her finger lightly on its head. "Wait," she whispered.
After a few more seconds of staring Eris sighed and turned back to Mara to answer. "Yes. She is, above all else, a member of the Vanguard and will not," Eris glared once more back at Aunor before returning her three-eyed gaze to Mara Sov. "...interfere with Vanguard operations. Including this one."
"Seems like she's already interfered," The Drifter said, still crouched beside Aunor, still grinning. A coin materialized in his hand and he began to fiddle with it.
Eris turned her scowl toward him.
His eyes went wide and the coin disappeared. He raised his hands. "Sorry!"
"There will be no further issues, my queen," Eris intoned. "Drifter, take Aunor back to the Derelict and await me there."
The Drifter chuckled. "Babysit the spy? All right, fine. You got it Moondust." He stood and extended a hand down to Aunor.
Aunor glared at him and stood up without his help.
