Jasper awoke in the morning to lovely heat from the desert sun. She stretched her wings happily. After checking her eggs, she got up and began to pace around the oasis, getting her bearings. To her delight, the oasis had a large rocky outcrop with a natural cave. With a bit of work, she could make it a very nice home for herself and her offspring. Given the strength of her instincts, she had accepted at this point that she would be compelled to raise her hatchlings until they were self-sufficient.
This oasis, far from the mountains dragons normally lived in and any humans that might target her, seemed like a perfect place to do just that. There was a reliable source of food and water. And most importantly, a lot of privacy.
Jasper set to work digging out the natural cave, making it bigger and creating multiple rooms. The rock was soft under her strong claws, making the work fast. Something she was glad of, as the egg in her belly was getting heavier by the day.
A few days after Jasper finished her home renovation, she laid Cobalt's egg, which wound up being two. Their shells were the same bright blue as Cobalt's scales. A week after that, the first three eggs finally hatched. Jasper followed her instincts in tending to them, unable to resist her motherly urges. One was a female and the other two were male. The female, she named Arabella, after her mother, the former Queen. The males were named Plaxon and Triten. Arabella and Plaxon had silver scales like their father, but Triten was pink like Jasper.
Jasper settled into life as a desert dragon mother, waiting for her other eggs to hatch. But letting her instincts drive her actions would soon cause her problems, as she would feel compelled to...