One year later...
If one could fast-forward the clock, they could watch the seasons change over and over again. Nighttime turned into twilight, which turned into dawn, which turned into midday, which turned into dusk before turning into night again. The luscious green summer forest soon turned over to the dead brown leaves of autumn which whitened during the winter, blossoming with fruits and flowers during the springtime, only to return again back to summer. A full cycle, a flashing glimpse of one whole year focused on the same spot throughout each and every image, showing what was to become of the large black egg, still nestled cozily against the base of the aging willow tree, protected and hidden by its tangling roots in the soft rotting foliage.
Although it was large enough to see plain as day, it resembled a rock or ancient plant fossil, and blended in beautifully with its surroundings, at least during the summertime. The four changing seasons had effected the egg somewhat. It had rolled slightly from its original position during a small flash flood caused by a mildly terrible lightning storm. The egg had been subjected to a small forest fire as the willow tree it was hidden under was struck by lightning. Even though the egg sat dormant on top of a natural nest of red hot burning coals covered in flames, it did not cook the fetus inside. The egg appeared to be fire resistant, or perhaps even fire activated as the fetus began to twitch and show signs of life like a flapping shrimp. At that point in time, the as yet unhatched baby dragon was actually the same size as a shrimp, swimming inside a large eggy fishbowl of nutrients, proteins and vitamins. It didn't even know where it was, and experienced no effect from the waking storms.
As winter came, it had snowed for two days straight during a nasty blizzard which killed most of the trees and covered the ground with a blanket of heavy snow. The egg was camouflaged naturally by the sheet of snow which had collected on top of the egg shell, but the fetus inside the egg did not freeze. Instead, the colder temperatures triggered another genetic process in the creature's body. It started to change genders, just like some reptile fetuses had a tendency to do. As spring came, many rodents, snakes, frogs, insects, squirrels and raccoons would find the large egg and use it as a stepping stone, jumping on top of it in order to run up the willow tree, which was already growing back strong. But even the pressure from the weight of a mountain lion still wasn't enough to crush the lifeform inside.
After a whole year of these exciting changes and events had passed, the egg never moved or changed size. But the little baby dragon inside the egg kept growing bigger and bigger. Now it wasn't a tiny little shrimp anymore. The leech-like embryo had developed into a large wyrm or serpent, which continued to grow with each passing moon until finally it grew two eyes and four legs and started to resemble a soft-bodied salamander. Our unhatched infant was now over 3 feet long from head to tail, roughly the same size as a small monitor lizard. Slowly but surely, its skin began to toughen and soon the baby dragon inside the egg started to develop its first boney scales, taking on more of a reptillian appearance that wasn't so soft or slimey.
It grew its first tiny little baby teeth that were as sharp as a needle, and tiny little claws the size of hawk talons and as sharp as cat claws. Soon, fleshy flabs would appear under the armpits of each forelimb, connecting the animal's elbows to its body like a small pair of sails or fins. They were far too small to enable the baby dragon to do anything but swim around faster, but these small flappy membranes were actually the first makings of tiny little bat-like wings. Right now, however, they just looked like lizard gills, and were not nearly developed enough to enable the dog-sized dragon to glide through the air, let alone fly.
They did help with one thing though besides swimming. These gills acted like little bags or kites for catching wind and providing enough lift that, if the hatchling was to run at full speed, it could potentially achieve a sense of temporary bipedalism before landing on all fours. This would help the defenseless little tetrapod to run even faster for small distances on its two hindlegs, giving it a darting edge over much larger predators. It was a useful evolutionary advantage, and a necessary one, for it was possibly the only defense the poor little creature had. The dragon's internal oil sacks helped it to navigate underwater to such a point that even inside its dark gooey shell, the tiny little larval dragon was already smart enough to determine up from down as it swam around in circles, slowly feeding on its own yoke while continuing to grow bigger over time.
Finally the summer had returned, along with the heat and rain. The rising temperatures caused the unhatched baby dragon to mutate and change genders once again in direct sunlight, only this would be the last time it did this, as the dragon slowly evolved to another stage of development which no longer enabled the gender changing process. Finally, the dragon's sex had been determined. It was to become a male dragon, and this would determine the rest of the animal's life as it continued to mature. The egg was getting soft now and ready to hatch as the outer shell began to change colors like a fruit that's been ripened.
The dragon's small, fragile body was now strong enough to meet the new world. It would finally stand a fighting chance, albeit a very small chance of survival in the wilderness, but a small chance nonetheless. However, it did not hatch. Although it had been a year since the egg was incubated, and it was now time to hatch, it had received no care. It had been neglected to the forces of nature, and while the baby dragon inside was very much alive and healthy, it was becoming a late bloomer. The temperature of the egg had not been carefully regulated like it should have been, and the four-legged beast inside was still underweight. So it continued to hibernate under the weeping willow, lest it become a dwarf dragon and too small to fulfill its intended purpose. Rather than hatching which would risk stunting its own growth, the baby dragon instead lay dormant inside its egg and did nothing, allowing the time to pass.
