The Domino Effect

The wizard, his family, and Arianne went to visit the wizard’s sister for a couple of days. At the same time, Neville, Eustace and Tuor were back at the wizard's house, after spending about a week exploring in the woods. There was also another dragon in the house, but it had not hatched yet. The wizard had found an egg the day before leaving, and he had decided it would be safe enough if left on the mantle. He figured it probably wouldn’t hatch before he came back, as the egg was still only a cloudy white color. Dragon eggs slowly take on characteristics of their environments, changing to an appropriate color shortly before hatching. 

The day after the humans left, it was another wet, rainy spring day. Having already spent most of the morning playing in the rain and mud, the three little dragons were back indoors, looking for some form of entertainment that involved staying dry and warm. The chess set provided some entertainment for a while, especially as these three dragons preferred a more lively form of chess, one that was more full-contact. After a game or two, however, they went back to the game shelf, looking for something new. Browsing about on the top shelf, Eustace knocked down a box full of little white rectangles with black dots on them. “What are those?” Neville asked.

“Oh! I’ve seen those before! I think they call them dominoes,” exclaimed Tuor.

“What are you supposed to do with them?”

“I don’t really know. I think there’s some sort of game you’re supposed to play where you connect them all up somehow, but it looks a lot more fun when you stand them all on end, line them up, and then knock them all down.”

“Huh?”

“Here, let me show you.”

Tuor proceeded to set up a line of dominoes. It was a very short line, considering that the pieces were nearly as large as him, but it was long enough to convey the idea. Having stood about four dominoes on end and lined them up, he pushed over the first one, and the others successively fell down. Seeing the potential in this, Neville and Eustace quickly helped Tuor set up another line of dominoes. Soon, they were experimenting with all sorts of different arrangements and seeing how they fell down. They were having so much fun that they decided to even see if they could get the unhatched dragon in on the fun. They carefully brought the egg down, gently set it in the middle of floor, and continued their game, seeing if they could safely incorporate the egg into any of the designs.

Finally, tired out after a hard day of playing, the little dragons decided it was time to sleep. Since they knew the humans wouldn’t be back until later the next morning, they figured clean-up could wait until morning. However, being so tired, all were still asleep when the wizard returned. He found his living room floor still displaying a very intricate domino construction, with a white and black speckled egg in the exact centre.

Shortly thereafter, the small dragons began to wake up and uncurl themselves. Before they could begin to apologize for the mess they'd left, the egg also began to "wake up". It began to twitch and roll slightly. Soon, there was another, fully hatched dragon in the room, a white one, covered with tiny black dots. Accordingly, he promptly received the name of "Dominic". Unlike the other three boy dragons, he was more quiet, rather than boisterous, and he always liked math games.