Forager

                One day, the wizard and all the little dragons were out in the woods. They were helping the wizard’s family replenish their pantry with all the sorts of things that grown in the woods in spring, especially morel mushrooms. Mushrooms are much easier to find when they’re almost the same size as yourself, so the wizard and his wife always greatly appreciated it when the little dragons helped. On this occasion, the day had pretty successful so far, and the wizard was teaching the younger dragons various useful tips about finding food of all sorts in the wild. Small dragons primarily eat things like bugs and worms, but there are loads of other food sources in the woods, if you only know where to look and what to look for.

                Around midday, Sandy and Gil were nosing about around the roots of a great tree when they came across a shiny, brownish-green egg about their size. 

                “Hey, that must be another dragon egg. You haven’t seen one from the outside yet, have you?” said Sandy.

                “No, I haven’t. So that’s what they look like, huh? And they’re always the same color as the dragon?”

                “As far as I know. It seems our eggs are usually white for a long time, then they change to a color related to the things around them just a couple hours before they hatch. I have no idea how that works. You don’t remember changing colour before you hatched, do you?”

                “No, but I don’t really know how I would have noticed. I don’t really remember much from before hatching.”

                “Yeah, me either.”

                The two sat, each lost in thought, for a few moments, when both noticed that the egg had begun to shake. They moved off a bit, to give the new dragon some privacy, but came back over to investigate pretty shortly after he was out of his egg. 

                “Hi. Where am I?” He asked in reply to their greeting.

                “In the woods. We’re all out here today, hunting for food.”

                “Who’s we?”

                “Us, the wizard, and a bunch of other dragons. Just a minute. Mr. Wizard! There’s a new dragon here!”

                The wizard came over in response to the call and introduced himself and the rest of the other dragons, who had also gathered round.

                “So, that’s who we all are. You can meet my family and the other animals later, if you decide you want to live with us for a while, like these other ones have done. Any other questions you’d like answered right now?” finished the wizard.

                “Yeah, lots. I don’t even know which ones to start with.”

                “Oh, don’t worry, we’ve got lots of time for answers. Why don’t you join us with our hunting? I’ll start by teaching you about these woods, and you can ask me anything else you want.

                The little dragon went off with the wizard and the others, and they all learned a lot that day about the forest and the things in it. The new dragon found it especially fascinating. Later, he was often found in the forest, and there was never any lack of forest food in the pantry as long as he was around. Accordingly, the others called him “Forager”.