New

The magician counted on his long fingers. He paused and started over. A definite furrow appeared on his always wrinkled forehead. Seven?

"I could have sworn there were only six yesterday." he intoned. Magicians are usually dramatic men. Even the ones who are not men are at least dramatic. Though in this case any drama on his part might be excused by the gravity of the situation, it is merely a reflex resorted to by the students of the arts in moments of stress.

And when one is breeding dragons, there are many such moments.

As everyone knows, the only dragons that might ever be tamed by man are those that come from a littler of six, born under the newest moon. "Perhaps that moon was not quite as new as they said it was." he muttered.

But now he counted the shining eggs before him and what he found distressed him. One of these had not been here before. He had counted them over seven times to be absolutely sure. There were six, he had counted them when they were born, before putting their mother to sleep with a hard wrought spell. Six he had taken from the heat of that cavern, from the golden nest their father crafted with his claws, so dexterous in combat, but clumsy in construction. It is the only instance from the cracking of their egg to their death that they are ever seen to build rather than destroy. Creatures of fire and blood are not meant for such labor.

"Of course, I have heard of such things before." he said, one thin eyebrow raised with the effort of the recollection. Where? What precisely? Memory spells are awkward things at best.

He took a giant book down from a high, dusty shelf and returned to the golden casket that housed the eggs. He flipped through it somewhat aimlessly, now pausing to read a fragment of some spell or ancient wisdom, now flipping through page after page with hardly a glance. The Knocker.

The Knocker is a creature. It joins a litter, of any species, within a fortnight of their birth and takes on their form. It is a spirit, and this is how it takes a body and begins to age out of its childishness. It will do this for humans, monster of the sea, bears and all kinds of natural creatures. The magician stuttered, "And dragons."