Twenty year old Ray sat down as he looked at the object in his hands, a small light green egg, no larger than a computer mouse, it had blue and red dots randomly spread all over its hard surface, like some neatly decorated jewel.

He sighed loudly. "It'll become what you teach it to become..." he sighed, repeating the words of the guy that had given him the egg.

Shaking his head, he looked around for a second, and headed to his kitchen, egg in hand.

Turning off all lights but one, he placed the egg and attempted to see what was inside.

Much to his surprise, he saw a small shadow within the egg, moving and wriggling, making it somewhat impossible to discern what it was.

"At least it's not a fake." he mumbled as he pondered what to do next for a second.

Going to his computer, he used a search engine to look for methods of keeping an egg alive so it could hatch; however, the methods differed somewhat from one species from the other, and since he couldn't find any egg that remotely resembled the one he had, he couldn't avoid wondering how he was going to keep it alive.

Just then, he heard a knock in his door.

"Coming." he stated as he gently placed the egg in his kitchen table before going for the door. "Who is it?" he asked as he halted before opening it.

"I'm from the antiques shop." answered a familiar voice from the other side. "We had forgotten to give you the manual."

"Manual?" he felt a bit shocked as he opened the door.

The one standing at the other side was none other than the same store clerk that had give him the egg, he had called himself Tobias.

"Sorry about that." he scratched the back of his head as he handed Ray a piece of paper. "We had run out of ink, so I had to hand write them for you."

"Thanks, I was having a hard trouble finding..." Ray came to a halt as he stared at the paper for a second. "Wait, how did you know where I...?"

His words were cut short as the boy was no longer there.

Weirded out to a brand new limit, he shook his head as he went back inside, unable to make sense out of what was going on.

Grabbing the egg again, he went back into his room, and laid on his bed as he began to read the beautifully written manual.

Thank you for choosing TGF Antiques as your source of magical items.

The item you have purchased is named *Jewel egg* it is the egg of a special kind of dragon only found in the isolate mountains of Ishrgar.

What makes this dragon so special is its extreme sensitivity to its surroundings while being an egg; the shell is impossible to break through normal means, and it can survive and safely hatch as long as it's kept between temperatures of 130 and -20 degrees Celsius.

Named sensitivity of the egg allows it to know the intentions and feelings of whoever is touching it; it'll absorb said feelings before hatching, things such as attention and state of emotion also affect the egg.

The personality and behavior of the dragon will be greatly affected by what it has *absorbed* while being an egg and baby.

Normally, the egg would take a full hundred years to hatch, however, the one you have should hatch between today and tomorrow.

It is highly recommended to keep the egg on you at all times, were it to hatch while you're not around, it could result in severe mental disorder on the dragon.

Dragon reaches maturity within a few days, after which it'll be fully capable of controlling its powers and its personality will have become stable.

Size of the dragon should be similar to that of a small dog, and anything it eats while a baby wont generate waste of any sort, so don't worry about finding stains in your rug.

Favorite food includes apples, grapes and raw meat.

I strongly advice not to give the baby dragon anything with caffeine or that's spicy, else you're risking to reduce your house to a bunch of burnt out rubble.

Make sure to talk to the egg and baby whenever you feel like it, this species of dragon will quickly learn English, and the sooner it can understand you, the better.

Don't consider the dragon as some sort of lowly pet, they're extremely intelligent and wise, and in many occasions the dragon will outsmart you; also, if you do, you'll probably end up as their pets once they've fully developed their powers, and that's not something you'd want.

I'll point out that once the dragon becomes an adult (a few days after hatching) it'll be possible to exchange conversations and it'll be able to help around the house and maybe in some other aspects as well depending on how it grows up.

Though consider that, even as an adult, the dragon will have not only as much intellect as a human, but also the same array of emotions as one, so make sure to keep a healthy relationship with it.

Once hatched, the dragon is completely unable to *bond* with any other human, meaning that only you will be considered *trustworthy* regardless of who else the dragon might meet.

The lifespan of this being is something that directly depends on you; were you to abandon it, the dragon will die within a matter of days, a couple of weeks at most.

So make sure to be with is as much as you can.

PS: you don't have to worry about not being able to take it with you on long trips and the such, the dragon will surely have a viable solution if you ask

Ray re-read the whole thing over and over again, unable to believe the contents as he tried to make some sense out of it.

"Considering how odd things are, it's no surprise." he stared at the egg for a moment. "So you're a dragon..." he sighed. "I wonder what kind of dragon you are."

He paused at the thought of having to bring it with him to work, or even going around town with a dragon; the idea felt somewhat intriguing, but he knew it'd cause an uproar if he went about with a large lizard.

"At least it'll be interesting." he chuckled as he took the egg with him to his room. "I wonder if it'd be best to call in sick to avoid trouble..."

Seeing there wasn't much to do with an egg, he decided it'd be best to head out and take a walk since he didn't have any work left to do.

"Maybe I should just go take a walk or something..." he sighed, carefully placing the egg within the pocket of his jacket. "I might as well go and do some errands I've got left."

He took his keys and wallet, and locked the door before heading towards his small white Volvo.

It was small and didn't work half the time, but he couldn't afford anything better, plus he had had that car since he had started driving.

Turning on the radio, he started the engine and began driving down the street.

They were playing his favorite song, so Ray began to hum the music as he continued driving, his mood feeling quite cheerful since he didn't have anything troubling him at the moment.

The first stop was the bank, he had to deposit his last paycheck before he could do anything else; there was a small line of people before him, but it didn't take him more than ten minutes.

later on he went to get some groceries, he had begun to miss several stuff and he wanted to use the opportunity and find something he could cook tonight.

He halted in the fruit section as he stared at the apples; -Perhaps...- he paused, wondering what he could do with them aside from eating raw fruit.

"I'll just store them in the fridge and find some way of preparing it later..." he mumbled as he picked the best apples he could find.

Once done, he continued to his next stop, he had some mail to pick up at the office before he went back home.

There were only a couple letters from his parents and some fliers with publicity and the such, nothing important.

After he had gotten back home, he unpacked everything and made sure to store all the food where it belonged; then, looking at the clock, he noticed it was already five in the evening, so he chose to prepare himself something to eat.

Ray didn't feel like doing much, so he ate some salad with a yogurt while watching a humor movie, keeping the egg in sight at all times, wondering when it would hatch.

The movie ended, and Ray picked up and washed the plates before going to take a shower.

For a moment he hesitated whether or not to take the egg with him, the words from the letter had weirded him out a bit; -The egg absorbs information and emotions from its surroundings...- he thought for a second, the idea of being watched while showering didn't quite appeal to him.

After a few seconds of debate, he decided to go halfway.

He placed the egg in the washbasin as to avoid it from falling to the floor should anything happen.

Once showered, he dried off and put on some trunks and a shirt since it wasn't cold at night; he then took the egg and went to his computer.

For three hours, Ray remained there, doing things that varied from looking for food that could be prepared with apples and grapes, to search for some information about dragons (which wasn't that useful) and also use his free time to finish some work he had left.

Since it was already late, and he didn't want to stay up much longer despite having the next day free, he took the egg and laid on his bed for a second, considering his options of what he could do next.

Worrying he'd crush the egg while sleeping, he took a small pillow and placed it next to his bed, in a spot where he wouldn't accidentally step on.

Then, he went to sleep.

---------------------------

Ray was woken up the next morning by the uncomfortable sensation of having weight on his chest, making it impossible for him to breathe normally.

He froze for a second as two bright golden eyes stared down at him, a reptilian tongue slithering in and out of the creature's head as it observed the human.

Then, Ray let out a short scream as he jumped out of the bed and fell to the floor on his back.

As he looked back at where he had been sleeping moments ago, he saw a creature that couldn't have been described as anything but some sort of tiny dragon.

It was covered in emerald green scales, with a body of about two feet in length, it had a skull shaped like that of a wolf, only longer; its paws had oposable thumbs, and razor sharp claws, and throughout its body, there were small thorns probing their way through the scales, following the spine and around the joints.

"You're the dragon?" Ray said, somewhat startled, not believing the size of the creature exceeded so much that of the egg. "You're... big."

Seemingly encouraged by his words, the dragon calmly set off the bed, and crawled its way to his legs, where it curled up and closed its eyes, seemingly falling asleep on the spot.

Strangely enough, the warmth that came from the dragon's smooth scales felt soothing and calm, it even made Ray smile unknowingly.

"Blimey, it's a real dragon." he chuckled.

Though a stray thought crossed his mind at that moment.

Just what would it turn into once it became an adult?

And would he have enough room to have it there?