ladyc2

Title: The Egg
Characters: Ryo-centric Gen. Nakamaru, Ohkura, Aiba
Bingo Prompt: Dragons
Rating: PG
Word Count: 3,925
Disclaimer: This story is fiction. None of these events occurred.
Warnings: None
Summary: Ryo, Ohkura, Nakamaru and Aiba find an egg while in the forest
A/N: Written for my ryo_short Bingo card challenge


"Seen anything yet?" Yamapi's voice crackled through the radio and Ryo repressed the urge to sigh. He could already tell that today was going to be 'one of those days'. He brought his own radio up to his mouth and pressed the button to reply.

"We've barely been here five minutes. Of course we haven't seen anything yet," he hissed back. He thought of his warm, cosy bed and how instead of being in it, like he wanted to be, he was stuck here at the edge of the forest; about to go hunting for the "strange creature" the town had been in a panic about since three nights ago.

"And what are you doing on the radio anyway?" He was sure that when he'd gone to the town hall with the rest of the volunteers to be sorted into small search parties, his friend (or maybe he should say former friend, since it was his fault he was here) hadn't been there.

"Well I figured since you volunteered for the hunt it would only be fair if I helped out too." Ryo had known Yamapi long enough to be able to interpret that statement. In other words, he'd felt guilty. "Since I came late, they said I could monitor one of the communication stations. Lucky they gave me your team huh?"

"I didn't volunteer." Ryo reminded him, "You and Jin volunteered me as a drunken prank. Where is that idiot anyway? I hope you dragged him along with you."

On the other end of the radio, Yamapi giggled. "Yeah, he got MatsuJun's team."

"Serves him right," Ryo replied, the thought of Matsumoto Jun and Jin sniping at each other all day making him feel a little better already.

He looked at his own small team assembled a few meters away. They consisted of his friend Ohkura Tadayoshi, Aiba Masaki (the town veterinarian) and Nakamaru Yuichi (whom Ryo didn't really know all that much about). It was a good thing this whole venture was probably going to turn out to be a wild goose chase.
He motioned to his group. "Let's get going." The faster they got this over and done with, the better.

*

Ryo called a halt, more than ready to call it a day; he was hot, sweaty and dirty and they hadn’t seen any sign of anything, let alone a monster that could terrorise the town. Of course crashing through the undergrowth the way they were, was probably enough to scare anything away. For his part, Nakamaru had proved to be surprisingly stealthy; a result of playing survival games in his spare time, according to him. Unfortunately his attempts had been undone by the rest of the team - Ryo because he didn't care, Aiba, who was trying, but who seemed to manage to find every tree root in the forest to trip over and Ohkura who just complained the entire time. Ryo wondered why his friend had even signed up in the first place, but he refrained from asking - when it came to Ohkura, Ryo had learnt long ago that sometimes it was just better not to know.

He turned to the others, who were in a similar state, when Nakamaru suddenly pointed towards some undergrowth.

"What is that?" he asked.

Ryo stepped forward to get a better look. A mound of dead leaves and mud was piled up under the side of a large tree and something large and off-white coloured lay half-exposed amidst the pile. Ryo walked up to it and brushed some of the debris away revealing something decidedly oval-shaped.

"Looks like an egg," Aiba observed, stepping up behind Ryo for a closer look.

Ohkura gasped. "Poor thing, it must have fallen out of the tree."

"Isn't that a little big to have fallen out of a tree?" Ryo wondered.

"Maybe it's an Ostrich egg." Aiba guessed, as he tentatively prodded at the thing.

"An Ostrich? In Japan?"

"It could've escaped from the zoo," Ohkura suggested.

"That could explain the sightings," Nakamaru mused. "I mean, an Ostrich would look pretty strange and frightening to people not expecting to see one; especially at night when you couldn't see it clearly."

"Are there even any zoo's around here? Let alone with Ostriches?" Ryo had to wonder when he’d suddenly become the voice of reason.

They all turned to look at Aiba who shrugged.

"Don't look at me. I'm a vet, not a zookeeper."

Ryo sighed.

"All right, I'll call it in. Maybe someone at base can check it out. In the meantime, let's get out of here. I don't think its mother would appreciate us hanging around."

As they trudged out of the forest, Ryo radioed Yamapi and explained what they'd found. Yamapi was excited about the news. It seemed none of the other teams had found anything. Well, Kamenashi's team had found a footprint, but they were apparently still arguing about what sort of footprint it was. Most people's money seemed to be on a dog or a cat.

*

"What is that?" Ryo asked later, eyeing the object nestled in some towels within a cardboard box that his friend was carrying through his door. Behind him, Nakamaru was hovering nervously in the doorway. Ryo waved the other man in.
"It's the egg," Ohkura replied like it was only too obvious, "Aiba-kun said we need to keep it warm. He'll be here soon; he just went to his clinic for some heat lamps."

"Why didn't you just take the egg to the clinic?"

Ohkura looked offended by the suggestion. "No way!” he cried. “The clinic is way too cold and sterile. It needs a loving home environment."

Ryo had other things on his mind. "I thought we agreed that messing around with that egg was a bad idea."

"But we can't just abandon a poor baby ostrich to die alone in the woods," Ohkura pleaded.

"We didn't abandon it," Ryo explained patiently, "we were leaving it alone so its mother wouldn't get mad."

"But what if she didn't come back? What if she lost it? That could be why she's attacking people."

"What attack?” Ryo asked exasperated, “Some old folks living at the edge of the forest thought they saw some shadows and heard strange noises and then something ate Yamada-san's washing."

"Tanaka-san's chickens went missing too," Aiba added as he entered the room carrying what must have been the heat lamps.

"I'm surprised he can tell with that zoo of his." Ryo clicked his fingers, an idea suddenly occurring to him. "Hey maybe we can...."

Ohkura stopped him, putting his arms protectively around the egg.

"Uh-uh. We're not giving this egg away."

Ryo threw his hands up in the air. "I give up."

While Aiba and Ohkura set up the heat lamps and generally fussed over making the egg as comfortable as possible, Nakamaru asked if he could borrow Ryo's computer. Ryo nodded his assent and then decided he may as well make himself useful and went to make some coffee.

*

"Thanks," Nakamaru said as he accepted a coffee cup from Ryo.

"What are you doing?" Ryo asked as he settled in next to the other man.

"Uh,” Nakamaru sounded nervous, like he was overstepping his boundaries. “I thought it might be a good idea to do some research," he admitted.

Ryo nodded. That was actually some good thinking. Probably more than anyone else had shown so far.

"And?" he prompted.

Nakamaru smiled in relief. "Well, the size is about right and Ostriches do cover their eggs and leave them to incubate rather than sitting on them."

Ryo sighed. "Why do I get the feeling there's a ‘but’ coming."

"I checked the zoos and the news feeds and there are no reports of any missing animals."

"They might be trying to keep it quiet so as not to alarm anybody."

"Maybe,” Nakamaru agreed, “but the nearest zoos to us don't even have Ostriches. And even if they did, I think they're still too far away for one to make it here."

They both turned simultaneously to look at the egg.

"So if that's not an Ostrich, what the hell is it?" Ryo couldn’t help but ask.

"Well, there are still some things I could check out. Maybe a private collector managed to bring one into the country."

Ryo was impressed. "You're pretty good at this computer stuff,' he noted.

"Ah, Well, I just finished a University degree a few months ago. You tend to learn a few tricks to get the information you need when you have to do a lot of research."

Ryo smiled. "Well, the computer's probably happy to be doing something other than playing YouTube clips all day," he joked.

He patted Nakamaru on the shoulder and then stood. "I'll leave you to it," he said before turning and jamming a finger towards the now retreating figure of his friend. "Tacchon, why are you heading towards my front door?"

Ohkura stopped in his tracks. "I'm going home."

"The hell you are.” Ryo retorted. “You want to look after this egg, you look after it. Don't think you can just dump it all on me; or the others."

"But I'm tired." Ohkura put on a magnificent pout, but Ryo wasn't falling for it for a second. He smiled as sickeningly sweetly as he could and replied,

"Well then, I'll get you some blankets. You can sleep on the couch."

"The couch," Ohkura whined. "What about your spare bedroom?"

"That's for our other guests," Ryo replied, pointing to Aiba and Nakamaru. Then he gave them both a sheepish look.
"Sorry, it's only got one bed, but it's big. There should be plenty of room for both of you."

"That's fine, I don't mind," Aiba answered cheerfully. Nakamaru didn't look quite so cheerful about it, but he nodded his assent anyway. Ryo walked over to Ohkura and grabbed his arm to drag him towards the cupboard where he kept his spare blankets; he didn’t trust the other man not to sneak out while his back was turned.

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. Nakamaru didn’t find any new information and a quick call to Yamapi didn’t yield anything either. Not that Ryo had expected it too; this town was all too quick to storm about on the smallest impulse but nobody ever seemed to bother with actual answers. Someone could probably do an entire doctorate on mob mentality using this town as an example.

The egg itself, just sat in its little box, not showing the slightest sign of life; though after listening to it through a stethoscope, Aiba was convinced it was near to hatching. Still, there was only so much staring at an egg one could do and eventually they all made their way to their beds.

*

A gentle shaking roused Ryo out of sleep.

“Ryo,” a voice whispered next to his ear.

Ryo ignored it at first but the shaking only got harder.

“Ryo,” the voice came again, a little louder this time.

“Go away,” Ryo mumbled.

“But Ryo, it’s the egg. It moved.”

Ryo cracked open an eye to see Ohkura’s face hovering above him. He pushed him away as he sat up.

“What time is it?” he asked.

“About 5,” Ohkura answered.

Ryo groaned and brought his hands up to try and scrub away the sleep. Ohkura's words finally caught up with Ryo’s brain.

“Wait!” Ryo grabbed Ohkura’s arm tightly. “Did you say the egg moved?”

Ohkura nodded. “I think it’s about to hatch.”

Ryo scrambled out of bed and into the dining area where the box was still sitting on the table. Aiba was already there, his stethoscope pressed up against the egg as he listened intently. Nakamaru was yawning behind him, looking about as impressed as Ryo to be woken up so early.

“So?” Ryo demanded as Aiba finally stepped back.

Aiba turned to give him a wide grin. “Won’t be long now, some cracks are already starting to show,” he answered.

Ryo stepped up to the box for a closer look and he could sense Ohkura and Nakamaru doing the same. Sure enough, if he looked closely he could see some faint fractures in the surface of the egg. He bent closer and then jumped back almost immediately as the egg wobbled alarmingly. One of the cracks got deeper and Ryo thought he could hear a tapping sound.

“There,” Nakamaru gasped on the other side, “I can see a hole.”

Ryo shuffled around, and sure enough a small hole had appeared. The egg wobbled more forcefully now and the little hole got wider and wider until something poked through.

“Is that its beak?” Nakamaru asked.

“Looks more like a tooth,” Ohkura answered. Ryo couldn’t disagree with that; the object was white and pointy and not very beak-shaped in Ryo’s estimation.

“Tooth? Ostriches don’t have teeth.” Aiba sounded concerned. “Let me have a look.”

Ryo reluctantly stood back a little to let Aiba through. Not that Ryo thought they needed an expert opinion anymore, for now the hole was being widened by said tooth and it was quickly becoming quite obviously teeth – and a lot of them.

“What the…?” Aiba muttered, frowning like he’d never seen anything like it before.

Suddenly there was a louder crack and the whole side of the shell came away and a small creature battled its way out of the casing. Those teeth were set under a mottled green snout with large bulbous eyes set back on its spiky head. The spikes didn’t stop at its head though, winding down its scaly back and towards a curled up tail. Two small fragile looking wings were perched on either side of the scales. It had four legs - or maybe it was two arms and two legs, Ryo couldn’t be sure – each with what looked like razor-sharp claws. All in all it looked very much like a miniature version of stuff he’d only read about it fantasy novels.

“Is that what I think it is?” Ryo asked incredulously.

“It can’t be.” Nakamaru gulped. “Dragons aren’t real.”

“It certainly looks real,” Ohkura said as he reached out a hand towards the creature. The creature hissed and snapped and Ohkura snatched his hand back fast.

“I don’t think touching it is such a good idea,” Aiba suggested.

“You think?” Ryo couldn’t help the sarcasm in his tone. He half-turned towards the others (there was no way he was turning his back completely on that thing) who looked to be in various states of panic; not that his own expression was probably much different.

“Now what do we do?” he asked, because he sure didn’t have a clue.

“I think,” Nakamaru’s voice wavered, “we should probably get a stronger box.”

Sure enough the dragon had begun to chew its way through the cardboard.

Ryo racked his brains to try and think of anything in his house that might work as a cage. He noticed Aiba head for the kitchen; maybe they could put in the rice cooker? If it would even fit? He dismissed that idea as Aiba came back carrying a whole load of food, from fruit to meat.

"It just came out of its egg. It's probably hungry," Aiba offered by way of explanation.

"Koki's chickens!" Nakamaru blurted out suddenly. Everyone turned to look at him. "Try the chicken first, it would probably like that."

Aiba started pulling out what Ryo recognised as some leftover chicken from the pile. Ryo put out a hand to stop him.

"Let's not give this thing a taste for meat just yet. It might come back to bite us later - literally."

"It likes banana," Ohkura cooed (cooed!). Ryo turned to see Ohkura already breaking off bits of the fruit and tossing it toward the dragon, which sniffed each piece carefully before taking it into its mouth.

Ryo stepped back a little as Aiba and Nakamaru joined in with Ohkura trying out various fruits. The dragon turned its nose up at strawberries and melon but seemed to really like the crunch of apples, making a strange screeching noise as it gobbled it up. This whole thing was too surreal. What the hell was he going to do with a dragon?

Ohkura finally noticed he wasn't participating in the feed-a-thon and bounced over. "Hey Ryo, you've got to try this. It's so cute."

"It's a dragon!" Ryo reminded him.

Ohkura shrugged, "Dragons can be cute."

"It does seem to have quite the appetite," Aiba muttered. "We're just about out of fruit."

Ryo sighed, getting up and heading towards his door. "I'll go get some more," he volunteered. Maybe some fresh air would clear his head and let him think of a solution.

"I'll come with you," Aiba said. "We can stop by the surgery and grab a cage to keep it in."

Ryo nodded and waited for the other man to catch up before heading out.

*

Ryo pushed the door to his apartment open awkwardly as he tried not to drop the box of fruit he was carrying, Aiba carrying the cage right behind him. He hadn't really thought of anything while they were out. Maybe he should just call the authorities and let them deal with it; but which ones?

He nearly dropped the box anyway when he saw the state of his apartment. Chairs were knocked over, the cushions from his couch were scattered around the apartment, some looking torn up. In the middle of it all stood Nakamaru and Ohkura, back to back with a mop and a broom respectively.

"What happened?" Ryo thought he sounded quite calm considering, but the look of fear on Nakamaru's face spoke quite differently. Aiba took the box of fruit off him and moved towards the kitchen while Ryo glared at the two men.

"Dragon-kun got away from us." Ohkura waved the broom back and forth.

"What?"

"After it finished all the food, it seemed hot so we tried to give it some water but it wouldn't take it," Nakamaru started.

Okay, that seemed reasonable, but didn't explain how they'd gotten to this state. Ryo motioned for Nakamaru to continue on.

"Well, then I remembered babies drink milk and, well, it's kind of a baby, right? So I went to the fridge to get some."

Ohkura jumped in. "And the next thing I know it was jumping off the table trying to follow him. Naturally I tried to grab it to put it back, but I think I just spooked it."

Nakamaru re-took up the explanation. "It went crazy - screeching and scratching and jumping around the place - trying to attack us."

"And where is it now?"

Nakamaru looked pained. "We're not really sure. Sorry," he added morosely.

Ryo pinched the bridge of his nose. This was just great!

Aiba came back from the kitchen with some cut up apples. "Let's try luring it out with more food. We can put a line of food in the middle of the floor leading all the way into the cage. Then when Dragon-kun follows it in, we shut the cage behind it."

"That's a great idea," Ohkura enthused. Nakamaru also looked relieved.

Aiba also seemed pleased at his own idea. "It always works at the veterinary clinic when we lose a guinea pig."

Ryo groaned internally, but it was still, unfortunately the best plan they had. They all set to work clearing a space from the middle of the floor to the cage which Aiba had placed by the door and laying out a fruit trail. Then they all moved off and huddled behind Ryo's couch so as not to frighten the dragon. They'd propped the door to the cage up with pencil and Ryo had attached a piece of string to it so he could pull it out and shut the door as soon as the dragon entered. He held on tightly as they waited, and waited, and waited.

"I don't think it's working," Ohkura whispered.

"Give it a chance; it's probably still full from earlier," Aiba whispered back.

"Shhh!" Nakamaru hissed. "I think something just moved."

Ryo focussed on where Nakamaru seemed to be looking. At first he didn't see anything, but then a cushion twitched; and again.

"There." He pointed and they all huddled down trying to make themselves smaller and more unobtrusive.

The cushion twitched again and then Dragon-kun emerged, looking around tentatively, sniffing the air. Ryo held his breath when it turned its nose towards their hiding place, but it turned away just as quickly and he released it gratefully. Dragon-kun slowly started to make its way towards the fruit, still constantly surveying its surroundings for danger.

The trip towards the cage felt interminable as Dragon-kun stopped to savour every piece of delicious apple. Ryo's hand on the string was getting sweaty, but he didn't let go to wipe it; he wanted to be ready. Dragon-kun seemed to get bolder with each piece of food it took with no danger and it thankfully didn't even seem to consider the cage as it stepped through the bars to get to the final piece. Ryo tugged and the door came down with a clank. That got the dragon's attention and it started screeching and rattling the bars as it jumped around. Luckily the bars held, but watching it gave Ryo a little more of an idea of what Ohkura and Nakamaru had been through while they were out. He forgave them just a little the state of his apartment.

"Is there any way to stop it screeching?" Ohkura was asking Aiba, hands clamped over his ears.

"We could try throwing a blanket over the cage. That works with birds; makes them think its night time and they go to sleep."

Ryo raced to the cupboard and grabbed the first blanket he laid a hand on before racing back and throwing it over the cage. His neighbours would probably be putting in a complaint about him to the landlord at this rate. Somehow he didn't think 'baby dragon' would be a believable defence.

They all breathed a sigh of relief when the blanket trick actually worked and after a few moments Dragon-kun stopped screeching and rattling.

"Now what?" Ryo asked as they all collapsed onto the couch.

"I'll take it with me," Aiba offered. "I have a friend who’s really into strange creatures, and it doesn't get much stranger than this."

Ohkura looked like he was about object, and but what other options were there. Despite the trouble it caused, it wouldn't be right to kill it and Ryo certainly couldn't keep it. What would happen when it got bigger?

“He takes good care of them, I promise," Aiba assured, then he turned to Ohkura and offered, "You can come with me if you'd like to see for yourself. I'll probably need some help to carry the cage anyway."

Ohkura agreed quickly and the two got up ready to go. Ryo opened the door for them as they picked up the cage and carried it out. Once they were out of sight Ryo turned to Nakamaru.

"Beer?" he asked.

Nakamaru nodded and Ryo went to the fridge to grab two beers, handing one to Nakamaru as they slumped on the couch.

"I'm glad that's over with," Ryo stated.

"Yeah," Nakamaru agreed. "Does it seem like we're forgetting something," he added after a few moments.

Ryo paused with the drink halfway to his lips. Now that Nakamaru mentioned it there was something...

"Dragon-kun's mother!!!" they both shouted simultaneously.