"I'm here!" calls Cleo's chiming faerie voice. "Come over to the nest!" She sounds excited, and you make haste to reach the hill atop the mountain. There your friend is crouched over the nest, peering inside with a look of happiness. "Come!" she says without looking up.

You, too, look into the small feather-lined nest, and gasp at the sight of a gigantic, cream-colored egg. It is completely smooth, and its oval shape is perfect. In fact, it's so obviously the egg of a magical creature you're surprised it's not shooting up a great beam of light, like in those movies. Well, it does glow a little..

"Wow!" is your clever response. "When's it going to hatch?" you ask.

"About a week," Cleo informs you. "Then we'll find out what color and gender it'll be. And, of course, I'll have to name it as well. I'm thinking of 'Sylphael' for a boy, or 'Dalicent' for a girl. What do you think?"

You have to consider it for a moment. They are very strange names, but you like the sound of them. "I like 'em," you inform the fae. "They're odd, though - where did you find them?"

"What do you mean, 'find them'? I didn't look for them."

"Well, um... where did they come from?"

"I made them up, of course. Like all good names. Why?"

You explain that where you're from, there are certain names that people use. "There are lots," you say, "but they are already there. Most people don't make up names for their children, although I suppose some might."

"Well, that's silly. What if two people were to accidentally name their children the same thing?"

"I guess you'd have to use their last name, too. It's pretty frequent, although some names are rarer than others. For instance, there are far more 'John's then say 'Venus' or 'Zoe'. But I'd doubt if too many people have an original name, back home."

Cleo looks startled. "Where I'm from," she says, "it's bad luck to share a name with another living person. Naturally some children are named for a dead grandparent, but never a living person."

"How do you keep track of which names are used?" you ask, interested.

"Magic," she says simply, as if it ought to be common sense. "Oh dear." Cleo looks up at the sky, and your eyes follow hers. The sun seems to be setting. "You'd best be off; some of the things that come out after dark are best left undiscovered." You nod and head off for the enchanted stairs.

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Dragon's Stats Name: Unknown Gender: Unknown Stage: Egg Color: Unknown Type: Unknown Clutch: Denkou x Shandra 1 From: Mirror Isle

Cleo's Stats Name: Cleozabeth Skyspirit Gender: Female Species: Faerie Element: Air From: Chibi Ningyo

Twiluu's Stats Name: Unknown Gender: Unknown Stage: Egg Color: Unknown From: Twiluu

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Background & Content (c) Sahara