[ WP ] When everyone turns 18 , they receive a pet which is figurative of their personality . You 're the first person to receive a dragon ...

They gave me an egg. 
 
 An *egg*. On my 18th birthday. 
 
 I did not know how to react. My father just said `` hmm, that's odd.'' 
 
 For the record, it was a big ass egg, about a foot high. The messengers came during the night and deposited the box on our doorstep. We found it in the morning. I thought it was just a normal package until I saw the card with my name on it. The card bore the High Castle's seal. I tore open the box, fearing whatever was inside would suffocate. And then I saw the egg. 
 
 Underneath was a booklet entitled `` How to care for your new pet.'' Like some fucking user manual. I carried the box inside and spent a good while just staring at the egg. Was it an ostrich? I knew ostriches had really big eggs? But why not just give me a full grown one? I did n't mind an ostrich, although I had no fucking clue how it was supposed to reflect my personality. I gave up thinlking and opened the booklet. The first thing on it was `` Place the egg over heat, preferably a fire place.'' 
 What? Are you kidding me? They want me to cook it? I went through the rest of the pages and it was mostly egg+heat=good. 
 
 Maybe the High Castle was having a laugh. Maybe they picked a random name and said `` let's dump this egg on him, maybe have him cook it for us.'' Maybe my real pet is n't gon na be delivered until much later in the day, I thought. I sighed and rose, but, just for good measure, dumped the egg in the still hot fireplace. There was still that chance. 
 
 Nothing else arrived that day. Before going to bed, I glanced out my window at the HIgh Castle. The High Castle sat on top of the highest mountain and was visible to everyone below. `` Fuck you,'' I whispered. It was a daily ritual. The people in the High Castle were treated as gods, and they sure as hell acted as if they were. They trampled on `` low'' people like ants. The only decent thing they did was not keeping the animals to themselves. I did n't know where the animals came from, but I knew the High Castle only acted as an intermediary, ensuring the right animal went to the right name. I gave the castle one last glare and went to bed. 
 
 It was months before the egg gave any sign of hatching. I kept a fire going for it out of habit, not really expecting anything to actually come out. But, one morning as I was stoking the fire, I heard the soft crack, quickly followed by louder cracks. Soon, I could see something dark trying to poke out a hole. A claw? Do ostriches have claws? I rolled the egg out of the fireplace and helped the creature pick at the thick shell. The head came out first, and then something slimy and leathery. The thing had four limbs and a tail. It kind of looked like lizard except for the leathery thing draped on its body. I took a hesitant hand to it and pulled it up, and quickly dropped it back. Holy shit. There is no way this is real. *No way*. 
 
 The creature gave a tiny sneeze and then spread its still slimy wings. It folded them back and shook itself, like some dog getting rid of water. The creature looked at me straight in the eye and gave a toothy yawn. I stared back at it, still chanting *holy shit* in my head. All of a sudden a picture of the High Castle came to my mind, sitting smug at the top of the mountain. And then I looked at the creatures' wings. It's going to be strong, I thought, strong enough to fly *that* high. 
 
 I have never laughed so hard in my life.
