Hatching
It is the very foundation of our society, though only we few care to remember that fact.
Dragon eggs take thousands of years to develop and hatch, during which, the parents are absent, returning only when some instinctual link to the clutch calls them for the hatching.
History
What came first, the dragon or the egg?
Execution
Dragon biology runs on a lunar cycle, and certain key lunar events will trigger hormonal cycles within them. For instance, mating rituals occur during a solar eclipse (when the new moon passes between the planet and the sun). And so it is that the hatching only happens during a lunar eclipse (when the sun casts the planet's shadow on the face of the full moon).
When the time of hatching nears, the parents will launch themselves from their rocky homes and make the weeks-long journey to Argentii to protect the clutch during the vulnerable hatching process.
Participants
The hatching is considered an intimate and almost sacred time of bonding between mates and between parents and offspring.
Observance
It begins with a lunar eclipse. Observers within the The Court of the Moon -- and now, also, the Shadow of the Wing -- watch each lunar eclipse within the year of expectation for the telltale visual signs of the dragons returning. This manifests itself in a brief matrix of electric blue light that webs across the darkened surface of the moon, spreading outward and then vanishing as if it neve existed.
That is how they know the dragons are coming. From that moment on, it is just a matter of time until, one night six weeks later, the atmosphere become streaked with the diving bodies of the returning dragons. They will crash into the seas to seek out the hidden entrances to their lairs. There they will wait, brooding, until the crystalline masses of their eggs begin to fracture.
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Author's Notes
Header image made with help from Bing/DALL-E AI features.