Main question: Does the Lashtail Raptor Egg Fragment (http://www.wowhead.com/item=58165/lashtail-raptor-egg-fragment) have to be in one's possession to be able to obtain the Raptor Hatchling from the "Be Raptor" quest?
I completed this quest line in STV which culminated in the extremely tedious/frustrating quest of taking on the form of the Raptor Hatchling only to have it be taken away at the end. I have been looking forward to the time I reach level 85, can do the ZG instance, and redeem the hatchling as a permanent pet. I kept this egg fragment in my bags for a long time the one day was out questing and needed more bag space. Since this fragment no longer summoned the hatchling and I knew I would eventually regain the pet, I deleted it.
Yesterday I was re-reading the quest line as I will be going through it again with my alt and noticed in one of the posts a mention that if the egg fragment is gone, one doesn't get the hatchling in the ZG dungeon. WHAT?!?!?!?! If this is the case, there should be something within the quest that cautions to keep the egg fragment, imo. So I opened a ticket to ask (1) if the egg fragment is needed to obtain the hatchling and (2) if so, could it be restored. I just received a response saying my deleted inventory was too old to be able to retrieve the item. They did not answer if I needed the fragment to complete the quest.
Anyone who has successfully gained the raptor hatchling pet via this quest line, do you know if it requires the egg fragment, please? I will be absolutely sick if it does.