Chapter 4- Lyra's eggs hatch
A number of days passed since Lyra found the batch of strange rocks which she identified as not rocks, but dragon eggs, and had placed them in the compartment in the barn under her family's section. She continued to do her regular activities such as going to school and having her regular lessons in weaving, baking and cooking with her mother Diamond. Her father Flint had also departed for a fishing trip with some other fishermen to catch some fish. However, that trip was to be a short one for there, as stated before, was a storm on the way and it was dangerous to be out at sea fishing, so their plan was to catch what they could and come straight home. Lyra also spent some time with her uncle Iscan and his family and did a variety of activities with them such as learning to weave patterns with his wife and her aunt Hollyhair, playing with her cousins Wisteria, Herbert and Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral despite the latter three's irritating and mischievous antics (unlike Plumeria, they weren't nasty to Lyra, just rambunctious for even they had sense), and also learning basic woodworking skills from Iscan himself. And speaking of Plumeria, Iscan had questioned his triplet sons about the incident regarding the stone thrown at Hawkeye during the woodland sourcing lesson trip and the triplets, without hesitation, explained that Plumeria was the one who did the deed and blamed it on them. Iscan had immediately gone to Plumeria and her family's house and had had a serious word with Sharkfin and Maleficent but had to deal with the latter for Sharkfin, being a fisherman like Lyra's father Flint, was out with the fishing team. However, Maleficent had profusely denied her daughter doing ANYTHING to Hawkeye and what she had told was the truth. However, Iscan was not convinced and as he returned home, he had in mind to deal with that rotten woman and her daughters as soon as he could. Sharkfin and his family were clearly on the edge of expulsion from the Quartz Tribe and they will have to find their own place to live. However, he had to focus on getting his village ready for the approaching storm as their chief. Though the storm was quite a nasty one, it was not severe enough for the shelter under the barn to be used which Lyra was glad for that was where she stored the 25 eggs she had found in that cave during the Aventurine Woods trip. Iscan had then freed the triplets of their penalty even to Lyra's gladness. As much as she sometimes disliked the three irritating brothers, Lyra hated to see Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral land in trouble over something they didn't do, especially at the hands of the nasty Plumeria, and Wisteria and Herbert, the older sister and brother of the triplets, were equally glad.
During breaks in her routine, Lyra went to the barn to check on the eggs as often as she could. Soon, as the storm drew near, she had to help her parents and some other tribe members get their animals such as livestock including sheep and goats to their shelters as well as her mare, Snø, to her barn for she had been out in the paddock for some daily exercise, another activity Lyra had to contend but as she continued her activities, back in the compartment-turned-nursery, the 25 eggs had begun to show signs of life. A few of them had begun to rock slightly and then remain still but the small movements soon became more and more frequent. The two jet black eggs, however, seemed to be more rigorous in their movements. The approaching storm was an electrical storm and it was going to involve pounding rain, thunder and lightning and it was clearly visible in the distance from the hilltop village of Hav Av Stjerner as a black mass with flashes on its underside, veils beneath it (rain) and growls like a mighty Bewilderbeast dragon, and for some strange reason, the two jet black eggs seemed to be sensing its approach and were getting ready to hatch. Due to the storm, the fishing team had made their return with some fish and Lyra was tasked with helping Flint in getting the catch back to the village quickly, alongside the other kids including Norman and Herbert. Norman had wanted to date Lyra but he had put the plans aside due to the change in the weather. Additionally, Lyra was hesitant on accepting Norman's dating proposal due to Plumeria's threats. Hav Av Stjerner was indeed boiling with the hurry of the Quarzians (sometimes called Stjernians) as they scrambled to get important things and animals sheltered as soon as they could. However, some activities such as school time were to continue as much as possible unless the storm made things too dangerous. Then two days later, the storm finally arrived and the village braced itself for its fury.
As Hav Av Stjerner was smothered in the blackness of the stormclouds' shadow and the pelting rain, only lighting up in a few split-second blinks as lightning flashed in the skies above, the villagers continued their activities as much as they could indoors. It was a school day and most of the kids including Lyra were at the school and Lyra had realised that she hadn't checked on the eggs for some time and had in mind in doing this today despite the weather. However, she was to be in for a real surprise for they were in the process of hatching and two of the eggs she had found were of a species known for their infamous ties to thunderstorms and the night, the very same species a certain chief of another certain Viking tribe had has a best friend and aerial mount. As the storm continued to batter Hav Av Stjerner outside, its lightning slashing through the sky in electrical claws and thunder shaking the air with its roars, in Lyra's makeshift nursery under the barn, the two black eggs flinched and reacted as though exposed directly to the storm itself. They flinched and jerked and not only that, neon blue-purple electrical sparks danced around their night-black eggshells with electrical buzzing. While the black eggs sparked and flinched, the other eggs also continued to rock more and soon, one of the metallic eggs, the silver one, had formed a hole in its solid silver shell. Squeaky chirps then emanated from the hole as the creature within began to gasp for air within its metallic shell prison. The eggs of most dragon species hatched explosively with the Gronckle eggs being an obvious example. However, the nature of this hatching was hazardous so Gronckle mothers always submerged their eggs in pools of deep-enough water just before they hatched to dampen the explosion. Once the egg hatched underwater, the Gronckle babies would then instinctively head for the surface, climb out of the water and join their mothers. Some dragon eggs, however, hatched similar to birds and did not explode to expel the newborn dragon babies.
In one of the classes of the school, Diamond, Lyra's mother, was giving a lesson on dracology and the Quartz Tribe's history with dragons. This was Lyra's most-favourite subject and she was keen to learn and pay attention, drinking as much information in from her mother as possible. Other kids such as Norman and Herbert, one of Diamond's nephews, were also keen but some, such as Plumeria and her clique, not so much. In fact, this band of nasty girls was scornful of Lyra due to her being the daughter of the teacher. The current subject in this lesson on dragons was dragon classes.
"There are seven classes we use to group dragons based on their traits and behaviours," explained Diamond, the blackboard behind her having the words 'DRAGON CLASSES' written in chalk. Pinned up on either sides of the blackboard were pictures of some dragon species Diamond will use as examples of dragons in these classes. She then turned to her class as thunder growled outside but she ignored the storm and its rage.
"So, who will name me one of those classes?" she asked. Hands shot up into the air and Diamond picked out Herbert. In the back, Plumeria released a bored, disinterested yawn and waved her hand in front of her agape mouth while her clique comrades such as Veruca and Viola just lazed around, not paying attention.
"Strike Class," Herbert replied to his aunt, "These dragons are fast, agile and intelligent. An example of one would be the Night Fury, a highly fast and agile dragon with black scales."
"Correct, correct," said Diamond and with that, she wrote down the word 'Strike' onto the blackboard and pinned the picture of a Night Fury dragon under the word. "Strike Class dragons are the true acrobats in the sky but especially the Night, Light and Dusk Furies. They can fly at high speeds, shoot single breath weapon blasts with frighteningly pinpoint accuracy and are highly intelligent. These are the traits that make Strike Class dragons formidable..."
The lesson continued to go by with Diamond listing five of the other six classes of dragons by asking other pupils what they were, apart from Lyra for she knew that she was very knowledgeable in dracology and so would have an unfair advantage and Diamond wanted her other pupils to have a fair chance. The words 'Stoker', 'Tidal', 'Boulder' and 'Tracker' went up next with pictures of the Monstrous Nightmare, Bewilderbeast, Gronckle and Deadly Nadder going up under them as examples. Norman named the Sharp Class and gave the Stormcutter, a four-winged dragon that could rotate its head 180 degrees like an owl, as an example of a Sharp dragon and Diamond put the word up on the blackboard with a picture of said dragon under it.
"That is correct, Norman," said she, "Dragons of this class are often armed with sharp parts on their body and they are also often extremely proud. The Stormcutter belongs to this class and I know a female friend of mine who used to have one as a friend. The Sharp Class' common traits..." as she was about to explain the common traits of the Sharp Class, she heard talking and giggling in the background. Immediately, Diamond uttered a stern, "HEH-HEH-HEM!" to Plumeria and her band of silly girls at the back of the class, pulling their attention out of their silly gossip and drawing insignificant things in their exercise books, and to her.
"Pay attention, please," Diamond rebuked, "You're distracting the whole class and hindering everyone else's learning, so please, put your insignificant books and drawing pencils down and stop drawing silly stuff, stop your silly chitchat and certainly stop distracting the class. You can draw pictures during break time or at home but NOT here."
The rest of the class converged their gazes on the band of girls as they sourly put their books down and paid attention to Diamond as she continued explaining the Strike Class. However, a few of the girls including Plumeria only half-heartedly obeyed the command. Diamond then finished talking about the Strike Class and asked the pupils what the seventh and final class of dragons was, apart from Lyra. However, none of the pupils put their hands up and soon; Diamond was forced to ask her daughter.
"Mystery," said she and Diamond immediately wrote 'Mystery' onto the blackboard with the other six classes of dragons.
"Correct, my daughter," said she as she finished it, "The seventh class of dragons is the Mystery Class. This class of dragons is the most mysterious class hence the name. It is used for dragon species that cannot be classified properly into any of the other six classes due to their strange traits such as breath weapons for example. Two examples of this are the extremely rare Golden Dragon and the nightmarish Hypnagogic Poppydrake, a dragon species infamous for its drowsiness and hallucination-inducing red gas breath..." she set two pictures of these dragons next to 'Mystery' on the blackboard next to the picture of the Stormcutter for Sharp, "Also out of all the dragon classes, the Mystery Class has the most diverse dragon traits. Right, now to set your homework..."
Groans of disappointment filled the air as the kids reacted to this. Lyra and Herbert, however, smiled but Plumeria and her clique had a far more opposite reaction for they HATED homework with a passion.
Meanwhile, back in the compartment under the barn
The 25 eggs continued their hatching process. The black eggs continued to dance and shake violently with the storm, especially with the lightning. The smaller lightning bolts, coloured neon blue-purple, also danced and buzzed more violently around the black eggs as though they had become overcharged with electricity. Then finally, the eggs' sparking and shaking culminated in a blue-purple glow starting at their bases. The glow increased in intensity while the electrical sparks enveloped the rest of the eggs. An electrical explosion accompanied by a flash of blue-purple light then briefly flooded the compartment, coinciding with a big bolt of lightning outside. A split second later, the two eggs exploded open, their shells smashing into pieces. As the flash subsided, the creatures within the eggs were revealed. They sported jet black scales, as black as night. Their body shape was like that of an axolotl salamander complete with gill-like appendages on the sides of the two creatures' heads. However, these appendages were not gills like in an axolotl. The black creatures were four-legged and possessed bat-like wings and a tapering tail. Two sets of tail 'wings' with one pair being aft of the hind legs and pelvis and the other pair at the very tip of the tail were present. The two black creatures released yawns and opened their eyes to take in their new surroundings. One of them had lime green eyes and the other, yellow-orange, a rare eye colour. The eyes of both resembled those of cats. The orange-yellow eyed one then shook itself and began to check out the other eggs as they also hatched.
The two white eggs speckled with blue on their tops also broke open and out popped two creatures similar in shape to the jet black ones. Their scales were pure white like the clouds on a sunny day and their undersides were a pale blue. One had very pastel powder blue eyes and the other, a darker cerulean and like the eyes of the black creatures, they were catlike. The dusk sky-coloured egg was to hatch next and it produced another similarly shaped creature. Unlike the white and black creatures, this one had a countershading-like colour scheme much like most sea animals like sharks and penguins. Its back was a deep midnight blue including on the wing and tail fin topsides but its underside and the undersides of its wing and tailfin skins were of lighter colours such as yellow, ivory and white and there was some pink there as well. A pale blue line divided the lighter ventral from the darker dorsal and the creature looked like an embodiment of the sky at dawn or dusk. Its eyes were emerald green similar to a rare dawn or dusk phenomenon called the green flash in which the sun momentarily took on a green hue ONLY when conditions were just right. This creature emitted squeaky caws as it also took in the surroundings.
Near the five axolotl-like creatures, the eleven metallic eggs had also hatched and from them out popped eleven bird-like forms. Their scales shone in a beautiful metallic shine like the scales of a fish except their scales were reptilian and their colours matched the colours of their eggs. For example, the silver one had hatched from the silver egg. Though they were different in their colours, their body shapes and features were largely the same. Their bodies were bird-shaped and they had theropod dinosaur-like legs ending in clawed toes on which they walked. They had two wings but no front legs and their wings were a hybrid of a bird and a bat in shape and morphology. They were membranous and had elongated wing fingers like a bat's wings but the first three fingers supported separate pieces of membrane shaped like a bird's primary flight feathers. The remaining fourth finger supported a larger piece of skin which connected to the creature's body like in a bat's wing. The tops of the wing membranes were metallic and the undersides were drabber. The creatures' heads were frilled and reptile-like and they sported spines on their backs running to the tail tip and drabber neck undersides and bellies. Their tail ended in a set of plume-like tailfins, also metallic on top and drab underneath and all of them sported amber bird-like eyes. The colours of the eleven creatures were gold, silver, pink, violet, blue, green, red, lime green, aqua blue, amber and black with the latter nine being metallic. Hatched at the same time as the eleven metallic bird-like creatures were the two large eggs, the three-coloured one and the opal-like one. From the three-coloured egg hatched a very unusual creature. Instead of being a single creature with one head, this creature had three heads. The right head was azure blue, the middle one yellow and the left one, red. All three heads snaked from the same body which was coloured red, blue and yellow. The wings were large and bat like and the creature had no front legs. The creature, however, did have hind legs and two tails and they were also coloured red, yellow and blue. The three heads took in the surroundings while the creature nearby slithered about. This creature was a snake with bat-like wings and like the eleven metallic 'bird-reptiles' had metallic scales. Its scales were red at the top fading through orange, then yellow, green, blue, indigo and finally violet dorsally to ventrally. Its head sported head plumes decorated with spots and its large bat-like wings were also rainbow metallic and its tail also sported a fan of tailfins decorated with spots. Due to the creature being newly hatched, the spots were less conspicuous.
Finally, the seven remaining eggs resembling black ovoid orbs decorated with either red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, magenta or white glowworms had also hatched. These creatures resembled pterosaurs and had the same wing configurations and shape. Their head sported short spikes on the top and below the beak. They were mostly black like the black axolotl-like creatures but their undersides, small ridges on their backs and tail spades glowed faintly, the same colour as the eggs they had hatched from (for example, the one with the glowing red markings hatched from the red and black egg). Their undersides and underwings were decorated with a swathe of glowing star-like markings but they only glowed faintly for they were newly hatched. These creatures also began to crawl around and emit chirps like little birds as they began to explore their new surroundings. Soon, all 25 eggs had hatched and the colourful eggshells lay strewn on the floor like broken pottery and the makeshift nursery became filled with the squeaks and caws of the creatures as they wandered about the area.
Back at the school, everyone was packing up to go home for the day was over. It had been terminated early due to the storm and travelling through it was dangerous. As Lyra packed her things, Plumeria and her clique walked in. Lyra, upon seeing them, immediately stuffed her last book into her bag and tried to get away but the rotten girls immediately darted to her and surrounded her like a pack of vicious dogs, stymieing her escape.
"Leavin' so soon, Lyra lass?" crooned Plumeria nastily. If her voice were to be portrayed as a fruit, it would be a beautiful apple that was rotten on the inside. Lyra tried to leave but Viola stepped in her way.
"I don't think it's quite time for ya yet," she added sweetly. The other girls chorused, "YEEEAAAAHHH," in agreement. Lyra just stared at them and tried to leave again but the girls refused to let her budge.
"We were just comin' to see ya to say goodbye until we meet again," said Veruca, "Be it th' next lesson, or outside th' school."
"Did ya enjoy this lesson?" added another girl named Asha, her hair being long and dark brown and her outfit being a bear skin dyed purple. Purple was a rare colour in the Viking tribes of the dragon world as its dye was very difficult to harvest. Thus clothes pigmented purple were VERY expensive so it was clear that Asha came from one of the richer families in Hav Av Stjerner. However, that family was snobbish and prideful, one of the reasons for Asha's bad attitude.
"Where's your book containin' ya dragon drawins'?" asked another girl named Lily and she immediately snatched Lyra's bag, tore it open and yanked out the drawing book. Then she scornfully opened it and glared at the colouring pencil pictures.
"Well, well, well, what have we here?" asked she nastily and horrible giggles rolled through the rest of Plumeria's group. Lily then flicked through the rest of the book and giggled all the more.
"You think ya gonna meet a dragon one day?" crooned Plumeria nastily, "Don't bother. It's a tantalising reality that is as high as Mount Odin... JUST like your bein' with Norman as possibly her future wife someday."
Her clique giggled along with this. Lyra glared disgustedly at Plumeria.
"Like YOU'RE gonna be his future wife!?" she growled, "Are you clairvoyant or sommat?"
Plumeria glared at Lyra, her pride clawed by her assertiveness.
"Say that again, lizard-face," the nasty girl spoke in a low voice as deadly as a Deadly Nadder spine.
"Are you clairvoyant-TAH, or sommat," Lyra replied in the same voice tone, forcing emphasis on the 'T' of 'clairvoyant', "Now let me past. I don't have time for your antics."
"'I don't have time for your antics'" Plumeria squeakily and mockingly echoed Lyra's demand and as Lyra tried to pass through the gap between Plumeria and Asha, the NASTY former seized her hair and yanked HARD. Lyra let loose a yelp of pain as she was pulled back by Plumeria by the hair, dropping her drawing book in the process. She then found herself staring in the snake venom eyes of the nasty girl.
"No," Plumeria replied, her right hand firmly gripping Lyra's hair, "We ain't finished with ya yet."
"YEEEAAAAAHHH," her followers chorused again.
"Also," Plumeria continued, "I wanna give ya another warnin' about Norman," she then shoved her face right into Lyra's and continued, threateningly, her hand still painfully gripping her hair such that Lyra was gripping her wrist, "If I EVER see him ask you out for a date again... mark my words, all THIS," she gave Lyra's hair another hard tug to cause her more pain, Lyra gripping her hair, "will be sheared off an' we will have ya dancin' stupidly in front of all ya friends with a bald head an' you'll NEVER forget it... dragon-faced piece of dung," some saliva spat into Lyra's face along with the wicked girl's caustic words. Plumeria then released her head and spat in her face again before nodding to her followers to leave, especially since Diamond was nearby, talking to another teacher, Trunklegs. Then Lyra stood there, tears streaming down her face as she watched the group of rotten girls leave. Viola also did a VULGAR gesture at her while Veruca mocked her weeping on the way out. Lyra then gazed at her mother, picked up her drawing book and left, weeping.
Plumeria continued talking nastily and horribly about Lyra when suddenly, an older girl related to Lyra appeared, a look of thunder on her face. Plumeria and her group stopped and glared at Wisteria as she began to confront them.
"I saw what you did to Lyra back there, you lot," the only daughter of Iscan and Hollyhair growled, "When are you gonna leave her alone!?"
"When are you gonna stop interferin', rat-face?" Plumeria retorted.
"Yeah, we don't know what ya talkin' about, (bleep)," put in Lily.
"Get outa our way, snake-hair," Asha added and with that, the group of nasty girls went to continue their leaving but Wisteria stepped right in their paths.
"I'm gettin' SICK AND TIRED of YOU LOT PICKIN' on MY COUSIN an' GETTIN' AWAY WITH IT!" Lyra's cousin snarled, her thunder flaring like the storm outside, "Plus you got MY three brothers Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral into trouble during our time in Aventurine Woods learning woodland sourcing as well!"
"Temper, temper, lass," Plumeria mock-soothed, "Ya gotta simmer down."
"Yes, I can feel the heat radiatin' from ya like a Monstrous Nightmare settin' itself on fire," put in Lily.
"Well, a flamin' Monstrous Nightmare will be a mere ember compared to what my father's suit of fire will be when he finds out about THIS," Wisteria retorted.
"Get outa the way, Wisteria," Plumeria yelled.
"NOT a CHANCE, Plumeria," Wisteria retorted again.
"Fine, snake-face, we'll MOW YA DOWN!" Plumeria screamed in a louder voice.
"TAKE YA BEST SHOT, WITCH," Wisteria goaded, "GO ON, but I'm WARNIN' YA," her voice then turned deadly, "If you EVER... come NEAR MY COUSIN AGAIN... things will GET DIRE! Now STAY AWAY FROM LYRA!"
Plumeria, in response, raised a hand and slapped Wisteria HARD across the face in defiance, clearly NOT liking the idea of staying away from Lyra. After all, bullying Lyra was where she and her clique got most of their kicks from.
"I hope ya get mauled by a bear or sommat, (bleep)," Plumeria spat. Immediately, Wisteria lunged at Plumeria and within moments, a brawl explosively erupted. The girls collapsed to the floor and began to beat each other up, both with punches, hard slaps and with vitriolic words. Their hands also lashed at each other's hair, seized locks of it and tore it out of their owners' scalps, inflicting INTENSE pain on each other, strands of hair flying from the brawling pair and coming to rest gently on the floor. Plumeria's group cheered and chanted for their leader to beat Wisteria to a pulp but the brawling girls' screaming and slap noises hadn't gone unnoticed by another audience, an older one. Diamond, Trunklegs and several other teachers and teaching assistants rushed in and converged on the brawling Plumeria and Wisteria. Then once they were upon the pair, they began to drag the brawling opponents apart but not before Plumeria managed to rake her fingernails like a cat's claws over Wisteria's cheek, inflicting a set of claw marks which then began to weep blood. Wisteria's hands flew to her face and she began to release cries of pain from her scratched cheek, Plumeria looking caustically, remorselessly and sadistically on as two teachers continued dragged her away. She had managed to inflict a set of NASTY claw marks on Wisteria's cheek but then Wisteria shot her nemesis a glare and began to vomit violent threats and names at her, Plumeria retorting with a disgusting fountain of profanity of her own.
"ALRIGHT, THAT'S ENOUGH, BOTH OF YA!" Trunklegs shouted as he continued to help drag Wisteria away while another teacher rushed off to fetch a medical kit for Wisteria's scratched face. Plumeria's clique, however, had already fled to avoid the teachers. From the sidelines, Lyra looked on tearfully, stunned at the fight but then Plumeria shot her an INCREDIBLY caustic glare and flashed her a threatening hand gesture, making her flinch and leave.
A little while later
Wisteria, her scratched face treated with band aids placed over the claw marks Plumeria had given her, was back in her family's home undergoing a SERIOUS lecture from her father Iscan who was CROSS with her for fighting with Plumeria. Fighting was NOT tolerated and Iscan had in mind to punish his daughter for her behaviour, something Wisteria dreaded for she HATED being in trouble with her father but she had good reason to be. As for Plumeria and her company, however, their parents, such as Plumeria's parents Sharkfin and Maleficent did nothing to discipline their daughters' rotten behaviour as usual despite demands from Iscan and the other tribe members who were parents, including Lyra's parents Flint and Diamond, that they do so.
While Diamond got prepared to leave for her house with her daughter Lyra, Trunklegs came in after the disturbed atmosphere caused by the brawling Wisteria and Plumeria was sorted. Lyra had also recovered from her ordeal with Plumeria and her gang but she was still stinging from the insults from the nasty girl band.
"We just had note from our chief Iscan, we're gonna have a group of visitors to our island in a few days," said the muscled woodsman whose legs were thick like tree trunks, "They are environmentalists and their leader is named Larkspur, a nature specialist but they won't arrive until the storm out there is over. After all, it is too hazardous to set sail in conditions like this."
Diamond gazed outside at the pouring rain as lightning flashed and thunder grumbled and returned her look to Trunklegs.
"That sounds good," she replied with delight, "What will Larkspur and his group be doing? Helping us to evaluate the health of our island's wildlife?"
"That and helping us to seek out new possible farming areas without harming the environment too much," said Trunklegs. He then winced as a thunderclap crashed outside, "I think we'd better head home before that storm gets any worse. We'll talk about this later."
"Okay, see you soon," said Diamond and with that, she and Lyra left and launched into a sprint once they were out of the door, leaving Trunklegs to pack his own things and head to his house and family. He looked forward to a nice slice of lamb and baked potatoes cooked by his wife once he got to his home.
Diamond and Lyra rushed for their house and charged in. Once they were inside, Diamond closed the door and the mother and daughter shook the excess rainwater from their coats as Flint came in after hearing the door open. He had been getting the fire going with some wood.
"Hi, honey, sorry we're late," said Diamond as Flint approached her and gave her a kiss on the cheek as a greeting. Diamond then shed her waterlogged coat and placed it over a rack near the fireplace to dry. Lyra, however, had other ideas.
"Mom, Dad, can I check on our mare Snø to make sure she's alright?" asked she. Her parents exchanged looks and gazed at her.
"Okay, but be quick," said Flint, "The storm's quite bad out there."
"Yes, and we've got dinner to prepare," added Diamond. Lyra then seized the opportunity, rushed for the door and darted out into the rainy environment outside. As their daughter left, Diamond immediately set to preparing the food for the family's afternoon meal while Flint returned to tending to the fire. Lyra kept to her word and hurried to the stable to check on her family's horse, Snø. However, the young girl had something else on her mind as well. She checked on the mare and upon seeing that she was fine, Lyra tore from the stable and rushed through the rain for the barn. It was practically dark and rain continued to pelt the village. Lightning flashed in the sky and lit up the dark atmosphere smothering Hav Av Stjerner in a few blinks. Lyra continued in the direction of the barn until finally, the outline of the large building melted into view through the dark rains. Then another flash of lightning lit up the barn. Immediately, Lyra rushed for it, darted for the door and immediately unlocked it. Then she entered the building, closed the door and headed off for a certain area where she had placed a clutch of collected 'rocks'. However, as she approached the underground compartment, her ears whistled with the sounds of caws and squeaks. At first, Lyra thought they were birds but then she felt excitement hit her nerves and she accelerated to the area faster. However, once she arrived at the compartment she had turned into a nursery with the eggs, she was greeted by an awesome sight, her eyes widening excitedly.
The room was no longer filled with colourful eggs, but rather broken eggshells which lay strewn all over the floor like pieces of pottery but the things that caught Lyra's eyes the most were the creatures. Five of the creatures resembled cat-eyed axolotls with bat-like wings, eleven more resembled draconic birds, another was a colourful snake with wings, another was red, blue and yellow and sported three heads, and seven more resembled beaked reptiles with faintly glowing markings. The creatures were only the size of cats or small dogs but that was because they were newly hatched but the three-headed creature and the winged rainbow snake were larger. Lyra put her hands and chin on the gate leading to the compartment and admired the creatures, 25 in total, as they then turned their gazes her way and squeaked. As the creatures and the girl locked eyes, the creatures began to converge on Lyra, wondering what sort of creature she was. Then as the 25 creatures gathered at the foot of the gate near Lyra's feet, Lyra smiled all the more and began to extend a hand to one of them, the winged axolotl whose colour scheme resembled the sky at dawn or dusk. Lyra uttered coos as she continued to lower her hand to the creature and as soon as her hand was low enough, the twilight-sky coloured axolotl nuzzled its head onto the girl's palm and cooed as well. Lyra smiled affectionately and soon began to pet the other creatures on their heads. However, the three-headed one's three heads began to quarrel with each other over who will get petted first. Lyra gave then a slight rebuke and extended both her hands to the three-headed creature to pet all three heads at once. The three heads nuzzled against her hands and uttered low purrs to Lyra's amusement. At the sight of the creatures, Lyra soon forgot all about Plumeria and her group's nastiness to her and the pain they inflicted on her at the school... for now.
Sorry for the long delay in uploading this chapter but I wanted to do other things