Chapter 5- the care of Lyra's dragons begins

Back at the Delphinus family's house, Diamond continued preparing dinner while Flint continued to check the fire, ensuring that the flames had enough wood to continue burning and adding more fuel and changing the logs' position with an iron rod when and where necessary. Thunder clapped in the rainy, stormy air outside and the lightning's flashes blinked through the windows. The house was lit with lamps and the fire from the fireplace.

"How was work, honey?" asked Flint as he left the fireplace, satisfied that the fire was burning well before placing more waterlogged clothes onto the rack near the fire to allow the heat from the flames to dry them. Diamond breathed out a sigh in response to this question.

"It went well Flint, but Plumeria kept misbehaving at our school," she replied grumpily.

"Why? What's happened?" asked Flint. Then a frown formed on his face as if he knew, "Let me guess, Plumeria has been causing trouble for the other pupils again?"

"She kept upsetting our daughter Lyra and interrupting the lesson but these are the least of the incidents," Diamond replied, an angry look on her face as she continued to fry some of the fish Flint had brought back, "She got into a fight with our niece Wisteria."

Flint winced and shot her a disbelieving look. "You're kidding me, Diamond."

"No I'm not," Diamond honestly replied, "I don't know whether it was Wisteria or Plumeria who initiated the fight first but their behaviour had been UTTERLY inappropriate and intolerable. Iscan is dealing with Wisteria right now and I hope Sharkfin is doing the same with his daughter Plumeria."

Flint shook his head in indignation. "I hope that man gets his daughter's behaviour under control or he's sure to face some serious consequences."

Diamond nodded in agreement and continued preparing the fish while Flint went to set the table.

"By the way, have you heard that Larkspur the environmentalist and his group will be visiting our island soon?" asked Diamond, "It won't be until after this storm. He's gonna help us determine which areas of land on our island would be suitable for responsible farming without harming the environment as well as check the health of our habitats to see if our sourcing of nature needs any improving or modifying."

"Oh, he's very knowledgeable about nature and how to look after it, isn't he?" asked Flint with a smile, "I heard that he used to help in the care of dragons at one point until he eventually traded the job for general nature care due to the troubled relationship dragons have with most of the Viking tribes living in this area."

Diamond nodded in agreement but then she noticed something. "Where is Lyra?"

"She should be back here by now after checking on our mare Snø," said Flint, his frowned gaze on the outside stormy air through the window, "After all, it's VERY stormy out there and it can be dangerous."

Then a bad feeling washed over Diamond and she immediately put her kitchen knife down.

"I hope she's..." she began, remembering Plumeria and her clique bullying her and upsetting her. Immediately, Flint seized a spare coat and put it on.

"You look after the house and the fire and continue to prepare our afternoon meal while I go out and look for our daughter," he said, "I might even enlist the help of your brother Iscan and tell him what has happened."

Then without wasting another second, he seized the door, opened it and darted out into the stormy outside, the door slamming behind him while Diamond continued to prepare dinner, hoping that Lyra was alright. However, she knew that she could not go out of the house due to the fire and she knew if the fire was left unattended, it can be dangerous.

Flint rocketed through the storm, fighting against the rain and winds as lightning flashed in the sky in the direction of Iscan's house. In the house of the clan leader, Iscan and his family had just settled into their dinner prepared for them by Hollyhair, Iscan's wife, and Wisteria who had been grounded for a month and penalised with nothing but housework such as scrubbing the floor and cleaning up after mealtimes for her behaviour at the school with Plumeria. The scratch on Wisteria's cheek inflicted on her by Plumeria had been cleaned and covered with a plaster and it caused the sister of Herbert and triplets Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral pain. Wisteria did regret initiating the fight with Plumeria but still.

"I just can't believe Plumeria would cross the line like that," Herbert muttered, his gaze on his sister's cheek, "Look at what she had done to her face."

"Let's just leave it, son," Iscan commanded, "And eat your dinner."

Herbert sighed and jabbed his fork into a potato to eat it. Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral also gazed at the disgruntled Wisteria's cheek and continued eating their meals. Suddenly, a bang on the door alerted the family of seven.

"Sounds urgent," Hollyhair said but then a shout exploded from the knocker on the other side of the door to Iscan's family's house.

"ISCAN, GUYS!"

"That's Uncle Flint," said Wisteria, al sourness put aside for this moment, "And he sounds panicked."

Immediately, Iscan rose from his chair and went over to the door. He then opened it and he was greeted with indeed a frantic and stressed out Flint, his brother-in-law, standing in the stormy rain and panting from running so fast.

"What's the problem Flint?" asked Iscan, his wife and children looking on in curiosity.

"It's my DAUGHTER LYRA," Flint blurted out stressfully, "She's not returned to our house after leaving to check on our mare! I'm dreading she may have lost her way in the storm."

Iscan flinched and flashed a look at his family and turned it back to his brother-in-law, a worried look forming on his face.

"We'd better look for her and QUICKLY!" he said. Then Herbert rose from his seat and joined the two men.

"I'm coming with you too," said he. At first, Iscan stood there, reluctant in allowing his son to join the search for Lyra but then he relented.

"Hollyhair, you stay with our other kids while we go help Flint look for Lyra," he said.

"Can we come with you, Father?" asked Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral in unison and with that, they stood up but Iscan commanded, "No you three, you stay with your mother and sister. It's too dangerous."

Then before the triplets could protest, their father and older brother disappeared out of the door after their uncle. Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral sourly sat down and resumed their meal at Hollyhair's command, Wisteria looking on disapprovingly.

And so, out in the stormy air, the three men dashed through the rain as thunder growled and lightning flashed in the sky, the rain and wind battering them. On the way, Flint told Iscan and Herbert again that Lyra had gone to check on Snø and so he lead them in the direction of the mare's stable, hoping that Lyra would be there. As soon as they arrived at Snø's stable, they began to search in and around the area, shouting Lyra's name. However, to the three men's UTMOST dismay, she was nowhere to be found. Then another thought of another location Lyra often went to hit Flint; the barn. Immediately, he lead Iscan and Herbert through the winds and pouring rain in the direction of that building and as soon as the outline of the large construction melted into view through the rain, lightning lighting it up briefly, the three men accelerated toward it. As soon as they were at the door, they burst through it and into the large storehouse and began to look for Lyra, shouting her name and checking each area, looking under every hay bale and farming tools. While Iscan and Flint looked under and around the stacks of hay bales, Herbert saw the stairwell leading to the underground compartment. Immediately, he went over to the stairwell and descended it, arriving at a little gate at the foot. He then peered into the compartment over the gate but when he saw what was in here, a MASSIVE gasp was drawn through his mouth.

"DAAD, UNCLE FLIIINT!" Flint and Iscan heard the young man's voice and snapped their gazes in his direction. Immediately, they darted for the entrance to the underground compartment, descended its stairwell and found Herbert peering into the area. Herbert then pointed a finger into the compartment; his eyes widened and mouth agape. Iscan and Herbert followed his point and when they saw what Herbert saw, they flinched and threw on FLABBERGASTED faces as well. In the underground compartment was a sullen young girl, clearly Flint's daughter and surrounding her was a group of unusual animals. However, these animals weren't farm birds such as geese or chickens. Neither were they sheep, goats or pigs. They were of various bright colours and had scales and wings. Some bore metallic scales and had wings resembling a cross between a bird and a bat's, some resembled axolotls with wings, some resembled birds but without the feathers, one was a colourful snake with wings and one had three heads, each of a different colour, and large wings as well. Stacked against one hay bale was a pile of pottery-like fragments, all of various colours. Iscan, Flint and Herbert looked on as the girl, Lyra, continued to overlook the creatures chirping, squeaking and crawling about. One of the winged axolotls, the dusk sky one, nuzzled against her and she patted its head with her hand. It took a while for the three men to register what they were seeing and at one point, they thought they were imagining things but they soon realised that the scene was DEFINITELY real.

"Are you two seeing what I'm seeing!?" Flint asked the other two after some stunned silence. Iscan and Herbert nodded speechlessly. Then Lyra slowly turned her sullen gaze their way as Flint slowly and warily opened the gate, his eyes on the creatures as they crawled around. He cautiously then began to creep by them by carefully placing his feet between them so as to avoid stepping on any of them. The creatures' eyes turned and fixed onto him in curiosity as he waded through them towards Lyra.

"Are those creatures..." began Herbert to which Iscan nodded. Then as soon as Flint was near Lyra, he pulled his daughter into a relieved hug.

"Oh, don't you EVER do this to us again, my daughter," the father rebuked tearfully as she returned the hug, "I thought you had a BAD accident in the storm or something while checking on Snø."

Lyra, however, didn't reply and continued returning the hug. Then after breaking the hug, Flint began to gaze at the creatures creeping around, 25 in total, in UTMOST astonishment. Then Iscan and Herbert carefully entered the compartment, being wary of the creatures as they also gazed at them curiously. On the way, Iscan identified their species.

"Jewel Sparklewings..." he said, his gaze on some of the metallic bird-like creatures with the bird/bat hybrid wings, "Nebulous Pterostars..." he gazed at the black beaked reptiles resembling pterosaurs and bearing faintly glowing markings. Herbert went over to one of them, the red and black one and looked at it closely. However, he winced when the pterosaur-like creature snapped its beak at him. Iscan continued to identify the creatures' species.

"A Glistening Rainboptere..." he eyed the winged rainbow snake as it slithered by, "A Troublesome Tricolour..." he looked at the three-headed one, the red and orange one gazing his way while the blue and yellow heads interacted with a white winged axolotl. Iscan turned his gaze and winced when he identified the species of this creature.

"A Light Fury!?" he gasped. He then saw another white winged axolotl climbing onto the hay bale, "ANOTHER Light Fury!?"

"Um, Dad, I think you ought to see THESE creatures near Lyra," said Herbert. Iscan came over to his son and he pointed to what was near Lyra. Immediately, his eyes winded and his mouth dropped open. Flint also saw them and winced.

"A-a-a Dusk Fury and TWO..." began Iscan as he gazed at the two black and the dusk sky winged axolotls. The two black ones gazed cutely at the three men with their lime green and orange-yellow cat-like eyes. Then after overcoming the stun of seeing them, Iscan finally spoke.

"I-I-I thought Toothless, Hiccup's dragon friend, was the last Night Fury alive," he said in astonishment. Then the orange-yellow eyed black axolotl uttered a chirp and dropped from the hay bale, followed by the other black axolotl and the dusk sky one. The lime green eyed black axolotl scurried past Herbert's feet, nearly making him stumble, and then began to play with two of the bird-like creatures, identified by Iscan as Jewel Sparklewings. Then Iscan turned a glare at Lyra, making her flinch.

"Where did you find these baby dragons, niece!?" he demanded, a gesture to the creatures.

"I-I-I found them in-in-in a cave out in the Emerald Grasslands d-d-during our trip to Aventurine Woods," Lyra timidly replied, "I found them as eggs. Initially I thought they were rare rocks but then I saw that they were actually dragon eggs so I brought them down here and turned this room into a nursery for them..." she then gazed at the creatures as they continued to frolic and play around. One of the Jewel Sparklewings, the metallic red one, then began to peck at Herbert's shoes to his annoyance. Herbet took a step back as the creature continued nibbling at his shoe tips. Lyra gazed in a begging manner at her uncle and father, "Can I keep them... please?"

Flint and Iscan exchanged looks.

"I don't know how the other villagers are gonna react when they find these dragons," said the former. He then turned to the frolicking dragons as they continued to squeak and play, "But since these have just hatched, we're gonna have to care for them and raise them. We don't have a choice."

"Indeed," Iscan said in agreement, "We can't just abandon them. Our tribe, the Quartz Tribe, may have given up caring for dragons since Grimmel and his gang infiltrated our island and caused them trouble," he turned his glare on the two black winged axolotls, the Night Furies, "Especially for that little Night Fury clan which he slaughtered in cold blood, Tiny Tooths and all. But we cannot abandon these creatures. They're too vulnerable. We'll keep them from the rest of our village for now until the right time."

"But how and where are we gonna raise them?" asked Flint. As he asked this, Herbert counted the number of dragons Lyra had hatched.

"I know, we'll keep them in a pen in Snø's stable," said Flint, answering his own question, "Our mare's stable is massive so it should be large enough to house these dragons but it will only serve as their temporary home while they are Tiny Tooths and still small. Once they grow and become too big to be kept in Snø's stable, we will have to move them to a bigger home."

"Then make it so," said Iscan, Lyra gazing at her newly hatched reptiles as they continued to frolic and play. Herbert soon reached the number 25 and noted this to Iscan and Flint.

One week later

The 25 dragons frolicked in a pen set up for them by Flint, Iscan and their families in Snø's stable they had built over the past seven days. Nearby from her pen, the white mare looked on at the colourful winged reptiles curiously. One of the Nebulous Pterostars, the white and black one, hopped onto the fence of the pen with its wing-hands on the top and gazed curiously at the mare, leading to the two animals staring at each other for a while before the white Pterostar broke the stare and dropped from the fence to play with the other baby dragons. The dragons were only small for they were only two days old. The Night, Light and Dusk Furies were about the size of small ponies while the Jewel Sparklewings, eleven of them, were the size of teen sheep. The pterosaur-like Nebulous Pterostars were slightly bigger and were about half the size of Snø but the biggest of the baby dragons were the snake-like Glistening Rainboptere and the three-headed Troublesome Tricolour. Both were three-quarters Snø's size as the adults of these dragon species were of the larger size, bigger than an adult Night Fury. Outside in the air above Hav Av Stjerner, the storm seemed to have eased off with only a few clouds remaining and a few bouts of rain. The conditions had improved for the usual activates of the village to resume and Iscan was expecting Larkspur and his group to arrive soon, now that the conditions were safer for sailing to be possible. In the Delphinus household, Lyra was preparing to go to school as usual while Diamond tidied away the plates after washing them after breakfast and Flint got together some fish.

"Our dragons will need to be fed often and they will need plenty of attention and stimulation as well as exercise," said the father to his daughter, "But while you are at school, I will be the one to feed and play with them. You can only take over once your school day is finished."

"Aww, but can I just have one day off to spend more time with them?" begged Lyra.

"No, Lyra, let your father look after the dragons," said Diamond firmly as she put the last of the plates away, "School is far more important. Like your father said, you can return to them once your school day is finished and you return from it."

Diamond, together with Hollyhair, Wisteria, Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral had been notified of the 25 dragons' existence by Herbert, Iscan and Flint and had been to see them so that they knew about them. However, they promised to keep their existence confidential from the other villagers until the time was right to reveal them and had helped to build their pen. Furthermore, Iscan had plans to seek help about the dragons once they were old enough, preferably past fledgling age when they learned to fly, wary of the potential vulnerability the dragons, especially the two Night Furies, were to troublesome humans such as poachers and hunters and remembering what happened when Grimmel the Grisly and his group visited his island when they had dragons living on it, especially the Night Fury clan. In fact, seeing the two Night Fury babies brought back an avalanche of bad memories for the poor leader of the Quartz Tribe regarding that event when he and some of his higher ranking tribe members found what had become of the Night Furies they had looked after at the hands of Grimmel the Grisly and his gang after they left. Additionally, Iscan believed that the two Night Furies were the last of that clan that had died which was one of the reasons why he wanted to urgently seek help from another tribe regarding them and the other dragons Lyra had found, but he had one certain Viking tribe in mind, having remembered how their relationship with dragons had drastically improved thanks to a certain son of their leader who had a Night Fury as his dragon friend.

Iscan, Flint and their families had also identified the sexes of the winged reptiles. The orange-yellow eyed Night Fury, the cerulean eyed Light Fury, the Dusk Fury, the Troublesome Tricolour, the Glistening Rainboptere and the Gold, Emerald (metallic green), Garnet (metallic red), Amber (metallic yellow-orange) and Onyx (metallic black) Jewel Sparklewings, and the Red, Green and Blue Nebulous Pterostars were male while the lime-green eyed Night Fury, powder blue eyed Light Fury, the Silver, Sapphire (metallic blue), Amethyst (metallic violet), Ruby (metallic pink), Aquamarine (metallic aqua blue) and Peridot (metallic lime green) Jewel Sparklewings and the Magenta, Cyan, Yellow and White Nebulous Pterostars were female. However, they were yet to be named and Lyra had begun brainstorming names for these 25 dragons, all of who technically belonged to her for she had raised and hatched them from their eggs, and she had already had a few names for some of them in mind though Wisteria, Herbert, Volstagg, Fandral and Hogun had suggested a few names to her as well.

Lyra packed her things into her bag and prepared to leave the house with Diamond to go to school like they usually did every morning on a school day. Diamond herself prepared for a day of teaching and she checked her notes and equipment and she also hoped that Plumeria and her clique were better behaved this time. During the past week, that group of girls had continued to misbehave and cause trouble for everyone else but thankfully, the group had not been igniting fights with anyone else which Diamond and the other teachers were glad for. But still, Plumeria and her group were volatile and opportunistic; they were prepared to seize the chance of fighting with another student and landing them in trouble when the time was right. So far, they had been watched closely and no incidences had occurred and Diamond and the other teachers had hoped that Plumeria and her group will STAY that way. Then after checking that she had everything packed, Diamond got prepared to depart the house for the school with Lyra, who had also packed the things she had needed for the day, including her lunch. As the mother and daughter left the house, Diamond gave Flint a kiss on the cheek as he himself got ready for his day ahead with one task in mind. He had some fish prepared and was going to leave for Snø's stable where Lyra's dragons were held.

"Have a good day, dear and daughter," said he as his wife and daughter left the house in the direction of the school. Then after he himself had prepared the dragons' meal for the day, Flint left the house and went over to the stable.

As soon as he entered Snø's stable, he checked the mare to make sure that she had enough food and that her pen was clean (Snø had already had her morning run in the paddock), Flint turned his attention on the young dragons, now a week old. The colourful reptiles emitted excited chirps and gathered at the side of their pen nearest to him as he approached them and took out the first fish from his sack. One of the Night Furies, the male orange-yellow eyed one, emitted a loud call, wanting to be fed first but Flint had in mind to feed all of them. Then as soon as he had the first fish out of the sack, he tossed the fish at the dragons. As soon as the fish flew near them, the 25 reptiles launched themselves at them and began to quarrel over the meal but Flint quickly reached into his sack, pulled out more fish and tossed them at the dragons as well to quell the quarrelling. He continued to do this until he had finally emptied his sack. After this, he watched on as the dragons ate their meal, the sounds of slurping and chomping flooding the air. Flint winced in slight disgust as one of the Pterostars, the Magenta one, wolfed down one of the fish whole like a gannet.

"Ugh, you sure are greedy at times, dragons," he grunted. He then saw the three heads of the Tricolour begin to quarrel with each other over their fish. Immediately, he went over to the three-in-one reptile and barked at them in rebuke.

"Hey, cut it out and take in turns, you three," he scolded. He then seized the fish from the Troublesome Tricolour as the blue, yellow and red heads continued squabbling over it and yelled at them again, making the three heads stop. Then Flint directly fed the fish to the three dragon heads on at a time, starting with the red head on the far right.

"Just like any other dragon with more than one head," grumbled the father of Lyra as he fed the fish to the Tricolour, the middle yellow one taking his turn to take a piece, "I remember having to deal with a few Hideous Zipplebacks whose heads often quarrelled. Thankfully, that Mystery Class dragon only has TWO heads to deal with and NOT three."

Then after the blue head took his turn in taking the last of the fish from Flint's hands, Flint, seeing that his job is done, then turned round, picked up the sack and left to return to the house to get some more fish and vegetables. Dragons were not only meat eaters. Some were herbivorous and omnivorous as well, especially the Jewel Sparklewings which also dined on fruit and veg. As he left to return to the house to bet more food for the dragons, a stream of memories flowed through Flint's mind as he was reminded of the Quartz Tribe's history with caring for dragons. Flint used to care for Tiny Tooths, a job he did most frequently for he loved helping to raise baby dragons, especially those of the Night Fury clan that used to live on the Island of Máni before Grimmel slaughtered them.