Chapter 6- Hollyhair's lesson to Lyra about her dragons

A few days later

The storm soon passed and the sun showed its radiant face from behind the clouds for the first time in the days the storm lasted. Luckily, no one was hurt in the storm but the same could not be said for some of the houses and the trees that grew in and around the village. Some of the trees had been uprooted by the storm's winds and toppled while a few of the houses had suffered damage, either from the winds or the fallen trees. Thus some of the villagers, most of them men, had set to work to clear away this damage and repair the damaged houses. They sought to the trees by cutting up their trunks and branches to reduce the trees into manageable pieces for removal for moving a whole tree was impractical. The trees' wood will be used either as firewood or materials to help fix the damaged houses and the villagers had in mind to plant saplings to replace them. After all, the Hav Av Stjerner villagers liked having trees growing in and around their village as it gave their village a touch of nature. While the workers continued their tasks with the trees and the houses, the rest of the tribe continued their usual lives with the kids going to the school and their parents taking care of their homes except those with damaged buildings and they had been moved to spare shelters until their houses were repaired unless their houses' damage was minimal. Additionally, Larkspur the nature expert and his group had finally arrived to the Isle of Máni, having docked his boat in a bay area of the island the villagers have named Blå Bay with the word translating to 'blue' in English due to the blue flowers growing nearby, as well as the fact that it was a protrusion of part of the sea into the island's coast. The Vikings' sailboats were of the primitive sort people often thought of when thinking about certain peoples in ancient times in our world that sailed the seas. The Quartz Tribe used sailboats for fishing and at times whaling though they rarely hunted for whales due to how difficult the job of hauling a whale's carcass was back to the island. The Hooligan Tribe also used sailboats to travel between islands of their area and also to fish and go to war besides the aerial transport on their dragon companions when they made peace with the reptiles. Larkspur's people were another group of people that also used sailboats to travel between islands out at sea to visit the tribes living in these areas and their main job was to advise them on how to manage their environments and responsible resource extraction.

The villagers of Hav Av Stjerner continued their usual activities with some surveying any additional damage caused by the storm besides the tears in some of the houses and blown-down trees. Fixing the damage will take a number of days and today, it was a day off from school so the kids were not at school. So to make up for the time they would normally have at school, they participated in a variety of other useful activities. Some of the kids played a version of ball in the clearing in the middle of the village while some of the others stayed in their homes to either help their parents with the housework, did homework or played indoor games. Herbert, Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral and also Norman who still had a crush on Lyra were helping in the tasks of chopping up the felled trees to turn into logs or building materials while their father Iscan had gone to meet Larkspur down at Blå Bay with some of his inner circle members. Hollyhair, Iscan's wife and Herbert, Wisteria, Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral's mother had gone to Flint and his family's place to help Diamond and Lyra with their tasks while Wisteria continued with the housework at Iscan and his family's home. A number of the other kids also helped out with fixing the damage caused by the storm (by doing safer, simpler tasks set for them) or simply just played other games outside but not all of them were making good use of their time off. Plumeria and her clique, as usual, messed around and gossiped especially about Lyra and Wisteria. And although they had not caused trouble for anyone else lately, they still did so with their mouths. It was clear that Sharkfin and Maleficent had NOT disciplined their daughter and other children for bad behaviour despite Iscan's constant warnings and neither did Asha's rich parents or the parents of some of the other girls in the clique such as the parents of Viola, Veruca and Lily. However, some of the girls did leave the clique as their parents had finally put their foot down with them and gave them serious punishments. Now those girls will NEVER mix with Plumeria and her clique again. As a result, Plumeria's clique was reduced to a smaller number.

Plumeria's parents Sharkfin and Maleficent were very poor parents and I am sorry to say that their household was a very troubled one. In it, Maleficent was the boss who always wore the boss's trousers while Sharkfin, despite his name referring to a fierce predatory fish, was a bumbling dimwit who acted as his wife's servant of the house. This was an unhealthy family structure as the general structure of the family the Quartz Tribe followed was with the husband as the head and leader of the house and the wife being normally in charge of the housework and raising the children if any were had. In single men and women of the tribe who chose not to get married, they always applied their hands to other useful work and tasks with the men usually helping with heavy work duties and the women, normally cooking, teaching the children at the school and making fabrics though this was not always the case and there were exceptions. Back with Plumeria's family, Maleficent had commanded Sharkfin not to discipline their daughter as she had done nothing wrong (which was NOT true) and Sharkfin who should NOT have listened to his wife as well as stop and think, had obeyed without question. Furthermore and even worse, Maleficent approved of Plumeria and her other children's but especially daughters' bad behaviour and kept encouraging them to continue to behave that way because, after all, she saw them, especially Plumeria who was the eldest of her children, as better than everyone else in the tribe. This was putting the family on a dangerous slippery slope with a steep incline and sooner or later, something will HAVE to give for them.

While the other children in the village either played outside, indoors or studied, Lyra was in her mare Snø's stable spending time with her dragons and also her horse. It was clear that the 25 winged reptiles had bonded with the young girl for she had been the first living thing they had seen after their hatching. Lyra continued playing with her dragons as they continued to frolic in their pen. She emitted giggles as they nuzzled against her and pushed past her. She then petted one of the Light Furies, the powder blue eyed female, as she nuzzled against her and she did the same to the Dusk Fury when he also nuzzled against her. Lyra had a few plans for the dragons for the day including giving them names and taking them out for a walk for their daily exercise once the other villagers were back in their homes. However, she knew that sooner or later, the dragons will have to be revealed to the rest of the villagers and when that time came, it will indeed be an UTMOST shock to everyone. As Lyra continued to play with her dragons, Hollyhair, her aunt, entered the stable with a bag of food. She had come from her family's house to check on Lyra and the dragons as well as help feed them and the meals she had brought for the dragons today was chicken, lamb or mutton, venison (deer meat) and fruit.

"Hi, my niece, how are you and your dragons doing?" asked Iscan's wife.

"Oh, fine, thanks, Auntie Hollyhair," Lyra replied. She sounded much happier than she did over a week ago, possibly because she had not been interacting with Plumeria for that past time. Each time Plumeria and her clique crossed paths with her, they would ALWAYS try and seize an opportunity to bully her and each time that happened, Lyra would end up miserable with her confidence crushed and it could take several days to build it back up again but they had apparently not bothered with trying to find her and cause her trouble over the past number of days. Her family and extended family were grateful for this and hoped that Plumeria and her remaining clique continue to keep their distance from her. However, this may not be the case. Lyra then turned to the dragons as Hollyhair placed the sack onto a crate close to the dragons' pen and opened it.

"I was just about to name my dragons as I have realised that I have not done that yet," she said, "I was thinking of names like Mjölnir or Korra..." she gazed at the two white axolotl-like dragons, the Light Furies, with a smile. The two Light Furies blinked their vivid blue cat-like eyes as they gazed at her. Hollyhair came in with some lamb which was uncooked for dragons could eat raw meat even as Tiny Tooths, unlike humans who had to cook it for eating raw meat was a health risk for them.

"When our tribe used to care for dragons," she said as she prepared to feed the slab of sheep meat to the dragons in the pen, some of them getting excited at the sight and smell of the food. The Garnet Sparklewing, the metallic red one, jumped up and snapped his jaws at the meat but Hollyhair raised it out of its reach as it was not yet his time to receive it right now. "We used to give them names. As you remember, the lead Night Fury and his mate of the Night Fury clan we used to care for and host on our island were named Shadow and Ebony respectively. I named their eldest daughter and offspring Midnight based on the infamous and sinister-looking so-called death and lightning's offspring's jet black scales which camouflaged the dragon against the pitch black sky. Midnight was the heir to the lead female role of the clan and was betrothed to become the mate of a male Night Fury named Pitch-Black, chosen by Shadow to be the male heir to the leadership role for all of Shadow and Ebony's offspring had been daughters."

Lyra smiled and gazed at the Onyx Sparklewing when Hollyhair mentioned 'jet black'.

"Jet, that would be a great name for the metallic black Sparklewing," she said to which Hollyhair smiled.

"So were the dragon species you hosted and looked after on this island besides the Night Fury clan EXTREMELY rare and endangered?" asked she.

"Yes, but only some of them," said Hollyhair as she then fed the slab of lamb to the dragons who then immediately seized it and began to rip it up to share amongst themselves. Hollyhair got prepared to scold them should any quarrels break out but thankfully, the dragons did not enter into a squabble and began to feast on the sheep meat fairly. Satisfied that the dragons were willing to share, Hollyhair pulled out some apples and prepared to feed the dragons them as well. She then turned to Lyra to explain her answer to her question. "Some of the critically endangered species included the Dusk Fury, the Jewel Sparklewing, the Nebulous Pterostar, the Glistening Rainboptere and the Troublesome Tricolour," she turned her gaze to the three headed, three coloured dragon as they feasted on a piece of the sheep meat she had given them, "And also the Golden Dragon, ESPECIALLY this one since their reproductive rate is VERY slow with only one egg, rarely two, laid by the female once every 100 years of her life, and another dragon species called the Regnbupine, a colourful dragon of the Sharp Class. It was a colourful dragon that had an amber body and a rainbow-coloured coat of quills covering its neck down to its rear. Its quills were normally soft but the dragon could harden and fire those quills when it is threatened. Its eyes were bug-like and cute and it had a wide mouth. The Regnbupine did have a breath weapon; its fireballs but its main weapon of choice was its colourful quills."

Lyra smiled in fascination before she turned her gaze to the Gold Sparklewing.

"Speaking of Golden Dragons, I initially thought that the Gold Sparklewing's egg was an egg of a Golden Dragon until his hatching disproved that," said she with slight disappointment, "I would have been UTTERLY thrilled to have SUCH a rare dragon in my collection."

The Gold Sparklewing came up to her and Hollyhair and the latter petted him on the head and fed him an apple.

"The eggs of the Jewel Sparklewing species which show what morph the Tiny Tooth will hatch from based on their shell colour, do look extraordinarily like giant metallic rocks at first glance," Hollyhair said, "And the Gold morph's eggs certainly do resemble the eggs of the Golden Dragon but the Gold Sparklewing's eggs are slightly smaller and rounder than a Golden Dragon's eggs," she then turned to Lyra, "And Jewel Sparklewing Tiny Tooths are like geese and some other birds in some ways. They imprint on the first living thing they see after hatching, and that first living thing should be their parents."

Lyra gazed at her aunt as she continued with a stern face, "But because these eleven Sparklewings you have hatched are orphans and that you're the first living thing they have seen after their hatching, that makes YOU their parent."

Lyra shot her aunt a shocked look, especially as some of the Sparklewings, their wings resembling a cross between a bird and a bat's, came up to her.

"Are you meaning to say I'm like their MOTHER!?" she asked incredulously. In response, Hollyhair handed her some of the food.

"Yes, so although we are helping you to raise these reptiles, they are really expecting you to care for them and to feed them," she continued, "So in other words, you are to be like their parent if you will."

Lyra gazed at the Sparklewings as they gathered around her and squeaked to her, their eyes on the apples she had in her hands. Immediately, she gave the apples to the metallic bird-bat hybrid winged reptiles and they immediately seized the apples and ate them. As they ate the apples, Lyra gazed at the strange shape of the Sparklewings' wings, fascinated at how they resembled the wings of a soaring bird despite being membranous.

"That bird/bat hybrid wing design the Jewel Sparklewing has grants them excellent manoeuvrability in the air," explained Hollyhair, "As you can see, their first three fingers support the pieces of the membrane shaped like a bird's primary flight feathers while the fourth finger supports the rest of the wing. That part bird, part bat wing, together with their tail skin 'plumes' allow the Jewel Sparklewing to deftly and agilely fly in the air. They are also fast flyers though they are not as fast as the Night, Light and Dusk Furies unless trained well enough to be able to rival those peregrine falcon dragons."

"Should their wings or tail end up damaged, they wouldn't be able to fly, would they?" asked Lyra. Hollyhair shook her head to show her agreement.

"Small tears can heal but significant damage that would otherwise compromise their wings and tail could render a Jewel Sparklewing flightless," said she, "Just like how the loss of a major part of even one half of the tailfin of the Night, Light or Dusk Fury would permanently ground them. Such injuries to the wings or tail of a dragon that depends on them for agility and ballast in the air are irreparable and fixing injuries like that is beyond or prosthetics makers' knowledge. Thankfully, we didn't have to deal with that when we looked after our dragons until we had to release them following Grimmel's 'visit'..." she then took some more food out of her sack and went over to Lyra with it so that she could feed these to the dragons.

"But anyway, moving on," Hollyhair continued, "The Jewel Sparklewing is VERY rare but not as rare as the Golden Dragon but still. Because of their eggs' sparkling jewel-like shells and also scales, they are highly sought-after by dragon poachers and hunters... ESPECIALLY the Sparklewings of the Onyx variant which is the rarest of the eleven morphs of the Sparklewing species," she eyed the Onyx Sparklewing as she said this as Lyra fed him some mutton, "Grimmel the Grisly, aside from his slaughter of the Night Fury clan, had managed to snaffle a nest of two Onyx Sparklewing eggs during his visit to the UTMOST heartbreak of the Onyx Sparklewing couple. No matter how much or where we searched, we just could not find the eggs and we deduced that Grimmel had done more than just kill the Night Furies and some other dragons but the two Onyx Sparklewing eggs hadn't been the only eggs he and his group had stolen."

"One of the reasons you sent the dragons away, isn't it?" asked Lyra. Hollyhair nodded before continuing. She turned her gaze to the seven Nebulous Pterostars as they ate some venison and mutton.

"The Nebulous Pterostar, which also comes in more than one morph, is also rare," she examined, "with the White variant being the rarest. They, too, imprint on their parents or any first living object they lay their eyes on when they hatch so the seven you have hatched will have also imprinted on you, Lyra."

Lyra gazed at the bioluminescent pterosaur-like dragons as they continued to feed, the Cyan one swallowing her piece of meat like a gannet but tipping her head back such that her long pointy beak was vertical.

"We had all seven variants of the Pterostar living with us on our island including just one White variant individual who was coupled with a Red one," Hollyhair said, "They, too, are fast and agile and possess a deadly weapon on their heads; their spikes. Obviously, they are small on these young Pterostars at the moment but as they grow, so will their weapon. Nebulous Pterostars utilise those head blades as both a hunting tool and a weapon. One Nebulous Pterostar managed to gouge a gash in the side of Grimmel's ship's hull as he was sailing away following his visitor-disguised-intrusion to attack our dragons but Grimmel and his crew managed to escape on their other ships."

Lyra gazed nervously at the young Pterostars as they continued to feed as Hollyhair then turned her eyes to the Glistening Rainboptere, the dragon resembling a rainbow serpent with wings.

"The Glistening Rainboptere is one of the few dragon species in which the male and the female has different physical traits," said she, "In Tiny Tooths these differences are not very obvious but when those Tiny Tooths reach adolescence those differences will manifest."

"Male Rainbopteres have more elaborate eyespots on their frills and tailfins than the females, don't they?" asked Lyra.

"Correct, my niece," said Hollyhair, "And although your Rainboptere is still very young, we have managed to sex the dragon and found it to be a male. Once he reaches adolescence, his frill and tailfins will be developing some beautiful eyespots. If he were a female, those frill and tail eyespots will be simpler and duller. Finally, we come to the three-headed Troublesome Tricolour..." she turned to the three-headed dragon as the heads began to search for more food. Immediately, Lyra tossed some apples, veg and meat at the three-headed dragon and the heads seized the food and began to eat it.

"Unlike most dragons in which parental care is essential for the Tiny Tooths as in the Jewel Sparklewing, Nebulous Pterostar and also the Glistening Rainboptere and the Night, Light and Dusk Furies," Hollyhair explained, "Troublesome Tricolour Tiny Tooths are independent almost straight from hatching and instinctively, the three heads are forced to work together for their survival. However, the dragon can still be tamed and ridden by humans but each head must be treated equally as each of the three heads each has its own personality just like in other multi-headed dragons like the Hideous Zippleback, a dragon species with two heads, and the four-headed Snaptrapper."

"Each head of the Troublesome Tricolour also has its own breath weapon doesn't it?" asked Lyra.

"Yes," said Hollyhair, "The red and orange head shoots fire, the yellow one shoots lightning and the blue one, ice. Due to the three different breath weapons the Tricolour is capable of, they are even more dangerous than the Hideous Zippleback whose breath weapons are a flammable green mist and a spark."

"And what about the Dusk Fury?" asked Lyra, her nod to the axolotl-like dragon whose colour scheme resembled the sky at dawn or dusk.

"They are close relatives to the Night and Light Furies," Hollyhair explained, "Some have even described the Dusk Fury as being the offspring of a Night and a Light Fury. However, they are nothing of the sort and are their own separate species. They have all the abilities and weaknesses of a Night and Light Fury including the power dive and reliance on their tailfins for flight respectively, but they also possess an ability that the Night and Light Furies have no access to and that is the ability to shoot lightning from their mouths like the yellow head of the Troublesome Tricolour. Furthermore, they can shoot ball lightning but this skill is VERY difficult to master so only a few Dusk Furies have managed to master it. But when they do master the ball lightning breath, they can be a SERIOUS force to be reckoned with as ball lightning shots can deal more damage than the plasma blasts normally fired by the Night and Light Furies and also the Dusk Furies themselves."

"Cool," cried Lyra in fascination.

"It sounds cool but you might wanna be prepared to change your mind when you actually encounter a Dusk Fury capable of shooting lightning balls," Hollyhair said sternly, wiping the fascinated smile off Lyra's face. However, Lyra immediately perked up and lifted a piece of paper.

"But that aside, I have managed to come up with some names for my dragons," said she, "I think they deserve to have their own names to save me having to refer to them as for example, 'that Dusk Fury' or 'that Onyx Sparklewing..."

"That's a very good idea, niece," said Hollyhair with a smile, "It's just like how we named many of our dragon friends when they used to live on our island."

A little while later

The Hav Av Stjerner villagers continued their activities with the workers continuing their damage repair jobs. Herbert helped his brothers Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral take a piece of log away to Trunklegs' workshop for the woodsman who was also a woodworker as well as a blacksmith, to turn into building materials for the damaged houses. As they did that, their father Iscan returned to the village with his group. With them was another group of humans lead by a man. This man was slimmer than Iscan but was still well muscled. He had dark brown hair and wore a bear's skin for his outfit, leather trousers (also called pants in the Americas and some other countries), black leather shoes and a chainmail around his waist. He wore a metallic helmet adorned with bull's horns, a trait that often comes to mind when people thought of Vikings. This man was Larkspur the nature expert and he had finally landed on the Isle of Máni with his crew and had been guided by Iscan and his group to the village. Larkspur and his men were a bit fatigued from the uphill climb to Hav Av Stjerner's location and some of them were still panting.

"Boy you sure have chosen a difficult spot to build your village, Iscan," grumbled the brown-haired man before he entered into another episode of panting. His men took some time to get their breath back.

"It's ALWAYS so hard to reach up here each time we visit you," added one of them.

"Well, being high up has its advantages," said Iscan with a smile, "It gives us an excellent view of the stars and it's good exercise for us after our outings."

"Huh, glad our village isn't located in such a high spot," Larkspur complained before he resumed following the Quartz Tribe leader.

"As you can see, our village have taken some damage from the storm hence why you're seeing some of us working to clear away the fallen trees and fix the houses that had suffered," Iscan gestured to the site where the workers were up to their jobs.

"I'm not surprised you have suffered some damage from that storm," Larkspur said, "Being this high up can make you more vulnerable to storms but that's your tribe's concern anyway. So where are we headed?"

"To Aventurine Woods and the Emerald Grasslands," said Iscan and with that, he and his men began to lead Larkspur and his group out of Hav Av Stjerner and towards the other side of the village where they will began their descent downhill (to Larkspur and his group's dismay).

As Larkspur and his men walked through the village after Iscan, Volstagg, the triplet who whose outfit was yellow, saw them. Iscan's four sons had just finished delivering the piece of the trunk to Trunklegs to process into building materials for the broken houses.

"Hey, Herbert, who are those guys?" Volstagg asked and with that, he pointed to Larkspur and his men. Herbert, Fandral and Hogun, the latter two who wore red and blue outfits respectively, came in and followed their brother's point.

"That's Larkspur the Naturist," Herbert replied, "He's a nature expert and he helps tribes in responsible natural resource management. He is going to help Dad find some land to farm responsibly as well as check on the health of Aventurine Woods and its ecosystems."

"Interestin'," squeaked Fandral excitedly, "Wish I were a nature expert."

"Huh, nature sure is borin'," grumbled Hogun with boredom and folded arms.

"Well, it is important to know about our environment, little brothers," said Herbert, "Remember what Dad said about how our reliance on nature has shaped our lives over the past nine generations since our ancestors settled here: we need to know how to use trees responsibly as well as hunt and be aware of the dangers of the woods and grasslands, such as the predatory animals that live in them."

"And how to deal with them?" asked Volstagg.

"I remember Mr Kleavor telling us that he had to deal with a bear to save Norman who is his son when he got lost in the woods, and had killed it with his bare hands," said Hogun.

"Kleavor is an expert hunter who is knowledgeable about the dangerous animals that lurk in Aventurine Woods," said Herbert, "And he is experienced in dealing with dangerous beasts as well but he will ONLY resort to using his bare hands in extreme circumstances. After all, taking on a vicious beast like a mountain lion or a bear with only your hands and not weapons can be EXTREMELY dangerous."

Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral gazed back at their older brother in agreement. Though they were silly and immature, they knew full well of the dangers of predatory animals like bears and mountain lions and had hoped to NEVER have to deal with them. Then the triplets and Herbert returned to the work site to collect more wood from the fallen trees for Trunklegs.