Locked Legacies

Chapter VII: Not half right

 "Move, little girl!" A man carrying a heavy barrel exclaimed at the top of his lungs after almost running over the eighteen-year-old. Faylinn, who was grinding some dried mushrooms with her eyes half-closed, flinched at the sudden yelling but immediately returned to her task; she was used to that dynamic.

"Faylinn, go get the eggs outside," Hector, her father, assigned her yet another chore. She looked at him quizzically, gesturing towards the mashing instrument to make him understand she was already trying to comply with the first one. He grunted, "Just... Finish that after fetching the eggs."

She swung the door open and lazily picked up a basket, heading towards the henhouse with the least motivation possible. It was the task she found the most annoying; one of the animals would always find a way to escape and she would have to run behind it. Between the bad night's sleep, the yelling in the kitchen, and the overload of tasks, she was not exactly having a fabulous morning. To be honest, no day was ever thrilling; she dreaded the routine and working like a mule. To make it worse, her ten-year-old brother interrupted her. "Hey, Bobolyne," the little boy called her attention with an insult, as usual. She decided to ignore it; she had understood it would be useless to complain about it, and she was not going to start being proud now.

"What, Elias? What on the damning world do you need?" She reacted at the other factor in the mess of her day, trying to keep her cool but failing miserably. He just laughed at her moodiness, which annoyed her even more than his mere presence, if that was even possible.

"Mama wants you to take a coat to Prince Gabriel and get her the clothes that Prince Augustus has to get mended," he informed, sitting on the little stairs. Faylinn, without uttering a word, shoved the basket onto her brother's arms, who whined at the sudden assignation of the chore. "What am I supposed to do with this?!"

"You are supposed to do something productive for the first time in your whole life!" She chimed, stomping indoors once again.

At that point in the morning, Augustus had already lost track of time. Among all the reading and relentless thinking, his internal clock started failing. He must have spent around three hours sitting on his bed with his recent discoveries lying in front of him, inspecting every single page and trying to connect dots in his mind. But he wouldn't stop himself; not until someone interrupted him, at least.

The texts and drawings had, unexpectedly, provided more questions than answers. The first unsolved mystery was the drawing of a dragon egg, surrounded by rocks which, he guessed would work as a nest (one he had never in his life seen or learned about). Next to it, in parenthesis, was the word "red", which had no apparent meaning at that moment. There was a report underneath it that was divided into weeks and talked about its growth.

Week one: This egg definitely does not have scales, which is rather odd. It is completely polished and looks more like a precious rock. Another distinctive characteristic is the symbol at the bottom. I do not dare to get too close, but the reddish color signals it probably belongs to a fire dragon.

Week twelve: The color has changed into a light purple. I assume it is a new species of hybrid (fire+air) just like the Gas Diabolus. No significant growth.

Week twenty-four: The egg is now green. I do not know what to expect because it is impossible for a hybrid of three elements to exist. The symbol is more noticeable now.

Week fifty: This is a breed that is officially far from common knowledge. I might have to wait to be king to explore the Dragon Encyclopedia. The egg has grown significantly and because of its size, I predict it will have hatched in three weeks. But, again, it is not like anything I've ever seen, so there is no way to be sure.