40. Wounds #2
Aeden looked over Nyra before he left. She was coiled up, her eyes shut tightly but flickering. He wondered if she was dreaming, and if she was, what she was dreaming about.
“I’m proud of you, girl,” he said before following Harrison and Lyric out of the hatchery.
The two of them led around the corner, towards where Lyric’s workshop was, except this time, they carried on walking beyond it and through a large fenced area.
The fence must have stood at thirty feet at least. It was made of a combination of wood and metal panels, and in truth, it looked in a bit of a dire state.
Sections of the wood were rotten, with mites doing their best to reduce the wood to nothing more than a hollowed-out husk.
Metal panels had clear signs of rusting on the outer edges, sections of which had holes in them.
As they passed through the gate, it fought back against Lyric with a mighty groan, he himself needing to exert pressure and strength just to open it. It squeaked loudly as he opened it up wide enough for them to walk through .
Lyric and Harrison vanished within, and Aeden picked up his own pace to catch them both up. When he stepped through, he was greeted with a metal cage that surrounded them with another gate on the inside, which was more mesh-like.
“Now, be careful, and don’t go poking your fingers through those gaps. The healers will be grand at healing a stump, but they ain’t so clever at regenerating limbs,” Lyric said.
There was enough room for the three of them to stand inside the mesh cage comfortably. It was like they were the ones in an enclosure, however, as Aeden looked out at the field on the outside of the cage.
The small field was surrounded by the high fence, which was clearly still able to do its job of containing the Aer-Kin, a cluster of which were clumped together.
Aeden instantly recognised the large copper-coloured one, who Lyric had named Copper Top.
It was curled up into a ball, surround by the other Aer-Kin Aeden had initially seen in the whelping pen.
They were snuggled up into him, forming a tight formation, including Midnight, who sat on top of a sleeping Bertha.
To Aeden’s surprise, there were six other clusters of Aer-Kin containing six to eight Aer-Kin each, all of them of varying colours and sizes.
Some dashed around the enclosure, others chose to sleep, while one or two would occasionally stop to growl at each other.
Aeden’s heart lifted at the sight of them all.
Carefree and happy. Lyric was clearly doing such a good job of nurturing them.
“Wow,” Harrison said. He was pressed up against the mesh, his fingers clinging on to the side as he watched all of the Aer-Kin in the field .
“There’s so many of them,” Aeden said. There were far more than when Aeden and Nyra had left the hatchery for the training field. He couldn’t imagine that was enough time for all of these to hatch and for Lyric to move them.
Lyric simply laughed. “Why do you think I’m so tired?
You didn’t think that through the night there was only the Aer-Kin you saw in the whelping pen hatch?
These blighters have been keeping me more than busy.
Obviously I’m not on my own, but we have a cohort’s worth of eggs to hatch and nurture.
The ones you saw were the latest group of eggs to hatch.
They tend to stick together in clusters to start off.
It’s a comfort thing. As they get bigger, they start to learn which of their brothers and sisters are from the same breeding group and start to split off. ”
“Do they?” Harrison said. “That’s fascinating, I didn’t realise they did that, I thought it was just the academy that segregated classes.”
“Yeah, they’re drawn towards similar breeds as them. I’ve no idea why, but it happens every single time.”
“Have there been more that didn’t make it?” Aeden asked as he thought about the small jet-black Aer-Kin who had passed away.
Lyric nodded. “Aye, unfortunately. There’s nothing can be done, I suppose. It’s just nature being nature. No matter how cruel it feels at times, there’s nothing that can be done about it. Doesn’t mean you stop taking it personally, though. It doesn’t make it any easier, either.”
“How many haven’t made it?” Aeden asked.
“So far including Night, we’ve lost three.”
“You still named them?” Aeden asked .
“Of course I did. They deserve as much dignity as I can afford them, even if they pass before they get a chance to breathe new life. It’s the least they deserve.”
One thing that couldn’t be denied was Lyric’s compassion for the Aer-Kin that were in his care. He cared for them more than anyone else at the academy, and not just because they would eventually bond with riders and serve Nevaria; he cared for them as living beings, in and of themselves.
Aeden watched them in the field, and for a time he found his worries and the things that had happened during the day slipping away. Both he and Harrison were transfixed as they watched all of the Aer-Kin’s movements and their behaviour.
Aeden let out a large, over-exaggerated yawn as he found himself stretching out his arms. He was exhausted.
“You should get some rest,” Lyric said. “The amount of magic you must’ve used to heal Nyra, I’m not surprised. Why don’t you head back to your room and get some rest.”
Aeden had no intention of resting. He would do that tonight. He wanted to power through his tiredness and head to the archives to do some more digging on the Battle of Weir.
For now, though, he just wanted to watch the Aer-Kin and forget about the rest of his and Nyra’s troubles.