Feye's hatchery quest [part 1]

Feye would like to think she’s pretty average in terms of life experiences. Growing up, she lived with her parents and younger brother in a manor, situated between a large forest that was part of the property, while her father was a somewhat wealthy merchant who would keep the entire family afloat. Her mother simply stayed at home, and did ‘womanly things’ like cooking or knitting, according to society. It may seem odd, but that was what it was like back then- women weren’t allowed to write, study, or do anything, really. Men were the breadwinners, the ones who could own property, but most of all, were the only ones allowed to be dragon riders. But Feye secretly felt like that was wrong, and she had a sneaking suspicion that her mother did too.

The first time she had seen a dragon, it wasn’t a particularly shocking experience. In fact, it was just another average day, and she was probably five and chasing bugs outside on the grass, her parents too busy inside with their newborn child- her brother- to really scold her for wandering off and playing. It turned out that the manor she lived in was near a gathering of dragon riders, because at that time dragons were seen as wild beasts and riders as uncivilised people by the general public, so they were simply segregated away from the rest of society to ‘protect’ them. Feye didn’t know about any of that until later, of course, but at that moment all she saw was a shadow passing overhead.

Feye looked up, expecting to see a bird, perhaps an eagle or vulture, as after all it was a big shadow. Instead, she saw… Something that looked like a bird, but was definitely not one, considering it was bright purple on the underside and had way too long of a tail to be a regular bird. She stood there, stunned, as the ‘bird’ flew overhead at a steady rate. However, she soon realised it was angling itself down to land, and worse, the landing spot was near their house.

So the five year old Feye, rightfully terrified as the figure got closer and closer and she realised that it was way bigger than she thought and also carrying a person- which is another thing she’ll ponder over for years to come- ran scrambling to her parents inside. “Watch out!” She yelled out, fearing not for her safety but more for her brother and parents’. “There’s a bird-thing and it’s coming near the house!”

Her mother, having left her brother to the care of her father at the sound of her voice, ran out and took a look at the dragon, who turned out to be just a courier delivering mail to their house. She had then explained as much to the girl who was still in fight-or-flight mode, and after a bit of talking that yes dragons are real and yes they won’t hurt us, five-year-old Feye took the thing in decent stride.

Well, that was of course, before the war.