Afternoon. School has just gotten out, and all the little ones return home right away, taken home by bus or their parent's cars. The young children are eager to get home, like 8-year-old Lydia, who quickly throws her backpack in her bedroom just after getting home, and immediately rushes back downstairs. "Kestrel!" she called, running to grab her brother.
"Huh? What?" her younger twin brother asked, turning in her direction.
"I talked to our friends from the forest this morning." she told him. "They said they had something they wanted to show us!" she jumped up and down excitedly.
"'Forest friends'? Who?" their mother echoed curiously.
"Don't you remember?" Lydia asked. "The ones we tried to show you the other day?"
"Oh, those..." their mother commented distastefully. "You know I don't like you playing with all those wild animals... they could have diseases!"
"But they're not animals!" the twins persisted. "Why couldn't you see?" Kestrel asked.
"Just... go play." their mother ordered, dismissing the subject. "But I don't want to see you touching any wild animals!"
The two sighed. "Fine..." they hummed. "Not animals..." Kestrel mumbled under his breath.
As they made their way outside, they both rushed for the foresty area that they were fortunate enough to have in their backyard. There was plenty of woodland area to explore, and from the looks of things, the place was full of wildlife.
...And more.
"We're home!" Lydia called excitedly, bounding into the forest. As the twin's entered, the wildlife around them immediately made themselves known, as the area seemed to immediately be filled with the commotion of the surrounding fauna. A small flock of butterflies flew past the children's faces, and many of them landed on nearby tree branches.
"Hey!" Lydia called. "What was it you were gonna show us?"
The butterflies began to turn around, revealing that their undersides did not look at all like that of insects, but rather of humanoids. Fairies with butterfly wings. "Oh, you mean what I mentioned this morning?" one of them asked, fluttering towards the two of them.
"Yeah! That!" Lydia jumped in the air excitedly, eager to see what it was.
As they spoke, several other creatures began to make themselves known. At first glance, it would appear two turtles were about to emerge from a nearby creek. But as the turtles lifted their heads, their duck-like beaks became visible. The two kappa emerged from the water and climbed onto land on their hind legs, waddling towards the children and fairies. "Oh, you mean what the salamanders showed us last night?" one asked.
"Mhmm..." the fairies hummed, continuing on their way. As they walked, the rest of the forest became aware of the presence of the twins, and the creatures came out of their hiding spots; making themselves known, and following along with the rest of the group.
"Hey, you guys..." Kestrel spoke up timidly. "How come we're the only ones who can really, you know, see you?" he asked. "'Cause I mean... when we tried bringing Tabitha into the house, our mom only saw a normal fox..."
"Oh yes, I remember that..." Tabitha, the kitsune, spoke up distastefully. Apparently, the children had tried showing the fox-like creature to their mother once by bringing her into the house, but all the woman saw was an ordinary fox, which she chased out of the house with a broom. Not a pleasant memory...
A small, golden phoenix landing on a low-lying branch sighed and shook his head. "To answer your question, Kestrel..." he spoke up. "We can only show ourselves to kids like you."
"Why's that, Kato?" Lydia asked.
The phoenix, Kato, tried to explain that adults really didn't believe in beings like himself. And that if they showed themselves to adults, bad things could happen... but the children didn't understand and persisted in asking.
The jackalope at their feet sighed. "You wouldn't understand..." he told them. "Not that you need to. You're just kids, after all. You don't have to worry about it." he dismissed the subject.
A short silence followed before the creatures led the children to the top of the hill. Looking down, they saw a sort of flame at the base, but it was hard to see much else... what was going on?
So the twins proceeded to scale down the side of the hill, careful to not go too fast and trample whatever was at the bottom. When they made it to the base of the hill, they crouched down and carefully looked over whatever was in the small firey pit, the rest of their forest friends crowding around them as well. What they saw were the salamanders, the small red lizards whose bodies each emanated a weak flame, and they all seemed to be weaving themselves around three large... eggs?
"Kiara, what are those?" Kestrel asked.
"Those," the fairy Kiara spoke up, hovering over the salamanders and their find. "...are dragon eggs."
"Dragon eggs?!" the twins exclaimed. "Like... real dragon eggs?" Lydia asked.
"Well of course they're real," a raspy, frog-like voice spoke up, as one of the salamanders craned his head up at the children. "And alive, too, odd as it may seem... we have no idea how they got here, either. But they're here and that's what matters."
"When did they get here?" Lydia asked.
"Well we're not sure," Kiara answered. "But we only found them last night. Isn't that the strangest thing? The salamanders knew they had to get warm right away, so they immediately went into heating mode." she chuckled. "And dragon eggs have to be kept extremely warm, which is why they're practically frying them..."
“Ooooooh I can't wait to see them hatch!” Lydia cooed excitedly, practically bouncing with eagerness.
Unfortunately though, dragon eggs take a very long time to hatch, possibly many years, as their friends soon explained... which, to a pair of eight-year-olds, is forever. But despite this, the two were still determined to one day see the eggs hatch. They kept coming back day after day, but...
Several years passed and the dragons still hadn't seen life. After that, their visits with the creatures in their backyard became scarcer and scarcer as they grew older and became busier with other things. By the time they were both ten, they only returned to the forest once every one or two weeks, and even more occassionally as they grew even older. As they grew into teenagers, they started to forget their old friends’ names, and the magic of their existance began to disappear. Each time they looked into that old backyard as they grew older, their wondrous friends... gradually became ordinary animals.
By the time Lydia and Kestrel were adults, they denied the existance of such creatures entirely, and accepted that it was just their overactive imaginations.
And eventually the twins grew old enough that they each got married and had their own kids. And the twins filled their childrens’ minds with stories of the adventures had with their old forest friends. They made the ultimate bedtime stories.
One family reunion was spent at the house that Lydia and Kestrel grew up in. As the adults socialized and talked about their adult lives, the next generation of kids wandered and explored, and eventually found themselves charging into adventure- the unexplored forest that lay behind the house.
As the handful of young children approached, though, something quickly caught their eyes- it appeared to be... fire? Some sort of flame off in the distance? Curiosity overwhelming them, the children all ran, highly eager to see exactly what it was they were seeing. As they ran, the wildlife of the woodland began to make itself known. Some turtles appeared in a nearby creek, butterflies flew past....
They eventually reached the base of a hill, and at the bottom of that hill were three large eggs, all appearing to be engulfed in a firey glow, nested in a patch of somewhat burnt grass. The children murmured many questions... what exactly were they looking at? What had they found?
The young ones were shocked as their confused voices were interrupted by the fact that the eggs had begun to move, before a large crack appeared down the center of one of the eggs, followed by the others. The next generation of kids, of the few who were lucky enough to still see the creatures such as these watched in awe as a young creature of flame tore through the tough eggshell. Surrounded by the other creatures, the children saw the being of flame peeking his head out for the first time, greeting the young ones with a smile, his siblings soon to follow.
Only kids can see the forest creatures. Only children are innocent enough, pure enough... Kestrel and Lydia eventually outgrew their friends, but, they were not the last to see such fantastical adventures....
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Originally Posted by Kagamine
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