Lyra Dracorider's Arc

Chapter 12 of 15

Lyra spent the morning moving between the creature's enclosure and the wyverns' stone den, checking each bandage and listening to each breath. The wyverns were restless without their usual treatment, shifting their weight and flexing wings that needed to stay still. Sierra returned before noon with a man who wore the council's crest on his coat and carried a rolled parchment sealed with blue wax. The seal showed a crescent moon, and when he broke it open, Lyra saw Carson Greybeck's name written at the top of the registration document. "The creature was legally registered to Mr. Greybeck three months ago," the official said, smoothing the parchment flat against the stone wall near the cherry tree. "Miss Leonmane has no claim here." Sierra's face went pale, then red. "Carson wouldn't—he broke up with me because I moved it before the wing healed. He said I didn't care what happened to it." The official looked at Lyra. "Mr. Greybeck filed a report yesterday stating the creature escaped his property after Miss Leonmane released it without permission. He's granted you temporary custody until it's stable enough to return." He produced a second document—an agreement with Lyra's hospital listed as the authorized recovery site. "He'll collect it himself when you clear it for transport." Sierra left without the creature, without the saddle she'd brought, without anything but the truth that she'd lost what she'd tried to take back by force. Lyra signed the agreement and pinned it inside the hospital door, then returned to the enclosure where the creature was awake and watching her. She knelt and started humming, and this time the creature didn't flinch. It had an owner who cared whether it healed correctly, and Lyra had the legal right to make sure it did.