Lyra Dracorider's Arc

Chapter 4 of 15

Lyra was halfway through reorganizing the supply shelf when she heard hoofbeats outside. She stepped into the cold and saw Sebastian approaching on his gryphon, the familiar silhouette cutting through the morning fog. She met him at the stone den. Sebastian dismounted and walked straight to the wyvern without waiting for her to speak. He knelt beside it, ran his hand along its neck, and examined the wing. Lyra stayed near the entrance, watching him check the joint she'd worked on for days. When he looked up, his expression had softened. "The bone's stable," he said. "You did it." Lyra didn't correct him about the transport damage. The wyvern could fly again — that was what mattered. Sebastian stood and told her he was taking the wyvern home today, that he'd prepared a place for it. Lyra felt the timeline she'd been racing against collapse into nothing. She helped him secure the wyvern for travel, humming low while Sebastian wrapped the wing in a padded brace. The creature stayed calm under her voice. When they lifted it onto the gryphon's back, Lyra kept one hand on its shoulder until Sebastian was seated. He told her the wyvern's name was Prestige, and that he'd built an ice home for it near a stone wall and cherry blossom tree at the edge of his land. Lyra nodded and stepped back. She wanted to ask how long the rehabilitation would take, whether he'd need her help with the exercises, but she didn't. This wasn't her project anymore. Sebastian lifted off and Lyra stood in the snow-dusted clearing, watching them disappear over the trees. The den behind her was empty now. She turned and walked back to the foxes and the basilisk, the creatures that were still hers to finish. Her journal was waiting on the bench. She opened it and crossed out the wyvern's name, then wrote the basilisk's release date at the top of a clean page. The work wasn't lighter, but it was clearer. She knew what she had left to do.