*Crack!*
Vasari watched in excitement when the egg with black scales also started cracking followed by the purple egg.
*Crack!* *Crack!* *Crack!*
The eggs cracked further and some pieces started breaking off the egg shell. Vasari saw a small, white scaly leg kick out from the white egg.
He wanted to help them by removing some of the broken eggshells but decided against it and allowed the newborn dragons to do so by themselves.
The first one to completely hatch from its egg was the white one. Vasari and the hatchling locked eyes before it opened its mouth to release the cutest squeal Vasari has ever heard. It used its 4 tiny legs to instinctively run towards Vasari.
Vasari extended out his arms and picked up the small newborn dragon, no bigger than 20 centimetres in length. The hatchling had smooth white scales similar to Vasari and golden irises with vertical slit pupils. Its tail, which was half the size of its body, wagged like a puppy while it stared at Vasari and squealed for attention.
'What do I do now?' Vasari asked himself. Should he get it milk or maybe meat? He didn't know, but before he could go into a full-blown panic, he heard another cute squeal in front of him.
Vasari looked at the baby dragon climbing out of the black egg with bright eyes. He reached out with his free hand and picked it up before putting the sibling's side by side.
The second newborn dragon had pitch-black scales that were contradictory to his brother's pristine white scales. Its eyes were blood red and its tail was slightly thicker than the white hatchlings.
The siblings looked at each other in confusion before they started poking each other with their heads and licking each other with their tiny tongues.
*Swqqee!*
While the siblings got used to each other, Vasari turned his focus to the purple egg, which a baby dragon had just emerged from.
"Come here, little guy," Vasari said with excitement oozing from his being. The 3rd newborn dragon had dark purple scales and baby blue irises.
In Vasari's hands, 3 recently hatched dragons were looking up at him with affection. The first thing they saw in their life was the handsome face of Vasari and instinctively thought of him as their mother. Vasari scratched their scaly bodies with his fingers and they seemed to enjoy it. The purple hatchling even turned on his back and let Vasari scratch his tummy.
"What should I name you boys?" Vasari asked himself. His brain worked at extreme speeds to think of the perfect names for his children.
"You will be Atlas." He said while looking at the oldest of the three hatchlings. "Since you were the first one to hatch, you will be the older brother and your job will be to protect your siblings, hence the name Atlas. You will be their guide and their support whenever I'm not with you."
The white newborn dragon couldn't understand a word Vasari said, but a glint of intelligence shone within its golden eyes and the words were engraved into his very soul.
"You will be Daedrym. The shield of our little family. With you near, no harm will ever encroach upon your siblings." Vasari said while scratching the black-scaled newborn dragon's back.
"And you, you will be Vero. You seem like a cheeky one so I hope you don't give your older brothers too much of a hard time." Vasari chuckled while looking at the purple-scaled hatchling who was a little smaller than his older brothers but was much quicker than them.
Vasari's gentle expression soon turned solemn when he turned to the pink egg that had yet to hatch. He put little dragons on the ground and let them roam the empty room by themselves. He gently picked up the pink egg and brought it close to his face.
"Is there something wrong? Should I just wait?" Vasari didn't know what to do. He didn't know if there was something wrong with the egg or not.
"I can feel life inside the egg, but maybe it just needs more time to hatch. I should just leave it for now." Vasari reasoned and put the egg back onto the ground.
'I'll feed the little ones some meat for now and get them milk and water to drink.'
Vasari took out a fist-sized piece of raw meat from his spatial ring that he prepared beforehand and placed it on the ground. The newborn dragons smelt the raw meat and came running towards it. They comically tripped over their own feet but shook it off and continued towards the meat.
When they reached it, they opened their tiny jaws wide and Vasari watched in awe at how their tiny razor-sharp teeth easily pierced the meat and bit off a small chunk before swallowing it without chewing. While they were eating, Vasari dashed towards the kitchen to get milk and water.
He heard the girls conversing in the dining room, but he was too much in a rush to hear what they were talking about.
He returned to the room with a carton of milk and a large jug of water. He took out 2 bowls that the wolf cubs used when they were younger and filled one up with milk and the other with water before placing it on the floor.
When Vasari looked up, his right eyebrow twitched when he saw the piece of meat had completely vanished and the bloated bellies of the hatchlings.
"So gluttonous…"
'It's been 10 minutes since I've unsealed my eyes, and it's still ok, it seems the Mana in my body is helping. Oh and before I forget.' Vasari took out his new short sword from his spatial ring before storing it inside his left eye's subspace.
'How long should I leave it in there for? Agh, I'll just take it out whenever I need it.'
After drinking their fill of milk, the hatchlings fell asleep. The cute sight of the 3 brothers sleeping next to each other was forever engraved into Vasari's memory.
Not needing to keep an eye on the hatchlings for now, Vasari sealed his eyes and decided to do some cultivating.
After absorbing the Primal Yin of Talia, Jiang Xia and Gia, Vasari found that his Superior Qi to Mana conversion speed had improved dramatically.
In just 6 hours, he went from 50% of converted Mana to 65%, which was a massive boost compared to only converting 3-5% a day.
'Their Primal Yin not only contained copious amounts of energy but also their some comprehension they've gained through cultivation.'
It was for this reason that many 'evil' cultivators would often capture virgin female cultivators and rape them just to gain their insights on cultivation. The influx of energy was often regarded as a bonus boost unless you had a high-class dual cultivation technique as Vasari did and was able to convert that untainted, raw energy into different types of energy.
Vasari had gained insights into Talia's comprehension of the metal element, Gia's comprehension of the earth and wood elements and Jiang Xia's comprehension of the wind element.
It was a shame he took Witney's Primal Yin before she could gain any unique experience on using any element but he had zero regrets.
Hiromi's insights were too basic for Vasari to gain anything significant. This was mainly because of her planet's pitiful knowledge of cultivation and poor cultivation conditions, not due to her potential.
"Still no sign of hatching, huh?" Vasari said in a low voice to not wake the sleeping hatchlings. He picked up the pink egg in front of him and placed it on his lap while he stroked the hard scales protecting it.
A ton of memories flooded his thoughts while rubbing the egg, especially memories of the day he received the eggs. Coincidentally, it was also the day that his Nana disappeared.
He would never forget the pain, unwillingness and affection of her voice when giving the eggs to him.
*****
"My dear, there's something important we need to talk about."
Hearing the only voice he's ever known, other than his own, teen Vasari sat up and turned to face the direction the voice came from.
"Nana, is something wrong? You sound sad."
He wasn't used to her sounding so solemn and without the gentleness and affection he had come accustomed to.
"There are bad people who are chasing Nana and they have unfortunately found me. I need to leave this forest before they come and I can't take you with me because it will be too dangerous."
"Nana…Nana is leaving?"
"Yes, my dear, but I have 2 gifts for you. Hold out your hands."
Vasari did as he was told and held out his hands. He suddenly felt a thick book land in his outstretched hands.
"That book is the one and only issue of Dance of Dragons. It's a Dual Cultivation technique and I have a feeling you will be needing it plenty in the near future."
Vasari felt the book with his hands and it felt like an ordinary book to him.
"Unseal your eyes and put them in your sub-space. I still have another gift for you."
Young Vasari nodded and performed a hand sign for a minute before opening his eyes. He quickly stored the book in the sub-space before sealing it again. He could only keep his eyes open for 3 seconds before an excruciating pain assaulted his body.
"In front of you, I've placed 4 eggs. These eggs belonged to my older sister before she passed. They are old, very old in fact, and the only reason they have not hatched yet is because I used a formation to slow down their hatching, but now that I've removed the formation they will hatch in 5 years."
"But Nana, do you really have to go? I don't want you to go and I can't look after eggs."
Tears started escaping from Vasari's closed eyes and it pained Nana's heart to see this.
"I don't want to leave either, but I have to. Remember that you will have numerous people coming and going in your life, but unfortunately, that is a natural process of life.
It's time you grow up and become stronger so you won't have the people close to you suddenly leaving because only the strongest have that privilege. You also have to remember that you're not only becoming stronger for yourself but also those babies below you.
As a father, it's your job to protect them and teach them. Set up achievable goals for yourself and make sure you achieve them. Do this, and before you know it, you will be where you want to be. Keep the eggs in your eyes sub-space until they hatch, they will absorb the excess energy of your eyes, taking some of the burden off your body."
Nana's speech was abruptly cut short when a loud booming sound echoed throughout the forest. Nana panicked but quickly left Vasari one last message.
"Get stronger so that one day you can save me like before. Goodbye Vasari, I love you."
The gentle and loving voice that had constantly been by Vasari's side disappeared, leaving a blind 13-year-old boy standing in front of 4 plain, cream-coloured eggs.
–––––
"Sigh…it feels like such a long time ago now."
*Crack.*
Just then, Vasari heard a soft cracking noise. His previous melancholic expression was replaced by excitement and he quickly unsealed his eyes to witness the hatching of his eighth child.
Vasari watched how small cracks started appearing all over the pink egg. Unlike how the previous hatchlings broke out their egg using brute force, this one was gentle and after every second, more and more cracks appeared until the entire egg was covered in small cracks.
Atlas, Daedrym and Vero had woken up due to the noise and joined Vasari in watching their youngest sibling hatch from its egg.
*poof!*
Vasari nearly jumped in fright when the egg exploded in his hands, he panicked, thinking that something horrible happened.
However, he released a sigh of relief when he felt something small crawling on his palms.
"Hello, little one." He said to the small hatchling looking up at him. The newborn dragon had pale pink scales and bright pink irises. Its body was much smaller than the others, but the light of curiosity in its eyes was much brighter than the others.
"A female," Vasari said while bringing his hands closer to his face. The hatchling leaned closer to Vasari and started licking his face and even bit his nose.
"Hehe, that tickles." Vasari brought out a small piece of meat for the pink-scaled hatchling, who greedily started chomping down on it.
While the baby dragon ate the meat, Vasari thought of a name for her.
"You will be Kartara."
After she ate her fill and drank some milk, Vasari placed Kartara next to her brothers on the floor.
Vasari watched their interactions with a gentle smile on his face, but soon a huge problem came to mind.
'Where do I keep them?'