Chapter 2: Like Clockwork

Cynthia clapped her hands twice "alright everybody, times up. We've got work to do!" She announced, and all of the birds turned towards the door and began to head back. The dogs tumbled around and eventually made it to the whole in the wall one by one, and Thia quickly followed with another promise to replace the young donkey's bandages in the morning.

Walking into her room, she saw the dogs standing in a crowded circle and the birds back in their cages. The birds were definitely the smartest of her babies, and always seemed fed up with the stupid puppies.

She quickly unclamped the leashes from all 14 dogs and then directed them back into their cage, shutting and locking the door behind them. She slid the box of leashes back under her bed and pulled out another box.

This one was larger than the leash bin, and held a large array of things. Fishing through it all she reached for the bottom, pulling out a dainty blue and silver hair pin and stuck it into the bun at the top of her head. She kept her hair like this every chance she got— half up, half down.

The Mistress mandated that they all wore their hair down, but because she was a Flower, she was able to make small changes.

But it wasn't just to anger the adults that she did it, although it definitely was a perk. She kept it tied up so she could wear this hairpin; her prized possession.

This hairpin was a rather recent thing she hatched. Only one other person knew of its existence, and that was one of the older Flowers. The two girls were so close that they regarded each other as sisters.

The moment Cynthia had shown Lindsey the hair pin, the older girl hurriedly ordered her to hide it. She had told her in a hushed voice that it was a very rare item that she should keep for herself. Thia was worried because she had never lied about a hatching before, but Lindsey had made her swear not to give it up.

The girl quickly lowered her voice again and explained what the pin was. Thia distinctly remembered how her eyes felt like they were going to pop out of her head in surprise! The hair pin turned out to be a storage item— a decent sized one, too. Lindsey told her she had to slowly accumulate things in the space that she could sell when they escaped together. Lindsey was only 2 years older then her, so if she was married off at 10, living in their own would be doable.

Thia firmly nodded her head and swore to work hard to provide for their future. Slowly but surely she began to lie about how many eggs she was hatching, and what was in them.

She stored about a quarter of the eggs she generates in the hair pin immediately, and reported the rest. When one hatches, she chooses if she reports the item or replaces it with one she had kept in her pin. She would've kept more, but The Orchard expected a steady production of eggs, and would get suspicious if they suddenly decreased. This was especially because as she got older, her egg production increased.

Glancing into the space in the pin, she saw 15 unhatched eggs. Looking up at the shelves above her bed, she saw a dozen.

It had been 2 years since she's hatched the hair pin, and now she is able to store about half the eggs she generates, reporting only 4 or 5 each day.

In another portion of the pin she keeps items she's collected over the last 2 years, including many ingredients.

The one she dubbed as the potion egg was a favorite of hers. It contained the ingredients for a few different potions— just enough to make a single vile, which was a little strange, but she didn't mind.

There were 5 potion eggs: regeneration, cure, mana, petrification, and ice. She knew how to make all of these potions due to the potion classes she attended every Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Of course, potion making was a required course for all children of The Orchard.

Another type of item egg was the collectible egg. That was really just a fancy name for all the stuff she had no idea what to do with. Some of it seemed useful, but other stuff she used to replace hatchings she reported to the Orchard.

The third type of item egg was the Dessert egg. This one hatched edible things— or things that would eventually become edible, like seeds. Sometimes it was fully cooked meals, other times a strange looking vegetable or a slab of meat. She had even gotten smoothies and juices a few times. This type of egg was what she reported to The Orchard most often.

Finally, the last kind of egg was the rainbow egg. Despite its name, this egg was always pure white and could fit in her palm— not unlike a normal chicken egg. This egg was one The Orchard had never seen before, and she planned to keep it that way.

The thing that hatched from these eggs were visible to everyone, but only she could touch or move it's contents. The rainbow egg produced a small speck of light. That's it. She kept the blobs organized by color in a corner of the hair pin and had only used a few of them. These balls of light represented different elements, and as of now, she had 7 different colors.

Orange was fire, yellow was light, green was nature, blue was water, purple was ice. The last colors were red and white, which she knew nothing about. She attempted to use them on all of her pets, but none of them could absorb it, so it was left to collect dust in the farthest corner of her space.

These little balls of light could be used to strengthen her pets— the reason why 2 of her puppies were stronger than the rest. It didn't directly improve their prowess, rather, it seemed to speed up the rate in which they improved. With only 2 balls of light each, they seemed to be improving more and more everyday since a week ago when she gave them it.

She had excitedly told Lindsey once more about the balls of light and the differences she saw in the dogs, but once again the older had given her a warning. She said that rapid improvement would be suspicious. That she could slowly improve one or two creatures, but that she had to appear weaker than she actually was if she wanted to escape The Orchard one day.

Again, Thia took the advice to heart.

If only she could keep living creatures in the hair pin… the unhatched eggs were the closest she could get to that. If she could, she would strengthen some dogs like crazy so they could break free in an instant and ride off into the sunset… ah, what a nice life!

The young girl smiled to herself as she pulled some items out of the hair pin and began fitting them together.

One of the requirements for being a Flower was to be terribly good at something— anything. Strangely, she was particularly talented at making clocks!

She quickly hammered small bronze pieces together, bending and pulling them into shape with a small hazy glow at her fingertips that welded the fractures together. She ran her finger along the sides of the frame and began to seal the contraption shut.

Pulling out a piece of glass scarcely larger than her 5 year old hands, she carefully placed it into the open face. She grabbed two hinges and placed them where the glass and the bronze metal frame met and slowly pushed down, watching as the glass gave way to her touch. The small glow disappeared and her fingers were quickly replaced with a pair of tweezers, holding the scalding hinge in place while the glass and metal solidified around it, cementing it to the clock.

Once that was finished she called the hazy glow back and created a small rectangle in the body on the clock, pulling out stretches of metal like cooling taffy and rolled it into a ball, holding it in her glowing left palm.

Straightening out the edges, she made sure that everything was smooth, clean, and precise. A perfect square.

Snapping off a piece from the metal ball, she twirled it into a string around her finger, leaving a solid flat edge on both sides, one horizontal and the other vertical. Allowing the newly created spring to cool, she grabbed the ball of metal and snapped it in half.

Thia quickly shaped it into a rough pear before soothing it out. A fine-tipped metal spike appeared in her hand, summoned through the hair pin, and she began to finalize its shape, leaving clean lines along the bodice. Pulling two, three-pronged spikes at the bottom and one flattened cone on the front, she welded it to the horizontal side of the spring.

Heating up the tip of her finger again, she melted the vertical side and placed it in the back of the square hole in the clock.

After a few moments it had cooled, and she let it hang awkwardly as she worked on the final piece.

Snapping another part off of the metal ball she shaped it into a square with a small dot on the right. A tiny door.

Attaching it with another bronze hinge, the foundations of the clock were complete.

She pulled open the door and watched the small bird she created, inspired by Gracie, bounce in and out of the clock in satisfaction.

"I'll just make it pretty tomorrow," she said to herself before turning around to open the rabbit pen once more, sliding the hairpin into the box and the box back under her bed, sealed tightly. She did this each night by running her finger over the top of the metal container, locking the box shut. She couldn't risk somebody finding her hairpin, afterall, so she strives to be as careful as possible with it. It never hurt to be cautious, right?

"I'm tired. What do guys say we go to sleep a little early tonight? Hm, boys? That okay?" The bunnies just jumped lazily to the bed, but the black-tipped eared one jumped to her, silently asking to be held.

"Hey Brass, how are you doing, baby?" She quickly obliged and held it in her arms like an infant— which it was, being only just over a year old, afterall.

"Mama…" it quietly mumbled, it's eyes slowly drifting shut.

Thia tsk'ed and squinted her eyes "you're luck you're cute, mister," she said and booped his nose, causing his eyelids to flutter one last time before he fell asleep.

The little girl kissed the top of his head, before doing the same to the two other bunnies as she helped them up onto the bed.

Turning off the lamp on her nightstand she said "good night, everybody."

"Mother!" They all excitedly answered.

It was the only time they were allowed to say it, so they all waited up each night to make sure they got to.

Thia giggled lightly in amusement before rolling over, content, and allowing her eyes close for some much needed rest.

She had to sleep well tonight. Tomorrow was a big day!