The soft breeze of Spring passed through the greenery, making them sway as the soft wind caressed their green exterior. The ice that once covered the knee deep water had started to melt, pieces of it still floated atop the black liquid, acting as if they were miniaturized ice bergs that floated amidst a forest of spikey shrubs and carnivorous plants.

The buzzing of insects came alive as the sun started to rise, its soft light gave the surface of the water a blue hue. Tinted with a bit of orange, the grasses and other greens had droplets of water fall down their bodies, like waterfalls the size of a thumb, the tear shaped water ran down the stalks of the plants, washing away any unlucky insect small enough to get carried by them.

the lucky ones, those big enough to get carried by the water buzzed about, their green, purple, - a myriad of colors really, - husks shimmered beneath the morning light, reflecting it and blinding anyone unlucky enough to look at them in the right direction.

one insect, a dragon-fly larvae, crawled up a dew filled grass, the small droplets of water failed to hinder its movement as it crawled and crawled. Higher and higher until he reached the maximum elevation and once it did, its small frame burst open to reveal wings sprouting from its back, transparent and semi-oval, the dragonfly's most useful asset was the first to emerge as it was soon followed by a blue, long, whip-like tail that quickly unfurled itself.

A square thorax that the wings were attached to soon erupted from the Larvae's circular belly, then after that, came the eyes and the sharpened mandibles of the insect.

The Dragonfly's wings and tail unfurled and fixed themselves before slowly hardening. Its wings flicked once, and then another, and after that they hardened even more and with a quick bend of its legs, the Dragonfly flew and the grass it was standing on shook.

As it flew across the mire, it turned into a blue blur, no longer was it the slow and ground walking larvae that needed ambush tactics to hunt, it was now a Dragonfly, one, that's capable of traversing across the swamp in a single day and one that's capable of hunting any insect that was smaller than itself.

it flew and flew, curious as for what kind of world waits ahead, it continued, passing across hungry toads and other insects looking to turn it into their next meal.

it continued to fly, moving across the swamp in great speeds and as it did, it came upon a weird structure, one that barely fit in this swamp; a mound of dirt that was higher than the rest, it didn't have any water, but it had plants and the Dragonfly, from what it could tell with its meager intelligence, can see that the plants were healthy as they were green. Bordering on orange thanks to the movement of the seasons and the shift from Winter to Spring.

the Dragonfly stopped for a brief moment before moving up to continue moving, it flew higher and higher, passing one plant after another. Some, were carnivorous but they weren't that mobile to catch the flying insect and soon, it had reached the end of the small hill and the view of a village, one composed of Mud huts with plants growing all over all of them and one that the Dragonfly couldn't appreciate, entered the insect's eyes and not having the capacity to be surprised about the rather strange scenery, it continued moving.

it moved and moved, eventually passing the center of the village where a mud hut, one that's larger than the rest was built, the heat of the hut grazed the Dragonfly but just as quickly, it receded as the insect continued on its journey.

within the massive hut, was a room adorned with various bones. Massive, calciumite pillars went from the floor to the ceiling, acting as support that, along with the roots of the plants that's growing all over it, held the hut together. Tanned, red leather with scales, - Hydra skin, - lined the walls, covering the blackened mud with a wallpaper of red scales. The Hydra skin was patched right behind the bone pillars and acted as some sort of insulator that kept the heat of the campfire at the center of the room.

by design, the massive dome was meant to keep the Lizard men warm during winter and whenever such times passed, the females of the tribe can be usually found laying eggs within the building. Thus, there were columns upon columns of them sprawled about across the even floor.

The eggs lay there, placed on top of the various hides that counted as the building's floor and it is exactly during the start of spring that the eggs would start hatching and that time is nigh.

it all started with the sound of a single crack and a dozen more followed. One by one, the eggs started to break apart and various limbs of different colors emerged from the white, oval eggs and the cries of over a dozen hatchlings soon echoed across the dome's interior. amongst these hatchlings, was one of the many that had a yellow green coloration for the tough, boney hide that was its back. A coloration that when compared to his belly, would make the two almost indiscernible.

what makes the hatchling so special though was the fact that he didn't wail and instead, looked around with curiousity. A trait that was only visible to a rare few individuals within the massive group.

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following their cries, the older Lizard men who have been tasked to watch over them came over to the wailing hatchlings, food on their hands as they went around and handed the left over jerky from their winter rations to the newly hatched reptiles and their hungry maws that were already adorned with sharp fangs.

the hatchlings took the food and ate and the elders watched them go from crying loudmouths to quiet feeders in the span of a few seconds. Those that hadn't been fed yet, watched with silent yet eager anticipation as the older and much larger elders moved from one hatchling to another, handing out food that gave their broodmates a face of satisfaction after one bite, and a content expression after a few more. Something that they couldn't help but notice as they sat within the now silent room.

after everyone was fed, it didn't take long for the cries to stop. Each hatchling ate with contentment until the food they held ran out and when it did, they all turned to the figures towering over them, expecting more.

One by one, the hatchlings turned their attention to the elders. Said elders were going to keep a watch over them for the next year or so, a piece of information that was only available to the more intelligent and mature Lizard women as they waited for the others to finish.

When the yellow-green hatchling finished, he also turned his attention to the titanic - compared to him, - figures. And when he realized that they weren't moving and merely sat a few paces away from him and his group, he stood up and tried to imitate them but quickly fell down towards a pile of scales.

Hisses and glares were thrown his way and the hatchling backed away, afraid but not discouraged as he once again stood up. He wanted to do what these beings, whom were far larger than he was, could do and after a second attempt, the hatchling held himself steady and for a brief moment, he stood there, elated.

and then he contemplated on what to do before remembering how the giants moved and he did his best to imitated their movements.

his left foot moved forward and planted itself on the ground right next to another hatchling whom thought that he was one of the elders as he deftly moved out of the way. Said hatchling quickly realized that the situation wasn't what it thought it was the moment he turned around to face the bright green frame of his broodmate trying to walk.

surprised, the hatchling squeaked, attracting the attention of the others and understanding buried itself deep into their eyes the moment they saw what their broodmate was doing.

just like the giants, he was trying to walk!

another squeak followed and that, was the start of a defeaning echo that followed as every single hatchling tried to stand up. They, of course, stumbled and fall against each other and the first amongst them to try walking was swept up by the massive tide of scales and he wrestled against them unintentionally as he fell before quickly standing back up in a vicious cycle that quickly escalated to shedding light amounts of blood.

the one who started all this, looked around, doing his best to do so whilst he was sprawled on the ground. Under the gaze of a few of the elders, the hatchling assessed the situation he was in as a basic plan formulated on his head.

if the others are trying to fight against each other while standing up, then why not... do that?

the hatchling with bright green hide looked at his own hands, then he looked at his own feet, quickly realizing that they were one of the same and after a moment of elated contemplation, he moved his right hand forward and pushed himself off the ground but this time, he didn't try to stand up and instead, he crawled.

The direction he was going to wasn't the elders no, he wanted to go to the side in which, was more spacious.

the hatchling moved, and as he crawled beneath the feet of other hatchlings, they quickly saw his mode of mobility. One, that should have come naturally for them should they have not seen him stand up. It started with one, and then another, and soon, the entire batch of hatchling started crawling with some even preferring the movement as it was an easier form of mobility for their weak bodies.

the bright green hatchling soon reached the edge of his group and-

he was picked up, and he heard a giggle, one that he tried to imitate as he turned his head to face an elder with purple hide and unlike his, was a perfect contrast to the Lizard men's natural dark green belly.

the giant babbled something incoherent, something that he too, imitated and from that, he earned himself another giggle and a free ride towards the elders side in which, he was placed amongst them.

once there, the one that carried him babbled something once again and the hatchling watched, curious.

then, thanks to the attention span of a toddler, he quickly let go of the conversation he couldn't understand and decided to look around. His eyes managed to find an elder, carving a log the size of her thigh as she sat in an indian position with a bony knife on his hand.

he went over, eyes sparkling. "wa?" he said, and the carver looked at him with an amused expression, her dark-green hide distorting as her face carved a smile.

she said something, the same things that those other giants said.

and then, she went over and handed him the knife, and the hatchling, not knowing what to do with it, tried to copy the carver as he placed it within his palms. His fingers tired to wrap around the knive's fibrous handle but quickly, did the hatchling realize that it was something that he couldn't do and so, his eyes went back to the carver and she sighed, muttered something incoherent, grabbed him and placed him at the center of his thighs before muttering something - "just watch," - the hatchling couldn't understand.

the carver grabbed the knife and the hatchling watched her do so before she grabbed the log in front of her and once again, she started carving. The hatchling merely watched in mesmerization as the elder started to create something out of the piece of wood.