BIO FARMING AND EASTER EGG TROUBLE

"Inez?" Marei asked, "Did you take the eggs out of the chicken house already?"
"No, Marei." Inez answered, her long blond hair in a braid wrapped around her head, "You know I never get near those monsters."
"They're just chickens, and you like the eggs well enough."
"I'm trying to diminish their numbers by eating up every egg I can get my hands on." Inez smiled sweetly.
"Ok, so if you didn't take them, who did?"
Inez shrugged, "Zornik?"
"He's been in the house all day working on the orders." Marei answered, "I haven't seen him come out. But I can always ask I supposed."
Inez nodded and continued her work as the bouncy curly head of Marei, her sister in law, went to look for her brother Zornik. Zornik, a humourous young man with a head full of bright red hair was the one who had suggested that the three of them could start up a bio farm. Marei cared for the animals, while Inez groomed the gardens and Zornik took care of the administration. After a year of hard work their efforts seemed to finally be paying off.
Inez wet some lettuce leaves and then took a step back, stepping on something round that shattered under the pressure of her foot. Suddenly out of balance, Inez fell to the ground. 
Dazed, she shoo, her head and looked at her feet. A chicken egg, painted pink with purple and green dots and wavey lines...

Marei entered the renovated farm house and sighed happily when she saw the light stream in the sitting area. The house was light and open now, but when they'd first set foot in it, it had been dark and damp with small dirty windows and a maze of tiny rooms. Most of the walls had been broken down and Marei could see through the entire ground floor to the desks where Zornik sat before his computer.
"Hi Marei!" he called, "I've been dieing to take a break."
"So you haven't been outside?" she asked.
"No, of course not. Not with all this work waiting to be done. Is anything wrong?"
"I don't know, there weren't any eggs this morning. Inez has not been near the chickens. I just thought it was strange. Normally we get about a three dozen eggs a day from those chickens."
"You're worried something might be wrong."
"Come on, one or two chickens not laying an egg I can understand, but all of them at once?"
"Maybe they're on strike." Zornik laughed.
The door opened and Inez walked in, as usual forgetting to take of her dirty boots. "You'll never guess what I found."
"What?"
"The missing eggs."
"Where?" Marei asked.
"You better ask your brother, it's got his signature written all over it. I would love if I hadn't fallen over one."
"Honey, I did not touch a single egg." Zornik defended himself.
"So it wasn't you who painted the egg and put them in my garden?"
"I haven't had time to paint eggs, let alone go hide them without you noticing."
"Then who did?" Marei asked.
"You think, it might have been..." Inez started, "the Easter Bunny?"
"I know you like the supernatural, Inez." Zornik said, "But this is something else entirely than claiming ufos have been flying over our yard."
Inez laughed, "I know you don't believe any of it, but weird things do happen. Why wouldn't there be an easter bunny?"
"Because frankly, somebody would have had to have seen it at one time."
A cough sounded from the door.
"Nobody has seen us because we have not been around on this planet for long."
Stunned Zorkin turned around and saw a bright yellow bunny about half a metre high, and behind him stood a larger, pony-sized creature with long floppy ears, transparent wings and a sunny disposition.
"What are you?" Marei asked, her friendly, motherly face looking shocked and confused. 
"I am a plush bunny. Duh." the bunny answered, "My name is Konyni and I've come to apologise because tonight Nijntje, my dragon, came over to paint and hide your eggs. She did not mean anything with it, certainly she did not want to cause trouble. It's just hard to resist these eggs."
"Don't worry about it. At least we know what happened." Marei answered, quickly recovering from her earlier anxiety. After all, you could not stay mad long at bunnies.
"I am truely sorry." the dragon spoke, "but Easter is coming."
"Where are you from, Nijntje." Inez asked, stepping closer to touch one of Nijntje's ears, "I think Konyni said you were a dragon."
"I come from Lantessama. Do you want to go there? There are new eggs just like me, and some that are different for people to bond."
"Bond?"
"Befriend, take care, pair up..." Konyni started, "You get a dragon and they get you. It's a win-win situation."
"Are you implying something?" Zornik asked, ever the one to notice meaning in the spoken word.
"Well, you certainly have the room, peace and quiet you would need to have some bunny or chick dragons run around. They really are wonderful." Konyni said, "You wouldn't even be gone for more than half a day with the timing differences."
"Timing?"
"Everything will become clear at Lantessama." Konyni said, "Are you coming?"
The trio looked at each other. Inez nodded eagerly and Marei shrugged, she was interested in the dragons though, she had always been interested in animals. 
"I guess we're going then." Zornik said.

°-~***~-°

HATCHING
The first candidate to reach a dragon was Inez. She had ran for the yellow bunny without hesitation. No way that she was going to get even near a chicken, even if these were of the draconic type.
"Thank God you're a bunny." she said, hugging the bunny female.
"With such a warm welcome I should not look farther for a bond." the bunny smiled, "My name is Lilah, Inez."
"You're great Lilah. I didn't choose you just because you were a bunny. Yellow also happens to be my colour. Besides, I heard you before you hatched."
"I wondered how you got here so fast."

Her husband Zornik had also reached a dragon, a red male chick dragon with an air of pride around him. Standing up as tall ash he could the dragon said: "I guess you will do. My name is Indigo."
"We aim to please." Zornik said, "I hope you'll be happy on the farm."
"As long as I am the only rooster." the red said.

Near the nekrat bay, but more in the center of the fields and plains, a lone candidate, Marei was searching for eggs. Hiding places were sparse, but Marei was determined to find an egg to take home. Finally, she nearly tripped over one that had been hidden behind the first of the sandy dunes.
Dusting the sand from her clothes, Marei looked at the egg. "Isn't it supposed to hatch?" she wondered. And indeed, it started to rock a bit, remained silent, and then split neatly in half as if the dragon inside knew where to hit the shell to break it in half.
An orange female chick fell out in the sand, her feathers getting sandy and dirty.
"Ivory!" Marei called, "I know your name. How can that be?"
"We bonded, Marei." Ivory said, "Which is good because I need your help now. I can't go back home like this. I need to get the sand off."
"I think you might need to take a bath." Marei smiled, " or let your feathers dry in the sun."
"We don't have much time before the clutch ends." the chick answered knowingly, "I'll bathe."

°-~***~-°

ADULTHOOD
After their newfound bonds had matured enough, Inez, Marei and Zornik returned to their farm. They found it exactly as they had left it, painted eggs still in place. Little had changed and they were assured by the dragons that only two hours at most had gone by.
Lilah hopped around the gardens, finding her way right to the carrot patches. Ivory and Indigo followed behind her and soon started inspecting the other crops. Inez meanwhile went inside to prepare some food and tea. Zornik returned for a moment to check on his administration and marei followed the dragons.
"You seem to know where to look." she said.
"We know this place like you know it." Ivory replied.
"Then you know where we stash the good stuff."
Indigo's eyes shone with interest: "The cellar."
"The hay-attick." Lilah added.
"Let's go look!" Ivory called.
"Be sure to leave some for us!" Marei called after the escaping stomachs on legs.

°-~***~-°

Background found with google one day long ago and now I cannot trace it anymore. It's name is: LBJ088.jpg