Investigations into us were made. We were a very odd family. I did not keep Willow's parentage a secret. Willow had pink and yellow hair. That seemed to be a theme with Naomi. They were fine with Willow as he was born of a woman. They still did not like Aspen. Some people gave him an appraising look before passing him though. I saw it every so often. He got some respect for "doing it the right way". Whatever that meant to them. That was still the minority opinion though. I had not patience for them. I was not going to be nice or polite when they treated my family so rudely. I was very rude and blunt with them. When an invitation came my way, I asked if I could bring my family. They always looked put off by that. The quicker witted ones were able to recover and specifically ask for Naomi and Evan. They were "normal". The others were not. Willow was tolerable because he was Naomi's child. It would change when the children started laying eggs. We would keep that a secret for both Evan and Willow's sake. There was nothing that could be done for the hatchlings. Shame.
Going around with Benny, Kenny, Fuyuta, Haruto, Natsumi, and Akira was nice. They got really harsh looks from their fellow townspeople. Since they were getting such a harsh treatment for a thing they could not control, it was essentially the same as having no reason. With that being the case, there was no real reason for them to play by the rules of the town. They would get no credit for it from the people currently shunning them. Keeping them happy was impossible. That was why I did not care what they thought about anything. I made sure that the hatchlings knew that as well. They could wear whatever they wanted. They could style their hair in whatever way the wanted. If they wanted to be loud and unruly? That was fine. Playing loud music when they were out and about? I told them to put it on full blast. They really did not like a hatchling having fun. It did not matter. All of us had a ton of fun. That did not mean that the children did not have friends. Evan and Willow were able to make a couple of friends with the neighboring children. The hatchings had to play alone. That was sad.
Having weapons was important to me. It was not good to be defenseless out here with people that hated us. Owning a few guns for protection was good enough for me. I could shoot decently well. I made sure that both Aspen and Naomi were able to shoot guns as well. Aspen was best with shotguns. Naomi was better than me with sniper rifles. I outclassed them in handguns and hunting rifles. We taught the children to use the guns too. It was like a fish learning to swim. They were naturals. So much so, they could hit targets at 250 yards blindfolded. I watched all of them do it and hit the bullseye. Due to the hatchlings being disliked, I made them open carry everywhere they wanted. They had a sniper rifle, shotgun and 2 handguns with a ton of ammo in their inventory. No one was going to get the jump on us. That was how I liked things to be. Evan and Willow also got their gun training. They simply kept their guns safe at home. With all of their skill points and attributes being used for dancing, martial arts, shooting and academics, the 8 children were turning into real badass monsters.
