2: Acceptance

I woke up, and felt a tiny wet tongue licking my face. It was the blue Gull Wing. I picked it up in my palms, as I sat up. It curled up in my hands and laid down, rubbing its small head against one of my thumbs. "Okay, I don't have time for a panic attack. I don't know how long I was asleep. let's work on naming you guys. Let's see, if I can figure out your genders." I said to the tiny group of dragons. Half of them were sleeping, the other half were playing amongst themselves. "Okay a Gull Wing's gender is often revealed by their behavior after hatching. A male Gull Wing is often very timid after hatching, whereas a female is friendly and happy." I read. I looked at the blue Gull Wing in my hands. "So you must be a girl. Let's see. Ah I know, I will call you Blithesome, because you are kind and happy. Your orange brother should be Reticent, because I am sure he won't be so shy forever.

Who is next, let's see? Next is our little Toxic Snap? Males are typically a dark brown in color, whereas females are a light shade of beige. Okay, looks like we have another boy. I put down Blithesome, and walked over to the Toxic Snap. I tried to interact with him, but much like when I was reading earlier; all he wanted to do was sleep. "Okay you will be Somnolent, because all you want to do is sleep" I said.

How about our Deer Chaser? It saw me, and immediately ran to me and started to show off it's tail. "You know what, I will just call you Switch. Just because of how proud you are of your little whip-like noodle tail. This book says you are a girl based on your black legs."

I looked around and saw my little prismatic ice ball, trying to play with the others, and failing. "You will be Coruscant. Seems your species is gender-less, I will just refer to you as her. Is that okay?" She hopped to me and snuggled into my hoodie. I petted her frosty head. Don't worry, I will make you a sweater, so the others will play with you. You being chilly makes them sluggish and tired, that is why they are avoiding you. I said remembering reptiles hibernate when it gets cold, and they can't handle the cold in large dosages. Thank you high school biology. "It is nothing personal, we will fix it." I said trying to sound comforting. She snuggled her head into my stomach again before nestling herself into my hoodie pocket."

I saw the Creek Creeper guarding the nest where Somnolent was napping, despite knowing it was defenseless, it wanted to keep its brother safe. "You my little guardian reptile, I will call, Valorous. This book says blue means male."

I saw the tiny Fowl Feller growling at my pocket. "Is that anyway to treat your sister..." I checked the book and saw that first feathers you see after hatching indicates the gender. Yellow meant male. "mister." I said finishing my sentence. He simply flipped his tail feathers back and forth, and cocked his feathery head

"You have seemed cocky since you popped out of that egg. I smoothed his feathers. "I will call you Vainglorious." I declared.

"Lastly we have our little Flower Frill." I looked all over the cave before I saw a little Flower Frill sitting on a rock with it's frills out facing towards the ceiling, and its tiny wings slightly out mimicking leaves. It was practicing being a flower. I walked over to it and pretended to smell it, as if it was a real flower. "Alright red and yellow means male, and pink and yellow means female. Looks like we got another girl. You will be Callalilly." I smiled realizing that all my names were unique, and I had finally found use of being an English major.

I have: Blithesome (blue Gull Wing), Reticent (orange Gull Wing), Somnolent (Toxic Snap), Switch (Deer Chaser), Coruscant (Prism Scale), Valorous (Creek Creeper), Vainglorious (Fowl Feller), Callalilly (Flower Frill).

These were names worthy of dragons. I thought to myself.

"All right, now that you all have names, I have to figure out how to take care of you." I said. "Coruscant," I called. She popped her head out of my pocket at the sound of her new name. "I need to figure out how to make you a cold nest. Everyone else, I will try to find more space to sleep, once I figure out what you need, now that you aren't eggs. Eggs! Do you eat eggs or baby food when you are so tiny, or do you eat what it says in the book? I Don't know where to get venison for you Switch. How do I catch bees?" I was panicking. Then I could hear the doorbell ring. "All of you play nice and behave, I will be back soon."

I got into the tiny elevator once again and popped up into the living room. I ran to the door to open it. "Hello!" I said entirely too loud.

"Heh Heh Heh, you should see yourself right now." said the man. I could recognize him, he was the odd lawyer from before.

"Listen I am a tad busy at the moment. If we could discuss my great aunt's will another time that would be great." I said. Just then Coruscant popped out of my pocket and squeaked at the man. My eyes grew wide in panic. I was waiting for some kind of horrible reaction from the man, but he just chuckled.

"Well I came to explain why your great aunt left this place to you, but it seems you have figured it out." He leaned over and scratched Coruscant's chin. She purred happily.

"Wait you know about this?" I asked shocked.

"Of course I know, it takes more than one person to raise a clutch. I am Bill, I helped with Edna's last clutch, and I have been training my son to help you too. It looks like you got a clutch of Prism Scales this time." he said calmly.

I seemed to have absorbed some of his calmness. "Not exactly." I said. "Did Edna explain anything to you about this clutch?" I asked. "Nope," he said "I only help once they have hatched." he answered.

I was greatful I was going to have help. I hoped I would anyways; with this many dragons, and such a variety, he might turn tail. I took him to the elevator; I went down first, he followed in suit. We got down there and I waited for him to run away.

"Damn that Edna couldn't have picked a worse clutch to leave you with. There are so many, and all different varieties." He said stunned.

"Uhh actually two of them are Gull Wings." I said, as if that actually made a difference. Most of the dragons had settled back into the nest and fallen asleep. "I have no idea what to do, a few hours ago I didn't know these things existed, now they all think I am their mother. Blithesome and Coruscant are especially clingy." I said.

He rubbed his head, those are some difficult names, most clutches are given numbers, because they are all the same species, but you seem smart. I won't bother to learn those long names though." He said.

"The Deer Chaser is Switch, you can probably remember her name." I said. "I don't know what to feed them, how to care for them, or anything, and almost all of them have different diets." I said. "Edna had all Fowl Fellers last time didn't she? That is why there are no geese on my goose farm." I asked.

Bill breathed out. "That is exactly why you don't have any geese, but since you only have one Fowl Feller, you won't need as many birds, the males blend in best with chickens anyways. Chickens are cheaper than geese too. You will also have to start keeping bees, because Flower Frills require a lot of bees. If you find a bee's nest, just bring that big frilly lizard to it, and she will take care of it." He said.

"Her name is Calalilly." I chimed in. Bill rolled his eyes.

"For now they can just eat small amounts of chicken or fish, depending on their preferences. That Frilly one is harder though, she will have to eat bugs always. Luckily, they aren't picky when they are babies, and petstores sell crickets. For this Prism Scale you should make a nest out of cold packs. Get alcohol and put it in some ice packs. It doesn't stay cold for too long, but it stays cold longer than water." For the next few weeks I will park my RV on your land, and me and my boy will help with the hatchlings. Keep them in this cave for a few weeks, just until they can regulate their own body temperature." He explained.

"How do I feed them?" I asked. He opened one of the giant freezers; it was filled with frozen chicken and fish.

"You will only heat them up until they are thawed. These guys will only want raw meat. just dice it up and give them up to three pieces." Bill explained, he was obviously getting tired of explaining things.

Just then Switch woke up, saw that a man was in front of me and growled, running in for the attack. The baseball sized dragon ran to Bill's ankles and started wacking her tail against Bill's boots. I smiled and picked up the little she dragon. I kissed her head and put her back down. She growled at Bill one more time, and went back to the nest.

"For someone who didn't know dragons existed earlier today, you are pretty darn good with them." Bill said.

"I just treat them like a mother would treat their children. They are new, vulnerable, and they think I am their mother. Also I am very much still in shock, so at least until I have a very validated panic attack, I will treat them like the mother figure they need. Unless they die while I try to raise them, because I am a horrible dragon mother that doesn't know what she is doing....Or why exactly a human is raising dragons?" I hadn't thought about it until now, but why was a human raising dragons. "Why are humans raising dragons?" I asked.

"Beats the hell outa me. Something about genes" said Bill. "I will go get my boy and my RV." Bill went back up the elevator, and saw himself out. I sat in front of the nest, all of the hatchlings were squirming, beginning to awake. "Hey guys, did you have a good sleep?" I asked. Other than Somnolent all of the hatchlings came and snuggled into my lap. "Coruscant, can you wake up your brother?" I asked the little dragon poking out of my pocket. She blew a gust of cold air his way, and he jolted up, now awakened by the sudden chill. He ran into my lap and buried himself underneath his siblings. "Thank you, I just needed to make sure he could in fact still move. I wonder what Bill's son looks like. Bill looks like he is about my parents age, I bet his son is about my age. Will he be handsome? I hope he is tall, ooh and good looking." I said joking.

"Sorry to disappoint." I heard a voice came from behind me. The boy couldn't be more than twelve. "Are you Bill's son?" I asked, Bill looked much too old to have a child this young.

"Yes, I am Jasper." he said, in an insulted voice, but as soon as I leaned back a bit, he could see my lap full of baby dragons. His eyes were sparkling at the sight, and he was at a loss for words. He looked like a kid in a very sci-fi pet store. "You wanna come and meet them?" I asked him, already knowing the answer.

His voice wavered, "C..Can I?" He asked.

I smiled "Come on over." I said "You will be a big part of their life after all." I smiled saying this. He rushed over and sat next to me quickly. Reticent saw the quick movement, and tried to hide in my pocket, only realizing that Coruscant was already in there. Both of them bolted out either side of my pocket. I caught the sheepish Reticent, but Coruscant was holding on tight to Jasper's face. She was inspecting every bit of his face. Then she launched off of Jasper's nose into his scruffy dirty blond hair; where she continued to inspect him. I was stroking Reticent so he would calm down.

"So Jasper; never seen a dragon huh?" I asked.

"They are amazing. I have been learning about them my whole life, and now I finally get to meet some." he said.

"Well these are the first dragons I have ever seen as well...Oh watch out!" I yelled to Jasper, just as Switch began to growl. I grabbed Jasper's bare arm and raised it out of Switch's tail reach. "Sorry about her. She is very proud and excited to grow up to be a powerful dragon, she challenged your dad as well." I said to Jasper. "You got the drop on Bill didn't you?" I said as I scratched under Switch's chin. "Now go apologize." I said firmly. Switch ran over to Jasper's hand very quickly licked it with her split tongue, then ran back to me.

"Amazing!" Jasper yelled excitedly. The hatchlings jolted and responded in different manor of ways. Coruscant blew icy air all over Jasper's hair. I grabbed her off of him quickly.

"I am sorry I should have warned you, they don't like such sudden loud noises." I explained. Jasper brushed through his frost covered hair with his fingers.

"That's not it," he said "Even you, who has known about dragons for less than twenty-four hours, have a mothering nature for these little guys. They listen to you, and are already imprinted to you." I crooked my head.

"Well yeah, I was the first person they saw." I said.

"Most people would be freaking out if their life was uprooted and then you discovered a secret cave in the bottom of an old house to discover dragons are real. You aren't freaking out, you have embraced the roll of dragon mom. Also there is a huge difference in regular imprinting, and dragon imprinting. Dragons can only imprint to a few dozen women on Earth." He said in a now admirable way.

"Why do human women raise dragons anyways?" I asked.

"Oh that is an easy one. Dragon mothers don't care for their young, as they are supposed to, which has led to a rapid decline in their population. Humans wanted to act fast centuries ago, but they found that only a select few women could actually successfully raise the hatchlings. In care of other humans, they just failed to thrive, and died young. So throughout history the females of certain bloodlines have raised dragons. You were a long shot when Edna died, we thought for sure the gene would have skipped you, but you were our only hope." he explained. "And look at you, you are doing great." he exclaimed, though quietly this time.

"Well," I began, "I know nothing about what I am doing, I will completely depend on you and your father, and I wasn't calm I watched them hatch, thought it was a dream, when I realized it wasn't...I fainted Jasper. I FAINTED."