3: Understanding

"Keep calm lady." Jasper said, "Me and my father will be here helping you the whole time, and you are already good at this. You have the genes neccessary to raise these little guys." he explained. That is a very rare gift. These guys can understand what you say and feel, well it takes awhile for them to figure out what different emotions mean." He explained. "Only you can do this." he began to comfort me, "My dad knows everything about doing the work, and is a strong man. I know everything anyone could possibly know about dragons. They say it takes a village to raise a baby. Our village is small, but we can raise these babies." he said calmly. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay" I said. I looked down and saw all of the dragons were looking at me, even Somnolent. "They are hungry." Jasper said. He turned on the oven, then pulled four chicken breasts and a large fish out of the freezer, and put them in the oven. "We can't cook these for very long, if they seem cooked, the dragons won't eat them." Jasper told me. I stood and watched him prepare the food, as dragons climbed all over me. Blithesome licked my foot, and then climbed over to Jasper who was putting meat in the oven.

"Oh my God, it is adorable. Why is it on me and not you?" Jasper asked in an excited voice. "That is Blithesome she is a girl, so that is why she is friendly; but I think she is extra friendly." I said.

"Oh no. You gave them names!" he yelled again, making all of the dragons peep and run back to me. "Yes I gave them names." I said "They are living creatures in which I will raise." I explained. "No no no." he said "Once they know their names, they will never leave you, that is why other women only give them numbers." he said frustrated and worried. "Now they will never reproduce, and help the species grow." he explained seeming worried. For whatever reason, I had motherly instincts and they kicked in.

"I have eighty-thousand acres of land. The will said there was river and a lake within this property. No one lives anywhere near us, on the exception of you and your father. For Coruscant I can turn that massive barn into a large freezer, and she can use that as a nest. While Vainglorious is still small I can buy turkeys and let the population grow in my forest. As for chickens, free range is the way to go." I said, instantly coming up with solutions.

"but..." Jasper started.

"Switch will learn to stay on my property for deer, and she only needs to eat two of those a month according to this book." I patted the book that was sitting next to me.

Jasper sighed "What are all of their names then?" he asked defeated.

"The Deer Chaser is Switch, the blue Gull Wing is Blithesome, the orange Gull Wing is Reticent, the Toxic Snap is Somnolent, Coruscant is the Prism Scale, Vainglorious is the Fowl Feller, Callalilly is the Flower Frill, and finally we have Valorous the Creek Creeper." I said happily.

"At least they have names worthy of dragons, if you had named them Spike, Fluffy, or Blue; I would have been frustrated." Jasper said. "You have unlimited funding, because you are one of the few who can raise dragons. I will tell my dad to get: turkeys, a chicken coup with a six foot fence, chickens, and for him to revamp the barn to make it a freezer. Anything else?" he asked. "Actually I would like your dad's advise on training equipment for Switch, once she gets bigger, it won't be very fun when she practices her tail whips on our legs." I added.

"You have a lot of demands." he said.

"Well I have a lot of dragons, and I have to think long term." I said.

"You might be new, but at least you have ideas." Jasper said. He pulled the meat out of the oven, and put them in a sink, which he then filled with cold water.

"This is how you quickly thaw meat for dragons. in about twenty minutes, it will be soft enough to cut up and feed them. You need to be on top of things, and not let them get hungry like this. They may fight over food in the future if this continues. I am thawing enough meat for the next two meals." Jasper said. I nodded. Somnolent slept in my lap unmoving.

"Is that Toxic Snap okay?" asked Jasper. I stroked his back, and he purred

"Yes he is fine, just very lazy." I said. I smiled at my lap full of dragons, when did I become so attached to them, and why? "Jasper, why do I feel pride and closeness to these hatchlings?" I asked

"It's genetic." he responded, "If you have the gene that allows you to care for dragons, then you imprint to the hatchlings just as they have done to you. You are not just a normal human anymore." Jasper said softly "You are a dragon lady."

Just then the elevator began to come down once again. "Oh looks like your dad came back." I said.

"Oh crap. I didn't think he would show up this early." Jasper said.

I was confused. Why did it matter if his father came back. Then I saw a man that was most definitly not Bill. This man was about my age, and was tall, and handsome. I looked at him in shock, then I turned to Jasper.

"Uhh meet my big brother William Jr." Jasper said.

"What are you doing down here?" William asked Jasper.

"I am more knowledgeable than you when it comes to dragons and you know it, and she knows nothing." He pointed at me.

"Well thanks for the intro." I said sarcastically to Jasper.

"Jasper, dad has been looking everywhere for you, go back home so he can stop searching." William said. Jasper grunted, and went to the elevator.

"Don't forget the meat in the sink." Jasper said as the elevator doors closed.

"Hi I am Ivy." I said. William sat down and immediately Switch started growling and went in for the attack. Before I could stop her, William picked her up and looked at her at eye level.

"Dad warned me about you." he said. Switch growled again and bit his thumb. "Ow." he yellped, dropping the little dragon by reflex. I caught her before she hit the ground. I held her close and she snuggled into my chest.

"Okay pretty boy. You had some points going for you for being pretty, but picking up one of my dragons when it was unwilling, and then dropping her, you lost some points." I said with a scowl. He laughed a bit.

"I promise I will redeem myself with..." he looked around at all of the dragons, which were now playing around the cave. "that one." he said pointing at Reticent. I started laughing. "What? What's so funny?" He asked.

"That is Reticent. He is the shyist one of them all." I said. "Picking literally any one of them would have been easier." I giggled into my hands. Just then Blithesome ran to him and started licking his hand. "See if you had picked Blithesome you would have already been repented William." I said with a smile.

"Okay firstly just call me Will, secondly I like a challenge this little orange Reticent will love me. He crawled towards Reticent. Reticent started squealing and Valorous ran in front of Reticent and growled at Will.

"That little guy is Valorous, he learned that he had no natural defenses. So he has decided he will be brave and defend everybody, until he is strong." I explained. I gave Valorous a loving smile. He nodded and continued his guard duty. "How did you figure all of that out?" Will said. "Isn't it obvious." I gestured to the tiny powerless dragon growling at a human twenty times his size.

"I suppose it is a bit obvious." Will said. He tried to pet Valorous, but he was met by another bite. He looked down expecting pain, but was simply met by a gummy pinch.

"Like I said, no natural defenses. His kind simply lay in rivers and swallow fish whole, but he is against that fate." I said. I crawled over and picked both of them up. Reticent crawled up my sleeve to hide, while Valorous stood on my palm and continued growling at Will. "Looks like you aren't a favorite. Just then Vainglorious ran to Will's lap and snuggled into his shirt. "Well that is impressive. He must have decided that you are as pretty as him. That is Vainglorious, he is a big fan of himself."

Will laughed, "Well that makes you my favorite, so far." He tried to stroke Vainglorious' feathers, and this time succeeding.

"Seems you aren't hopeless yet." I said softly. Bill came down the elevator quietly only to yell "You want all of this stuff!" He shouted, swinging a bag of crickets. All of the hatchlings scurried to me once again, except switch who once again began to try and whip Bill's feet. "Well I wasn't informed that I wasn't allowed to name them, being as I was only here for an hour when they hatched, now they will be full time residents, and we need to prepare for their adulthood before they are adults." I explained. He huffed. "I called Cora Horn from Canada, she is another woman with dragons. She is in between dragon clutches, and is willing to teach you the ropes. She will be down here in a few days. Oh also she is batshit." said Bill.

"Bring it on, nothing can be surprising now." I said and my dragons squeaked in agreement.