Real Work

"Okay I am ready for some manual labor." I said holding up my arm to reveal my non existent muscles. Bill crooked his lip into what was almost a smile.

"Alright first we work on the Flower Frill's garden. The boys felled a lot of trees to make a fake meadow, we will be tilling it today." I nodded, not entirely sure what tilling meant.

"Did you set up the boys for dragon sitting?" Bill asked.

"I gave them instructions detailed to a T and I pre-thawed the meat for them. That should last them." I said. He nodded his head and with that we left the house. We got onto a side-by-side, and drove down a rough path into a new clearing. I got off of the ATV and looked around. The clearing was about the size of a basketball court, near the corner of the plot I noticed a machine, that I assumed was for work. It appeared to be a cross between a snow blower and a lawn mower.

"What is that?" I asked Bill pointing at the machine.

"That is a rototill, and you will be pushing it back and forth all across this field until I say you are done. Bill walked me to the machine and showed me how to use it. He gave me a set of gloves to avoid blisters, and I was ready... or at least I thought I was.

"This thing weighs a million pounds, how on Earth am I going to push it?" I half yelled at Bill. "Eh just put your back into it." He said as he began to peel an apple with a pocket knife. I huffed and did as he said. Eventually it began to become easier, though my aching muscles begged to differ. Three hours later I had finished.

"Good enough girly!" Bill yelled across the field. With those words said I collapsed to the ground.

"That's awesome, because I am ready for a long hot bath." I said.

"We aren't done yet." Bill said. "We still have to plant the flowers, and put up netting so birds won't eat the seeds before they get a chance to grow." He explained with a mischievoussmile on his face. I looked to the back of the side-by-side to only now notice that the back of it was filled with supplies. Bill spoke again.

"Then we have to go and get supplies to make those bee boxes you said we needed." My eyes turned wide. More work that my aching muscles had to do, and another at least six hour drive to get supplies for bee keeping. It took another three hours to plant the seeds and stake the netting near the surface of the ground. Then we put a mechanic hose into a barrel filled with water. I took the hose and began watering the entire field. I was sweating from head to toe after hours of work. Bill sprayed me down with the hose as a joke, but I didn't complain. The water felt great running down my sore sweaty body. I looked at our work and smiled, we had done good.

"Alright mother dragon, its time for our next task, but we will shower first though." Bill said. The ride back was quick, but still not nearly fast enough. "Be quick, we have another eight hours at least. My head perked up.

"Not twelve? We aren't going back to the city?" I said happily.

"Uh course not, unless you want more work." Bill said. "Randy meets us half way from his honey farm with the supplies. I will go back for the bees once everything is set up. As soon as those dragons can go outside you will become the bee keeper." Bill explained further.

We parted ways after our conversation so we could each shower. It felt amazing to get all of the dirt and sweat off of my body. My body thanked me for the warm water that was covering my body. It was short lived though, as I had to leave my relaxation and meet up with Bill. We still had to go get the bee keeping supplies. I left the house, tempted to check on my dragons, but I noticed Mrs.Horn sitting on the couch reading some book. My worries about my dragons didn't outweigh the dread of possible conversation with Mrs.Horn. Besides they already had babysitters.

I got into the passenger seat of Bill's truck and waited as he filled the tank with a red bucket of gasoline.

"That damn witch almost emptied my tank after you scared her. I have to remember not to leave my keys out." Bill complained.

As we started to drive away I rambled on about my dragons and how they were growing and everything else involving them; until I didn't have anything left to say. The drive became awkwardly silent after my motherly rambling was over. Think think think, there has to be something we can talk about. Then an idea came to mind.

"So Bill, where did you get your law degree?" I asked with a coy and sarcastic tone.

"What are you..." he started before he remembered. "Ehh... I wasn't ever Edna's actual lawyer." he said; obviously embarrassed to be caught in a lie.

"What? Noo." I said sarcastically. I began laughing, "Bill from the moment you saw Coruscant the first day I knew you were no lawyer. Though I didnt entirely believe it beforehand" I wiped a tear that had fallen from my eye from laughing.

"What was so obvious? I was very professional." he said, sounding offended. I snickered again. "All you did was point to everything that was now mine, you also failed to give me your name, firm, card, or relation to Edna." I said.

"Well maybe I was a busy lawyer who didn't want to be in the countryside where there was no gas stations." he said smiling. I laughed again.

"Yes Bill because city folk just love gas stations." I mocked.

"Hey you saw that red container, that was filled with gasoline. I have to buy about fifty of those at a time so I can live out here with you and your children." he said mockingly.

"Hey my kids are awesome, though there isn't much of a family resemblance." I joked. Both of us laughed. After that we had no awkward pauses the whole ride felt like I was with family.

Finally we met an old man in the middle of nowhere, who was ready to give us bee keeping equipment. I had forgotten about my sore muscles until I jumped out of the truck, still I helped unload and load the parts from one truck to the other.

"So are we putting these things together when we get home?" I asked, dreading the answer. "Nah, you have done enough today, and I need to read up on how to properly set these things up. I smiled and gave a sigh of relief.

"Good. Hanging out with you was great, and I appreciate your work more than ever, but I really want to see my dragons." I said.

Bill smiled at me "I understand. Just as well I want to see how my boys did today." Bill said.

As we pulled up to the house, both Bill and I got out of the truck and headed for the house. I went straight to the underground elavator. As the elevator doors opened, I saw a scene in which I would have never thought could happen.

I looked ahead to see Will and Jasper frozen to eachother, stuck back to back sitting on the ground. Callalilly was atop their heads posing like a flower. Reticent and Blithesome were blowing mist on the boys, then Coruscant was freezing the mist into ice upon impact of the boys, building thicker the wall of ice on the two boys. Of course Somnolent was asleep, Valorous was biting Will's fingers and shaking it back and forth. Since Jasper couldn't move his head Vainglorious just stood in his gaze doing different poses. Switch was hitting one of Will's fingers over and over. I noticed the exposed finger was purple. I couldn't tell if it was discolored from being cold, or from being repeatedly struck by Switch. I stood there mouth agape before. My trance was broken by Bill's laughter behind me.

"Dad...Dad are you there? Help please, before Ivy sees." Will said. "She will think I am so weak." Will spoke again.

"Forget weak she will kill us when she learns about what happened." Jasper said.

"Oh and what is it that happened here?" I said calmly. I tried to sound angry, but all I wanted to do was laugh at the sight. The boys went silent. Then my dragons noticed me. They all paused and stared. They new they were in for trouble, but they never had been, so they weren't sure what to expect. They all ran to my ankles trying to look as cute as possible Valorous the most successful in this. Bill just stood back, still laughing.

"So boys what happened?" Bill asked.

"That is an easy one." I said. All of the men went quiet Bill included. I had sat down to be with my dragons. Bill looked at me.

"What do you mean that's easy?" he asked.

"Well by their attitude I can tell they are hungry and tired, and by the amount of ice, I can tell you have been trapped like that for hours. So you didn't put them down for a nap after breakfast, I assume because someone wanted to play with them." I said shifting my gaze to Jasper. "Lack of sleep made them grumpy, then you gave them lunch late which made it worse. Finally you put them down for their next nap, so they got angry and started this." I gestured towards them. "And since you were frozen you couldn't give them dinner." I explained as if I had been watching them all day.

I put on some gloves, and took a few pieces from the hot nest, and began to melt the part of ice that fused the two boys together. Bill rolled his eyes at me. He walked over and kicked the ice that held the boys together. It cracked enough that the boys could free themselves. "Ow dad! I liked her way better." Jasper yelled. "Yeah...I liked her way too." Will said blushing, and rubbed his arm. He was acting weird, but that wasn't my problem, I had to figure out how to discipline five baby dragons. I pointed at the two boys standing side by side.

"You two, clean up all of this ice, and everything else that should have been cleaned while I was gone. I will make their dinner." I instructed. The boys quickly started cleaning. If they were hoping they would redeem themselves by doing only this; they were wrong. I did their job all day, they however did not do mine. I grabbed Callalilly and went to put her in the box with the crickets, only to notice that they had already been eaten or escaped, as the lid was wide open. Will blushed again.

"Oh yeah, we didn't forget to feed Callalilly." I fumed. I grabbed the truck keys from Bill's hand and threw them at Will.

"Go drive the six hours to the nearest pet store and get more crickets. and be back by lunch time tomorrow, or I very well may kill you." He caught the keys, and was in the elavator as soon as I finished talking. I diced up meat and fed all of the dragons. Callalilly was crawling behind the fridge, which is where I assumed the last of the crickets were hiding.

"Sh..should I take notes on the pellets?" Jasper asked nervously.

"Don't bother," I said "Unless you know what dragon they came out of, and what meal they came from." He made an awkward face and continued to throw away the pellets. Bill laughed. I jerked my head towards him, he took a nervous gulp. "What are you laughing at. I thought your sons were capable, then I came back to this." I tried to gesture to the mess, but Jasper had it all but cleaned it up. I turned to Jasper, "Wait for those three to hack up pellets, then take notes." I barked. Bill smiled again. "You sound just like my wife did when we left Jasper with a babysitter for the first time. You even yell at me the same way." He started chuckling again. "If I doubted it before I don't now. You are a mother, even if there isn't much of a family resemblance." Bill said, quoting what I had said in the truck. I rolled my eyes. I could hear one of the dragons hacking up a pellet behind me, but right now that was Jasper's job. I smiled

"And you are going to have to work on holding onto your keys better. I am pretty sure Will is putting quite a few miles on your truck right now." I said.

"Dammit," Bill said, "Everytime someone messes with your dragons my truck is the one that pays for it." I laughed.

"Okay I am done." I heard Jasper say from behind me.

"Are all of the dragons asleep?" I asked knowing they weren't.

"No..." Jasper said quietly.

"Then you are not done." I said.

I kept talking to Bill as he allowed me to yell and command Jasper.

"I had fun today." I said. He gave a content smile.

"Yeah it was nice having a daughter for a day." Bill said. I smiled at his reply.

After Jasper and Bill left, all of the work that I had done that day had caught up to me. I plopped down on my cushions. How do you punish a baby dragon? I wondered, but I was too tired to think at the moment. I then quickly gave in to sleep.