Studying

Within a few hours of my call with Mabel; Will had walked into my cave with a mound of papers.

"Paul faxed these to our house for you." Will said as he walked in.

I looked up at him from where I was sitting. All of the hatchlings were once again asleep on my lap snuggled together. Will quietly walked over and handed me the papers. I took them from his hand, but that slight movement was enough to wake up the Princess Hoarder. He jumped up, ran to Will, and preceded to catch Will's shoe laces on fire.

Will took a shocked jump backwards. Then ran to the caves edge to put out his shoe fire in the water fall. I growled at the hatchling, and he slicked back to my lap. Will walked back into the cave holding one charred soggy shoe.

"So that one breathes fire, and you growl now." Will stated. "What did you name them?" he asked, sitting beside me.

"Well these three don't get names, so meet one, two, and three. I still haven't desided on the Spirit Speaker though. Do you have any ideas?" I asked Will.

"I actually have been trying to think of a name for a Spirit Speaker, since I knew you would get one some day." he said, "How about Cortelco?" he finished.

I cocked my head slightly, "Cortelco?" I questioned.

"It is a type of telephone. Since your Spirit Speaker will essentially be used to relay messages from the dead to you, I figured it would work." He explained.

I smiled "I like it, and since he is a male, it seems. to work better, since it ends in O." I said.

"Also you should probably call the others Un, Deux, and Trois. That is one, two, and three in French. It makes it less confusing." He explained. "Since Mabel has One, Two, Three, and Four. I assume Mrs.Horn has something similar for hers."

"You make an excellent point. I will do just that." I said with a smile.

He sat on the cave floor next to me, and played with the hatchlings. I let out an instinctive growl everytime I could feel that Un was about to set something on fire. I read through all of the papers on Spirit Speakers. I got to know the basics on how to keep Cortelco alive, but there wasn't much else. They eat black birds, crows, and Ravens. "Wisp. Nymph." I called the Shadow Sights out loud. They both appeared out of a shadow where they had been sleeping. it made Deux jump a bit (the Copper Shredder).

"Can you two help watch over the hatchlings while I go get some food for Cortelco?" I asked the two tiny dragons. they both nodded their heads simontaniously. The only way to tell they had nodded their heads is because you could see their eyes moved with their head shaking. After skimming through the research papers on Spirit Speakers I found that they eat mostly plants, but also carrion birds. Since I didn't know what types of plants Cortelco would eat, crows and ravens are what he would eat. Using my heightened hearing I ran to where I could hear ravens cawing. I ran to the noise, then silently snuck up on the birds. There were several ravens surrounding a large pool of blood and deer fur. This was obviously where Switch's last meal was. I snuck closer and closer, and before the birds had the chance to fly away I pounced. Several of them flew away, but I managed to kill two of the birds. I held them by their necks in one hand and ran back to my cave. When I had gotten back I found a funny scene. I walked in and the fur on Wisp was standing on end, and had a bit of smoke coming off of it. She was growling at Trois (the Mystic Whisper), who had obviously had part in giving her quite the shock. Nymph was grooming Wisp and licking down the fur on her tail. Will was wagging his finger at Deux who had obviously gotten ahold of his burnt shoe and shredded the toe of it to pieces. Funny enough though is that Un (the Princess Hoarder), whom was being mischievous since he hatched, was the only one behaving. I am not including Cortelco, whom was fast asleep despite the chaos. I dropped the dead birds at the entrance, and started laughing. All of the dragons, and Will snapped their heads to face me.

"You should have learned from last time. I am a bad dragon sitter." Will said.

"Mama these little ones are bad, feed them to Somnolent." Wisp said.

"No Wisp, babies are just dumb." Nymph said. Their words only made me laugh harder.

"My girls I am sorry that the hatchlings were misbehaving, but they will not be fed to anything or anyone." I said through my mind. I wouldn't have been able to speak out loud through my laughs. The new hatchlings ran to my feet. They were ready for dinner. I took a knife that I kept in my cave, and began fileting all of the different meats for the hatchlings. Wisp layed on the cave floor chewing on moss and glaring at Trois.

Will gave Deux a penny to chew on. Which Will thoroughly enjoyed watching. Un was stoking the fire under the clay nesting bowl, while Nymph added wood to it. Lastly Cortelco sat by my side as I worked, watching each of my movements carefully, as though he was being taught. I dished the food for each of the hatchlings, who ate their first meal with vigor.

I pulled out my phone and video called Mabel. After a few rings she answered. She appeared on my phone screen, and looked extremely disheveled.

"Ivy please help me! There are so many, and they are big, and I haven't sat down since they hatched, I thought since they looked and behaved like mammals they would be easy but I was wrong." she said almost panicked.

"Woah what happened to you?" Will asked Mabel as he came into view of my phone.

"What?! Why is Will in your cave? You haven't shown anybody where your cave is." Mabel shouted obviously jelous, which caused some of her dragons to make a BLEAT noise.

"Will is sort of like my real-estate agent. He showed me the place, so he knows where it is." I explained. Mabel still seemed unsatisfied.

"Please help me." she pleaded over the phone, dropping her complaints of my cave's location.

"Mabel you just have to get used to it. I gave you the easiest ones. See this shoe?" I grabbed Will's ruined shoe and put it in front of the camera. "Un caught it on fire, then when I went hunting, Deux shredded it." I said. "and that was with Will, Wisp, and Nymph babysitting." I said.

Mabel looked visibly defeated. "Can you at least show me where your cave is so me and my hatchlings can visit? None of them need to stay warm to regulate their body tempurature." Mabel tried to bargain.

"Mabel I live in a cave, it is fairly large, but not big enough for me, my dragons, you, and your reptilian petting zoo." I explained. "I will get Vainglorious to try and babysit. He, Callalilly, Wisp, and Nymph are the only dragons small enough to get into my cave. Wisp and Nymph aren't too fond of the hatchlings, Nymph is a little bit more patient, but unlike Wisp she was not electrocuted last night." I said with a laugh. I heard Wisp growl. "Not Funny." Wisp said. Which of course made me laugh harder.

"Oh how about this!" I heard Mabel yell excitedly over the phone. "You can bring your dragons to my nursery, since Herd Hiders don't sleep in a nursery anyways. Bill is putting up a fence, and putting down some hay, and making a little dragon petting zoo type thing for them." She said. "So you will have plenty of space to keep your dragons safe while you visit, and you won't have to get a sitter." she finished

I wanted to object, but I couldn't find any valid excuse as to why I should object. I was curious to see how the Herd Hiders behaved as well.

"Okay. I will get Will to help carry them over." I replied and hung up.

"Sooo...." I began to say to Will.

"It's fine, just make sure to stay with me, on the way, I would rather not be maimed by a dragon hatchling on the way there, and you are who they listen to." he said with a smile. I smiled back and scooped Un and Trois into my shirt (The Princess Hoarder and the Mystic Whisper). Will picked up Cortelco and Deux (the Spirit Speaker and Copper Shredder), and we began our walk to Mabel's cabin. Since I had to keep a slow pace for Will it took about an hour to get there. I walked in without knocking, Will hesitated a bit before coming inside unannounced.

"Mouse we are here!" I shouted. I led Will to the nursery so we could put the hatchlings in a warmed nest. Mabel was in the nursery heating up multiple bottles for her dragons. "Ivy you made it!" she said excitedly, "Here put this and the Spirit Speaker in your phanny pack." she instructed handing me a hand warmer. Unlike the others she was very observant and knew without looking that I would be wearing a phanny pack. I have been wearing them since my horns grew in and I could no longer wear pullover hoodies. For once I simply complied with what she said, then put the others in Mabel's nest. "Okay now follow me to my petting zoo." she said, holding four newly warmed milk bottles. I began to walk outside and gave Un, Deux, and Trois a warning growl, making sure they would stay put and behave. As we walked out of the cabin Mabel started talking to me, ignoring Will all together. "I told you to Bring Cortelco with you because I did some research and a phone interview with the other dragon lady who has a Spirit Speaker. She said that they only bond to one living thing. Hers bonded to her cat, whom spent a lot of time near the heat of the nest. So if you want him to bond with you, you need to spend as much time with him as possible." she said seriously. "She says that her Spirit speaker only interacts with her cat, and its prey, it doesnt want anything to do with other living beings." she added.

I put my hand against the phanny pack that held the sleeping hatchling and became concerned. Cortelco was named by me, but he has three nest mates, what happens if he bonds with one of them? I thought to myself "mmh" I said with a nod.

Mabel looked at me, "So where you go; that phanny pack and hatchling must go too."

"Okay Mabel that is all. No more being the boss time for you." I said half joking. I was the boss around here after all.

She snickered a bit. "Alright master, but I will give you more pointers." Mabel mocked.

Will chimed in as we rounded the corner of the cabin to see a petting zoo with four baby animals inside. "Man Dad did a good job making this thing. This straw is top quality."

Of course these adorable baby animals were actually dragons, but it was adorable to see none the less. All of the furry baby dragons ran to Mabel after seeing the bottles; which she raised over her head to keep away from them. She set up all four bottles in bottle holders that were placed in the corners of the fence. "Alright Ivy, meet One, Two, Three, and Four." Mabel said

"I told you it would be smart to name your dragons French numbers." Will bragged, pointing out it could get confusing with multiples of the same number. I petted the young dragons while they were feeding.

"They really are cute little guys." I said softly to Mabel as I was stroking the dragon disguised as a baby camel. I heard a small zipping noise I looked down at my hip and saw the zipper of my phanny pack coming undone. A small head popped out. I could hear a tiny growl come from the dragon inside. The Herd Hider I was petting ran back to Mabel absolutely terrified. Mabel held the small animal closely. She held its face and looked into its eyes, they were clouded over. the whole dragon was shaking, and it let out a terrified wail. I looked down to my phanny pack trying to figure out what just happened. Did Cortelco do this? He was already nuzzled into the heat pack asleep though. "What just happened?" Mabel asked, still trying to comfort the baby Herd Hider.

"I have no idea, but I think Cortelco did it." I looked up and towards Mabel and the terrified Herd Hider, whose eyes had cleared. "I will figure out what happened even if..." but before I could finish I could hear Valorous, he was hiding in the nearbyshrubs. "The little one did a very bad thing. He needs punishment." Valorous said. "What did he do?" I asked Valorous. "He showed the furry one how he would die." Valorous explained, "but he made it even worse." he finished.

I turned toward Mabel who had been staring at me since my eyes turned yellow.

"So it sounds like Cortelco showed Number One how he would die, but also put in some special effects of his own, to make it scarier." I told Mabel as a nervously scratched the back of my neck. She hugged her camel dragon tighter. "So under defenses, or attacks, or something; you can put inflicts psychological terror on target." she said, obviously trying to remain calm for her own dragons.

"I will leave now. I am sorry about this, I still don't know what I am doing with him, and he is still too young to speak to me. I will collect my dragons and leave...Again I am sorry." I said as I walked to the gate. Will was inspecting the carvings on the gate door, and followed me to the nursery when he saw me head his way. "Did you learn anything today?" Will asked me.

"Valorous is a bit of a tattle tail, Cortelco will only bond to one being, and newborns fear imminent death."