Day 277 [Open]

[daughterofursa]

Who: Zuko and anyone
Open: Open!
When: Day 277
Where: Near the river
What: BABBY DRAGON
Format: I'll match
Warnings: Honor

It's been a few days since Zuko paid a visit to the Monument for some personal purchases. Most of those were swiftly hidden away inside her house, although the faint sounds of music the past few evenings might have given one of them away.

She's much less secretive about her final purchase. She's had to be, really, because it was in fact a gigantic egg, and she hasn't let that thing out of her sight for a moment. This doesn't mean that she's given up any of her usual activities, aside from Skyway trips, but even while she's training or at the pool it's always been sitting nearby wrapped in a blanket.

But today's the day. She's just finishing up her training routine on the Bastion side of the river when she hears something stirring inside. She immediately crouches down to watch with rapt attention as something slowly emerges: a baby red dragon, serpentine and nearly the length of her arm.

This is the moment where all her doubts come back to her because she has never so much as seen a baby dragon before much less taken care of one. What do.

((Feel free to run into her pre- or post-hatching, and anywhere in the general vicinity of the lake!))

Comments

[scary_music]

Kyaaa!

[Somebody thinks that dragon is adorable!]

Zuko-chan, Zuko-chan... is that... is that...?!

Your secret baby dragon you made with Aoi-chan?!

[daughterofursa]

What?

[She looks up at Ibuki in confusion as the little dragon latches onto her hand and starts crawling up her arm.]

No, I used my own shards..

[Because she is honestly innocent enough to think Ibuki is talking about Aoi contributing shards. It'll probably hit her in a minute though.]

[scary_music]

Shards?

Oooh, I see, I see.

Zuko-chan! There's no need to be embarrassed! It's totally okay that you had a cute little baby dragon with Aoi-chan!

But, but, don't worry! Your secret is safe with Ibuki!!

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko stares at her for another second before her face goes red and she blurts out:]

Women can't even do that!

[Have sex? Produce babies together? Lay eggs?? Who knows.

But her shout seems to have upset said impossible baby and she has to catch it before it runs off.]

[scary_music]

[Ibuki would've said 'just kidding' but... whoops, she went straight to laughing right away]

[daughterofursa]

It's not funny!

[How do you calm down a baby dragon. Pettings??]

[scary_music]

[After a bit she calms down into a few giggles]

E-ehehe... j-just kidding, Zuko-chan, just kidding!

[notduchess]

[ It is clearly day of the lizards.

Duke has the baby lizard that the knight had picked up after the previous shard run, and is carefully letting it explore. When it wanders right up to Zuko, Duke is right behind - mostly to make sure the large cat sized lizard doesn't try taking a chomp out of anyone. ]

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko isn't really alarmed by the lizard baby, but the dragon goes scurrying across to the other side of her body from it. Zuko would offer the lizard her hand to sniff but. its mom kind of ate people.]

Has it been behaving?

[notduchess]

Gets a little nippy when hungry, but I've been trying to get it to nudge without trying to knock me over instead.

[ Lizard leans to look at dragon baby, but seems content to inspect Zuko for now. ]

[daughterofursa]

[In that case she'll cautiously offer her hand. Partly to keep it away from the little dragon who is trying to hide under her hair now.]

Doesn't sound so bad.

[notduchess]

Nippy in the middle of the night is annoying.

[ ... Which basically means that Duke is trying to train the lizard to act like a cat. ]

... Something from home? [ The little dragon. Or winged lizard, Terca Lumireis dragons look nothing like that- ]

[daughterofursa]

Yeah. This is a dragon from home.

[...not that Duke can see it very well if it's hiding. Zuko shifts back a bit from the lizard and carefully pulls the dragon back into her hands.]

They get a lot bigger.

[freedom_engineer]

So, it's hatched, huh?

[Yep, it's Zuko's favorite person in the world next to Azula...]

Hello there, little one. It's nice to meet you.

[Colin smiles at the baby dragon, speaking gently and with a pleasant tone. He won't get too close. The dragons he knows are territorial and slow to trust.]

[daughterofursa]

Yeah.

[Mostly it seems skittish at the moment. Zuko catches it from crawling up past her ear to keep it in her hands.]

...you wouldn't know anything about dragons, would you?

[freedom_engineer]

A decent amount, actually. What would you like to know?

[He eyes the bitty, and he gives a faint smile.]

If it's anything like the dragons where I'm from, it's looking for an enclosed space. They typically lair in caverns and other tight spots, and a baby dragon will try to hide behind rocks with its mom until its first meal.

[daughterofursa]

[Well, that makes sense. Ran and Shaw lived in caves, right? Maybe she can find it a box or something.]

What do you feed them?

[freedom_engineer]

The dragons I'm familiar with are omnivorous, but they vastly prefer meat. Cubed pieces of elk or cow steak, or some fish filet, would be wonderful for the little one, along with a little rice and some orange slices for other nutrients. If you can convince it to eat veggies, it would be good for it, but like most children, I doubt it will want anything to do with them for a while.

[He takes a couple steps closer, finally scanning the dragon to check its teeth, vitals, and gender.]

It's going to be a little antsy until it eats, then it's likely to sleep for a while. Young dragons burn a LOT of energy while their metabolism sorts itself out.

[daughterofursa]

[Zuko nods. She figured meat, but she wasn't sure if babies needed like... special food??]

I can do that.

[Yeah. This shouldn't be so hard. She cups her hands so the little thing can at least hide its head in there, and gets to her feet. Time to go find some food.

Also spoilers: it's a girl. Not that Zuko has any fucking clue how to tell.]

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Rob's seen the egg at their training sessions, so he knows generally what's up, but seeing that it's hatched is a different story. Because it's cute.

"Oh hey it hatched!"

He comes over and squats down, reaching out to pet it. If it has a good sense of smell, this newcomer smells of mammoth brain, raw mammoth meat, and urine.

"Aren't you a cute little... is it a guy or a girl?"

[daughterofursa]

"Colin says she's a girl."

The little dragon gets a wiff of him and crawls up Zuko's arm to her shoulder away from him. The other people she's met haven't smelled like that! What is that?

"You have to take it slow, she's still shy." Zuko strokes the underside of her snout. "It's okay. He's nothing to be scared of."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

That's the smell of delicious things. And something that humans do on a regular basis. Usually those smells aren't all together on a human but Rob's been tanning.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna hurt you. Your mommy wouldn't be happy with me if I did. Besides, you're too cute."

He holds out his hand to the dragon, giving her a chance to examine it before he tries petting her again.

[daughterofursa]

Everything is new and strange and big, but so far she's been encouraged not to be scared of any of it. The little dragon stretches her head out on her neck to sniff his hand again, whiskers twitching. Zuko just sits patiently, hoping her being calm communicates that that's how the dragon should be.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Once she's had a bit longer to smell him, Rob begins slowly moving his hand forwards until his fingers are under her chin and he can try to gently scratch her there.

[daughterofursa]

Baby dragon is tense for about three seconds before she just admits this is nice and her head bobs a little with the chin scratches.

"See? He's not so bad."