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

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"No? I don't know you well enough to tell. I'm just saying that you don't seem like the kind of princess who sits around in a pretty dress and waits for a man to come along and rescue her from the dragon that's holding her prisoner."

He leans in to scratch under the baby dragon's chin.

"Though if you manage to stay this cute when you're bigger you might be able to keep Zuko trapped by your need for pettings."

[daughterofursa]

"That's your idea of a princess?" Yeah, it's definitely no insult to be nothing like that.

"I can't imagine any woman just sitting around waiting to be rescued. Especially not if she has to get back to her people."

...she has no objection to the part about being trapped by her own dragon, though.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Pretty sure most of the fairytales were written by men. A lot of them end with a handsome prince or knight rescuing the princess and marrying her, so there's probably some wish fulfillment in there. They were also written at a time when women were considered lesser people to men; if the eldest princess had any younger brothers the oldest one would inherit the throne instead of her, and if there were no prices then the princess would need to marry and her husband would become the king. That changed over time and didn't always get followed, especially if the queen was strong enough and had enough support. For the monarchies surviving today in my world, as far as I know they're all strictly by birth order regardless of gender. England is the big one, and they have a queen right now. The next three will be kings though."

[daughterofursa]

"Well, that doesn't sound anything like the Fire Nation. My sister and I were brought up to be warriors and leaders of our people, and the throne was mine, married or not."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Sounds like your homeland's not stupid then. Better than some countries in my world, even."

[daughterofursa]

"I wouldn't go that far. We might not have had stupid ideas about gender, but we were responsible for a hundred year war. Among other things." She frowns and strokes the baby dragon under the head.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"Your country isn't alone in that. I mean there was the one Hundred Years' War in my world, but there've been a ton of shorter ones that pretty much every country's been involved in at some point. The country I'm from hasn't started any wars at least, so far as I remember, but we've fought in a few of them."

[daughterofursa]

"It doesn't make it any better that other people have made the same mistake."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"No, but it's nice to know you're not alone sometimes."

[daughterofursa]

"Maybe. But I wouldn't wish my world's problems on anyone else either."

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

"I wouldn't either."

More dragon petting, now seeing how far down her body he can pet before she doesn't like it anymore. But this conversation went in a less-than-delightful direction, so let's change that.

"How big does this kind of dragon get. As big as Paarthurnax?"

[daughterofursa]

Why does Zuko always manage to take conversations in that direction? She's fine with the change.

"Bigger. She's going to be really impressive one day."

The little dragon seems to get antsy when Rob's fingers near her wings, and she crawls back up Zuko's arm.

[dragonsorcsandwolves]

Not near the wings - gotcha. He holds out his fingers to the dragon, letting her examine them again before he'll attempt to resume petting.

"Wow. You're gonna be a big dragon. Gonna hafta ask for a ride one day once you're big."

Because he hasn't worked up the courage to ask Paar for rides yet.

[daughterofursa]

Paarthurnax gave Zuko a ride into the Bastion when she first arrived, but it seems sort of impolite to ask a sentient being if you can ride them unless they offer first.

"That's right. But don't worry, you'll have plenty of time to ride around on us first."

Well... She really doesn't know how fast this dragon is going to grow up, but she's just so tiny right now. There's got to be a lot of shoulder-perching in her future.