Maycor
#13 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Jarzyl takes care of family and friend alike.
Jarzyl gets a new responsibility. (3,612 words)
Atlas curled his tail around and used its tip to press the doorbell. The three-legged fledgling sat down on his haunches, but no more than a few seconds later, the door slid open, revealing another young dragon much like himself--his friend, Jarzyl.
"Oh, you're here! Great!" Jarzyl exclaimed. She looked as cheery and healthy as usual, though there something_odd_ on her back, right between her wings and behind her neck.
"Yes? What's this urgent problem you need my help with?" Atlas asked. Shifting slightly to the side, he tried to look around Jarzyl. "And what is_that_ on your back?"
"That is the problem." Twisting her neck around, Jarzyl used her jaws the grab the thing, revealing it to be a little hatchling with scales of a tawny brown colour, who appeared to be no more than a year old. Trotting forward, Jarzyl carried the hatchling by its nape--a section of naturally slightly thickened skin and scales right behind the neck and between the wings, meant precisely for a young dragon to be carried by--and then she unceremoniously dropped the hatchling on Atlas's back.
Turning his head around, Atlas stared at the hatchling. The hatchling stared back with wide, innocent eyes. "Meep!" it chirped, before squirming about to get into a comfortable position flopped down on Atlas's shoulder. Atlas and Jarzyl were both relatively young (and therefore small) fledglings, but this hatchling was even tinier still, at just over a third of their size. Its light orange-brown scales stood out at a slight contrast compared to Atlas's own black scales, whereas they had blended in with Jarzyl's amber-orange scales.
Atlas turned back to stare at Jarzyl. "Uh... Why do you have a young hatchling? Where did you get this thing from?"
"Don't worry, I didn't steal him. I mean kidnap? I didn't kidnap him," Jarzyl replied enthusiastically. "This is my niece! His name is Maycor."
"Niece?Him?" Atlas asked. "Niece is a term for female relatives."
Jarzyl's neck frill twitched. "Oh? I mean nephew. Maycor's my nephew."
"Meep!" Maycor chirped happily.
Atlas once again glanced down at the hatchling sitting on his shoulder, then he glanced at Jarzyl. "Also,nephew? Jarz, you can't have a nephew. You're a single child."
"I..." Jarzyl's neck frill collapsed flat against her neck. "That's right. I know that obviously. I meant... cousin? Maycor is my... mother's... sister's... son? My... aunt's son. That's...cousin. He's my cousin, yes! Yep. I've been enlisted to babysit my little hatchling cousin while my parents and my aunt and uncle are all busy with that big clan meeting. Yes. That's it!"
Atlas raised an eye ridge. "You? They trust you to take care of a hatchling? You can barely even take care of yourself without getting into some sort of trouble!" he muttered.
Jarzyl's neck frill snapped back up and she pretended to frown at her three-legged fledgling friend. "Hey! I resent that description," she muttered, sounding defensive. "I am very mature and very mindful of safety and good behaviour and all those important responsible things. Anyway, that's why you're here. We're going to take care of Maycor and make sure he doesn't get into any trouble."
Atlas shook his head in despair, and Maycor tried to imitate the motion by shaking his head. This ending up making the little hatchling dizzy, and he slumped down on Atlas's shoulder for a moment before recovering. "Meep. Mip!" Maycor opened his mouth and began trying to bite at Atlas. He was so small that he couldn't open his jaws wide enough to properly close them around Atlas's neck.
"Hey! Bad! Bad hatchling! No! Don't bite Atlas. Only I'm allowed to do that." Jarzyl used a forepaw to gently tap Maycor on his nose. The hatchling tried to nip at her paw--he was enthusiastic but uncoordinated, and his neck lunge totally missed.
"Meep--yaahhh!" This shift in balance then led to Maycor almost tumbling off Atlas's shoulder, and the black-scaled fledgling winced as Maycor's tiny claws poked at his scales like needles. Maycor flapped his wings awkwardly, and barely manged to regain his footing.
"Do you even know the first thing about taking care of a young hatchling?" Atlas asked.
"Of course. My aunt said to feed him some food every three hours, and also not to let him gnaw on anything expensive. Also don't shake him or throw him because hatchlings are delicate things which break very easily, just like the eggs they come from. And also to clean him up if he poops on things." Jarzyl curled her head around and sniffed at her back. "I don't think he...? Is my back clean? He's supposed to have learned how to use a toilet, but then again he also doesn't know how to talk, so who knows if he's actually got any intelligence in his brain yet. He's probably an idiot. Children are idiots."
Atlas just shook his head as Jarzyl turned around to let him check her back. "This is going to be quite an experience."
"Mep! Epp!" Maycor's tail twitched from side to side excitedly as Atlas walked out of the kitchen, carrying in his jaws a small bucket partially filled with food. Because Atlas was missing his front left leg, his gait was asymmetric as he jumped up onto the dining table, on which Jarzyl and Maycor were already sitting down.
"Patience. Patience!" Jarzyl ordered. As Atlas put the bucket down on the table, Jarzyl went to sit beside it. Maycor immediately tried to jump at the food, but Jarzyl used her wing to fend him off. "No! You have to wait. Wow, children are so uncivilized."
Atlas raised an eye ridge and stared at Jarzyl. "You're one to talk..."
"I am the most civilized, polite, and mature of all fledglings, and I can't possibly think of any reason why you might feel otherwise," Jarzyl retorted. She reached into the bucket and pulled out a morsel of meat. The meat had been tenderized until it was almost soft enough to fall apart at the touch, and then divided into small cubes that could be easily swallowed whole. "Anyway, before you arrived I was teaching Maycor some table manners. Watch this. Maycor! Sit.Sit!"
"Meep?"
"Not meep. Sit." Jarzyl waved the morsel of food about in front of the hatchling's snout, and after some prompting he did drop back onto his haunches. "Good! Good hatchling! See? He knows how to sit!" Jarzyl let her cousin eat the food cube, then she reached into the bucket to take another one. "Ok now speak! Say_Jarzyl_."
"Meep!"
Jarzyl shook her head. "Say Jarzyl. Jarzyl. Jar... zil..."
"Yar-yil. Meep. Yahh! Foo!" Maycor babbled, and Jarzyl decided this was close enough.
"Good hatchling!" Jarzyl gave Maycor the morsel of food, then she turned to Atlas. "It's pretty close, right? I'm hoping that sooner or later he figures out how to talk properly." Jarzyl tossed a morsel into her own mouth and swallowed it. "Mmh. You want one?"
Atlas shook his head. "That is baby food. It is literally designed to have no texture specifically for those who lack bite strength or even teeth, and thus cannot chew."
"Eh. It doesn't taste that bad." Jarzyl took another food cube and held it up over Maycor. The hatchling's head tracked the cube as she moved it. "Ok, let's try a new trick. Maycor,jump. Jump!" She moved the cube towards the hatchling's snout and then lifted it away when he tried to snap at it. Eventually she got him to stand up, then make a small hop to take the food from her paw. "Goood! Good Maycor! That's_jump_! Very good. Let's try it again. Jump."
"I'm not sure this is the proper way to treat a hatchling," Atlas muttered, but Jarzyl was undeterred.
"He has to eat food anyway, so why not train him while I'm at it? Maybe I can get him to do a backflip. That would be cool."
Atlas shook his head. "I... don't know enough about parenting to say that is a bad idea, but I feel like that is a bad idea."
"Don't be so negative. I'm sure I'd be a great parent. Very... parental and all that." Jarzyl's neck frill perked up as she thought about it. "Hmm. Not that I would ever be a parent. Ugh, do you know how eggs are made? It's so gross. I'm never doing that. Never ever."
Unexpectedly, Jarzyl's casual comment made her friend's eyes go wide. Atlas rarely looked too awkward (maybe because he was_always_ mildly awkward, what with being a three-legged cripple), but now he looked distinctly uncomfortable. "Uhh... Jarz, do you_actually_ know how eggs are made?"
"Well, a bit? My mother has all these old medical encyclopaedias back from when she was first learning how to be a healer, and she lets me read them. It's interesting." Jarzyl tapped her chest and unfurled her left wing. "Did you know that of your two hearts, the main heart is always beating but the secondary heart only starts up when you're stressed or exerting yourself? Especially for flying, because the movement of flight control scales relies on hydraulic blood flow." She folded her wing shut. "Anyway, I did read a whole section of one book which talked about laying eggs. It is_super_ disgusting." Jarzyl leaned in towards Atlas and whispered at him conspiratorially. "They come out from... from down there," she muttered, making a vague gesture towards her underbelly.
"That is correct. And do you know... the rest of it?" Atlas asked. "How eggs are_actually_ made, before they are laid?"
"Well they grow inside female dragons, I think. I remember I asked my mother when I was younger, and she said something about having to be an adult and needing a mate. Then somehow you end up with an egg that grows inside the drakka. I'm not quite sure about the exact process," Jarzyl admitted. "I could probably look it up. I'm sure the medical books would talk about it."
Atlas shifted his weight between his paws, and he glanced away. "No comment."
"Meeep! Mip!" Maycor squeaked. He flailed his wings for attention, and opened his mouth widely to indicate his continued hunger. "Ahhh. Yah. Oodzz."
"Alright, alright." The previous conversation topic dropped, Jarzyl returned her attention to her young cousin. She took another morsel of meat and gave it to him. "But I'm totally going to teach Maycor how to do a backflip. He's going to be cool. We'll do backflips together."
A while later, after the feeding was finished, Jarzyl carried Maycor by his scruff and brought him back to her room. She put the hatchling down on her bed, then she took out a board game and started playing it with Atlas. It was the middle of the afternoon, and the weather was warm but windy as an autumn breeze blew through the open window. The two fledglings lazed about on the floor, occasionally pushing their board game pieces about.
"When are your aunt and uncle coming back to pick up your cousin?" Atlas asked, nodding towards Maycor, who was sitting behind Jarzyl and chewing on her tail.
Jarzyl flicked her neck frill up and down. "I don't know. Sometime before dinner. My father said he'd be back before dinner, and they are all at the same clan meeting."
Atlas shifted his game piece across the board. "Must be an important meeting."
Jarzyl mirrored his move, because she felt too lazy to come up with her own strategy right now. "It is. It's the Mintakabiannual general meeting. All the clan wingleaders give speeches and talk about progress over the last year, then at dinner time it's a huge reunion feast where everyone gets to see family and friends and catch up on things. My father said he'd come pick me up (and Maycor too) to bring us for dinner later."
"That sounds fancy."
"It is. It's a once a year, big celebratory thing, you know? The clan general meeting."
"I don't actually know. I don't have a clan," Atlas replied.
This was such a weird thing to say that Jarzyl immediately dismissed it. "What? No, of course you do. Every dragon has a clan. Clans run the city, clans decide on the laws, clans own the houses, clans give people their jobs... Maybe your clan is a small one, not big like Mintaka, but you still have to have a clan."
"Mmh. No, I really don't have a clan." Atlas unfurled a wing and used it to cover his mouth as he yawned. He shifted his piece and grinned. "You lose."
"What?!" Jarzyl had also been mid-yawn (though she hadn't bothered to cover her mouth), but now she straightened her forelegs and pushed herself up to stare at the board. "What, I_lose_? Aww, what a cheap tactic! That's just..." And then the first part of Atlas's statement clicked in her mind. "Wait, you... don't have a clan? You're clanless? Don't you... have a house or something?"
"Being clanless isn't the same as being homeless," Atlas murmured. He distracted himself with clearing the game pieces and rearranging the board, deliberately not making eye contact with Jarzyl. "I have a home. It's... sort of a long-term hostel for clanless young dragons. Like me."
Jarzyl felt her neck frill perking all the way up as she processed this information. Atlas was clearly trying to act casual as if he wasn't revealing some huge personal detail, but this was a major breakthrough--they'd been friends for so long, since they were both young hatchlings, and finally now she was learning something more about Atlas's background. "Oh. But... aren't you Atlas_Tyces_? Isn't that a--"
"Tyces isn't a clan name. Or it is a clan, but if I'm the only one with that clan name, so it doesn't count for anything at all," Atlas explained. He glanced behind Jarzyl. "Your cousin is trying to climb up the bookshelf."
"Let Maycor climb. It'll be good for him to get some exercise," Jarzyl said. "But hey now, don't change the topic. You're clanless? That's...different! Everyone has a clan. I'm from Mintaka, Caden is from Hasilt-Taslin, Pyxis is from Regil, Knaster is from Taslin, and... and everyone has a clan. But you don't? What's that like?"
Atlas shrugged, making his wings bob up and down on his back. "It's not that different. There are about... three dozen other young dragons in the clanless home, ranging from young hatchlings to drakken who have just reached adulthood. We get food, we have beds, and that's pretty much it. Sometimes there are sports or games. It's almost like we_are_ a clan, except with no actual rights. Every month we get wingleaders from_real_ clans coming to see if they want to adopt people into their clan, for a tax break."
"Oh. Interesting... It's different--but not in a bad or weird way, just different," Jarzyl said. "And... how did you end up clanless?"
Atlas finally met her gaze. "Some young dragons become clanless when they end up orphaned and no one else from their clan can take them in. Others end up clanless because their parents can't afford a child but didn't want to smash the egg for whatever reason. It's... complex."
"But... you?" Jarzyl prompted.
Atlas just shook his head. "I don't know. There are no records I can find, and I can't remember ever_not_ living there. Maybe I was hatched with a missing leg and that why I was left clanless. Or maybe there was some accident which injured me and killed my parents? It doesn't really matter. By the way, please don't tell anyone what I just told you. They'll look at me weird."
Feeling a surge of melancholy, Jarzyl jumped to her feet and ran over to hug Atlas, throwing her wings around her friend. "They already look at you weird, but it's ok. You're still the same to me. We're friends, and nothing changes that."
Atlas was quiet for a moment, then he nodded. "Thanks, Jarz, I appreciate that. I'm not sure a hug was necessary, though. And now seriously--your cousin is climbing up the bookshelf." He nudged Jarzyl's shoulder with his snout and nodded behind her.
Jarzyl kept hugging. "It's alright. I used to climb the bookshelf all the time. I was fine, Maycor will be fine, and you'll be fine too."
"Ok, but I disagree? I do remember that you used to climb the bookshelf when you were younger, and I_also_remember you ended up stuck on top because you couldn't climb down? The bookshelf gets all wobbly?" Atlas said.
Jarzyl snapped her eyes open. "Oh. Right...! I did get stuck up there once..." She turned around to see her cousin sitting on top of her bookshelf.
"Meep!" squeaked the hatchling. Maycor glanced around, then he just stared at Jarzyl innocently. "Mip!"
"Are you actually stuck, or are you just staying up there because you like perching and staring down at me?" Jarzyl asked, staring up at Maycor.
"Meep. Ood. Yaarh," Maycor babbled. He sounded hungry again, but given that he made no move to climb down from the top of the bookshelf, Jarzyl concluded that he was truly stuck. She could sympathise--it was easy to climb up furniture one step at a time, but trying to climb back down was harder because claws gripped better in one direction, not to mention looking downwards made a descent more nerve-wracking than ascent.
Atlas came trotting back into Jarzyl's bedroom. "I can't get a ladder. Your house store room is locked."
"My father has the key. Well... how_bothersome_!" Jarzyl exclaimed. "And here I was thinking I was doing so well today! I was being a fantastic babysitter, and we were even having a nice deep interpersonal talk. Ok, what's the plan? How do we get Maycor down from there?"
The two fledglings stared up at Maycor. He stared back down at them.
"Maybe I could just... climb up the bookshelf too?" Jarzyl suggested. Jumping to her feet, she approached the tall, narrow bookshelf and put her forepaws on the lowest shelf. Each of the many shelves was filled with books of all sizes, making it an easy climb, but the whole piece of furniture swayed precariously as Jarzyl tried to climb it. The first shelf was fine, but the second caused more trouble.
"Careful! Jarz, don't!Don't!" Atlas exclaimed.
"Meeeeppp! Meepp!" Maycor squeaked, huddling down at the top of the bookshelf as it wobbled forward and backwards. It had been light enough to allow a hatchling to climb up, but a fledgling might be too heavy for it to take without falling over and squishing her.
Abandoning her effort, Jarzyl dropped back to the ground and sat beside Atlas again. "Alternate ideas?" she asked.
"Wait for the adults to come home, so they can just... rear up on their hindlegs and grab your cousin?" Atlas suggested.
"That's giving up. We should get him down ourselves." Jarzyl squinted up at Maycor and tried to analyse the situation. "So the bookshelf is too wobbly for me to climb up, unless we somehow get another piece of furniture to prop it up?"
"Or we could try stacking things beside the bookshelf, forming a makeshift ladder?" Atlas said.
Looking around the room, Jarzyl tried to see if there was anything nearby she could climb up instead, before jumping to the bookshelf to grab Maycor and bring him down. "Or maybe... Wait. We're idiots! It's obvious. We're fledglings--we_fly_! Oh yes."
Jarzyl scampered over to the far side of her bedroom and threw open her wings. "I'll just fly up there, grab Maycor, and bring him back down to safety! It's so easy!"
Atlas didn't look convinced. "What if you make the bookshelf topple over and it crushes both of you in the process? That seems dangerous. Wait a moment..." Standing up, Atlas went over to the bookshelf and peered behind it.
Jarzyl wasn't going to be deterred. She extended her wings, raised her neck frill, and leaned back onto her hindlegs. "No, this'll work. I'm coming to save you, Maycor! Here we go."
Atlas was standing beside the bookshelf, peering behind it at the gap between the bookshelf and the wall. "There is a screw attaching this bookshelf to the wall. It can't fall over, so you could just climb it," he announced, but Jarzyl had already begun her rescue mission and she wasn't going to cancel it. Leaping into the air, she flapped hard to gain altitude and cross the short distance within her room.
"Aerial rescue!" Fluttering through the air, Jarzyl landed right on the top of the bookshelf and managed to snatch Maycor up in her paws. "Got you!"
"Meep!"
Hatchling and fledgling tumbled off the bookshelf and dropped through the air, with Jarzyl holding Maycor up so she would hit the ground first. Against all the odds, she managed to land on her bed instead of the floor, which perfectly cushioned her fall.
"Oh! Oh. It worked! I'm a genius! You're welcome, you annoying little troublemaker." Slumping back against the bed, Jarzyl let Maycor wriggle out of her grip. "Children are so uncivilized," she muttered, as her cousin scampered out of the bedroom.
Atlas hopped up on the bed and sat down beside her. "You know, fledglings aren't adults, so technically we count as children too; though this does not diminish the accuracy of your statement."
Jarzyl let out a long sigh. "Huuuuuh... I agree. Now let's go grab that hatchling again before he climbs up something else."
END