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So I decided to write a continuation for a previous slice-of-life story I wrote. You don't need to have read that before story you read this, since the whole point of slice-of-life is to be mundane and casual. (3,975 words)

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"Stop running. Stop running!! Come back here!" Jarzyl yelled furiously. The dragon fledgling sprinted forward, even flapping her wings for some extra speed, but she still wasn't fast enough to catch her quarry.

Jarzyl was a young dragon who had rather recently passed the fledgling growth spurt, and overall she was still only about a third of a grown dragon's size. However, her target was younger and smaller still--her cousin, a little hatchling named Maycor.

Moving with surprising speed for such a tiny dragon with his correspondingly tiny legs, Maycor skittered across the room with Jarzyl in hot pursuit. "Eek! Meeek! Eeee!" squeaked the hatchling. He appeared to be having tremendous fun running from his cousin, who was supposedly his babysitter for the day.

"I'm in charge, and I'm ordering you to stop running!" Jarzyl insisted. Her claws clicked against the floor as she tried to catch up. Jarzyl was faster than Maycor, but the hatchling could change directions faster than she could, and he had quickly found the easiest solution to evade capture. "Maycor--oof!" Jarzyl let out an annoyed grunt as she slammed bodily into a couch, which Maycor had easily slid under with his smaller size. They were currently in the living room, and Maycor kept dashing between two identical large couches that were placed on opposite sides of the room. He would hide underneath each couch where Jarzyl couldn't reach him, then dash across to the opposite couch just to keep her running after him. Stomping a forepaw in frustration, Jarzyl stuck her head under the couch. "Stop running! You're supposed to be taking a nap! That's an order!"

Lying sprawled on top of the couch was another dragon fledgling--one of Jarzyl's close friends, named Atlas, whom she'd enlisted to help her in her babysitting task. Whereas Jarzyl's scales were a bright friendly orange, Atlas's colouration was a dull, unobtrusive black colour that suited well with the judgemental, faintly amused look he was giving her. "Your cousin can't talk and he probably can't even understand you. What's the point of ordering him about?" Atlas asked.

Jarzyl growled, though the noise did sound more like a childish purr than the deep, resonant growl of an adult dragon. "Rrrr! He doesn't understand the words, but he understands the tone! Maycor! It's already mid-afternoon and it's your nap time. If you don't sleep now, you're going to be all tired and cranky later when we have to go for the big clan reunion dinner. Your aunt and uncle were very clear about that and they told me... Wait... What did I just say?" Jarzyl frowned as she tried to mentally untangle her words. "Not your_aunt and uncle. _My aunt and uncle... who are your parents... yes! I know words. Your parents were very clear that you needed to take a nap."

Hiding underneath the couch, Maycor just stared back out at Jarzyl with his wide, innocent, adorable eyes. "Eek!" squeaked the hatchling cheerfully. All of sudden, Maycor dashed out from under the couch and instead ran to hide under the identical couch placed on the other side of the room.

Jarzyl tried to lunge and grab Maycor as he dashed past her, but to no avail. Straightening up, she bared her teeth and growled at Atlas instead. "Grr. Well? Don't just sit there! Help me chase him!"

Using his only forepaw, Atlas casually gestured towards his left shoulder, where he was missing an entire limb. Unique among all the dragons Jarzyl knew, young and old, Atlas was a three-legged cripple. "You can't actually expect me to chase after your cousin if you can't catch him," Atlas replied drily.

Jarzyl flicked her neck frill. "I don't know? Maybe we could... pincer attack him. I go from one side and you go from another? Like a trap. Maycor needs to take his nap! Grahh, children are so irritating with all their running about and being mischievous."

Atlas burst out into quiet chuckles. "Bahahahaha! You say that with zero self-awareness, Jarz. As if you don't love to run about and be mischievous yourself...?"

"Unhelpful!" Jarzyl retorted. She reared up on her hindlegs so she could snatch up a throw pillow that was resting on top of the couch, and then she attempted to smack Atlas's snout with it.

Atlas flipped open a wing to deflect the assault. "Fine, fine. What do you want me to do?"

Jarzyl dropped the pillow and nodded towards the opposite couch. She grabbed Atlas's tail and half-heartedly tried to pull him off the sofa. "Come help me chase him!"

Atlas pulled his tail free from her grasp. "I don't think chasing Maycor is going to work. Clearly he's just enjoying playing his game with you."

"Fine, then we won't chase him. We need to lay a trap! Have I told you about that bird I caught last week with Caden?"

Atlas nodded. "Yes, you've mentioned it several times. Caden told me all about your latest adventure that you went on without me."

Jarzyl curled her neck back proudly_._ "I'm a hunter! Oh yeah. We hunted down a bird and captured it as our prey. It was a masterful bit of tactics," she insisted, though Atlas didn't seem very impressed.

"Caden described it to me more as a... an extremely uncivilized activity, and I believed she specifically described you as daft."

"Oh, yes." Jarzyl nodded excitedly. "Wait, daft is a good thing, right? It means fast?"

Atlas looked contemplative. "You're probably thinking of the word deft. Daft is a different thing, though I guess you are both deft and daft."

"Huh? What? Never mind, we should focus on getting Maycor to take his nap. How about..." Jarzyl's neck frill perked up as she came up with a new idea. "Oh! I know. We can get some bait for our trap! Why don't you go get that bucket of meat chunks from the kitchen? I'll keep watching Maycor."

"Alright. That might be the first good idea you've had all day with regards to taking care of your cousin." Atlas slid to his feet and hopped off the couch. Moving with his familiar, asymmetrical gait, he walked out of the room.

"Huh... Why did I ever agree to help babysit Maycor?" Jarzyl sighed to herself, then she moved over to the other couch and tried to stick a forelimb under to grab Maycor. The hatchling playfully nipped at her paw, but he stayed just out of reach. "Despicable, insolent, miniature, you!" Jarzyl muttered.

"Yoo!" Maycor replied.

About a minute later, Atlas returned carrying a bucket by its handle in his jaws. Trotting over to Jarzyl, he sat down beside her and slid the container over. "Here. The meat chunks we were feeding Maycor earlier have gone all cold, so I poured them out and got some fruit instead from your kitchen's icebox."

"Ok, great! I think those should be sourberries? I asked my father to buy some from the market yesterday. Love eating those things..." Jarzyl took the bucket. It was the same container that she'd been using just a few hours ago to feed Maycor, but instead of being filled with tiny chunks of softened meat intended for a hatchling to eat, it was now partially filled with small, round, bright yellow berries that were cool to the touch and covered in condensation.

"You _eat_sourberries? Aren't they supposed to be used for adding flavour to other things, not just eating on their own?" Atlas asked.

"Oh, you can eat them on their own. I like them." Reaching into the bucket, Jarzyl snatched up a few berries and tossed them into her mouth. Biting down on the berries made a zesty, sour taste explode across her tongue. "Mm. Oh these are delicious. Very sour. Now here's the plan--I'll put some berries down and then we'll back away and hide. Once Maycor comes out from the couch to eat the berries, we grab him before he runs away--"

"Mip! Yah! Oodz!" Letting out an excited series of chirps, Maycor simply dashed out from under the couch and obediently sat himself down on his haunches, right in front of the bucket and beside Jarzyl. He sniffed at the bucket, and his tail flicked from side to side so quickly that it was a blur.

"That was easy. So much for needing to set a trap," Atlas muttered.

Jarzyl let out an exasperated grasp. She grabbed Maycor and clutched the hatchling against her chest. "Grah, you pest! It's your nap time! No more running!"

"Oodz! Yar!" The tiny hatchling extended a paw and tried unsuccessfully to grab at the bucket's rim, then he looked up at Jarzyl and opened his mouth expectantly. Still held in her paws, he waved his wings in the direction of the food. "Yaryil."

"Jarzyl. My name is Jarzyl Mintaka, not Yaryil! Pronounce it properly!" Jarzyl sighed again. "Huuh. Whatever. You can eat a little bit, but then it's off to bed for you." She took a berry and let Maycor eat from her paw.

Maycor eagerly snapped up the berry, but then the sour taste appeared to surprise him as he bit down. "Mmm!?!" The young hatchling made a whining noise, and he scrunched up his snout before giving Jarzyl an unhappy expression as if she had betrayed him. Nevertheless, he kept chewing and did swallow the berry.

Atlas seemed highly amused by Maycor's expression. "Haha, your cousin doesn't seem to enjoy the berries as much as you do." Atlas then took one of the berries and also tossed it into his mouth, though he immediately appeared to regret doing this. He winced, and his snout scrunched up too. "Uggh. Why'd I do that? Oh. Oh that is so sour... My tongue..."

"Don't you complain too. Sourberries are delicious," Jarzyl muttered. She picked up a couple of berries and tossed one into her own mouth, then she offered the other to Maycor.

"Yaryil," Maycor babbled, then he ate the proffered berry. "Bleergh."

---

"Epp. Maaneep!" Making squeaking noises, Maycor beat his wings and pedalled all four of his legs even as Jarzyl carried him in her jaws, by the back of his neck. The hatchling wiggled about and tried to break free of her hold, but Jarzyl carried him from the living room and to her bedroom. Inside her bedroom there was a cot set up next to her bed, and without much ceremony she dropped Maycor in. This was the same cot her parents had used for her almost a full decade ago, and it had been taken out from a cupboard just for today.

"Vargg!" Maycor chirped. He rolled around on the mattress and flailed his wings, messing up the blankets, and then he sat back up and stared at Jarzyl again. "Margle. Argle narrr mip mip," babbled the tiny hatchling.

Sitting on the floor, outside the cot, Jarzyl rested her head against the cot's side bars. At this point she was feeling slightly tired herself, but she been given a job to do and she was determined to see it through. "Sleep, you bothersome thing! Aunt Therinor said you need two to three hours of sleep before the afternoon is up. So go to sleep, now. Sleeeeep..."

"You can't just tell a hatchling to sleep and expect them to listen. At least wrap him up first," Atlas suggested. Leaning back on his hindlegs, he jumped up onto Jarzyl's bed and then over the side of the cot, landing on the mattress right next to Maycor.

"Trreiip!!" Mayor made a happy noise as the abrupt addition of Atlas' weight made the mattress bounce up and down. "Eeeyah?!" However, the hatchling instead let out a surprised sound when Atlas used his jaws to pick him up by the back of his neck.

Maycor had been tapping his paws and waving his wings, but he suddenly went still as Atlas picked him up. Jarzyl squinted at the hatchling suspiciously, wondering why her cousin always struggled when she picked him up, whereas Maycor showed no such resistance to Atlas (or his parents, or anyone else) carrying him.

Atlas's voice was muffled as he was carrying Maycor in his jaws. "You have to... wrap him up so he knows that it's nap time. Make him more comfortable..." Sitting back on his haunches, Atlas took the blanket and spread it out across the cot's mattress, then he gently put Maycor down on his back. Before the young hatchling could roll over and sit back up, Atlas pinned him down and first wrapped Maycor up with his own wings, then he began wrapping the hatchling up tightly with the blanket.

Jarzyl felt a surge of curiosity. She had seen hatchlings wrapped up in this manner, and she could even vaguely recall her parents doing it to her when she'd been younger, but no one had ever taught her how to do it. It certainly wasn't something that was taught in school. "Huh! Interesting. Where'd you learn to do that?"

Atlas shrugged, making his wings bob up and down. "It's a life skill. You know how I told you that I live in a home for clanless young dragons because I don't have a big fancy clan like you do? Well, there are clanless dragons who are just fresh out of the shell too. It's sort of like... I have a whole bunch of siblings who aren't actually related to me, and we all have to take care of each other. That's how I learned how to take care of a young hatchling."

"Oh." Jarzyl awkwardly shifted her weight between her paws. Her clan, Mintaka, was one of the largest and most powerful clans in the City of Wings, whereas Atlas didn't have a clan or any of the rights or privileges that were afforded to almost every dragon. That disparity didn't usually affect their friendship, but it did make her uncomfortable at the thought. Clearly Atlas's background was different than hers, and though he might have some skills from it, he surely had more challenges.

"There we go," Atlas said. When he was done after about a minute of work, Maycor was bundled up with the blanket wrapped all around his body, with only his tail and his neck sticking out. Atlas flipped the hatchling around so he was lying on his belly, still all wrapped up in the blanket. "Now he's more comfortable, so if there's any chance he goes to sleep, he will. Just... close the curtains and leave him alone for a bit and he'll probably start napping."

Jarzyl nodded, and she went over to the side of the room and pulled the curtains across the window, plunging the room into darkness.

"Mawp? Mip." Maycor glanced around and squinted at the dark, then he put his head down on the mattress. His tail loosely coiled around one of the bars of the cot, and though he didn't close his eyes, he did seem much calmer than before. His eyes darted to watch Atlas as the three-legged fledgling jumped out of the cot to land beside Jarzyl.

"Thanks, Atlas," Jarzyl said. She affectionately nudged Atlas's neck with her snout, then the two fledglings turned to go. "Sleep well, Maycor, you bothersome little thing," Jarzyl told he cousin.

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Jarzyl slid her bedroom door closed, then she turned her head and pressed her ear against the door to listen. She heard Maycor make a few chirps and squeaks--not complaints or upset noises, but just the hatchling babbling to himself. "Huh. That... worked."

Atlas flicked his wings in a shrug. "Just hope he actually sleeps. If he doesn't feel sleepy enough he'll struggle his way out of that blanket and start scratching at your door."

"He should sleep. All that running around ought to have made him tired, because I'm tired too after all that chasing him about!" Jarzyl yawned, not bothering to cover her mouth. She starting trotting towards the living room again, hopping between two legs as she made her way down the corridor. "Hmm, I've got a question. How come Maycor didn't struggle when you picked him up? He always causes trouble for me. I feel like he's biased against me."

"It's not bias. You just really suck at babysitting. You're not supposed to just randomly pick up a hatchling anyhow; you have to lift them by the scruff," Atlas told her. As the two fledglings walked into the living room again, Atlas paused and sat back on his haunches to gesture behind his own neck. "That's the part right here, where hatchlings are meant to be carried from."

"I know that! I know what the scruff is..." Using a paw, Jarzyl self-consciously rubbed the back of her own neck, just above her shoulder blades where her wings met.

"Well if you scruff a hatchling properly, they stop struggling and let you carry them. It's some... child reflex thing when you pinch the scales there," Atlas said.

"Oh. Is that why Maycor only struggles when I pick him up? Am I doing it wrong? So where's the scruff?" Jarzyl turned to Atlas and prodded at the back of his neck. "Here? So I grab you here and you get paralyzed?"

Atlas shuffled his wings to brush away her paw. "If you're a hatchling, yes. I don't think it would work on me."

"Hm..." Jarzyl tried biting the scales at the base of Atlas's neck, which made him look awkward, but didn't appear to paralyze her friend. "Are you paralyzed?"

Atlas shook his head. "No..."

Jarzyl tried a different angle. "Here? Paralyzed?"

"Stop that. Now you're just biting my neck..."

Jarzyl released Atlas, and she ran a paw over the back of her own neck. "Hmf. No one ever told me that hatchlings need to be carried in one way. I thought you could just pick them up by the back of the neck."

Atlas raised an eye ridge. "We're barely fledglings ourselves! I've seen your parents carry you plenty of times, and at least once in the past few months." Shifting position, Atlas moved behind Jarzyl and he tapped his forepaw at one specific spot that made a slight shiver run down her spine. "Here. The scruff is here. You're supposed to carry a hatchling by gently biting the skin and scales right here, not by randomly grabbing their neck." And then to demonstrate, Atlas did exactly that, biting her right on her scruff.

"Eep!" Jarzyl made a surprised, involuntary squeak. The shiver that had run down her back seemed to intensify and run through her whole body, making her muscles freeze up. The young fledgling had been sitting back on her haunches, with her right forepaw on the ground and her left forepaw halfway between her chest and the floor, and now she instantly paused in that position. It wasn't that her muscles weren't responding, rather it felt like all her will to shift from this pose had suddenly been replaced by the desire to be calm and_stop_.

Just a couple of seconds later, Atlas released his jaws and that tingly sensation faded away instantly. "Wow. Did that actually work? I thought the scruff reflex was supposed to lessen as you got older."

"Ohh...!" Jarzyl gasped, and then she shuddered. She shook herself all over, making her scale plates rustle against each other. "Ok. Oohh, that was weird. I've... I've definitely felt something like that when my parents carried me, but I never realized it was an actual reflex. Huuuh--whew!" Taking a deep breath, she held it for a second and then let it all out in a huff. Jarzyl jumped to her feet and flapped her wings to do a quick backflip off the nearest wall, just to check that all her muscles were working. "Weird. Very weird feeling. Especially weird when it's you doing it."

Atlas glanced away. "Now what?"

Reaching behind her neck, Jarzyl tried to pinch that same area of scales that Atlas had bitten her at, but nothing happened. "Could you use that during a fight? Like if I was in a mock duel with someone, could I bite their scruff to paralyze them? That would be an interesting strategy."

"I'm pretty sure the scruff reflex is supposed to go away as you get older," Atlas replied. "Also, if you're in a fight and you manage to get your jaws around someone's neck, you've already won the fight," he added after a bit more thinking.

Jarzyl nodded her head, then she tapped the back of her neck. "Uh... Do that again. I bet I can override the reflex. I want to try."

"If that's what you want," Atlas agreed. He shifted behind Jarzyl again, and then he bit down right on her scruff.

Jarzyl had been expecting the action because she'd asked for it, yet that tingly, immobilizing sensation that ran through her body still made her breath catch in her throat. "Ah..." For an instant she completely lost all desire to move, talk, or even do anything at all, and it felt like she could just be calm forever, not moving and staying still right in front of her friend. But after some exertion of will, Jarzyl managed to unfurl a wing and extend it out. "Hmm. I'm... not paralyzed... I can move... Rawr!"

Letting out a yell, Jarzyl folded in her wings and then threw them out upwards and behind her. Simultaneously she kicked all four legs and leapt out of her sitting position to crash backwards into Atlas. "Hey!"

Atlas opened out his own wings to try and regain balance, but Jarzyl tumbled back against him and they both went down to the ground. Jarzyl spun around mid-fall, so Atlas ended up lying flat on his back with her lying on top of him. Thrusting her neck forward, Jarzyl got her jaws around his throat; her left forepaw immobilized Atlas's sole forepaw, while her right forepaw just went by the side of his neck. "Grrr!"

On his part, Atlas didn't seem particularly surprised by this turn of events. "Ok. Well done, Jarz. You didn't even give me any warning. That's hardly a fair fight."

"A win's a win! I'm still the best. Rawr." For all the many times they had mock duelled and play fought with each other and with other young dragons in the past, Jarzyl wasn't sure why now of all times feeling Atlas's body pressed up against hers made another shudder run down her back. His scales were warm and smooth as they slid against hers, and she playfully gnawed on Atlas's neck for a few seconds before letting him go.

Jumping off her friend, Jarzyl rolled Atlas back onto his belly and grabbed his wing to pull him back into a sitting position. Atlas smoothly flicked his wings and then furled them neatly up onto his back again. He nodded his head. "So... Now what?"

Jarzyl yawned widely, feeling tired. "We could play a few more rounds of that board game we were doing earlier--what was it called? Conquest?"

"Sure." Atlas went over to the side of the room, where a bookshelf held, besides just books, various board games as well as enchanted crystals, small stone carvings and other things.

Meanwhile, Jarzyl leapt up onto the couch and sat down on all fours. She rolled over to the part of the couch which was closest to the window; a beam of warm, mid-afternoon sunlight was streaming in, and she lazily basked in the heat. The sun against her scales felt warm and comfortable, and Jarzyl closed her eyes for just a moment to enjoy that feeling.

Without her willing it, her thoughts grew meandering and peacefully incoherent, and in just a few seconds she had dozed off to sleep.

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END