Core Memory / The Nesting Experience
#70 of The Life and Times of Jarzyl Mintaka (Slice of Life Stories)
Two more short glimpses into the life of a young dragon--Jarzyl Mintaka.
In the true spirit of slice-of-life, I wrote two more Jarzyl stories which are casual, single-scene, and too short on their own, so I'm uploading them together here.
Core Memory
"Ever thought about shortening your neck frill?"
Jarzyl had been lying on her front, staring blankly at a textbook but not really reading it, and now the dragon fledgling glanced up at her friend sitting beside her. "Hmm? What?"
Caden should also had been studying, but memorizing historical facts wasn't particularly interesting. While reading her own textbook she had begun to groom her scales, and then once that was done, she'd starting grooming Jarzyl's scales too. Caden gestured with the brush she was holding. "Your neck frill, Jarz. You ever consider shortening it?"
That unexpected suggestion made Jarzyl's neck frill perk up, and she flicked it back down with a toss of her head. "Why? Doesn't it hurt to trim a frill?"
"Polishing scales does sting a little, but shortening a neck frill doesn't." Extending a single claw from her paw, Caden lightly slid her touch across the back of Jarzyl's head, underneath her frill. "You don't cut the membrane. There are ointments you apply at the base which will change how fast your frill grows out, so in a few weeks' time it'll be shorter or longer than before.
Though she had lived all her life with a neck frill, literally since she'd hatched from her egg, Jarzyl had never put deep thought into such a thing. "Really? I didn't know that."
Unlike Jarzyl, Caden didn't have a neck frill. She gestured behind her own head. "It's only a temporary change, but yes, you can certainly choose to have a longer or shorter frill. The current fashion for neck frill and crests is for them to be shorter--just long enough to raise up and down, but shorter to look sleeker and more aerodynamic against your neck."
With a soft snort, Jarzyl shrugged her wings and flicked her neck frill. "Pfft. Seems like a lot of trouble just to be vain."
"Hah." Caden chuckled in response, and she resumed brushing at the scales on Jarzyl's side. "It's not vanity to take care of your appearance and look good."
"Oh, I already look good_as is._ I like the way I look, and I like my neck frill as it is," Jarzyl confidently insisted, which made Caden chuckle again.
Jarzyl glanced down at her textbook, but then she raised her head to stare wistfully out the window and at the sky. "That... brings up a memory. When I was young--really young, just a tiny hatchling--someone once told me in passing that they liked how my neck frill was long because it was expressive, which made it easy to tell what I was feeling. Up for happy or interested,down for sad or angry." Tossing her head, Jarzyl smoothly flicked up her frill so that it stood straight up around her head, then she let it droop completely flat against her neck, before raising it back to the normal position. "It was a minor observation, not even meant to be a compliment. But it... it made me feel happy, and I was instantly convinced that having a long neck frill was a good thing."
Caden grinned warmly. "Aww, that's sweet. Who was it who said that to you?"
Jarzyl knew exactly who had made that comment, but abruptly she felt self-conscious. "Just... someone, when we were both young. An old friend. I don't think she would even remember that conversation now."
"Sometimes small comments just stick, and last far longer than intended," Caden murmured.
END
The Nesting Experience
When Atlas arrived at his friend's house, the young drake came across an unexpected sight. Jarzyl was napping in the living room, lying on her side and lazing on a large floor cushion, but the unexpected part was that she had one wing mantled open, keeping something against her side.
Neatly landing on the balcony, Atlas tapped his tail against the ledge to make some noise. The balcony doors were already open, but it was simple courtesy to wait to be invited into someone else's home. "Hello."
Jarzyl jerked awake, blinking her eyes open and snapping her head to look at him. "Oh. Hi. Uh... you're here earlier than expected. Come in, come in."
Atlas stepped inside. With a faint smile, he nodded at his friend. "Jarz, are you nesting?"
Jarzyl's neck frill drooped and she looked embarrassed. "I fell asleep! I was planning on putting this thing back into the box before you, Caden, or any of the others came over." Slowly she lifted up her wing, revealing a large, pale white ovoid that had been resting against her side, covered by her wing. Jarzyl sniffed at the dragon egg. It wasn't hers. Even though she was a fledgling, she wasn't old enough to make an egg--but it was still family.
Atlas smiled. "Taking care of your future sibling? Are your parents not home?"
Jarzyl gentled nosed at the egg, using the most careful movements to slowly rotate it. In addition to being kept warm and safe, eggs also needed to be occasionally rotated for the embryo to grow properly. "My mother's back at the medical centre. Her healing magic hasn't come back yet, but she said she wanted to catch up on paperwork and get updates from the rest of the ward. As for my father, he went to headquarters for some important meeting. And before he left, he... asked if I wanted to try nesting and see what it was like."
Atlas nodded. "How did you find it?"
"It's definitely a waste of time. Why would I spend so much time keeping my wing over an egg when it can just go in a nesting box? Machines make things easier." Jarzyl nodded towards a device at the other side of the living room, which resembled a rectangular glass tank--it was a nesting box, which could take care of an egg from the moment it was laid till the day it hatched. Jarzyl sniffed at the egg. "This thing smells nice, though. It smells so fresh and a little bit sweet."
Atlas laughed. Unlike Jarzyl, he had lots of experience with nesting eggs. Jarzyl was from Mintaka, an apex clan, and her family could afford a nesting box. But Atlas was clanless, and the sheltered home did things cheap and old-fashioned--eggs given up to the shelter were kept warm by the clanless young dragons who lived there, as one of the many different chores they had. "Did you know that there are people who buy replica eggs to snuggle with them when they sleep? Nesting behaviour is relaxing and improves mood."
Jarzyl laughed sceptically. "Weird. I don't know about that."
"So now that you've had the experience of nesting your sibling, you wouldn't do it again?"
Jarzyl flicked her neck frill. "Maybe. Maybe not." She gently tapped her snout against the egg's shell. "Eggy, egg, egg. One day you'll hatch. And I bet you'll be a tremendous pest who will irritate me nonstop." Moving slowly, she pulled the large cushion across the floor, with the egg on top of it, until it was right beside the nesting box. Jarzyl grabbed a towel that was the nesting box and wiped her paws clean, then with both paws she grabbed the egg and lifted it back into the box.
It was quite possibly the slowest Atlas had ever seen Jarzyl move, and the most care and caution he had ever seen her show. He didn't point this out, but instead just nodded approvingly.
Jarzyl put the egg back in the nesting box, then she closed the door and checked that the heat lamps were on. Then she let out a long sigh and relaxed. "Wooh! Stressful. I don't see how taking care of an egg is relaxing at all. I think I'll leave that to my parents. So now what should we do?"
"Homework?" Atlas suggested.
"Boooring," Jarzyl replied, but they still went to do it anyway.
END