The Firelands

57 - The Dragon's Nest

11thday of the forth Month, Joker's Moon

10:00

The Dragon Nest

A few hours later, Kalen, Theth and Incendio lay on their stomachs, looking down into the play area of the dragons, watching the behaviour between the different breeds.

There were a lot of different breeds down there, they didn't know many but they just had to point them out to Zedkiel and he could usually identify them. The Featherheads didn't get involved with the rough and tumble of the other dragons; they sat to one side, preening themselves. The Jackels raced each other around in circles, each trying to out-pace the others. The Rickles on the other hand would scramble up the pillars and leap from the walkways, each daring the others to go higher and higher and see if they could fly before they hit the ground – adults soon put an end to that game when one Rickle didn't get the angle quite right and almost flattened himself, his mother snatching him up by the tail and marching off into one of the many caves that branched off the main cavern, his brothers and sister following. There were also Thorn-Tails, aggressive brawlers who used their spikey tails to try and knock their opponents off their feet, luckily their thorns were little more than stumps otherwise it would not have been a game.

"Alright, so the Featherheads are Jewel Class," Kalen said, pointing them out.

"And the Benibals are... what? Warrior Class?" Incendio said.

"Elemental," Theth said, looking at the book Zedkiel had eventually given them to stop them asking him every two minutes. The book was filled with exquisitely detailed drawings and notes, each marking out names of dragons and their history and characteristics. At first they had thought Zedkiel had seen all the dragons he'd written about but he had told them it was nothing more than copying words from books. He had only seen maybe three from the dozens he's written about. He passed it off as a hobby, but from the detail and beauty of the book, it was clearly more of a fascination.

They knew this because of the detail in the book but also because – as subtle as he was about it – they knew he was watching the dragons as well, paying attention to all the small details that barely meant anything to the others.

He may not have been obvious about it but he couldn't fool them.

"Alright, then what about those?"

"I can't find them," Theth said flicking through the pages. "Zedkiel."

"Yes?" Zedkiel sighed, his eyes closed, leaning back against the wall, the little fire dragon having turned the hair at his shoulder into a nest.

"What are they?" Theth said, pointing to a pair of two-legged dragons that were circling each other.

Zedkiel opened one eye, then leant forwards to look before leaning back again. "Young Hammerheads, a Raptor breed in the Warrior Class," he said.

"Why are they called Hammer—" Theth started, before the two youngsters ran at each other full throttle and slammed heads, instantly knocking themselves out and making the other young ones cackle with laughter.

"Because they hammer their heads together," Zedkiel said as Kalen and Incendio sniggered. "The adult males can do it with a bit more control and females don't much care to knock heads," Zedkiel added.

Theth flicked through the pages and found the pages for Hammerheads – the adults were much more impressive with great horns and claws and clubs at the end of their tails.