Their Business

Writers: Jane
Date Posted: 4th April 2007

Characters: Swift
Description: Swift's 'miniature dragon' hatches.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 3, day 13 of Turn 4

He had tried not to be stupid about the egg; not to check it a hundred times a day; not to take the best cuts of meat and fish and prepare them for a creature that wasn't yet hatched. He wasn't entirely successful, he guessed, as a cheer went up from the kitchen staff when the pot containing his egg started to rock.

"Swift! You're up."

"Here, I'll do that," one of the women said, taking over the kneading he was doing.

"I'll get the meat from the cooler," somebody else called.

"We need space and quiet," Swift reminded the crowd that was already gathering. "And the Hall still needs to be fed."

His words quieted the noise a little, but dispersed nobody. If one of their own was going to have a firelizard hatch in their kitchen then it was _absolutely_ their business.

"You have to take it out of the pot. They always say that."

"I know, I know." The kitchen hand bent down and lifted the pot from its place near the stove. "Clear off a bench."

"Huh? Swift, they hatch on the hearth."

Swift grinned. "No room for the lot of you around the hearth." He walked to the bench that was being cleared. "And get one of the big roasting pans."

"I don't think the journeywoman is going to be happy if we roast the little thing," one of the bakers said with a grin, but he handed on the pan that was passed from the back of the group. "Now what?"

"_Now_ the egg can come out of the pot." He suited action to words and upended the pot over the roasting pan, allowing the sand to fall through his fingers as he caught hold of the egg. It moved! It felt for all the world like long ago memories of feeling Belevi's swollen stomach when their babe was moving inside her. It was obvious that a living creature was inside the hard, warm egg, and Swift was awed at his luck.
It wasn't just any creature, or even any pet, it was a tiny dragon.

He heaped up the sand and firmly planted the wobbling egg in the middle of the mound as a heavy bowl of small pieces of bloody meat was placed on the bench beside the roasting pan.

"Do we wait now?" somebody whispered into the expectant silence.

"Well, _I_ do," Swift said with a grin for the crowd. "You lot could always get on with your work."

There was laughter but little movement away from the bench and then oohs and ahhs as the egg wobbled violently.

"That 'lizard wants out."

"Hey, Swift. Remember when you taught me to break eggs with one hand?
I could help here, I know I could."

The kitchen hand glanced up to refuse the laughing offer but the gasp from everybody made him look back into the roasting pan.

There was a crack right across the egg, closed for a moment, then widening until a blunt muzzle and a claw appeared.

"Feed it," somebody breathed.

"He has to wait until it's out," somebody else countered.

Swift ignored them all. Welcoming thoughts, he reminded himself, completely unnecessarily since he was so fascinated with the little creature. It was a _blue_ miniature dragon, he saw when the egg was finally discarded. And ravenous. The blunt muzzle was open and he was headed for the bowl. Over the sand, up onto the edge of the roasting pan, balancing there with damp wings outspread.

"Here." He picked up a handful of the meat and moved it in front of the little blue muzzle distracting the firelizard's attention away from the bowl. "Eat."

The first bit was swallowed without any apparent attempt to chew and the muzzle shoved into Swift's hand to gobble the next piece.

"It's much smaller than the adults," somebody murmured.

"He. It's a blue," Swift said, encouraging his new friend around the edge of the roasting pan and then picking him up when the pan teetered with the unbalanced weight. "Here." The last of the handful of meat went into the small mouth to stop the creeling and Swift reached into the bowl for more.

The hatchling ate, and ate, and ate, then slowed down, and burped and turned his blunt muzzle away from the next offering.

Swift sighed, feeling the firelizard's satisfaction and sleepiness in a way that was completely new to him.

"We've got a blue firelizard," one of the cooks said softly.

The blue muzzle lifted and the whirling eyes almost opened and Swift found himself lifting his own head and ...

He looked around at the entire kitchen staff. "What we've _got_ it is something burning."

Last updated on the April 6th 2007

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