Dragon Keeping

Dragon Keeping

From the moment Remy stepped into the zoology class at Princeland High School he had silent attention from the students. He had been travelling from city to city, school to school, looking for apprentices and had gotten quite lazy so he wasn’t exactly the image of perfection, but he wasn’t the reason they paid attention. What really kept their mouths shut was the passenger on Remy’s left shoulder that eyed them with bright silver eyes and flicked it’s tongue out every couple of seconds experimentally, his pet dragon Alois.
“Class,” the teacher, Mr. Kent, said more loudly than needed, snapping some of them from their daze. “Today we have a special guest if you haven’t already figured that out. This is my friend Remy. He is the lead dragon keeper for the species Mediocris extraho, and one of the best dragon trainers in the world. He’s here to give a little presentation on dragons and dragon training. Please listen to him fully and follow his rules like you would mine.”
“Or more precisely follow my rules or you might get burned,” Remy laughed, patting his friend on the back. The class chuckled politely but quickly died down to a nervous titter when Alois blew out a plume immense enough to fry a large dog for emphasis.
“Don’t mind him,” Remy smirked. “He likes to show off during these presentations. He’s got extremely good aim with his fire and won’t cause any damage, so don’t worry if he tries to startle you.” The front row of the class all exchanged nervous glances and leaned back as far as they could in their chairs. Kent sat down at his desk in the corner and reclined, paying attention as much as his students. Even though the two were close friends he had never ventured out to the grounds where Remy worked to see the dragons himself.
“Alright, first off I suppose I should introduce my partner here,” Remy began, raising his left hand up to scratch under the dragon’s chin causing him to growl softly and closed his eyes. “This is Alois. He’s my personal dragon and he’s almost a year old. He’ll be assisting me during my presentation and will also be in charge of making sure he has your attention. If you fall asleep he will wake you up, if you’re being rude he’ll put you in your place, that kind of thing.”
The class was dead silent and had a wide range of expressions from complete love for the dragon to fear. One girl in the back of the classroom timidly raised her hand. Remy nodded and pointed to her so she knew it was alright to speak.
“I…um,” she stammered nervously. “I wanted to…to ask if um…I’m afraid of reptiles…” Remy shrugged and looked at Kent who smiled and nodded his head. He had mentioned before Remy came that one of the students would probably leave the room during the presentation, but neglected to mention why.
“You’re excused,” Remy smiled and watched her go. Alois grunted and followed her with his shining gaze as she struggled to remain calm and leave the room. “Does anyone else need to go before I get started?” Remy scanned the room quickly and saw no objections.
“Okay, well, the best place to start is to see what all you guys know about this species of dragon. Does anyone know why Mediocris extraho is the only species to have a breeding program in Versel?” Two boys raised their hands, one of which immediately caught Remy’s eyes because his arms were scaled. In spite of his first glance he chose the other boy, a Chirian boy who appeared to be of coyote decent.
“Mediocris extraho are bred because they live longer than most dragon species and are small, making them easier to handle,” he said confidently. Remy smiled and nodded; giving a sympathetic glance to the Dragoon child he ignored that who was giving him a dirty look.
“And you,” Remy added, giving him his opportunity to prove his knowledge of his own kindred species. “Give me three reasons Mediocris extraho are superior to, say, Feral extraho.” The boy smiled at such an easy question and spoke loud and clear, even though none of the other students would have known the answer.
“Mediocris extraho are well known for having extreme respect for their companions, they are the most intelligent species, and they live five times longer than Feral extraho. Three reasons why you shouldn’t choose a Feral extraho would be that they have no respect for anyone but mating partners, can grow to immense sizes, and their metabolism is very fast so they must eat their own body weight in food daily.”
“Very good answer, as expected,” Remy chuckled as the boy leaned back with a smug victory smile. “As he said, we raise Mediocris extraho because they are intelligent, have a strong sense of respect, and live for a very long time. They grow slowly, but because of their intelligence they are capable of far more than the ordinary dragon. Alois, please cover your eyes.”Obediently the dragon closed his eyes and curled his head under his chest, covering up with his boneless wings to ensure that he couldn’t peek.
“Alright, Kent, take a pencil and throw it,” Remy ordered his friend. Kent looked questioningly at Remy but picked up a pencil and flung it above the students’ heads. “Go,” Remy commanded quietly. Immediately Alois unfurled his wings and kicked off of his shoulder, his head snapping around and instantly locating the flying pencil. The students gasped and ducked as he flew overhead after the utensil and caught it two feet from the floor on the far end of the room. He took his time flying back across the room, allowing the class to applaud in amazement at his speed as he returned the pencil to Kent and perched back on Remy’s shoulder.
“What you just saw was how quickly an infant can react to a simple scenario,” Remy explained as he scratched Alois’s chin again. “As an adult these dragons are capable of far more than a team of body guards and that is why trained Mediocris extraho are in such high demand across the world. My job is to train them from birth to be the best of the best.” Bending over Remy picked up a small container that he had brought in with him and placed it on the table beside him and opened it.A soft scratching noise drifted from the container as Remy reached in. Withdrawing his hand he held what appeared to the students to be nothing but a lizard.
“This,” Remy said happily as he held the tiny creature by the scruff of its neck above a cupped hand, “is a baby Mediocris extraho. She is only two weeks old and hasn’t begun growing her wings yet, but she’s quite a feisty little girl.” As he spoke the miniature dragon squeaked unhappily and wriggled desperately to be free, trying to curl around and bite his fingers. She suddenly stopped struggling and inhaled deeply; angling her head downward toward Remy’s cupped hand and expelled a tiny flame. Some of the students laughed at this but Alois hissed loudly at them and unfurled his wings to appear larger.
“Thank you, Alois,” Remy said graciously before redirecting his attention to the students. “The biggest taboo with raising dragons is to insult them. Even though she is only a baby she will remember this moment perfectly until death and your laughter at her flame is like me telling you you’re hideous and you’ll never amount to anything. Don’t let it happen again.” Silently the class nodded.
“Anyway, this little girl is only two weeks old and already capable of breathing fire, the trademark ability of a dragon. In a few more weeks she’ll be able to produce a flame as large as her body, and from then on it only gets bigger. At around three months old she will know our language entirely like Alois does and will begin to grow wings. A unique feature of their species is that they are born wingless. Can anyone tell me why?” The only hand to rise this time was the Dragoon from before. Remy nodded at him.
“They are one of five species of dragons that have boneless wings,” he piped up with less enthusiasm than the first time. He now knew he was the only one in the class with an extensive knowledge of dragons and didn’t find much pleasure in gloating.
“Right you are,” Remy said smiling. “Alois, can you please spread out a wing so they can see?” The small dragon hopped down onto the container and spread both wings widely so the underside was completely visible.
“That works, thank you.” Careful to keep the baby dragon under control Remy knelt and pointed at the wing where bones would be. “With Mediocris extraho their wings are made of cartilage and membranes that fold and stretch. In the wild they are well known for inhabiting small caves which, if they had bony wings, would not be accessible. With boneless wings like these they are capable of entering any opening that their body can fit in without worrying about injuring themselves. Also, should their wings be injured they can heal with time, and even regrow if completely removed unlike other species.” Remy paused for a second to look at the baby and noted that it was quite still. Carefully he put a finger on its belly and frowned.
“Alois, she’s getting cold, could you help her out a bit,” Remy asked, carefully holding her out for the dragon. Carefully Alois grabbed her with his long prehensile tail, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled a very warm wind. “This isn’t exactly part of the presentation,” Remy said casually looking over his shoulder at the class. “But this is a good example of how parent dragons care for their young after hatching. While they are still eggs they are kept in a bed of coals which keeps them warm. The parents can regulate the temperature to make the eggs whatever gender they desire to parent.” Turning back to the dragons he picked up the baby and Alois crawled up his arm, coughing lightly as he did, so Remy could put her back into the container.
“My job doesn’t start until the parent dragons decide that the babies are coherent enough to be trained. Like us dragons can have disabilities, mentally and physically. There are numerous dragons at our facility that are far older than others because they have learning disabilities, while dragons like Alois here have physical disabilities and cannot perform as body guards for various reasons. In the wild the parent dragons often killed their young if they weren’t able to learn or survive but because we’ve trained the parents they allow us to take them and make the best of the situation. You all were impressed by Alois but he is actually only half as strong as his siblings because he as asthma.”
Remy opened his mouth to speak but stopped as his eyes fell on a sleeping boy in the back of the room. He exchanged glances with Alois who growled angrily and he smiled.
“Everyone,” Remy whispered as loud as he dared. “Cover your ears, please.” The students obeyed without question as Alois jumped off Remy’s shoulder and glided silently to the boy’s desk. His tiny claws barely made a click as he landed and he positioned himself by the boy’s exposed ear and inhaled deeply.
Despite his asthma Alois’s roar was unbelievably loud for such a small creature and the boy screamed and fell out of his seat, crawling away in fear. Apparently the roar was loud enough that other classes were scared because screams echoed in the halls. Moments later the PA system kicked on and the principal reminded the school that a dragon keeper was doing a presentation today, and added a warning to Remy to not let it happen again. Alois returned to his shoulder victoriously and the boy slowly crept to his seat, embarrassed.
“Have a good nap,” Remy asked casually. The boy’s face was beet red and he ignored the question. “Anyway, my job begins when the parent dragons decide that their babies are ready to learn. The first few weeks of training is teaching the babies our language and getting them accustomed to how we think so they can understand the situations they may be in and make the right choices. We then let the parents get to work on teaching them to breathe fire and fly once their wings are developed. By the time they can fly and control their flame they are usually a few months old and about the size of Alois here.
“From then on we put them through training exercises, scenarios, and teach them more languages. Depending on who hires their services they need different training, so we specialize them in specific areas or languages so there is always a dragon for a client. The reason I’m here doing these presentations instead of back at the grounds right now though is to get rid of rumors that dragon training is a dangerous and risky task and that they are evil creatures.
“Because of this stupid preconception people have we don’t get many people looking to work and I’m tasked with looking for potential keepers,” Remy concluded, pulling out a few calling cards. “Raise your hand if you’re seriously interested in learning more and possibly becoming a keeper. Alois, hand these out, okay?” He held the cards up to Alois who took them and flew to hand them to the four people who raised their hands. Remy was pleased to see the Dragoon was amongst them. Alois returned to Remy’s shoulder and he pocketed the remaining cards.
“Any questions,” he added as he checked on the sleeping baby dragon and carefully picked up her container. No one raised their hands so he guessed not. “No applause or anything while I leave please,” he said indicating the container. “She’s sleeping. You can wave if you wish.” Kent and Remy chuckled quietly to themselves as they waved happily as they exited the room.
“You can go back in,” Kent said to the girl sitting at the opposite door that was afraid of reptiles. Seeing Alois she quickly complied and slammed the door. “So, did you see any potential keepers in there?”
“What is the name of that Dragoon kid,” Remy asked as he reviewed the presentation. “I don’t know if he’s interested for real, but he’d be a valuable asset. We’ve only got one Dragoon working at the grounds and he’s getting kind of tired of it.
“His name’s Tek Euronett,” Kent replied, nodding. “He spends a lot of time reading about dragons and his writing teacher got worried a few weeks ago because he write an essay on the resurrection of dragon dominance that was very detailed.” Remy tilted his head impressed and Alois growled disapprovingly at the idea.
“Thanks for having me,” Remy said as he shook hands with Kent.
“Always a pleasure, hope to see you around sometime soon,” Kent replied as Remy turned and started walking down the hallway. He made it all the way to the front door before he had made up his mind about Tek.
“If he comes I’ll have to keep a close eye on him,” Remy muttered to Alois. “But I think he has the potential to become a master trainer.” The dragon growled approvingly of the decision and followed the flight of a small bird above them. “Go,” Remy laughed as he felt Alois shake in anticipation of a potential hunt. Immediately the dragon kicked off and chased after the bird.


-Remy G.
Oct. 17, 2008.