Tobin was still a little groggy as he stumbled from the small lounge couch he had previously been curled up on. Lescelli staying in his room hadn’t been planned, but it had already been late when they arrived in Cardinal. By the time they had gotten upstairs, treated the dragon’s wing, and got it set up in a crate meant for a medium-sized dog, they had both been exhausted. It had been easier to take the couch than to try to help her get set up in her own room down the hall.

He glanced over at her now. Lescelli was running a hand through her messy hair to push some of the wayward locks out of her face. She flung the blankets aside and stood up. As she did, she tugged on the tie holding the night coat she was wearing. It was his. All of her stuff was still down in the trunk of the car, so Tobin had offered it to her to wear over her slip rather than having to sleep in her less-than-comfortable-looking day clothes.

She hadn’t seemed overly thrilled at wearing anything of his in addition to staying in his room and his bed, but she had accepted it when faced with the alternative of trudging back downstairs and retrieving her things.

“You can stay in bed,” he offered.

Lescelli shook her head. “And let you have all the fun? Besides, it’s hard to sleep with the light on and all that racket.”

Tobin shrugged and made his way over to the cage. It was pushed back under his desk on the far wall to hopefully be a bit more out of sight as a precaution. He would need to find a more permanent solution, but it had been all he could think of at the time. He had draped a towel over part of the cage to help the animal feel more secure inside, and it had retreated to the back of the cage, so he couldn’t see it as he pulled the crate out from under the desk. He couldn’t see it, but he could hear the soft whimpering and shifting coming from within. It was just a baby, after all, it was probably frightened.

As he began to pull the towel back, Lescelli came and crouched down by his side with pursed lips and furrowed brows. He knew the small dragon made her nervous, but she remained stoic beside him as the creature came into view.

Its scales glittered all the more brightly in the light, like a radiant, glossy indigo, while the bright azure eyes flicked between them. It had narrowed pupils like a cat’s and its nostrils were flaring as it hunkered down in the corner with its tail curled over its paws.

The dragon was quivering, but Tobin immediately noticed another problem. The bandages they had wrapped the creature in were shredded on the floor of the cage and its injured wing hung limply from its side. He wasn’t sure how the dragon had managed to get them off when the makeshift muzzle was still firmly in place, but he supposed it did have talons on the end of each toe. Still, they’d have to be replaced. It was best for the animal not to be able to move the injured appendage much while it was recovering. He didn’t want to risk the injury worsening or healing incorrectly. He just wasn’t sure how they were going to manage it when the dragon was conscious now. The first time, its unconscious state had worked in their favour, but they no longer had that advantage.

“Looks like we might have a bit of a wrestling match ahead of us,” Lescelli mused. Her voice was steady, but Tobin didn’t miss the wariness in her tone.

He was tempted to offer for her to sit out on the task but decided against it. It would probably wound her pride or offend her, and he doubted his ability to efficiently redress the injury of a lizard that was likely to be very squirmy through the process. Instead, he decided to give her the choice. “Do you want to hold it or deal with the bandages?” He genuinely wasn’t certain which task would be more of a challenge, but he wanted to ensure Lescelli could maintain some semblance of a comfort zone. Even if he did find it quietly amusing that for all her bravado, it was an infant dragon that frightened her.

Lescelli grimaced. “You hold it,” she urged. “I’ll wrap the wing.”

Tobin nodded and reached out to slide the bolt holding the door closed open. The hinges creaked as he pulled the door open a crack to see how the dragon would react. It had clearly been trying to get out earlier.

Now, however, it cringed and cowered further into the corner. A weak growl reverberated from its throat and small wisps of smoke coiled up from its nostrils. Tobin flinched at the sight. So it could breathe fire or at least smoke. Even if it was too young for an actual flame, it could probably still scald skin with hot air. That meant they were going to have to keep it muzzled most of the time. At least until they got it calmed down and adjusted to them.

“I guess that confirms whether or not the babies can breathe fire,” Lescelli commented.

Tobin shrugged. “It might only be able to blow smoke,” he replied. “But better safe than sorry with the muzzle for now. At least it doesn’t seem aggressive, just frightened.”

The cage door was only ajar a sliver, but it had been open for a few moments now and the dragon hadn’t lunged for them or the exit they were barring, so Tobin leaned forward again and slowly opened the door a little wider. The hinge creaked a little as he moved the door and he watched the reptilian creature flinch at the noise. “No, no, it’s okay,” he cooed. “Just relax, little guy, we don’t want to hurt you.”

When the door was halfway open, the dragon stiffened and its bright blue gaze fixated on the door. Tobin watched the tip of its tail twitch and its muscles bunch before it lunged for the opening. Its tells were pretty obvious, so Tobin had plenty of time to swing the door shut so that it couldn’t get out. The small creature grumbled its annoyance and retreated again.

“What are you doing?” Lescelli inquired.

“I want to get the wing tended to as quickly as possible, but it has to learn that it can’t just rush at the door whenever we need to take it out,” Tobin explained.

He waited until the dragon appeared to have calmed down a little before slowly opening the cage door once more. He was expecting it to charge again, but either it learned quickly or had grown warier of them because it remained hunkered in the back corner of the cage. It was watching them just as intently as they were watching it.

That alone made Tobin hesitate about the next course of action. Right now, it was clear the baby dragon was afraid of them, but it also seemed to feel the safest in the back of its cage. In order to establish trust, Tobin knew it would need a ‘sanctuary’ or private space where it wouldn’t be bothered, so he didn’t want to just reach in and drag it from the cage. So instead, he just left the door most of the way ajar and waited to see how the dragon would react.

For a few minutes, they all just sat in tense, motionless silence. But it didn’t take too long for the dragon to slowly stretch its neck out. Tobin watched its tiny nostrils flare as it sniffed at its surroundings and began slowly creeping towards the entrance.

Its gaze continued to fixate on him and Lescelli as it slithered forward with its belly against the floor. When its snout was by the entrance, it stopped and peered up at them. Tobin shifted his weight and the animal spooked and pulled its head back in a bit, so he tried to remain as still as possible.

The dragon’s piercing gaze was a little unnerving when it was fixated on him with unblinking focus. The pupil was shrunken to a vertical slit like a cat and it watched him intently. It took another couple of moments for the dragon to slowly creep back up to the front of the cage once more. It paused there for a moment more and the tells were less obvious this time before it lurched forward and tried to flee around Lescelli.

Tobin leaned forward and managed to hook his fingers under its belly around its back haunches.

Its squeal was muffled, but its legs kicked furiously as he dragged it closer to him and lifted it up. He plunked it down on his lap and pressed a hand do its spine to pin it while resting his free hand open-palm against its collarbone.

The creature thrashed its head and its good wing flared in his face, scraping against his cheek and tossing up his hair, while its claws dug into his legs. Tobin grimaced and adjusted the squirming animal in his grip so that he had its head pinned down against his leg.

It was still whimpering and whining, so he began to stroke it down the side of its neck and then its back. Its lashing tail was smacking against his side, but it was not hard enough to hurt, so Tobin just continued petting the small animal. “It’s okay. Settle down now, we don’t want to hurt you, little guy,” he cooed. “Easy there, easy.”

The dragon’s nostrils were flaring and it was still attempting to dig its claws into him, while its widened gaze was rolled back to stare at him.

“Are you alright, Tobin?” Lescelli checked.

Tobin nodded. “Yeah. The talons are a little sharp, but it's no worse than being clawed by a cat. I think I have a pretty good hold of it now.”

Lescelli moved closer and cautiously reached out to pull the dragon’s injured wing out far enough that she could inspect the injuries. The dragon whined as she gently peeled back the protective patches she’d pressed to the membrane last night. “It’s started to heal,” she reported. “No signs of infection, which is a good sign. We’ll just have to keep it cleaned and redress it every day or two until the wounds fully close up. But if we can manage that, I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t heal up properly.”

Tobin nodded in agreement. He continued to pet the dragon in his lap. It had stopped squirming, but he could feel its tiny body shaking still. “See, it's alright, we just want to help,” he murmured.

He watched as Lescelli took a wipe and began to clean away the medical cream from around the injury sites. All the supplies had been left on his desk last night so that they could reach it easily. The dragon flinched and hissed with every stroke of the wipe, so Tobin grabbed it by one of the two ivory horns jutting out from its skull so that he would have better control in keeping its head still. He pinned its flank with his other hand and instantly felt guilty as the poor animal released a pitiful whimper.

“I know, I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I know it probably stings, but Lescelli’s trying to make your wing better and you can’t be squirming like this.”

“Hey,” Lescelli interrupted. “Sorry, Tobin, I’m all for trying to soothe the poor thing, but this is going to be a lot easier with the silence to concentrate.”

“Got it,” Tobin agreed. He tightened his grip on the dragon and kept a close eye on it while Lescelli smeared fresh medical cream over new patches and pressed them into place over the holes in the dragon’s lavender membrane.

The dragon continued to whimper every time Lescelli touched the injured wing, but it had stopped thrashing in Tobin’s grasp, so he began to relax a little so that he wasn’t pressing on it too hard.

When Lescelli had freshly medicated the wounds, she tenderly folded the wing against the dragon’s side, and Tobin scooped the creature up and held it out so that she could rewrap the bandages around the wing and the torso to help pin it there. Just like the last time, she was careful that the wrappings didn’t interfere with the good wing so that the dragon could still move and bend it without trouble.

To Tobin’s surprise, the dragon remained relatively still and silent through being held and bandaged.

After a moment, Lescelli leaned back with a sigh. “That should do it. Though we’ll have to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t try to rip the bandages again.”

“It definitely seems a little calmer now,” Tobin observed as he resettled the dragon back in his lap. He resumed petting it and the small creature didn’t struggle. It just remained laying in his lap with its head resting limply over his arm. There was no more resistance.

“The poor thing is probably tired,” Lescelli pointed out. “It has had a rough night.”

“True.”

Lescelli was silent for a moment before she carefully reached out towards the dragon’s head. It was still laying on Tobin and didn’t so much as flinch as she laid a hand on the side of its neck and stroked down the scales. “It really doesn’t feel how I expected it would. It’s…warm and almost soft.”

“I know,” Tobin agreed. “Maybe only the babies are like this, but I was expecting the scales to feel much rougher.”

Lescelli hummed and continued to awkwardly pat the animal for a few minutes before she pulled her hand away and let it drop into her lap. “I suppose it’s not so bad.”

Since the dragon was calm for the moment, Tobin took the opportunity to resume petting it. If it displayed any distress, he’d put it back in the crate to rest, but he wanted it to get used to them and to human contact in general.

He ran his fingers down the colourful spines down its neck. Though they looked a little different, he had been expecting that they would be rigid like the horns were, but they weren’t. Instead, they felt like cartilage and folded under his touch as he pressed on them. The dragon grumbled and shook its head, so he pulled away and didn’t play with them again. Clearly, they were either ticklish or caused discomfort.

The dragon’s head had raised from his arm and now it was gazing up at him. It was still muzzled, so he wasn’t worried about getting bitten, but there was no aggression in its posture. Still, he kept his motions slow as he lifted a finger and began to rub under the little lizard’s chin. For a moment, the dragon didn’t react, but then its eyes closed and Tobin could feel the rumbling under his finger as it began to purr.

“Oh! Does that feel good?”

Lescelli was chuckling beside him. “Well, that was certainly a turn. I suppose it is rather cute.”

Tobin had a feeling that the purring was temporary. The animal was still nervous. He could tell by the way it kept shifting its weight. It was as if it wanted to pull away, but the affection felt too nice at the moment. Tobin was fully anticipating the little dragon would be just as wary of them later. But for now, he’d enjoy the moment because it certainly felt incredibly unique and special to have a dragon purring in his lap.

“Hey, Tobin, sooner or later we’re going to have to figure out how to feed this little guy or girl. And also, I suppose we should figure out the sex too, how do you tell? It’s going to need to eat, but we don’t know what it needs to eat. Mammals nurse their young, birds tend to regurgitate meals, and I know a lot of reptiles abandon their young, but I can’t picture dragons laying hundreds of eggs and leaving them to their fate. And regardless of what we feed this little one…the muzzle will have to come off.”

Tobin sighed and nodded. The dragon was going to need to eat. It was going to get restless and probably irritable soon if they allowed it to get too hungry and he had to admit that it had behaved far better than he ever would have anticipated for a frightened, hurt, feral creature. But he knew as much about infant dragons as Lescelli did. There wasn’t a lot of readily available information on dragons. Most of the documents tended to just list numbers and values like weapons. That’s all they were considered at the time; biological weapons to further the efforts. Tobin loved research, but the dragons had never really caught his interest much. They’d always struck him as a mistake to have ever been brought to their land, so he’d never pursued the topic further. Now he wished he had.

“Here, can you hold its head still?” he requested.

As soon as Lescelli complied by taking the dragon by the horns, the dragon’s purring ceased and instead it whined and flapped its good wing with alarm.

“It’s alright,” Tobin hummed. He reached behind its head and unbuckled his belt before beginning to slowly unravel the muzzle.

“Tobin, be careful,” Lescelli warned. “You’re in direct line of fire.”

He was well aware and equally nervous, but there was no smoke coming from the dragon’s nostrils, so hopefully, it would be alright. When there was enough slack, Tobin took the dragon’s jaws in his hands and pushed its lips up. It squawked at him, but he just angled the head so he could study its mouth. “Well, it has teeth,” he reported. “And they look like proper ones too…there’s no reason it shouldn’t be able to chew food and I know they’re carnivores. Hopefully, even if this little guy was being nursed, it should be old enough to ween now with teeth this formed.”

“Somehow, that’s actually not comforting,” Lescelli responded dryly. “But I suppose it’s better than the poor thing starving to death because we can’t feed it.”

“I think the best we can do is give raw meat a try and see how it goes. I’ll cut anything I get up first so that there’s less chance of it choking on its meal.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” Lescelli agreed. “Listen, Tobin…I probably should get going. Are you alright here with it? People are going to get the wrong idea if I’m still here later into the morning and I’d love to skip that potential lecture with our parents on top of all the other ones so far.”

Tobin nodded and quickly resecured the muzzle around the dragon’s maw. The animal whined in protest as he did, but he paid it no mind. He couldn’t risk it pulling it all the way off while he was gone. Then he placed the dragon back in the cage and closed the door once more. He replaced the towel and pushed the cage back into the shadows of the desk underside.

Lescelli was staring at him as he stood up and dusted his pants, so he jerked his head towards the door. “It’ll be easier to sneak into the kitchens now since it’s so early. I’ll escort you to your room so there’s no chance you can get into trouble and we can get your bags later.”

“Alright.”