closed Here There be Dragons pv Renelle Dalton backdated finished

Just how far was Richmond from central London? That was the question on Renelle Dalton’s mind as she slogged through the cold, humid air of a British morning, shoulders weighed down by a giant backpack, filled with all the things necessary for a four-day trip, even one to a whole other country, such as Northern Slovakia. She had begged her parents to allow her to bring her travel backpack on this trip rather than a truck, thinking that it would be more convenient. She’s been very, very wrong, and now she was going to have to live with the consequences of her foolish for the entire rest of this trip.

A few days prior, Astra’s parents had rung them up, inviting her and her brother to go with their family on a trip to the distant Northern Slovakia. Arien had been ecstatic- he was at that age where he had an unhealthy obsession with dinosaurs, and to his five-year old mind, dragons and dinosaurs were practically the same. Renelle has been quite pleased too, of course. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to see real-life dragons?

Her parents had agreed readily, so here they were. Though it would have been difficult for anyone to anticipate the sheer amount of walking the nine-year old would be doing on the way to the Norrick house. She’d assumed that they would be taking a Portkey there, or by Floo powder, as was the case for every single previous sleepover there, but perhaps she shouldn’t have. Apparently, her dear ol’ dad thought that it would be ‘healthy’ for them to take the journey on foot. What was magic for, then?

She’d tired to appeal to her mom for mercy, but she, like always, had been in a rush to get to work, leaving their dad to take care of the drop-off. And that was how Renelle came to be here- sweaty, tired, and all-around sick of this trip before it had even started. Of course, her brother Arien was sleeping happily on her dad’s shoulder, who was also in charge of his trunk. It wasn’t fair. Just because he was four years younger he could sleep while his sister died?

There were some pros of traveling like a Muggle, however. Normally before some big event, her dad would be droning her ear off, reminding her of everything to and not to do like she was five. But the exhaustion of the trip was so horrible, Renelle might have taken the nagging over this in a hot second. Peering up at her dad, she found that he looked rather miserable as well, which made her feel a bit better.

After what seemed into eternity, the Norick residence - a single-story eighties style house- came into view. Immediately, Renelle felt her heart leap with anticipation, not just for the adventure ahead, but with the knowledge that she would soon see her best friend. Trudging up the steps of the front porch, she rang the doorbell. Beside her, Arien roused with a start. About time, she thought, rather annoyed.

Astra’s dad, Hyperion answered the door. After exchanging a few standard greetings, Renelle’s dad left, turning and disappearing once he was at the street. Of course he would magic his way back, she thought disgruntledly. Taking Arien (who was still a bit groggy from his nap) by the hand, she allowed herself to be let into the all-too-familiar house.

The moment she set one foot in the door, her sworn foe rushed forward to greet her. Roderick Norrick. The bane of her existence. No matter how hard she tried, Renelle could not understand how the same family could bring up two kids so different from one another. Astra was so nice, so quietly intelligent, so thoughtful, while her older brother was - not.

Okay, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. She certainly didn’t particularly like him, though. “Guess what, Renelle? “ he announced in an important tone of voice, chin raised. “Today, I beat my dad in an arm-wrestling competition.”

“Sure you did.” Renelle resisted the urge to roll her eyes, failing miserably. “And I’m sure you—“ However, the girl never got to finish her sentence, for it was at that moment that an excited “Renelle!” interrupted their conversation. She turned. A girl with long bronze hair and dark blue eyes was running toward her, an ecstatic expression on her face. It was at that moment that she forgot all about stupid Roderick, and the terrible journey, the waking up at five in the morning— it was worth it.

“Astra!” She enveloped her best friend in a hug, fighting back the urge to laugh out loud. She didn’t want to seem crazy. Gently pushing Astra away, she turned back toward the room. Mr and Mrs Norrick were looking at the two girls, happiness evident on their faces. Roderick pretended to throw up (how charming), and Arien was standing there with a confused expression, as if he wasn’t sure how he got here.

Suddenly getting the urge to laugh once more, she peeled her eyes away from her brother, looking around the room, “Please don’t tell me we’re walking to Slovakia.”

Luckily, they were not, in fact, walking there. Like a normal magical family, they had previously arranged a portkey. After what felt like hours, everyone was finally ready, and Mrs Norrick announced for everyone to touch a part of the old boot, which worked as a portley. Making sure that Arien was beside her (he was her brother, after all), she put a hand on the dusty boot.

“Three… two… one.” She felt a jerk beneath her naval, and everything disappeared in a howl of wind and swirling colour.

Interacting with @Astra Norick

Reducio

Permission given to Astra Norrick to godmode.

Though Renelle herself had never met the esteemed Aunt Seren Foret, she had heard no shortage of exciting stories about her. Apparently, she was a dragon breeder, and has had lots of close calls and experienced many memorable encounters. Since both her parents worked rather boring, typical jobs with little points on the wow factor, the girl was extremely fascinated with this job. Like, sorry, but the most interesting thing that happened when it came to her parents’ jobs was when her dad burnt a whole batch of bread. Disastrous, but not very riveting.

Deciding to be as polite as possible, the dark-haired girl smiled, and greeted," It’s nice to meet you, Aunt Seren. I’m Renelle, and this is my little brother Arien.” Rather forcefully, she pulled her brother to her side, just so it was extra obvious who she was talking about. Looking back, it seemed rather unnecessary, considering Seren Foret could probably tell that it was the boy she didn’t recognise, but hey, it never hurt to be sure.

As Renelle looked around at the family who could have easily kept this once-in-a-lifetime journey to themselves yet had invited her and her brother along, she really could not fathom how unbelievably lucky she. Her gaze turned to her closest friend in the world, perhaps the only one she could be completely open to- Astra. Right now, the girl was excitedly conversing with Arien about dinosaurs and dragons in low tones, his face lit up.

Maybe she ought to have felt jealous, or bitter- but she felt nothing of the sort. Just gratefulness that Astra Norrick was in her life. They had met over a common trait, a parent in the Ministry, but no one could have imagined just what could have been produced from that single connection.

A pull on her sleeve pulled Renelle back into the present. Glancing down, she saw Arien looking up at her, eyes wide. “When we gonna see dinosaur?”

“Huh, that is a good question.” her gaze swept over everyone around. All of them seemed to be engrossed in conversation, not the slightest bit concerned about just when they could stop standing there and see some dragons, which was the whole point of this trip. Or was it? Perhaps the main reason was to see relatives and catch up on each others’ lives. It wasn’t like a nine-year old knew how adults’ brains worked.

Though now that the problem had presented itself, Renelle certainly wasn’t just going to wait around for the adults to wrap things up (it could take hours from how things were going). Striding over to Astra, she tapped her friend on the shoulder. “Hey, do you know when we’re gonna get going?” she whispered, nodding in the direction of the tightly knit group of grown-ups.

Interacting with @Astra Norrick

The adults were taking a rather long time, long after Uncle Don had strapped everyone's luggage to his huge Pine Chopper. Astra's face scrunched up as she tried to estimate how long the adults would take, uninterrupted. Far too long, she concluded before turning to Renelle and saying, "Let's go ask. They'll talk for ages if we don't."

With Arien in tow, the two girls went up to the group of adults. Hyperion and Aunt Seren were talking animatedly while Morella and Uncle Don stayed rather passive in the conversation. Astra tapped her mother's shoulder. "What is it?" the woman asked in a hushed tone, looking down.

"When are we going?" Astra whispered back. Morella tucked a strand of her daughter's hair behind her ear.

"Soon. Why don't you go talk to Cedric while you wait? You two haven't seen each other in years." Astra frowned at her mum's cryptic answer.

"Estimate, please?"

Morella sighed and checked her watch. "Ask Uncle Don when he'll be ready." Astra beckoned for Renelle to follow before running to the other side of the "Circle of Adults" and poking her uncle.

"When are we going?" she asked when he gave her his attention.

"Right now, if you'd like," he answered with a smile. Arien pushed forward and nodded, saying "Dinosaurs now!" Uncle Don laughed. "Dinosaurs now. Let's get you kids on the Chopper, yeah?"

He gave little Arien a boost onto the pine broom, then Renelle then Astra. The seat was wide enough for three adults, making it quite roomy for three small children and one adult. "Hold on tight," Uncle Don said, putting on his flying goggles. They were completely unnecessary due to the broom's windshield, but Astra decided it would look rather strange not to wear goggles while flying.

They zoomed away in the direction of the mountain. "We live right by the preserve!" Uncle Don said over the wind. "I'll drop your luggage off and then give you the fly over!"

They arrived at a modest two-story building, and Uncle Don hopped off to get everything set. Astra peered over Renelle's shoulder and her eyes widened. "Look, Ren!" she whispered, pointing, forgetting that Renelle preferred her full name in this moment of shock and awe.

Soaring in the air above a swath of trees a mere half-mile (one kilometer) from where they hovered was a Ukrainian Ironbelly.

@Renelle Dalton

Renelle was no expert on the traditions and practices here in Northern Slovakia, but back where she lived, brooms did not resemble Christmas trees. Not to sound arrogant, but in her opinion, it was better that way. For one, the branches did not keep scratching its passengers. And there weren’t any leftover Christmas ornaments on it either. How could they not have checked before making the broom?

The only thing the ‘Chopper’ had going for it was the sheer roominess (though it wasn’t at all surprsing for a former Christmas tree). Though four people were sitting on it, there was plenty of room to spare, which the girl had to grudgingly admit was a nice change.

As they flew, Arien clung to her so tightly Renelle thought she was going to get suffocated. “Relax, you’re not going to fall.” Gently prying off her brother’s fingers, she looked down. Yes, they were quite high up, but one oft eh works of being from a magical family was a familiarity with laying from a very young age. Not too young, though, as demonstrated by Arien.

As they continued on their journey, the man referred to by Astra as ‘Uncle Don’ informed them that their home was right next to the reserve, which was both reassuring and worrying. On the one hand, this new piece of information meant that they wouldn’t have to hike as long as earlier just to get to the dragon reserve, but was living so near to a bunch of dragons really that safe?

At any rate, they were going there. Pushing those thoughts from her head, Renelle jumped off the Christmas tree- sorry, broom after her brother, and looked around at where they would be living for the next few days. Her first thought was that the building was not the level of impressiveness she would have expected from a family of dragon breeders. The entire complex was two stories, and was rather simple. Normal. Huh.

However, Renelle was pulled from her thoughts by an all-too familiar excited yelp next to her. Normally, the girl would have chastised her friend for using the nickname she so disliked, but what she saw next stunned her so much it wouldn’t have been possible for her to form a coherent sentence.

Up above them in the air, there flew a creature metallic grey in colour, long talons and rough-looking skin. It was perhaps one of the biggest living things Renelle had ever seen.

“A Ukrainian Ironbelly.” she whispered as if in a trance.

Sure, she had known for some time that the purpose of this trip was to see dragons, but for some reason, the realness of that had not fully sunk in until now, with a real-life dragon up there, so near. It was truly amazing, and made her feel kind of crappy for complaining about living locations.

Interacting with @Astra Norrick

"A Ukrainian Ironbelly," Renelle whispered. Astra was breathless, staring as the huge creature looped in the air, looking down at the children and puffing a breath of smoke towards them as if in greeting before swooping off toward the mountain again.

She started to laugh. It was a bizarre reaction, but she couldn't help it. Her little voice just had to make itself known in the wake of what she had just witnessed. What would become a core memory for her.

Uncle Don came back out with a smile on his face. "You saw Sasha, didn't you?" he asked as soon as Arien ran up to him, stuttering out some cross between "dino" and "dragon" as he stabbed his chubby five-year old finger into the sky. "He likes greeting visitors."

The tall man picked Arien up and placed him on the broom again before climbing on himself and offering a hand to each girl in turn. They were pulled up and seated before Uncle Don started talking again. "Alright, so we're going to do a quick fly-over where you can see all of the visitor areas, and tomorrow Seren is going to give you the behind-the-scenes tour. Please hold onto the Chopper very tightly as we fly, and don't do anything that could get you hurt. Deal?"

"You better hold on to Arien," Astra whispered to her friend. She expected the little boy to be too awestruck to do much moving, but then again he was five.

The Chopper soared up over the treetops. Looking down, one could see patches of clearing where colorful scales gleamed up at them. At one point, a silvery blue dragon three times as long as the Chopper pulled up beneath them, iridescent wings framing the flying tree. Astra gasped, leaning over. "This is where we do the fly-over tours for potential benefactors, so there's a protective shield keeping us from them," Uncle Don explained. "That's Perenia, she's very docile anyway. She just laid a clutch of eggs that are scheduled to hatch soon, actually."

Astra felt a sense of relief when he said that the dragon's were in a separate space than humans, but wasn't that unfair to the dragon? It was the one that was supposed to be in the skies, not them. They've got tons and tons of airspace, the preserve is like a million miles! she thought. This is the only part where they have restricted flying. I hope.

They hovered near the mountain, where Sasha rumbled at them from his perch on the stony surface. He was gigantic! Arien waved and yelled "Hi dino!" Astra found herself smiling at his cuteness. The tour was spent mostly in awestruck silence broken by exclamations of excitement every time a dragon was spotted.

Uncle Don landed the broom next to the house again. Hyperion and Aunt Seren were standing outside. "Well, how was it?" Aunt Seren asked as the kids hopped down.

"Amazing! I can't wait for tomorrow," Astra gushed. Arien's words ran together as he expressed his enjoyment.

THE NEXT MORNING

Aunt Seren led the group of four kids an two adults into the Dragonologist Lair (as she called it). It was the research complex, also an artificial hatching ground where some eggs were taken every couple months to ensure the dragons were doing ok and that no inbreeding or mutations had started. Astra and Renelle were at the front with Aunt Seren as she pointed out all the labs and talked about the different dragon breeds. She let them hold eggshells and old scales and even the horn of a Romanian Longhorn.

"And now we're going to the hatching ground. We're going to see if Short-Snout 6 will hatch today, as predicted," Aunt Seren said with a sparkle in her eye. Astra and Renelle looked at each other with barely contained excitement.

"What are the odds," Astra whispered, "that the week we visit, a dragon is going to hatch? And we can watch it happen?"

@Renelle Dalton

As soon as Renelle’s eyes opened at the crack of dawn, the previous day’s events rushed back like a flood. They had arrived at Northern Slovakia, such she hadn’t even known was a country before; flew on a giant Christmas Tree; and, most importantly, seen a real-life dragon. Reflecting on all that, the girl couldn’t help but but back a smile. It all felt so surreal. Like a dream she never wanted to wake up from.

Sitting up suddenly, she untangled herself from the sleeping bag that had been her bed for the evening, and would be for the next few days. The sleeping arrangements had been frustrating- all four of the kids had to share a single room. Naturally, Arien had gotten the bed (another classic example of age privilege), while the rest of them had had to make do with the cold hard floor.

But the place was pretty small, not built to house so many guests, so Renelle supposed she couldn’t really complain. Besides, her and her brother were the guests on this trip, and she couldn’t rule out getting thrown out to fend for themselves against the dragons if they got too annoying. She stood up, and looked around at the other inhabitants of the room. Slowly, a mischievous smile spread across her face. Maybe she ought to be on her best behaviour, but wasn’t waking everyone up early the best thing she could do for the group?


“She didn’t have to do that!” Over the breakfast table twenty minutes later, Roderick Norrick glared intently at the dark-haired girl spiriting across from him, shoving cereal into his mouth aggressively. “I was planning on sleeping until at least eleven!”

Smiling innocently, the girl in question serenely spread jam on her bread. “Calm down, Roderick.” she said calmly. “It’s healthy to wake up early-“

Looking even more aggravated than before, Roderick pushed, "Yes, but did you have to wake me up with a fake spider on my fac—"

“Ok, that’s enough, everyone.” Thankfully, Renelle was spared the tense interrogation by hero Aunt Seren, who entered the kitchen right that moment, completely dressed and hand clasped together in excitement. “It’s time for the dragons.”

That shut everyone up. But it was somehow only after what seemed like hours of packing, arguments, and eating (*cough cough* Roderick) that they finally all got out of the front door. Lucky her, it seemed that as the reserve wasn’t very far from their residence, they got to walk there. Yippee. Renelle swore, she was doing more walking in the single day of this trip than she’d ever done in a month back home. If they had magic, why not use it? It wasn’t like it cost any money.

Time skip to when against all odds, the brave dark-haired girl arrived at the infamous dragon reserve. The moment she entered, all her whining thoughts disappeared- the place truly was amazing. More dragon eggs than Renelle even knew existed were now so near she could touch them. She did, too. Renelle had never been one to have her emotions written all over her face, but this was an exception.

It appeared that the true highlight of the trip was yet to come, however. Right when she thought the tour was coming to an end, Aunt Seren dropped a bomb on all of them- they were going to see an actual dragon hatching. It was fortunate that Renelle was not holding a dragon egg when the news was broken, because otherwise she would have dropped it.

“Low odds indeed.”

Interacting with @Astra Norrick

Astra and Renelle were right on Aunt Seren's heels with wide eyes and bated breath and wide eyes as they entered the artificial hatching ground. Even Roderick seemed dumbstruck.

"It's like Jurassic Park" he whispered as he tossed his shaggy brown hair. Astra couldn't help but agree. The hatching ground had little nests of warm rocks and grasses with small clutches of two or three eggs in each.

"Yeah, kinda," Aunt Seren agreed. She waved them over to a small nest with a single egg in it. This egg was silvery blue, just like the dragon Perenia. "This is SS6. Fifth generation preserve dragon."

"It's gonna hatch?" Arien asked. Aunt Seren nodded. "I want to see!" The small boy wasn't tall enough to see into the alcove.

Aunt Seren went over to a desk in the corner of the room littered with papers and pens and sticky notes. She brought out a chair and Arien clambered onto it, leaning out over SS6.

"We've found that the eggs in here tend to hatch in the evenings," Aunt Seren explained as the kids peered into the alcove. Astra was the shortest one still on the ground, standing on her very tiptoes to see. Renelle had her heels off the ground, but not much more. Roderick sneered down at the girls, remaining flatfooted, as if he were holding it over them.

"Look!" Morella whispered, tapping the kids on their shoulders and gesturing to the dragon egg.

It was rocking, bit by bit working itself sideways. Astra's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Woah," Roderick gasped. Arien seemed too thrilled to do any spastic five year old things.

A tiny crackle echoes through the hatching ground. The smallest of cracks appeared on the egg. Tapping began, starting slowly but picking up speed. The eggshell seemed to cave in on itself. Astra strained to stay on her toes, to see the moment.

And then a little gray head poked out and squeaked. Its eyes were closed and a sort of film covered its scales. Arien imitated the squeak, almost falling off the chair he was so ecstatic. And for yet another time, Roderick was struck absolutely speechless.

The little dragon wormed its way out of its shell, its paper thin wings stretching an petite reptilian arms quaking. It squeaked again, its eyes snapping open and blinking against the light. Aunt Seren quietly backed the kids up, wearing a facial mask and gloves. She picked up the baby dragon, gently rubbing the film off of its body and announcing with excitement. "It's a boy."

Astra looked to Renelle. She couldn't believe it. "Pinch me," she said. "I'm serious. This can't be a dream." It was too surreal to be reality, but if this turned out to be a dream... well, Astra didn't quite know what she'd do.

@Renelle Dalton

What a coincidence, for that was just what Renelle was going to say to Astra, before she voiced it first instead. Like a dream… That she didn’t ever want to wake up from. Just in case she’d really meant it, she pinched her friend’s arm. Not enough to hurt, of course. Then she did the same to herself, this time harder. Nothing happened, meaning that this was, indeed, the reality.

As she stared into the wide eye of the newborn dragon, the girl was struck with the wonder of life. A whole new living creature had just arrived upon this world for the first time, and they were here to see it. If this was the sort of thing one could expect daily at a dragon breeder job, then count her in! Though she supposed the novelty might wear off after a while.

The rest of the tour would have dulled in comparison with the dragon hatching, but Renelle needn’t have worried, for the was the end of their adventure for the day. It was funny- the day had passed in a blue, yet by the end, she was so exhausted that despite Roderick’s insistent talking (how did he even think of that much to say?) and Arien’s constant reminders about the ‘di-gon’ they’d seen, sleep came the moment her head hit the pillow.

The rest of the trip was just as good as the first day, if not better. They continued exploring just about every inch of the dragon hatching site, seeing and learning more than Renelle would have ever thought possible. About dragons, of course. By the end, she was almost certain that dragons were going to be her entire personality at home for the next few weeks. Or months. Or years.

Departing day came too soon- they too another portkey back to the Norrick residence, where her dad came to pick them up, practically bursting with questions about everything that they’d done. Gathering her bag and brother, Renelle took one last look at her best friend in the doorway.

“I’m gonna miss yo—" Sadly, what might have been a beautiful moment was ruined, once again, by Astra’s charming older brother, who pretended to throw up, making no effort to keep the noise down. “Oh, get some creativity, Roderick.”

As she was led away from the house, she couldn’t help but look back, again and again. True, it would only be a few weeks at most before Renelle would be able to see Astra again, but that seemed like forever after spending almost a whole week together. Making a mental note to bring up the topic of relocation to her parents soon, the girl set off on the long and tedious journey home. Like déjà vu, except without the excitement this time.

Interacting with @Astra Norick