I held my breath as I didn't want to disturb the drafis couple. I could immediately tell this was the source of the nervous emotions I felt earlier.
'If they were disturbed they would be quick to lash out to protect their unborn children, so we shouldn't make too much noise.' I thought to myself.
"Prez, apologize!" Maddie kept saying, ruining the somewhat tense but also sweet moment of watching the drakes, "It's rude to just ignore people like this you know."
I motioned for her to be quiet, and she continued, "No I wont be quiet. Just apologize for always doing things like that! You always make me worried--"
She stopped as I put my hand over her mouth and said, quietly, "Ok, look, I apologize for not keeping you in the loop about what's going on, but right now there are two tense drafii sitting right around the corner, so we shouldn't disturb them, especially when they are guarding their young."
Maddie nodded and backed away from my hand to go look around the corner, and she gasped, "I didn't notice the eggs."
"So, what should we do?" Conner asked, "Should we leave, or wait to see if they hatch?"
"It would be great to observe them more," Troy said, "but we shouldn't disturb them."
"I agree," I started, "and I know what I was just saying, but I really do want to see baby drafii.
"But if we decide to do this, we're gonna need to set some rules so we don't disturb them. We should be as quiet as possible, we should stay as far away as possible, and we should not make any sudden moves that could get their attention."
I turned to Troy, "Does that sound reasonable?"
"Yeah, it does." He paused, looking as if we wanted to say something, but didn't.
We then snuck into the cavern with the drafii. It was quite large, so remaining on the edges was easy and there were usually some stalagmites or rocks to crouch behind, so we'd be out of sight. It was unbelievably hot, but we weren't about to leave because of a little heat.
Getting a closer look at the male drafis, the one not wrapped around the eggs, I felt like I recognized it. 'Maybe that's the one from before. I didn't get a good look, but it feels the same.'
"Hey Troy," I whispered, "I think that one is the one from the mining trip a while back."
"Really? I didn't get a good look at it, everything was happening too fast."
"Well, I'm just wondering if it would remember me."
"We don't know how good their memory is, so there's no way to know for sure, but it'd be too dangerous to try it out."
"I know that." I said, "But I think they're smart enough to remember. They have strong emotions right now. They're very concerned about their children and are focused entirely on that. I doubt they would bother to remember me with everything going on. Maybe another time would be best."
"If you say so I'll have to agree. I don't know what they're feeling, but we could come back a week or so later and test your theory." Troy whispered.
I looked around, and I saw Conner and Maddie peeking out from behind a boulder about halfway between there we are and where the drafii lie. I waited for them to turn around so I could motion for them to come back, but they never did, so I went up with them and heard Troy take a few hasty steps after me before stepping more slowly and cautiously.
"Hey," I whispered, "what are you doing, we agreed to not get this close."
Maddie whispered back, "No you and Troy agreed to stay back, we want to see them more closely."
"I mean, so do I, but it would be rude to get in the way of something like this."
"I mean…I guess."
"Then let's get back and—"
I stopped, having heard a small crack sound from the other side of the boulder. I peeked over and saw that one of the eggs was starting to hatch.
I motioned for everyone else to come look, and we all sat in silence as the eggshells cracked before being punctured by a small head. One after the other the small drafii peeked out of the eggs before shaking off shell, making a small *mriip mriip* as they looked up at their parents.
The two adults nuzzled their heads together, before the female gently nuzzled her children, encouraging them to walk around. As she did this the male went over to a small pile behind them and grabbed a large fish and set it in from of his children. At first the young stared at it, before slowly and clumsily walking towards it and taking small bites with their newly developed teeth.
While we were paying attention to the young, the male drafis looked around and noticed us, looking me right in the eyes. I could feel the fear and anger coming off of him, but I knew better than to run. Running would cause him to chase us, which wouldn't be good for anyone, we and him could both be injured by rocks or the magma pools nearby. So instead, I stood up, revealing myself from behind the rock.
"What are you doing?" Maddie asked grabbing my leg, "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"No," I said, "Just watch. Hopefully it will all be alright."
"That's not very reassuring." Maddie said, "Please stop doing so many dangerous things."
"I don't try to put myself in danger, it just happens."
I set down my pack and my staff and took out the piece of gold ore within. I held it in my hand outstretched and slowly walked towards the male drafis. When I got closer it bared its teeth and made a loud, deep *HHHHiiSSss* so I stopped, and I waited for it to do something. The brief moment which we stared each other down felt much longer before it took the step forward and sniffed the rock in my hand.
It stared at me, confusion and hesitation entering its mind. It started to open its mouth, and I quickly dropped to one knee and set the gold on the ground before standing up and taking two steps back.
It felt surprise, the confusion and hesitation becoming less prevalent. Thinking that meant it remembered me, I took two steps forward where it ignored me and detonated the chunk of gold at my feet.
I heard the others rush out from behind the rock, and I said "Stop!", not letting my eyes turn away from the drafis. I motioned behind me and said, "Gold, quickly." And I felt three chunks placed in my hand a little later.
I presented these to my drafis, sitting them down where my piece was originally, and repeated the same motion of backing away two steps when it opened its mouth.
This time when it detonated the gold, it licked it all up and walked backwards, facing me, towards its young. It used its scales on the upper part of its mouth to scrape the gold dust off its tongue and then rubbed its mouth against the rocks to get it off again. Its young went over to the small pile of gold dust and began to lick it up.
The male drafis walked back over to me, this time unsure about what to do. It looked at me for a while before making a *Yieeah* sound, and looking me dead in the eyes.
I dropped back down to one knee, trying to show I mean it no harm, and motioned for the others to do the same. The drafis responded by bowing its head down near mine and we touched our foreheads against each other for a moment before it backed away, turning around for the first time, and looked at its young and mate.
I turned around to the others, and said, "See, it all worked out."