"I'm not worried, although she looked like she might be willing to chop you in ity bity pieces and let them try.  Are ya'll fighting?"

Nat grinned. "Constantly. She thinks I took her job. Which I did." But while Grete thought it was about him being male, Nat suspected it was more because he was more competent than she was. Being a Warwick didn't hurt either.

"Do you have a favorite then?  I won't tell."

"Of course I don't. Parents can't have favorite children."  He lied. His  favorites were the Chinese Fireballs. But he still liked the rest too, the Fireballs were just more important  to him. They were hard to breed in captivity. It was by his suggestion that the Female had been switched to Wales. He had gotten an owl about the clutch from Australia hatching as well. "My paper is on breeding practices of the Chinese Fireball. So I spend more time with them, I suppose." He shrugged a little, lacing his fingers between hers. They were not interrupting Grete's work, so he lead her through the large stone room, through to the other end. A keeper barn with two stalls on the far side. He closed the heavy metal door between the large room where the Welsh and Hebrideans were being kept and this new section of the barn. behind them.

Wing development in dragons was another fascinating topic upon which Nat could have talked for hour about. Welsh Greens and Hebridean Blacks had developed separate wings, like insects. The maintained four appendages. The Chinese Fireballs on the other hand had wings more like birds or flying mammals where they had developed from their appendages, giving them two legs and two wings. He had tried once to map out where the different species had to develop from, and which traits had developed where, but things in the North Barn had been a bit to busy for him to work on it much. Point was, that the Chinese Fireballs main difference was number of "legs", color, and length. Welsh and Hebridean were taller, but Fireballs were longer. He personally thought they were better temperament too. While most dragon species showed aggression in males and slightly more docile females (till they had a clutch anyway), this was reversed in the Fireballs.

He tugged on the gloves sitting outside the stalls. "The Fireballs are in here. This keeper area is mostly kept clear for now they're small enough still I can let them out in here, and they aren't going to get into much trouble." Much being the keyword. "When they get bigger we'll have to split up the girls so they don't fight." The fireballs weren't sexually mature till much after the rest of the species of dragons, so he did not have to worry about cross breeding. "There are seven. But they're a bit hesitant to come somewhere new yet. Once they adjust, they might swarm you, but they're only two weeks and small. They might try to climb your legs… they're not. Well they're small. Just stay still or watch where you move." Because he would hate to have to explain how his wife had accidentally crushed a baby dragon. It would make for a rough start to their marriage.

This is the first clutch where we've successfully hatched all the eggs laid in a couple years." Most of the times at least one failed out. He was rather pleased with himself. Bertys and Reece's clutch later in the week wouldn't be though. They had lost one egg when Caitlin had startled Bertys. He was trying to forgive her, as really it was his fault. He had been the one stupid enough to believe Caitlin wouldn't cause problems.

Opening the door to the stall he waited a moment to see if the Chinese Fireball hatchlings would come out on their own. One of the girls peeked her head out the door, scurrying back in to the deep stall and the safety of her siblings. Like the other dragons each one had a colored band, but Nat had named them. He took a few steps in to the stall, bending down and picking up the smallest of the males with a black band on his wing. He clung tightly to the dragon hide glove, wrapping his long tail around Nat's arm several times, and looping his neck around once. Carrying him out of the stall, the others seemed hesitant to follow, but were at least warming up to the idea that the door was open. He carried boy back towards Kate, but kept his distance, not wanting to spook either his wife or the baby dragon. "This is Lok. He's about, a half stone? But he's the smallest." And maybe Nat's favorite. He quite liked Nat, at least Nat thought the tiny dragon liked him. They'd only know each other two weeks, which was even shorter than Nat had known his new bride.