Dragonkeeping is so cliché...
"Owww"
"How do you feel?"
"I'd be better if you weren't poking me."
"Sorry, do you remember what happened?"
"I was trying to tag Frostfeather with a tracker when she managed to get her claws into my broom and tipped me off, I fell down the mountain."
Silence reigned for a moment before emerald eyes snapped open.
"I fell down the mountain!"
"Correct."
"Why am I not smeared across the floor?" Harry took in the cliff face towering above them from his prone position.
"Oh, you bounced, quite nicely really, it was a stylish descent."
"I bounced?" Harry asked with a snort, "I've been listening to too many of Neville's tales."
His companion merely raised an eyebrow and stood up, broom in hand. Harry frowned, "please tell me Frost didn't keep hold of my broom?"
"I won't tell you then." the other man said as he hovered, "but, do you want a lift back?"
"Hey Har, what's this about you bouncing?"
"Do we get a repeat performance so we can all see?"
"You lost another broom?"
Harry ignored the yells from his fellow keepers and ducked into the administration building.
"Ah, Har, just the man I wanted to see."
"You do?" Harry asked as the Managing keeper made his way around the boxes of stock cluttering the floor.
"Well since you've been grounded till our next shipment comes in, which could be several months..."
"Oh no." Harry said with a sense of foreboding as he ducked the claws which swiped at his face as the Chief vet bustled past with a bundle of fur in his arms.
"Oh yes."
"Oh no." Harry repeated as he watched the vet unhook several claws from his dragonhide vest and deftly snap a leash to the exposed neck while avoiding the sharp beak with an ease that spoke of long practice.
"Harry, this is Ric, short for Hurricane," the vet said as he dragged the objecting cub out from under the table where it had taken refuge.
"He was found by one of our wardens about a week ago, seems poachers got his mother." The Manager put in, "we have people out doing extra sweeps to try to catch them, we have enough cubs to be caring for this year from the breeding program, we don't need more orphans on top of them."
Harry sighed in resignation as the cub affixed itself to his leg, beak and claws trying to find purchase through the thick dragonhide. "Fine," he took the end of the leash from the vet and picked the cub up by the scruff of its neck until it went limp. "Just what am I meant to do with him in a fortnight when I go on leave?"
"You're licensed, take him home with you. He's to be added to the breeding programme rather than released so he doesn't need to be kept away from humans or taught to hunt."
"Right," Harry looked down at the quiescent cub, its black rosettes just starting to show through its white and grey baby coloured mottling and black flight feathers just beginning to grow through the white fluff on its wings.
"So Ric, how do I explain your presence to Molly hmmm?" He asked his new charge as he exited the administration block. "I can see it now: 'Hi Molly, would you mind terribly if I left a Himalayan Griffin cub in your garden while I stay, I'm sure he won't cause too many problems...'"