Chapter 2

Dragons

Xearo walked out with Jakkin into the courtyard. They both had to bathe Blood Brother and Bloody Flag, which was not going to be easy. Xearo would probably end up pushing Blood Brother if he was as stubborn as he was yesterday.

"Always the tough dragons, huh?" Dojakk was another fellow bonder; he was Xearo's brawl companion. Xearo sighed; he would either get out without a spot of anything, or be dirtied to hell. Xearo prayed that it wouldn't require him to wash this set of work cloths. He had just finished washing them earlier that morning. Dojakk had to break off towards the incubarn, to make sure everything was alright.

Xearo and Jakkin had unlocked Blood Brother's Stall and rang the bell, which signaled that a dragon was in the halls, in a record time of about 5 minutes. Xearo's luck was not good; he was forced to push Blood Brother until he finally stood up and walked the rest of the way to the bath. Getting him in the bath was much, much easier. He practically jumped in. Xearo and Jakkin sat down on the overview "swing" and watched Blood Brother role and play as if he were a hatchling.

"Look at that load of lard! He's such a baby, in a weird way." They laughed and continued watching Blood Brother as he played in the bathe. He finally settled down and fell asleep with only his nose above the mud. Xearo was already tired from pushing that "load of lard". Jakkin and Xearo both laid back on the swing and let the peaceful aura soak into their minds. They both, unintentionally, fell asleep on the swing.

Xearo woke up to feel a very rough object scrubbing his back. It was Blood Brother! Xearo was still laughing when Blood Brother stopped and did the same to Jakkin, who woke up screaming at the worm.

"OW! HEY! You dumb worm that hurts!" Xearo was laughing even harder now, almost crying. Jakkin finally got the stud to stop and he got up and started scrubbing the dragon, limping as he went. Xearo saw this and stopped him.

"Old Lik' An' Spittle will kill you if he finds this out. Not that I'd let him but, you might even get a debagging." Jakkin's face went pale. Xearo patted him on the back, softly, and went over to Blood Brother.

"Let's get this lard bag back before we get in trouble. And man do I have a headache!" Xearo had just realized that his head was pounding like a dragon's heart. He almost past out when he was rinsing Blood Brother off. Finally the two of them mustered the strength to pull the dragon out into the halls. Only halfway down the hall did they realize they had forgot to ring the bell.

They got a little farther when Slakk and Errikkin realized that they were coming. They jumped up and off to the side as quickly as their legs could carry.

"Fewmets you two! Why the hell didn't you tell us! You could have squashed us!" Jakkin and Xearo ignored Slakk and all his comments and proceeded to shove Blood Brother into the stall. Blood Brother smelt the fresh food and didn't need anymore prodding. Errikkin and Slakk walked in and saw Jakkin's leg.

"That looks awful red; did you loose any skin? Does it even hurt?" Errikkin as usual was always concerned about people, not matter if it's a splinter or a missing limb. Before Jakkin could answer, Errikkin noticed something else, "HOLY FEWMETS! Xearo you have a nasty gash on your back! You too need to go get some help." Xearo hadn't even noticed it, he seemed to have just thought it was a headache.

"I told you that one was dangerous! They ought to send him to the stews before someone gets killed!" Both Xearo and Jakkin were angry at this statement.

"He was just being playful, and grateful, and – Worm Waste!" Jakkin suddenly remember that he left something else at the baths, "Damnit! I forgot the bagged brush in the baths!" Slakk jumped up again.

"I'll get it!" Before any of them could say anything, Slakk was running down the hall. He slowed down, realizing that if he went slowly enough, they'd start on Bloody Flag's stall.