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Just got back from Stornoway. We're fairly sure we've got a final census by now, at least of our regulars -- the ones who are tagged and tracked, if not the ones who live on the reserve. (There's a few who are tagged and tracked who roam wider, and we occasionally see drop-ins when they're very hungry or during mating season, but ... oh, you don't need me to go on about things.)
We started out the year with 21 dragons -- it had been 25 before the winter solstice, but we lost a few at that point. Seven died within the first 24 hours after the Lord Pretender did, and another three since -- Greensleeves and Copacahuana from injury, and Thor just died and none of us could figure out why. (Although he was one of the ones who was used in the original wards, and we're all a bit suspicious about that.) So we've got eleven, now. (Merlin. We had twenty-five a year ago. Seeing it written all out like that is just heartbreaking.)
Siz, since you said Rookwood would probably ask -- no, not all of them were the ones used for the original wards. Most of the ones who died were older. There's five of the original ward-dragons left. I can give you the list next time I see you.
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Draconic Mysteries (me, Dree, Thomas, Annelise, Sasha, and Marcus, with whoever wanders in while we're sitting in the mess hall and calmly and rationally discussing the implications of draconic power channeling and the influence it has on our kids) (which is to say, pounding on the table, spluttering a lot, and repeating "what the actual fuck", of course) has agreed that we are willing to entertain the notion of doing what Rookwood wants to do, since none of us are really big on the idea of waking up one morning and finding the country has cracked in two and Hogwarts is now oceanfront property, but we need a hell of a lot more information first. Verifiable information, with calculations that our people can repeat. We're willing to accept that we might lose a few more of our kids in the process, if we absolutely have to, but we want assurances that it'll work first and a good sense of what the risk is.
And you can tell him that he's not getting his team back any time soon, thank you very much. Dree says she's going to keep them for cross-correlating what Rookwood tells us -- ask them questions and see if they give the same answers. We'll release them if and when we get enough information out of them, and once the Order determines whether or not they're going to stand trial.
That's about it, I think. Oh, and Siz and Evelyn, Dree has invited you two up to come along on rounds and get a sense of what's normal and what's not for the dragons. She says it'll probably help you with Rookwood.
Alice, Rachel has invited me to also go out on the Snowdonia raid tonight in case they need more hands with the creatures they find there, so I'll probably be back late, but I want to grab you and talk about the castle repair team a bit, Vector has been making increasingly worried noises about some of the south wing. And we've been starting to have more and more personal conflicts between people who have been cooped up in the castle on the work crews -- I think we need to start really enforcing Days of Rest, No Work, And Get The Fuck Out Of Here. I've got another dozen minor things, but those are the two big ones.
We started out the year with 21 dragons -- it had been 25 before the winter solstice, but we lost a few at that point. Seven died within the first 24 hours after the Lord Pretender did, and another three since -- Greensleeves and Copacahuana from injury, and Thor just died and none of us could figure out why. (Although he was one of the ones who was used in the original wards, and we're all a bit suspicious about that.) So we've got eleven, now. (Merlin. We had twenty-five a year ago. Seeing it written all out like that is just heartbreaking.)
Siz, since you said Rookwood would probably ask -- no, not all of them were the ones used for the original wards. Most of the ones who died were older. There's five of the original ward-dragons left. I can give you the list next time I see you.
The Ad Hoc Working Group on Draconic Mysteries (me, Dree, Thomas, Annelise, Sasha, and Marcus, with whoever wanders in while we're sitting in the mess hall and calmly and rationally discussing the implications of draconic power channeling and the influence it has on our kids) (which is to say, pounding on the table, spluttering a lot, and repeating "what the actual fuck", of course) has agreed that we are willing to entertain the notion of doing what Rookwood wants to do, since none of us are really big on the idea of waking up one morning and finding the country has cracked in two and Hogwarts is now oceanfront property, but we need a hell of a lot more information first. Verifiable information, with calculations that our people can repeat. We're willing to accept that we might lose a few more of our kids in the process, if we absolutely have to, but we want assurances that it'll work first and a good sense of what the risk is.
And you can tell him that he's not getting his team back any time soon, thank you very much. Dree says she's going to keep them for cross-correlating what Rookwood tells us -- ask them questions and see if they give the same answers. We'll release them if and when we get enough information out of them, and once the Order determines whether or not they're going to stand trial.
That's about it, I think. Oh, and Siz and Evelyn, Dree has invited you two up to come along on rounds and get a sense of what's normal and what's not for the dragons. She says it'll probably help you with Rookwood.
Alice, Rachel has invited me to also go out on the Snowdonia raid tonight in case they need more hands with the creatures they find there, so I'll probably be back late, but I want to grab you and talk about the castle repair team a bit, Vector has been making increasingly worried noises about some of the south wing. And we've been starting to have more and more personal conflicts between people who have been cooped up in the castle on the work crews -- I think we need to start really enforcing Days of Rest, No Work, And Get The Fuck Out Of Here. I've got another dozen minor things, but those are the two big ones.