"Yeah, we could actually have a Queen in the group," Andy joked. "Thankfully, I'm not crazy enough to think I could handle that."

"Ha ha, no." Belle shook her head. "There is no way I'm willing to even attempt that, thanks much. Can you imagine all the fireworks?"

"Which is exactly the reason I'm not even going to try," Andy said. "I mean even a Cassidy would be a stretch."

"No kidding," Belle grumbled. "Can you imagine having a Jaenelle? Or a Karla?" She actually shivered at the thought.

"Having a Jaenelle would be... interesting," Andy mused. "Karla would just be too hard to deal with."

"Seriously." Belle sighed. "Oh well. We don't have to worry about that."

"Right," Andy said. She paused. "See, now I want to read again."

"You may as well. I doubt we're going to be leaving for another couple of days." Belle shrugged. "Besides, I have all the books, so you can read them as fast as you want."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Andy replied. "I do kind of want to get up later, though. I need to check on the dragons." She glanced at the males, daring them to argue.

"I think I've seen almost all of mine trying to sneak in at some point, so I know they're fine." Belle shrugged. "But dragons do require a bit more room."

"Yeah, just a little," Andy replied. "I know my others are alright, nobody's dumb enough not to tell me if something's up, but I do want to check on Temmy and Li Li."

"Probably a good idea. Hey, will we hve to stay in one place once the egg's been laid?" She'd never thought about that before.

"I don't think so," Andy replied. "Bookverse, when there were eggs to take care of, they were wrapped in cloth and canvas so they could be carried around, and Temeraire went all over-protectinve and uber-posessive." She glanced at the Blood males. "Much like them, really."

"Oh boy. That's going to be interesting." Belle shook her head. "You know me, I'm going to want to see the egg at least once. Although, honestly, I'd kill to get a batch of fire lizard eggs from a gold."[/color]

"Trust me, you'll get to see it," Andy replied. "I'm sure you'll be able to talk Temmy and Li Li into letting you. They both like you well enough."

Belle grinned, delighted at the idea. Hey, a dragon egg wasn't something you saw every day.

"You know that's going to be fun," she said. "Since one of the two is probably going to be out all the time. At least a lot."

Andy snorted.

"If I know them, neither of them is going to want to be put away at all," she said. "And I can't exactly stop them, so I may as well indulge them."

"Might as well," Belle echoed with a shrug. "The baby's going to be adorable. And slightly huge."

"From what I could understand from the first book, it'll start about the size of a golden retriever," Andy said, thinking. "And without the ruff on its head like Temmy and Li Li have." She grinned. "An adorable little eating machine."

"No kidding." Belle grinned broadly. "You know we're going to be cooing over it and it'll be wondering if we have food or not."

"Well, it'll be perfectly capable of asking," Andy pointed out, grinning. "Novik dragons learn languages while in the shell. I know Temmy's character knows English, French, and Chinese that way, just from hearing them."

"Seriously? That's kinda cool," Belle said with a grin. "Pern dragons only mind-speak to their rider."

Andy snorted.

"If that were the case here, Temmy wouldn't be nearly as chatty as he is, and Li Li wouldn't speak at all," she said. "Li technically has no rider."

"I remember," Belle said with a shrug. "And they're smart. They'd learn, I'm sure. Besides, Pern dragons chat with each other a lot, and there are a couple riders who can talk to all dragons."

"I'll take your word for it," Andy replied. "I may just re-read the Temeraire books, though. I kind of want every scrap of information I can get my hands on."