Andy snickered.

"I have some," she said. "The dimestore kind. Not quite Harlequin, but close." She grinned. "Cheesiest things EVER. To the point you have to put it down or risk killing off brain cells."

"Oh yes," Belle agreed. "I know the kind." She shook her head.

"There are some good romance novels, some fun romance novels, and some that are so cheesy and so bad you just can't keep reading them."

"I read three of them," Andy deadpanned. "The author made a series of them, and I made myself read three." She grinned. "So cheesy you kind of want to hurl. But I've also read some really good romance novels."

"I like some of each. Or the in the middle ones, where it's cheesy but not disgustingly so, and still fun." Belle grinned. "Those ones are pretty good."

"I have some of those," Andy replied, nodding. "Good for when you just need something. I'm sure I have one or two... Though I think Saetan still has my copy of Daughter of the Blood. I should probably dig out the next one soon."

"Probably. He reads pretty quickly." Belle shrugged. "Although he doesn't have much else to do during the day, I guess, unless he wants to go talk to any of my others. Which has happened, apparently. I've been told that when they're away and the ball's on my belt it's kind of like a hotel."

Andy blinked. That was new information.

"I never knew that," she said. "That's kind of awesome."

"Yeah, it is. Because they can all go see whoever they'd like to, and they can lock their door if they don't want visitors." Belle grinned.

"I'd really like to see it sometime, but unless they make a way for a trainer to get in there..."

"I doubt they will, though," Andy replied. "Privacy and all that. Which is alright by me, really. The guys deserve their own space."

"Yes," Belle agreed. "They do. But you have to admit, it would be cool to see."

"That it would," Andy agreed. She grinned. "It would be interesting to see if they decorated their rooms or anything."

"Oh I know a few of them have," Belle said with a snort. "Occasionally things will just go missing, randomly, and I know I'll find at least a few things in their rooms. if I could get to their rooms." She shrugged. "Oh well."

Andy snickered a bit.

"You could probably ask for the things back, you know," she pointed out.

"I tried that once," Belle said with a wry grin. "There's a picture that I know Thomas has, but whenever I ask about it he says he doesn't know what I'm talking about."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Belle," Thomas said from his perusal of her library, not even looking up.

"See?" Belle couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh well. I'll get it back eventually. Someday. Maybe."

Andy snickered and started to dig around in her bag a little. After a moment, she pulled out well-worn copies of the second and third Black Jewels books. She grinned.

"It makes me smile just thinking about reading these," she commented.

Belle grinned broadly. "Pickleberries," was all she said. Hell, she still had her stash of ten or twelve of them.

Behind her Dejaal rumbled a cough, that Belle took for laughter. See, he agreed with her, too.

"I have that entire page memorized," Andy replied, grinning. "The coven arriving that first summer was a good one, too. Did you know there's a typo in there? One of the 'bee stings' is typo'd into 'bee strings."

Belle snorted. "Yeah, that does happen. You can usually find at least one typo in every published book. It's kind of funny, actually."

"It's always fun looking for them," Andy agreed. She grinned. "I haven't looked for any lately, but I'm sure I could dig a few more out of Bishop's work."

"Oh that wouldn't surprise me," Belle said with a grin. "I saw two in the newest Charlaine Harris book, and one or two in the newest Kim Harrison."

"I've seen some pretty epic typos before," Andy said. "When I was in high school, for instance. Someone wanted to say 'this would do more harm than good' in one of their essays. Instead, the paper said 'this would do more harm than god.'" She grinned. "Completely changed the meaning of the sentence and made it more epic."

Belle snorted. "Yeah, that's hilarious. I love it when things like that happen. Totally accidental typos that make things more hilarious or more epic. Or both."

"Oh yes," Andy agreed. Settling in, she cracked open one of the books she'd dug out. "See, now I have to read again. I'll let you know if I come across ant epic typos."

"Sure thing." Belle grinned and started brushing Dejaal, taking her time. Dejaal didn't mind, although Thomas pouted. Because he's Thomas.

The group ended up staying near the lake for a few weeks after that, choosing to settle in one place while they had the eggs to look after. There seemed to be something resembling a routine after a few days, which was fine with Andy. She wasn't one to really take to a lot of changes in a very short time.

The atmosphere around the campsite was a little tense when she got up one morning. She'd woken up early, which was unusual for her, but she hadn't been able to get back to sleep, so she got up and got dressed. She didn't see Temeraire when she got outside, which was strange.

"Where's Temmy?" she asked Lien, glancing over at the white dragon. Lien was settled on the ground, her wings draped down her sides. Andy could see the area of flattened grass where Temmy had been next to her.

"Getting fish," Lien replied. She had hesitated in her answer, and Andy blinked.

"This early?" she asked. "How come?" Again, Lien hesitated, and then slowly lifted one of her wings to reveal a little black dragonet snuggled up against her, sleeping. Andy gasped slightly.

"Oh Li, he's adorable," she cooed. "Can I come a little closer?" She knew better than to just go over to them, even though Lien was her own dragon. Lien nodded a bit, and Andy quietly moved in closer to get a better look at the dragonet.