cloudy with a Chance of freedom

chapter 32

It's a rather ironic fact that when the first task rolled around (Skull feeling pretty good since he avoided the headache of being dragged in as Champion a second time around thanks to the wonders of paranoia) it is Skull, not the trained dragon handlers, who immediately noticed a major problem with the eggs.

Namely that when he stuck his hand into the nest, it was far too cold and bordering deadly for the infants inside.

Charlie, who had amusedly allowed him to look at the dragons considering Skull does in fact have a license, is very caught off guard when the teen promptly lights into all the handlers and forces them to check the viability of each clutch.

Some fool hadn't thought to keep the eggs and the mothers together, likely because he didn't want to deal with the dragons trying to charbroil his ass moving the clutch away from them.

It was to some horror and dismay that they learn three eggs are now dead because some idiot was being lazy.

Ironically it is Skull who saves the First Task from disaster, by promptly having replacement 'fake' eggs created on the spot that smell like the real thing and are warm enough that the mothers would be fooled temporarily by them.

Meanwhile the 'waiting' females are quickly relocated into Skull's magical sanctuary once he finally figured out how to communicate with the animals.

Feng-Huang and dragons have a deeper relationship than just being mere symbols of the Chinese royalty, and fortunately one of the females brought was a Chinese Fireball. The two of them were able to get something close to a working discussion between wizards and the dragons.

With the agreement that the nests wouldn't be moved from the case (and Skull agreeing to move them to actual sanctuaries once the eggs had hatched, since they were too cold to be moved internationally twice) and the two other females allowed to keep watch and the clutches warm, the handlers found they had a much easier time moving the dragons into position.

Skull was more interested in the dragons and making sure they were comfortable than the task and thus missed most of it beyond making sure the dragons settled in comfortably in their shared enclosure.

They would be there for a few months, after all, and it was close enough to the basilisk cave that people would avoid their area on principle. Well, everyone save for Scamander, who arrived less than a week later to confirm for the Ministry that Skull was able to properly care for nesting mothers and their still recovering clutch. The twins were beyond happy that Charlie would be sticking around as the 'adviser/mentor' for Skull's ongoing project.

If he could handle this mess, then he would have earned the right to keep dragons full time in his case so long as they never escaped in the school or surrounding area.

The first words out of Renato's mouth set the tone of their weekend visits.

"Have you heard rumors of an old famiglia rising out of the ashes like some demented phoenix?"

"..."

Skull and the others shared a look.

"What's the name?" asked Fon.

"Something ridiculous like Midnight or something. The Vongola are in a real tizzy about it because it's one of their oldest allied famiglias and according to their history books has some major ties to the Primo's birth family," said Renato gleefully. "I heard it sparked a major upset because researching what it was lead to the discovery Giotto was adopted and that the current head doesn't actually have a right to wear the rings because there's no real blood relation between the Primo and Secundo. It's gotten a lot of people talking about it."