Gwyn ought to know by now how he felt about surprises.
“How about I open my mind when you open that door,” Howell contended, still staring her and the building both down, arms folded.
Anyone left their mind too open and all their bleeding brains might as well fall right out of their skull.
“No,” he acknowledged, less than graciously. “But I’m not standing here all day.” So she could keep pussyfooting around, or she could out with it already. Her choice.
(Howell sorely hoped this mystery presentation of hers was what it looked like, and was only a creche-sized problem at most, rather than a gateway to full-blown hell in a smaller disguise.)
Gwyn might be near twenty – or nearer sixteen, maybe, to be honest he couldn’t remember – but at her melodramatic sighing Howell had half a mind to tell her she had yet to outgrow the creche, herself. But they were making progress at last, so wearily – and blearily – he stepped into the dimly lit building after her and narrowed his eyes as he scrutinised the place.
“What,” he said, so flatly it couldn’t be mistaken for a question. “Explain.”
For a long minute or two, Howell remained entirely silent, his eyes not straying from the miniature dragon on its perch. (Mostly because he didn’t want to see Conway’s no-doubt-annoyingly-hopeful expectant expression.)
What Howell wished he could say was something akin to and what will Mr. Yarwood say about that on his dragon reservation, hm?, but his hopes were dashed inside, because he knew full well that Madoc Yarwood, that overgrown boy of a man, would be summarily delighted by the surprise addition.
His eyebrows drew a little closer together, searching in vain for a rational argument. Finally – “And who do you expect to get the permit for it?” Howell growled, because – however it had been ‘rescued’, it would have to be legally kept. And that meant petitioning the Ministry for it, and filling out a great deal of paperwork, and naturally they would say yes, because if anyone was equipped to study a dragon like this, it was them. (And Howell already knew who would be expected to make the case, and he wasn’t much looking forward to it.)
Oh, like that made it any better.
“I’m more worried about leaving the two of you alone unsupervised,” Howell grumbled back. The miniature dragon was as yet a scientific unknown – and Gwyn, well.
“To be entirely fair, a matter of hours does not inspire me with confidence,” Howell parroted back sarcastically, with a dark look to suggest he absolutely had a headache coming on. “It’ll be your luck she lives eighty years,” he added, in warning. One would imagine a miniature, clearly experimental species would have a contracted lifespan – but Howell, who was very good at expecting the worst, fancied this might be a headache that sustained him for a few decades at least.
Still, it could be Gwyn’s problem, until she, like everyone, inevitably fucked off somewhere and foisted the duty onto him.
(It was lucky he was a little curious about the tiny dragon before them.) “Is she settling yet?” He didn’t know how or when Gwyn had transported her, but dragons were capricious creatures.
Howell pretended he didn’t see her horrifically big grin.
“You’ll send for me first, when you do,” Howell instructed, wasting no more time or energy on the grumbling about this situation. Gwyn could have primary responsibility for this specimen – it did match her in size, after all – but he’d be damned if he didn’t take an interest in it too. “And keep a good Keeping Log. She have a name?” Howell usually gave all the keepers a turn in naming rights when a new dragon was born here – some of the oldest dragons here had been his – but it seemed only fair that Gwyn choose it for this devil.
“Connie,” he sighed, though he didn’t protest to the choice. There were worse names to have. (He said so himself.)
“Mind she doesn’t turn out too much like you,” Howell added, entirely deadpan, but the pat he gave her on her shoulder as he turned back for the creche door might almost pass for fond.
“And I’ll come to find your body if you’re not back by seven sharp, alright?”