Female Draks come into
heat once every 4 to 5 months. If they choose to mate, they will lay a
clutch after 3 to 4 months. A female Drak's first clutch can be
from two to four eggs. A second clutch may be from three to six, a
third from five to nine, and a fourth anywhere up to 10. Most clutches
don't get any higher than 10 eggs. Since humans have colonized the
planet, many Drak hatchlings choose to Mind Pair with a human that
they choose from those present at their hatching. However, some Draks
choose to live a solitary life. Many of these will remain at their
resident Castle with their Paired siblings and parents, but some
return to Drak communities outside of the Castle.
Draks have a complicated system of naming their children. The
ending of a hatchling's name is derived from the endings of its
parents' names. A female Drakling's name ends with the last two
letters of her sire's name, followed by the last two letters of her
dam's name. A male Drakling's name ends with the last two letters of
his dam's name, followed by the last two letters of his sire's name.
For example: The male children of male Jeremy and female Alexandra
would have names ending in -ramy (-ra from the dam and -my from the
sire), while the female children would have names ending in -myra. In
this way, a Drak can trace his or her lineage back through hundreds of
generations, and can know right away if he or she is related to any
other Drak. This tradition was probably started to prevent inbreeding.
A quick rule of thumb is that draklings name-endings should never
be the same as either one of their parents'.
When a female's clutch
is ready to hatch, she will often shoo everyone from the Deep Caverns,
although some females may let their mate watch as the eggs hatch. Humans
are never allowed to see this. Once all the eggs have hatched, the
female leads all the Draklings from the cavern in a line behind her
and parades them in front of the available aspirants waiting at the
exit of the Deep Cavern. The female announces each one's name, then
steps back and lets each Drakling choose a partner or announce their
decision not to Mind Pair.
In recent years, some Draks have chosen to educate their draklings
before leading them out to mind pair. Some might only take an extra
day, teaching the youngsters their name and a basic greeting, while
others may take several weeks to educate their young in a variety of
subjects, though this is rather rare.
At some castles it is customary to have the draklings meet the
aspirants at a party or feast where they can get to know each other in
order to determin which aspirant would be the best fit to mind
pair.
When a human and a Drak
Mind Pair, a weak mental bond is formed between the two. Vague
thoughts and emotions can be transmitted, and the pair will rarely be
apart. This bond is not strong enough to share actual thoughts, words,
or images so it cannot be used for true communication, but one member
of the pair can often tell if the other is troubled, joyful, angry,
sad, et cetera. Draks can Pair with humans of either gender; the aspirant that they Pair with is determined by the compatibility of
their personalities.
On rare occasions, two
Draks that decide not to Pair with the human aspirants present may
decide to Pair with one another, personalities permitting. This
is slightly more common in areas with less human habitation, where
more Draks may not have the opportunity to bond. It is also frequent
in Drak communities outside the Castles.
Other times, draklings will remain unbonded for a while, only to mind
pair a human or another drak at a later date.
|