Having had no news in quite some time, the histrionic little butterfly dragons have been busy. Down in Lady Merri's garden an old green wine bottle has been transformed. A tiny boat has been constructed inside it.

The small pink dragon pup is inside the bottle giving the boat a last coat of paint.

The brown pup with white spotted wings is licking the bottle clean so it shines.

The crimson pup with bright blue wings is gathering the nicest flowers and setting them in a ring around the bottle.

Isadora is just finishing engraving a tiny golden plaque. It reads in itsy bitsy tiny letters...

Rashis Al Faij & Merilyn McNeil Al Faij
~In Honoured Memory~

When the boat is finished and the bottle corked the tiny dragons gather together looking at their handy work very solemnly.

Isadora speaks.

Lost at sea! Oh how woeful! We are gathered together today to honour the memory of two beautiful (very high praise from a butterfly dragon) .... sob beautiful, creatures. Lord Rashis, may the great dragon bless him, was gold, right through to the heart where it counts the most. Lady Merilyn, blessed be her flame, *sniff, sob, tear* well, she had some very pretty necklaces and a great talent for arranging a buffet.

*Isadora's sweeping gesture encompasses the entire garden, the dragon pups are getting a little bored with the speech and have started to fidget*

They were so nice. They set out oh,.. ages ago, without thought for themselves to... sob
to save two children. The fates are unkind to swallow them up in the cold dark waters of the sea. *Isadora looks like she wants to keep eulogizing however the pups have started to fight amongst themselves so she cuts it short, annoyed and pausing to fritz a sharp snout-ful of flame at one of the pups*

In short. We erect this monument in their honour and memory.

Elaenore

The tall redhead, a younger verison of her mother, paused at the gate to her parents' garden, and looked in. Her father, Rashis, had told her to expect the butterfly dragon Isadora and her family and she and her brother had watched over the little ones, making certain that nothing harmful to them could get into the garden. And to make certain there was plenty of cayenne for the family.

She watched curiously as they had constructed the small boat in the wine bottle and really hadn't a clue what they were doing. And neither did Azimaero, but then the large bronze dragon didn't want to scare the butterfly dragons with his size.

She blinked as she heard Isadora saying the her parents were lost at sea...dead...and she walked into the garden slowly not to startle them and when she spoke, her voice was low.

"Madame Isadora, forgive me, but my parents are not yet dead....if so, I would have felt it..."

A great seamonster ate them both of course. It was a very large sea monster, the size of a mountain at least. Now I don't doubt that under most circumstances you would know if something had happened to them. Why, if they had, had but a moment to feel even a little trepidation about their certain doom surely you would have known if something had happened to them but that's just the way it is with sea monsters. There isn't really anything one can do about them.

Isadora explains all of this matter of factly as if she had certain knowledge of the events. She then continues on with a description of the great beast and most of her pups looking more and more worried, either slink off to hide or hold each other for comfort. The big brown runt however is mindlessly chewing on one of the flowers from the funeral arrangement and not paying the least attention.

Great sea monsters are the scourge of the sea. They have a great horn on the top of their heads and from it comes a lullaby deep and low. When the sea monster stirs the sea with it's horn the sea goes quiet and everything falls into a soft dark sleep.

Ever so slowly the sea monster swims round the boat it's cold wet coils writhing and churning the sea. It has a hundred great tongues that weave into every cabin and hold, and slurp out the sleeping sailors and passengers. Every tongue is barbed with... ~Isadora has to think for a moment to remember~ ...barbed with hooked poison darts. Even a single drop of the dire poison would blacken the blood and cause the victim to thrash. They would laugh gleefully, manically! And died, burning in a poison acid, dissolving from the inside out! Finally the great beast swallows it's victims while they're still warm. It hopes the warmth of the still cooling corpses swallowed down will warm it's cold hard belly as it dives down, down to where it waits, into the icy depths. All that is left behind is a skeleton ship to float empty on the unkind sea.

She sat down in the soft grass politely, listening to the tale of gloom and doom that Isadora spread, winding up with the dragon pups cowering in her lap in fright at their mother's words.

As she did, a dark shadow fell over the garden and when Isadora finished, the deep rumble of draconian laughter filled the air.

"Madame, that has to be the biggest pile of rubbish I have heard in some time. Have you ever seen a sea monster??"

Without waiting for an answer, the bronze dragon companion of Elae continued.

"One would think you would gather your facts, Madame, with some accuracy before speaking your mind. The Sir and Lady are not lost at sea. It takes time to travel as they have to find the children. When it is time to return home, they shall with both children. And since the Lady Jaeden doesn't seem to be too worried aobut any of them, one may safely assume that she -knows- that they are all alive and well."

The shadow grew a little darker as the long neck snaked down to observe the decorated wine bottle.

"Though I must say, Madame, that you and your family have done a magnificient job on the memorial monument."

The tiny butterfly dragon looks outraged but has always had the good sense to let at least one spark of wisdom rule her life. Always be respectful to a bigger dragon. Tiny streams of smoke and a tiny choked off murmur that might have almost been a growl are all she lets escape her temper.

~MS(from small pearl pink dragon pup to Larger dragon) sounding very worried for the larger dragon~
Now you gone and done it. Mommy's gonna eat you. Uh Oh...

~MS (from golden pup,who apparently overheard to pink pup) Dumbass. Have you no concept of scale? He could sniff us and Mommy up one nostral and not notice. He's gonna eat Mommy if anyone's eating anyone around here. Frankly it wouldn't be worth his effort. The energy he would need to utilize to devour us would far exceed the food energy return and besides in larger dragons colour is indicitive of species and his colour..~

~MS (pink to gold pup) Twirp!

A scuffle breaks out on the Lady Elaenore's lap between two of the pups. Luckily they roll off her lap and into the grass.

Isadora looks horrifically embarrased. She eyes the pups with that MOM'S HAD IT TO HERE! Look and they stop. Isadora collects here dignity about herself and answers.

Of course Honored One, I've never seen a sea monster. No one that's ever seen one has ever come back alive. Why that proves they exist. I'm simply making a deduction based on the total lack of evidence. There is a small chance that I may, thorough some awkward twist of fate be somewhat mistaken but wouldn't you feel terrible if you found out I was right all along?

...(with the air of one insulted and offended, but having the good sense to know she can't afford to be.) And I did gather evidence. I sniffed the air and it smelled like fish and tarragon. I've read books too.

She flits over and looks at her own handiwork. Of course my litter and I made a beautiful momument. We're dragons.