"We have more kinds from more places. And some of them are pretty nice, just not most of them. Bella - Juliet I mean - has some of them being her gardener-minions, she accidentally inherited them. Minus and Plus are both our kind of vampire but Plus is from a different world that's only like ours."
"Nah, she got the minions, and then made the gardens to keep them busy. She was going to make them self-containing originally."
"Well, they like to be minions, and the last person they were minioning for was bad news and Bella had to slay her. Or rather send her Downside for the admin to put in stasis or something? But basically slay her, and then she found the minions and they were like 'so do you want some minions'."
"Oh. Yeah, that was kinda weird. Bella kept offering to set them up an independent colony but it turns out they have to have someone to be minions of to have baby minions."
"Weren't you and the other conjured dragons babies at the same time? Do you just not remember it?"
"I think Hyacinthe is the youngest. Peninnah's next and she's like eight."
"They start yea big," says Soph, gesturing. "They're about full size by the time they're in their mid-teens."
"I've seen our eggshells," says Sherial. "Much bigger. But not bigger than a grown human."
"And we're nowhere near full size yet," says Tianthonet.
"But then we have much farther to go," says Sherial. "And some dragons are just small. Ansharil is."
"Just about large enough to comfortably carry one Bondmate," says Sherial. "So not all that much bigger than we are."
"We can both carry ours," objects Tianthonet.
"Yes, but not as easily as Ansharil could. And yet he still doesn't have room to pack on a dozen children like Ancaladar still occasionally complains about."
"Two thousand years ago, in Jermayan's time," says Tianthonet. "There was a war on, and the elves wanted to send their children to a special fortress where they'd be safe, and of course the best way to go was by dragon, but Ancaladar didn't like having - what was the phrase - "
"An infestation of tiny passengers," Sherial supplies.