Rabbits: quivering.

But also slowly backing up in the face of the inexorable advance of dragonkind, backing up a tunnel that carries a faint whiff of fresh air at the end.

Oo! Okay, then it looks like the rabbits are Good and Investigated, and she can just squirm past them out that clear exit at the back. Excuse her, rabbits, she'll be out of your way in just a bit, there are more things to look at!

Rabbits: vaguely traumatized. And Investigated, thoroughly.

A trail of whelps spill out of the burrow and take off again. Their fellows leave off the dive-bombing now that it seems there's no longer anything interesting belowground.

Excellent! Freedom in the skies, with her siblings behind her, investigating all the wonders of the world! Clearly there is nothing better.

She briefly investigates the squirrel, then almost moves on to the badger, but: aha, she learned her lesson! Leading a pack of whelps into a small enclosed space is a bad plan! Never let it be said that she cannot adapt!

Instead she goes to investigate the dragonkin. Since they're not in a burrow. Hi, dragonkin!! This little whelp loves you! Gosh you have so many limbs, and four of them on the ground, that looks very stable, what have you got over here, oooo, are those eggs, can she acquire more little whelps to follow her around, she must clearly investigate that right away that's definitely the most exciting thing in the last five minutes!

The dragonkin tolerates his investigation with the patience of a being who has been dealing with whelplings for a hundred years.

These eggs are not ready to hatch yet. Their occupants are curled up inside, still sleeping a deeper than she can wake them from.

Gosh.

She geeeeently baps one of the eggs with her little head affectionately, then flaps off to go investigate something else. Like those napping dragons! Those napping dragons look neat, they should be swarmed by whelps and informed that they're loved!

The dragons blink lazily at the whelps, one set of eyelids and then the other, twitching their wings to encourage them to not land there. The whole cloud together is only a little bit bigger than the head of one of the dragons.

That's very interesting, because, hm. Wow, these dragons look like bigger versions of them! Is she going to get that big? She would like very much to get that big.

She lands carefully on a dragon's forelimb, in their view, and chirps inquisitively up at them. Her little wings twitch too, and she looks at them with big golden eyes.

The dragon yawns hugely, exposing all of his big sharp teeth. There's a morsel of food stuck between two of the ones near the back.

The little red whelp continues staring at the dragon with her big gold eyes, completely unfazed by this display of sharp. Maybe one day she will be that sharp!!! She hopes so.

Another whelp darts in and snatches the morsel out from between the teeth. It chirps happily as it flaps away.

She gives a little squeak of alarm and worry at her sibling! Sibling! Sibling, what! Those were sharp! You are small! What if you were squished by accident (the idea of being squished on purpose doesn't occur to her at all), what then? Then she would have a squished sibling and that would be awful. She does not want any squished siblings! She wants only perfectly whole and flapful siblings that can adorably follow along after her into—

—wait.

The little whelp lands carefully on the ground and folds her wings, and looks at the swarm of whelps around her. She tilts her head, and chirps at them inquisitively.

Chirp? Chirpchirp! Chirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirpchirp.

...

Yeah, okay, so, clearly: her siblings are idiots. They're her idiots, but they're idiots. Well. She'll just have to keep each and every one of them safe and happy. That is Her Responsibility As The One Smart One.

She considers possible safe activities for siblings of the not as smart as she is persuasion. Uh. She's done about four things in her life total. So let's do a review of them. Saying hi to Big Whelps: kinda boring, alarming closeness to sharps, not worth risk, avoid. Saying hi to bunnies: fun, but crowded, and demonstrably there were too many siblings to fit into a burrow, so, avoid because ick uncomfortable. Flying is fun, flying is a Sanctioned Activity, how about she leads them off to flap around safely instead of keeping them near the sharps. Yes, that, she does that.

Granted she doesn't have any kind of plan for... direction. Or anything. But she's sure she'll figure something like that out.

Flying! Flapflapflapflapflapflap.

After a little while, they are joined in their expedition by an extraordinarily big and beautiful dragon who feels just like her mother did.

!!!!!!

She squeaks in happy recognition at her mother!!! Hi mom! Gosh you're pretty, how are you so big, you were not so big before, wait now you're shaped like she is??? How'd you do that!!! It's so cool, her mom is so cool and so powerful and she's just going to flap over and land on one of her giant horns and coo lovingly at her because so great!!!!

The rest of the flock similarly finds purchase and Alexestrasza rumbles in happy contentment,soaring through the sky with her brood upon her back.

They circle back around to the base of the tree, where two dragonkin are tending a fire over which is roasting something that smells delicious.

Oooooooo.

That's for them, right? She hopes it's for them, it smells so good. She looks at her mother and chirps inquisitively, edging closer to the delicious smell on her perch.

The fire-tenders lift the roast off its spit and lay it out. Alexstrasza gives a nod.

Well then. Come, siblings! It is time to feast!!

The roast will fall before the unstoppable might of a swarm of hungry whelps.

Yes. Yes it will. Truly, there are no more fearsome forces in the (her limited experience of) the world than a swarm of hungry whelps.

There are probably more fearsome and unstoppable things than a swarm of hungry whelps, but that says more about the potential fearsomeness of things in a world with the likes of dragons and Mom in it than it does about the whelps' fearsomeness.

She eats her fill quickly and efficiently, then gets to monitoring her siblings. Siblings, are you playing nicely with each other? No biting, no fighting over food? You all followed your big sister's example and didn't mess with anyone else?

There's plenty for everyone, and no one seems to feel the need to take from their neighbor.

Good.

This assured, she finds an appropriate nook on Mom to snuggle in, and settles in for snuggling. She's feeling a bit lethargic after eating so much, and snuggling seems restful.

The days pass in a peaceful idyll, one after another. The whelps learn from their various experiences. Some, admittedly, more quickly than others. The big dragons show up and disappear according to some inscrutable whim or schedule, but the cast of dragonkin stay constant, and of course, Alexstrasza is always around to watch over her clutch. She spends more and more time talking to her whelps, waiting for the day when they begin talking back.