The parents are silent at this. One of them nuzzles an egg.

Amseli summons a suitably empty series of trains, and the eggs can go where they're gonna go.

The parents don't really trust the trains and would like to stay with their eggs while they are on trains, even though they are unnerving cramped uncomfortable loud strange-smelling things. They can probably fit... Barely.

They can get one parent squeezed in with each egg if they swap in a car without any seats. Boxes are supplied so the eggs won't roll when the train accelerates.

The eggs report that trains feel really weird and kind of uncomfortable. They're eggs so they can't do anything but complain. At least it'll be over soon.

If they'd like to get off at the next swap and take a helicopter that can be arranged?

...Both parents say that the eggs should not always get what they want. They can all deal with a train ride.

"It's not that we plan to spoil her," says the mycologist, "but some things we don't have a good way to guess if it's a need or a want."

That is a good point. They will try to think about what to do about that. In the meantime, they can see how the eggs are doing with magic and this is not a need, it's just uncomfortable.

The national park is farther away than the blues' estate. In the estate they introduce the egg to the servants and a visiting niece and ask if it would like to incubate indoors or out.

Katmem is sleepy and slow at the moment, and is indifferent about hatching-places. (The parents warn that hatching is messy.)

Good to know, they'll put him in the garden.

We should find a small shelter, a pocket in the planet's body of soil and stone, his father comments. Stable temperature, and dry, but with room for him to get out when he hatches. A root-hollow maybe? I can dig.

He looks around at the garden, to evaluate spots.

There are trees, including some big old ones he could bury an egg near.

He wanders for a bit before selecting the perfect spot.

In regards to spoiling him, the best idea I have thought of is for you to ask a Draak if something seems strange, and warn you of strangenesses I can predict. Though I do not know what seems strange to you.

"Amentan children sometimes want to eat diets that aren't good for them, or do dangerous fun things like running around on slippery rocks near a fast river, or skip painful vaccinations - I'm not sure if you have those - or neglect school to play, or run off so their parents don't know their whereabouts. And parents have to overrule them on that for their long term good."

The dad thinks for a while.

If he has cravings for rust or certain kinds of rocks, those are normal. It guides us to make up for mineral deficiencies. He may need eat more than muscle-flesh, organs and all, but I'm not sure on that. It would be weird if he never hunted anything, that seems like an important part of being a Draak. We don't have vaccinations but you can make him practice listening for pathogens in the Onesong to avoid infectious things. Draak are tough, and almost all survivable injuries have little or no long-term effect on us. If he's badly injured make him sleep as much as possible. He shouldn't try to fly, though it's very tempting. The two greatest causes of death for hatchlings on our planet are starvation and fighting, and I suspect neither will be an issue here. Extra or irregular sleep doesn't harm us. I don't know what the long seasons will do to our hibernation tendency. For the balance between lessons and play or company and solitude, I can offer no certain advice except that never being far from you two might be stifling. But I truly don't know.

"How far is far? And is it stifling if he's as far as he likes but carries an everything with GPS?"

"We don't know how to teach him about the pathogen magic, what are the guidelines there or is that something we'd get him a tutor for?"

Most Draak learn that lesson by eating something rotten and regretting it. It's not something that needs a tutor, just exposure and practice... My infancy was spent wandering a pine forest totally alone, as was much of my youth. I really don't know. Do what feels right. We will have to see how our seed of potential grows under your Way.

"There are mice and birds and things in the garden but nothing big. Will he need trips somewhere with more animals to hunt?"

...Wait and see.

All right. Do eggs like music? They worry it is boring in there.

Katmem would like to be alone for a day or two. The last few days have been kind of mentally exhausting.

Okay! They will come back in a day or two but will look in then to make sure no people or animals or weather or anything have been bothering him.

He projects his excitement to live, mixed with anxiety about what life will be like, as they go.