On the first official day of the program, we walk into the communal area after breakfast to see five places around the end of one table set out with parchment, quills and ink.
"What the hell is this?" Tilly asks, picking up a quill.
"You use it to write," Lucas says.
"Yeah, in the eighteen-hundreds," she says, "haven't you heard of the ball point pen? Or, I dunno, notebooks?"
"It's how we do things in Europe," Andrei says, sitting down at one of the places. We follow suit, Tilly still looking at the quill with a wrinkled nose.
"Good morning!" a tall woman called Selena walks in and over to us, "I'm your teacher for... Well, as long as it takes."
She grins and sits down at the head of the table.
"So, even though part of the program here involves study, we think the best way to learn is to get out and do things," she says, "but first, I'm going to tell you a bit about the sanctuary here, while you take notes."
"Fuck," Tilly mutters, splattering ink all over the table, "sorry."
She clears it up with a flick of her wand and tries again. Selena chatters on about the sanctuary while we scribble down notes. About five minutes in Tilly sighs loudly.
"Sorry," she says, "but how the heck am I supposed to write with this thing?"
I look at her parchment and see it covered with splotches and words that the ink has run out halfway through. Selena laughs.
"Have you met Jo?" she asks, "she's from Australia too. She couldn't get the hang of it either."
"Can I go and get a pen and notebook?" Tilly asks, "I won't be two minutes."
"Go on, then," Selena agrees. Tilly runs out and returns a couple of minutes later with a book and a couple of pens.
"Thanks, sorry for interrupting," she says, pushing the parchment away. Selena continues, listing off some rules, things like not going into enclosures alone, not feeding the dragons anything other than their prescribed diet, and not falling asleep in the dragon enclosures.
"Has that happened before?" Lucas asks.
"Let's just say last year we started with five and ended with four," Selena says with a grimace.
After Lunch Selena tells us to put on our protective gear and follow her.
"We're just going to see some of the orphan babies today," she says, leading us into a small building, "these guys will still mess you up, though, if you're not careful."
We walk in and there are small cages lining the walls. We look in and see tiny baby dragons.
"They usually stay here for a couple of weeks before we take them into the enclosures," Selena says, "they grow quickly, but they're also at more danger from other dragons because they don't have parents to protect them."
"What happened to their parents?" Tilly asks, poking her fingers through a cage to pet a dragon.
"Mostly killed by other dragons," she says, "we can protect the dragons here from wizards, but not from each other. Sometimes we'll put them in with the Welsh Greens until they're big enough to fend for themselves. The Welsh Greens don't bother with them unless they threaten their young."
She beckons to us and leads us down the other end. She lifts a small, dark dragon out of its cage and holds it up to us.
"Who can tell me what this is?" she asks.
"Horntail," Tilly and I answer immediately.
"It's got wing rot," Tilly says, pointing at the discolouration on its wing.
"Well spotted," Selena says, handing the dragon to Tilly, "we're going to be treating it today and giving all the babies a check over."
The dragon is thrashing its tail around, trying to hit Tilly.
"It's very small for a Horntail," I say. Selena nods.
"Yeah, he was a runt," she says, "the parents rejected him because he's so small. He hasn't grown much, but he's got spirit. Right, now, we have a potion here for wing rot, it's not particularly pleasant for the dragons, so they put up a fight."
She passes the potion to me along with a bowl.
"You'll need to soak the area in the potion for around five minutes," she says, "good luck."
I pour some of the potion into the bowl and together Tilly and I manage to get the dragon's wing underneath. Immediately he shrieks and begins flapping around, splashing the potion everywhere. Tilly and I wrestle with him until he's pinned to the bowl, then Lucas tops up the potion. For the full five minutes he fights, tooth, claw and tail, but finally the time is up. Tilly lifts him out and he snaps at her.
"Stop that," she says. Selena laughs and puts him back in the cage.
We spend a few hours checking the dragon's scales, claws, teeth and eyes. Selena teaches us how to properly remove scales and how to examine teeth without losing a finger.
"I think this is the first class I've had that hasn't got a bite the first day," she says, "only one job left now. We have to take some of the older ones and introduce them to their enclosures.
There are six dragons leaving the nursery, so we each take responsibility for one of them. I'm very relieved to have gotten a Welsh Green, as Tilly got a very cranky Chinese Fireball. We make our way to the closest enclosure, which houses the Hungarian Horntails and Selena instructs all of us except Andrei to leave our dragons in their crates outside. We follow her into the enclosure and she tells us about how the dragon could react to finding itself in a huge, foreign space.
"Usually, they'll freak out and try to get back in the crate, or climb up one of us," she says, "remember, they're still babies."
Andrei slowly removes the lid off the crate. The baby dragon immediately pokes its head out and snaps at him, before clambering out and running off.
"That was easier than expected," Selena says, "come on, Fireballs next."
We move down towards the enclosure, a long way away, and Selena explains that often people will fly through the sanctuary, as it's so big, but we'll walk for the first couple of months while we get our bearings.
"Here're the Fireballs," Selena says, putting her crate down. Tilly carries hers inside and waits until the door is closed before removing the lid of the crate. We peek in and see the Chinese Fireball cowering in the crate. Tilly scoops it out and puts it on the ground. It doesn't seem keen to explore.
"See what I mean?" Selena says, "they can find it intimidating, having such a large, open space."
The dragon makes a small squeaking noise and Selena motions for us to move back a bit.
"That can attract other dragons," she says, "keep back towards the door a bit."
The baby dragon starts trying to climb back into the crate. Tilly moves the crate away from it and gives it a gentle nudge in the other direction.
"Go on," she says, "go explore."
The dragon curls its tail around it and shivers. Selena sighs and cocks her head to the side.
"Right, we'll try this," she says, reaching into her pocket and producing a live mouse. She dangles it in front of the dragon until she has its attention, then drops the mouse, which promptly darts off, followed closely by the dragon.
"There we go!" Selena says, "come on, then."
The rest of the dragons go quite willingly into their enclosures and finally we double back and go into the Welsh Green enclosure.
"Right, these are the ones we usually have a bit of trouble with," Selena says, "they're babies, really. Except when protecting their young. Other than that, they're really timid."
I open my crate and pick the dragon up, placing it on the ground. It immediately scoots around to sit on Selena's boots.
"Nope, go on," she says, shuffling back. The dragon whines and follows her, jumping up onto her legs.
"You're like a cat," she laughs, plucking the dragon off her and putting it on the ground again. It whines loudly and we feel the ground shuddering as a dragon approaches us. Selena raises her wand.
"I think I know which one it is," she says, "but just in case, back off a little."
A big dragon comes out from behind one of the hills. I can tell that she's old from here. Her scales are losing the green colour and are growing dull.
"This is Big Mama," Selena says, "she's a doll. Whenever we have a whiner, like this one, she'll come and check it out. She's the biggest Welsh Green alive! That we know about, anyway."
The dragons walks right up to Selena and sniffs the baby dragon before turning and walking away. She gets a few feet, then turns back and roars. The baby dragon scrambles out of Selena's arms and dashes after her.
"That's fucking adorable," Tilly says.
"You have a way with words, Till," Selena laughs, picking up my crate and leading us out. We walk back to the nursery and put the crates back, then head up to dinner.
"So, that's it for today," Selena says, "it's pretty much the same until we're sure you're capable of not being a burden or getting anyone killed, then we'll partner you up with someone, usually around the six month mark, and they'll mentor you for about a year and then we'll ease you in to doing things on your own."
"This is the best place in the world," Tilly sighs happily.