Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The battle of London had been a disaster. Yes, they had fled successfully, but the city was lost, as were the lives of many brave men who died for nothing. Things needed to change. On that much Temeraire and Laurence could agree. However, what needed to change and how they were to achieve it couldn’t divide them further.

What they did agree upon was that Temeraire’s tactics were incredibly successful. And as such they had decided to send dragons to other breeding grounds to recruit their ferals and retired beasts for the militia - or well, the 81st Regiment as they were now called.

But that wasn’t enough for Temeraire. He wanted more. He was disappointed in the military leadership, which only further fueled his resentment of the admiralty. He felt that this again was a miscalculation of theirs that could no longer be forgiven.

Laurence however was more moderated. He had already committed the worst crime imaginable. Now it was time to atone for that - not to commit further crimes. This difference of opinion had led to the argument that they now found themselves in.

“Temeraire, I know you are upset - you have every right to be - but we won’t achieve a thing if we fight against government. Our chances are low even as is” His voice was filled with regret. Now that he had seen how dragons were treated in China, Africa and now even in France, Temeraire wanted to improve the treatment of British dragons. But Laurence knew that they had to work with government to achieve that, not against it. “Once the war is over we can work on convincing government to perhaps pass a bill that gives dragons more rights.”

“But that is not going to happen” His voice thrummed with anger more so directed at the government than at Laurence, “They see us only as savages, monsters, man eaters. As beasts of war only to be tolerated for that purpose and otherwise to be scorned and kept away. They would never give us rights. Even after all we have done for them. Even after they have seen what benefit it has given Napoleon.”

He paused for a moment and then, with an inquisitive tone continued: “Laurence, I know Napoleon is to be defeated - he is a tyrant after all - but his ideas, they seem like he truly wishes the best for his people, both humans and dragons, do they not?”

“Yes my Dear, to an untrained eye it may certainly seem so, but you must understand that he doesn't do it out of the goodness of his heart. He does it only so the people remain loyal to him and continue to wage his wars for him. He too only uses the dragons as tools, tools to further his own ambitions. He concedes them these rights, so that they willingly fight for him, that they die for him, but, I am afraid, he does not truly care so deeply for the lives of the french dragons as it might seem to us.” Laurence’s voice was low, so that only Temeraire may hear it. He wished to console him and to convince him that there was only truly one way through which dragons might be granted rights “His power is drawn from tyranny and so too are the rights which he bestows. We must strive to do better. We must reach our goals through the rightful methods, through parliament.”

“But Laurence, can you not see that they will never do that? They wanted to kill all the dragons of Europe just because it would have given them an edge over Napoleon. And they would have done so had we not intervened. They are not to be trusted. They wanted to kill you” When first his voice had been pleading, with the last sentence it had taken on an edge “I will not let that happen. They will never see justice, we will continue to be mere tools for as long as the admiralty exists. I say we continue to build up the Regiment and harass the French until at some point they cannot ignore our demands any longer.”

“No my Dear, I am afraid you are quite right. My sense of duty and honour has made me blind to what should have been obvious, but I must warn you to exercise caution. You are now in their employ and receive your orders from them. However, I will speak with Jane about what can possibly and reasonably be done. But for now, your troops await your orders, Commander.”

With a swelled chest Temeraire turned to the rest of the encampment and let out a small roar to catch the attention of the dragons. “We may not have won this battle, but that doesn’t mean that we should give up the fight! The French are still on our territory, eating our cows and stealing our treasure! We must continue!” At that he paused for a bit and lowering his voice, he continued with his orders.

“Perscitia, You will be responsible for the coordination of our supply. From now on Lloyd will report to you. You will also be responsible for the supply of further companies that will be merged into our force.

Armatius, You will carry Gentius into battle, flanked by two Reapers, who will rotate between that station and an independent fighting force. After one pass with Gentius, you will return behind the lines and continue on without him. Outside of combat you will be stationed as a guard with your current Reapers at our camp. You must warn us of any and all coming ambushes.

Requiescat, Majestatis and Ballista, you will perform the first pass and then come up to fight off any heavy weights. You will also perform patrols to warn us of any approaching dragons.

The others will form into bands of four dragons and wreak havoc among the enemy lines.

The Winchesters and Greylings will scout out the area for more french encampments and dragons. During combat you will accompany Armatius on his first pass, roughing the French up for the rest of us, then you will retreat. Additionally you will fly to further breeding grounds to recruit more dragons.”

All in all Temeraire was satisfied with his orders. All was cared for except for one thing. He called out to Minnow “Can you bring a letter to Lily’s Formation? She is a young Longwing who leads a formation of a Regal Copper, two Reapers, a Grey Copper and Pascal’s Blue. Last I knew they were stationed at Dover, but that has likely changed now. I’d like her to join us. Oh, and would it bother you very much to continue running these sort of errands for me?”

Minnow, estimating how much more food it would get her, slowly nodded her head in agreement. “Well, then that’s settled” Temeraire’s voice sounded relieved and in a pondering tone he continued “I would very much like to have my old crew back. I wonder if Laurence can write me a list.”

Chapter Text

During times of war everything is scarce. Even the cattle that had been designated for the dragons of the breeding grounds. With that being the case, Leonard had to get up earlier and earlier every day to ensure compliance at the breeding grounds. But, as always, they had complained that the food had arrived later than they’d have liked. At the start of the invasion he had tried to excuse and explain himself, but, as dragons aren’t very understanding concerning food or gold, it was ultimately futile and he had given up.

In the afternoon a Winchester came to the grounds. In itself that wasn’t very unusual. Ferals sometimes came and went and he had assumed that this was the case with this one as well. Contrary to his expectations however, the dragon didn’t go to get food or to talk or mate with any of the other dragons at the grounds. No, the Winchester wanted to talk to him.
This he wasn’t used to. Unless it was due to an oversight or other fault of his, he was usually the one to initiate the conversations.
But this “Moncey” fellow, he wasn’t quite sure what he said because he talked so fast and excited, seemed to not be here to stay, but apparently to “recruit them for the war effort”, whatever that meant.

Still a bit confused he asked “Mind slowin’ down a bit? I hardly understand a thing you’re saying.” The dragon looked annoyed, but he complied.
“I was sent by the commander to bring more ferals from the breeding grounds into the militia. You are to follow them with the cattle to ensure our supply.”
The confusion on Leonard’s face shifted to worry “You’re mad! How am I supposed to manage that? And, back up a bit. You want the ferals to go into combat? How do you expect that to work? They haven’t got crews or control, ignoring the lack of investment for the war. After all, they’ve got everything they need right here.”

The Beast now looked down on him, as if talking to a stubborn child, and with an appropriate voice said “Well, you bring the food to them anyways, so what difference does it make where they get it. And as for the dragons, let me worry about them. They will come. Now will you do it, or not?”

"Oh no, I won’t! Do you have any Idea what chaos that would cause? You can be sure that every one of those dragons will be recaptured and executed alongside me for permitting this to happen.”
“Quite the contrary,” Moncey said, to Leonard’s growing horror, “You’ll be a war hero for having brought essential help to the commander when it was most needed. Oh, and I am afraid it isn’t really a choice. The dragons will go and either you bring them their supply, or they will pillage it from the countryside and you will have abandoned your duty.”

“Bloody- Oh, what am I even doing? It doesn’t matter what I’ll do, I’ll be hanged anyway.” The Winchester, taking the last part as an acceptance of the circumstances and an agreement to care for the supply, flew deeper into the grounds, presumably to rally the dragons for this “Militia”.

Leonard, now being left alone again, went back to his hut, sat down in front of the small table and poured himself a glass of brandy. More to himself than to anyone he said: “Well. This can only end badly. But I don’t really have a choice, now do I?” Then, he took a sip out of his glass, picked up a pen and started writing a letter to his wife explaining where he was going and what had happened.

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This wasn’t what he usually did, but he did it anyway because it was sure to get him a nice cow and maybe even some treasure. He was used to flying about between different breeding grounds and even coverts to gather information and sneak in a meal at times. But to do it to recruit more dragons was wholly new to him.

Flying over the hills he spotted the odd dragon here and there, but he did not land to speak with them. What he was looking for was a central waterhole or something like it. Most breeding grounds had them and he was betting that this one had too.

Flying a bit further, he found what he was looking for. And he seemed to be lucky, for it was feeding time just now. After having landed he managed to secure himself a nice sheep and started eating it, all the while observing his company.

A thought he previously had while flying over the grounds now resurfaced. There were no heavy weights here. And even middleweights were only present in a smaller quantity than the light- and courierweight dragons. But that might not be such a big problem, as Temeraire seemed to prefer lighter dragons anyways. And they were easier to supply.

His meal being finished, he started to talk to a peculiar greenish-grey dragon, telling him about the invasion and the war. The feral at first seemed relatively uninterested, after all he was cared for and well fed here. But the oddly plated dragon seemed to be more invested in the idea, once he heard there would be many battles to be had.

Over the course of the conversation more dragons had slowly accumulated around the pair, listening intently to their conversation. “You say we would get a lot of treasure? And all we have to do for it is beat some other dragons?” His face visibly shifted at the notion, revealing a pair of long teeth with spurs at their back.

“Yes, the more you fight and the more French you take out, the more treasure you will get.” At this the dragons hummed in agreement. It seemed that while the grounds were comfortable, they seemed to lack proper enrichment, at least as Caedus, their apparent leader, was concerned.

Moncey again wondered at his strange appearance, he didn’t belong to any breed he knew. While he showed similarities to a Longwing - he shared their overproportional wings and bone spurs next to his jaws - the rest of him didn’t really fit. His coloration was more steelish, adopting a green hue as it moved closer to his wings and he was much too small to belong to that breed. Maybe he was a new experimental cross. But then from what kind has he received the bone plates that ran from the base of his wings all the way to his bone spurs? Whatever the answer, his aggressiveness and probable derivation from such an effective breed was sure to fill their ranks out neatly.

Annoyed, Ceadus asked “Will you tell us more about this treasure you talked about? Where does it come from?” It seemed like Moncey had overheard a similar question while lost in thought, but he then answered quickly, as that was his favorite topic as well.

“Of course! During one battle we found a load of gold which we kept at a safe location to be used after the war to build shelter for us! And we found an eagle standard. The commander claims they are worth a lot of pounds, which are like gold! And we found a cannon too. It doesn’t look pretty but humans seem very possessive of them.”

With that, he had caught the attention of all of them. He was quite satisfied with himself and wondered how much extra treasure and food he would get from the commander for bringing him such an extensive force.

He had trouble keeping them from going that instant, as the supply hadn’t quite been secured yet. He had planned to use the many dragons as a further argument to the caretaker and that still needed to be done.

“We cannot simply charge into battle! We need to ensure supply and discuss tactics first.” Moncey said, hoping he’d make a point with them, but Caedus seemed of a different opinion “Why not? That is where the treasure is after all. And all that other stuff seems boring.”

“Well, if you help me convince that Leonard fellow to bring you your food while following us, you can get to the fighting faster and won’t have to go hungry.” Grudgingly they came with him to convince Leonard to bring them their cows. Under the pressure of a dozen dragons, not even the most stone-faced man could have held against their demands.

Having lost his only argument that was keeping them here, Caedus, flanked by two Anglewings that never strayed from his side, flew off, forcing Moncey to pursue them and remind them that only he knew the way to the camp.

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Moncey used the flight to familiarize himself with their new allies, bringing into knowledge how many dragons were following Caedus as well as the names of a few of them. In total there were Caedus and his “Honour Guard”, which he had earned himself through the infighting that resulted in the submission of the grounds to his leadership as well as three further Anglewings, two Widowmakers, five Reapers and a cross between a Reaper and a Pêcheur-Rayé.

Ceadus himself was apparently breeding stock for the Longwings to keep their bloodlines fresh. His parents were an Ironwing and a Sharpspitter, two ancestor breeds of the Longwings, enabling him to spit light acid and inject paralyzing venom with his bite. His Honour Guard consisted of Iridia, who had a large scar over her chest and Cerastus. They both didn’t talk much but seemed eager to go into battle once more.

A few times they stopped and waited for the breeding ground crew to catch up with them, but as the sun was setting, they drew into sight of the camp. Moncey told the dragons to wait for him here, while he would go and allow them passage so as to not raise a false alarm.

Recognizing the Winchester, Armatius immediately inquired about his purpose and the passphrase. It was a mere formality but he did so anyway. Annoyed at this Moncey gave the phrase and states that he had come with new recruits and wishes to talk to the commander. To that, Armatius answered him: “In that case you’ll have to wait a bit. The commander is still talking to that long red dragon that came here earlier today.”, pointing at a spiky, steam spewing dragon on Temeraire’s clearing.