Banana

It’s always odd to find carnivorous dragons, who make the pledge to a kill-free life. Especially hunters as fearsome as wildclaws. Nevertheless, Banana made the jump to this new lifestyle. The first few months were fine, as he was able to forage high-protein fruits and nuts, but as time went by, Banana started to notice real nutritional deficiencies in himself. No matter what combinations of grains, nuts, and pulses he ingested, he felt his muscle mass wearing down. His colouration faded. His claws became brittle… There had to be another way.

Banana had a great love for all things that breathed, and couldn’t bring himself to go back to his normal carnivorous lifestyle. But being an obligate carnivore, he had to find another solution. This was how he got into plant biology. A smart, curious dragon, Banana had a great capacity for self-study. So he gathered materials, and got to work on an unheard-of project: a fruit that would fulfil the dietary needs of carnivorous dragons. It was a tough journey, as Banana got weaker with every day that passed, but his drive to preserve life was powerful and kept him going. He continued gathering knowledge, and testing different methods of genetically modifying plants in order to modify their nutritional balance.

Originally Banana worked out of his lair. He’d wake up in the morning, check up on his current saplings, and then start playing around with new samples. This space was totally inadequate for such work, so Banana found a little hut on a field that another dragon was renting out for cheap, so he took over the lease. He started renovations to make the space appropriate for experiments - replaced the floors with easily-disinfectable tiles, constructed storage space, set up a greenhouse out back, engineered an irrigation system… Banana spent the better part of a year on this project. Next, he had to move his already-existing experiments over to the laboratory. A lot of his plants failed to thrive, so Banana was forced to re-do a lot of his work. Viewed through the lens of experience, this allowed him to make very efficient modifications to his initial experimental designs, but the time investment remained hefty. Finally, Banana broke even on his time investment and picked his momentum back up.

The experiments became more questionable over time. Banana started seeing very promising results from using stem cells from dragons and familiars, so he slowly started traveling that road. Not many agreed with him, so he became more isolated. Being a social and friendly dragon, Banana felt lonely, but his goals remained the same. The plant biologist’s experiments continued. One morning, Banana woke up to a massive ruckus in his laboratory. As he walked in, the first thing he saw that his most promising experiment, a gigantic plum tree, had been torn wide open. The branches had crashed sideways into all his test tubes and scientific equipment. This tree had taken Banana over a month to cultivate, but he didn’t have time to fly into a rage, as the next thing he noticed left him mute. Sitting among the split fibers of the plum tree was a small purple ridgeback. Upon trying to lift up the hatchling, Banana noticed that the little dragon had… roots? Roots! Holding her down to the plum tree!

Banana just had to sit down and process what had just happened. He stared at the little ridgeback in awe, as it sat there staring back. He didn’t dare sever the roots that connected her to the remains of the plum tree, in case he hurt her, but he couldn’t just leave her there all alone either. So being the crafty wildclaw that he was, Banana put together a system of pulleys and platforms to transport the tree and the hatchling from his laboratory, to the living area of his lair. This took some time, since he didn’t dare ask anybody for help… How could he? Everyone thought he was completely crazy already! But having his lair much nearer to the other dragons than his laboratory, his wildest experiment was exposed. Keeping other dragons out of his territory was rough, as he had always been friendly and welcoming. Banana lost even more friends than he already had, and felt lonelier than ever. Thank god for the company of the little ridgeback, who grew steadily.

It was strange - although theoretically Banana had ‘birthed’ the wildclaw, they came to have more of a roommate-type relationship. They bickered, they shared stories, they discussed theories… The friendship grew strong over time, as they only really had each other. Banana started to call the little (or not so little anymore, actually) ridgeback Plum, after the tree he had sprung out from. Months went by, but Plum remained rooted to the tree, which slowly recovered and started growing around the space that Plum occupied. Banana wanted to ask plum about her roots and if she could detach from the tree, but it felt… awkward. He didn’t know how to approach it, or if that question was too intimate. The question answered itself eventually.

Upon returning back to his lair one time from a long day of experimenting, Banana found Plum out in the garden, watering some of the experiments that he had decided to keep nearby. There was no sign of roots to be seen. Banana felt too awkward about the whole situation to even acknowledge, so he said hey to Plum, and went inside to make dinner. The plum tree was gone from the main living space. The situation with the tree was never discussed again, and Plum and Banana continued living together as roommates. These two dragons were a great match. They became the best of friends. To this day, Plum has a weird-streak about helping Banana out in his laboratory, and Banana’s fruitless search for something to supplement his vegetarian diet continues.