Tulip

Carnaval Tulip

Plant

Plant eaters consider bouquets of Carnaval Tulips to be 'edible arrangements'.

50

5

Black Tulip

Plant

The comfort food of heart-broken veggie-dragons.

50

5

Sailor on the Gladiola, especially adept at climbing the riggings.

The brightly colored hatchling heard her mother, MorningGlory, talking with the actor dragon, Aster. Those two seemed to talk a lot. Really a lot. Anyway, they were discussing the problems they were having coming up with names for their hatchlings. They said she was like too many different flowers in one and her sister was like no flower at all. All the dragons were so silly. They called her sister 'drab' when she was such a beautiful hatchling. Who decided grey and black are drab? Besides, they both had the same bright turquoise bellies. Staring at the lovely patterns and shades of grey was always calming and she could stare for hours! OK, minutes, but this young wildclaw didn't sit still even minutes for most things.

Aster was something of an organizer and she arranged a gathering of interested dragons to brainstorm for names for the two youngsters. Most of the clan attended. Iris opened the meeting by stating that although it was traditional, there were no clan rules limiting the names of clan hatchlings to flowers. "That said I think with this group working together we should be able to come up with the right monikers for these two cuties" she said smiling at the pair.

Several flowers were suggested that fit her purple wings or red flanks or turquoise belly, but nothing that seemed to fit her as a whole. Then Lotus, the gardener, cleared her throat, clearly nervous about speaking in the group. The snapper was somewhat shy and didn't care for crowds. She stammered a bit then said "Back in the Gladeviens there are flowers that bloom every spring in a great profusion of colors. They are called tulips! Seeing this brightly colored young one reminds me of them every time." "Tulip! What a lovely name," MorningGlory turned to the bright red face... with bright purple spines... "What do you think?"

Delighted at having been asked the young dragon laughed and yelled "TULIP! I AM TULIP" which had the whole group laughing. Her sister gave her a big hug, giggling all the while.

Then they started talking about her sister. But that is her story.

---

Lotus had been giving many of the clan who were named after flowers, (and there were many), a potted namesake flower, but so far had not come by with such a gift for Tulip. She didn't mean to be selfish about it, but it was kind of special to her since Lotus had been the one to come up with her beautiful name. Plus, she had never even seen a tulip! Lotus said they bloomed in many different colors and that Tulip had reminded her of them. But they grew mostly back in the Gladeveins where Lotus was from and not nearby. Still, Lotus had made that trip a while back with Cineraro and Tulip had hoped...
As Tulip mused about tulips, Lotus rounded the cliff side into the alcove Tulip shared with Veria. Balanced on her back between her wings were two potted plants with flowers different than any she had seen. She began to bounce immediately.
"Careful," said Lotus "Don't knock them off." Lotus laughed and directed Tulip to carefully remove them and started giving her care instructions. "Wait, I can't remember all of that!" wailed Tulip.
Just then, Veria's grey head peered down at them from atop the cliff. "Why don't you just write them down? Oh, right, you don't have any writing materials on hand. As usual. Oh! What pretty flowers!" Veria had just caught sight of the gardener's gift to her sister. "Are they tulips?"
Lotus went through the care instructions again and this time Veria wrote them down for her sister. Along with a detailed description and all of the info she could pry out of Lotus. And a sketch. Two sketches. Lotus and the two sisters then cheerfully argued about the best place to put the potted plants until they agreed on the perfect spot.