Month 16

Feeding: Every 4-5 days at the beginning of the month, reduced to once a week by the end of the month. Dragons appetites taper off as they are no longer lengthening.

General Care: Bathing and oiling once a week, or as necessary.

This month marks the beginning of the window of the greens� sexual maturity which can span from their seventeenth month to two years of age. First mating cycles may be irregular, although healthy greens eventually will stable out and rise every three months. The males are physically able to chase and mate with the greens, although many bronzes and some browns may not have developed an interest in chasing yet.

In the days before mating flights, greens may have an irregular appetites, mood swings, and unusual color variations. Greens do not blood before they rise like queens do, and their mating flights are rarely longer than twenty or thirty minutes, although they can be much shorter; a green�s first flight will likely be over almost as soon as it begins.

Training: Dragons and their riders try flaming in the air for the first time this month. The first week is spent on solo flights, where riders learn to pass their dragons firestone while in the air. Gold partners will learn to fly while operating a flame thrower and changing fuel canisters. Dragons then take turns flaming synthetic Thread dropped by other riders from a higher altitude. The last three weeks of the month are spent flaming in formation and eventually targeting the synthetic Thread. This is when training gets very dangerous, especially before the �teleportation� trick is mastered, because a wrong turn can mean burning a wingmate.