falconempress

Let’s face it – aerial battles are awesome, regardless whether they involve planes, helicopters, jetpacks or living, breathing creatures. If done well, they can elevate pretty much everything. Including that godawful Eragon movie. Say what you will about it – and you would be right to do so – but you have to admit that the flying scenes were pretty damn neat. The movie Stealth, if we look away from the brain – dead dialogue, plot or just outright impossibilities was absolutely amazing when it came to the fights. TRON: The Totally Not a Remake Guys, ahem, Legacy had that amazing lightjet chase, the singular truly fresh piece of action it had going for it. And I am not even going to mention How To Train Your Dragon – that movie deserves a whole separate article.

To me personally, however, the alteration of the aerial battle concept I always felt closest to was the one involving a creature. And I am not the only one – many authors have taken the concept on, some with success and some were not so fortunate or skilled. So inspired by a piece written by the ever so amazing Clibanarius, who had taken on the tactical and logistical aspects of this particular concept, I had decided to go further down to the basics – the creatures themselves. Because apparently, most writers think that wings is all that they need and they are good to go. This is not completely true.

Before I get to the article itself, I will just say that I will stick to the nomenclature used by Clibanarius, so all them winged critters are going to be collectively referred to as “Dragon”, which will cover anything from the lizard through gryphons, giant riding birds, pegassi, wyverns and what have you.

Wings are Not All You Need For Flight

It is also their shape and size that is absolutely vital. Many writers I have come across have huge problems with this aspect of the flight, particularly in the respect of just what can the Dragon do while airborne. Most stick with “everything I can possibly think of” skillset, neglect to do proper research, or any research at all, and the result is a jumbled mess. The Dragon soars, sprints, hovers, plummets at great speeds, twists and turns. Many of these things, however, don’t go together – at all, in fact. The infamous Paolini (if you want to play a drinking game, take shot every time his name is mentioned and see how long you last) is a good example, I think, since Saphira displays the ability to do all of those things, yet it is never specified (at least there is nothing I would remember) whether her wings are sleek and pointed, long, broad or round.

Take hovering, for example. This is my biggest personal peeve and whenever I see a hovering dragon, it always makes me groan audibly, since in most cases the author completely ignores everything such activity entails. Often the Dragon hovers for minutes on end, observing battlefields or doing similar tasks. Hovering is a very strenuous activity, it takes a great toll on the body of the Dragon. Level flight or soaring is one thing – the power of the motion that propels the Dragon forward provides opportunity for gliding and a brief rest. In level flight, once certain speed is achieved the Dragon can afford to make more shallow wingstrokes that don’t need to be as strong as when it first takes off, since the point is no longer to get to the air and gain speed, merely to sustain momentum. Hovering, however, is constant and continuous intense exertion.

But there is way around that, though. This is a Common Kestrel:

Even though the Kestrel is a small and non-impressive bird, it can do what no other species of birds of prey can. The signature hover is achieved when the bird flies against the wind at the same speed as the wind. In order to be able to achieve that, the kestrel has some unique features. Take another look at that picture. The wings are a bit shorter and rounder than is usual for a falconid, and the tail way, way too long, giving the Kestrel’s silhouette a look similar to that of a Sparrowhawk, which is known for navigating through forested areas filled with obstacles and short sprints. In the case of the Kestrel, however, the long tail acts as a sail catching the wind and the shorter wings do not allow it to grab the hold on the bird completely and move it from its spot. Kestrels, however, are not very fast due to these very same features.

Of course, there are other means through which hovering can be achieved – hummingbirds hover and so do many species of flying insects. But the Dragon I considered for the purposes of this article was one large enough to be able to carry a grown man and for something that size, the type of hovering that hummingbirds are capable of doing would be physically impossible. The Kestrel, then, seemed like the perfect option for me, since, as far as I know, it is the largest bird capable of this sort of sustained hover, and therefore seemed more plausible a method for the Dragon.

Speed and agility are another problem often encountered in the character of the Dragon. For example, the fast flight of the Peregrine Falcon, the fastest animal on earth, is possible due to long, pointed and powerful wings and very short tail, which gives the bird the perfect aerodynamic shape. On the other hand, the Peregrine is not very agile and will refuse to hunt in areas that have obstacles in the way, such as woods, due to its inability to abruptly alter the course of its flight. The Accipiters, such as the Goshawk or the Sparrowhawk with very short, round wings and long tails are masters at that. The large tail is a rudder and quick shifts in shape or position allow the Accipiters to change the direction within a split second. This wingshape is also ideal for short – distance sprints, but not at all suited for soaring, since the smaller size of the wing makes it more difficult for the bird to hold on to the currents properly. A soaring Goshawk is a very rare sight. For that sort of thing, broad – winged birds are best. It makes the bird more stable in the air, the weight is spread over a larger surface of support. The short tail is perfect for adjusting the slower, searching flight, since no abrupt shifts in direction are usually needed in the open skies.

Sometimes it is not even the shape or form of the wings themselves, rather than the feathers. Wingbeats can be pretty loud, with a falcon that has stiff, hard feathers due to aerodynamics reasons, you first hear the whizzing of the air on the feathers before you even see the bird. And the larger the bird, the louder the wingstroke. The Dragon in particular would be ill – suited for stealthy tasks, such as intelligence gathering, when every time it beats its wings, the giant wingspan makes it sound like a loud thud. Certain alterations have to be made. Owls have very soft feathers with ragged edges, which does a great deal for reducing the noise. It makes them look fluffy, but it also makes them perfectly silent. The threads that make up the feathers are covered in very fine hairs, so the surface of the feather feels like velvet. You can only see a flying owl. But there is no way you would be able to hear it.

Another element that may come into play and therefore alter the appearance and abilities of the Dragon, is water. The preening gland, located at the base of the tail of various kinds of waterfowl like ducks, geese, swans etc. produces a certain type of greasy matter, which they spread over their feathers while preening, making them waterproof and allows them to take flight immediately after diving or swimming. Other birds that are not so closely bound to water have the gland as well, however, this protective coating is not as efficient, since they don’t really need it to be due to not coming in contact with water all that much. Water is a tricky thing – when the feathers get soaked, the bird becomes too heavy to fly and soaked feathers lose some of their quality and texture needed for sustained flight. Wet birds are awkward and uncoordinated in the air, if they are able to take flight at all in this condition, and have to wait for their feathers to dry before attempting a take – off. Activities like bathing, though, are very vital. A clean and healthy feather is a happy feather, less prone to damage. This aspect too is often overlooked when the writer constructs the Dragon and it makes for some horrendous writing – e.g. when in Eragon Saphira takes flight immediately after having dived into a lake. True, she is a dragon, she has scales, which do not soak up, but the water clinging to the surface still adds extra weight and should make it more difficult for her to move around.

The bottomline is – the shape of the wings, the tail and the type, state and texture of feathers determine the abilities of the flier and, since in this instance we are talking about the battle applications for the Dragon, the role they serve in the army as well. Are they reconaissance? Take something with broad wings and a short tail. Does the task need to be carried out discreetly? Give the Dragon owl wings. Something that looks roughly like a goshawk would be best for ambush attacks and if a message needs to be urgently delivered, long, pointed wings are the way to go.

Aerial battles, while being about the most exciting thing one can imagine, sadly often get boring. The Dragons circle each other, they bite and claw and that is the extent of it. But for example, how would a Soarer deal with an Ambusher as a foe? What if something that can stoop did just that in order to deliver a blow that would stun the opponent, or even kill them? How would that affect designing battle strategies? What units could be created? Wouldn’t that be interesting?

Some Strategic Applications – Personality, Space and Temperament Issues

Aerial predators are a very unsociable bunch. Any other bird of prey that appears in the vicinity is a potential threat. So much so that the sexual dimorphism of these predators is based around the very fact. In birds of prey, the female is typically one third larger than the male, although the size ratio varies with individual species, with the most extreme being the Peregrine Falcon and the Sparrowhawk, wherein the female is roughly twice the size of the male. The primary reason for this is that when a larger predator enters the vicinity of the nest, the small, helpless chicks are too easy a meal to pass on and the female needs every last ounce to her size and strength to be able to defend her young while the male is off hunting for the whole family.

My point is – predators are aggressive towards each other, since they perceive the other as a threat and that aggression is so deeply rooted it not only affects their personality, but also physical appearance. Many authors skip this inherent animosity by waving it away with the excuse of giving the Dragon intelligence, completely overlooking the interesting implications that could have for the layout of the army camp – for example, if there are three Dragons present, how would the General deal with them? How would he curb their distaste for each other? What if one of the three is a member of a species that in the wild routinely raids the nests of the other two? How would their inter-character dynamic work out?

However, not even birds of prey are strangers to social behavior. The Harris Hawks, which can be found in the wild in both Americas, are the only social birds of prey in the world. They live in large families or clans, in which all adult members participate in group hunts – they devise strategies, are incredibly intelligent, and learn and devise new techniques as they go along. Younger birds from clutches from previous years, that are still too young to have eggs of their own, stay close to parents and when another nesting season comes, take turns to help raise their younger siblings. In falconry applications, the Harris Hawks are also known to have accepted members of other species into their “clique”, such as Goshawks, which anatomically and skill – wise (though not intelligence – wise) are their closest European counterparts.

Consider the importance and utility this would have in a combat situation – you can have the social Dragons perform elaborate attacks, with each member of the team being assigned a specific role. You can have them fly in formation, even ones that include members of other types of Dragons. In fantasy literature, this was masterfully pulled off by Naomi Novik in her Temeraire series, and I think, is much more interesting than the clichéd, er, time – honored “Dragon dive, breathe fire” approach, which is about all that the Dragon ever does in traditional fantasy.

I Kill You. Let Me Count The Ways

Now it was already mentioned how the anatomy of the Dragon influences its hunting and killing abilities and I briefly talked about different approaches to killing and combat in the air. Flight precision, however, is not the only thing that should be taken into account when designing the Dragon.

When it comes to melee fight, the Dragon can traditionally bite or claw its opponent to death. How would it go by it, though?

In birds of prey, two basic approaches can be observed – the Falcon, traditionally, uses the stoop to stun possible prey and finishes it off once it is on the ground, unless the initial impact kills it. But sometimes the Falcon finds itself in a tail – chase, where the surprise attack would not work as well. In that case, relying on its speed, it attempts to chase the prey down, grab it and get it to the ground. This is why the Falcon, and other bird – hunters, such as the Sparrowhawk, has long, thin fingers with sharp, sleek talons, which are perfect for wrapping around the body of the victim, getting a good grip on it, as you can see in this clip:

But same as with flight you cannot have great speed and agility both, you also cannot have a great hold with great gripping power. The Falcon’s feet are not particularly powerful; true, it still hurts when one decides to claw you; but compared to some others, as will be mentioned later, its grip is pretty weak. What the Falcon relies on for killing, is its beak. Very short and heavy, it also sports a tomial tooth on the upper jaw, which gives the beak a fanged and savage appearance, but it also serves another purpose – with its special beak, once the prey is immobilized, the Falcon bites its neck, snapping it in an instant and killing the prey immediately.

The Hawk has devised a different strategy. While its beak is generally sleek and not very strong, the Hawk has another thing going for it – its feet. Incredibly powerful, with large, heavy claws, they can deliver gripping power that can crush bones (the Eagle in particular is very skilled in that respect and in a very literal way). The Hawk hunts using intuitive knowledge of its prey anatomy and behavior – it either goes for the head, immobilizing it, or after the spine, along which most of the vital organs are located. By grabbing onto it, there is a chance the long claws will puncture some of them, causing fatal damage. The killing itself, however, is not as clean an affair as in the case of the Falcon. The Hawk grabs and simply waits until the prey bleeds out or expires due to organ failure. This is another reason why powerful grip is required – the prey will not sell its life cheaply and before it dies, it thrashes around, trying to shake the Hawk off and run away, which is what often happens.

How would that come to play when we talk about the Dragon? Like with the wings, the killing approach will show on the Dragon’s appearance. Will it have a heavy jaw and head, or are the feet and the claws its most prominent feature? How will the killing strategy play into combat and mission deploy? Is a fast, quiet kill needed, or does it not matter in the heat of battle? The Dragon’s claws and teeth are just as important a tool as its fire – if the Dragon has it – and playing around with these could make for some interesting combat.

I have to cut the article here due to size, since I possess no restraint or ability to express myself without going on long – winded rants. The second and final part will deal with things like limitations of the Dragon’s skills and physique – that come from both inside and outside the Dragon, boot camps and human partners.

Thank you for reading

Comment [24]

Before I start with this part, let me just add something – this video I did not become aware of until after the first part of the article was posted and therefore was unable to use it as one of the visual aides. I still think it is interesting enough to provide an idea of just how maneuverable short – winged hawks can get, which in turn could be beneficial to designing the Dragon. So without further ado:

Now for the rest of the article:

Limitations

Apart from the physical limitations, there are influences outside of the Dragon that could come in to play and change the nature of the way it fights in the air, if it fights at all.

Apart from some generic diseases, very little research is done by most authors on the particular type of physical ailments that would threaten the life of the Dragon. As a flying creature, the Dragon’s heart and respiratory system come a close second in the importance and possibility of being able to fly. The most threatening diseases, then, are the ones that affect these organs. There is a wide variety of sicknesses – viral, bacterial, and, the most feared, fungal diseases, such as Aspergillomycosis, or Asper for short. Wheezing breath, lessened endurance and quick fatigue are a very bad sign. Asper is nearly impossible to cure and it carries the added risk of making the lungs so vulnerable more often than not the bird also develops secondary infection, like Pneumonia, which, needless to say, is the end of line.

In combat applications, logistical aspects, as much as biological, need to be considered. The army, which the Dragon is a part of, would have to employ specialized medical officers providing routine health checks. Due to the Dragon’s size a large quantity of medication would need to be carried around, to counter as many diseases as possible. If the Dragon is scaled, and therefore armored, would the medical team have developed a special kind of syringe in order to get the medication in through its thick armored skin?

Weather, too, is where the things get tricky. Things like humidity and temperature can not only alter he combat situation of ground – based troops, but would also dictate the Dragon’s involvement in battle. Water, as was previously said, is a big problem. Birds, for one, do not fly in the rain unless they absolutely have to. Wind speed can affect maneuverability and the speed of flight, and increased heat, as well as increased cold, put additional strain onto the Dragon’s body. In birds, exertion in extreme temperatures, especially when they are not used to them, can lead to fatal heat strokes, heart failure or freeze their vulnerable lungs.

One must also consider the origin of the Dragon in regards to the upcoming campaign – what if the campaign is taking place in an arid desert environment and the Dragon’s home is the snowy wasteland somewhere far north or vice versa? In a setting that the Dragon’s body is unfamiliar with and unsuited for, health issues are certain to follow. For example, the Gyrfalcon is an Arctic specie of a falcon. In a place where temperatures throughout the year barely climb above freezing, various types of bacteria, viruses and fungi are not as prevalent, since it is too cold for them to survive. When brought into moderate temperatures, unless kept in special conditions, the Gyrfalcon’s system is very vulnerable, giving in to the most mundane pathogens that local species don’t even catch, since they are naturally immune to them, having been adapted to temperate weather and environment. If you switch the situation around a little, desert – bound birds, such as the Harris, again, unless provided with proper housing, can suffer significant frost damage, even lose the vitally important digits sporting claws, since they are unused to deal with below – freezing temperatures for an extended period of time.

This aspect as well is often overlooked by many fantasy writers who not only don’t bother to do their research, but also fail to apply common sense, the most glaringly unthought – through example being the immensely moronic Battle of the Burning Plains in which Saphira, a dragon that was born and raised in temperate conditions and lived in such, or slightly colder (the dwarves’ stronghold with that ridiculous name which I have no idea how to pronounce) for her whole life up to that point, shows up in a desert, one filled with noxious gas to boot, and is all happy and dandy, no sings of respiratory issues, no signs of early fatigue brought on by heat, nothing.

In terms of starting a military campaign, this would have impact on the preliminary stages and planning – consider the weather in the environment you are going to march in, then pick the suitable specie of Dragon to help you achieve your goals.

Education

It is often assumed that the ability to fly is an inherent trait. This is untrue to an extent. Flight is as much a learned ability that the birds perfect over the course of their lives, as it is instinctual. Flying creatures are born with it the same way a human is born with the ability to walk and run – it is there and come the right time, the right neurons start firing up, make you stand upright and move those dangly things at the bottom of your body to create motion, but it takes years of training and exercising to be able to run a marathon. It is the same way with animals that fly, birds especially – their instinct tells them to flap wings to not fall and die a pile of horrible broken and mangled mess, but becoming a successful flier requires finesse and skill that can only be learned. And the same way you can distingueish people also by the way they walk or hold themselves, the same way unique, personal approaches to flight individualize each bird. There is much more to it than spreading the wings and waving them frantically around, which is ignored in Dragon – centered stories so much it’s not even funny.

When you walk around the woods or a park in late spring/early summer, which is when many young birds are taking flight for the first time, you can sometimes see them, sitting on the edge of the nest or the branches around it, flapping their wings, but holding on to the solid object they are sitting on. That is because they are not trying to fly just yet, merely working out to get their young, still undeveloped muscles to strengthen enough for them to not be completely exhausted by the time they are mid-way through their second wingstroke. For young birds, even short flight is a tiring experience. Also, they have not quite figured how the tail works yet, so the whole affair is very short, awkward, noisy, and ends with a very undignified crash – landing. Young birds get scared when they accidentally pick up too much speed, when they soar too high in the sky for the first time, and usually only stop when hitting a branch they desperately grab a hold of, in the former scenario, or after a very, veeeery slow and careful descent marked by terrified screaming every time the wind moves a single feather out of place in the latter.

This is where the parents come in. By accompanying the youths on their early flights, they show them how to handle themselves in the air, what the tail is for, which places are good for landing and which are not, they show them what dangers to avoid and what spots are safe. If you take another look at that Peregrine video I linked in Part One, in its second half, you can see the adults dropping food to the young, which teaches them maneuverability and agility, but also provides them with hunting essentials and teaches them to not be afraid of heights and soaring. The adults help their young overcome their fear of heights by carrying the food high in the air and only when the chicks garner enough courage to join them, are rewarded with some tasty pigeon.

The lower age and lower skillset of the juvenile birds can also be seen on their anatomy – with some species, like the Red – Tailed Hawk, the tail of the juvenile birds is much longer than that of adults. Longer and larger tale means the bird is more stable in the currents and less finesse is required in order to do certain maneuvers. When they change their plumage for the first time, however, off go the training wheels that helped the young birds learn their flying essentials and the longer tail is replaced with a shorter one, which allows for more advanced, albeit more challenging, flying. Age – based dimorphism that manifests itself in a different coloration of the feathers in some species is also designed to get the youngsters through their first year – it is very inconspicuous, “designed” for the bird to blend in with the environment better and avoid detection by other predators. Also, when they wander into another bird’s territory, the juvenile coloring tells the experienced bird that what they are dealing with is a young, inexperienced passage (age class), so they should cut it some slack. It only depends on the discretion of the home bird whether they do that or not.

Lack of experience also show on the physique of the juvenile birds – they are very lean, bony and kind of awkward. Only with age they build up muscle mass, get wider in the shoulder and heavier in the chest.

With age and experience birds of prey also learn some new tricks and they devise their own unique hunting strategies and approaches to hunting. Just as an example, I once saw a Harris Hawk in a tailchase with a pigeon – pigeons have this nasty habit of swerving abruptly when they know the final blow is coming and the Harris knew that from her previous experiences with the birds. So when the pigeon was right in her reach, she suddenly dropped about a half a meter in the air, with wings closed, spun around her axis and with her claws reached up, snatching the pigeon that never saw this coming from below. There is a slight problem to these individual techniques and strategies, though – once the bird becomes comfortable with their style, so to speak, it is impossible to get it to un-learn that and teach it something else, which would be more convenient in a different type of environment and favorable, as well as practical for you as the hunting partner. But these unique types of attacks can also be beneficial – if possible, maybe you could have other Dragons learn from their peer, to achieve greater battle efficiency.

So, if you were a General with age – diverse group of Dragons, ranging from grizzled veterans to untested youths, how would you handle the situation? What tasks would you assign them? Would a younger Dragon coming up with a new maneuver affect your training program and the repertoire of attacks and ambushes you have for your aerial unit? What would a Dragon boot camp look like?

In many stories featuring a Dragon, the creature in question is raised by a human who will later become its partner. In that case, it falls to the human to replace the parent in educating the Dragon in the essentials it is going to need if it is to become a proper adult. How is the partner going to go about this task? How would neglected or badly executed training affect the young Dragon? How would the General deal with a Dragon well set in its ways, refusing to adjust to the regulations? Would he find a way in which this unique approach would work best or would the Dragon be assigned a different task in which its stubbornness would not create any problems? The possibilities are endless. And speaking of humans:

The Human Partner

Last but not least is the human partner of the Dragon. I find it baffling that in many works of fantasy fiction the human partner gets so little space, not as a character, but as a partner. Allow me to explain:

If you are, for example, a poor farm boy number 7615 who, up to that point, had no education whatsoever in the matters of raising, training and caring for a Dragon, and you happen to stumble upon one that conveniently hatches, stuffing its face with rats or any other kind of meat you find lying around until the Hatchling burst may not be the best idea and, in fact, can kill your Dragon before you say “Destiny”. I am not going to go into detail of just how stupid every single facet of Eragon raising little Saphira is, in part because it is the only bearable (and kind of cute) part of the books, but mostly because if I did, this would be a very, very long article and it is extensive enough as it is.

The bottomline is – caring for a giant, flying Dragon, especially if it is a mere baby, is a very difficult task that would not only take up most of the human partner’s free time and thoughts, but it also requires education. For example – how does Eragon know that the meat he feeds to Saphira is not going to make her sick? What if she was a fish – eater? The havoc it would wreak on her just firing – up digestion. Should he take the bones out or not? Are there some additives crucial for her proper development that he does not know about, such as certain minerals and metals that he should be adding to her food, which the birth parents know by instinct to seek out?

A human partner should be, along with general care and “maintenance”, which goes without saying, also trained in fundamental medical care, in case something happens en route and there is no medical officer in sight to take care of the problem. Paolini, whose name has been invoked more times in the course of this article than would be excusable for any writer to be, overlooked this completely with using a simple heal – all magic spell. But in order to be able to heal something with magic, shouldn’t he know at least how the anatomy works, so as to not knit the wrong tissues together? Come to think about it, for a Dragon Rider, Brom taught him very little to nothing about actual Dragon Care. How do you treat a torn wing membrane? How to prevent her claws from overgowing? What if they break? What if they need sharpening and filing? Nah, forget it, the more important thing for him to learn is swordplay, just disregard the dragon who is bound to him with her very essence and needs care, whatever that word means. What if she gets food poisoning? What if she falls ill? Surely then he is going to regret developing staff – fighting skills out of nowhere instead of being able to tell what antidote to use if she eats something that makes her tongue turn green with purple spots.

What about equipment? Is Dragon – riding so prevalent in the particular world and society that saddles, girdles and the like are produced en masse? Are there certain craftsmen who do it? Whichever the option, the partner should be versed in maintaining the equipment themselves – the leather needs regular waxing and oiling to be comfortable for the animal wearing it – and be able to perform quick emergency fixes and alterations on it, depending on the circumstances, and in a time of dire need be able to fashion some makeshift gear by themselves.

Naomi Novik, again, did this well and as far as I am concerned, the woman can do no wrong in this regard. In the Temeraire series, the officers in the aerial fleet are often trained from childhood, being in the crew of one of the dragons – and I am not even touching on what a genius move giving the dragons crews was, else we would be here ’til Christmas – learning by performing tasks, petty at first, increasing with importance as they garner experience. So that years later, if they get a dragon of their own, they would know what they are doing. And as much as I despise The Pit Dragon series by Jane Yolen, I have to admit that even she put more effort into this aspect of Dragon – care, by having the main character raised on a dragon farm, having tended to the creatures most of his life, and therefore making it absolutely plausible and believable that he would know how raise one after he decides to steal a hatchling and rear it himself.

In Conclusion

Fantasy is such an incredible genre – it allows for the impossible things to exist, if only in ink and paper. And pixels, if you are into that sort of thing. Aerial battles on living – breathing creatures, to me, are the embodiment of that in some regards. But in order for the reader to be invested and to create tension, it has to grounded in reality and familiar just enough to be able to give the reader something to latch on to and immerse. Inconsistency and nonsense, on the other hand, tend to have the very opposite effect. The examples I have listed throughout this article, especially the bad ones, are a result of lack of research and nothing else. My own approach comes from my views and opinions, therefore it may seem like I am only considering the issue from a single angle – but that is where you are free to chime in and provide your own, unique vision. The point of this whole excourse, after all, was merely to pinpoint the problems that modern writers incorporating Dragons in their works have and suggest a solution or two, rather than to tell you how things should be done – I don’t think anybody can do that. The rest is where you come in and express your own take on the problem. As long as you remember to do your homework and employ common sense, you should be fine. Better than that, actually:)

Thank you so much for reading!

Comment [15]