Lily

* Baby
* by Laurelhach23

## Biography

Lily hatched five years early. Harcourt barely had time to reach her before she broke the shell, thus she had no time to think of a name and "Lily" was the first thing that popped into her head.

She appears savage because of the bones by her mouth, used for spraying acid, but she is actually a very proper dragon. She likes being clean and she doesn't curl up with other dragons (the way some smaller ones will want to sleep on top of larger ones) because it is "beneath her dignity". Although she, Temeraire and Maximus, the three youngest of their formation, all become friends and visited the lake at the Loch Laggan covert together, Lily preferred to concentrate on washing herself while Temeraire and Maximus play more roughly.

Lily is very accurate with her spray; she can destroy targets from 400 feet above.

### 1805

from *His Majesty's Dragon*

In July 1805, while moving from the Loch Laggan to the Dover covert, Lily and her formation are attacked by French dragons. Lily is very badly injured by a dragon believed to be Triumphalis and only survives by the combined efforts of the rest of the formation, especially Temeraire. They are finally rescued by Excidium's formation.

Jean-Paul Choiseul takes advantage of Lily's convalescence to insinuate himself into familiarity with Harcourt. In October 1805, he attempts to kidnap Lily and Harcourt to take them to France. This attempt is foiled by William Laurence and by Harcourt herself, who knocks Choiseul out by hitting him over the head with an iron bar while he and Laurence are wrestling.

Shortly after the Battle of Trafalgar Choiseul's usefulness as a source of French plans comes to an end and the British no longer had any reason to keep him alive. Lily, Maximus and Temeraire witness Choiseul's execution and its effect on his dragon, Praecursoris. They are quite shaken by this event and agree on a pact: that if any one of their captains commit treason, all three dragons would band together to prevent that captain from being executed. Berkley chides them for being "damned conspirators," but at the time neither he nor Harcourt nor Laurence take the pact seriously.

By November 1805, Lily is restored to full health, she fights well at the Battle of Dover, even at one point hitting a French dragon full in the face with her spray. Effectively this kills the other dragon, since its captain is forced to shoot it before the acid eats into its brain. Lily is one of only two dragons (the other being Obversaria) who are uninjured enough to protect Temeraire while he releases the Divine wind against the enemy, causing the French to retreat and ending their planned invasion of England.

### 1805 - 1806

From *Throne of Jade*

Lily and her formation comes to the aid of the HMS Allegiance during the Valerie engagement. Temeraire's sight of Lily and Maximus playing aerial tag as they returned home is his last sight of his two friends for more than a year.

### 1806

From *Empire of Ivory*

By the time Temeraire returns from China in December 1806, all of the British dragons have contracted the Dragon Plague. Lily and the other Longwings are being kept in quarantine in a sandpit, since they involuntarily spray acid every time they coughed or sneezed.

When Temeraire fails to contract the plague the British realize that there might be a cure. Speculating that it is something that Temeraire has encountered during his stay in Cape Town, Jane Roland sends Lily's formation to Africa aboard the HMS Allegiance to find it. The trip is difficult for Lily, who has to keep her head resting half-buried in a tub of sand to avoid spitting acid on the ship whenever she coughs or sneezes. At one point, her tub of sand fell off the ship and she is forced to stick her head over the side to avoid injuring anyone or damaging the ship.

Laurence spends the evenings on the ship reading to Temeraire from his books, including books on mathematics. The other dragons become interested in this topic, but questions Euclid's postulate concerning parallel lines and begin to develop their own non-Euclidean geometry. Since each dragon wants their own physical copy of the resulting discussions, Laurence recruites the other aviators to help him take notes and copy them out. Harcourt is able to bribe Lily to eat more and keep her strength up by promising her a bound copy of the notes, although Lily is inclined to hold out for a bound copy with golden hinges, like the book Laurence reads from.

The Allegiance arrivs in Cape Town, and experiments by Keynes and Dorset begin. It is discovered that a certain type of African mushroom will cure the plague. Eventually Lily and the other dragons sre dosed and nursed back to health.

After Harcourt, Chenery, Laurence and their crews are captured and taken to Mosi-oa-Tunya during a mushroom gathering expedition, Lily, Dulcia and Temeraire fly in search of them and find them. Temeraire first attempted to rescue the humans by himself but is captured. After Temeraire is captured, Lily and Dulcia rescued both him and the humans. Lily uses her acid to cut hand- and footholds in a sheer cliff so that the humans can climb down from the cave in which they are imprisoned.

### 1807

From *Victory of Eagles*

Lily is not in favor of Harcourt's marriage to Tom Riley in August 1807. Although she has been concerned with "the egg" during Harcourt's pregnancy, she is not much impressed with it after it is born, finding it noisy and foul-smelling and being inclined to blame these faults on "that awful sailor." Though she sits underneath Harcourt's window "jealously" when Harcourt goes to see the baby.

Lily fight during Napoleon’s invasion taking part in skirmish above Folkestone, cutting off French supply lines and serving in the Battle of Shoeburyness. By this time Laurence is convicted of treason for helping Temeraire take samples of the curative mushrooms to France, foiling the plot of the British Admiralty to spread the Dragon Plague to the continent. Maximus and Lily talks up their mutual defense pact among the other dragons at the Dover covert.

### 1810

from *Crucible of Gold*

Lily and her formation arrive in Brazil to help Laurence mop up the fighting with the Tswana Kingdom.

### 1811-1812

from *Blood of Tyrants*

From Brazil Lily and her formation travel on the HMS Potentate to China with Temeraire and Laurence, but are ship wrecked off of Japan.

They eventually make it to China to help deliver the egg but Harcourt decides that with the Chinese legions going to Russia that their addition would not make a difference so decide to take the Potentate, and "to make the best time we can for Portugal.”

### 1813

from *League of Dragons*

Lily and her formation are off fighting and winning the war in Portugal and Spain.

## Crew and Formation

Died:

* Midwingman Wilpoys - Killed by Choiseul in 1805 while trying to abduct Lily and Harcourt
* 1st Lieutenant Hobbes - killed in action in Africa in the summer of 1807
* Waley, surgeon - killed in action in Africa in the summer of 1807
* Kettering, rifleman - killed in action in Africa in the summer of 1807

## References

1. ↑ Novik, Naomi. Blood of Tyrants: A Novel of Temeraire (p. 301). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.