Raven Herr asks:  Is the implication that the the manner in which England (and other countrie) treated their newly hatched dragons the reason they went "feral?" If this is the case (and a dragon is born with the ability to speak as well as more than reasonable thinking skills (even if it is learning)- what exactly IS a feral dragon?

Western society in the books defines a feral dragon as any dragon out of harness that does not have a human handler, and any such dragon is viewed as inherently dangerous and uncontrolled, an object of fear to be kept penned up for human safety. But the accuracy of this view is of course highly suspect, and it does not address the distinctions among feral dragons. This is a central issue in the books, which I will be exploring further.

More specifically, the hatching of dragons in China is managed by other dragons rather than by people -- which of course means that there is no particular need to restrain a newly hatched dragon, as humans attempt to do in the Western practice of harnessing, which fights against the hatchling's natural instinct to go flying off in search of the vast quantities of food that a baby dragon requires.

As a note, more questions and comments are welcome and can be posted either to the original chat thread or to any of my replies.