ORIGIN

The piglet grunted happily when the alligator pulled up alongside him, water sloshing into his nose, and the creature climbed aboard with a happy - if wet - snort. Dragon didn't seem to understand, and Czernobog tapped a hoof against scales lightly, frustrated. No matter what he did, it seemed the baby beast just couldn't communicate like the other, and the two words he knew didn't seem to be cutting it. The boar turned in a circle before lying down in the middle of his singer's back, thinking. There had been a word, before, that the boat had mentioned - stay?

Czernobog tried it out, huffing and grunting, squealing when every time the word seemed to sit in his mind, it fled just as quickly. Finally, with an annoyed flick of black, sogging wet ears, the new word finally made it through its jaws: "Staaaaaay!" The yelp was low and deep, gravelly from the boar's throat, which seemed to struggle just to say the few things he knew how to. "Chuuuuurn. Staaaaaay. Siiiiinger!"

Another squeal, but this one of pride, and the pig turned to peer at Dragon's snout, huffing, tail swaying to and fro, watching the water as it bobbed all around them. Whatever the pig's problem with speech was, it didn't seem entirely unable to learn - it just took a while for things to sink in. A long while.

Dragon, naturally, when told to "staaaaaaaay," did just that; he stopped dead in the water, simply floating there in the black at the edge of the Heart, his body still bobbing in the channel.

"Stay?" he asked, tilting his head to peer back quizzically as best he could. Was Bog asking him to simply remain here, drifting? Where did he want to stay? Did he want to go back...? The little piglet seemed a bit frustrated--or perhaps it was his imagination. But it couldn't be easy, he thought, trying to communicate with such a thin grasp of the language. Had he had such trouble speaking, after his hatching...? Dragon honestly couldn't remember. There was only one way to address it, though: to plow onward, and hope for the best. For breakthroughs.

"Forward?" he asked, nodding ahead and slipping further down the channel. "Or--back?" And as he asked this, the alligator slowly drifted backward, using his legs on the mud beneath.

He went slowly, repeating this once or twice; he wanted to be sure that the boar piglet would, eventually, grasp his meaning.

Eventually.

Another huff, and the piglet flopped onto his side, disgruntled. It seemed that no matter what he tried to say, his singer couldn't quite understand him - it was a bit disheartening for a child, but the boar valiantly continued to try and make any sense whatsoever. "Chuuuuurn," he mumbled, tapping a hoof into the water, snorting when it moved as Dragon did, bobbing in time with the reptile's feet and tail. "Siiiiinger." Then, an idea - Czernobog tapped the alligator's neck with a tiny hoof, gesturing from Dragon to himself, back and forth, again and again, tail wagging.

"Staaaaay!" He didn't seem to understand what 'forward' and 'back' meant - or perhaps it was too embroiled in getting it's point across. "Chuuurn. Stay? Singeeeer!" It was rather hard to do, knowing only three words, but hopefully the added "hand" gestures would help. Either way, the boar had no plans on leaving Dragon for longer than it took to hunt, and even then, it would be hard for him to break away for that long - after all, the boat was, quite literally, the only other sentient being the miniature monster had met.

The piglet flopped, and stood, and tapped him, and grunted words. Dragon listened and started to haul himself up into the reeds, dragging himself to the place where he tended to leave his meals for Aquarian.

Does he want us to stay there...?

The alligator still couldn't quite make out what Czernobog meant, and after brief internal debate, he decided to just cover every possibility.

"If you want to stay here, we can stay here. If you want to move on, we can move on. You may stay with me, or move on. I hunt here. I sleep here. I rest at the cliffs. Others come here. Ghanyarah, my brother. Eve, the bird. A black cat--avoid it, it is..."

What was the word? How could he describe the black leopard who had pounced on him, tried to kill him?

"...Enemy," he decided, at last. He wasn't dangerous, as such--or so Dragon thought--but he was not a friend, not to be approached. He was to be attacked. "Do not speak with the large black cat. He is enemy."

Yes, that sounded right. Dragon settled in the fetid, shallow pool, smelling faintly of rot and blood, and then he turned his head to try and eye Bog.

"So stay with me, if you like, but be careful."

Stay here. Or. Move on. Others. Brother. Bird. Black cat, avoid. Enemy. The piglet stayed silent, listening intently to the few words that suck in his mind, trying to understand them, memorize them, communicate better. Czernobog grunted, nodding to let Dragon know he at least got the gist of what the alligator had said, hopping off of the reptile's back and into the fetid pool below. The tiny creature splashed about until its wiry fur was thoroughly soaked, sitting back in the grime with a satisfied snort, tail wagging below the water.

Stay with me. Another grin - it seemed that his singer had figured it out! The boar nodded eagerly, huffing at the added be careful. The word didn't have much meaning to him at the moment, but the piglet didn't want to disappoint Dragon, not when he had rescued him from the egg. "Chuuuurn," the boar begrudgingly agreed, nudging at the alligator's chin playfully. "Siiinger," it murmured with a huff, sending water up its snout, and the piglet sneezed and grunted, bewildered as to what, exactly, had happened.

Within his own mind, Czernobog thought over his new home, with its murky water, its delicious prey, its plentiful fighting grounds - and, of course, Dragon. Having hunted for himself, it was kind of baffling as to why the alligator hadn't simply eaten him, as the piglet had the spider. Still, it was a great sign of mercy... and one the boar was ready and willing to repay; to show that he was worthy of the reptile's kindness.

Dragon gently tilted his head, "gnawing" at the boar to play with him as he was nudged. A gentle tug here, a play-wrestling of sorts, lightly pulling and pushing at him. He let out a soft and deep chuckle, then let go, laying his head in the muck indulgently--letting the boar clamber on him or shove at him or whatever it was he wished to do.

He huffed again, then eyed Bog. An idea struck him, and he abruptly jammed his head entirely below the liquid mud, and began to blow bubbles through his nostrils. Up they popped, rippling and "boiling" the cold water's surface around and near the piglet. Dragon's eyes still broke the top, so that he could watch the young piglet as he played.

I'm not sure where we go from here... but this. It's good.

The piglet played along with an excited squeal, tapping his hooves into the muck and then onto the alligator's snout - gently, of course - before repeating the pattern, as childish as... well, a child, considering he was one. Czernobog let out a startled snort when Dragon's head lowered into the water, and the boar watched, confused at first, as the boat simply watched him. Then, slowly, tiny pockets of air began to emerge, lifting towards the surface and hovering, half-attached to the water.

Stunned, the tiny ball of fluff froze, watching in amazement, before hesitantly reaching out a delicate hoof to touch one of the creations - and it popped, disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared. With a joyful grunt, the piglet hopped in place, popping the bubbles as they rose, occasionally sticking his snout into the water and creating a few of his own. Free from thoughts of being cautious, not talking to black cats, or worrying about the next hunt, Czernobog played on, reveling in the luck of having something as strong and gentle as Dragon find him, locked away inside of the rock, waiting.

[ Exit Czernobog ]