She looked up to Pride as he spoke, as taken with his soft voice as with the light. Though--he did speak so slowly. She looked back at the bauble, faint impatience in her. When he pulled away she head-butted it without a thought, smacking her skull into it with a quiet crack.
It hurt, a little, but she hadn't hit it hard; she backed up, staring the baubled stone down.
The bright flash to her left pulled her attention back, though, and she gave up plotting revenge on a rock; instead she looked to Pride, and then up at his wisp.
Acheron stared, enamored.
Then she tried to headbutt the wisp, too: but it was too high for her to reach. She backed up, huffing softly in a dog-like manner.
She reared up on her hind legs, head tilting down--and as she crashed down onto her tiny fore-hooves, her Sardonyx gemstone flared bright. A powerful spark of magic burst outward, careening for the wisp with surprising precision, sending it dispersing and spinning away.
The wisp reformed a few feet in another direction, but Acheron--proud and pleased--spun in a clattering circle, huffing.
Hers was clearly better.
He blinked down at the child, glancing at his sputtering wisp, then slowly back to her again.
She had inherited his strength in magic, it seemed, and he gave her a slow nod.
He chastised himself--she was freshly hatched, for caves' sakes!--but... he'd seen what could result with training but not teaching.
She sat back, and some itch or other presented itself in her ear; she lifted a hind hoof to scratch at it, staring off into the middle distance. She was trying to think over the ideas of hunger, of food, juggling concepts of eating and filling her tiny belly.
She didn't know what she wanted, only that food sounded... okay?
Oh--but there were plants here. Right there, in fact, among the baubles. Acheron had no way of knowing that this was somebody's grown garden, and so she plodded in, sniffing among them.
They seemed... ehh.
Pride peered at Acheron, watching. She apparently identified the plants as food, and ate one, though seemed less than enthusiastic about it. Ahh, well; at least she could probably survive off plants. If she started to show signs of distress, he could always get her meat, but...
He also supposed it wouldn't hurt to show her, on a mouse or something equally simple, just in case.
Pride turned away, taking a few steps off and glancing back, attentive, to see if she were following. Then he cast his senses outward, looking for potential prey.
His magic pinged back, alerting him to numerous small creatures--and he hastily discarded the little flare he knew belonged to his familiar, Mischief. Eventually, sifting through the blinding flares of all those stones--bugs and rats and bats and the like--he honed in on a tiny cluster that he judged to be around the right size for something like rats, rabbits, mice or bats, and headed for it.
Acheron didn't know--or particularly care--where it was that they were going. She was losing interest quickly in their simply standing here, and found herself just a little weary, too--but eager for something new, already.
She took a look at the direction in which Pride was heading--his gait stoic, steady--and shot past him at a bound. She gauged her jump, tensed her body, and as she landed from one leap she pushed her magic down through her legs.
Off she went, zipping past him in enormous, bouncing leaps impossible for a creature her size without magic, vanishing into the dark up ahead. She wasn't leaving him behind, exactly; just... getting there faster.
Wherever "there" might be.
Acheron shot past him, and he gave a sigh, and sped his gait again to keep up. She was quick, and he had to break into a flat run. He called out a warning as she drew closer to where he'd seen the stones.
He cast out his magic a second time as they approached the place he'd seen the little stones, slowing himself, hissing after Acheron again.
Acheron had no real feeling for Pride, yet--no sense of attachment--so his words were met with mild irritation, once again. She didn't want to restrain herself, to go slow and come back--but she did, dutifully if not unhappily. Back she came, her bounding bounces shifting to a slow trot; she came to a stop before him. She gave him a brief stare, then plonked onto her rump, little tail switching back and forth as she waited.
What did he want? Although--teaching sounded cool. Learning. She huffed and waited, staring up at him.
Pride glanced down at her with some surprise. She already sounded fed up, not the gentle trusting children he'd mostly raised thus far but instead, both rebellious and disinterested. He didn't quite know how to deal with this; he had to hope she simply... grew out of it.
And quickly.
He took a breath, and nodded toward a cluster of rock up above and ahead.
He studied her a moment.
She listened, attentively, though more because she wanted this information than out of any sense of loyalty. It wasn't that she disliked Pride--there just wasn't a real bond there, yet.
But his words were interesting, and she stood and turned, head tilted to one side. She obeyed--head up like a dog's, nose working, ears pricked upward now. Pale eyes searched the rock, but she saw nothing; at length she looked back to Pride, studying him again.
She couldn't hear anything though, or see anything. Only the smell--and she didn't know what that meant.
He lifted his head, nostrils flaring.
Pride paused, waiting, studying Acheron for any sign of reluctance. He certainly wouldn't force her to kill--but she seemed disinterested, almost callous.
He'd tackle that as they came to it.
He focused, for a moment--concentrating on sending his wisp, bobbing along behind him, bursting into the stones in a small explosion.
It fizzled out before it ever impacted the rock, however--exploding before he'd meant it to--and he grimaced.