ORIGIN

With the bracelet firmly cemented in the dry mud, which was now caked into the fur on his chest, Leon could place all of his focus on the dragon now. He arched his brows, though his eyes remained slightly narrowed at his words. It was a good mantra to live by - if only some others could think the same way. Leon feared that there was no way he was ever going to get through to Cancer, no matter how much they talked or how much Leon tried to make up for what he'd done. The fact was, Leon had ultimately won in the battle for Makyna's attention, and he feared that that was something Cancer would never let go. It didn't matter at the moment - and it wouldn't do him any good to dwell on it - but he couldn't help but feel nagged by the thought.

He stored the dragon's name in the back of his mind, Baratheon. Well, even if the dragon hadn't mentioned his name before, it was good to know now. For the future. In case it ever became relevant for whatever reason. He continued to listen, though his curiosity was truly piqued when the dragon spoke of his brother Booker and his interest in something called the 'All Mother'. Now, he'd never heard of that before - and it intrigued him, to say the least. He referred to it as being a mushroom, and Leon could briefly recall seeing a rather large mushroom here in Eridanus when he met the gorilla, Blue. Was that what they were talking about?

Baratheon seemed ready to move past all that All Mother stuff, but Leon's wonder was too much for the bear to simply leave it behind. "All Mother?" He asked, vocalizing his curiosity. "What's that about?" He mentioned that Booker was interested in that kind of stuff, but such information was still useless to Leon, considering he didn't know who Booker was in the first place.

Out of all of the things the bear could have questioned, he chose the most boring and silly one. Commence invisible eye-rolling... now.

The dragon puffed a bit of air out of his mouth as a sort of verbal eye-roll to go along with his non-discernible one. "Really? You wanna know about that crap?" He gave a shrug."Alright, well," He pointed with his snout to the white mushroom in the distance or where it should be. The ferns were a tad bit large and probably covering up where he was trying to indicate. "The 'All Mother'," Complete with air quotes and all. "Is that giant white mushroom. My brother was led on by some crazy cats to believe that the 'All Mother'," Air quotes with his claw-fingers again. "Is some amazing deity that created all the life in the cave and can answer prayers." The dragons scoffed.

He didn't like dissing something that his brother felt so strongly about but, come on, it was so silly! It was just a giant mushroom, nothing special except for that. "Crazy, right?" Surely this bear would see sense. Or did he have too much hope in humanity?

---

Leon could sense an obvious taste after he had brought up the topic of the 'All Mother', but truth be told, the bear was curious about it. It was that kind of unresting wonder spawned after hearing rumors of something he'd already experienced; he wanted to know, and he listened patiently as the dragon began to sarcastically explain what it was. Sure enough, he described the mushroom that Leon had seen with its gargantuan silver cap, and how his brother Booker had been sucked into some strange belief system revolving around the mushroom. Belief that the mushroom could listen, answer prayers; and that it had created everything in the cave. "Huh. Neat." The bear blinked. Had he been younger, perhaps such a belief system would have appealed to him. But Leon knew that the mushroom hadn't created everything - he'd seen chrysali grow from nothing and another Gembound emerge from its grasps, and it was certainly no doing of a giant mushroom.

It had no further interest in it - if they decided to believe in that, more power to them, Leon simply wasn't concerned with it. He could tell that it bothered the dragon though, and the fact that somebody so close to him was drawn into something that sounded so false. "Maybe if you pray hard enough, All Mother will hear you and knock Booker to his senses, eh?" The bear added with a snigger.

Neat? He wouldn't have used that to describe the mushroom-worship but whatever floated this guy's theoretical boat. "I don't know if I'd use 'neat'. A few others adjectives come to mind when describing that whole thing..." Crazy. Disturbing. Silly. Hilarious... Yeah, those words described it a whole lot better than "neat".

When the bear entertained the notion of him praying to the All Mother, Baratheon's eyes narrowed. Him? Pray to the All Mother. That was a laugh. It was almost insulting. "I need no help from an imaginary deity." He leaned forward, pink eyes boring into the bear with a flicker of irritation. "I only need the power of my own fangs and claws to help complete a task. I am a dragon and I believe in my own powers." His voice was a growl as he stared at the bear. With a snort he leaned back up to his former position, a crooked smile made its way onto his face. "However, if my brother and his cat friends want to worship a mushroom then it's up to him. It won't bring about any harm... far be it for me to ruin his fun." He loved Booker far too much to try and shatter his beliefs. If he wanted to praise a white mushroom then he could. He just shouldn't expect the dragon to follow suite.

---

Just kidding? He'd gauged that but it still was a bit of an insult to even think of having to pray to that stupid mushroom. He gave a grunt, he'd hold no grudges about it. Just so long as it didn't happen again the bear was all good.

Baratheon gave a snort but it was more of an amused sound than anything else. "I'm a nice guy." He was back to his normal sardonic self. As far as lifting Leon out of the trench he started to give some sarcastic reply but stopped himself. He rose to his own paws and peered closely at the grizzly bear as if he was sizing him up. He wandered over and began to circle Leon before giving a hum and coming to a stop behind him. "Let's find out!" With a wicked grin Baratheon leaped into the air and hovered right above the bear. He lowered himself down just enough so that he could get his paws around Leon's midriff whereupon he began to flap his wings harder as he tried to tug the bear into the air.

He wasn't exceptionally large yet, in fact, he weighed less than Leon did but that didn't stop him from bullheadedly trying. He grunted and strained as he tried to pick the bear up off the ground. His eyes closed with the effort as he tugged. "Is it working?" He grunted out.

---

Leon hadn't anticipated that the large, furry white dragon would be so eager to try and help fly him out of the ravine. Honestly, the bear was sure that he could... probably get out himself. He didn't really need help. Yet Baratheon had taken to the air and immediately hovered above him, and Leon could feel the rush of air as his wings beat, hoisting him up above - suddenly, he felt the grip of the dragon as he wrapped his arms around the bear's torso and began to pull him upwards. "Eep!" The bear squeaked, as small of a squeak as a massive bear could make, as suddenly the thick, excess skin of his hide pulled up while the remainder of his bulk was held firm on the ground. He found himself struggling in Baratheon's grip, which was barely able to raise the bear from his sitting position, extending his hind legs and while his front legs comically jarred outward.

"Ahhh! Alright alright alright, put me down!" He flailed against the dragon, wriggling his arms out. His massive bulk clearly didn't want to be airborne, and Baratheon trying to pull him up was only making him very uncomfortable.

It felt like he was lifting from the ground for a minute... Until he came to a stop. His wings till beat steadily and fiercely while he tried to pull Leon up further. "Your squirmin' ain't helpin'!" He grunted. Which was true, it was actually rather distracting. He would have kept trying to pull his way upwards but was unable to do so. He quite altogether when Leon asked for him to stop.

He let go and let himself fall to the ground behind the bear. The dragon laid on his back with his wings spread to the side and his legs raised in the air above him in a dramatic fashion. He could have complained that Leon had stopped him and held him back but he didn't want to be a warmonger. Instead he just gave a smirk and grunted out, "Think you should lose some weight, fuzzy." With a laugh he rolled to his side then rose to his paws. He gave a shake of his pelt to dislodge the dust from his coat before turning back to Leon.

"In any case do you need help getting out of these ferns?" He had been living here for a while so he'd begun to map out the area in his head.

---

As soon as Baratheon gave up trying to lift him, the both of them went tumbling to the ground; Leon crashed back into the ferns below, laying on his back between Baratheon's hind legs. He groaned and grumbled as the ache of the fall rang through his rump and spine, very slowly pulling himself back up again. At the dragon's comment about his weight, Leon twisted and leaned back, shoving at Baratheon's knee with his paw. "Maybe you need stronger wings, Candyfart." He scoffed. Then, the rolly-polly bear leaned forward and made his way to his feet, lumbering away from the dragon before giving his thick coat a heavy shake. Debris flew from the cinnamon fur that lined his body - twigs, small leaves, bits of dirt, but the bracelet he had crafted remained firmly stuck against his skin by the mud he dried up.

Leon too turned to the dragon, looking him up and down. "I think I can find my way back. I been around here longer than you." He wrinkled his nose. Granted, this was just a guess - the dragon was massive, but in his exploration of the caves shortly after emergence, he hadn't seen him around. It was only recently that the dragon seemed to have come into the cave, so Leon had to assume (perhaps arrogantly) that he was older. With a roll of his shoulders, Leon turned towards the edge of the fern trench. Dropping into a crouch, he gave his butt a little wiggle before lunging forward and clambering up the ledge. "Thanks though." Leon added through various grunts as he pulled himself up and out.

Lingering now on the higher edge of the trench, he looked over his shoulder at Baratheon. "See you around?" The bear hesitated, allowing a few seconds for an answer before turning away. He would have to check in back at Maji Walezi, then he'd be coming back to Eridanus to hunt for Arkrael. Never the less, this had been a successful trip.