ORIGIN

Dread had been soaring, circling, not far out over the bay--in and out of the thick fog rolling there at the moment, a flock of various seabirds flitting like remoras to a shark along his flanks and tail. He tolerated--even enjoyed--their company; he often tossed them scraps of his meals, and they'd come to follow along in anticipation.

Today, though, he heard Cadenza's call, and--alarm spiking through him (is something wrong?!)--he banked sharply and swept down. The birds scattered with alarmed squawks. Dread folded his wings, dropping into a steep dive, then swept them slowly out to catch himself. The end result was that the dragon shot out of the fog bank to the shore, kicking his taloned feet out before him and landing heavily on the beach. He skidded, a little, even, a spray of sand showering up before him as he looked to his child.

To--the stones-?

"ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?" he demanded, and his ember eyes narrowed at the stones as he tried to figure them out. Whose were they-? What had happened? "WHOSE ARE THOSE?" he asked--had Cadenza been attacked..? They did seem very... small, for that.

But then, so had Kalama been.

Dread was silent, for a moment. He did not at once erupt in joy, and given his rigid facial features one might be forgiven for thinking he was just... confused.

And he was, at least briefly. It wasn't obvious--not to him, who had fought on this beach before and forced his opponents into their chrysalises on the sands. But-... children? ...Here? was his first thought. And his glance around, taking in the open expanse, now held an expression of doubt. Concern, even.

A few thoughts--dim, as they so often were, and twinned with emotion--flitted briefly through his mind, as the bay wind ruffled his fins and spins. First--the vague, sinking feeling that he must have already failed Cadenza. It might, had they known of his thoughts, have seemed a leap in logic, and to some extent it was. But Dread always held the distant, disappointing knowledge that he just wasn't as smart as other Gembound were. The idea that his child--virtually fresh from the chrysalis--had taken this step without first asking his advice made him feel, even if only for an instant, that he must be a failure. But this feeling (and thought) were quickly set aside as unimportant, for now. What was important was dealing with this in the way that would be best for Cadenza, and for their children-to-be. He buckled down to this--and though he already felt the faint stirrings of excitement for more family, there was too much worry there, as well.

He swung his head back toward them, far more somber than he usually was. "You did not ask me first?" he started, quiet, a little hurt. "-For advice?" He shook himself, blinking. "THIS IS A DANGEROUS PLACE FOR IT. IT IS TOO OPEN. It is dangerous for them and you can't live here, it takes a long time! FOR THEM TO HATCH!" The rise and fall of his volume wasn't emotional; it was emphasis, as though he were surprised at his own thoughts and blurting them as they came. His tone, though--after his first question--was brisk, businesslike, even helpful. "YOU ARE TOO YOUNG TO KNOW HOW TO TEACH THEM EVERYTHING, NO? DO YOU KNOW ENOUGH YET TO RAISE CHILDREN? YOU ARE ALMOST STILL A CHILD. EVEN IF YOU ARE BIG," he reasoned.

He thought this through, and hit on the obvious answer (to Dread's logic, at least) fairly quickly. "IF YOU WANT TO GO LEARN THINGS UNTIL THEY HATCH I CAN WATCH THE EGGS." Admittedly, they were not eggs. But they were already 'eggs' in his mind, and he was studying them again--wondering how best to hide them from those who might bear the children within some ill will. "YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO TEACH THEM TO HUNT AND USE MAGIC AND ABOUT MORE OF THE CAVES, AND... RIGHT, FROM WRONG. AND MANNERS AND THINGS." His heart broke just a little as he realized something: Cadenza might not have realized they needed to know more simply because Dread had not been intelligent enough to teach them. How could they teach children a moral system, philosophy, the history of the caves, when he hadn't even gotten to it, yet, with Cadenza-? He hung his head a little, eyes sliding to the stones. "THERE IS A LOT YOU HAVE NOT LEARNED AND YOU WILL NEED TO LEARN TO TEACH CHILDREN," he reiterated. But again, none of it whatsoever held reproach. It was instructional, to-the-point; it was what he felt they'd need to do, for Cadenza's children. And for Cadenza themselves.

It was probably not the raring encouragement Cadenza might have hoped for--but though Dread fretted over his child's unpreparedness, he was at least prepared to help.

Dread pondered this, and looked down, studying the stones. Fish, they'd said, right? Well, it had its merit but it meant Cadenza--or any of the rest of the family--would need to be right here when they hatched or risk the child 'drowning' on dry land before they could get to water.

"IT WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD IN FORNAX," he mused aloud, and then--without really thinking--made casual conversation with a glance back up at Cadenza. "THAT IS WHERE I HATCHED; THERE ARE ISLANDS AND LOTS OF WATER. AND NOT MANY GEMBOUNDS GO THERE." Of course, he was entirely unaware of Lacerta's discovery and the resulting increase in foot-traffic, but he could picture in his mind's eye a few good, safe hiding spots that would've put hatchlings in easy reach of surf. "WE CAN STILL HIDE THEM HERE, THOUGH. WITH PLANTS, AND SAND," he reasoned.

He noted, if uncertainly, Cadenza's wilting posture--but he assumed it was down to their realization at how rash and hurried they had been. They had, after all, been awake and alive for less than a cycle's time. It simply was not, in Dread's mind at least, enough time to prepare--they had a whole childhood they should have lived, before becoming a parent in turn. So, in his mind, they must have been realizing the weight of their decision, now--right?

"YOU DO NOT NEED TO LEAVE NOW?" Dread answered the second question, blinking up in some surprise. "BUT IT TAKES... WELL. IT CHANGES. USUALLY MAYBE TWO WEEKS BUT YOU HAVE SEEN THE STONE IN MY DEN." The other one, beside the one from which Cadenza had hatched, had been there for many cycles, untouched. "SOME OF THEM NEED MORE TIME. BUT IF YOU WANT TO BE HERE FOR SURE COME BACK IN TWO WEEKS! WHEN YOU LEAVE." He paused, blinking. He felt rather bad; he didn't want Cadenza to IMMEDIATELY leave. He felt like he'd accidentally almost chased them off.

For a moment, he very nearly offered that they could stay, and he could go, and then he realized he was being incredibly stupid again, because the entire point was that they yet had much to learn.

Thinking was hard.

"YOU CAN JUST GO SOMETIMES," he reasoned, reluctant about this entire thing. Not the children, just the--situation. It worried him, a little, the fact that it wasn't prepared for, that Cadenza was upset, and the whole... beach.

He looked at the stones again. "...YOU SAID ONE IS A FISH? WHAT WERE THEY, AGAIN?" It seemed that in his worry, he'd missed half the details; now he asked, a little more at ease, as if hoping for conversation to smooth things over.

Dread listened intently. And--he'd been about to ask more. To try, perhaps, and forge a conversation out of this; to move from upset to calm, at least, before a parting. He knew enough from experience that leaving when someone was upset was bad, but--of course, he could not know that Cadenza felt the need to go while they still could.

"Ice was smart," was all he'd managed, his jaws snapping shut with surprise when Cadenza announced their departure.

DAMN IT, he thought, watching them wing away--but his sense of disappointment was aimed only at himself.

Oh, well.

He looked down, studying the three stones. But he found at once he couldn't focus, yet--and he eyed after Cadenza. FOLLOW? he suddenly thought--a loud, deliberate thought full of meaning, cast along a magic link.

Within his den, atop his treasures, an unusually large golden-sheened Crystal Bat, its wingspan about ten feet--squat and strange, like a gargoyle--crouched jealously above his trinkets, guarding them. IT DOES NOT WANT TO LEAVE. Had that been his thought--or its? Dread lashed out in half a tantrum. MAKE SURE THEY ARE OKAY.
BUT THEY ARE NOT GOLD, AND NOT-

THEY ARE MORE IMPORTANT. THEY ARE MY BEST TREASURE, the dragon thought at it, loudly.

Slowly--clumsily--the golden creature shuffled from Dread's cave den, practically falling out of the air down toward the bay--then caught itself in the fog, flapping hastily in the direction Dread knew Cadenza had taken.

Should it manage to find them, it would follow--keeping as subtle an eye on their safety as it could. And, occasionally--if they seemed lonely or sad--bringing over a shiny rock in offering. The bat had never been seen by Cadenza before--but it had seen them, through Dread's eyes, and it knew what to look for.

Of course, if it could not find them... then it would search, a time, in the likely places, and then come home.

In the meantime... at least a little satisfied that Cadenza might not be alone, Dread turned his attention back to the gemstones.

He waddled, wing-walking awkwardly, farther up the shore. There he tore down a few large swathes of palm fronds--gathering them in his jaws. Back down the shore he went, laying these over the chrysalises; he then used a few sweeps of his wings to dust the stones lightly in sand. He'd be able to find them easily enough--by location, by magic at the worst--but it'd keep them from sight by those canvassing from the air for prey.

He nudged where they lay, grumbling to them quietly. "YOU ARE SAFE," he told them, "AND CADENZA WILL COME BACK SOON."