Doru was sitting down, holding the living stone of teal tourmaline in a golden-clawed hand. He had found in the cave full of echoes, when he was young still, and he had decided to take it with him. Judging by the area he had found it in, it was likely a Mystfox's stone.
He tilted the gemstone, watching the way light bounced off of it. He did not truly want to raise a child, he thought. Children sounded tiresome, much like family. A part of him wished he was not a lone wanderer, but he did not want the annoyance of family to solve that.
But he wanted to create, to give life, even if he did not want to raise that life himself. But he did not want the child he created to die, either, he wanted it to live. Not out of fondness, but out of curiosity. He could give it to the Hive, perhaps, but he did not think a war against the caves suited a lifespan reaching adulthood either.
No, he needed a different solution. Doru sighed.
And then there was the matter of siblings, which his parents had insisted were important. But Doru disagreed. Two of his siblings had never even hatched, and Bez had left, not that Doru blamed him for doing so. Family was annoying, he agreed.
So, perhaps siblings were not important for companionship, a thing not guaranteed, but for successful hatching likelihood? But this life would be strong, he felt. He thought it would hatch.
Maybe it didn't need siblings, but it did need a caretaker.
Doru let out a long sigh.
Doru, a hybrid of a strange amalgamation of features and traits, looked down at the sound of a clear voice. It was a rat, he realized. Not a lesser rat, like those he had seen before, but a greater rat. He supposed if there could be greater deer, like those in his heritage, then there could be greater rats as well.
He studied the rat, as well the curious mount which the rat had chosen. That was a snake, a dangerous one at that. Yet the rat seemed at ease with such a mount. Doru did not think it was foolishness that drove such a decision, considering the snake did not consider the rat prey, from the look of it. To command such a creature, the rat had to also be dangerous, even if he was not a threat to Doru.
His wings shifted, a fascination dawning that he did not yet know if he would admit. His head had tilted slightly as he studied the rat, but he straightened his posture and spoke now, answering the posed question,
"Weariness."
His golden-claw hand untightened to reveal the teal tourmaline in his hand, before he closed the tourmaline back safely within his tight grasp.
"I do not wish for more family, for I have more of that then I'd prefer, but I wish to give life to this stone and have it live."
The purple viper gaze of Doru was thoughtful as he gazed directly at the rat.
"It might live on its own, given what ancestry it holds. But I want more than a might to guarantee it live, for all that I do not want to care for it."
He paused, then admitted a lacking of his,
"I do not think I could care for it, at least not emotionally. While I understand the notion of companionship, even if I lack it, true affection is beyond me so far as I can tell, let alone a thing like love, familial or otherwise."
Doru paused.
"But I have spoken much to you, and I know not your name," He stated, the question implicit in his words.
@Archimedes
"I am Doru," he paused. Doru used to introduce his parentage as a child, but is lineage truly something to be proud of outside of potential power?
"And, I have no one else to speak to, really," Doru admitted, affecting an air of indifference. In truth, it bothered him a little.
"I could give the child to my parents to care for, I suppose. But... I do not wish to go to my family. I am weary of them." He had not considered the possibility much for that reason. The Hive was more appealing than that, even if it was in a war.
"...It is an urgent desire, as you phrased it, yes," Doru agreed. He did not yet say more, waiting to see where Archimedes was leading with this. His intense viper gaze stared down Archimedes, full of similarly intense curiosity.
@Archimedes
Doru's gaze narrowed, his wings full of tension.
"It is mine," he proclaimed, with a surety.
"Even if I do not raise it, it will have my lineage. And for all that I am not a family-inclined gembound, my lineage is powerful." There is no doubt in his voice about that.
"If I want this stone to live, it is best suited to live from my lineage."
Doru tilted his head and grinned sharply, his teeth not dragon-like, more akin to the uncannily sharp teeth that Erasmus possessed, with more pronounced fangs but the rest all serrated.
"My lineage begun from a deer called Pride and a dragon named Dread. Cadenza, was their spawn. Cadenza spawned a son from a deep water fish's stone, which became my father, Alek. My other parent is the venomous vampire, Erasmus. I can fly, I can breathe in water, and I have an insidious venom."
"This child will have every advantage I grant to it from my lineage. Not from some power of family, but because my line is strong," he states firmly.
"Do you think if another gave life to this stone, it would have as much potential as all that?" While he was genuinely curious, he also felt insulted that the other viewed him as interchangeable in the part of revival.
It was important that this stone be his, because he gave it potential that it would not otherwise have anywhere nearly as much of.
@Archimedes
Doru was beginning to get irritated.
"Indeed, the inheritance of an individual advantage depends on luck, so far as I can tell," his voice barely restrained his annoyance.
"But the potential of inheriting those advantages is greater from my line than another's line. That is why I should be the one to give it life. I have greater potential with my diverse ancestry, even if there is no guarantee of anything." Doru's viper gaze was narrowed.
"Could a child made by you potentially inherit the ability to breathe underwater, utilize toxins, or fly?" he pointed out, his pride grating on him to have his potential be doubted.
"Perhaps, if you found the right stone, as you said. But I do not know of many stones easily found that are such."
"It is a stone of those magically vampiric lesser foxes, from that cave of echoes, I believe, if you really must know. But that barely matters." He shakes his head.
"I wish to create, but I do not wish to care. That is my dilemma. Do you have any potential solutions, or do you intend to insult my potential further?" His grip on the stone is tight.
@Archimedes