ORIGIN

The skungler on skungler violence briefly bewildered the dinosaur. He looked at the two as they struggled together. He moved closer, his clawed hands merely hovering near the fight, as if overseeing the scrap. Uncertain where to jump in, where sibling ended and skrungler began.

His claws itched to get involved. Salivating hounds all straining at their chains, you get to eat now. But the remains of his brainpower were used on staying, not wanting to crunch the wrong set of bones.

When the scuffling ended, he drooped and looked down at the dead skrungler.

That's a shame. He wanted to kill it himself. It'd made him feel alight like nothing else, the crunch of bones beneath his jaws. Something lesser, something weak.

But, that didn't change the fact that he was hungry. So, he leaned over and tucked in. It was pretty tasty, he understood why his sibling had devoured its own whole.

He wasn't as tidy eating his own. It's almost as if he wasn't really an amorphous slime (just don't tell him that), and was in fact an animal that needed to rip, chew and swallow.

It did feel good to be full.

He should let his sibling know. So, he leaned over to gently tap the sibling-skrungler's flank -- leaving a smear of blood on it -- with his snout.

This was good.

But, now what did they do?

It watched him eat in silence, studying how he tore the prey apart and snapped into it. It seemed... inefficient. Messy. It knew, dimly, that Brother was doing it purely for sustenance and not to change or improve, but it was curious. The mimic turned its head as a splatter of innards slopped onto the ground nearby, and it reached out and pecked the guts into its mouth.

Chewing felt abnormal. Swallowing did, too. It was far too intimately aware of the piece of flesh delving down the esophagus and into its belly, but it supposed the feeling of something being in there was... pleasant.

Friend mimicked the nudge, bringing its needle-shaped head against Brother's jaw. Yes. Brother. This was its pack. It turned its head again, sniffing cautiously, and then began walking. At a distance it paused and waved the fern-frond of its tail, making sure Brother was following, before it continued.

It brought him to the shoreline, where fresh water lapped against the sand. These things had to drink. Friend would have to learn how to drink, too. It waded in ankle-deep and brought its snout down into the water before lifting its head again to watch Brother.

Brother, unknowingly dubbed, inhaled the last remains of the meal before following its sibling. It's Friend.

He was nowhere near the size he was supposed to be yet, so some of the taller plants proved to be an issue as he pushed through them. Particularly since he was still covered in chrysalis juices and blood, bits stuck to his hide and made him look particularly dishevelled.

After staggering out onto the sand, he followed his sibling into the water, letting it lap at his ankles. This was nice. He leaned down to dunk himself into the waters before flicking it over himself; his little arms waggling as they attempted to rub down his body.

Yes, this was nice. It was particularly nice when it was so warm and the water was cool. This and more profound thoughts, coming soon!

In his elation at splashing, he dipped his snout into the water, using it as a scoop to lift water, then tilted his head back and poured it down his gullet. Water was good. Food was good. Surviving was good.

He had no idea that his sibling was attempting to learn from him. He was certainly as green as he was cabbage-looking. He wriggled and writhed in the waters, holding his breath as he rolled and getting absolutely soaked.

It seemed, for a moment, like Brother was more interested in being wet than he was drinking. His arms were small, too, so he'd have a tough time rubbing water in all over himself. First, Friend copied him. It splashed in the water and flicked water all over itself. Its arms were small, too, but its legs were longer and flexible. If it balanced itself on one foot, it could get water into the thick bristly ruff on its nape. It tried to mimic how Brother drank, too, but with a little less success.

Not that it minded. It had things to do, and a pack to take care of. It soaked itself good in the water and then moved to Brother, essentially using its body like a sponge to soak water into Brother's hide. It was small and mucus-y, and left behind a thin film of slime.

The slime was from the skrungler, and not just... itself, incidentally. And the water did feel quite good. It must have been a thing that lived on both land and water, said some vague instinct in its brain. Brother seemed drier, which was either Not Good, or he simply wasn't built the same.

Friend didn't want to eat its brother to find out.

He froze the second he felt something slimy press against him, leaving a film on his nice, clean skin. That felt icky.

His head snapped around to fling the offending source of slime away. Thankfully, jaws froze before they clamped down on his sibling as his brain caught up; the slime was his slimy sibling. Right. Slime-siblings would be slimy.

Truly, we're looking at the next genius here.

After almost murdering his sibling for the crime of being icky, he withdrew his jaws. He (and NO ONE else) had a pack to take care of; he should be more careful not to accidentally eat them.

With a light huff, Brother dipped his nose back under the water before flicking it back up, attempting to spray his sibling.

He could play it off as playing. Yes. They were playing. If he kept flicking more water at his sibling, it would all be played off very coolly. Never mind that it was very clear that he would've tossed his sibling not a few seconds ago.

A thought breached the back of his mind. An awful thing. Thinking. Can sibling swim? But he supposed this thought had a point. Could sibling swim? How could he ask?

Maybe just...

Brother tried to make meaningful eye contact with his Slime-Sibling. Surely it would know what that meant.

The water felt nice. Perhaps this creature liked to be wet. Friend watched for a moment, water splattering across its face, before it bent and mimicked Brother's head tilting back and shook itself off.

A bath, it supposed. Brother must have known it needed to be wet, in some way. Once it'd stopped shaking, it caught Brother's eye and paused. Had it done something wrong? Had it done something un-pack-like?

It would be helpful if they could just talk, it thought, but the desire to fit in was stronger than the desire to simply ask. It bent its head and took a mouthful of water, swinging its head to spray it over Brother.

Not that there was much, of course. They weren't that large.

Brother blinked as his meaningful eye contact was broken by having water splashed into his eyes. Perhaps that meant, yes, sibling could swim.

Apparently blissfully unaware of their miscommunication, Brother made a light trill as he waded a little further out in the waters. If only they could both communicate in some way, if only there were some way to tell sibling exactly what he was feeling. If only... What a wistful dream...

The spinosaurus began to paddle after reaching so far, then dunked its head under the water. Eyes peering through the blue, catching the movement of something darting about in the distance. It made another grumble, perhaps a signal to call the sibling over, then looked pointedly in the direction of the movement.

The mimic paused, watching Brother.

He must still be hungry, and of course, it was up to Friend to provide for its brother. It slunk further into the water after him, paddling with its hind legs and tail like a rudder. He was looking at movement in the water, and the mimic went paddling after it.

A fish was much faster than something that had just grown legs five minutes ago, though. Friend's jaws went snapping for the creature and it writhed out of the way, bulleting out into the murk of Fornax. Friend's claws thrashed and it let out a garbled, angry sound under the water.

It then discovered that water getting into something's lungs was very unpleasant.

Friend rocketed right back out of the water from whence it came, practically scrambling up Brother's flank and onto his back, pressed against the sail. It wretched up water, drooling it down his back.

There was a tired blink as Sibling-thing retched over his back. Perhaps he should be disgusted; perhaps he should've thrown his sibling off, into the water. Yet, he just watched for a moment. The sibling-thing could be unwell, or allergic to the waters, that could be it.

For a brief moment, Brother considered the shores, then looked outwards into the dense fog. Was there anything out there? Was there more than where they'd be born? They'd barely seen much of either, but Brother had learned he was good at swimming and quite enjoyed paddling.

"Go?" Brother grunted, flicking his chin towards the fog. Then, he swung his head towards the island of Lacerta, "stay?" Then, finally, he craned his neck to look back at the sibling-thing; apparently, he was asking it, completely unaware that this was the first time he'd ever spoken, or that his sibling thought he didn't know how.

For now, he stayed put, gently bobbing in the waters; like a giant scaly sailboat.