ORIGIN

Noodle Dad?

...What the hell was a Noodle Dad?

Pride swelling his chest, glittering malice dancing in his eyes, the alligator tilted his toothy head and peered down.

"I am the son of Aquarian!" he bellowed, laughing a little spurt of flame into the air. That would teach the thing. "Noodle Dad," indeed; pfft. It sounded silly, and clearly Aquarian was far better than whoever this Noodle Dad might be.

But he'd gotten distracted for too long. He still had no intention of harming the fisher, this Land-Fish, but he had no intention of being pushed around, either. With a guttural growl he turned, sizing up those last few paces of shimmering smooth crystal.

He'd spent days clambering up, failing and failing and wounding himself, then recovering. He wanted to prove that he was capable of whatever the dragon Raheerah was, even if he had to go about it entirely differently. With a final guttural bellow he lurched forward, heavy bulk swaying precariously along the steep path, muscular tail gripping the ledge with his rough and armored scales. Claws scraped along the rock and he powered forward, aiming to reach the pinnacle of the Spire at last.

This time, he did not slip; pure willpower had driven him this far, and he seemed to be almost grinning as he took his place where Raheerah had perched, settling along the top of the crystal. His battered ridged silhouette would be visible throughout Polaris, he knew, and pride--and moreso, satisfaction--filled him. He turned his head to almost lazily eye the Fish-thing scurrying upward, but he was so filled with a vague and hazy joy that he only watched, for a moment, content.

Then he roared, again, jaws opening wide, triumph flaring through him like fire.

I made it. At last. I don't need wings to fly.

The vibration of his bellow rumbled along the stone beneath his belly and he settled, looking down on Polaris from above, his natural toothed smile wholly true to how he felt.

He barely noticed Fisher below, and he certainly had no idea what the brown noodle had in store for him.

Dragon hardly heard Fisher, at first; it had been such a long, slow climb. Exhausting, really--and when the little brown thing had turned up right at the end, threatening him (though almost certainly they were empty threats) so close to his goal, he'd had that last spurt of adrenaline, of determination.

Now, in the wake of his success, he was too happy to care about anything. He was floating blissfully in a fog of victory; he was basking on the Spire itself.

But--a clawmark, by his foot?

Fisher was right about one thing: Dragon was fat. It was a muscular fat, but it meant that he couldn't simply crane his head around to peer beneath him. He tried tilting his head comically sideways for a moment, staring down at the smooth gem surface--but he couldn't see it. His bulk was simply in the way. Still--he eyed Fisher, listening to him speak.

"Another brother?" he rumbled at last, eyeing Fisher over. The brown thing didn't look like Aquarian--he was small, and the wrong color, and furry. Perhaps the mother had been a very tiny bear...? Dragon pushed the thought away, turning himself slightly to more face Fisher. He was suspicious, but that was no reason to turn the creature away.

Dragon then turned back away, letting his thick and muscular tail slide slowly over the lip of the Spire's summit, dangling down like a scarred and ridged ladder. He'd let him up, sure; he had no reason not to. He had no idea of Fisher's electrical powers, and anyway, it'd be good to have not one, but TWO sons of his father here, taking back what the black dragon had made his own. He puffed out his chest and throat as he waited for Fisher to climb, trying his best to give a bit of a little speech, solemn and noble. If this really was the first meeting of two brothers, he had to make it sound good--or, if Fisher was lying, at least he'd sound dignified and impressive to the stranger.

"Come, then... Brother. And let the sons of Aquarian take back that which Raheerah laid claim to."

The alligator turned to regard Fisher with quizzical bemusement.

"I am giving you my tail to climb... brother," he said, humor lacing his tone ever so faintly. And the word felt good enough--this "brother"--so perhaps this Land-Fish was indeed a brother of his, and a son of Aquarian. "You can climb my tail, or should I move it?"

He eyed Fisher for a moment longer, pondering. What had his new brother's name been...? He'd heard a lot of shouting, and something about him being fat. Was he fat? ...Did it matter? Briefly, he felt a vague pride--if he was fat, it meant he was well-fed, and healthy, and big. Yes, he decided, he was fat, and that was good--a great, fat dragon. ...But that didn't get him any closer to Fisher's name. Had he actually given it? Had Dragon said it? It didn't matter; he'd lost himself in the joy of his ascent, and now he had no idea what his new brother's name was. But he couldn't just say that he'd missed Fisher's name. That would be rude, and he didn't want to insult his brother.

"What is your short-name?" he asked, compromising. Clearly he'd heard Fisher's FULL name, obviously. Naturally. No, he just wanted to know his brother's short name. The one he was meant to call him in conversation.

Dragon eyed Fisher, hoping the mustelid just gave a name--and didn't fall off the damn Spire, for that matter. He coiled so that on the off-chance that Fisher slipped, he'd be able to lunge and try to grab him. Though alligator jaws snapping shut on him might not be the best idea. As ever, though, Dragon didn't think that far.

Dragon had never had a weasel on his head. Or anything, for that matter, aside from tiny flying things. Still, aside from a brief worry that Fisher might scratch his eyes out (and he quickly squeezed them shut), he seemed friendly enough. And he seemed to have stopped being aggressive, which was good. He hoped.

He was wary that the little mustelid was in fact about to spring a trap, and had only climbed up here to set Dragon's face on fire or something, but given the fact that Fisher was in fact perched only a few inches away from what could instantly become a stream of flame, he wasn't too worried. Instead, daring to crack his eyes open, he found he could see Fisher staring out at Polaris. He wondered where the creature lived, where he'd come from, and briefly cast his mind back, trying to remember if he'd ever seen him. No, he--wait... Yes. Yes, he had--he thought. He took a sharp breath, eyes widening as he stared up.

"You were there when I was born," Dragon rumbled abruptly. The realization that Fisher was--though smaller--older than he was quickly eclipsed by the memory of the mustelid floundering in the shallows as they'd fought Aquarian for the first time. Before he could get too amused by this, though, or whatever he might have been, he realized at once that it clearly meant that Fisher was Aquarian's son, too. They'd both been present at "Noodle Dad's" emergence, so they must be brothers.

Obviously.

"We were fighting our father," he added, in a vaguely confused way, since he couldn't remember exactly why. He had a vague thought that he'd just decided to attack the giant thing, but he wasn't sure. Maybe there had been a reason. "...Which of us is the big brother?" he added bemusedly.

"Cetus is home. I am going to go there now," he added, though he didn't specify when "now" was nor did he move, just yet. "We all live there, the children of Aquarian. The Children of Rot. We feed him, and he guards us. He told us that Raheerah was very dangerous, but we came and fought him anyway. I suppose you have to fight the big things to stay alive," he added, rumbling as he turned the thought over in his mind. He sounded very wise, he thought to himself, and let out a little vibrating grumble of approval.

"I wanted to get to the top first. I don't need wings to get up here. I'm better than that other dragon," and even to Dragon, this sounded a little peevish, a little childish. So he continued, in a slightly more solemn tone, "I had to prove it for myself, at least. Why did you climb it?"

He started to look down, again, to search for Fisher's clawmark, but this time he had Fisher on top of his head, and just in time, he remembered. So instead of dipping his head down, he quickly lifted it back up, careful not to unbalance his new brother. His big-little brother.

As an afterthought, he spoke again.

"You could come and live with us, if you wanted. I need to go back, and make sure they are feeding Father." His tone was musing, but the concern was real: if the others weren't actively hunting to feed Aquarian, they may well lose his guardianship--and that would not do.