ORIGIN

When she bid him permission to take a look at her gem, Ghanyarah took her instruction and carefully nodded. He'd seen what her slime could do - it could alight in an instant, and it clung stubbornly to everything it touched. It was a wonder how it wasn't covering the entirety of the cave already. Ghanyarah wondered if he could dispel it with water, but he didn't want to douse her, nor did he want to offend her by zealously figuring out ways to get rid of the slime she left behind. His focus went into the red gemstone lodged in her throat. He leaned forward, narrowing his eyes to try and catch its details in the shadow of her jaws.

Beyond the veil of red diamond, he saw something move. Just barely, it twitched like it was alive and sentient. Ghanyarah tilted his head, trying to lean closer - at this point, his head was nearly in her jaws, but curiosity was sweeping away his discretion and if she'd intended to do him harm, she likely already would have. He stared at the gem again, saw movement again, now he could barely distinguish a slit pupil behind the translucent stone. An eye?

Ghanyarah withdrew, staring up at her - then back at the gem. "Is that your eye?" He gawked, unable to stop himself from leaning forward again and inspecting it.

He blinked, so engrossed in his examination of her gem-eye that he hadn't noticed the globule of tar eddying from her beak until it splattered on his face. Ghanyarah jerked slightly, withdrawing from her mouth as she mused about having never been looked at like that before. He briefly missed that comment, most of his concern on the thick black liquid that now stained his maw. He backpedaled, raising his clawed foot to try and brush it away, only to end up smearing it further across his snout with a quiet scowl. It was unfortunately sticky. Out of instinct, he tried to eject what little water remained in his body through the pores in his snout.

He'd just barely managed to squeeze enough water through his skin to pool around the smear. He rubbed it clean off his face again, blinking down at his foot that was now darkened with tar. But that was less concerning. He could no longer feel it's thickness on his face, so he glanced back up at Equinox. "Do you naturally produce this slime?" He asked purely out of curiosity.

Ghanyarah noticed her sheepish withdrawal and straightened up, reclaiming the distance he'd created. His tongue flicked with idle surveillance of her and their surroundings, constantly monitoring for changes in the air, mostly keeping an eye out for embers that might rise back into flame. But so far, it seemed they were safe. "Do not apologize. Perhaps there is some way you can make use of it." He suggested. Evidently, the slime was highly flammable, so in that sense it could serve to protect her. As long as she sought to set everything else on fire. But that could be destructive, and Ghanyarah worried about her burning down the jungle or injuring someone or herself.

The slime seemed to cling to things too. It layered the ground and stained rock, which would make it a decent agent for leaving behind markings and messages. Much like the carvings he made in the bark of his tree. "I wonder if you can change its colour. With dyes from berries, or something else." He mused out loud, stepping back again to look her over.

Ghanyarah remained silent with thought, looking over her as he tried to analyze the qualities of her slime. It was viscous enough that it would be easy to manipulate with a claw, or a leaf, or something that would prevent it from tarnishing his skin. And it was sticky too, which meant it would adhere to a surface easily, and probably not wash away after it had dried. The thick black would make it easy to bring out characteristics or details in his drawings, but what if it used it to fill in the spaces between the lines too? Could he achieve any other colours than black?

"Let me show you something. You seek to do something about it, yes?" The reptile asked, but didn't give her much time to answer. She'd already said she couldn't do anything about it, which implied she wanted to. So Ghanyarah was thinking of a solution. He stepped back and cocked his head down into the dirt, but it would be difficult to draw and leave a recognizable pattern. The trees would provide an infinitely better canvas, so he waddled over the nearest one, climbing the trunk with his front feet so that he stood upright, supporting himself against it.

Then he glanced at her, taking a good, long look. He memorized the shape of her head, the jagged opening of her mouth, and the gem. With careful precision, Ghanyarah began to carve her likeness into the bark.

He etched the general shape of her head into the bark, continuously looking back at her and comparing what he'd done. This was common practice for him, to draw into the bark, but so far he'd only managed to sketch lines and shapes. He'd never filled it in before. But from how it was turning out, he believed he could make the image stand out much more, and even match her likeness even more closely. Drawing her open jaws with a round circle at the back of her throat denoting her gem, Ghanyarah leaned back to examine it. With a satisfied nod, he looked to her, reaching out and attempting to wipe some of her dripping slime from her neck onto his claw.

With the slime, he began to dab it onto the image, filling in the bark within the lines that made up her head. He smeared the blackness into the drawing, leaving her gem blank. It would look better if it was red, but he didn't know how to obtain red colouring quite yet. With the drawing filled, he dropped back onto the soil and backed away, allowing her to get a closer look. "It is you." Ghanyarah declared proudly. "I used your slime to give it your colour. If I had a red slime, I could colour your gem too."