ORIGIN

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Big lizard!? How dare she! He was--... Well, what was a dragon? He knew it was a big, fearsome thing with scales and a serpentine body and he knew they breathed fire, but beyond that? ...He'd have to bluff!

"Aquarian is dragon! I am dragon! HUGE-BIGGER-THAN-THIS-CAVE, long-and-claws, BIG TEETH!" he roared (squeaked). "Dragons make FIRE!" he added.

To demonstrate, he focused on calling his magic, for a moment. Heat bubbled up within him and coursed up his throat, spewing out into nearby rock in a sizzling, hissing, bubbling pile of bile. It wasn't fire, but even so, the heat it gave off could be felt from a few feet away.

Then--in case Eve hadn't heard him say it the first few times--he roared (squeaked): "I AM DRAGON!"

Then he paused, eyeing Eve. "...I'm going crystal now." And then he turned, shuffling quickly off toward the Spire, tail dragging with quiet swishes, to and fro, behind him.

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Eve scowled after the alligator and began hobbling forward as fast as she could. She only said a few short, simple things as she scuttled along.

If Dragon bigger than caves, Dragon not fit!

Still she followed however, mildly curious as to where this strange reptile was headed. Surely, it couldn't have been too dangerous for such a well-lit place.

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Dragon scurried along, eyes locked on the crackling blue crystals ahead.

"Aquarian bigger than THIS cave. Other cave bigger," he explained. He wasn't really sure if Cetus was truly larger than Polaris, but he had to defend what he'd said! "And anyway he lives in water under cave. Comes out BAM! fast."

To demonstrate, Dragon whipped around over his own body, lunging for Eve with jaws gaping open. But he was immediately turning back around again, dragging himself quickly on and upward toward the Spire.

"What are you here for?" he asked, only now having the presence of mind to wonder why the fledgling crow was in a brightly-lit place alone, with no prey and no cover.

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Explorin'.

The crow answered simply, clacking her beak a little as she watched Dragon. She'd barely flinched as the alligator feigned an attack at her, only allowed an irritated grunt to leave her throat. He was annoying, yes, she was under the impression he was attempting to assert dominance over her. Stupid.

She followed in a short silence, listening to the sound of her own talons tapping against the cold ground of the caves for a while, before she croaked once more.

What Dragon doin'? Getting stuff for somebody? Aquarian? Thing with big-teeth-big-claws?

Eve fluffed herself up again, quiet and waiting for a reply. It was entirely possible, she felt, that Dragon was being used by another dragon, or whatever they were. They certainly didn't look like dragons. That said, this is the first dragon she had ever seen, so maybe she doesn't really have a leg to stand on in the subject.

The crow chirped and decided to settle on watching Dragon's tail, keeping an odd distance as not to get carelessly knocked over by it while it swings to and fro. What a strange creature this dragon was.


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Dragon was oblivious to the bird behind him--and to her flinching reaction to his display of POWER. Were the bird a bit older, she might have realized that he was so unbelievably self-centered that it would not even occur to him to try to establish dominance. No, he was so full of himself that the display, or bluff, or whatever one might call it, was an entirely self-absorbed exultation of just how awesome he was.

He was great. He was amazing. He was powerful. He was dragon.

He was also heading directly toward a death-trap.

Of course, he didn't know that. Instead he clambered toward the Spire, one reptilian leg swinging after the other, golden-green eyes locked on the crackling blue crystals up ahead. Never mind the lancing light erupting like lightning around the towering gem, or the echoing cracks, like thunder, that rumbled along the rock afterward. Never mind the lumbering rock-golems that guarded the place, which he hadn't yet seen.

No, he was entirely focused on the Spire, dead set on retrieving a piece as an offering to Aquarian. Nothing deterred him and it didn't even occur to him that he might fail.

He'd also already forgotten about the adorable black fluffball scratching along behind him, utterly immune to his radiating amazing-ness and in fact rather annoyed at his displays and his arrogance.

Dragon's hubris was very likely about to be knocked down a notch, though. Or maybe several.

If he survived, that was. Hopefully, the little bird behind him would escape the damage he was about to bring down on himself.

Dragon crept forward, slowing as he neared the fissures beneath the Spire. He moved only slightly more carefully, sniffing the ground as he went, picking his way to the closest bit of crystal he could. There he tried to clamp jaws around it, and wrench a small piece free--a piece he could carry home, as a prize, to Aquarian.

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