ORIGIN

The answer that roiled through Dragon's head was every bit as predictable as Eve had guessed.

"...Fun? Don't know. Eating is fun. Hunting is fun. Fighting is fun. FIRE is fun!" he suddenly squeaked, tilting his head back. A gout of actual, scorching flame--not shimmering hot air, but real fire--torrented forth in a crackling roar, straight up toward the black cave roof. It reached several meters, illuminating the surrounding marsh and the corpse pile in an eerie, guttering flash of glowing orange.

Then, just as quickly as he'd done it--startled--he jerked back, squeaking again, diving into the marsh water and opening his maw. There was a violent hiss, steam rising, as the poor little alligator quenched his burning insides. For awhile he lay like that, eyes wide, shivering and staring off at nothing.

Eve nodded along. Food. Hunting. Fighting, sure. Fire. Wait...

"Fir-- KRAK!" she screeched and recoiled, scrambling away and onto the glowing carcass, fluffing herself up with a snort.

She watched the submerged alligator for a moment before squawking with a tone of warning; "Fire burns!"

Dragon shuddered beneath the water, then lifted his head out to face Eve. His jaws were still open, the water no longer steaming as it streamed down from between his teeth. His eyes were watering--apparently alligators could cry--and his voice was a mix of agonized pain and triumphant joy.

"Fire burns!" he agreed in the rasping, fire-damaged croak.

Then, as if to prove it, in an extravagant display of Dragon's lack of common sense, he immediately tried to do it again.

This time he waddled sideways, turning his body to face out over the black marsh, and opened his dripping jaws wider. He gulped down a bit of water first, and then inhaled, feeling the banked fire within him suddenly flicker and well up as he tapped into his gem's magic. The heat blistered and swelled, then erupted violently outward over the marsh in a fantastic display of pluming flame, again illuminating the entire area.

This time, the water protected his throat somewhat from the burns, and the wide-eyed young alligator immediately dunked his jaws to quench them, before raising up with another pained but triumphant cheer.

"YESSS!" he croak-hissed. Then he looked toward Eve, as if fully expecting her to share in the enthusiasm that had engulfed him. Fire was the best thing, after all.

Eve looked more concerned than enthusastic. The crow hadn't had much experience with fire before, but even she knew it must be hurting him, if the alligator's seared voice wasn't enough.

"Dragon shouldn't hurt himself," croaked the bird, turning her attention back to the pile of carcasses. "We should find stuff to turn on."

She looked around again before she ambled towards Dragon, going to climb up onto his back and settle herself down there with a chirp.

Dragon thought about this for awhile.

Things to turn on? What could they turn on?

"OH!" he cried suddenly, excited. He squirmed up alongside Eve. "I know something! Come on! I'm SURE it's magic!" He turned, wide-eyed, to wait for her to get on (which hopefully she did), and then bolted off through the marsh. He was careful not to drop the little black bird, but nonetheless he galloped, swam and thrashed his way right up into the Groves, jaws open so he could pant with exertion.

On arrival he nodded upward with his snout.

They were at the tallest tree in the marsh, its roots long and twisted--he'd rested here before, and he came closer to show Eve what was so special about it.

The roots weren't simply tree roots. They looked like bodies, bodies caught and frozen hard and dark while writhing and twisting in pain. Dragon grinned, like a child prodding some gruesome thing he'd found by a, well, swamp.

"Isn't it awesome?!" he hiss-squeaked. "It's magic, I know it! It's just GOTTA be magic!"

Then he peered back at Eve expectantly, waiting for her to light up the entire giant tree.

Dragon tilted his reptilian head slightly as Eve said "duuuuude." This was not, in fact, a word he had heard before.

Duuuuude, he thought to himself, trying it out in his mind before deciding that it didn't fit him.

He looked back to the tree, then to Eve, quizzically.

"Not magic? I thought it would be magic. Maybe magic's dead? Maybe -I- can turn on magic?" Without a moment's hesitation, he looked toward the Divine, opened up his maw and--feeling the heat roiling up and boiling forth from within--let out a quick, not-too-intense blast of flame loose toward the tree's bark.

Surely, if the tree were magic, that would wake it up?

Dragon blinked as the roots shifted.

He blinked again as a deep, ripping groan rumbled through the air.

By the time the ground began to shake he had turned and was galloping--the crow pecking and clinging to his back--toward the water channel he'd swam up to get here. He leapt in with a belly-flopping splash and then--tail shoving him forward with all the power he could muster--arrowed back for the heart of Cetus. If there were an onlooker, and if they didn't know better, they might even think he was running home to cower beneath a particularly large parent.

"WHATWASTHAT?!" he panted as he swam, eyes bulging with fear. "Is it alive?! Did I wake it up? IS IT HUNTING?"

Dragon half-glanced back over his shoulder, but as that resulted in him nearly colliding with the bank of the marsh and all its reeds (as it was, he bumped off and flinched), he quickly looked forward again.

"IS IT CHASING US? LOOK! LOOK! IS IT CHASING US?!"

He kept swimming forward, as swift as he could, as he begged Eve to look back--all the while trying to keep his balance as the world, and its water, trembled.