ORIGIN

Esther was persistent, the orthoclase could give them that. Being called something it wasn't couldn't be that good of a reason to beat up another canine-looking thing. At least Deli had instigated with violence.

Acidic eyes stared down at its paw, soot marring the pads and sides. There wasn't much burnt, but the stinging sensation remained. Alpha squinted, then blinked slowly. "Fire." Good word. "Only you make fire?" As in, is it natural? Or was it just limited to magic?

The monster baby tilted its head, quills seeming to glow brighter for a moment, mostly towards the middle of its neck. "Magic..." it rumbled, before promptly going completely dark. If it was standing in a shadow, it might have disappeared completely into it. But, no - Alpha was just standing in the middle of Canis's floor, a hulking dark figure. "Like this?"

Alpha was going to assume that this was the only thing that could make fire - likely until the point it saw someone else that subverted that expectation completely. Or, y'know, a naturally-occurring flame. That was apparently enough of a rarity (but, to be fair, the orthoclase had been in two caves total in its entire one-month lifespan.)

The monstrous baby seemed completely unbothered by the putrid stench of burning flesh; if anything, it seemed to be staring with eagerness and licking at its chops. "Fire done eating soon?" Yes, it was going to wait for an intangible thing to be 'done' so it could gobble down the free rat. No, it was not going to share. Alpha was not some communist.

Its quills rattled slightly as it 'shook' off the illusion of darkness, blinking owlishly and staring down at its paw. In a few failed attempts to do something regarding fire, the orthoclase scraped meaty claws over the rock and grunted. Giving up on that, Alpha went right back to patting at currently-not-on-fire parts of the rat, waiting in slightly feral anticipation.

Back to square one, as far as conversation went.

"Is good food," Alpha grumbled over the crackling - dying! - fire. It continued to paw at it, but with arguably more fervor than before. Esther had the misfortune of witnessing the monster baby's discovery of how to kill fire: it was just like anything else... smash it. The orthoclase gave a few more solid whaps until there was nothing but smoldering embers and billowing fur-scented smoke.

Without even offering to share part of the thing (Scruffy had shown no clear interest anyways! It was fair ball.) the hybrid darted forwards, easily snapping up the charred - and boiling-hot - rat and tossing it back. Alpha panted the entire time, but it eventually managed to crunch up the carcass enough to swallow it in one gulp.

The orthoclase's eyes narrowed slightly from the mild pain of a heavily burnt tongue that now lolled out from over crooked-jagged teeth. Plopping down heavily, it panted some more and managed to muster up a few choice, but hesitant words: "you pick good rat."

That was... kind of a compliment?

Not even an ounce of Esther's worried protesting was enough to slow the monster baby's warpath against this poor rat. If anything, it seemed like Alpha started chewing faster with every word - like a dog that had something in its mouth that it shouldn't.

It coughed and sputtered once, but put the force of a thousand behind it. The resulting sound was a cacophony only a dad with a megaphone could generate. As Alpha cleared its throat and panted, tongue lolling out, it became obvious that there wasn't as much glowing. Fur-ash was clinging to the entire inside of its mouth (and if it'd any idea about what taste was, it'd be glad it didn't have any.)

With a single grunt of determination - because there was quite a bit of pain accompanying the burning sensation - it answered, "no." Then, for unrelated reasons, it stood up and trundled towards the nearest pool of water, "I'm getting drink."

Once it got there, Alpha bowed down, squaring off its legs until they were nearly straight out from its body, and dunked its entire head underneath the water. There it stayed for far longer than should be reasonably possible, not even actually drinking. The monster baby took one glug only as it lifted back up, licking its chops and leaving a charcoal smudge along both sides of its jaw.

Alpha swallowed once, like it was making sure that all of the water in its mouth had gone down the right path. It made a few more smudges of charcoal on its upper jaw before finally acknowledging that Scruffy'd spoken. Acidic eyes leered down at them, quills rattling with the shift of its head. Easing weight from one cracked forearm to another, it grumbled, "what?"

Ash? Sure sounded like a bad word - not that Alpha knew a difference between what words were and weren't polite to use. Some were just those you didn't use towards the Overseer and other authorities, and were usually too exotic for it to bother with anyways... like milquetoast.

Esther had at least specified that it was something on its face, so the orthoclase shuffled forwards, moving so that the dim water was reflecting its face and not a harsh light glare from above. Glaring down into the puddle, Alpha tilted its head from side to side, as if inspecting the damages. It stuck its tongue out. The bright green kisser lolled out the side of its mouth, glow dimmed by the prominence of charcoal and ash.

Then, Alpha set right back to sticking its head underneath the water - but more aggressively this time. There was quite a massive spray of water on all sides as it first bowed down, shaking its head, then just fully submerged itself in the middle of it. May as well go full hog, right?