ORIGIN

When Lass got up to go find some chalk, Beta also got to its feet, looking down at the immediate area. The flower that Lass had been sitting on...that might work! It carefully picked off the petals and began to crush it in its paws - it had seen other gembounds do this. When it saw Lass trying to draw a piece of chalk over, chalk that was way too small for it to feasibly pick up and use without breaking, it let out a small rumble. "No, it's ok. I have something here." It raised its paw, covered in light pink dye.

It eyed the flower that Lass had drawn and attempted to do the same, reaching forward and, using the pad of its paw instead of claw, drew another, far worse flower, next to hers. "I don't really...like anything? I like training and sleeping...and that's it." A sad fact, but it didn't seem to notice. "I think your flower looks better then mine."

Beta stared at its little thing of dye on the ground, trying to figure out the purpose of this. Why draw? The furred reptile had talked about doing art and drawing too - why was it such a popular activity? It really couldn't find the use of it in its training. But, then again, obviously there was more to the world then just what Master Vargas had told it. Still, maybe there was a way to turn it around...

What it liked...what it liked? It liked to sleep and train and it wasn't interested in finding anything else. It looked at the pink color soaking into its paw and, suddenly, it had burst of inspiration. "Wait, I think I had an idea!" It looked around for things it could use - plants or rocks and more dyes, but there...wasn't much. It was Orion, there wasn't a ton of plant-life to explore. "Uh, well, I guess this isn't really the place, though. I was thinking what if I put dye on myself? You know, made myself not purple and look like something else? That would be cool."

Beta chuckled a little awkwardly. "Oh, yeah! A game of hide and seek would be easy if you could just look like the wall or something." But it was thinking more along the lines of hiding its identity. After all, the dragon had noticed it almost immediately from its color and shape. If it could somehow alter that...

But that was a topic for a different time. Right now, Lass was offering it exactly what it had been searching for through the caves - some training. "Oh? You'll help me train? Alright, we should make it a proper game, then. How does that sound?"

It snorted. "I'll try not to. But okay, I'll give you the rules of the game." Beta sat up and looked over at the nearby ruins, tail flicking behind it. Vargas had, a long time ago, sent it and some black cat running through those very same ruins, its first hunting game. Now, it would hunt again, with more skills then before.

"Do you see those ruins?" It pointed at the buildings nearby. "You're going to go in there and hide. Prepare however you want. You'll have three minutes to find a good spot and then I'm going in too. I have to find and capture you!" It nodded to itself, yes this was the same exercise that Vargas had given it some cycles ago, if it was remembering correctly. "Any questions?"

Beta nodded and watched after her, waiting for her to go into the buildings before it followed. It didn't see any problem with not telling her what tricks it had - this was training with the face of a game. Her disguises would be useless, unless there was some other creature running around that would mess its tracking up.

It would wait for her, and then it would begin.

*exit