ORIGIN

"DO I BREATHE, OR NOT?!" Bedlam shrieked as another wave splashed over its face. Hopefully Blight could hear it over the water and gurgling. Honestly, what was with these conflicting instructions? Thankfully, it mostly managed to figure it out before it could drown. Take a breath at the top, but not underwater.

Green eyes squinted through the turbulent waters. Yes! There was a small group of silver fish, darting beside them--and quickly swimming away! It lunged toward one of them, bubbles escaping from its mouth as its teeth snapped shut on its silver tail. It was not a secure grip, and the fish kept wiggling and trying to dart away.

"Slippery," the catwhale mumbled, struggling to wrap its front claws around the fish to get a better grip. The silverling's tail threatened to tear as it struggled. Finally, it managed to get a better hold on the fish, and took a gasping breath at the surface.

Then it realized: those shores were very steep. It wasn't even sure if it could climb them. "I can't get out!" it wailed.

@Blight

He was opening his jaws to answer when the... calf? Cub? Thing? -seemed to figure it out for itself. "Nice! You're doing it!" he praised, and his enthusiasm was genuine.

Oh, but-

'I can't get out!'

Blight hadn't really thought that far ahead. With a baby dragon he could've just scooped it up, but this thing was both heavy even for a baby, and there didn't look to be much excess skin, scale, fin or the like to grip it by. His narrow jaws were strong--to hold a strong grip on big fish--but he didn't know if he'd hurt the kid with his teeth.

Well, hell.

He thought, for a moment, and that thought led to just Ah, fuck it, and with a flare of wings he dropped into the river. His landing made a mighty splash, the current shoving this huge new draconic block downriver a moment before he turned himself into the current.

He did his best to make of himself a bridge: something that Bedlam could climb onto, with his neck and head arched out to touch the shore. It took his whole size to do it, but maybe he could be a dragon-shaped water-ramp? It wasn't a very good bridge. It would take effort to get up there, and even to get on his back.

"Try to climb up!" he offered, "-and maybe I can bring you to live somewhere with, um, lower shores."

In retrospect, realizing that he wasn't exactly a solid ramp, he added: "Or if you can get on my back and hold on with your teeth--you won't hurt me--I can fly you out?"

@Bedlam

Bedlam might have yelped as Blight leapt into the river, sending an enormous splash of water all around him, if it hadn't still been clutching the silverling in its teeth. At least now there was a way out--well, possibly. Would Blight be any easier to climb than the shores? He was kind of tall. There were no--stairs, or anything.

It paddled toward him obediently anyway, because hell if it had any better ideas, and began to climb. Or try to climb. Try surprisingly successfully, given that Blight was a smooth-scaled, steeply tall dragon. Its claws scrabbled against the snake-like skin of Blight's tail as it pulled itself upward, and finally settled at (what it thought was) a suitably wide and flat area of the dragon's back.

"Holding on," it mumbled around the silverling, and dug its claws in tightly.

@Blight

Blight scrambled out, a beat or two of drenched wings lifting them from the river. Claws scrabbled at rock, tail lashing wildly behind him, and then he was on shore.

He laid down, coiling his head back to peer with ghostlight eyes at his passenger.

"You still got your fish?!" he asked, because that seemed, to him, like the obvious most important thing.

Otherwise he lay still, a quiet and careful motionlessness, so that Bedlam could get safely down. And as an afterthought, he sent a little boost of bolstering magic the kid's way. Struggling in Polaris's river probably wasn't great for the body, after all.

@Bedlam

Blight's body shifted and swayed alarmingly beneath its claws, but Bedlam managed to keep clinging on. And then it was over! and Bedlam breathed a sigh of relief, rolling off of the dragon's back. Now that all the scary parts were over, it could only think of how fun it had been to catch the fish, and its toothy smile returned at Blight's question. "Yeah!" it confirmed, dropping the fish before its claws to grin at Blight. "Fish!"

It tucked itself against the dragon's side, taking comfort in the warmth radiating from his smooth scales, and examined its catch. The silverling looked a little smaller than Blight's banana had been--but, of course, bananas were curved and fish were less so, so it couldn't really tell for sure. The fins looked thin, bony, and probably not what it was supposed to eat? The banana equivalent, the stem, had been chewy and stringy and definitely a lot less good compared to the rest of it. Which wasn't really saying a lot, considering it'd eaten the peel, too.

The point was, it didn't think the fins were so good. It took a careful bite from the side instead, wincing and spitting out a bone when it poked the top of its mouth. But sharp things aside, the flesh was... surprisingly good. "I like fish!" it decided, taking another bite.

Then, after a moment's thought, it added to Blight: "I like you!" The dragon had taught it to fish, rescued it from the river, and given it a banana. Even if the banana hadn't been particularly good. That made him pretty good in its eyes!

@Blight

Blight watched the baby, as seemed prudent; it was obviously inexperienced but it appeared, at least, to be unharmed. He remained silent as they examined, and eventually ate, the fish.

'I like fish!'

"Good! Cool," he agreed, settling his wings in a little closer to his body, leaning down against the rock. Water still streamed from his scales.

'I like you!'

...Awww. He craned his head down and gave the child a gentle glance. "Also cool!" he decided, a little more cheerfully. "I like you too, kid. Not hungry anymore, right-? Want to go somewhere easier to fish?" He was trying to think of places, really. There was Fornax, but that was all water and easy to drown in when it flooded. Leo might be good for it-? "I know a place that's nice and warm, with a lot of water and wind and light, if you want? It's very pretty. I could probably carry you there," he offered. "There's a ton of fish. Or there's a place with lots of plants, close, and it has fish too, but not as much," he added, thinking of Eridanus.

Or maybe Bedlam would just want to stay here.

He didn't know; he felt vaguely responsible for it, having found it here probably newly-hatched. But he didn't know how far that responsibility went. Svartis has adopted him completely, but then, they were both dragons and that just sort of seemed right. Was Bedlam, like, his kid now? Or should he just take 'em someplace safe, and leave them to their own devices?

After a moment's hesitation, he decided to let the kid decide. "If you want to go off on your own, you can. Or I can come with you and help you out. I don't mind." And he didn't; the fat cat-whale face was just too damn cute.

@Bedlam

Want to go somewhere easier to fish?

"Yes!" Bedlam cheered. "I like fish! But also not drowning!" Ooh, that was a new word. Drowning. What a pretty word for a terribly uncomfortable thing. Words were weird, it decided. If things were up to it, it'd create a new language where all the bad things got super ugly words.

Belatedly, it wondered why Blight liked it. It liked Blight because Blight had helped it get fish without drowning--okay, this was ridiculous. GHARKUBFLING. THAT WAS THE NEW WORD NOW. --because Blight had helped it get fish without GHARKUBFLING. But it didn't remember doing anything nice for Blight. Was the dragon a... it searched for the word within its developing mind... an 'enpeesee' of some sort? who just liked people by default, or at least just repeated what people said and liked it only because it liked him?

"Why do you like me? What if I said I hated you?" it tried, twisting its grin into a snarl for a brief moment before, like a rubber band, it snapped back to its original smiling expression. "Would you hate me too? Or like me?"

@Blight

The sudden twist in expression was unsettling, to say the least. Worse, though, was the pressure Bedlam had suddenly laid on the plague dragon's shoulders.

Why do you like me?

Well, shit. He had to think over his answer fast; it was a knot of potential issues and problems and moral implications. What if his reply totally fucked up Bedlam's sense of self-esteem forever?! He had to answer something to indicate general decency, too; it wasn't right to like, hate or attack people for no reason. But he couldn't go too easy or hard--and he couldn't lie, either, right?!

Blight cleared his throat, carefully considering his response before actually answering:

"You seem cool," was the underwhelming final product, delivered in an extremely casual tone. The "cool" was a sort of implied "chill." It didn't seem to say "you seem really neat and outstanding" so much as "you seem pretty easygoing, so why not."

...That'd do it, right? It'd imply that Bedlam did seem okay, and anyway Gembounds should be nice to other Gembounds as long as they weren't mean, or something... Right?

Oh, but there'd been a second half to that question, too. "And, uh, no, I wouldn't hate you. I'd be a little surprised?" Blight considered. "I'd wonder why you hated me, for sure. It'd seem sort of. Sudden."

Blight fidgeted. This conversation had gone real weird, real fast, but--maybe that was just a thing kids did..? He didn't know. "Anyway, if you want to climb on again, I'll take us to the bright place. I usually fish there at night, myself--I don't like the bright light as much. But there's a lot of water, and the shores aren't as steep. And plenty of fish."

...Maybe a change of topic would work.

@Bedlam

It awaited Blight's answer patiently, olive-green eyes staring unblinkingly at the dragon. The response, when it came, made sense in a surprisingly boring way. Oh. It supposed that was fair; it didn't make much sense for it to hate Blight when Blight had helped it. It wrinkled its nose, and tried again: "What if you hadn't taught me fishing yet, then, and I said I hated you?"

The promise of brightness and fish did indeed distract them, if only for so long. "Bright place!" it cheered, climbing back onto Blight's back. "Fish!" It was not exactly a comfortably place to sit, though. There was a ridge with torn, fin-like membranes down his spines, and it was rather poky. It could endure this, it supposed. For the sake of fish, and a nice place to live. Hopefully, the bright place was not so far away.

"Did you think I was cool before, or after I said I liked you?" it added as it struggled to find a secure way to hold on to Blight. Is it really okay to use claws...? It tightened its grip slowly, almost expecting the dragon to suddenly cry out and stop them.

Anyway, it seemed a little odd that Blight would know its coolness before they had interacted, but why would he approach it if he hadn't thought it was cool at first? "How do I tell if people are cool?" it continued.

@Blight

Damn, Blight thought, rather blankly; do kids always ask such hard questions..?

"If you said you hated me out of nowhere..? I'd ask why, I guess," he answered, nonplussed, craning draconic neck to peer quizzically back at Bedlam. "Hating other Gembounds for no reason would be... uh, weird."

He held still while the child gripped on. His scales were faintly warm, dry, and smooth; he wasn't armored like some other dragons, and his hide was relatively pleasant to touch, nasty spines aside. "I guess I figured you were cool... gradually. It's an impression you get of others. It's like... when they're not mean. When they're friendly, you know?" he tried. He began their journey at a walk: a wing-walking amble, reasonable in speed but without bobbing flight that might send the child tumbling. He didn't want that.

"Usually we try to be nice to one another--not everyone is," he went on, remembering the big monster that had attacked his Dad out of nowhere. The injured Svartis had sustained. "Plus, you're a kid, right-? I think?"

...Hesitation as he glanced back again. It was an assumption; what if it were wrong?

"We all start off as kids, kind of alone. So it's important to take care of kids when we find 'em, right? Help them out, like someone hopefully helped us out. And kids are usually cool. Not jerks. That make sense?"

Blight would've frowned, if he could. He was pretty sure he was botching this whole thing, and as he wound his way serpentine for the tunnel entrance he struggled to think on how to phrase things better. Someone wiser might have been able to give the kid a proper introduction to the world, but he was fumbling through it, and probably not very well.

"I don't know everything, you know," he offered, an olive branch of honesty that came in a moment of inspiration. Maybe it didn't fix anything, though. "But that's how I understand it all, at least."

@Bedlam