That was... relievingly coherent, and Pride flashed a somewhat-surprised glance down toward the pup. Emberheart had rarely strung more than a few words together, but he seemed to be summarizing Pride's own words accurately enough. "Right, that's right," he said, and realized a moment later that he'd probably sounded condescending. Which wasn't entirely his fault; he was pleasantly surprised, relieved even, but he really should've watched his tone. He hastened to move on.
"Oh, I don't mind--I can get this out of the way first, or tell you after-?" A glance to Ember and careful gauging of his expression, and he shrugged. "After, then. As for Dragon--an alligator is... a lizard, a reptile. So no fur, no feathers. He's sort of--thick hide, armor. Dark color, long, low to the ground. A predator," he added, and then, squinting as he walked, "Sort of... a dragon, without wings, without strong legs. Made for water," he explained. "His tail has long ridges along it, and he has no horns." His mind reminded him, though, that sometimes Dragon did have wings and horns; but that was magic, and this was really no time to go into that. Sudden revelation of possibly-average intelligence aside, he didn't want to confuse Ember with unnecessary details.
"In any case, Fireheart was very serious, very... dutiful. Mind you, I don't expect any of this of you, Ember; become whoever you want to be. But I tell you of him just... so you know, because I feel you should, hm? He became a protector, a guardian, one of the Seven. And he became very, very proficient in his fire magic." Pride moved on. He was debating how much to tell Ember. He didn't think he'd ever tell him--or maybe only when he was much older--exactly how Fireheart had died, because it had been gruesome as all hell. The wolf, he'd been told, had self-ignited and rushed into the darkness, holding it at bay in the hopes of letting others escape--he'd essentially burned himself alive, a living torch to drive back shadows.
Which was not something you told a child, let alone the child of the deceased.
"We got word, one day, of a dangerous Trial being held in Hydra. You remember me mentioning Hydra-?" Pride asked, glancing down for the affirming nod. He'd warned the children not to venture there, warned them of the dangers he'd heard of, but never seen. "Not the same sort of Trial as mine, but something big, with 'rewards' for going. Two of the Seven--Fireheart and Nassir, who was Temperance's stone-giver and a good friend of mine--went to try and defend those who chose to go. I thought it foolish; those Gembounds were choosing to risk their lives, knowingly, for greed. But they went anyway, and unfortunately, neither one of them returned. They died defending others," he went on, and was it wrong to hide the mode of deaths from these children? He hadn't told Temperance, either, of how Nassir had drowned in mud, of how his corpse had been puppetted to terrorize the rest (or at least he assumed as much, from what he had been told; he wasn't sure if Nassir had been among these). Was it necessary information..? Somehow, he very much doubted that; but was it wrong to keep it from them-?
"When their stones were retrieved, I wanted to give them life, again; but it felt wrong to give life to yours, myself. Since--as I said, I am not fire. I thought of Dread, because while I didn't know Fireheart all that well--not past his well-spoken intelligence, his seriousness or his intensity--I did know that he loved flames. And Dread is a dragon who seems to like fire--and treasures--above all else." He glanced down at Ember, again; it occurred to him now that maybe the pup's obsession with objects stemmed from the dragon's instinct to hoard things.
"Dread is more simple, and more brutal. I've described him before as a sort of... weapon; all claws, teeth and flames, good to fight an enemy but quick-tempered and..." Could he describe Ember's life-giver as rather stupid-? That seemed cruel, given the prior conversation. "He isn't a deep thinker, exactly. He acts first, thinks later," was what Pride settled on, carefully. "But he's a formidable opponent, and I'm sure you'll meet him some day as ally, not as enemy."