He lay quiet, listening to her questions and gathering his own breath and thoughts. He found himself oddly content in the moment: mostly fed, full on water, warm enough on his little bed of grass sprouts, and with friendly company.
Arsu glanced to Kira, and started to gather up some more answers for her, as best he could--it was a little worrying, as once again he reflected that he'd never really done this before. And fretted, too, at somehow messing it all up for the poor kid.
"Well... almost everyone has magic, I think. Except one Gembound I know of who went into the Spire--that's the giant glowing crystal, over there. Don't touch it," he added, in warning; "It almost killed him, and it took away his magic. As for how to find your own..? You could try focusing on different things. Magic's like..."
...How do I describe this? he thought, pausing to mull it over for a moment. "It's like combining your concentration, with a sort of... hidden inner power, to make something happen that you want to. My father says it can take any form--anything you try to do, with practice, you can make it happen." He glanced over the cub, then, looking for any sign of a gemstone. "A lot of us think it stems from the gemstone in you--you have one, yes? Somewhere?" he asked. "So it might--maybe?--help to focus a bit on that." Arsu gave it another moment's silent thought before continuing.
"A lot of us have, hmm... an affinity with one thing or another. With fire, or rock, or destruction, or magic of the mind, or ice and water; light and dark, things like that. If you feel a pull toward a... a theme, I guess? A certain... subject? That might be your magic. Mine is... growing things, I think; making light and making plants grow. My other father--Mercy--that's his magic, too," Arsu explained. He wasn't exactly correct on all of this, but it was guesswork on his part, and it was the best that he could do--even if he was repeating himself a little from before.
The kid's questions had been a torrent, though, and dutifully (but contentedly enough) he turned his mind to the next one.
"The green stuff's grass. It's a kind of plant. A lot of us eat plants, not meat. It was magic, yes--my magic," he clarified, with a kindly nod.
"As for who not to trust..? That's a harder question," he said, and considered. "Just... be careful what you agree to. Always know that someone might be wanting to get close enough to attack you. Not everyone--not even most Gembounds. But it's happened before," he added. "You can try and gauge, I suppose, based on their behavior--but it won't always be obvious. I prefer to try and trust others, but I'm aware they might not all be trustworthy." He didn't go into the horrid details--of the "untrustworthy" Gembounds that had roamed the caves in other cycles, and who likely still did. Some killed anyone they could find, others were simply combatative or violent, others still manipulative--or worse, a combination of the traits. But Arsu didn't want to scare the kid, and anyway he didn't have much personal experience with any of that: only anecdotes, like those that he now offered. Hopefully it'd be enough to help her protect herself, without scaring her off interaction with others.
Kira's assurance that she didn't want to keep him made him glance at her in some surprise, and he took a breath before answering. "Oh no, it's--I'm in no rush. I just-... I've never really run into a fresh-hatched kid before. I'll be honest, I'm afraid I won't give you the right advice, or... I'll miss something, you know? I don't want to ruin your chances. And I'm not sure if I should just... leave you here, or show you a safer place, maybe--there's better caves for you to live in, like Eridanus. You asked if I know others like you? There's at least two I've seen who've looked like you. One lives in Eridanus--or did. I'm not sure if he still does," he went on; nobody, so far as he knew, had heard of Sebastian being around for many cycles, now.
"My father recently had a child, too--one who looks a lot like you, actually. They've got antlers sprouting, but their stone-giver was really similar to you," he added, looking Kira over more thoughtfully. Temperance had come from Nassir: a black leopard who had passed away some time ago, and whose stone had been revived by Arsu's own stone-giver.
"...I could take you to meet them, if you want?" Arsu didn't know Temperance much--the stag-lion was a dreamy sort, himself, passing through the caves and forgetting how much time had slipped by in the meantime. He'd mostly missed the growth of his half-siblings. But he knew where to find them, at least.
"If you want either of those things, uh--Eridanus is full of plants, but also full of food you can find. It's soft, full of birds, water--it's not like Polaris, here. But Temperance, my family--they're in Orion, if you wanted to try and meet someone like yourself. Maybe they could teach you a little better than I could," he added, with a thoughtful shrug.
"Or you can go your own way, of course; many of us do. It's all up to you," he finished, with what passed for a deerlike smile.