Hatched without family? He wasn't really surprised- he'd figured the same a while ago. The thought that the Spire spit them out without care was a bit concerning, though.

However- "This Spire is not my Spire." He huffed and shuffled his wings, anger flicking across his muzzle for the briefest of moments. Muzrothun spoke about wondering about the past yet spoke in absolutes like that, trying to teach him, him, a being who'd been crafted and not spit out like some rejected piece of food into this nest.

Careful, Desert. Put that ego in check. Closing his eyes and taking in a breath, Desert calmed himself before he got riled up. Alpha had decided to reject the word 'parent'. Either way would've been fine for him- it was just important that Vargas didn't end up hearing it if it did decide to say it.

Desert blinked at the final question. "Probably other caves, maybe hives," he offered with a shrug. "Above, below- is this because of the vents?" He knew of their existence, sure, but he'd never actually flown up to them. He'd always had better things to do, and he still did, like watching the kids now. "I'm pretty sure those are for air circulation. They're nothing but rock though. The... Furnace room- the ocean, that's directly under some other caves, I'm pretty sure."

The more this okapi spoke, the more Desert's claws dug into the rock, nails scraping hard along the sand. Why would anybody need to be worried about another world? And that blatant disregard for the masters- dissension, as Alpha so eloquently put it. He would praise it on the word usage if he weren't preoccupied.

Standing abruptly, Desert's wings flared and planted their claws on the ground, his head rearing up. "You shouldn't be worried about worlds without Masters. These are your caves, and you should be proud of them." Stepping forward, mane on end, Desert looked over the being before him. "Is there something you're running from, Okapi? Unless you've got a way to dig or fly, I don't see how you're gonna find out about that secret world you're interested in."

He continued towards her, using his wings as though he were stepping on a third pair of limbs. There wasn't a way he could look intimidating being so much shorter than her, but his eyes narrowed nonetheless as he looked over her.

Too bad. She could have been of use as the hive was being reborn. He was interested in where this idea came from, though.

He pushed it too far. "I haven't," he grumbled softly at the thought of wondering, forcing himself to look away so he didn't intimidate the child further.

This is what it was. A child of the new system, one raised like a lesser in the wilds. Carefree. He hesitated to call the lot of them stupid; they didn't know, but with them being this ignorant for so long set their personality wrong. It corrupted them.

Made them useless.

Desert huffed as she ran off, waving her away with a dismissal claw and secretly hoping she didn't come back. Best to leave them to their devices- he had no use for the forsaken like that. Odd that her hunger was so convenient though.

The claws tipping the dragon's wings rain over the back of his neck, smoothing out unsettled hairs and moving on to settle spiked scales. He glanced to Alpha- it was expectant. "No," Desert sighed, disappointed. They shouldn't terrorize those who didn't know what they were doing. "If she comes back, see one of the commanders as soon as you can, understood? I don't want you to attack her unless she starts it first." He gave the child looming over him a hard look before beginning to trot back to the warren.

He had plans to formulate and- okay. No, he just needed some time to think over the encounter, like he did with everything. He paused, though, and turned to regard the gore still on Alpha and its dinner-plate.

"Good job hunting, by the way." His tail flicked towards the remains of the rat- whatever was left of it, anyways.

There. Compliment paid; he returned to the warren with everything said and done, his sandy mane disappearing into the tunnel's offset they'd spent time building for their...

What was it? Family.