The alligator rumbled his approval.

"Good!" he cried, enthusiastically. "Then you are one of us. I will share knowledge and protection, as will you. So!"

He settled himself contentedly in the muck.

"Do you hold any questions?" His demeanor was easygoing and amenable. It was clear that, so long as someone wasn't stealing from, taunting or otherwise aggravating the alligator, he was relatively good-natured. Helpful, even, to those who seemed to meet his approval.

Dragon laughed heartily.

"Yes!" he boomed in response. "Now?" He eyed the youngster, briefly, wondering how best to tackle this. One could spook out prey while the other lay in wait, perhaps, or they could both chase it down--or ambush together? That would hardly be necessary. Still, finding it, rather than laying in wait, was always the challenge.

"Do you have a good sense of smell? Have you learned to use it, in hunting?" he asked. His own was strong enough, but more often than not he didn't need to use it in the slightest. Prey tended to come to him, after all, and the stench of the swamp was strong.

As an afterthought, he added--"Or do you have another way to find prey? It is harder to find, and sneak up on something, than to lie in wait, of course!"

"There are ways to see, without eyes. To see in the darkness--I can sense the beating hearts you've mentioned. They're red," he added, matter-of-factly. "I will see what I can find. You lie in wait, then, and do so near the pile--but not too near. I do not think this will work," he added. "When fleeing, a thing is likely to go every which way, and not straight in one direction. I also--" Misgiving siezed him, and he decided, abruptly, not to admit his lameness too deeply. He'd been about to say that he couldn't run far, but no. "I cannot fly quickly for very long."

He turned, huffing, and then added over his shoulder (so to speak; he could hardly crane his thick neck very far) "And you must share what we catch! If we work together, we are rewarded together."

There was a leathery rustle as batlike wings snapped out of his hide, darkly ethereal. Horns curled from his head, leaving him distinctly draconic--and proudly so--as his heavy body lifted vertically from the muck. He seemed to hang there, heavy and near-limp, as the great dragonlike wings beat their dramatically ebony-crimson streaks through the mist.

He waited, a beat, for Phlegethon's agreement.

"That is all well and good--but smoke also does not always go where you want it!" The image was ludicrous, to him--billowing smoke going every which way, cave deer leaping and scampering in all directions. Surely there was no way to control it.

Still, he'd have to find something fast, before these wings wore off--and so off he went, a vertical alligator bat-fairy, his wings flapping through the misty dark.

He headed a good way into the swamp--so far that Phlegethon was out of sight--and it occurred to him that the other might be sending him off in order to steal further from the pile. Dragon considered the idea, then disregarded it. If it did, he'd fight it the next time he saw it, and certainly keep it from joining the Children further. But if it wasn't, well, he'd find out soon enough. It was a good test of loyalty, he supposed.

Though the pile wasn't really large enough to tell when something had been taken.

He flapped onward, then lowered himself down into the muck as the wings faded. Instead he focused on his other abilities--his magicka coalescing, aiding him in seeking heartbeats in the darkness.

There.

There was something up ahead--he wasn't quite sure what. He considered, for a moment.

It was on the wrong side of him--if he gave chase now, it'd simply bolt off into the swamp. He had to get around to the other side, so that it headed toward the water. Whatever "it" was. His magic was too faint for him to identify the creature properly.

Slowly, as quietly as he could, the alligator began to haul himself through the muck in an attempt to circle around his prey. He felt that all of this was rather pointless--silly, even; but maybe it'd come in handy should they ever have a real enemy again, like that massive black dog. Something powerful that fled.

Either way, he'd humor Phlegethon, for now.

Well, it was--as it turned out--only a rabbit. The alligator grunted softly to himself, and pondered how to proceed. There was no way in hell he'd make it all the way around without the rabbit hearing him, and spooking--not slogging through the mud. Had there been a water channel, Dragon could have quite easily slipped around it.

He thought, for a moment, and then--taking aim at a point quite beyond the creature. He inhaled, jaw slowly cracking open, focusing on a tree beyond it. His magic welled up, then launched forth, splattering over the tree--and as it struck, the rabbit turned and bolted, before the old bark could even smolder or steam. Dragon glanced back, watching it race back toward the water.

There'd be nothing to share, here--assuming Phlegethon even managed to snatch this one. Assuming, even, that the rabbit went all the way to water without swerving off.

"RABBIT INCOMING," he bellowed, though he was far enough that he wasn't sure Phlegethon would even hear him past perhaps a muffled, distant call. But at least it might scare the rabbit onward.