"The Divine is made of evil, don't go near it!" squawked Eve, flying off Dragon's head as he began wandering back to the Tree. She turned her head towards Usui as she hovered in the air.

She thought for a moment before speaking, "Eridanius is pretty green."

She tried to think of more leafy-places, but Eve still hadn't explored all the rooms or tunnels yet. She croaked and moved to flutter down onto Ghanyarah's head (carefully!) and gently nudge him with an inward sigh before lifting her head to stare after Dragon once more.

Dragon peered back at Usui and Ghanyarah as he trotted forward through the murky swamp, sending little sprays of stagnant brown water up with every clawed footstep.

"Well I know everything isn't made of bushes--death-art-tree? It's art? What's art? What's a drawing?" He looked forward again, dropping heavily into the black channel of water that led up to the Divine and starting to propel himself more swiftly with his powerful tail. He seemed more excited than perturbed, now, perhaps at the prospect of an adventure with the few that he might call "friend." Still, he was growing, and maturing, and wasn't quite as spunky as he might have been--and he also knew, now, that it was polite to say thank you. So he did.

"And thanks for helping. Eve I know you don't like the tree, and I don't either and Usui I bet you don't like water and Ghanyarah you sound like you don't even like Dad but I really don't want someone stealing stuff from Cetus, anyway. What if they start stealing from me? Or you? ...I don't have anything to steal, though," he added as an afterthought.

He babbled, then fell silent about halfway to the huge tree, thankfully giving the others time to speak before and as they arrived.

Once they were there, he hesitated near the tree, then started just peering up and around, examining the roots and the grasses by eye before starting to circle the great Divine--albeit at something of a distance.

"Eve if you can see anything from the air it'd be good but don't get too close. It probably will eat you."

How trees could possibly eat birds wasn't a thing he'd considered the mechanics of, but if the tree was evil, it could probably do anything evil that it wanted. Including eating his friends.

Eve was quiet for a moment as she took to the air. Eve didn't want to go near the Tree. Eve would do anything other than go near the Divine. She'd even admit she would never be bigger than Krakarak. She was disgusted to even think about that. Eugh.

"If somebody stole the crown then it probably won't be here, y'know? They'll take it someplace else and hide it and be greedy with it and they're probably laughing at us," croaked the crow. She was careful as she approched the Divine, however, peering closely at the branches and twigs on it.

She was deathly silent the entire time. Perhaps she thought if she made no sound, the Divine would not attack her. She didn't stay long either, within a few moments she fluttered back down away from the Tree, landing on a root a good distance away from the others. She fluffed herself up with a huff and waited.

Dragon listened intently as he swam, taking in the definition of "art" and what it meant to his brother. And as much as he feared the Divine, he was loyal to his family, and he crept closer and ignored the fear running through him so that he could clamber up a bit to peer at the drawing.

He looked up at Eve, then, taking note as she seemed to find nothing, flapping this way and that to peer into the branches.

"Nothing?" he asked, disappointed.

A moment later Ghanyarah was scampering around the edge of the tree's roots, and Dragon blinked and had to scurry to catch up. He peered into the darkness beneath the tree, but saw nothing.

"Well... I guess it's not here, then. Where should we check next? I was sleeping in the ridges so I don't think it's there but it could be anywhere in any of this grass," he said doubtfully. "We could look through here first and then... Eridanus?" He glanced at Eve for confirmation. He thought he'd been there once; the water had wanted to eat him. In fact, it occurred to him that this might be important information, and so he shared it.

"The water there wanted to eat me."

The little crow nodded, then paused. "How does water eat water-dragon?" she asked. It sounded like a strange detail - but she'd been there before. "Maybe if we avoid the water?"

She thought, for a moment, as Dragon found his grass-dilemma. Before long she shot up into the air, croaking and batting her wings as she began scanning as much of the area as she could. She occasionally landed to check long patches of grass, or flew into bushes to check in there, but every time she flew back into the air empty-handed. Empty-taloned?

Yet she continued, although she wasn't gone for long. She plummeted back onto Dragon's head to reclaim her place as hat, panting and wheezing briefly.