Pride hurried toward the sounds-... The rather alarming sounds, if he were honest with himself. It sounded like someone was bullying a very small animal. He heard cracking, snapping, hissing, and then a high-pitched, angry scream.

When he came in sight, therefore, of only one tiny creature, he faltered to a stop in some confusion. His tine-branched head swivelled this way and that, but he saw no attackers--and upon studying Opie for another moment, he realized the young one was probably newly-hatched. It was, after all, surrounded by the shards of (what he assumed was) its gemstone; too, its fur was slicked down, dark with wet.

"Hello, little one," he offered, the gentle lilt of his voice and the pristine shimmer as he swept back into motion deeply at odds with the little one's soaked screeching. "Are you injured-?"

Pride didn't know if the young creature could even understand him, yet; to that end he attempted to project the meaning behind the words, too, straight into Opie's mind. Polite, he didn't try to eavesdrop on Opie's own thoughts.

He did leave the link tentatively open for a moment, in case the child did wish to respond but found its words unsuited; Pride might perhaps at least over"hear" the poor opossum's intent.

Bold, benevolent, he added: "Do not worry; you are safe, here. I will protect you." While not particularly egotistical, it was certainly one hell of an assumption--that the child would need protecting.

That the child would want protecting.

That the child might not actually attack him outright.

Pride's pale eyes widened a fraction.

This child was-... was angry. Angry, to an extent he hadn't seen in a very long time. It concerned him, for more reasons than one, and he dared step a little closer, peering down. "You have my magic," he observed gently, letting the link between them slip shut. "The same magic," he clarified.

Then, he looked to the scattered shards. "Did you get harmed in some way?" Had the child been trapped in its chrysalis, perhaps?

He turned his gaze upon some of the scattered shards, and cast out his magic toward them. He was careful to keep the magic from the child--really, this was a foolish use of it, but nobody had ever accused Pride of responsible use of extraordinarily destructive magic. A shimmer shrouded the cluster of shards farthest from Opie--and then faded. Though it wouldn't be immediately obvious, he'd weakened the very physical structure of the stones, the bonds holding their atoms together at the most basic level.

Pride looked to the child.

"You should be able to destroy them now," he offered gently. Maybe Opie just needed to get it out of his system?

Pride watched, the father's indulgence in him warring with the guardian's concern that this child might grow up to be a monster.

Let it be said that, first of all, Pride had known many very small monsters: size didn't matter to magical power, and he knew that.

Second, however, he had never seen an opossum before in his life. He had seen tiny hatchlings grow to immense sizes. In Pride's mind, Opie might grow to be thirty feet long, weigh several tons, and still be filled with rage.

He hoped that this wouldn't be the case--on either front. Maybe now the kid would calm down, now that the rocks had been punished for... (Pride looked over the shattered shards) whatever they had done?

He cleared his throat politely and stepped forward. "I'm terribly sorry. If it's any consolation, you can always go back to sleep," he suggested, tone gentle. "-In the meantime... Are you hungry, little one?" He turned his head a little, lowering his nose toward the floor, again calling on his magic.

A banana--albeit a freakishly tiny one, though that perhaps wasn't a bad thing given Opie's size--popped into existence, shimmering, and fell to the rock before him. Pride pressed his teeth in and tugged away some of the peel, then stepped back, nodding to it.

"My name is Pride; if you're hungry, those are good to eat." He didn't bother explaining that they were magic, and should be tasty and nutritious even if Opie were some sort of terrifying carnivorous monster child.

Pride watched, pleased at least that the child was being fed. Opie wouldn't starve to death, at least not right away, then.

As he waited, he lifted a hind leg, scratching with broad strokes of a hoof behind one ear; he set this down with a click as Opie finished. The question had him pausing, thinking. "Yes," he settled on; "It's magic. We can all learn different kinds; but I have known many to learn how to call the fruits. It may take time," he warned, trying to keep things simple--because learning how to summon bananas was a fickle magic, and one that seemed to come and go at the whims of the caves.

"But I think, for now, your magic is the same as mine. It isn't all that good for finding food, but... if you eat meat," (and even a long examination of Opie's tiny, fuzzy form gave no clues to him--what did this one naturally eat?) "this magic can help you to catch prey. But," he went on, his tone gentle but stern, "it can also be very dangerous. When I was a child, a friend of mine hurt her own leg very badly with that magic, and I had to hunt for her for weeks." He still remembered her--Aster--the black dog, curled with her shattered limb as he went out to retrieve dead rats to keep her alive. "It's a very strong magic, if you can master it."

He concentrated, for a moment, studying Opie closely. "Here--try this," he offered, and cast out a little thread of magic, attempting to magically imbue Opie with that terribly scientific attribute of "bounciness." "If you can learn this magic, it can help you travel very far, very fast--to find food, or to get away from danger. Jump, if you can," he suggested.

And he readied himself to catch the opossum, should Opie somehow get into trouble.

Pride blinked, and quickly scrambled to catch the child--with his magic, of course, not with his hands. But Opie was already on the floor again, puffed up and hissing. "You're all right!" he hastened to assure him. "No, no; I'm not trying to harm you. Look," he suggested gently, turning his magic on himself.

A moment later, Pride turned sidelong to Opie (he didn't want to spring straight at him, which even Pride had to admit would be terrifying). He tensed, then jumped, and began a series of brief but graceful leaps across the rock. They looked effortless, floating, like some sort of weird deer ballet; and he turned to peer at Opie as he performed it. "Do you see-? Good for travel," he tried to explain. Good for someone with tiny legs.
He came to a halt, hooves clattering as he caught himself, and turned back toward the opossum. "-Alternatively, I could simply... carry you to find food?" He remembered, then, the poor kid's desire to just... go back to sleep, and amended his offer with a second. "Or-... I have a safe place you might rest, if you prefer."