Nidhogg scurried over the moment he heard the cracking of the chrysalis. He hadn't been keeping watch on it, no. Not staring at it all the time, fidgeting and wondering what the heck he'd done wrong.

Not at all.

His multi-eyed head stared intently at the child that had flopped out. Or would it be squeezed out? -Squiggled out? It looked long and goopy. It... looked like him.

Well--sort of. Not entirely. Some of it (like the color) looked like the hairy "hyena" thing that had been its other parent, and that, Nidhogg supposed, made sense. But how to greet a newborn child-? He'd met a couple. He had not been a good influence. But he'd learned some things, since then, like how to form a coherent sentence. So he considered very carefully before leaning in, all his eyes wide.

"HELLO," he offered, and realized that was probably way too loud. "Hello," he corrected then, far more softly.

Behind him, a quilled tail thrashed slowly over the rock, like a cat's, the only betrayal of his intense inner energy; for once, Nidhogg was sitting still.

It spoke! Already, it spoke! ...Admittedly it was very large, for a child.

(Nidhogg was not sure why. But that meant they'd get bigger than Vargas, even! Bigger than the Spire! -Right?)

But the speaking right away was great news. "Not danger!" he agreed, adopting V-Agate-One's speech mannerisms. He then brightened. "I'm your FATHER!" This came, too, with a proud puff of quills, as if being Agate's parent were a grand achievement of some kind. "-You're VERY big! That's good!"

Okay, so--now what?

Maybe he'd... wait a moment? Maybe the child had questions. Nidhogg could use a moment to plan, anyway. He probably should've done so sooner--decided what to say to a kid, and so on. But he hadn't thought about that, and now, he was sort of having to wing it.

"FATHER means I made you! -Or helped make you! There was a rock--someone else gave part of their gemstone. And I brought it to life and then the rock grew and now you came out of the rock!"

Nidhogg's head swung back toward the Pegasus exit, and then to V-Agate-One again. "That way. We can hunt? I can help you eat. I mean, help you get food," he corrected himself, speaking so excitedly his words tumbled over one another. "But we have to come back! -After! We are Forge. Chaos Forge. You are-..."

Nidhogg paused, squinting as he struggled to remember the name Vargas had told him. "...VEE Agate? ...One? But you can have a different name for when he isn't around. Master Vargas. We'll come back. Let's go get food?"

Nidhogg didn't often hold a conversation. When he did, it was--as this example perfectly displayed--somewhat scatterbrained, even a little disjointed. But he was trying, and he hoped he was helping, somehow, too.

"The other one's a spotted dog called 'Hyena' and it's in a cave full of bones! Your sister is there. Or your brother. I dunno!" Nidhogg offered, indifferent.

The kid was still alive. That did matter to him, as surprising as that had been even to him. But he had no relationship with her. Him. Whatever. "We-" Oh.

It was going for food.

Okay, yes. Food was good; they could do that.

"SLOWER!" he tried to call. The last thing he wanted was his newborn kid getting trampled by a Meadow Deer, or something.

Nidhogg's far-too-many eyes widened. "SLOW-" he tried, but the child was having none of it. He found himself scrambling to keep up, howling after it: "SLOW DOWN! -WAIT-... WAIT UP!"

He was a dark streak as he shot down the tunnel, galloping clumsily after it. "WAIT FOR MEEEE!"