Kalama stalked through Canis, stepping on or around bones, her balance holding well despite the spur that used to constantly throw her off. It still did, sometimes, but as she'd grown more into her body, it became less of an issue. Her down was gone in some spots, replaced by budding charcoal black feathers.

Ever since Eythan had taken her to Canis, she'd been trying to learn more about it. Explore it. Not attack everything she saw. She'd chased down that lizard, yeah, but it'd started it. Canis was a good deal different from the place she'd hatched from, there were far fewer plants here, and what life had been here was simply bones now.

She paused in step over the skull of some thing. She heard a strange groan, followed by a crack loud enough it seemed to echo. It reminded her of the noise she'd made when she first hatched. Was it a newborn gembound? She turned, placing her foot down in the direction she'd heard the noise come from, and headed down to the new location.

She wasn't expecting to find a three foot...thing at the source of the noise. Especially not a thing that looked like that. How did something hatch that big? Kalama had grown quickly, but she was still dwarfed by the thing, she was around 10 inches tall at most. It made her feel a little self concious. And a bit angry. And jealous. Only slightly, however. She swallowed.

She would be decent. She wouldn't tell the newborn gembounds that it looked ugly. The ugliest thing she'd seen. Her mentor had told her not to attack random gembounds. Not to start fights. She could be nice. She could do this--
"Your face looks weird." Was the first thing to blurt out.

Speech. Thought

Kalama blinks, mind going blank, thrown off guard by Mandrake's question. She wordlessly opens her beak, then tilts her head. "Wh-what do you mean how do I know?"

Her confusion sparks her anger. "I mean, I..." She trails off, trying to think of a good way to explain herself. She lets out a frustrated growl, that sounds more like a brooding noise than anything, then thrusts a wing into Mandrake's face, awkwardly covered in both down and newly grown flightfeathers, as if to gesture at all of him.

"Look at you! I dont have three eyes, or rainbow fur, or a weird monkey face." She scoffs. "You look like a...a moldy fruit."

She nods, satisfied with that comparision, how extremely rude she's being barely a thought in her mind. "Just look in a puddle. You'll see."

Speech. Thought

Kalama's mind finally made the connection. Oh yeah, it was a new gembound, huffed angrily as Mandrake walked away. She hadn't finished her speil.

"Hey!" She squeaked after Mandrake, and trotted after the larger gembound, scrabbling over bones to keep up with him. "I wasnt done yet, fruit. That's rude." She says, the irony passing over her head. She strikes out with her beak to nip him on the foot closest to her, as a reprimand. He may have been twice her height or so, but was the oldest here. That meant she was the oldest, she thinks.

Her self awareness finally caught up to her, and she clapped her beak shut. She hadn't really done anything but insulted this gembound since it'd hatched. She wouldn't feel bad about the nip, though, it had that coming. Everything else, though? That wasnt a good way to hatch, she imagined. She felt almost as if she'd done something wrong. She hated that feeling. Either too proud or too embarrased to, she refuses to apologize, and turns her attention to the ground, scratching the ground around her feet to look for something it could eat. Maybe it'd like bugs too?

"I don't think theres any fruit around here." She huffed.
Speech. Thought