A loud crack echoed through the air. Ghanyarah's head suddenly rose, inspecting the vegetation below. He had found a home on a low-lying limb, his favorite place to rest beneath the artificial lights of the jungle room. After encountering the leopard that helped cure his face of the fungal affliction, Ghanyarah had been alone. He hadn't interacted with or even seen others. He'd been aware of all the commotion with the marsh guardian, the gargantuan reptile that lived beneath the surface, but he hadn't seen the beast. He hadn't heard of his movements since, though Ghanyarah had heard of others trying to summon him. He kept his distance from the marsh. The murky black waters held nothing for him but a bigger set of jaws, and Ghanyarah was not keen on becoming anybody's meal.

The cracking sound, however, was a curious one. Rarely did such a large fracturing noise pierce the air and disturb his sleep, and this one must have been close. It sounded oddly familiar, like when the hematite chrysalis had come ashore, and the golems came to consume it. The beast narrowed his eyes slightly, but he took a glance around - there were no golems here. Even so, the sound of a cracking chrysalis seemed to attract the attention of other Gembounds. But maybe... if he went to the chrysalis and stopped the creature from making noise, he could prevent them from coming and disturbing him. That sounded reasonable.

Ghanyarah had grown since he last saw other Gembounds. He was larger, thicker; his torso had become rotund to reflect the amount of food he had been eating. Rats and other small animals prowled the misty jungle, making an easy meal for quick-witted Ghanyarah. His movements, once skittish and sudden, were becoming slow and laborious. The reptile would gradually turn around on his limb, climbing down the trunk of the tree, and try to isolate the sound of the cracking stones. He long body wormed its way through the undergrowth, feeling mud and other damp debris slide beneath him. His tail followed, lashing through the leaf litter until his eyes beheld a chrysalis of glistening, opalescent rainbow.

It was a beautiful thing. But all beautiful things could not last, and Ghanyarah was eager to stop the fracturing noise once and for all, and return his home to peaceful quiet. The dragon lumbered towards it, sniffing curiously at the base of the chrysalis. His large maw snuffled around the gleaming crystals, trying to detect a scent from within, but it smelled only of mud and dirty water. There was a broad crack down the middle of it, and he sniffed that too - there was a vague, animal scent. The dragon parted his jaws and tried to break it apart, but it was stronger than he. He tried and he tried, grabbing at different crystal points and tugging, but to no avail. Finally, the dragon stepped back and focused on it. Maybe he could will it open...

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But nothing happened. There was a vague, chilly tingling in his limbs, but the feeling faltered and fell away. Ghanyarah hissed and swung his body around, lashing his tail at the chrysalis instead. While his physical attacks had no effect on the chrysalis, the lizard was intent on breaking the chrysalis open and freeing the creature inside.

Eventually, the cracks in the chrysalis worsened. Sprawling, deep incisions broke the crystal points apart, until finally it burst and revealed a tiny white creature. The sound and sight of the chrysalis breaking open caused Ghanyarah to jump back, hissing out of instinct. But what the broken chrysalis revealed was nothing more than a tiny, shuddering little animal, white fur slicked back with creamy mucus. He narrowed his eyes, staring at it for a moment. She was still hiding beneath a shell of gleaming rainbow quartz, eyes fluttering open and blinking in rapid succession as she acclimated to her new surroundings. Beautiful shards of gleaming colours lay scattered about her, but all Ghanyarah cared about was that the tiny creature was now free from her noisy prison.

He sniffed and stepped towards her, negligent towards the young creature's tiny fear of the unknown. He shoved his noise at her, sniffing still. Her scent was strong, amplified through the presence of stinky mucus. She was absolutely tiny - and as he examined her, he realized that she had all the qualities of somebody he knew. Arkrael. The wolf. That furry tail, pointed ears, long muzzle and large predatory eyes. She must be a wolf or something. That meant she was a predator. Except she was... tiny. Smaller than Ghanyarah even. He furrowed his brow and tilted his head, nudging his nose around her turtle shell gem. This tiny predator was just as vulnerable as he had been. Did that mean that he wasn't vulnerable anymore? He was bigger than her.

His tail lashed, and Ghanyarah walked an arc around the girl during his inspection. He wondered if she would be just as tasty a treat as the rats that he'd been eating. Wouldn't that be funny! The predator becomes the prey! Ghanyarah sneered and sniffed at her some more. Maybe he should make her his, just for fun. Yes, that would be quite funny, wouldn't it! But it wouldn't do to have all this gross mucus all over her. The dragon continued to walk around her, attempting to summon his magic to pull the mucus off of her.

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The mucus would budge slightly, small strands suddenly reaching out towards him like slimy fingers... and then they would fall, collapsing back into the membrane that clung to her. Ghanyarah hissed out of frustration. How was he going to clean her up?

The lizard sat back, trying to think of a way to clean off the little predator. She was a big goopy mess, and she was starting to shake the rest of the glistening chrysalis off of her when he spotted the twin sets of rainbow spires sprouting from her shoulders. Ghanyarah's brows rose, looking them up and down. They were glistening and reflectively, certainly very pretty to behold. The creature was but a pale babe, innocent to the world she had emerged into. He noted her gestures, trying to match them back to what he had seen of Arkrael. Often, he used tail waving as a sign of aggression, a warning - but the gently wagging appendage, as he could recall, meant friendship in canine body language. Of course, she was naive - she wouldn't know any better.

Ghanyarah sniffed and flicked his tongue at her, lowering his head slightly. There, he kept his distance and watched as she began to take her first step, testing the muscles sin her body, feeling the air and the ground for the first time. He observed each of her steps closely, watching as she began to approach him. When she stopped, he tilted his head, hanging on that breath which would hold words, so so curious about what she had to say.

But she said nothing, and instead a slender, golden coloured mammal came sidling up beside them, passing them by with a grin at the predator, then onward to lounge on a rock. Ghanyarah narrowed his eyes, arcing around the coyote to follow the mongoose as she walked past them. The komodo dragon halted in front of the coyote, offended at this intruder. He knew this would happen! He had taken too long to open up this Gembound's chrysalis, and the sounds had attracted others! "Back off!" He hissed, lashing his tail as he stood in front of the little coyote. "This thing is mine." Ghanyarah snorted. Sunset eyes fixed on the intruder, looking her over while he contemplated her words. "Or Ghanyarah will eat you, small Queen." He added with a hint of a smug grin. He was just about the same size as the mongoose - with his jaws full of sharp fangs, Ghanyarah was confident he'd be able to take a good few chunks out of her.

As she laughed, the dragon felt chills crawl along his spine. His eyes narrowed, and if he had malleable mammalian lips, they would have curled back into a snarl. Instead, Ghanyarah stared with mild irritation at the mongoose as she cackled and then threatened to call someone or something named "Fire". The lizard blinked and tilted his head, curious and and underwhelmed at the same time. He didn't know what Fire was, and while it was probably a good enough threat to just throw around, he had no reason to be afraid until he saw the actual offender itself. Until then, the lizard would reserve judgment and utter a sharp "Tch!" in response. The mongoose then started to scold him for claiming that the little coyote, freshly emerged, was his. Well, who else's was she then? Ghanyarah had found her first, and he wanted her, so that made her his.

The creature questioned him, but Ghanyarah wasn't afraid to come up with an answer. Sure, he couldn't really come up with a name on the spot, but he could produce a title or something like that. He chuffed and parted his jaws to answer her, before the albino coyote suddenly made a move to distract them both. A beam of glistening, polychromatic light filled the space between them. The air glittered like the surface of water, catching colours. It mystified him, definitely enough to distract him from the argument for at least a couple minutes. The komodo dragon stepped back, for a moment startled and fearful of the light - but he shifted his gaze to the mongoose, and deduced that it couldn't have come from her. It must have come from the coyote!

Ghanyarah turned his head, settling his gaze on her. They asked a silent question, what was that for? After all, Ghanyarah could handle this on his own. The coyote didn't really have a choice in the matter, regarding who she'd rather be 'claimed' by - be it the mongoose of the komodo dragon. He was hers no matter what. "See?" He snorted and looked back at Diamondfang. "This one wants to stay here. Oh and also, she is a Little Hairy Big Teeth, for your information. That's also her name. Obviously." Ghanyarah rolled his eyes.