It came back to this spot far more often than it should be able to admit; if only to stare blankly at the serpentine stone lying against the wall and pick at shards of glass still embedded in the ground. The orthoclase thought it should really be gloating, saying things along the lines of told you so! or don't touch me again! Y'know... childish sorts of things like that.

Alpha, instead, was just... staring and thinking over the feelings of - well, they were something. Perhaps understanding that it'd been unnecessarily harsh and aggressive. Not even molting was enough to make the ache in its right forearm go away. The orthoclase had been powering through the dull pain in that arm for about a week and a half, now. If it ignored it for long enough, it'd just go away, right? The spurs were out and blood wasn't constantly leaving its body like Beta's paw had.

Standing up abruptly, the hybrid child snorted and shook its head. It paced a few yards to the side, away from the chrysalis, going easily on its injured forearm for a few steps before settling on all six limbs. Chewing on a bone sounded real good, right about now.

The bonehead turned to face the voice and immediately it squinted. There were apparently all manner of fuzzy things in these caves (including Palefur and Doctor) but none of them looked quite so... "scruffy?" Alpha sniffed, snorting loudly and tilting its head to peer at Esther.

Ever so conversational, the monster baby rumbled, "what?" Acid-green eyes wandered down to the thing's legs. "Long legs," it grunted, stating what were very obvious facts, mostly for itself. Let no one say the orthoclase was very good at carrying on a dialogue.

Mutual bafflement seemed like something to carry on this interaction with, right? The scruffy little thing was tilting their head this way and that - a gesture Alpha at least recognized from its more… mammalian siblings. Confusion. The orthoclase seemed to mimic it, moreso craning its neck out rather than tilting its head. Alpha sniffed a few more times, before just arbitrarily deciding it'd figured everything out as far as smell.

After all of its comments, all the pup had to ask was for a name. Definitely not one of the Right Gembound, but definitely not as chatty as one of the Okapi it'd met. That creature had started right in on some dumb thing like things past the cave walls. Pfft! More rock, obviously.

Anyways, Navy's rambling in stuff that doesn't matter to Esther. Alpha's gaze almost softened, a curious buzz in its throat. Maybe this one was different… "Orthoclase-Alpha," it offered first, quills rattling and rising like it was proud of that designation. After a pause, it grunted, tacking on a pile of questions, "name? What - do you do? Hunt? Protect? Train?" Alpha tapered off, continuing to rattle various verbs it knew, but more quietly.

"Not a name," Alpha agreed, quills clicking a little as it nodded, "designation. No 'Name.'" There'd been something about being reduced to stone and life-giving order, but, really, the orthoclase didn't care too much. Okay, well, it cared a little when it had to introduce itself to the rest of the caves. Everything seemed to have a name and asked for one. Esther had slapped the nickname of Oro on it, and it was a weird enough change of pace that the monster baby didn't bother correcting it.

Also, it was more interested in what Scruffy did. Catching things on fire did sound pretty interesting, and Esther was very eager about it. Alpha, having apparently lived in a vacuum for this entire cycle, had just two more questions: "Fire? What?" Narrowing eyes into a confused squint, it added a third, "how?"

"No, Oro not name," Alpha grunted, shaking its head, "Commanders call me Alpha." Which, y'know, was just a shortening of its designation, but more proper. It wasn't humanizing in any way.

The scruffy pup trotted off, and Alpha was half-tempted to go meandering and looking for a bone to chew on. Esther returned quickly, with a rat of her own. It was a big lug, too - how'd something so leggy-looking killed and hauled that? Acidic eyes glanced over the carcass, noting the numerous bite marks on its body and throat. Scratches littered the half-rotten face. Must've bled out, and wasn't one of the Lessers with gems. That was a weird thing that gemless Lessers did. It didn't really get it. Oh well.

But, Esther was following up and setting the rat on fire, much to the orthoclase's delight. The crackling of fur and flesh was the first thing it noticed, then the acrid stench of it (after it leaned down to take a massive whiff of the carcass-fire, of course) Holding its head over the rapidly growing fire, it also noticed that it was warm.

Like a fool, Alpha stretched out a meaty forepaw, swiping it once through the flame and giving a sharp bark at the resulting pain. It didn't catch on fire, but the burning wasn't pleasant at all. "Hurt!" I should learn this. With a glimmer in its eye, it tilted its head and stared more persistently at the fire, "how do that? Magic?"