What this cave was called exactly, Cadenza was not certain. But it was warm. Definitely warmer than the deer-dragon preferred. They had learned that too cold was unpleasant too, during their trek with their dad through the Snow Cave. But, this made for a good chance to practice their magic.

The air cooled enough to be comfortable around Cadenza, and then they were able to consider the cave properly now. It had a lot of water. And the deer-dragon loved water. So, Cadenza with their water breathing pendant dived in with wings to their sides but occasionally sweeping out their wings to propel themself further downward.

They were deep in the water now. It was darker than they had expected, but for a moment, they thought they saw a glimpse of moving little light. And then, in the distance, another one moving along.

Were there lessers down here that glowed? Cadenza was fairly certain there were. And, Cadenza decided, they needed stones from these lessers. While Cadenza did not like fighting, they were willing to hunt if needed too. And while they did not need these lessers for food per say, they needed these lessers for their stones.

Ever since meeting the young little bird Nymph, Cadenza had been very much thinking about having children of their own. Glowing, swimming children sounded perfectly lovely to Cadenza.

It took a long moment for Cadenza to spot the lights again, but when they did, they propelled themself towards the glowing fish which drew back some and went dark.

But Cadenza already knew it was there, and they had an idea. They did not want to damage the stone this lesser could have, and they knew that if water got cold enough, it would freeze.

So the deer-dragon reached for their magic that could make things colder, and they tried to turn the water around the lesser into ice. Making a block of ice from part of the water to freeze the lesser inside, pretty much.

They newly formed ice cube began to float up through the water, but Cadenza carefully grabbed it in their mouth before it could float too far and get lost. They carefully deposited the iced Lanternfish on the shore of a rather small island, taking note of where it was in this cave. They did not want to lose their gained glow-fish.

Cadenza admired the look of the fish now that they were on the surface and they could see it even better.

After admiring their catch, Cadenza decided they wanted another. Surely just one more would not hurt? They did not want to take too many, because it would be a shame to make this place empty of these glowing fish, but they needed another. Cadenza was certain of it.

So, after carefully considered their very much frozen Lanternfish to be sure it would not melt any time soon, they dived down deep to seek out another of the glowing fish.

It seemed darker than before, perhaps the glowing fish had grown wary of the larger being in their midst. But, then Cadenza eventually ran straight into one in the darkness, bumping into it. The fish bit at Cadenza's scaled form, but it was not as effective as it could have been against their dragon-scaled body.

Once again, Cadenza attempted the same tactic of freezing the water around the Lanternfish.

It was a success! The ice cube when they grabbed onto it felt a bit less solid, but it had nevertheless worked! They propelled themself to the surface, and they placed the iced fish next to the first iced fish.

They examined the fish, seeking out their stones. One had a purple stone in an eye that they almost missed considering the overall purple coloration of the eyes in general. The other had a pink stone. Both, they decided, were lovely.

After admiring the stones for a very long time, the fish began to thaw out. The pink one, the second caught, thawed out first because the ice was weaker. Cadenza plucked the pink stone from the fish's throat. And then they ate the fish, so it did not go to waste.

They did the same for the purple stone in the one of the other fish's many eyes, plucking it out and then eating the fish. Then they gathered the stones gently in their mouth. It was time to head back home.

[Exit Cadenza]