Astéri
seek what sets your soul on fire

Astéri arches his back as he feels Attik’s fingers curl in his fur, making a noise of contentment as he leans into the elf’s side, eyes still firmly trained on the fire in front of him. This is nice… he looks up at Attikias and bares his sharp teeth in a cat’s smile, little tail moving to curl over his leg.

“Nothing would have happened—’cause you’re here!” Astéri replies, his voice filled with pure, childish sincerity. Speaking of that…

...his head tilts and his eyes furrow a little as he looks back at the fire, eyes following the flame as it dances from side to side while he thinks.

“...did you break my stone?” he asks, eyes now trying to gaze past the bulk of the blaze into what remains of his hatch-place.

Then, another question occurs to him, and Astéri turns those bright eyes back onto Attikias. “Did you… are you…”

The word is on the tip of his tongue… aha!

“Are you my dad?”

@Attikias

Ah, the purity of children. Attikias hums out another laugh at Astéri's explanation of safety. Well- what if he really wasn't? But maybe him being around caused the kid to emerge?

Bah, he doesn't understand chrysalises, not even when he emerged from his own in... Ugh. He mentally shudders. Cetus. Then, had he helped with Astéri's stone? "I don't think so?" He states with a pitched up end to to it, watching as the fire cracks over the remnants of the opal.

Though, when the leopard looks to him, Attikias glances down, tilting his head slightly. There's a stumbling of words and he offers encouraging nods. Except- what he says, well. Maybe he should have been expecting it. He still doesn't know how to approach it. Is he a dad now?

He pauses. Well, might as well dive into this. "Uh... Yeah! If you want me to be," he shrugs as he ruffles the top of Astéri's head. "Where'd you get that idea, anyways?" Kids do say the darnedest things sometimes and come to conclusions that are a bit out there, but somehow that one struck home quick.

Did that mean the leopard was going to live with him? He'd be fine with that- he doubts he wanted to stay in the fire. Or- well. He would want to if it wouldn't burn him.

What a weird kid. Son? Hm. They'll have to workshop that.

@Astéri

Astéri
seek what sets your soul on fire

Astéri knows the answer to this!

“‘Cause you—you were here when I… hatched, so you’re my dad!” he says, as if that’s the only proof he needs; as if Attikias’s mere presence at his hatching makes him his father with a hundred percent certainty.

It certainly does in Astéri’s eyes!

Even if Attik doesn’t think he was the one who broke the stone, he’s helped pull him out of the fire and he’s helped teach him about the fire, that the fire is bite-y and hurts if you get too close, and those are things that dads do, right? Dads are there when… when… (the word children eludes him)—dads are there for you! They hang around you.

Yeah, Attikias is definitely his dad.

@Attikias

Attikias's eyebrows raise ever so slightly. "Well, that's sound." His hand rests on Astéri's head, thumb and pinkie massaging behind his ears as he stands. "If I'm your dad, does that mean you wanna live with me?"

Does he even have room? Probably, right? He could manage to make room, of course... His mind mulls as his tail swishes from side to side. "It'd be nice to have you around. Heck- do you wanna keep anything from here if we do go?"

Astéri doesn't really have a home, but would this have been it if Attikias wasn't here? He barely wants to imagine it, the poor kid burnt up in the fires that still continue to rumble before them.

@Astéri

Astéri
seek what sets your soul on fire
Astéri doesn’t have to give the question even a moment of thought. “Yeah!”

After all, where else would he want to live? He gets the feeling that living away from his dad would make him sad; why would he want to leave him behind? The fire is pretty and all, sure, but… somehow, he feels family is more important.

That doesn’t mean he wants to leave it behind forever, though. “Can you make fire at home?”

He looks up at Attikias with questioning eyes, hope shining in them. He doesn’t know how fire is made, but—he wants to know. He really wants to know.

After all, that means he can make fire anywhere he wants!

@Attikias