Carja leaned over to Talys and mumbled to him gently, ”Do you mind if we talk once the kiddos are asleep? Just want to clear things up.”

She smiled gently before looking back at the children, suddenly realizing that this was going to be way harder than she originally thought.

”Stone is mostly invulnerable,” Carja hummed, ”I think there's magic that can break stones, so they aren't indestructible. And rocks aren't alive, so they can't be a part of us living things.”

She looked over at Talys and nodded, tapping her shin, ”Dragons aren't the only ones with stones. All gembound have them. Mine is right here, and you see this?”

She picked up Vanyel's tail and tapped the stone on the base of it, replacing one of his tail spikes, ”I gave a sliver of my stone so Vanyel could have one, and now we both have the same kind of stone.”

Carja was at a bit of a loss for Ascent's last question, ”Um... they're not a part of our family, they didn't want to be. So I guess they don't have a title.”

Vanyel peered at his gem-spike, cooing softly. He reached back to touch it, having to maneuver his wings to do so. He smiled up at Carja, one front tooth missing, giving him an adorable little smile.

”I'm like you, momma!”, he giggled, toddling forward and hugging her snout as she lowered it, ”Like you an' unca Tally.”

He'd already given him a nickname...

”Azzzz!”, he cried, ”Where stone?”

He wanted to know where her stone was! He wanted to touch it and see what it looked like too! Was it purple? Blue? Green??

please only tag carja!
@Talys @Ascent

ASCENT

Ascent listened carefully, committing Carja's words to memory even though they weren't sure they understood yet. Rocks weren't alive, but they were alive, and there was a part of them made of rock. The dragon poked at themselves: their many wings, their keratin plates, and their little toes. Soft, for the most part--was that it? Did 'alive' things need both hard and soft things?

That could make sense, but they would need to think on this more. For now, Ascent had yet another mystery to ponder. "Yes," they agreed, then repeated Vanyel's question: "Where stone?" The dragon examined themselves again, first rolling onto their back to examine their belly and then flicking their tail and wings to get a look at their back and feathers.

"Are these stone?" Ascent wondered, touching their claws to their horns. They seemed hard enough to be, but they didn't resemble Talys' or Carjas' stones.

@Talys @Carja