Ember listened in utter silence. He was putting the ideas into his own mind, trying to transform Pride's words into imagery, but it was hard.

A white wolf. He sort of knew what a wolf was; but when he pictured one, it had (unbeknownst to him) far too many scales and spines. He knew that horns, wings and a long and pointed tail were a dragon's features, so he imagined himself, without those--but missed a few key factors.

In any case, Ember dutifully filed away those tidbits that Pride was feeding him: a Trial, and what that was; the fact that his stone-giver was a wolf; that Fireheart had been intelligent, well-spoken. And some dim part of his brain made him feel a little bad, just then: he wasn't smart, was he? Was he a disappointment, compared to his stone-giver?

"I don't think I'm... intelligent," he offered, slowly, flameglow eyes shifting to stare off ahead as he trudged. Tail was lifted slightly above the floor, but seemed almost to drag as he walked. "Which dragon?" he asked, a moment later. He didn't get, yet, that this was a name; he just assumed it was a creature, just as he knew that he himself was half-dragon.

But that twinge of sadness lingered.

Pride glanced down sharply, thoughts broken by the child's sudden, quiet declaration. "Not intelligent-?" Shit. That wasn't the point he'd meant to make, of course--but how did he refute it..? He didn't want to outright lie to Ember, even if that was the kindest thing, and so he hastily offered a little shrug. "You'll find out as you grow, I think. It's far more important to be kind, Ember; intelligence gets you nowhere if there is cruelty behind it. Don't worry about that, hm?" But his heart had dropped, a little; this wasn't what he'd expected to hear. "You're a good child." Would that do-?

Pride struggled with his emotions at the best of times. Fireheart hadn't been wrong in his estimation of Pride being somewhat self-centered--not selfish, but simply not often thinking to take someone else's point of view, to consider another perspective, to concentrate on empathy. He fumbled here and there, and he feared the effects it might have on this child.

The other question provided welcome relief. "His name is Dragon, but he is not a dragon. He is a large reptile--an alligator, I think it's called--and he lives in Cetus. He's a very powerful user of fire magic and your stone-giver learned much of what he knows-... knew, from him," he corrected himself. "In retrospect I might have asked him to give life to the stone," would he have been smarter, then? is his slow thought process a product of Dread's blunt idiocy-? "but I didn't think of it, at the time. You are perfect how you are, either way, but it would have been a connection more than your lifegiver held. Dread is extremely powerful, but he never knew Fireheart, I think. Maybe you can go and meet Dragon some day, hm? He might be able to tell you more about Fireheart, too. But the story isn't over, yet," he added, hooves clicking on the rock.

They were winding their way to the tunnel mouth, now, the stars of Orion passing by them overhead. "I only mention Dragon because of Fireheart's affinity with--well, fire. Something we discovered very early on. And once he'd passed, I thought it best that his stone be given life with fire once again, not with my magic--it wouldn't be the same."

Ember listened, and for once--without real thought, or effort--his mind was churning into higher gear. It was possible that he was simply dull most days due to a lack of input; now that he had someone speaking to him, telling him all sorts of new things, his mind turned it over and polished itself a little on the rougher edges.

"So Dragon is not a dragon, but he taught Fireheart," he said slowly, but a little faster than usual for him; "-but the dragon who gave Fireheart's stone life was Dread? -What was Dread like?" he asked--and then, with a perhaps surprisingly keen glance Pride's way, as his instinctive bit of empathy kicked in, "You can tell me that after, if you want. After you tell me about Fireheart, I mean. I don't... I didn't want to interrupt."

After a moment's thought, he added: "Dad? What's an alligator look like?" He squinted, trying to picture it--a dragon, but... not? And thought, too, of fire. As happened sometimes, his eyes took on a brighter glow, and the warmth of flame--faint, but there--embraced him as he walked, as if to remind him that it was with him always.

That was... relievingly coherent, and Pride flashed a somewhat-surprised glance down toward the pup. Emberheart had rarely strung more than a few words together, but he seemed to be summarizing Pride's own words accurately enough. "Right, that's right," he said, and realized a moment later that he'd probably sounded condescending. Which wasn't entirely his fault; he was pleasantly surprised, relieved even, but he really should've watched his tone. He hastened to move on.

"Oh, I don't mind--I can get this out of the way first, or tell you after-?" A glance to Ember and careful gauging of his expression, and he shrugged. "After, then. As for Dragon--an alligator is... a lizard, a reptile. So no fur, no feathers. He's sort of--thick hide, armor. Dark color, long, low to the ground. A predator," he added, and then, squinting as he walked, "Sort of... a dragon, without wings, without strong legs. Made for water," he explained. "His tail has long ridges along it, and he has no horns." His mind reminded him, though, that sometimes Dragon did have wings and horns; but that was magic, and this was really no time to go into that. Sudden revelation of possibly-average intelligence aside, he didn't want to confuse Ember with unnecessary details.

"In any case, Fireheart was very serious, very... dutiful. Mind you, I don't expect any of this of you, Ember; become whoever you want to be. But I tell you of him just... so you know, because I feel you should, hm? He became a protector, a guardian, one of the Seven. And he became very, very proficient in his fire magic." Pride moved on. He was debating how much to tell Ember. He didn't think he'd ever tell him--or maybe only when he was much older--exactly how Fireheart had died, because it had been gruesome as all hell. The wolf, he'd been told, had self-ignited and rushed into the darkness, holding it at bay in the hopes of letting others escape--he'd essentially burned himself alive, a living torch to drive back shadows.

Which was not something you told a child, let alone the child of the deceased.

"We got word, one day, of a dangerous Trial being held in Hydra. You remember me mentioning Hydra-?" Pride asked, glancing down for the affirming nod. He'd warned the children not to venture there, warned them of the dangers he'd heard of, but never seen. "Not the same sort of Trial as mine, but something big, with 'rewards' for going. Two of the Seven--Fireheart and Nassir, who was Temperance's stone-giver and a good friend of mine--went to try and defend those who chose to go. I thought it foolish; those Gembounds were choosing to risk their lives, knowingly, for greed. But they went anyway, and unfortunately, neither one of them returned. They died defending others," he went on, and was it wrong to hide the mode of deaths from these children? He hadn't told Temperance, either, of how Nassir had drowned in mud, of how his corpse had been puppetted to terrorize the rest (or at least he assumed as much, from what he had been told; he wasn't sure if Nassir had been among these). Was it necessary information..? Somehow, he very much doubted that; but was it wrong to keep it from them-?

"When their stones were retrieved, I wanted to give them life, again; but it felt wrong to give life to yours, myself. Since--as I said, I am not fire. I thought of Dread, because while I didn't know Fireheart all that well--not past his well-spoken intelligence, his seriousness or his intensity--I did know that he loved flames. And Dread is a dragon who seems to like fire--and treasures--above all else." He glanced down at Ember, again; it occurred to him now that maybe the pup's obsession with objects stemmed from the dragon's instinct to hoard things.

"Dread is more simple, and more brutal. I've described him before as a sort of... weapon; all claws, teeth and flames, good to fight an enemy but quick-tempered and..." Could he describe Ember's life-giver as rather stupid-? That seemed cruel, given the prior conversation. "He isn't a deep thinker, exactly. He acts first, thinks later," was what Pride settled on, carefully. "But he's a formidable opponent, and I'm sure you'll meet him some day as ally, not as enemy."

Ember listened in utter silence, from start to finish, letting Pride ramble through the entirety. At the end he considered for a time, going back over it all in his unhurried, intent way. He committed each part carefully to memory.

The description of alligators. The description, expanded, of Fireheart's personality--and he noted, too, that Pride didn't seem to have known his stonegiver very well. Not personally, at least. He was disappointed; he'd expected more than a few words and then an explanation of his death. And then there was a little on Dread, and rather than be upset, he was relieved; Pride couldn't know it, but the description of Dread as possibly-not-that-bright took some pressure off the pup. After all, he reasoned, if one father of his was kinda dumb, then it wasn't really his fault, was it? It was something to be expected, not some fault of his own, right?

Logic.

Once he was done thinking, he at last spoke. "So... What kind of things did Fireheart... like? Or not like? What did he do?" He glanced to Pride, and his faint worry--his disappointment--was clear in his tone. "It doesn't really sound like you knew him?"

...Well, hell, that hit close to home. Pride's brow furrowed. Here he was, thinking he'd be offering Ember some grand revelation--some great view of the former bearer of his stone--and he'd given him... almost nothing.

Ember was right. He hadn't known Fireheart all that well. "I know that he was noble, and courageous. I know that despite his fire, he held great control. But... you're right; we didn't have time to know each other better. Not like Nassir and I," he explained. He glanced sadly at the dragon-pup.

Pride came to a brief halt, hoof-clicks pausing, and looked forward. "Let me... see if I can show him to you, at least. An image of what he looked like," he explained. It coalesced a moment later: a ghostly shape, condensing into what looked like a white wolf, stood before them. Pride took a moment to retrieve the details from his memory--and struggled to ignore the sorrow that tugged at his heart.

Flameglow eyes, regarding them with that empty intensity. I didn't know him near well enough. The large Clinohumite, gleaming at the wolf's chest. But I can show him this. There were the large paws; the slender legs, the thick white coat, and Pride glanced down at Ember.

"This was your stone-giver," he explained.

Noble. Courageous. Concepts tucked away for another day--to pull out and examine when he better understood them. For now the dragon-wolf looked forward, scrutinizing the image that Pride presented to him.

It was... eerie, somehow, having someone stand there staring at him, but knowing it wasn't real. Let alone his own parent, the prior owner of his stone--a stone that he recognized, seated firmly in the white wolf's chest. The wolf was... larger than he'd expected, somehow; nowhere near the size of Pride, but tall, long-bodied. Yet smaller, too, for wasn't Ember already surpassing him-? Dragons must be very big, he reasoned; his size must have come from his other half.

He noted the lack of spines, of talons, and removed those from his mental image of a "wolf." Fireheart was--had been--distinctly un-spiky, he noted. Fluffy, even, if lanky.

Ember glanced to Pride, then, and noted Pride's distant gaze, the sadness in it. He looked back at the wolf--approached it, circled it. It gave no scent; there was no sound, but it seemed almost to turn to watch him, and for a moment he felt haunted--as if the ghost of an unknown parent were looking through its eyes. It wasn't true, of course; just the strange sensation of being near someone who didn't really exist.

Ember felt grief tug at him, for the first time; he'd never really know his father. Maybe Dragon could tell him more about Fireheart's personality, but-... He'd never know him, speak to him. Meet him.

"I will ask Dragon about him, if I can find him," he decided. "And I want to meet Dread." Before he dies, too.

He looked up to Pride, then dipped his head, and looked one last time at the illusion. It seemed then that his inner fire flickered out; that the light faded a little from his eyes, that the warmth of it left him.

Maybe he left it with the fading image. Maybe it went to find Fireheart--wherever he had gone.

"We can go now," Ember said, staring through the last ghostly wisps, and then at nothing. He looked at Pride, and then moved off, quietly walking toward Polaris.

Behind him, quiet, he could hear Pride following.

exit Ember/Pride both