Yanyue was going out of their mind with concern. They had brought all sorts of food for their new baby brother they had adopted, but the currently-blind gembound had rejected all of it, and seemed to be growing weaker. Maybe his species had special diets, but Yanyue didn't know what he might need to eat.

But Yanyue knew someone that knew a lot. With their brother carefully carried in their jaw, they ventured into the workshop, looking around with desperation.

Gently, they placed their little brother down somewhere safe. "Blacksmith! Help! I found this fresh gembound and he won't eat or talk and his eyes are closed, and I don't know what to do-" they rambled, on the verge of tears.

It was cloudy outside. There was only so much being introspective could do, though, before one became fearful they were doing something wrong, at least in this case.

As Raiden was placed down, he gave a pitiful mewl, searching for where the voice, his older sibling, was. He blindly searched for their big sibling and snuggled close.

There were words going by, fast, but it was hard for him to focus on them. He felt weak and tired and most of all, hungry.

He distantly recalled his sibling trying to feed him all sorts of things, but none of them were right.

Yanyue's desperate voice pulled the Blacksmith from an area of concentration and his masked face looked up toward the entryway, and then down to the small bundle. His long ears twitched at the mewling cry and he gently placed his work items down before removing a pair of thick gloves. As he shuffled over, he hunched, then kneeled, inspecting the kitten at Yanyue's side.

"Oh, dear..." he said softly, placing his palms on the ground so that he could lean in closer. Despite his ability to work delicate materials, he hesitated to grasp at something so small and weak. "I have never seen... them hatch this young," he struggled to say, unsure of how to word his concern. The tall creature shifted backward, sitting on folded knees, attention turning to Yanyue.

"If it does not learn how to drink magic... how to absorb nutrients..." he began, then paused; it would not be the answer Yanyue wanted, but it was the only one he had. He did not have all the answers, but of what he could muster, it was what he knew. "It will die." Unfortunate as death was but not incredibly uncommon.

"It may just need more time in its chrysalis, Yanyue," he continued quickly. "If it fails... to adapt, it can rest here..." he said, gesturing outside toward the garden. "I will keep watch... if that happens."

@Raiden must learn and succeed Absorb Nutrients to survive; if he cannot learn and succeed this spell by day's end, he will revert to chrysalis for one week until his body is mature enough to eat and process ingested food.

Yanyue watched the younger gembound they had claimed as their younger brother with concerned eyes. He looked weaker and weaker by the minute. Then the Blacksmith confirmed that something was indeed wrong with their brother, and Yanyue felt tears well up in their eyes.

A gasp left them as the Blacksmith mentioned death, but it seemed... The Blacksmith did not mean it permanently. Still, that seemed a horrible thing, starvation. Yanyue felt like a horrible older sibling, and they had barely had a little brother for any time at all.

"...I will sit with him, over there. Maybe he'll figure it out...?" Yanyue asked, but Yanyue wasn't sure who they were asking.

"Thank you. I know you'll keep watch well, if..." Yanyue trailed off, picking up the younger child very gently and seating their brother in the garden the Blacksmith had indicated, curling carefully around him. He was so fragile...

Was this better than the fate that had awaited the other child if they had left him where they found him? Yanyue had to think so. Either way, he would have starved if not for this spell Yanyue had never heard of and didn't know how to use. At least... he wasn't alone, this way. "I'm here, little brother," they murmured, curled around their brother, heart breaking.

Raiden heard words distantly, but could not make sense of them, not like when he had first hatched. All he knew was he was hungry. Tone registered, though, a sadness to the new voice and and the desperate grief in his sibling's voice.

He weakly tried to nuzzle against Yanyue, wanting to comfort them, but it was hard. He was so very hungry. Something was wrong, though. Was it his hunger...?

Still, a barely there purr stuttered to life as Yanyue curled around him after placing him down again, trying to comfort his sad sibling. Eventually, as time passed through the day, the purr faded to crackling that then died down entirely.

There was only silence.

[Exit Raiden to chrysalis]

He did not figure it out, as Yanyue had halfway expected but hoped otherwise regarding. A part of them almost wished they had never found this child, because caring about someone suffering hurt. But it was a lesson that Yanyue would have had to learn eventually, with their tendency towards easy attachments.

And Yanyue... They could not regret meeting this child, not if meant he was not alone now. Still, it hurt with an ache they had never felt before, especially as the child gave that weak happy-comfort rumbling noise that eventually faded to nothing.

Yanyue backed away, as a chrysalis of Tanzanite began to reform. They returned to the Blacksmith, mute with grief, and merely shook their head as an answer.

They felt tormented by their own inability to help one they had claimed as their family.

As the day passed, he checked briefly from a window to see that Yanyue and the kitten were still in the garden; and as the day grew even longer, Yanyue's unfortunate return to the workshop, alone, suggested that the Blacksmith's concern was true. He set his things down once again and shuffled to the young dragon, kneeling and reaching out carefully, gently, to brush its mane with long, delicate fingers.

"Sometimes... we are not ready..." he said quietly, though truly he had never witnessed an early hatching; that did not mean they could not happen. "He will be right.. as rain, soon," he offered. His eyes cast toward the garden and he tapped the dragon's forehead with the tip of his finger to bring young one's attention forth. "Do you have a favorite color... Yanyue?"

Yanyue leaned into the touch. "It's not fair," they quietly voiced. "He's so little and..." they trailed off, lacking the words. Their eyes pooled with tears. But if even the Blacksmith didn't know what to do... Surely, there couldn't have been anything to be done.

"Thank you, for trying. And being will to watch over him," the dragon told the Blacksmith, voice sincere and devastated. For a moment, they felt distant from the world, and a tap to their head and a question brought them back to reality.

At the question, the dragon thought, mind eager to take a distraction. There was nothing more they could do now, at any rate, but wait. And waiting didn't have to be done by being constantly upset. They were allowed to be distracted, to be happy, maybe, even... Right?

"I most like golden as a color," they decided. Like the medallion on Freedom, their magical gift from the Blacksmith. ...Somewhat like the colors of their little brother's fur, actually, too. They resisted the urge to cry. "...Do you have a favorite color?" they wondered instead, genuinely curious, but also wanting this distraction.

They were grateful they had the Blacksmith as a friend, they decided. "I'm sorry, I didn't ask- How's the repair of my gift to you coming along?" they inquired, asking after the ornamental sword pieces they had gifted the Blacksmith.

"Hmm, golden," he mused and pushed up against his knees to stand. The Blacksmith folded his arms and thought for a moment before moving toward the doorway.

"Oh, it is coming along... well enough," he answered, gesturing with his thumb pointed over his shoulder toward a table near the back wall. "Surface steel is stronger... than anything I can make," he huffed, then waved his hand to motion for Yanyue to join him outside. "But here and there... I piddle with it... It will be a fine blade, when it is done." He tapped a finger to his chin. "And I have yet... to think of a hilt... but it must be fitting, as beautiful as the sword... but cannot take away from it, you know." He had sketches and prototypes already, and he fussed over whether or not to include a gemstone—and a thought came to him now, as he approached the Tanzanite chrysalis: would his brother offer a bit of his gem? The Blacksmith glanced between Yanyue and the chrysalis.

Could it be a brothers' sword? He smiled weakly at the thought. Would that his brother should visit more often, clear the dust from his plate at the table, even drop in for a hello... He remembered fondly of the times they joined one another for small reasons, and the time they dined with the fox and their family.

Well, too, he wondered if he might reach out to someone that could look upon the sword's history and reveal to the Blacksmith what its owner had been like—no. He shook his head. It had been broken, its bond from its owner severed; it would be reforged under new means, for new purposes.

He knelt before the chrysalis and scratched at the dirt, turning the soil over and over again; then he waved his hand and the blue shimmer of his magic whispered and gossiped, rolling in and out of the ground like waves weaving a tale. And sprouts reared their head from the soil, and grew to budding flowers that blossomed with gilded, shining petals—like lotus flowers whose white petals etched and streaked with gold, dancing with small, glowing blue specks of light that floated weightlessly about them. He stood and gestured outward, and more flowers bloomed in a small radius around the chrysalis.

"When he wakes," the Blacksmith said, turning his masked face down toward Yanyue, "he will see... that he was not alone...". He lifted his mask ever-so-slightly to show just his lips—a smile, for Yanyue—and then he repositioned the mask and tilted his head. "You know... I will make a small pendant... a dragon, like you... for him. To place here," he pointed at the base of the chrysalis. "So he is reunited with you, at once."