Of all of the things the alligator was, a gentle father-figure was perhaps foremost among them. He opened his mouth to warn Hikari as he felt the claws slip, but as the little one flopped into the water, he turned and pulled himself onto the bank.

He had deliberately kept quite close to the shore, so the water was very, very shallow--but deep enough for an alligator, which is to say a couple of feet at least. Deep enough for a chick to sink. Just... not very far.

It took him a moment to get onto shore, and another to turn, and then he had his head down beneath the water, searching. At first, even with his sharp night vision, he could not see the chick in the dark and murky water. His magicka flared up, worry sparking through him, and an awesome intensity of purpose--the kind that only a parent with a child in danger could feel. He almost missed it--the chick truly was tiny--but a moment later those broad and massive jaws closed gently over a wing and lifted Hikari straight out of the water.

Dragon then turned, depositing the child delicately onto the shore.

"You cannot swim?" he asked, curiously. If the youth could not swim, then the cave of swamp--where everything stood under a bit of water, and the marsh pooled deeply in surprise pockets all over--was probably a bad place for him to live.

"Perhaps you can learn. This is a bad place for those who cannot swim!" He was about to laugh, and then thought--as only an afterthought--to ask, "Are you all right?"