While Hecate was silent, Aran took to letting his eyes explore the area around them. Really, the glowing things above them were rather pretty indeed, and he understood the winged creature's want to talk of it. Though, there was only so much one could talk about with a child that just came out of his chrysalis. Aran didn't even know anything about the place, and he wouldn't if he didn't explore. Of course, he would much rather stay here with the winged creature than wander off alone. Something told him this place wasn't entirely safe for someone so young to be wandering around alone.

He tilted his head slightly to the left at her speaking again, his bright green/yellow antlers moving with it. Of course, they were not fully grown yet, it was clear from how thin the middle was, that something was supposed to be covering them.

"I don't know what to talk about!" He huffed back to the bird. One of his legs scraping at the hard ground under him.

"I don't know anything to talk about." He replied again, dark eyes wandering the cave once again.

@Hecate

Hecate shifted in place, her feathers ruffling again with irritation--this time at herself. Conversation, she urged herself--mentally reminding herself that she was a lovely, charming social butterfly. (She was not.) I can do this...
She cleared her throat with a soft trill, thinking. "We'll think of something together," she decided, keeping her tone cheerfully positive, for now. "There's many things in the caves. There are other Gembounds; there is magic. There is the Spire, and there are places with water, or dangerous creatures. We can talk about any of those, if you like?"

Some faint part of her resented the forced conversation. The rest of her was proud at her attempt, as weak as it was; maybe she could learn to be a better conversationalist today.

@Aran

Aran blinked when she started speaking again. They could think of a topic together? Of course there was other things to talk about, but Aran didn't know any of it. His knowledge was based on the area they were in at the specific moment, and what Hecate told him. Which, admittedly, was not a lot. He did understand what beauty was now, though.

He was curious about some things the winged creature said. Spire? What was that? Dangerous creatures! He wanted to know about those! Mainly so he could avoid them but you never know. Maybe when he was bigger he would want a closer look. "What's a spire? Dangerous creatures? I wanna know about those!" He exclaimed, excited for the new topics.

@Hecate

Hecate considered, for a long moment, even as she fluffed herself back down. Her black beak briefly preened through her breastfeathers, and she spread her trailing tail out behind her.

"The Spire," she began--and here, she struggled to remember colors and their names, from what she'd seen in visions and been told by others--"is a great crystal in another cave. It is very very tall, glowing with its own light, and it is dangerous to go near. I don't know why," she added; she'd certainly not approached it too closely herself. "It is blue, now, but once it didn't glow; once it was black, and green, and slick. I don't know why, about that, either," she admitted, and kicked herself a little both for her clumsy phrasing and her ignorance. Graceful, she reminded herself, chiding. Be graceful in movement and in word.
"As for dangerous things, well; I eat small things, rats and mice. But there are much bigger things to at big things--who could eat me, or you," Hecate explained. "I've seen many of them--spikes, or dark-colored, or... with glowing green eyes," she added, remembering her visions, again. "Certainly, some things can fly--I can fly--but I'm no danger to you, of course. I'm a friend."

A loose interpretation of the word, perhaps, but whatever.

"There's things in the water, too--fish, but also larger things that eat the fish. I think they could eat us, if we were not careful," she added, in a quiet tone of warning. That was one of the things that had frightened her the most--seeing a Gembound surface from the dark waters, snagging down a fish before vanishing again into the unseen depths.

No, thank you very much; that, she could do without.

@Aran

Aran was curious of the spire. He wanted to see it, touch it. Even though it was dangerous. Aran didn't care for dangerous things, he would avoid them, but it didn't stop him from being curious about it nonetheless. Green? Slick? What changed about the spire that Hecate was telling him about? He would have to find another to ask himself.

Though the speak of dangerous creatures had him curious as well. He wanted to meet one of those creatures. Wanted to see for himself how dangerous they were. Of course he didn't want to talk to them, or fight, or really do anything but watch. Though it would have been hard for him to believe the fact that there were dangerous creatures lingering, the sight of the bird in front of him made him think otherwise.

"What happens if I run into one of the dangerous creatures?" He asked with a tilt of the head.

@Hecate

Hecate turned, peering quizzically--if blindly--at Aran. Her wisp still hovered there above them, its soft blue-green light illuminating her confusion well enough.

"...Well," she began, and then hesitated--"They eat you." Her feathers ruffled; her beak clicked, as if the very topic were uncomfortable to her. For a creature who considered herself dainty, the idea that hunger drove her to such a brutish thing as tearing at flesh was abhorrent to her. But from her deer ancestry she had, at least, inherited the ability to sustain herself on plants--and she did her best to do so. But a small, sharp, pointed beak was difficult to graze with.

"It's all terribly messy and unpleasant." She glanced around, as if blindly checking whether anyone else might overhear, and then leaned in close with a conspiratorial whisper. "Blood and bones, and shrieking and all of that," she hurried to say, and then she shuddered.

@Aran

Aran certainly did not want to be eaten by some kind of creature! He would try to stay away from those that looked like they could eat him when he could, then! If anything was messy and unpleasant he really didn't want to have to mess with it! But his curiosity couldn't help but get the better of him sometimes. Really, he also wanted to take a look at those creatures that were dangerous!

"Would I be able to survive if i found one and went to look at it? I wanna know what they look like!" He exclaimed.

Though a shudder went through his legs at the mention of blood and bones and everything being messy because of that. Of course he wanted to take a look at everything he could, but he would much rather prefer his bones and blood to stay were they belong! "How did you make that light before? Would I be able to do something like that?" He asked, curious. The light looked so cool! He wanted to know!

@Hecate

"I don't know," Hecate began--reluctant as she was to admit it. With a little ruffle of her feathers, she hastened to elaborate, to sound just a little less foolish. "It depends on how big it is, and how strong, and how fast you can run. And magic," she added.

Which, luckily, was the next thing that Aran asked about.

"No," she quickly answered. It was jealousy, plain and simple: no one was allowed to cast her kind of magic! ...Just in case he did it better. She couldn't have that! Reluctantly, though, she elaborated. "There's all kinds of different magic. I don't know them all, but they're all different sorts. I've seen Gembound use water, and others use plants and things. I think it changes the things around you," she added. "I make lights, and I see visions. I believe I see things hidden to the eye." Hecate, of course, was blind--and she didn't know why else her visions would be in full color, nor show things that she couldn't otherwise see. But her heart already pined for the world she saw in memories.

She placed one taloned foot flat upon the stone, and focused; a moment later she was blank, and still. Her eyes flared up with a deep emerald glow. At length, she spoke, lifting her talon again, that eye-glow fading. "There's someone out there, but I can't see them without my magic. They have many spines, and are quite tall; but I don't think they can see us." She had been saddened, as well as relieved, to find that the creatures she could see could not see her. And there was some wariness, there; for one day one might share her magic, and what would happen then-?

@Aran

"Magic..? Is that what the light you made was?" Aran wanted to know about magic now too! "What is magic? Can I do that?" He asked. Of course the question could just be something normal to answer for the winged creature, but Aran had never heard of it before! He'd just come to the world and he wanted to know everything that he could!

"Visions? That's cool! You must be able to see a lot of things!" he exclaimed after that.

When she placed her talons flat on the stone, his eyes looked down at how sharp they were. She could certainly hurt someone if she wanted to. But, from before, it didn't sound like she liked hurting anyone. Aran frowned at what she told him. "Did that come from a vision? It sounds cool!"

@Hecate

"I did, and I am able to see many things," Hecate answered, drawing herself up proudly as though she were some sort of erudite scholar.

She was not.

"I've no way of knowing what sort of magic you have. But you can try to find out. Just--try," she suggested, with a spectacularly unhelpful lack of specifics. "If you concentrate on it very deeply, perhaps you can make magic, yourself." Not as great as mine, of course, she thought smugly.

For one with almost no experience with the caves, Hecate certainly had a very high opinion of herself.

@Aran