the swamp wasn't the ideal place for a creature such as this to live, let alone be born into. it was a foul smelling, murky place; fit for those of dark hearts and even darker intentions. but the creature would not know of this. he is ambivalent while the shell of his vessel emerges - awake, oddly enough, but uncaring as the water rushes across the thin casing. dark eyes peer out of darkness, staring with emptiness at the light as it dances across the surface of the water. the vessel is partially submerged. perhaps it was made in the great depths, but it has come to the surface of the swamp's soil now. it sits, and he sits, and the creature watches mindlessly. he does not try to break through the wall in to existence; he sits, he watches, and he waits.

but the creature becomes aware of a sensation. he leans forward, his round body having very little room for movement within the chrysalis, and with a slouch his head touches upon the opal's contours. he feels the chill and pulls back instantly, giving a honk of surprise - a deafening sound in such a small space. the sound bounces off of the inner curve of the shell and assaults his tiny ears; so the creature, not understanding, lurches backwards. the chrysalis slips in its moorings and is dislodged, floating a few feet through the swamp's endless waters before planting itself, like some sort of seed, in the damp roots of a tree.

The alligator heard many things on his daily travels through Cetus. He heard the incessant buzzing of insects as he floated black and motionless; he heard the alarmed screeching of birds overhead as he hauled himself through the reeds, and the chittering of rats and hissing of spiders as he daily climbed the crags to sun himself.

What he did not often hear was a muffled but still rather loud HONK.

Halfway up the bank from one of the dark channels of water the wet-black alligator paused, slowly turning his broad head to peer toward the noise.

What was that?

Gradually the heavy reptile changed course, slogging back down and dropping into the channel again with a loud splash.

It didn't take him long to find the thing that was out of place: a stone, propped up against the roots of one of the swamp-trees, and he could swear there was something moving within its translucent, iridescent depths.

A hatchling? A young Gembound, in its egg? A brief thrill went through the creature, and he came closer, briefly huffing and sniffing over its surface before settling nearby, resting his chin on the top of the stone.

Then the "dragon" began his rumbling, a deep bass thrumming that resonated in the stone and elsewhere, buzzing through Taktuq's stone in a strange sort of crocodilian lullaby. He wasn't sure when the creature within would hatch, but the idea of another young creature hatching in his swamp filled him with the closest thing an alligator could feel toward contentment.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura aka rare . edited by banshee and dark }

@Taktuq

when the egg came to a lurching halt against the roots, the creature within did not quite stop. there wasn't too much room for it, but the momentum carried through the core, regardless. physics could not be avoided. the creature gave another honk - a smaller one - as his rotund figure bounced against the nearest surface. it didn't hurt, not really. not enough to make him whine or cry out again. but the creature became aware a minute later of something new; he was pressed against the surface, and while he did not like that, there was a vibrating tone seeping through the shell.

the creature didn't know what was on the other side. he didn't recognize the reptilian form of the crocodile as it slid out of the swamp, nor did it recognize the rumbling that the foreign beast made; the new thing was only aware of how soothing the sound was. he wanted to make that sound too - perhaps out of a desire to communicate, which was well ingrained, or perhaps it was simple mimicry. the darkness swam around him, shifting with the change in the air as the sounds continued, and all the creature could muster was the ineffective blowing of raspberries against the chilled wall of the chrysalis.

when the creature tired of that, it sank back in the vessel, soothed by the rumbling that continued to roll through the water, and thus through the container. a sudden desire to reach out and find the source of that sound gripped the creature, so he drew in a breath and focused --

and the dull thump of dragon's heartbeat sounded in the darkness, becoming a beacon for the trapped babe. the creature murmured softly, babbling, and then gave a wheezy, explicit toot in the direction of the heartbeat. the sound bounced right back at his sensitive ears, and so the child silenced itself, withdrawing instinctively away from the ringing that now overwhelmed him.

Dragon fell briefly silent as he heard the slightest vibration echo from within the rock. He rumbled, thinking, then turned his head, gently closing massive jaws around the chrysalis. When baby alligators had trouble hatching, their parents helped them break free. Dragon had done the same for Czernobog, when his instincts had gripped him--and now they did so again.

With a bite force comparable to a rhino standing on the tip of its horn he bit down, careful and slow, doing his best to create a crack or two without utterly shattering the stone.

There was a quiet, sharp crack, like ice dropped in water, and the alligator let go and sank back into the swamp, turning his head to eye the rock. He could see it, the damage he'd wrought, and could still see something within. He spoke, his voice a deep rumble as he addressed the young one within.

"Break free," he said softly, the bass sound of his words carrying. For a moment he bobbed in the black water, and then repeated: "Break free."

Hopefully, it could escape the rest of the rock on its own--if it were so inclined.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura aka rare . edited by banshee and dark }

@Taktuq

there was a brief interlude where the rumbling vanished, and all that was left was the sense of dragon's heart beating. mentally the creature latched upon that, seeking it out for the comfort it posed. and then, when the babe's whole world shifted and things began to shatter - he gave a strangled cry, uneasy and overwhelmed, until a segment of the chrysalis was chunked away and the babe could get a breath of the sulfuric air within the swamp. it was not a clean first breath; the taste made the babe squirm within the shell, to pull its face back and even hide his route little snout in the crook of his little arm.

then the beast outside, the one which rumbled, did something new. the words were just sounds at first - nonsense, like the rumbling - but then the alligator sank back from the opening, muttering the command a second time, and somehow it clicked within the babe's brain.

"brrrr," the babe mimicked, his nose appearing where the shell had started to splinter.

"brrrrrr!" it was almost like the outside-beast's rumbling but not quite, and seemed to stifle the babe's nerves. he wiggled his nose out of the hole, then his head, but that was where everything stopped -- because he was stuck. everything from the seal's face down was too round and filled with fat to be of use. the walls of the chrysalis held firm around him, and all the babe could do was squawk and wiggle uselessly.

"brrrrr, brrr!" he squealed, pitch rising with the child's confusion. his dark eyes opened, revealing nothing but blackness and the shine of stone. "raaaake!" he called out, and then let out a little honk as he settled in to his defeat.

Dragon tilted his head to peer at the thing within the chrysalis. It was strange--delicate, pretty, when compared to his reptilian frame. Rounded. Its spots reminded him of water drying in patches off the muddy ground.

And then, with a honk, it was stuck.

Dragon blinked and let out a soft, huffing chortle; he wasn't sure how to break the creature free now that it was stuck fast, but he'd try. He had to take a few moments though, first; he eyed the strange young one, trying to suppress his amusement... while at the same time, etching the mental image in his memory forever.

Large, broad jaws again rose, fangs quite close to the seal's face, except instead of biting him, Dragon was nudging his teeth down on the edges of the broken stone. He tugged, here and there, trying to get the stone open, though once or twice he had to pull away and sink back into the water to laugh some more. It was an alien activity to him, laughter, but laugh he did nonetheless, once even ducking his head under and sending a plume of bubbles to the surface.

At length he decided to claw at the stone instead, pulling at the edges, hoping to snap away a few pieces.

"Get down," he grumbled a few times as he worked, even lightly pushing on Taktuq's head with his own chin and snout to try and force the seal back down into his chrysalis. The last thing Dragon wanted to do was cut the newborn on the edges of his own egg.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura aka rare . edited by banshee and dark }

@Taktuq

it was a tight squeeze, and an uncomfortable one. but it wasn't that much different than the squeeze he had felt upon waking; the shell didn't fit around him too well after all. even though the baby was disoriented and unhappy with the feeling of the cold stone against its head, it eventually quieted. and then, when the friend outside began to work at the fragmented crevice that had cracked across the vessel, the babe could only sit and wait. there was the occasional pinch, or a new sound, but it did not disturb him. when the voice came again, and then the helpful beast placed pressure on the fat child's head, he allowed it; sinking back in to the chrysalis.

eventually, the crack had become large enough that he could likely escape from the shell entirely. the playful sound of bubbles (from the outside beast's laughter) prompted the newborn to stick its head out again - slowly this time, in case there was more wall to catch him - and with a surprised yip, the seal pup plopped out of the chrysalis and in to the swamp water below. his blubbery chest plopped against the water's surface with a slap, and then he was floating among the reeds, tail fins slipping out of the vessel and in among the tree roots.

already, he could swim. he could float and exist here, content in the slight chill, but something... something was amiss. the seal turned its attention in every direction - staring straight ahead, then at the tree roots (or rather, through them), and then beyond the alligator which had been of such great help. where had the voice gone? where was the cold and the dry? "brrrreak?" he called out - perhaps to announce that he was free, or perhaps to find the rumbly thing that had given him such assistance.

he had forgotten all about his magic, which had waned quickly enough. the sound of the heartbeat was lost to the water around him - to the darkness he would always be facing.

Dragon popped up from beneath the surface, eyes quickly spying his new little comrade. He jutted his snout out enough to take a deep lungful of breath, bobbing up to float high in the water, swishing his way slowly and gently forward with idle sweeps of his long, thick tail.

"Break," he rumbled. "Yes, you have broken free. I am Dragon," he added, and as he said this, he was eyeing the strange creature over.

He had never seen anything quite like it, before. He had seen Aquarian, which still had legs, albeit small and webbed ones--were this creature's front paws like those...? He had seen, once, a small brown weasel type of creature, which was something like this in shape, only this creature was plump and silvery. He grumbled very softly to himself and submerged, briefly, to peer at it beneath the marsh water's murk depths.

Yes, he thought as he bobbed back up again. Round-ish, with no hind limbs. Was it like he, and his brother Ghanyarah, destined to swim more than walk, to live with no ears and no fur--but wait, was it unfurred? ...No, he thought, it had fur--or perhaps they were feathers, sleek and short and soft like the owl's.

Whatever the case, it was a strange creature to him and one he had no name for, but still, it was young, it had been born in his swamp, and thus he was willing to call it "family."

And whatever its species, one thing he knew was what most Gembound arrowed for the moment they hatched.

"Are you hungry?" he asked.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura aka rare . edited by banshee and dark }

@Taktuq

it wasn't perfectly quiet in the swamp. the trees shifted with the air currents produced by the differing pressure in the cave system, there were tiny animals scurrying around, the reptilian creature was blowing bubbles - and though he could not see his surroundings, the babe was content. he happily floated with the scum and the reeds, unaffected by the state of the water or the chill it may have posed to others. and when his companion spoke, he once again imitated.

"drrrrrr!" he called out, droning on for a minute while the thrumming sound passed across the surface. the seal dipped its head in to the water, feeling the wetness slide up his round face, and did it again, "drrrr!", pleased by the feeling the bubbles made as they sought the surface. he stopped when dragon spoke again, but he didn't know what to do.

"hnnngrrrrr?" more bubbles, and no answer for the reptile. even if taktuq had known what hunger felt like, he was too enthralled by the soft effervescence around him. and, quite suddenly, he began to form new words. "taaaa," the seal opened his mouth wide as if to invite a dentist inside - and the water slipped over his tongue. when it reached his throat he sputtered and spat, drifting from his moorings against the tree roots. "taaatuq!"

"Taaak-tuq, hunnngggrrr." collecting water in his mouth again, this time the baby spat it fountain-style towards dragon; he didn't know he was aiming for the reptile's head, but it was only a little water, it wouldn't hurt. "Taktuq hung-reeee."

Dragon floated, flinching somewhat as the baby sprayed water at his face. He let out another chortle of amusement, peering at it. It was blowing bubbles, floating about--and it seemed to be agreeing that it was hungry.

"Follow," he rumbled good-naturedly, and slowly turned in a water-swishing arc to face back toward the Heart of Cetus. He looked around, first; though unlikely, an attack from a cave spider or a bunch of cave rats could probably cause the new baby some damage before Dragon had the chance to fight them off.

When he saw that all seemed clear, he turned and began to float back down the water channel, swishing his tail to propel himself in a quiet stream of bubbles. The alligator glanced back, and to his surprise, he noticed that the seal seemed rather... lost.

"This way," he explained, hoping that it would realize to follow him.

He still didn't realize that poor Taktuq was blind.

{ art by dark } ~ { table by aura aka rare . edited by banshee and dark }

@Taktuq