Shida groaned as consciousness slowly slipped back into place. Her shoulder throbbed with pain, but she was much more clear-headed then she'd been when she'd fallen asleep. Still, fuck, she was sore all over. Her head lifted from where it had been resting against her paws and she took stock of her surroundings.

First of all, the diamond was still under her body. Ok that was good, the damn dog hadn't tried to steal it from her again. Second of all, said dog was sitting against the wall opposite to her, and he looked like he was snoozing, with what looked like a black fedora (where had he gotten that from?) resting over his face. And third, behind him was a mural of a giant white worm with spikes and spines. It wasn't....really the ice worm. It looked more like just a sandworm painted white, but she was impressed by the artistry of it.

"Huh," she rasped, voice cracking from dryness. "That's kind of cool."

She had to admit, there was a newfound appreciation for the canine - yeah he'd bitten the fuck out of her and shit, but he didn't need to stick around. It would have been all too easy to just snatch up the diamond and leave. She didn't know why the fuck he was interested in having a piece of her stone, but. Eh. It wasn't a huge deal to her. He did beat her in a fight and she had to respect him for the effort at least. And for the nice painting. She she had no problem reaching back and nipping off a piece of her peridot, a surge of magic cracking off a small shard.

Oh, right, she was supposed to be mad at him. She looked his way and spat the shard, getting that disapproving glare once again. "Alright, there's your rock. Now get out."

Deli

---

Deli did not, in fact, know what an ice worm looked like. He'd only seen the sandworms from a distance and had done his best to remember for artistry reasons, but without the close-up experience, it was mostly a guess. But he liked to think he'd done a decent job of it.

After taking a few hours to paint a rather large depiction of the thing on the wall of Shida's den, and seeing that the hybrid was still snoozing, Deli had sat himself down for a nap himself, pulling the black hat out of his bag and using it as a sleep mask. And it only seemed like a few minutes after he'd dozed off that her voice was awakening him again.

"Huh? Wuh?" But then the clink of a crystal hidding the stone floor and he blinked fully awake, leaning forward to snatch up the thing. It was smaller then the diamond, and...green, of course, but if it was gonna be the child of a champion or whatever, he didn't see the issue. Hehe, with both their fuckass personalities combined into one creature, maybe he could have a little mischief companion. "Thanks!" He grinned widely as he gripped it in his fist. It was a bit of a sudden decision, but his own magic surged and threaded into the crystal. Or, chrysalis now, he guessed. He'd have to find a good place to put it.

Hopping to his feet and keeping his fist closed at his side, he gave a flick-like salute towards her. "Nice meetin' ya, Champion!" And then he was squeezing out of the cave. He didn't get the diamond, but he had gotten something perhaps more precious.

*exit

Shida watched him leave, not noticing the life-giving at the time, assuming that he'd just stash it somewhere or something, but the concept of the dog maybe giving life to a piece of her definitely still crossed her mind. Not an impossibility. She found that she didn't care all that much about it and let him leave without another word. No goodbyes for that fuckass.

As for the diamond, however, now that Deli was gone, she pushed herself off of it, gritting her teeth at the soreness of her muscles, but managing to get to her feet. She turned and leaned down, nosing at the thing for a second, thinking. Eh, I should just do it now, huh? She didn't want it to be almost-stolen again. And it wasn't doing anything just sitting around.

A press of her nose to the diamond and a surge of her life and the diamond was suddenly growing a bit, rooting into the ground, and giving off a faint colorless glow. Nice. Okay. Guess there'd be a kid here soon.

She glanced towards the portrait of the iceworm. Fuck that didn't look anything like the Actual Ice Worm. Whatever. Maybe she'd try and fix it later.

She turned to her cave, which had become a total mess during her multi-year slumber followed immediately by a close-quarters frenzy of a fight. She sighed, rolling her sore shoulder back, but stepping forward to start cleaning up so she could have an actual place to rest and recover.

*exit