It'd been three days since Iceheart broke out of her chrysalis, and only now had she thought to actually explore more than what was just around her. The snow-driven area she'd been born into was large, but she had quickly found a carved-out tunnel driven into one of the cave walls. Until now, she'd ignored it. Not for any particular reason, mind you-- Iceheart simply had other things to do.

But now, she was bored, and no one could resist a good hole forever.

The tunnel was short. The snow pittered out into grey, smooth stone. When the tunnel ended, the cottonball dragon found herself in a wide-- though not as wide as Ursa --room with a great, blue spire in the center. The air itself seemed to thrum here, jittering as though every molecule were alive and painted a great, skystone-blue.

Iceheart's first thought was how hungry she was.

Where some would have sat and watched the Spire in wonderment, Iceheart instead felt relief that there was a deep river bubbling nearby. Her broad claws click-clacked against the cave floor as she made her way to it, white tail lashing behind her as she crouched on the bank.

She knew these little, silver fish. They were dumb and easy to catch. An icy claw went plunging into the crystalline river and found a small, muscular body and thrashing scales. It was easy enough (she had what she assumed was infinite practice) to pull it out and escort the wriggling thing into her jaws.

With a swift crunch, the silverling swiftly fell limp between her blue gums. There was a sense of satisfaction as Iceheart tilted her head back and swallowed it down whole.

Just down the river, Wolf-Rayet had bent down to drink. Though the scent of the fish's blood in the water, would cause it glance up, cold water dripping down its chin. And there Rayet would see a bundle of white fluff.

Well, she definitely made fishing look easy. And fish look tasty. "Fishing? Let me try," it would ask, but not particularly directed at Iceheart, more just. Left out in the air.

It'd (awkwardly) shuffle a little closer, peering into the river. Maybe it could do it too? Impress the... fuzzy thing. It's not quite sure what Iceheart is, yet.

The dart of silver takes a moment for it to find, and then it twists, lashing out with its tail. One of its legs slip, and it finds itself far wetter than just its tail, but sure enough, a fish is skewered on a spike.

With a grimace, it'd pull itself out of the river, turning to see its own prize.

@Iceheart

There was something unusual approaching. Not that she was the shining example of normalcy, but the animals that she had seen all had an even amount of legs: usually, four. This one had five, unless that blackened stump attached to a gemstone was meant to be sixth. All feet were usually on the ground, at that.

It's not like Iceheart rejected its presence though. "Okay," she said-- utterly without tone, but not unkindly. She was still half-choking down her fish while she watched the creature in the corner of her eye, as it approached the riverbank.

And then, it slips.

Things like 'be careful,' 'look out,' or 'your weird fifth foot is too close to the edge' are very difficult to formulate when you think an emergency is afoot. The only other place that she had encountered riverwater in was in Ursa, and the water was freezing. Instinct told her that getting wet in cold places was bad. Deadly.

The water here wasn't nearly as cold. She knew this, but her mind reacted on that instinct alone. She lashed out like a fat, white whip-- jaws grasping at the scruff of Rayet's neck and trying to help haul it up the steep shoreline. It's not like it needed the help, but Iceheart worried anyway.

Her eyes caught the fish lodged in one of the thagomizer spikes. "Oh," surprised, but still toneless. "Your tail got one."

With the culpeo up on shore again, Iceheart release her jaws from its scruff and extended her neck to the spikes, sniffing them cautiously. They didn't smell like much: tangy dog-scent, riverwater, fish and fish blood. "Is it magic?" She asked, the bundle of white turning back to its face. "It doesn't smell like magic. My spikes are magic. They're good for catching fish. Do you want to see?"

A beat. "I'm Iceheart."

@Wolf-Rayet

The assistance isn't something Rayet frets over, beyond stiffening for a moment at being grabbed. But it's a kind enough gesture, especially once all of its feet are on solid ground again and it can think properly again.

"Thanks," it says, its tone also somewhat flat. "Seems I did-" and it would also lean towards the skewered fish. Definitely smellier than its usual fare... For a moment it feels a bit nauseous.

Shaking its head clear, it'll look back to Iceheart. "I'm not sure... Didn't always have these. Just... woke up with them one day." It had taken a while to get used to it, and a decent time had been spent tripping and stumbling and falling flat on its butt.

Its eyes would look Iceheart up and down one more time as she introduced herself. Another beat, then it would do the same. "Wolf-Rayet. Just Rayet is fine if it's too long." But then it would smile a little, "If you'd like to show me, go ahead. You seem better at it."

@Iceheart

"Oh," said Iceheart. "That's weird?"

It was simultaneously both statement and question: when Iceheart went to sleep, she didn't wake up with any new bits-- though, now that she thought about it, she'd never really had thought to check. She was realtively sure that she didn't grow anything new, though. Surely you'd notice something like that pretty quickly. Still, it seemed like something you should ask about.

Iceheart's first question about the affair was "Did it hurt?" and it was wholly unclear which part of the process Iceheart was asking about: the sleeping, the waking up, the new bits, so on and so forth. The second was "Are there more bits you woke up with one day?" Her tone, as it often was, was completely without tone but she was far from earnest.

She just wanted to know, genuinely, as children often do.

"Okay," she said. Shortening a name didn't make much sense to her, but she had a vague sense of social equiette to know it might be inferred as impolite to ask why it would shorten its own name. Iceheart didn't want to be just Ice or Heart, for instance-- so, off with the conversation she went.

Wolf-Rayet (or just Rayet, Iceheart guessed) was asking about fish, and fishing was something Iceheart could do. At least, usually-- because when she dipped her face near the riverbank, nothing happened.

"Uhhh," she swiftly started stalling. "Give me a second."

@Wolf-Rayet

It shrugs in response. "Yeah, it is weird."

It tilts its head ask she continues her questions. So Wolf-Rayet furrows its brows as it thinks. "...No. Not really. Felt sore. Had to break out after that sleep. Felt better than before, at least." It remembers having to break out of a chrysalis - not the first time it had fallen asleep to wake up back in its own shell. Hasn't happened since, though.

It remembers the cyclical nature of its life before. It would wake up, bright, bouncing with energy, happy to live. And then it would decline, growing ill. The nausea, the tingling in its paws, the swimming in its vision. And it would fall asleep, just to break out again, in a loop.

But now it did fall back into its stone. Instead it was steady, stuck at the midpoint of that old roller coaster - not as vibrant as fresh off, but not as feverishly sick as just before the end.

"...But the rest of life did. It would hurt, and I fell asleep. And then I broke out, and felt better. But the leg and tail bits... Only the last time."

It's not sure if these are even good enough answers for Iceheart, but it did an attempt. Its eyes watch them crane over the river, preparing to catch another fish. It doesn't mind waiting, and takes the opportunity to try and dry itself off some. It tries to focus its magic, warm itself up from the chilling water, only to burn its paws. Yipping in surprise, Rayet jumps up, dancing on hot paws on a hot floor.

Oops.

@Iceheart

"Oh. Okay," said Iceheart. She wasn't entirely certain what the appropriate response to 'most of my life was lived in pain,' and so she said (perhaps rudely) nothing much at all, and went right back to fishing.

There was a tug deep in her chest before the water from the crystalline river began to shift and freeze into a long, sharp icicle, cloudy-white and aiming itself at a silverling.

Iceheart's eyes narrowed in concentration as the iceshard bulleted to the fish, spearing it in a cloud of scarlet. Iceheart leaned in, claws grasping at the ice as she took it and pulled it back to pull the fish off the end of it. It was mangled-- there was a big hole in it, but it was edible.

The fish was flopped to Wolf-Rayet.

"How many times did you sleep?" She asked at last. "I sleep all the time but it never hurts. I never change." She was matter-of-fact, a little clueless but not directly malicious. She wanted to know: it seemed important to know, in fact. If Iceheart was going to wake up with a new leg or tailspikes, she'd like to be prepared for it, thank you very much.

The dragon took a little sniff over Wolf-Rayet seconds before its feet began to burn. She could smell burnt skin and fur radiating off it and she grimaced back, long snout wrinkling. "Did your magic bite you?"

@Wolf-Rayet

It dances in place a little longer, before shimmying to a different patch of ground. One thankfully not so heated. That does cause it to miss a fair amount of Iceheart's demonstration, but it perks back up as the icicle fish is dropped on the floor in front of it. "Oh, you weren't kidding."

It remembers it still has another fish stuck on its tail, and so it pulls the thing off, dropping it next to Iceheart's catch. Both are thoroughly disemboweled from being speared. Its nose wrinkles a bit at the scent.

"How many... two or three times. But that was the deep, 'have to break free' sleeps. Had normal ones between them, too," it explained a bit more. And then there's her concern to worry about. "...it did."

@Iceheart

Iceheart blinked. "Why would I be kidding?" Was this something people usually made jokes about? "I'm not very good at telling jokes." Like this much wasn't obvious from Iceheart's complete lack of tone.

She looked down at the mutilated fish. Wolf-Rayet might have been crinkling its nose but Iceheart couldn't quite care less about the state of them: food was food. She snapped one into her jaws and used her forelimb to push another towards the culpeo. Loose insides streaked across the cave floor.

The dragon was still snapping down bits of fish when she said, "oh. I've only had one of those." It had been unpleasant: Iceheart had to dig her way out of several feet of snow to get some air. This set a hell of a standard, one that Iceheart immediately and silently assumed that Wolf-Rayet had also experienced.

No one had told this idiot her experiences weren't universal yet.

"My friend Undertow got bit by his magic," she went on regardless. "He flopped over so I pushed him into water until he felt better. He lives in there." She did not elaborate.

"Eat the fish," she encouraged.

@Wolf-Rayet

...Maybe it had said the wrong thing there. "...Meant more. Didn't know what to expect. Didn't have a picture before seeing it." Rayet isn't exactly sure if that makes sense, but it really hadn't known exactly what Iceheart had first meant by 'magic spikes'.

Its eyes drop back down to the offered fish. Wolf-Rayet doesn't exactly enjoy the smell, but they had kinda. Traded fish. And the fish did look tasty before its nose had gotten so offended.

Then the dragon starts talking about others, a friend of hers. "I don't know that one. Not surprised though. Magic bites happen every so often." The description of water being someone's home though... Well, if it's good enough for the fish, maybe it's good enough for someone.

The fish is nudged again, and Rayet supposes they can't put it off any longer. It can't be rude, now, can it?

Cautiously, it'd sniff the fish again, wincing. But Rayet forces itself to grab it in its jaws, trying best to block out the smell. Not that it works, and as it bites the thing in half and swallows, it starts to feel somewhat ill. The other side of the fish is dropped back on the ground, and Rayet turns away, trying to not show its distaste.

@Iceheart