The hybrid was far invested getting a rock in her beak to notice a playful suspense into play. All the creatures were talking. Before she could pickup the pebble she was aiming for-

Wyrm came and pounced on her! Just as she was about to speak! How rude! A loud cry came from the beak of hers. A mixture of a growl and a cry. Curse the sibling she hatched with, she squeaked towards her other sibling. Feathers fluttered on her neck.

By now there were a lot of creatures near her but she seeked the help of her sibling. Purple eyes gave away who she was calling for.

---

"Speaking"

( @Ketrex )

He snorted softly as he shook off the fire, letting the smoke envelop him before it slowly began to dissipate into the air. He flicked his gaze to the man in front of him, the man that his small brain pull the word 'father' out of the air and attached to him, the man that asked if they had names. Name? He wanted a name. One of his sisters spoke first, claiming the title Wyrm and he snorted. That sounded stupid, he didn't want a stupid name. No, he wanted something cool, something that sounded tough and powerful like he knew he was. Ke... Ket... Keter... He was getting there.

Finally it seemed to pop into his head and he yelled it out loudly without much of a preamble. Ketrex! Yes that was perfect. He stood there for a moment, his head up and clearly proud of his choice, when suddenly chaos erupted beside him as Wyrm decided to pounce on their other sister. He heard them squack for him to help and of course he had to jump into action. Not because he wanted to help his sister, no he just didn't want to be left out and had to show them both that he was the top dog, obviously.

He let out a great roar of a battle cry (read: very tiny squeak) and pounced on to two, his big belly slamming into them as he just kinda, laid across them, wanting to be the top of the dog pile.

Fahl hummed as he took in the explanation. Stones and—he regarded Sniffles with a friendly enough nod of greeting—another contributor. That did account for the diversity of this clutch. Certainly, even though he could identify Dragon in multiple of these hatchlings, none were remotely close to a match for his batgator mentor. Had Imp, too, resulted from infusing life into a recovered stone? Or had he originated from a fusion of magic and gem yet another Children of Rot had participated in?

What about himself, birthed alone and shivering from a chrysalis left on Pisces' ledges. Had someone simply abandoned him there instead of bothering to throw together a warm welcoming committee the likes of this?

A tangent into an unnecessary question. That day was long behind him, and the present demanded his attention more. He refocused on the here and now, confidence swelling in his chest at Dragon's calm inquiry. "I've been quite well. Do you know of Emuh in Polaris? I succeeded at his trial." Chin raised, a golden hue suffused the iguana's hide. "Naturally, great power came as the reward. I'd show you, but... this is hardly a safe place for such a... demonstration. The children."

Best to not catch them in a devastating backlash if he were to fail. Of course, there was also the more obvious reason he neglected to share: he hadn't the foggiest idea what this new knowledge even could be, its tie to the energy element aside.

At least Fahl had learned many other things over the passing cycles as well. Much as he loathed the source of the magic he gathered into his paw, the perfect situation seemed to have arisen besides using it as a tool of mockery. Glistening orange cubes of crystallized sugar sprang up around claws, tiny for youngsters' mouths to easily grasp.

"Do you think they'll hunger soon?" He recalled his own desperate search for sustenance after hatching, the silliness of resorting to intimidating fish into fulfilling his desires before Imp came along and taught him a more practical method of satisfying his stomach.

@Dragon

"Welcome, Wyrm! Welcome, Ketrex." The other did not speak; in fact, the three were tussling, and--ahh. Another had just hatched! "Hello, little one," Dragon repeated, in case it had not heard the first introduction.

Fahl received a glance, and though Dragon's response was warm, it was distracted: his attention was fully on his children. "Congratulations, then! And yes, I think they will. Fish, perhaps--Hey. HEY," he tried, voice deep and loud, as he waddled forward. His boat-shaped snout levered into the melee, attempting to gently separate the pouncer, the body-slammer and the -pounced and -slammed before any of them got to scratching or using fire magic again.

"Come--do you see the food? Your Uncle Fahl has food for you." He fired a questioning glance Fahl's way, as if to ask: 'is Uncle okay by you?'

img credit

@Spawn and @Sniffles (doubt order matters too much)

It's others - siblings, its mind supplied - began speaking in response. The spawn glanced at them in turn as they chirped a nams, all save for one, although it deduced it might be due to getting pounced by the sibling called Wyrm. It blinked, shuffling back a little from the commotion.

It was all a bit much, really.

It turned towards the alligator as he spoke to it. It would have smiled, if it had lips, but instead its eyes softened a bit. It felt kinship towards him, everyone around it, really. It may be loud, but it was quite literally all it had known. It was safe to say it would get used to the commotion quite quickly.

As the alligator separated its siblings, he mentioned food. The spawn looked fully at the iguana, now as crystals materialised around his claws. It had never seen food before, but a child knew sugar when it saw it. It hopped towards the iguana - Uncle Fahl, as the alligator so helpfully supplied - and watched with rapt interest. "Hhh..." it tried, wondering if the light tickle in its belly was this hungry thing Fahl mentioned.

Wyrm was SQUISHED! Squashed! She squeaked, flailing but--no, her siblings were mushing her into the mud. She squirmed, tongue flicking--and then Dragon's snout was freeing her, at least, like a big shovel with teeth.

She squeezed away and looked around, and up, and back at her family. She noticed a few new things about life. First, there was mud, and it was--in addition to being all around them--all over her, now. It smelled, a little. Second, there were trees! Big ones, wreathed in mist. Third was that the gathering was getting pretty big. There was a lot going on. A lot of noise; a lot of excitement.

Wyrm waddled a tiny body over into the nest, and flopped there--but only until she realized that gemstone shards were sharp and NOT comfortable at all! Ugh.

So she toppled out, rolling into the mud--and lay there, instead, watching her siblings and parents and--everyone.

@Sliken

He pulled away from his assault on his siblings as his attention was pulled to something else, something much more interesting than his sisters, though he did silently vow to come back and show them who was the boss. For now though, food was what caught his attention, and that was all he cared about now.

He slowly slithered his way over to Uncle Fahl, sniffing at the food items that were offered before quickly beginning to much on them, being a rather greedy little shit even with his small form. It wasn't long before he ate his fill, his small stomach full of sugar and within only a few moments, he curled up against Fahl and began to nap, exhausted from everything that had happened in such a small amount of time.

-nappy time-

Given permission by Silver to skip
@Fahl @Dragon @Sniffles @Spawn

Family existed as a vague concept to Fahl, the bonds that stood between a Gembound and their descendants. Siblingless and spat out by a chrysalis instead of born amongst others of his own species, relationships branching away from those of parent and child lay entirely outside of his scope of knowledge, and so the title of uncle sounded almost meaningless if not for the slight weight Dragon seemed to place behind its use. Judging it to be something surely good coming from his elder, he accepted this form of address with a hum and a nod. Upon noticing the attention his conjured sweets had captured from one of the bird-headed children, a paw gestured in its direction, an attempt to encourage the curious mind to approach even more.

"Yes, food," the iguana murmured assurance. "Should be plenty to... go around."

At least there had been just moments ago. Now, at most, a couple remnants littered the ground, not nearly enough for a whole pack of newborns.

Monotone in the face of his candy's sudden disappearance from underfoot, many emotions could be read into Fahl's slow pause and gradual shift in tone. Color-changing scales, however, provided better insight: consternation was evident in the purple, white, and gray swirling on their surface. He squinted down at the practically empty space, speechless, before registering the unexpected pressure against his side. Then, once his head turned to witness the sleeping child slumped there, all questions were answered. Telltale sugar crumbs on a snout revealed the sneaky culprit. He stared, stuck on whether amusement or exasperation ought to reward such audacity.

No, it wouldn't do to freeze in place like this when others had yet to have their fill. He sighed and shook his head. The magic appeared to come easily enough to him, so creating more shouldn't be too much of an issue. With that thought in mind, he rolled tension out of a shoulder, hovered claws over the earth, and channeled willpower through them again. An even vaster spread of crystalline cubes emerged this time, gleaming brilliant blues and greens.

"As I said, plenty."

@Dragon