Everything seemed as usual, content to do its own thing unperturbed. Today seemed like any other, if a little less energetic. The natural motion of things was dazed, the streams weren't bubbling as much as fizzing, the plants didn't sway as much as jiggle. The first sign anything was amiss was the cacophonous echoes of stone fracturing and scraping past itself. The cause of this great uproar was a chrysalis, firmly rooted in the middle of a shallow stream, with moss collected in odd places around it wherever a foothold was to be found. This gave it a mottled appearance, dark green lichens spattered across an asparagus colored base, like some geological easter egg.

The rotund chrysalis was deceptively disproportional, as if a beach ball was swallowed by a crystal. It continued its shrill screeching, crackling as the stone was forced to part. First a set of long curled claws passed the threshold, followed by an arm. The divide grew greater, the shell revealing a dirt brown mass of fur. The chrysalis started to come apart in large chunks, splashing into the small stream as newly awakened life rose out of it. Disappointingly, this hidden treasure was not in fact some ancient yet still inflated beach ball, but an equally pudgy bear cub.

For the great white dragon things at first seemed like nothing out of the ordinary. His great white paws carried him as he did his rounds of the territory, something that he'd recently gotten into doing. He was actually about to finish his rounds and take a nap atop the monarch but something felt... off. Not bad off but just... off. The dragon's head tilted to the side and after a rueful glance at the distance Monarch he finally turned away to check the forest more clearly. What could this feeling be coming from?

afflated he felt to head towards the stream and it was a good thing he did... Initially he saw that the flow seemed to be impeded by something. A second longer of investigation revealed that this something was a hatchling, a dark furry hatchling that was in a bit of a predicament. Well... maybe not a great one with the slow moving stream but it still wasn't the safest spot. The caretaker in him felt concern rising in his gut as well as the urge to protect the newborn. Who else would care the tiny creature if he didn't?

With great care the dragon gingerly grasped the cub, stone, moss, and all in his jaws and moved it gently over to the shore where he sat it carefully at his paws. There he stared down at the creature with pink eyes unblinking, waiting to see what it would do.

---

words: 243
tagged: @Slug
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

The shrill screeching had hurt her ears at first, but, with the curiosity of the pup she was, Kailia bounded towards the sound, not going as fast as she could have wanted because of her small, stubby legs. After what seemed forever to the pup, she had made it.

Stopping for a moment to catch her breath, the run taking her strength out of her, her attention stayed on the much taller creature. Craning her neck to look up at him, she watched him for a moment before her tail wagged slightly. Kailia wasn't intimidated by the other creature....Well, maybe a little. But mostly, she was curious.

Her attention went from how tall the creature was to its tail. With no hesitation, Kailia attempted to jump on the creature's tail and chew on it.

Slug, Baratheon

The small creature deeply pondered the beast before him. He tilted his head, as if about to give some afflated words of wisdom. Taking a deep breath, the chubby cub sneezed with a great start. His lips fluttered like a flustered hummingbird, great flaps flicking mucus and saliva across the white paws in front of the young creature. The force of his sneeze at once flung his tongue past his mouth through the gap presented by the evolutionary lack of upper front teeth, and simultaneously knocked him flat on his back.

Greatly displeased by this series of events, the cub attempted to right himself. Scrawny and long legs flailed helplessly as the brown ball of fluff was pinned by his own belly. He began to let out a series of distressed woofs, blowing air past his gums and making his lips flutter comically once again. Perhaps it was a blessing that his youth spared him from the self-recognition of how pathetic this display was.

Eyes remained unblinking as he stared down at the tiny child before him. Baratheon's own head mirrored the babe's as it tilted but that was where the mirroring ended. When the child sneezed and coated his claws and paws in a fresh coating of mucus the dragon peered down at it curiously. Well... at least the stream was right there so he could clean them off. No big deal... Really... If he could deal with losing an eye then he could deal with unclean paws.

The flailing and woofing of the tiny creature brought him back to the present, eyes once again found the tiny ball of fluff as it attempted to correct itself and repeatedly failed. Not one to leave a helpless infant on its own the dragon used one claw to attempt to push the cub back to its paws. No sooner had he done this that he felt a bit of a tickle --or was that chewing?-- on his tail. The dragon's head snaked around while his tail was partially moved so that he could easily see the white fluff chewing on him. A white puppy... It reminded him of the other pup he'd adopted in what felt like another lifetime ago. Where that one was he didn't know... He'd never found her and was left to assume the worst...

A deep rumble sounded in his throat as he began to chuckle at the antics of the tiny one. So spunky she was! Who would want to attack something over four times their size! He marveled at her bravery as he lowered his head to fix her with one great eye...

And spoke for the first time in weeks.

"Careful... Don't hurt yourself, tiny one." With another laugh, this one bubbling out of his maw, he laid down on the ground with his body encircling the bear cub while he carefully lowered his tail to the ground with the pup undisturbed. If she wanted to chew then let her chew, she wasn't causing any harm.

But what should he do about the cub? Surely he wouldn't want to chew like a puppy.

It was then that he called upon an old magic that he remembered from days past and after a bit of focus he touched the ground in front of the cub with a claw. Out from the area that he touched a pumpkin began to grow, one that could easily feed a grown bear. Once it was grown he gave a satisfied nod and looked expectantly at the cub. Would it figure out what to do with it? Or would he have to offer help?

---

words: 440
tagged: @Kailia @Slug
ooc: ---
muse: 7/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

Kailia's ears pricked at the rumbling voice, and her light blue gaze lifted from the slightly moving tail to see the creature looking at her. At the rumbling sound, a small noise escaped her, a tiny laugh of her own. This was nice! The other creature-what was that? Dropping the tail, Kailia stared at the pumpkin that had grown from nothing, her eyes widening. That was....What was the word for it? She wasn't sure, but it was something.

Struggling to the pumpkin, she stared at it for a moment, before turning her attention to the creature that appeared around her age. She had never seen anything like it, either! Blinking, she lifted one paw, attempting to gently put her paw on the other's nose.

Slug, Baratheon

The cub yawned, mouth gaping wide and eyes closed. Blissfully ignorant of the sudden appearance of some strange orange globe in front of it. Of course this bliss was rudely disturbed by the sudden appearance of a paw in the bear's mouth. Confused, his eyes opened and dull coffee peepers looked for the source of this strange and inedible intrusion. His mouth was completely closed, a feat made possible again by the lack of upper front teeth, which created a notch for the limb to fit through. White fur tickled his grey speckled snout, once more sending him into a fit of wheezes punctuated with an explosive sneeze. His maw clamped close, the lack of suitable teeth preventing any traction from being gained and sending him reeling backwards releasing the paw with an audible pop.

Once again the poorly proportioned creature was on his back, pinned by his own baby blubber. More distressed woofs were released as he rocked back and forth. Desperately he reached for the large pumpkin, not that he would know it as such, and attempted to clasp on by digging his claws into the orange flesh.

Amused by the antics of the children the great white dragon continued to watch them. The white pup seemed to be taken by the pumpkin but only for a second before she found herself distracted by the other child. Proving herself as the spunky one again she attempted to smack the other one on the nose but instead of succeeding she ended up sending the cub into another sneeze which coated her in a layer of mucus.

Well, that wouldn't do. It would be good to note that the dragon was not a first time parent but it should also be noted that he hadn't been around children in ages. So, with this in mind that dragon extended his neck and head over to the stream to take a great drought of water but he didn't swallow. Instead the dragons' head snaked back over to the pup where he released the water over her, if she hadn't moved of course. No puppy should have to walk around with mucus all over themselves...

And speaking of...

The dragon's coated paw he moved it into the stream and rinsed it clean, all the while keeping an eye on the cubs he was curled around.

---

words: an amount
tagged: @Kailia @Slug
ooc: ---
muse: 6/10

"Talking looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

An annoyed noise left Kailia as her paw was shoved into the other's mouth as they yawned. She didn't want her paw to be in someone's mouth! Her ears flattening slightly, she almost moved away from the other, but stood still, struggling to keep her balance with the other three paws. When the wheezes escaped the other, it worried the small pup. Had she caused that? Was that something wrong?

With the sneeze, and the audible pop of her paw being released, Kailia finally lost her balance, stumbling backwards slightly. There she stood, disgusted at being covered in the mucus. She didn't like this one bit! A huff escaping her, she didn't notice the bigger creature's movements until it was too late. A great shower of water covered her, a cry escaping the pup as she shivered, staring up at the dragon like it had betrayed her.

In her mind, it had, in a way. She didn't realize that he had done her a favor; at the moment, she was convinced that it was some attack for bothering the other creature. Any way, she didn't move, although she turned her attention to the cub again.

Slug, Baratheon