Asimona was quite right--Dread had no idea what "alive" meant. Alertly attentive, he tilted his head and licked his own jaws, eyeing first the ice dragon, then the dragon made of ice. He stared between them, sitting back on his haunches.

Words drifted to him, fluttering down through his thoughts to his mind, as they seemed to for others--a remembrance of memories never truly known. He understood, now--thanks to Asimona's aid--that sounds could be formed into meaning. And he knew some that she had not taught him--now unlocked, unfurling, like his fledgling wings had the first time he'd flown.

But "alive?" That concept yet escaped him.

"Not alive. Not alive," he parroted carefully, before adding--"What 'alive?'"

This--a carefully-delivered, if not-quite-fully-formed--question, was aimed quizzically at Asimona. Dread then tilted his dark head, peering back at the ice sculpture, hissing and chirping curiously to himself. He had forgotten to be afraid of her, by now--of the white dragon; she was a friend, a mother or a sister of sorts. She was family, he decided. He didn't know the word--and yet he did; and so he blurted it, peering up at her again.

"Family," he cautiously squawked.

@Asimona

Asimona thought for a moment, thought abut how she would explain what it meant to be alive. She didn't quite know herself. But she had learned, from her experiences, that living things breathed and they had blood and they could move on their own. She raised a claw to her chest and felt her heart beating, deep within her chest. She motioned for the other dragon to do the same, pointing at the left side of his chest, where she assumed his heart would be. "Feel," she directed. If he did, he would most likely feel the steady thrumming of his heart. "That is heart. Alive. Heart is alive. Breathe is alive." She took a deep, dramatic breath so that the dragon could see and realize that it was what she was referencing. "See," she pointed at her eyes now, "is alive. Ice dragon not see or breathe. Ice dragon not have heart. Ice dragon not alive."

As she said it, she felt a strange wave of sadness for her little creation. It was beautiful, but it did not have so many things that she realized now that she took for granted.

At the dragon's word that he figured out, though, she paused. She didn't think that he would be able to figure out a word so complex on his own, nor did she think he would be able to figure out a word even she had trouble understanding. She had never experienced family. She had never had a brother or a mother or children. That was family. But, she supposed, they were family, in a way. Few dragons walked the caves. They were the only ones, as far as she knew, and that gave them a special bond.

She nodded and smiled. "Yes, family. We family."

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Dread
notes:

Dread watched, and listened. He did not quite grasp that he was to put his claws on his own chest, instead peering at Asimona's own forelimb and scales. But breathing he grasped, and he obediently--and after misinterpreting Asimona's point--took a deep breath of his own.

Breath is alive? He eyed the ice dragon, his tail lashing slowly, catlike, over the stones. He didn't quite understand. He was close--the realization itched just at the outer edges of his mind. With a tiny squeak of frustration, he settled himself tightly on the stones, staring at the ice dragon and willing himself to understand.

Thing not see. Thing not alive. He puzzled over this for a moment, and then, tentative, looked around at the rocks below him, and then the plants nearby. Hesitant, he looked back to Asimona, almost shyly, as if afraid to get this wrong. Afraid to risk the answer.

"..Not see? Not alive?" he asked, drawing the foreclaw of his wing around a pebble, and then gesturing with a nudge of his snout toward a nearby fern. He looked back to Asimona, wary that he'd messed up.

Were plants and rocks not alive, then, like they were?

@Asimona

Asimona nodded. Of course, she did not understand that plants were not alive. She had no reason to believe that they were any more alive then rocks and stones. "Not see, not alive." She had not met yet any that were blind, either. She was going off of what she understood of the world and she knew that those that could see were alive. And those that had a heart were alive and those that could breath were alive. She realized that the other dragon was struggling to keep up, but she believed he could do it. He was almost there!

She noticed that the dragon did not try to feel his own heartbeat so Asimona, hoping that she wasn't overstepping herself, slowly moved forward and reached for the left side of his chest. If he would allow her, she would place her palm there carefully. "Listen. Feel. Heart inside. Heart is alive."

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Dread
notes:

He did not understand the chest thing. The rest he thought he understood: rocks and plants and water, those things did not breathe, or see, so they were not "alive," not like he and Asimona. The ice dragon, too--which he spared a brief glance--was also not "alive." It would not ever fly or roar or sing, and it was not family.

But that was okay.

It would not have occured to him, either, to think that plants were much more than rocks--to consider them particularly alive; so nothing about that struck him as strange. It was only when Asimona approached--reaching out for his chest--that he remembered his fear, remembered to be afraid of the other dragon larger than his tiny hatchling frame.

The webbed spines down his throat and neck, and along his back and tail, all erected like hackles as he stared at her, but when she merely touched, he waited. He did not have hands, as she did--he had wings for forelimbs, mere claws there hooked at the wing's edge. And he completely, too, misinterpreted her motion.

Hesitant, he paused--she hadn't attacked him yet, and anyway, she was family. She'd said so herself. With a soft grumble he crawled abruptly forward, trying to push under the other dragon and curl up there--apparently thinking it would be a safe place to sleep.

@Asimona

Asimona tried not to move once her claw was touching his chest as he suddenly seemed alarmed by her action. That was a mistake and he seemed no closer to understanding, as he didn't move anything to feel his chest, not his clawed wings or his head. Asimona had thought that his wings, perhaps, were like her claws and that they could feel like hers could. But perhaps she was wrong.

After a moment, she pulled her arm back, a little disappointed he hadn't caught on. But he, at least, understood what being alive meant, sort of. It would do.

She was a little surprised when he tried to push himself under her. She stood as his head started to dig at her stomach and she stepped to the side. What was he doing? Trying to get her to move? Or trying to get under her? What did he want?

She remembered how tired he had looked when he tried to fly not long ago and thought that he was maybe getting tired. She sat back down and opened the wing on his side and made a protective shield with it. If he wanted to sleep next to her, she would rather have that covering him instead of the tough, hard scales coating her belly.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Dread
notes:

Dread didn't think much of any of this. He was tired; Asimona was warm, and Asimona was a dragon. Family. He curled up under the wing, and curled his head and foreclaws--as was his habit--over his tail-tip protectively. She was warm, and that was good. Her wing was soft, too, and the young dragon nestled into that, eyes slipping closed.

Soon enough his breathing was quiet, and even. The protected little space Asimona had provided him wasn't unlike his niche in the cave wall of Fornax--and it was warmer, and it breathed, and its heart beat beside him.

Alive.

For hours he slept, barely twitching. He shifted position a few times through the night, but mostly he slept soundly. His claws now and then scratched over the stones, his wings quivering, dreaming at times of soaring through the warm air, chasing dragons made of ice.

@Asimona

Asimona watched affectionately as the younger dragon curled up to her side. It had probably been a long day for him, flying all through the room and then learning how to speak. She wondered if she should ask if he had a name. She wondered if he would understand her question of if it would confuse him more.

She certainly wasn't going to ask him now that he was comfortable and falling asleep. She would probably ask him when she woke up.

Deciding that she might as well get some rest too, she stretched out her arms and rested her head on top of her claws comfortably. Within a few moments, she had drifted off as well.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Dread
notes:

When he woke, at last, it was to the gentle sound of water lapping at the shore, and the warmth of another body beside him and half-covering him. For a moment he was alarmed, and then, after a glance around, he remembered where he was.

And he remembered Asimona.

He shoved his way out from under her, too small to be violent and too young to know to be careful, and stretched his wings. He yawned, tiny needle-fangs glinting as his little jaws sprang wide; his tail lashed from side to side and he shook himself out, the ridges of spines clattering quietly.

He then turned, blinking at Asimona.

Dread now knew communication, as a thing--but what he wanted to say remained locked behind ignorance, behind knowledge he did not yet hold. Carefully, he squawked--as if to ensure Asimona was fully awake.

"As-ee-moh-na," he sounded out, carefully. He then began to bite at the stones around him--and then, as if this explained everything, he took wing. A few cautious, bobbing leaps and near-falls mid-air, and he managed to hang there for a moment before circling, peering down into the water--watching for telltale flashes of silver that gave away the presence of fish.

@Asimona

Asimona had a restless sleep. This cave was way too hot for her to be comfortable. She preferred the much cooler Polaris or the icy tunnel she constantly returned to. She didn't think she would ever get used to this cave.

She was woken out of her uneasy sleep pretty easily as the dragon pushed his way out from under her wing. She raised her head and blinked sleepily. After a moment of waking up, she heard a loud chirp from the dragon and looked down.

He said her name and she was filled with pride. She was so happy that she had been able to teach him to speak. And she was so happy he had remembered her name. "Hello," she hummed happily. He was motioning at something, biting at the rocks, looking at her funny, before he took off. She knew he was trying to communicate something to her and she watched where he went, a little confused. But then she saw him circling the water and understood the biting. "Hungry?" she called up to him.

She opened her wings and took into the air along with him. She looked down into the water and spotted a small glimmer of silver. She kept her eyes on it as it swam, slowly lowering herself to a point where she would be able to catch it easily, but not low enough that she was disturbing the water. After a moment, it came closer to the surface and she dived.

She was almost too late as it darted away, but she managed to shove her jaws into the water and snatch it by its tail. She dragged it out of the water and tossed it on the shore.

Once she was next to it, she swiftly ended its lift with a nip to its spine. She turned and waited for the other dragon to make his catch as well, if that was what he was going to do.

"Find the one who'll guide you."
To the limits of your choice.

tags: @Dread
notes: