For Dragon, others can join upon request

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The lights had dimmed, providing only a faint illumination to the jungle room. Pale yellow flickered above, and the faint light could barely reach the floor of the room through the leafy canopy and the thick fog. It was a dark day, but Ghanyarah didn't need much to make his way through his home. This was the only room he had really known; born in Polaris, the reptile was quickly chased by bigger Gembounds to the respite he knew now. And here he had stayed. While he encountered a few others, it had been easier for him to hide. He knew this room like the back of his hide - even in the darkness, Ghanyarah could maneuver with ease. Today, his abilities would be tested.

His stomach rumbled with hunger, and the dragon had left his favored branch to seek out a snack. The heat signatures of hiding mice shone out to his powerful senses, but he was beginning to hunger for something... Bigger. A greater prize than he had hunted before. Perhaps, another predator like him... Ghanyarah had summoned his courage against another predator recently. It was time to move his way up the food chain. Sniffing, the reptile slunk through the vegetation, comfortably immersed in the dark and the mist.

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Near the edge of The Heart, its base half-hidden in the tall reeds, was a rather enormous pile of carcasses and random objects. It was a rather impressive death-pyre, with the legs of a large Gembound deer sticking out at odd angles near the base, and corpses of various sizes and in various states of decay stacked on top. There was a depression in the center, as if something rested there.

The fetid stench was easily detectable from some distance away, by now, which was very likely the cause of the multiple shaggy black cave rat corpses strewn around the edges. Some were charred as if they'd been badly burnt by something. Others had a great deal of blood on their jaws, long crooked teeth, and forepaws, as if they'd given almost as good as they'd gotten before finally succumbing.

Other rats, cave rats and smaller, more ordinary creatures, sniffed around from a relatively safe distance.

A bit farther, slowly sliding up one of the water channels toward the Groves, a large, dark shape was visible like a fallen log. Dragon wasn't hunting, or rather not actively, though he'd keep his eyes out for opportunity. Instead he was travelling, looking for something else that Aquarian might find a meaningful offering.

The problem was that he couldn't go very far from his pile, anymore. The rats would shred it apart, so he had to stay within earshot.

That hardly mattered, though; it would be ready soon. Very soon. Provided, that is, that nothing went horribly wrong.

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Perhaps Ghanyarah had never really paid any mind to the stench of decay, or he simply had gotten used to it. In the marsh, there were far stronger smells like that of death. The mud and wet debris often had an overpowering stench of their own, often drowning anything else out. Ghanyarah had briefly noticed the reek of decay, but he hadn't pursued the smell. Ghanyarah, while his species often picked at the dead, was no scavenger himself. Dead things often attracted other living things and he was predisposed to avoid the presence of others.

The reptile had come upon the twisting roots of a tree. The tree hoisted itself far above the murky surface, and there he sat seeking out larger game. From afar, he could see something. It was not the tantalyzing smell of a mammal, but the image of something drifting through the water. Ghanyarah couldn't make it out clearly. It wouldn't be something to eat, but he was intrigued none the less. Some kind of creature loftily drifted through the water and he wanted to know what it was.

Ghanyarah perched himself at the edge of the tree's mass of roots, peering over and trying to make out its details.

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Along he drifted, slow languid strokes of his thick tail propelling him through the dark water. The twin ridges along his back would be visible to Ghanyarah, as would his golden-green eyes and dark snout, all of which protruded just above the marsh water's surface. Even that swishing tail would sometimes briefly break the water, a glimpse of the longest, heaviest part of the little gator.

He had not yet noticed Ghanyarah--but he had noticed something pink and shining on the edge of one of the twisting roots of the tree ahead, where it stretched down into the black.

Well, that's new. I wonder if Aquarian would value it? It looks like a--... A something. Shiny, pink. Would he want it? Maybe it's a piece of something dead. No--it looks like a rock? Is that a rock? A gem?

The alligator hatchling, not more than a couple feet long yet (and yet heavily scratched and scabbed over his snout and neck) moved quickly closer, peering upwards so that his seemingly toothless snout broke through the water.

What is that?

Even so close, he couldn't yet pick out that there was a lizard, a reptile, a thing-like-him-but-not, perched along the branch. A thing attached to the stone. He saw only the pink shiny, like a minnow approaching an anglerfish, pausing a few feet away at the foot of the tree to squint at it--first one eye, and then the other.

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It was another reptile.

Ghanyarah had made the realization when he noticed the other creature slowly turn in his direction, gliding through the water like a hot knife through butter. He could see the details of the animal's hide, ridges and curves that crested the water and glossy eyes that shone above its surface. He wondered if the being was anything like him. Rather, he wondered how difficult it would be to subdue a creature like him. Well, with the other reptile submerged in Ghanyarah's own element and vulnerable, wouldn't this be as good an opportunity as any to find out.

While he didn't move, the reptile focused on the water surrounding his counterpart. He tried to will it to freeze, feeling his nerves grow icy with magic. However, he couldn't get a good grip on the movements of the water. While frost began to collect on the surface, it quickly dissipated, and Ghanyarah frowned. Would the other reptile have noticed his attempt? He remained still, watching and holding his breath.

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Pink, shiny and pink, and what's that? That's not a root it's on, it's grayer. Are those scales? Are those--eyes? Is that--COLD! COLD!? COLDCOLDCOLD--

SQUEAK!

Instinctively, the little alligator summoned his inner fire, thrashing and scampering through the water. Steam hissed up around him, dispersing the frost that had started to collect. He sent sprays of water as he ran for the safety of the tree root, claws digging in, the stench of burning skin and smoke roiling up from him eclipsed by the burning sting in his flesh.

"Ow-ow-ow!"

Then, suddenly, he skidded to a stop--gripping the branch and nearly falling off, a water animal on a tree, face-to-face with one far more suited to it. He blinked, smoke still drifting from his skin, staring into the eyes of another reptile for only the second time in his short life.

It looked like his own reflection, when he saw it in the marsh--but not quite. Like another little-Aquarian. As usual, he didn't think, before he spoke--nor did he even slightly associated the other animal with the ice magic that had been cast. It didn't matter if Ghanyarah backed up, or even if he bit at the alligator--the alligator was too surprised to do anything but stare, smolder and speak.

"Are you a dragon, too?" he blurted.

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Oh, yes. He definitely noticed. Before long, the alligator began to thrash in the water, bitten by the cold that frosted the water's surface. Billows of smoke began to spew from the water while the reptile tried to stave off the chill. Admittedly, Ghanyarah's spell had not been very effective. He wondered if the other animal was unaccustomed to the cold, or if he was just immensely overdramatic. Either way, Ghanyarah merely tilted his head, leaning back against the root when the creature breached himself up on the tree.

The scent of charred flesh hit him full force. Ghanyarah blinked and withdrew further back, flicking his tongue curiously at the other reptile. There was no accusatory response, only a sudden question as the creature caught his breath and realized with whom he was face to face. "Eh..." The reptile lingered on the question. Yes, thats what he was, right? That sounded right. "Yes." He answered with finality and sniffed at the alligator. "Dragon. Is that what you are?" Ghanyarah asked, raising himself above the bark with powerful limbs.

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Dragon blinked, shuddering as the spell entirely left his system, and as the pain of burnt flesh wracked him. Ow, ouch, ow. But--another dragon! And one only his size, too! He eyed it over, taking in the grey skin, the places where it blushed pink, its sunset eyes. And the horns, on its head! Those were horns, right...? Or--a horn, rather?

"You're smaller than Aquarian," Dragon said at last, in an almost suspicious fashion, turning his head to eye Ghanyarah. Everything in the little reptile's little brain revolved around the marsh monster. "Are you his baby?" They were in Aquarian's swamp, after all. But that meant-- "I'm probably his baby," Dragon added at once, matter-of-factly. Then, slipping a bit on the tree branch, he crept closer--and finally answered the other's question.

"He's a dragon, and you're a dragon and I'm a dragon too. That's my name. Dragon!"

Dragon puffed out his chest, intending to release a plume of searing breath into the air overhead just to solidify his position as "dragon," but his magic was still subsiding from the flesh-charring defensive magic. He found himself, instead, coughing and hacking, alligator jaws pointed down and open. Ghanyarah's pondering over whether Dragon was overly dramatic was probably immediately answered. His eyes rolled up to peer at Ghanyarah, undeterred, as he spoke through the choking.

"What's yours?"

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The first thing the other reptile said was that he was smaller than somebody. A name the dragon didn't really recognize - or maybe he did, furrowing his brow in an attempt to understand what this creature he spoke of was. Aquarian. That was one of the monstrous words that shook the marsh a couple weeks ago. Something had risen that day, making the entire room quake. Ghanyarah could remember fear - it was loud and frantic and intimidating, and he hid beneath the foliage hoping that whatever it was would not find him. Is that what the other reptile was talking about? He tilted his head again, expressionless as he observed the other and listened.

Ghanyarah was confident that he wasn't anybody's baby. He had always been on his own. Nobody protected him or cared for him. He felt a twinge of jealousy, but swallowed it down as the alligator spoke of being a dragon. So was Ghanyarah, and Aquarian. So did this Aquarian look like them? While the reptile tried to spout a breath of heat, Ghanyarah withdrew and watched him choke on the heat. Once he was done, he asked the dragon's name. That was something he finally add an answer for. "Ghanyarah." He answered briskly, intones crawling with rising pride. But he was ever curious about this supposed kin the alligator spoke of. "What is Aquarian? What does it look like?" He asked, intrigued.

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Dragon settled a bit on the branch, lowering himself from standing quite upright to basking in the almost nonexistent, dim light.

"He's big," he began, chirping in thought. "His mouth is--is the size of this tree. You and me, we're his teeth. Size." He eyed the komodo dragon over as he spoke, and decided that Ghanyarah was pretty--pretty skin, a pretty rock-horn-thing, pretty claws that were nice and sharp. "He lives in the water and I bit his eye and he wants food. I'm getting him food. He said he'd help if we give him food. He has frill-fin-things, like this." With that the little alligator lifted his own front legs, claws splaying alongside his head to apparently imitate Aquarian's frills, albeit rather poorly. Then Dragon chirped again, and tilted his crocodilian head.

"What are you doing here?"

He himself had slept on a tree's roots once or twice, but this creature, he noted, looked far more at home it than he had.

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