As soon as the alligator described Aquarian as being so massive, Ghanyarah was charmed. He'd always been small and afraid of things with big teeth. If he was as big as Aquarian could be with teeth as big as his body, he'd have no reason to be afraid of anything. He could probaby just eat whatever he wanted. Apparently, he lived in the water, which was strange because Ghanyarah would have thought that he'd have seen something that big living in the water. But maybe the water was deeper than he thought... Ghanyarah's gaze drifted to the waters, then flicked back to Dragon as he described the beast as having frills. As he mimicked them, the dragon cocked his hea the other way and flicked his tongue. Kind of like those ice spikes he made a little while ago... Could he do something like that?

Ghanyarah huffed and focused, trying to make frills of his own. The ice began to congregate behind his jaw, but faltered, ignorant to Dragon's last question.

________________

Dragon had already, for now, forgotten his question. He could sense that eerie tingle around the other dragon, something like when he called on that fire that lived within his own belly. And there was something behind Ghanyarah's ears, now--crinkly and pale, like... like wax, or fat? Dragon had never yet seen ice, and had no idea what it was.

"...What are you doing?" he asked, at length--and then, eyeing Ghanyarah's strangely-flicking tongue, added, "Do it again?"

Curiosity filled his voice. This thing was like him, but not, and the differences intrigued him. Could it make fire, like he could...?

________________

Ghanyarah couldn't seem to get a good grasp on his magic like he had before. It was difficult to summon, difficult to tame, so when the other reptile encouraged him to keep trying whatever he was trying to do, he frowned and shut the alligator's voice out. He wanted to do what he did before, by the tree! He wanted to make those cool ice spikes! They were cold on his skin, but powerful. He focused and called the biting cold to his skin, and suddenly there it was. Like in his imagination, only real - its intensity had been unprecedented, but once it flourished, the dragon grinned and raised his head, looking to Dragon. "Like this!" He exclaimed as fronds of ice exploded out from behind his skull.

And kept coming, and growing, and curling out from his skin. Ghanyarah promptly lost control of his magic as a great crown of ice grew behind his head. His grin fell away into a grimace as the stinging cold pierced his hide. "Wait, no," He panicked and shook his head, but before long the ice was too much. A rather magnificent crest had exploded from around his head, too heavy for him to hold up. The dragon wobbled and promptly lost balance, slipping off the root and splashing into the water with the crown latched firmly to his skin.

________________

Dragon blinked, whipping his li'l alligator head to watch as the Ghanyarah-dragon--after a magnificent display of shiver-cold magic--thwomped down off the tree root and into the water. He followed quickly, scrambling to the edge to look down, then dropping in after Ghanyarah with a loud splash.

The thing did not look at home in the water, like he did, no siree. In fact it seemed rather trapped, the huge frill-crown of ice at least floating, but the komodo struggling to lift the ice's weight.

"It's cold," Dragon noted. And then, instinctively, he moved closer, trying to get a grip on some of the ice with his claws. "Hold still." He could hardly let a brother-dragon wallow in the freezing cold water and die, now, could he? ...Or could he? It might be good to eat--but no. This was a maybe-friend and a probably-brother, and so Dragon--knowing only that hot was not cold, and Ghanyarah was cold, and he could make hot--tried to summon up his magic once more. His magic, now, had had time to subside, so it should be easy enough to blast some hot air at the ice. He'd just have to be careful not to boil the water with them both in it, that's all.

It was harder than he'd thought, what with the wriggly-lizard and the water sloshing around the ice, but he managed. He opened his maw, trying to move and position poor Ghanyarah for easy access to the ice, opening his alligator-maw and blasting out spumes of shimmering-hot air, melting it bit by bit. He couldn't do it all--not with the water around them--but maybe it would be enough to let the poor Komodo move freely.

________________

Submerged in the water, Ghanyarah was shocked to motionlessness. The water surrounded him, curled around his limbs, embraced him. Some part of him did feel at home in the murky waters. If he wasn't at risk of drowning, he would have delighted in the water. The heavy ice crown brought him back up near the surface, but Ghanyarah wasn't strong enough to lift his head out of the water. Panic burned in his nerves like a thunderbolt. He thrashed but to no avail. He wouldn't be able to hold his breath forever...

A surge of magic crawled under his hide. As the alligator grabbed at the ice and melted it, Ghanyarah tried to shunt all the water away from himself. With their combined efforts they managed dislodge the ice from the reptile. The crown both melted and broke off of his hide as his pores tightened, severing what anchored them to the komodo dragon. With the weight lifted from his head, Ghanyarah burst from the surface, gasping for air. He struggled, splashing in the water before realizing that he was free from the weight of the crown.

It took him a couple seconds, but Ghanyarah went still, staring wide-eyed at the alligator. Dragon helped him, and they freed him, and now they were both in the water. Alive. And Ghanyarah couldn't help it, but that was actually... Exciting. The rush of adrenaline left him wired, and with a lack of any other response, Ghanyarah suddenly laughed. He laughed loudly; it was high pitched and nervous, but it was also excited, joyous. He had survived. He was stronger than fear! The lizard laughed and laughed as he floated in the water, forgetting about how close he had come to drowning just now.

________________

Dragon watched his new brother begin to laugh, after emerging from the water. He tilted his own head a bit, his own natural alligator "smile" widening slightly, jaw parting to let out one chuckle of his own. Then he spoke, watching the lizard carefully.

"You okay?" and then, close on the tail of that, "You did something--you made that... hard-cold-stuff. What was that?!

Ghanyarah's thrilled laughter made him worried, slightly nervous, even. Though he'd never admit it. What was he laughing at?! Was he going to bite him? But then a memory raced through his own mind--him scampering up the body of something much, much larger, snapping at it and sending fiery air in blasts, despite his tiny comparative size. The thrill that had come with it--he could see in the lizard's eyes that it was feeling something similar.

And Dragon was probably not a good peer influence. As the nervous tension flooded away he grinned, as best a reptile can, remembering that almost bloodthirsty thrill. But he didn't interrupt the other dragon's laughter, nor add to his questions.

________________

His laughter rang loud through the trees, exploding up into the still misty air like a gunshot against the silence. In the darkness and the water, Ghanyarah felt as ease. As an alligator was meant for the waters, as was the komodo dragon; while his clawed feet did not allow him the same ease of movement, he felt it was his calling. His element. He was a creature of the water too, and that much had become clear after shedding the crystalline structure from his head. Chunks of ice floated around them, not moving very far in the stagnant black waters. The beast laughed and until he ran out of breath; in the midst of it all, Dragon had asked a question, but that too had gone unnoticed while Ghanyarah struggled to come to terms with himself. Finally, the komodo dragon had fallen silent; that wide, open-mouthed smile etched into his jaw, seemingly frozen there as the sudden outburst of laughter fell away.

And he realized, he really didn't know how to swim.

Ghanyarah suddenly paddled, but it was still difficult to keep himself aloft. He blinked, sealing his jaws again as he tried to find a way to keep himself from going under. His body wriggled, curling and gliding in s-shapes while his feet paddled below. His tail swept side to side, and he focused on the alligator, noting how easily the creature stayed above the surface. "Teach Ghanyarah to swim like you." He said as he tried to stay afloat. Dragon's earlier question was long forgotten, replaced by the komodo dragon's desire to master this element of his.

________________

Dragon peered curiously at his brother, wondering what, exactly, he meant. His earlier observation that the Komodo didn't seem as well-fit to water as he seemed to be proving true, as Ghanyarah paddled clumsily.

Dragon stared.

"Swim?" he asked, almost absently. "What is swim?" Then, inadvertently, he answered Ghanyarah's question. "You're floating wrong," he declared. "Look. Like this."

He turned, flopping belly-first into slightly deeper water farther from the tree, inhaling audibly so that he floated higher. His legs paddled only to push him away from the reeds, and then he pulled them in, propelling himself with slow, lazy strokes of his tail. He did this until he was several meters away, then looked back over his shoulder toward Ghanyarah.

"You try," he said curtly, his tone brisk but not unfriendly, the exhale of air making him sink slightly but noticeably.

Wonder why he can't float? ...Wonder what Dad would think?

________________

Shockingly, the alligator didn't seem to understand what Ghanyarah meant by "swim". The word was inherent to him, coming as naturally as the water he commanded. That being said, the actual art of swimming would come just as easily as his control over it - Ghanyarah was still clumsy in the water, unable to get the hang of it even with focusing immensely. Dragon pointed out the flaw in his technique, that he was floating wrong. Ghanyarah didn't really know the right way to float, or how to float in the first place, so when the alligator took it upon himself to give an example of how to float, Ghanyarah paddled over to the root and clung to it, watching closely.

Dragon pushed himself away, into the deeper water. He cut through the surface of the water with ease and controlled his direction with his thick, paddle-like tail. Ghanyarah's tail wasn't like that, but it was still pretty thick. He swished it in the water, feeling volumes of murky liquid swirl around him. If he could push the water around, maybe it would help him swim better. The komodo dragon looked back over at Dragon, taking note of his movements so that perhaps he could mimic the alligator's technique. With a huff, Ghanyarah readied himself, pointing his body towards the deeper water. As the other reptile encouraged him, Ghanyarah took in a great big gulp of air and launched himself away from the root.

First, his body crashed into the water. A small wave splashed out from either side of his body, but once he had settled, he seemed well on his way towards meeting Dragon in the deeper water. His feet still paddled beneath him, but even using his tail as a rudder, he couldn't move all that well. So, he tried what came naturally - those s-shapes flowed through his body, wiggling his whole body in an effort to swim. And it worked! Of course, he needed practice, but with a stomach full of air Ghanyarah was able to swim his way over to Dragon. "This hard," He puffed, careful to keep in large breaths of air so he wouldn't lose his buoyancy.

________________

He observed the komodo's technique, eyeing him as he approached. It was... better, but still not perfect. "Put your feet away," he ordered, again demonstrating how his own could tuck up against his body for more streamlined, faster swimming.

Dragon then peered sidelong at the other floating lizard with curiosity.

What's he mean? What's hard? What's that thing on his head?!

Out of these thoughts, only one erupted from his toothed jaw.

"What's that thing on your head?" Dragon asked. He himself wasn't that familiar with gems; his own was flat, smooth and on his chest, so he'd seen it only once, briefly, and in his own reflection. Aquarian had frills. Maybe these were little-frills? Maybe they'd spread, and grow, as Ghanyarah grew? And speaking of frills. "What was cold stuff you made? I make fire," he added proudly.

He then swam slowly forward, away from the tree and down the channel, as if expecting Ghanyarah to take a leisurely float with him while they talked.

________________