Nox shook her head and listened, her response to Dragon's surprise rippling over her entire body. But his explanation didn't help much. The draconian had met none of the elders. Large crowds frightened her, so she'd never approach a large group of Gembounds; and up until recently, had largely kept away even from solo gembounds, except for those who needed help.

She shook her head. "Elders?"

The prospect of serving another being was alien to her. She'd lived alone for so long, didn’t see or know how it could be beneficial. She didn’t think she could ever be useful, with her dangerous slime coating her and everything she touched. The patterns of her skin echoed with her insecurity.

“Black... dragon?”

At his mention of the creature Nox's skin rippled in the shape of a thousand maggots. The word dragon alone lit a fire of familiarity within her, stirred a long-dormant memory of a wise old dragon long-lost to the cycles. What had he said? She remembered. That she was a dragon, even though the name lit no spark of recognition or epiphany within her. She still felt lost despite his guidance, but Dragon’s words caused her to worry. What was she? A black dragon, surely... if her old mentor had spoken true. Could it be that there were others out there like her, who had once threatened the caves and been driven out? Had the black dragon been coated with slime like her? Or furry, like she remembered the old one?

But Dragon didn’t seem to recognize her. She gurgled softly, letting the hard-won memories fade back into the mist.

And if the dragon Dragon spoke of was not like her, then that proved again that she was no dragon.

@dragon

Dragon rumbled in agreement.

"Elders, yes. You do not know of them? They are ancient beings, Gembound I think, like ourselves. They have differing... purpose, I believe," he added--and abruptly hauled himself closer, lowering his voice. "I do not know how many of them can be trusted--but Aquarian can."

He eyed Nox over, his ridged tail slowly sliding side-to-side in the swamp.

"And a dragon, yes! Like you, like me!" ...for Dragon was still fully-convinced that he was a dragon, of some kind. He called upon his magicka, and after a moment, the familiar shadowy-red aura shrouded him. Long horns twisted back from his jaws and head, and great batlike wings sprouted from his back. He briefly lifted off, flapping, to demonstrate--then landed again. "Like this! But with vast wings, and no ooze. If you do not like fire, you would not have liked him--he set entire caves aflame. The alligator sounded almost wistful about the flame, or envious--or simply admiring. His tone switched back to matter-of-fact as he continued. He was enormous! Twice as large as I am, at least." Dragon's concept of his own size, or perhaps Raheerah's, was horrifically distorted--Raheerah's leg alone had been far larger than the bull alligator. Ten times as large, twenty even, perhaps--certainly not only twice the size. "He took over caves, and claimed the Spire for his own--do you know what the Spire is?" Dragon asked abruptly, interrupting himself.

He seemed content, for now, to chit-chat, providing Nox with the flood of information--and the question--with almost no pause.

@Nox

Nox shook her head. She'd never heard of the elders before, but her skin rippled with patterns in a display of curiosity. She dropped her head closer down to Dragon's eye level as he hauled himself closer, the movement of her skin intensifying as waves of goosebumps rippled from head to tail. If Dragon- who seemed so sure of everything- was himself uncertain of the Elders, Nox didn't know either, so her spines softly quivered into existence. She closed her jaws and nodded before parting them again to return her gaze to the alligator. -or, as she was now convinced, the dragon.

"Me?" Her skin rippled momentarily in surprise as Dragon, too, seemed convinced of her draconian nature. She nodded, though, as he summoned his wings and lifted off. Seemed reasonable to her. Logical even. Nox wasn't even certain that she could fly; it had been many, many cycles since her wings had come in, and yet she'd never tried. She huffed, spraying Dragon with a small shower of pitch-black slime.

When Dragon spoke of the black dragon bringing fire and setting the caves alight, her skin again squirmed with stress- but for a number of reasons. Nox had once done the same- but it had not been intentional. Even so, she felt her nervousness mounting, and shifted her stance with a rumble. No ooze, though. So she was different. Marginally. Still, she couldn't take it as much comfort. "I have sssstarted firesss. When I am afraid," she rumbled, softly. "It clingsss to my sssslime. The foresssst hasss burned becaussse of me."

The draconian creature drew her head back and examined Dragon's length, his height, and she was surprised. For a beast so powerful, she would have thought it had been larger. But the surprise lingered only for a moment before it faded again into a dull throb of apprehension. "Yesss. I know the Sssspire."

@Dragon

Dragon grunted as he was sprayed with black goop, dipping himself somewhat irritably into the swamp water. He seemed to forget it almost as quickly, though, glancing up at the dragon-like creature.

"You look like a dragon," he explained. "Tell me, can you spray that black oil at will? If so, if you are ever truly attacked, had you thought of doing exactly that--spraying it, and setting it aflame? It would be glorious," Dragon added, looking--for a moment--blissfully distant.

Then he shook himself out of his thoughts, and more seriously, went on to explain about the Spire. By this point he had half-forgotten what it was he was getting to, but he plowed on nonetheless. "Many of us gathered--all of the Children of Rot among them--and we fought back the dragon. He fled! Many of us were injured, or even near death. But the Children survived. I believe the cause of it all was the creature Nemean! The Betrayer! A small, buzzing thing, a creator of lights and a deceiver! It was not the first time she tried to lead us to our deaths at the hands of another Elder," he said grimly. "Should you ever find her, kill her! --Or flee."

This last was given in a tone of quiet, magnanimous warning--as if Dragon was sharing a powerful secret. Which--in some sense--he was.

@Nox

The draconian creature let out a curious rumble as she mused at what a dragon looked like. She certainly didn't look very much like this dragon. But perhaps he'd seen other dragons. "Have you ssseen othersss? With ssslime?" Nox was silent for a time as she listened before she slowly and nervously shook her head. The word, 'glorious', sent chills rippling, visibly, across the surface of her skin. "Never tried. Not glorioussss. Dangeroussss." Her spines appeared for a moment, raising slightly from her glistening hide in a show of nervousness.

The draconian creature listened to Dragon's long tangent, her jaws parted and eye glistening eerily in the low light. She watched him, she listened. Drinking it all in. "The Children... of Rot...?" she rumbled softly, uncertainly. It sounded like more than one gembound. A herd perhaps. Equinox had never seen it before; she didn't do well in crowds. As she heeded his warning about Nimean, another shudder rippled over her skin. "Nim...ean..." she rumbled, struggling to remember the name, should she encounter such a creature in the near future. As soon as the sound left her throat, though, it was gone- faded into the murky eyrie of her mind until the time came where she'd need it once more.

She blew out another spray of droplets, nervousness apparent. Who was this beast who would intentionally lead others to their deaths? One who could frighten a wise creature like Dragon so? Nox could hardly imagine why anyone would want to do such a thing, she could hardly imagine what it took to worry Dragon so. Why was the Nimean creature not content to simply be, and let others live out their long lives, too? Skin coiling and twisting, Equinox's rumble lowered in turn, until it was so low that the earth alone seemed to tremble in ultrasonic tones- as close to a whisper as she could muster.

"I will ssswallow the ssssmall monssster. Or I will disssappear in the ssswamp."

@Dragon

Dragon listened, as the last of the wings and horns boiled away in black smoke. He had to lean in, a little, to make out what Nox was saying, her voice a near-whisper, but at length he understood.

"GOOD!" he bellowed in cheerful response. "I have not seen those with slime. But I have seen one with fur. I think that any who look as us are dragons!" Dragon didn't clarify, exactly, what about "us" made a dragon. But he did continue. "One of those who fought Raheerah called himself a dragon, as well. He was winged, and horned; long of neck and tail, with long claws. But he was pink and white, and furred," Dragon added--and then, in a thoughtful tone, "He blew up his own eye in the fight!"

A little rumble of a chuckle escaped him as he remembered the old battle. Then he turned his gaze back to Nox.

She said she does not go far, yet I have never seen her... What does she eat? These trees, perhaps..? Or is that her slime, which does this? He considered, and then wondered if they should call Nox an ally.

"I believe the other dragons eat meat, and fish! Did you eat the trees?" He glanced back in the direction of the stripped bark. "If you wish, I can introduce you to the Children of Rot; or I can tell them of you. Perhaps you can be considered an ally? If we find danger, I will try to find you, to warn you. If you find knowledge, you can bring it to us. We are neighbors, after all, and you seem to be reasonable--and a survivor, as are we!" he added. There was admiration, if only a little, in his tone--after all, there was little in this swamp that Dragon had not seen. If Nox had lived here her whole life, and he'd never found even a sign of her, then she was a survivor indeed.

@Nox

Nox rumbled a sound of familiarity that increased in volume until it was more of a triumphant bellow- a surprising sound considering her usual quietness. As it faded, its echoes still trembled in the fog. "I met thisss... furry dragon. Bara.... Bara..." she throbbed softly as she thought, but the memories were distant, faint like mist. Try as she might, she couldn't finish his name. Finding them was like finding a diamond ring whilst neck-deep in syrup. "...He did not mention you." Still, warm feelings formed. She remembered him being kind, and wise.

It had been a long time since she had thought about him- and yet she missed him.

The skin along her length crinkled softly with the change in her emotions.

Dragon's next question caused her to look up once again, her skin quickly smoothing. "I eat plantssss, yess. But alssso fish and meat." Despite the fact that her appetite was largely satiated, Nox still found her gaze rising towards the greenery around her, where it lingered until she spoke again. Curiosity drew her eye back towards Dragon. "I do not do well in crowdsss. But..." she paused here, her pupil flicking back towards the way she'd come. "It'ssss... a lonely life." For a moment her skin writhed in a motion of fear. She was afraid of what she could do to the Children- afraid of what they could do to her. And yet she was curious. She liked this dragon- she didn't want to drive him away.

The draconian thought briefly back to the little chick she had left on the shore- the little one whom she'd guided here. Perhaps he could find a better place among the Children, too?

She let out a soft gurgle, lost in thoughts.


"Speech"

@Dragon

Dragon peered, then huffed. "That," he decided, "sounds difficult. It is as if you crave the water, but cannot swim!" He chuckled a little at his own joke, a rasping, rumbling sound.

"You are welcome to meet us, or not! To join us, or not! We do not gather merely to gather, but to ensure our mutual survival." His ridged tail again swept thickly to and fro as he eyed Nox. "You are a mud dragon," he added, quite matter-of-factly.

The alligator then turned, stretching a little, looking around Cetus's misty forests."...The white dragon? I did not know him. Not like that! I merely saw him in the battle against Raheerah. I believe that he died," Dragon added. He hadn't seen Baratheon before or since the battle, and the last he'd seen, Baratheon--much like the rest of them--had been barely clinging to survival. "Many of us nearly died in the fight." He had already said this, but he said it again.

For emphasis.

"Do you merely hide here, in Cetus? Avoiding all danger..?" Dragon's tone was oddly empty of judgement, despite his words: he sounded strangely, intently curious, as if there was more on his mind than merely his question.

@Nox

Nox did not remember well the last time she'd been around a large number of other Gembounds. But she remembered the anxiety crawling over her skin, all the eyes upon her - and the flames that had sprung from her fear. Dragon's joke elicited no chuckle- she thought it quite accurate- and nodded with a slow bob of her head. "Yesss, perhaps."

She listened as Dragon explained the purpose of the group- and Nox tilted her head slowly, jaws parted as far as they'd go as her unblinking eye fixed on him. Her unwavering gaze was a clear indicator of her interest. Mutual survival sounded good to her. Perhaps, if she wasn't struggling with her own survival, she could help to make it easier for others? It would be difficult to start fires in the bog, and Dragon lived here too. "Perhapssss. I would alwayssss be closssse," she murmured, soft and simple. She rumbled quietly as Dragon referred to her as a 'mud dragon', her skin rippling. It was as though something had clicked. Finally she closed her jaws and nodded appreciatively, skin running smooth for a fleeting moment.

Nox was surprised that the dragon thought that... the other dragon had died in the battle. Unless Nox was older than Dragon, or he was referring to a different dragon... She didn't think he was dead. She blew out again, gurgling low, deep in thought. "Don't know. Perhapsss he isss dead."

She fell silent, breathing out a long breath as Dragon questioned what she was doing here. It was an easy question to answer. "It'ssss comfortable here. Wet and cold and full of food. It'ssss home."


"Speech"

@Dragon

Dragon stared as Nox's jaw just... unhinged itself, swinging wide and hanging there. He had no idea why she was doing that, and he just kept watching for awhile in silence after she spoke, trying--and failing--to puzzle it out.

Eventually he shrugged, internally of course (alligators cannot shrug), and went back to the conversation.

"It is what our father does! He lingers, beneath the water, and he has lived for a very, very long time. He said that to learn the secrets of the caves we must survive. I believe he knows a great deal." Dragon eyed Nox. He felt that here was someone who could mutually benefit--someone he could offer help to, and who might help him in return--but he was at a loss as to just how. Maybe she could fly? --But so could he, now. He could hunt--ahh, but he could not explore very well. The flight took energy to sustain--magicka--and his leg was still damaged from the battle with Raheerah long ago. (He was starting to think it would never heal.)

With a huff, he stared at Nox some more, and then at last, he spoke plainly. "I feel we ought to call one another allies! Your enemies mine; mine yours. If you need aid you may request it and if I need, I ask you! Do you agree? I do not know how we can help one another, but you are not an unpleasant mud dragon," Dragon decided. And then, on impulse: "Of the foods that you eat, which is your favorite?"

@Nox