Nox followed Dragon obediently, her strides long and gait slow. Soon she was wading into the water after him with the murky water swelling around her- a thin film of oil settling for a moment on its surface, which would no doubt linger for a while, only to disperse and fade. She waded for a while longer than dragon, until the water reached neck-height- then she raised herself onto her hind limbs and in a smooth motion cupped air under the balloon-like membranes of her wings.

Then, like Dragon, she swam, folding her hind legs up against her tail and moving in a slow slithering motion, only a sliver of her head, back, and the bubbling texture of her wings remaining visible. A rainbow sheen lingered on the waters of her wake.

It was a strange and awkward means of staying afloat, but Nox was not built for speed; nor was she particularly fond of ambush. She simply existed in the home that nature had made her for. The skin along her spine rippled, beak lifting out of the water as Dragon spoke. Like many of Dragon's earlier questions, she had never considered this one before. But the answer was simple enough; she had seen the motions Dragon spoke of in her reflection and in the fear and disgust of others. "Thoughtssss and feelingsssss," she rumbled softly, the water trembling around her chest. "Mosssst creaturesss I have sssseen, can sssmile. I cannot. But that doesssn't mean it doesssn't show. I don't think anyone hasss ever underssstood it the sssame way, though."

A long speech, and a tiring one. Nox was silent again, simply blowing out a small puff of water from her nostrils as she sank back down.

"Speech"

@Dragon

Dragon considered, thoughtfully, as he swam.

Aloud, of course. And loudly.

"They are different and change! Sometimes they are slow and sometimes fast. Sometimes they seem chaotic. You must teach me what they mean," he decided. After all, he rather liked Nox, as shy a creature as she seemed to be; and just in case he ran into another like her, it might be good to be able to figure out just what the hell it was thinking or feeling. "I also cannot smile! Or frown. But that is because my skin is very thick. It looks as though I am always smiling."

He'd seen his own reflection, too, after all; he knew that his broad shoe-like alligator face had a permanent upturn to its corners, not unlike a dolphin's from the side, and knew too that his sort-of-overbite (so that only the front teeth hung exposed over the lower jaw) only added to it. He always looked sort of happy, if one tried to see past the dark hide and sharp fangs. "But it is useful for when I wish I were smiling, and cannot!" A bellowing laugh, and the alligator pushed out into the broad, black Heart of Cetus, shifting right to lead the way along the shoreline.

Soon enough, in the distance, the pile of carrion was visible. Dragon had never noticed Nox's oil there, if she had gone; he led the way instead with one confident that they were with an ally, an ally who would certainly never pilfer his Father's offerings.

"There it is," he declared, proudly--though just why he was proud wasn't immediately clear. "Do you see it?"

The stench had not quite yet reached them.

@Nox

Nox didn't know how she could teach dragon to understand the patterns of her skin when not even she had ever really paid note of them. The strange sensations were natural to her- teaching Dragon to understand would be like teaching the subtleties of ordinary body language to an alien creature like herself. The draconian creature felt out of her depth- but not unpleasantly so. "If you help, I'll try," she gurgled softly, without raising her head from the water.

A ripple passed over her exposed back at the other dragon's comment on smiling- and it might have been her version of laughter or amusement. She followed, a great dark shape like a moving mass of rubble on the surface. As Dragon spoke again, asking if she saw it- the pile- Nox raised her head above the surface, shedding marshy water in an oily cascade, parting her jaws and looking out. Beyond the dim red mist and the shadowy trees, she saw it.

A dark pile, in which she could vaguely recognize the twisted remains of fish and deer, some already giving way into mush. She felt her jaws begin to slaver, black goop connecting her upper and lower beak. "I ssssee," she hissed quietly, as they drew nearer. Soon she lowered her head and picked up the pace with a small kick of her hind legs. "It issss... very large."

She thought, well- she hoped that would please Dragon. And it wasn't untruthful.

"Speech"

@Dragon

Dragon was, after all, easily pleased. A huff escaped him, a contented one, and (oblivious to Nox's rippling) he sped his way onward just a little.

"Yes! It is very large! I hunt as often as I can, and I add to it. When Father wishes to eat, he comes up from the depths, and swallows it whole!" Dragon had no real words--no measurements--to describe just how damned big Aquarian was. He couldn't say "about a hundred meters long," nor did he know that Aquarian was "over three hundred feet" or "three times longer than a natural blue whale." What he knew was huge, and that the swamp-creature could have easily swallowed several Dragons whole.

Sometimes, that made Aquarian's prior unwillingness to fight Raheerah an annoyance--but Dragon understood, in a way. Survival meant avoiding unnecessary combat. Hiding. Living to fight another day. It did not mean charging off to fight the enormous dragon. Perhaps in some ways, Dragon was more like Raheerah than he realized.

"Should you need to find us--me, or the Children--we are often here. But do not sit on the pile! He would swallow you whole, I think, by accident." Dragon turned to regard Nox with cheerfulness as they approached the offering. It stank.

It stank.

It was rancid, rank, putrescent, rotting, dissolving in a pile of its own muck. It was disgusting and abhorrent and repulsive.

Dragon loved it. More often than not, others didn't find the same scavenger's pleasure from the stench, but he always held out hope.

"Do you like the smell?!" he asked at last.

@Nox

As she felt the marsh's bottom coming up beneath her, Nox found purchase on the sediment, sinking her claws deep into it, and raised herself up a little. Her head rose and craned back, shedding mud and water from her slimy hide and long, jelly-like neck. She huffed in great breaths with deep, curious gurgling sounds, seeming intensely focused on the scent of carrion billowing from Dragon's pile- which helped to push the melancholy feeling fully from her mind. Her skin rippled, it seemed, with excitement- and it was clear that had she Dragon's blessing, the draconian creature would surge forward and swallow something whole.

The vile stench had no impact, in fact, it appeared that the dragon was entranced by it. A scavenger by nature and with a borderline insatiable appetite, seeing this mangled mound of putrefaction, much of which had already dissolved into black goop was enough to send her almost wild with gluttonous want. She dipped her head as if to nod, although she was already wading forward onto dry land as though in a trance, mud and glittering droplets cascading down with tendrils of black slime that clung to the marsh.

She didn't seem to need to answer his question.

She parted her jaws, peering, rumbling- almost deafened to Dragon's question by the stench alone. She took in great snorts of air, pouring with slime that pooled beneath her. She turned towards Dragon as though shocked, her skin still writhing uncontrollably. "Yesssss," she hissed. Unable to help herself, Nox pushed her muzzle to the base of the pile and pulled at a particularly-disgusting fish tail which was hanging out.

"Speech"

Dragon watched with amusement, some satisfaction, and a very faint indignance as Nox went for the pile. It wasn't hers, but he doubted it mattered, much; he ate from it from time to time himself, and anyway, Aquarian rarely actually came for any of it.

The old beast seemed to sleep, more than anything. Dragon admired him for that.

He waited as she took the fish, and waited for her to eat, before speaking further. So there were others that enjoyed the smell, and the taste, of carrion! As an alligator, Dragon often had to keep larger prey stashed in the water until it rotted apart, so that he could get pieces small enough to eat. It was "dinner" to him, "revolting" to others.

"I AM GLAD YOU LIKE IT," he bellowed, voice full of pleasure.

He remained quiet, for a time, watching Nox and considering. He blew bubbles idly in the marsh water, and then lifted his head out to speak again. "If you have remained hidden, and you are very old, then what have you done? What has been your goal? Only survival? Is there knowledge that you have found, in your time?" Perhaps there was information she could share, but really, Dragon thought that perhaps Nox had spent her entire life hidden away. Impulsively, he added--"Why have you hidden? Are you afraid?"

Dragon was only curious; again there was no judgement to the words. He simply wished to understand this stranger better, and the idea of being offended at the concept of fear--a perfectly natural thing--hardly even occurred to him.

He was never afraid, after all; so why would anyone be upset by it? He just wondered what Nox was like, beneath the dripping oil and the strange ripples. He admired her as a concept--something alien, something mysterious, hidden away and surviving all that tore through the caves. She was not unlike Aquarian, or the Children, but the "why" still evaded him.

@Nox

Perhaps because of Dragon's lack of complaint, or simply because she couldn't help herself, Nox pulled at the fish tail, hauling the rest of its decaying bulk out of the pile. After another moment, she had tipped back her head and was in the process of swallowing it whole, the putrid goop of long-dead Gembound mingling with her own strange ink. She nosed around, and seemed as though she might have been about to swallow more, had Dragon not spoke. She seemed to spend a moment considering then, before slithering back into the water and wading back out towards Dragon.

She rumbled low in pleased contentment as she sank low in the water, and didn't raise her head as she thought, blowing out long, slow breaths. There, really, was little to answer Dragon. She simply existed, elusive and lonely. She didn't really have a goal, or purpose. She just remained in the swamp she called home, because she was a part of it. And yet... there had been a time when she'd left the swamp, and sought out the creatures that lived outside. She didn't remember them now. Back then, her voice was light and shrill, young, and heady- not low and bugling as it was now. Her body had more resembled a serpentine cat with a long and arching neck. She had no wings, and, for a time, no legs.

She hadn't missed those days in many cycles, even though she often found herself craving company.

Memories and sapience had long since faded into the dark fog of her consciousness until she became once again the primal horror she'd staved off for so long. She had nothing to say to Dragon- no knowledge. Her skin rippled, her voice brewing deep within her chest. "No goalssss... I jussst live," she rumbled low. "No knowledge. Memoriessss have faded."

Dragon's next question, though, brought an odd squirm sweeping through her skin, before it faded. That, she remembered- vaguely. She remembered the sound of her own bellows, the agonized feeling of her own flesh, burning- fire catching hold of trees and clinging to her slime. "Afraid?" she echoed, with a breath of air blowing goop in every direction. "Yesssss..."

She paused. "Ssslime. Dangeroussss."


"Speech"

@Dragon

He blew a few bubbles, contentedly thoughtful.

"Your slime? It is dangerous?" This immediately confused him. It was flammable, yes, but was there some other reason? "Only because of the fire?" he asked quizzically.

For a moment, he imagined what it must be like--how terrible--to be so flammable. He adored using fire at every turn, at any excuse--he was fire, as much as he was Dragon. So the idea of it backfiring, harming him so terribly--well, it hurt to use as it was. But to be denied it, so!? How terrible a fate!

"Have you tried staying in the water at all times? You can hunt, even, from the water, as I do--or do you know this? And not only fish! Others come to the water TO DRINK!" he added. He was sure she already knew this, but--maybe she didn't. And for some reason the last two words of his sentence were damn-near bellowed.

"When the deer come to drink, you can grab them and pull them in. Or even use fire, if you are in the water. It is safe if you are wet, yes?" He eyed Nox; his conversation was very matter-of-fact, but then something else struck him, and it abruptly changed, as did his demeanor. Quieter, more sombre. "If you hide forever, you will not learn what you need, and will only survive until something comes that you do not know how to fight."

That was the crux of it, really; Aquarian had earned the right to eternally hide away because the old bastard already knew all the cave's secrets. He hadn't shared them, but Dragon assumed there were reasons for this. It was why the rest of them still had to seek.

Hiding could come later.

@Nox

Nox dipped her head in a nod. Yes, it was dangerous- and, yes, because of the fire. "I do. But lonely. Ssssso lonely," the draconian rumbled sadly. Cetus was home; it was a wonderful place. But it was so quiet, so often empty. The time she spent here, she usually spent submerged in the bog- but it was an isolated existence. And, she had chosen this, once upon a time. She remembered a time it had been a choice, and not a habit. It was better never giving her the chance to hurt anyone than risking burning everything to the ground again.

She nodded again. She had hunted from the waters before, rarely. But she could also eat the pond weeds and the tough marsh grasses that grew by the water's edge. But she was an insatiable creature, and it was never enough. "Yessss." She didn't know if her slime was safe in the water- a rainbow film always seemed to cling to the surface where she had been- but it made logical sense. Water stopped fires. Water was a haven. So it only made sense. Most of the fires, after all- had happened when there was no water. She rumbled softly.

Her skin rippled sorrowfully at Dragon's words- which she took to be gentle chiding- and she opened her jaws to scrutinise him for a moment, eye glancing over him for a moment before her jaws closed and she prepared to speak, lowering her head back below the surface. Perhaps, the draconian considered briefly. That would be for the best.

She survived, it was true; she always survived. Dying would never be an ideal scenario. But without her, Eridanus would not have been left in ruins so many times. "'Fighting'... would never go well," Nox mused then. Even she knew that her skin was fragile, at best, her bones too rubbery to deliver a powerful blow. Except for her slime and claws, she had no weapons. She was not a creature built for a struggle.

But at least she'd taste foul; the stench of her arrival would surely be enough to put off most potential attackers.


"Speech"

@Dragon

Dragon peered, with some faint amusement--and some confusion.

Lonely? She is lonely? How bizarre, to think of such an idea! --But even he, the lone reptile, did he not miss companionship, from time to time?

He missed Czernobog--he knew that much. And Tal'at, from time to time.

"Well, you may remain with the Children, as much as you wish!" He paused, considering. First of all, the Children weren't actually here all that much, were they? And second--well, children themselves were useful in that regard. "Or make Children of your own. When you create them, you may raise them! They are company, and you are their guardian, and later they can, perhaps, be yours." This was said half with affection, and half with the logic that came with it; Dragon was no pack animal, but he was still social, and still knew the benefits of being around others with shared interests--and shared blood. Thus far, he had been lucky enough not to have experienced betrayal, and so it did not really occur to him as a risk.

"Find stones, and breath life into them!" He stared, for a moment, and on impulse--as if it were nothing more than offering a glimpse of Aquarian's offering pile, and even less important than allowing a fish to be taken--Dragon moved to the shore and welled his magicka up in a faint surge. For a moment he simply settled himself on land--he'd never done this before, and he'd hate to lose the stone in the water, but he knew how it worked.

A tiny sliver of his swamp-colored jasper cracked and slid away from his broad chestplate stone, and he backed up and peered down with a sideways-tilted head.

It took a moment of critical inspection to find it, but he picked it up in his jaws and moved back to the water's edge, presenting it to Nox. He spoke with it resting on his tongue: "Use this one, if you wish!"

@Nox