Phlegethon had noticed a peculiar reek haunting the mists of Cetus.

Of course, such a scent only triggered a hunting response. It was the smell of carrion, of rot and decay. The monstrosity had never been picky with the things it ate. If it was sustenance, it was sustenance. Despite this, it had yet to realize it could simply feed on the multitude of reeds and trees its swampy home had to offer. One-track mind, it supposed. Nothing about the grass seemed nourishing and growth-boosting. Rather dumbly, the creature assumed that its growth would come from absorbing the flesh and blood of others. It was right in a way, but not the way Phlegethon thought.

Anyways, the reek.

It had discovered the source of it, slinking through the muck and mire with all the precision of a serpent, leaving a trail of black sludge in its wake. Each step was carefully measured, dragging its body through the mud as quietly as possible. Cracking its eye open ever-so-slightly, Phlegethon revealed its glistening red eye. It gazed upon the source of the smell, a veritable mountain of carrion and rotting bodies. After a cursory scan for any others --- both in sight and in sound --- the monstrosity edged closer. Carefully igniting the surface of its slime, it hoped to muster up a veil of billowing black smoke, offering stealth just in case. Even as it did so, Phlegethon's swan-like neck edged out from its body in a quick motion, jaws snapping closed around the leg of some rotten cave deer and retreating with a snap! of bones. No smoke rose, unfortunately.

Retreating a little due to this, the monstrosity made quick work of the cave deer, throwing its head back and guzzling it down as quickly as possible. Then, it went back for seconds. For all it knew, this was an all-you-can-eat buffet.
@Dragon

The alligator wasn't at his pile--he rarely lingered there without reason.

He was, however, not far off, floating in the black lake. The pile was in sight, and more than that, in range of hearing. The quiet crack at once alerted him that a rat (probably) was stealing from the offering. They never seemed to learn: they tried to take from it, but in the end, they only added to it.

Dragon moved without casting a ripple on the water's surface. His ridged tail, beneath, swept slowly to and fro, and he submerged, arrowing in a slow glide for the meat.

Overhead, the mountain of carrion loomed closer and closer--until he was at the shore. There he stopped, watching with his keen eyesight, watching from beneath the black. There--and he was about to erupt from the water, to engulf the creature in fire, but something about it gave him pause. Its--shape was wrong. It wasn't a rat at all.

Magicka flickered around him like a cloak as he bobbed slightly to the surface to watch it, just his eyes and nostrils protruding, black in black. He didn't really need camouflage to hide--he had his own. If even the thing looked his way. But he used it nonetheless, watching the little thing scurrying in, curious.

It was long, slender, reminding him of the seal he'd seen around once or twice, but jet black and oily.

One of Nox's kind..? Perhaps one of Nox's children? It is about time that those stones hatched, if she used them, he mused.

He lifted higher from the water, bellowing a demand. He forgot, however, to get rid of his camouflage--so that the voice calling out was rather disembodied, coming from a dark shimmer on dark water, easily mistaken for simple ripples.

"You! What is your name?"

@Phlegethon

Its beak-like jaw caught the rotten cadaver of some oversized rat, scraping rather melodically across hollow, maggot-ridden bones. Retreating once more into its own neck, Phlegethon made quick work of the rat. The monstrosity barely tasted its food as the item slid down its gullet --- not that it particularly had a keen sense of it, or anything.

There was something nearby. The steady vibrations of breathing came to the forefront of its mind, suddenly, and it cracked open its maw. Eye squinting into the light, Phlegethon whirled around to face the ever-so-slight disturbance in the water. Never let it be said that it had the keenest eyesight known to Gembound... -ity. Where more precise creatures would have noticed the enormous shimmer above the water, the monstrosity simply stared at the ripples about the water, oddly-shaped.

The slime along its flanks writhed momentarily, maggot-like bubbles cascading into the muck and mire and down its sides. Hearing a voice, Phlegethon tensed, mouth opening wider to allow more of the world in. A low, warbling cry began to resonate from its being. "Phlegethon," the cry morphed without a single movement of the mouth. "Do not touch me. I will burn you like the trees."

To demonstrate, a plume of smoke began to billow from writhing skin and ichor.
@Dragon

Dragon peered, eyeing the thing. Okay-... There was a red eye in its mouth. Definitely Nox's child. As to its smoke--born of fear, or arrogance?

He could dispel both.

His magic cloak fell away. Still, only his eyes and nostrils remained above water--but this changed as his head shoved out, tilting back, jaws snapping open with a jarring jerk. Flame billowed forth, crackling high into the sky--nowhere near the hatchling, but overhead and large enough to make Dragon's point.

"I WOULD NOT NEED TO TOUCH YOU," he bellowed, just as the last of it faded. He couldn't see past the glare--his eyes had to readjust, now, from the fire--whether the hatchling had fled. So he continued to bellow. "If I wished to destroy and consume you, you would already be ash! Tell me, child of Nox, why do you steal from your grandfather's offering pile?!" Despite the fact that this thing was not his own child--probably?... Actually, maybe it was; he wasn't sure--but still, Nox was Children now, in a sense, and Aquarian was the father of them all.

Hell, if this thing became a Child, it would be its father, too--but first thing's first. Hadn't Nox taught it anything..?

@Phlegethon

The spot where water had rippled alone was now occupied by a thing black as night. Phlegethon tensed involuntarily, eye fixating on his front limbs. They were not grotesquely long and angled. Not Hunger. This did not soothe the monstrosity one bit. If anything, it retreated further as the air was set alight in a column of fire. The billowing smoke surrounding it paled in comparison to that display. This was an older creature. He would burn it alive.

Rather boldly, the child warbled, "then I would run and swim faster than your fire." It tilted its head side to side, carefully inspecting the large, Hunger-like creature with goosebumps crawling across its skin. "What is grandfather? I do not steal. I am simply eating." Despite having traversed the depths of the swamp, Phlegethon had yet to see the 'grandfather' that this stranger spoke of, staring blankly at him. Not that it particularly had any clue what the word meant.

Oh, and one more thing. "I gave you my name. Where is yours?" For all of its pleasantries, the seal-like creature was still retreating further inland, putting distance between itself and the yet-unnamed, fire-breathing stranger.
@Dragon

By Aquarian, it was insolent! ...Part of Dragon admired this. He remembered his own fire, at that age. But another part of him immediately wished to assert dominance--probably the same exact part that had been equally fiery and obnoxious throughout his own life.

With a startling surge of speed he erupted onto shore, water spraying about him as he trampled down toward the hatchling.

"I AM DRAGON!" he bellowed. A coil of shadows poured around him, and the alligator spread blood-red leathery wings, trailing tendrils of the darkness along with it. Horns seemed to push back from his head and up into the air he lifted, hovering vertically while continuing to speak. This time, it wasn't a bellow, but a threatening growl.

If Nox were here, surely she'd understand. To Dragon, he was simply putting a young beast--a family member, most likely!--in its place. He certainly didn't see himself as a bullying adult trying to terrify a child. That just wasn't how the caves worked. It was survival of the meanest, and Dragon intended to prove his point.

"You will move faster than I can kill you? EAT you? Do you wish to test that now, little one?" Smoke curled from his nostrils, as if to emphasize his threat.

@Phlegethon

Phlegethon flinched as the alligator bellowed his name, suddenly revealing sanguine wings and bloodied horns. The suddenly much more terrifying reptile began to rise into the air, enormous wings slicing cleanly through the mist. Its maw clicked shut as it scampered backwards, Dragon approaching in a flurry of water and smoke. Unwilling to allow too much distance to be lost and to be eaten alive, the monstrosity whirled about. It utilized its best chance at survival as best as it could…

… by compressing itself as much as it could and slithering into the depths of the carrion pile, leaving a veritable trail of very flammable slime in its wake. Nestled safely within the broken ribs and decaying flesh of Lessers, Phlegethon warbled softly, carefully. "I will not move faster." This was certain. It would hide and wait for Dragon to eat its way through the corpses, hopefully to get full and leave it alone. "I do not wish to test it. I know. Do not eat me. I will eat elsewhere."

After that, any semblance of noise from the monstrosity was silenced. Its skin writhed like maggots in death.
@Dragon

Dragon's body, outside the pile, slammed back into the mud with a heavy thwack and a spray of black water.

"GOOD," he bellowed. He realized already that to actually catch the little one he'd have to tear apart the entire pile, or burn it, and though he wasn't actually after eating Phlegethon it made it easier that the little one was admitting defeat. "I am not here to eat you. I live here; and that pile is the offering pile for Aquarian, our father. He grants protection to those who bring him food, and he is larger than I am." But only a little bit. Dragon still hadn't ever acknowledged that he might not one day also be a hundred meters long. "That food was put there, by me, for him. Come out, before he swallows the whole thing, and you inside it." He paused, thinking, staring at the silent meat-pile.

"Are you one of Nox's children?" the alligator asked, at length. The wings and horns had faded, now, and he lay squat in the mud once more. "She is an ally, and perhaps one of the Children, as well. If you are her child, have you been taught to hunt for yourself? I see that you know of your magic, at least."

@Phlegethon

There was a resounding thwack! from beyond the shield of corpses the monstrosity had huddled away in. Dragon bellowed again, a single word this time; one that definitely did not match up to the reptile's previous behavior. As the notion of eating was slid off of the table, Phlegethon chanced stretching its neck to its fullest capacity, head just barely peeking out from behind an unfortunate cave deer's leg. Ever so tentatively, the monstrosity opened its mouth, staring at Dragon with as much bewilderment as a slime-covered face could.

"Aquarian," it imitated, first, then asked, "father?" If he was larger than this alligator, then he must be immense. Did he not live in the swamp? Or was he lying in the deeper recesses, unseen in the muck and mire? Phlegethon did not want to be on his bad side, to be eaten. Perhaps it would leave some food here, too. With this in mind, the child carefully, hesitantly slid out of the meat-pile. It was rather odd to witness, since the monstrosity basically just squelched its way through flesh and bone, landing in a slick heap at its base.

It felt less intimidated now that Dragon's wings and horns had vanished. There was still a degree of distance maintained, though. Just to be safe. Dark jaws cracked wider at the mention of its parent's name. "Yes. She gave life to me. She will not allow me to eat my kin," Phlegethon said matter-of-factly, with a hint of frustration. "I can hunt, but stealing food is easier and less wasteful." Lowering its head, bright eye still glistening in the light, it added, "I am not a newborn."
@Dragon

Not a newborn? He mulled this over, briefly. Perhaps Nox has hatched other children, and didn't know it. This thing was quite small--but he had seen smaller, and its shame was strange to him--unfamiliar. Half-snake, maybe..? Though Septiezal was a snake, and massive.

"You are very small," Dragon informed it thoughtfully. "Stealing may be less effort, but it will anger those stronger than you. If you wish to steal you must be certain you are not caught. Find out who you are stealing from! And if you are stealing in Cetus, you may be stealing from a Child of Rot. Do not do that," he added. "If you are already fully-grown and this is how large you are, you must find allies who are stronger--or learn more of your magic. Where is your mother? If she is not to teach you, I can do so. And no--you should not eat those who can speak! They may make allies, instead; or they may have allies that will be enraged by your eating them!"

@Phlegethon