Eve did not look back. She didn't dare to.

"W-why'd we have'ta b-bully a tree-person?!" the crow screamed between her choking sobs. She was soaking wet, the usual fluff flat and showing the tiny, thin creature under the poof. It was not a good look.

She scratched at Dragon's scales with her talons, wheezing and whining. She'd lost her breath simply by crying like a little kid. Which, technically, she was.

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"We didn't BULLY it?! WE WERE JUST TRYING TO SEE IF IT WAS MAGIC! ...IS IT CHASING US?"

Dragon continued to frantically ask whether it was chasing them all the way to the Heart of Cetus. When Eve didn't answer he proceeded to leap directly into the marsh and swim out over the deep water--not diving, so she should be able to stay on his back, but certainly not staying near shore. Only once he was all the way out over the swamp's dark lake did he dare turn--swimming sideways, and still fleeing--to look back.

"Why didn't you tell me if it was chasing us!?" he gasped at last, finally slowing down a little.

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"Why'd you nearly set it on fire?!" shrieked Eve.

She half-stomped half-bounced in a circle. She isn't sobbing anymore, but it's clear she's trying to hold them back. She turned to Dragon, "what was that?!"

She found herself wanting to go back to Canis, immediately. She liked Cetus fine, but Canis wasn't filled with moving trees and giant Aquarians. Just bones. She shifted uncomfortably and sat, whining slightly.

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Dragon hissed, as if now--after all their combined squalling--they should be quiet. Then he spoke quietly, still floating low in the black water, facing back toward the shore.

"Shhh! And--I don't know?! I was just trying to turn it on. I figured if you can turn things on with magic, maybe I can, too...? I didn't know it would come ALIVE. Unless--... What if you turn things on and make them light up but when I turn things on they--... They come alive?"

Never mind the fact that Dragon killed things by setting them on fire, and even cooked them, and they most certainly had never come back to life. Right now he was frightened, wide-eyed with confusion, and desperately trying to figure out just what had happened to them.

"...Do you think we should stay out here for a while?" he added, uncertainly.

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The crow croaked once more, slowly calming down. She spoke at length, voice unusually low. It almost doesn't sound like her, "I don't know. Fire usually hurts."

She glanced down at Dragon with a sigh. "We shouldn't come back here," she chirped. "So, where do we go now?"

She shifted towards Dragon's head uncertainly, shaking herself a little, though it didn't do much for the fluff clinging to gross pink skin. She sat and sighed once more. "We can go back to the pile," she offered.

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Dragon glanced around, and with a few strokes of his tail began to swim slowly toward shore, He didn't speak; he just scanned, head moving to and fro, until the glow from Eve's magic was visible over in the reeds.

Then he arrowed toward this, and soon enough he was crawling from the Heart of Cetus to lie exhausted up alongside his offering pile.

"I'm gonna sleep in the water, though. What if the tree comes? And what now?"

He lay his head town in the mud, eyes nearly closing--nearly but not quite, as he was too afraid to go to sleep just yet. At least deliberately.

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The crow was silent for a good few minutes, eyes wide as saucers as she looked around the marsh with shallow, harsh breaths. Slowly, she settled down on top of Dragon's head.

"Go sleep," she croaked. "I'll keep watch."

She felt like it'd be hard for her to sleep after this anyway, or at the very least, she didn't want living trees and glimmering carcasses to thread through her dreams. Staying awake some time longer will be fine, she hoped.

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Dragon snorted softly.

"Well I didn't mean -now.- You'll get cold. And wet. That's bad, I think."

The alligator seemed to think, for a bit, then turned, slowly tail-swishing his way to the far shore of the marsh.

After he'd reached the shore, he looked around very carefully, and then began dragging his way over to the jagged stone ridges at one end of Cetus. He was cautious not to drop Eve, and it was clear from the practiced path he took and the familiarity with which he moved that he knew precisely where he was going.

"C'mon, I'll show you someplace secret. And then we can both sleep."

Eventually he'd gotten quite high up; surely the tree would be able to reach them here, but they were fairly well-hidden and anyway, at least here it couldn't stomp them. It'd have to attack them with its branches, or something.

The ledge that Dragon finally hauled himself onto sloped upward toward its tip, and was quite smooth and level side-to-side. As a result one could lay up against the cliff and be hidden from below, or crawl to the edge and look down over much of Cetus. One of the light-orbs hung quite low, here, providing a faint warmth to the rock.

Dragon looked down, and focused, trying to call on the fire within him to add to that warmth.

His feet seemed to glow faintly for a few moments, and he opened his jaws slightly as if pained; when he released the spell a moment later, the rock was hot and dry. He lowered his head, closing his eyes and looking rather blissful.

"Safe, here," he told the crow.

...I think.

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