Dread watched, and after Siren had further cooked the burnt flesh, he turned and continued to eat the rest. At her question he looked back to her, tilting his head.

There was a brief silence--or rather, a lack of words, but the sounds of squelching--as he tipped his head back and swallowed a chunk of deer down whole. Then, he spoke. "I am big because I am a dragon. I don't know what you are," he added, looking Siren over. He'd never seen anything like her, and honestly had no idea how large--or not--she might grow. "Everything so far is smaller than me," he went on. So it was likely, at least (to him) that she wouldn't be as large as he.

And as for his markings--"It is dye! It is made of colors--orange and yellow and fire! And then when it is made, there is magic to put it on your skin. But there are other colors," he added, remembering the other Gembound who'd been present. "It was in the cave full of water! Deep water, moving water, where I was hatched. There was a thing there with yellow horns that can make it stick to you."

For a moment the dragon seemed to preen, turning slightly this way and that so that his burning-looking markings shone against his glittering black scales. He seemed proud, but soon enough hunger overtook the pride and he turned back to finish his meal.

A few more bits of meat were gulped down and swallowed--with very little left on the rock--and then he turned back to Siren.

"Do you want to go to Glory, now?" He then shuffled closer, his massive head poking over to peer at her strange method of eating. "Or are you still eating?"

@Siren

Siren listened, and watched Dread eat noisily, as she ate quietly but fairly quickly, gaining a good rhythm of cutting cooked pieces off and putting them into her mouth whenever she swallowed. He didn't seem to be chewing as much as she did-- and he was eating way more than he was, and much more quicker.

"I dunno what I am either," Serendipity pointed out between strips of meat. "How'd you figure out what you were? Did someone else tell you?" Maybe there was just-- an assigned Other Gembound to tell everyone what was what, and where things where, and people, like Glory or the Thing With Horns.

The child twisted the knife over in her hand for a moment, observing the sparkly gold flecks against her skin. "Maybe I'll go find the Thing," she said. "And make some dye, after I learn how to make shinies. Could you put dye on shiny things to make them shinier?"

It seemed logical, at least-- but she did also want more than just flecks on her skin. The markings sprawling up either side of Dread looked really pretty, too, like fire.

Though, she was, in fact, still eating. "I'm not done yet," she mumbled, her mouth full. As the dragon's head came close she leaned over to the hunk of raw meat and sawed a sizeable (in her standards) piece off to offer it to Dread, before she went back to eating the cooked portions.

"Does he live here?" She asked. "And, uh, what does an eagle look like? Does he look like you, but smaller, if everything in the caves is smaller than you?"

@Dread

Dread took the proffered piece of meat and gulped it down, shuffling over, first, to do so. That swallowed, he answered Siren's questions, albeit a little confusedly.

"I just knew! But others said it, too, so it must be true. I knew words, too," he went on proudly. "Glory's not a dragon, he's a bird. He's brown and has feathers, and he's small!" In fact, Glory was a rather enormous Golden Eagle, but Dread wasn't aware of this. "He has fire in a gem on his head and he has a forge. He puts sand and metal together, and creates shinies, and weapons, but it makes a lot of noise," and this last was said in a moaning tone of complaint.

"Dye makes shiny things shinier," the dragon then confirmed. "And it makes not-shiny things shiny, and it can make things not-shiny, too. I think it depends on what you put into it," he added, thoughtfully.

@Siren

"Oh, I know birds," Siren nodded. She'd seen the occasional Hallowed Caller and Caroller passing by and was able to identify them as 'birds,' at least. Which meant, at least, Glory must have looked like one of those. Maybe he had one leg, or one eye, or maybe one wing.

She cut herself off another slice, and then some more for Dread. "I can make things somewhere else," she offered. "So that it doesn't make a lot of noise for you and stuff. And then I'll make better shinies than Glory does." A pause. "What does a forge look like?"

For a moment she considered the dragon's words carefully, as she extended her hand out to the mound of haunch/rib/Caves-knows-what meat on the ground again. Her hand flared up, bright and golden and warm, cooking through the meat again. In the meantime, with her spare hand, she sawed off more raw meat to give to Dread.

"How do you make dye?" she asked, pulling her hand away. Steam came billowing off the brown, seared flesh as she cut into it. "I mean-- I think I can figure it out, y'know? You need a lot of colours and stuff but, like, what colours would make fire?"

Fire-coloured seemed about right-- but what if she messed it all up by putting something else in it? Smoke was dark and dark things made everything dark-- but wasn't smoke technically a part of fire? Dread's markings didn't seem to be smoking, however, they just glittered.

Siren furrowed her small, pink eyebrows. "Where am I supposed to find the Thing, too?" She asked.

@Dread

Dread gladly snapped up any and all meat offered, swallowing down the bits between conversation.

"The cave is big. You can make them here but not near my den! You will see the forge. It has pieces," Dread "explained," "and fire. AND I SAID," he went on, breaking into a bellow at the question about fiery dye. "ORANGE AND YELLOW AND FIRE." He didn't actually explain this further, and as to the "thing," whatever that was, he gave a simple "I DON'T KNOW."

The dragon then turned, rather abruptly, the smoke coiling from his nostrils turning into a brief billow of black. He made a sound like a rattling choke, then his jaws snapped open and a searing-hot glob of glowing, magma-like bile splattered over a nearby stone. "ORANGE AND YELLOW AND THAT," he explained, and then gave Siren a knowing stare.

Surely she'd understand exactly how to make the dye now.

@Siren

"I won't make them near your den," Siren promised, solemnly. "Just point where your den is, I guess? So that I don't make noise near your den."

She didn't really want in his den. She wouldn't want him in her den, at least-- not that he'd fit, not even his head. Somehow, she imagined she probably would look too out-of-place in his den as well, in some way.

She was still chewing when Dread turned around and vomited up fire. She blinked, pushed up, and wandered around to investigate what had just fallen out of his maw. "Um," she murmured-- not wholly understanding, but understanding just enough.

She pointed to the venison, most of it still on the bone. "You can have the rest of that," she said. "Wait here."

And off she ran.

Dread could likely still see the small child as she sprinted around Monoceros, searching high and low the general vicinity and avoiding the small twisters gathering. She wasn't particularly speedy, but she didn't take particularly long before she apparently found what she was looking for.

She ran back, and she presented it to Dread.

It was a fairly measly thing; but impressive and definitely shiny nonetheless. A small shard of bright orange sat in her hand, flickering in the dim light like a small swathe of flames. "Like this?" Siren asked, eyes flicking between the Orange and the fire.

@Dread

Dread turned, pointing his entire face up to a location sort of at the ceiling. It was where the wall met the cave roof, high above, and far off to one side--left of the entrance to the cave.

He then waited, watching the little one scurry about. He didn't really bother hanging around; instead he started to follow, slowly shuffling along, doglike. When Siren returned to him, he peered at what she held, first with one eye and then with another.

"YES. AND A YELLOW. THEY SHOULD BE GEMSTONES. MAYBE FEATHERS," he added thoughtfully, remembering those that others had brought. His voice then seemed to calm, some. "But you will need things to crush them. The Blacksmith had the things. Glory might have things, since he is a Blacksmith, too."

Glory also had fire magic, though whether he could use the flaming bile spell Dread didn't know, for sure.

"Can you hold my back? I can fly you to Glory," he offered, unaware that this might have sounded vaguely like a death threat.

@Siren

Serendipity-- somehow --hardly noticed the massive dragon plodding behind her like a puppy. When she turned around to go back to Dread, she started, but held up the tiny gemstone all the same.

It hadn't occurred to her, incidentally, that they might have once belonged to someone else. For now, death was a bit of an out-there concept for the child. Which was likely for the best. Stave off the existential crises for as long as possible.

She tucked it into the pile with the rest of the Things she'd found today. "Like the birds have," she said, half to herself, at the mention of feathers. Then, she came back up to Dread and looked around the massive dragon for a moment.

"I dunno if I can reach?" She pointed out uncertainly-- but that much wouldn't stop her.

The little alien started trying to scramble up Dread, neck-first, in an attempt to reach his back. Her sheer determination and stubbornness to try to get on unaided might have been admirable to some, but ultimately weren't going to make up for a lack of upperbody strength.

She fell down two or three feet with a hollow thunk, a plume of dust rising from where her tail hit the cave floor. "Uh. I can't," she murmured, stumbling up and brushing dust off her scarf and tunic.

@Dread

The dragon--motionless as Siren tried to climb--twisted his head to peer at her bewilderedly.

His wings were always at the ground--he had to walk on them, after all--and were essentially neat ramps one could use as a walkway to get to his back. He was unsure why the little one had tried to climb his neck, first, but--all right then.

"Climb my wing," he responded bluntly. "Or start at my tail." He lowered himself down further, shuffling so that his wings were at less of an angle.

"If you still cannot, then we find a rock! I put you on the rock and I will stand next to it," he decided--and arched his head up high, proud of his own genius.

@Siren

It was likely a lot to ask for Siren to have any logical reasoning. Not until she was a bit older, at least.

"Uh," she responded magnificently as she padded towards one of Dread's ramp-like wings instead, clambering up the thin membrane. It worked out better this time-- the climb wasn't as steep, likely because Dread had lowered himself down.

She stepped carefully across the fingerbones and up his arms, eventually, onto his back. She narrowed her eyes, brow furrowing, as her tiny hands grasped the spires on his back. "Uh," she repeated for a moment.

She shuffled, steadied herself, and spoke properly. "I think I'm ready? What's flying like?" She asked, half-concerned about the impending flight. Half-excited, as any little child would be-- but mostly concerned about falling off and to her death.

@Dread