The Ruby was minding its own business, perfectly content to watch as their siblings hatched and the (although, at this time, unknown) parents watch with awe at the mass hatching. And then something caught their eye, an attack missing close from the largest of the bunch. It moved suddenly, jumping to its feet and letting out a low snarl.

At first they didn't really understand why that was happening. There was no hostility, at least from what it could read in the air, so why was this one attacking? But the playful swat it gave at a smaller one made a little more sense. To play. For fun. To be honest, the Ruby couldn't really see how fighting could be fun but...it was willing to give it a shot.

It raised a paw, almost unsure of itself, and lashed forward, claws held in to keep from hurting the other one so that it ended up being more of a punch then a swipe. Apparently, they hadn't really noticed the two very large creatures lumbering in - or maybe they hadn't really cared. There were plenty of creatures in this cave after all. How was it supposed to know who was who?

@Orthoclase-Alpha

The child was a bit too preoccupied to pay any mind to the new arrival to this rather large gathering - only focusing on the needle-sharp baby teeth gnawing into the joints of its foremost left paw. It rumbled softly, almost affectionately, and gave the appendage a light shake. Dusty-little-drake seemed to hold fast, curled around it and limiting the orthoclase to standing on five limbs.

Which, sent its head rolling sideways and stumbling a little as a punch was quite literally thrown back at it by the purple triangle-head beast. The orthoclase was quick to steady itself, slowly gaining more and more confidence in its own body's capabilities. Somewhat cat-like reflexes had its quills bristling and rattling softly, a chittering growl rising in its throat as it continued to hold the drake up and off of the ground.

The little thing had survived a rather hearty swat.

Gears started turning in the monstrosity's head, and it twisted its upper half skyward. With a downward flick of its arm, the orthoclase fell heavily and absolutely hurled the little drake somewhere in the direction of its foe before charging straight towards it, heavy footsteps resonating heavily. The armored beast's idea, really, was to pin down the purple monster and push its weight down and on top.

Round 1/?
Attempt: charge straight at beta to knock it down
Defense: hurling gamma at beta, being a tank
Injuries: punched :(

The close-pawed swipe (punch) actually connected with the other's face and Ruby startled itself with the connection. It kind of hurt, actually, a throbbing feeling on the back of its foot. Curious, it raised its paw to observe it. It didn't look damaged but that hadn't been much of a pleasant feeling. Was this supposed to be fun?

It looked up just in time to see the sandy-colored drake being flung its way. A confused sound came from its throat but it didn't make much of a move to get out of the way, more out of shock then anything, and the pile of fur connected right to its face. Its face was shaped strangely enough that its vision wasn't completely obscured but it quickly raised a paw to swat the thing off of its face because the other one was coming.

The Ruby then resigned itself to this foolish game that wasn't very fun, but it really had nothing better to do right now. The force the creature hit it with wasn't enough to knock it over but it at least took a step back before beginning to push back against it, to do what it was trying to do instead - brawn against brawn.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Round: 1/?
Attempt: knock down alpha
Defense:
Injuries:

The drake rumbled as it gnawed at the beast's knuckles, tail flicking this way and that as it curled around the thick digits. Its hair tousled everywhere when it was lifted up.

Its gnaws halted a little. What was it doing? A rumbling hiss ran through its chest as it laid eyes on its 'sibling'. It was a weird, alien looking thing, but it didn't know that. Instead it only let out an undignified squawk as its perch was jostled. Claws slid from their sheathes to find purchase on the giant hybrid.

It didn't like the noise of those quills. It set something off in its brain, a primal instinct that danger was afoot, but it didn't have time to think about that. Wind curled around it and it was lifted high up, fear of the height setting in rapidly. As soon as it was lifted though, it was slammed down, flying through the air with a loud screech and flailing of limbs towards the other one. It didn't want this! It wanted down! This was enough!

Its claws were fully extended, now, aiming for the purple it was hurtling towards, its mouth wide open in a hissing scream.

It barely connected, though it landed right on its face, claws out and all. It hissed as a second paw came up to it and quickly made to leap off, its feet landing solidly on the sand below with a shock of hurt running up them.

Lesson three: pain. It didn't take much to walk off, though, and it straightened up wobbly before quickly scampering away to the other creatures that were much more its size. They didn't seem as dangerous. Its hooked tongue lolled out as it watched the two of them tussle, anyways, mane on end on it paid attention.

As the siblings nearby began to wrestle, the black-masked alien tilted its head toward the full grown adults that were hovering around, discussing and exchanging glances. Another stone cracked and out slipped another creature, and then another. It watched, pupils widening until just a single red line outlined its sharp, keen eyes. The glowing patterns of various creatures was hard to look at, but it caught the details of creatures lurking in the shadows and watching them. It's own gem glowed faintly under its chin as it got used to the sensation of being alive and using its new found life energy to witness the world around it.

One particular creature came bursting free from the stone, drawing its attention once more, looking like a strange elongation of one of the adults (in fact, many of the younger ones shared traits with the taller, older creatures), immediately croaking out words. Tall, white-tipped ears pricked, crimson eyes shifting to the one that was addressed. "Var.. gaaa... Var... ass," the hatchling mewled in echo, finding its way to its feet, wobbling as its wings spread out to balance its lithe form.

It took an uncertain step, and then another, creeping its way around the two towering infants that were wrestling one another to make its way closer to Vargas and the other adults. As it drew close, it sat itself down, pulling its wings in close to its body. "Vargas...!" It repeated, sounding a touch more confident as it started curiously up at the calmer adults. It only slightly side-eyed the other hatchling that spoke, licking its lips with a pale pink tongue. It was a lot to take in, a very hectic beginning.

@Vargas i guess haha

The purple creature (ah, they really oughta figure out names, huh?) took the charge well, stepping back only a few feet and then muscling back up against it. Alpha, as I'll now call it for the sake of simplicity, squared off, spreading its two pairs of hind legs out. Almost instinctively, it dropped its weight closer to the ground, pushing back with all its might despite the force that had impacted its chest.

Acidic green eyes flickered around for a moment (though that couldn't really be seen) before it considered an alternative to a pushing match. It grunted, giving one last push if only to get its upper mass into the air. Alpha swung its arms up to get its armored forearms wrapped around its playmate's nape, possibly locking arm-spikes together and continuing to throw its weight at Beta - as I'll also now be calling the ruby, unofficially-officially.

Round 2/?
Attempt: Keep pushing back with a nice headlock
Defense: Still being a tank and squaring off
Injury: Punched face

It pushed back a little halfheartedly, but the other one seemed to be enjoying the play-fight. For whatever reason. The Ruby let out a small moaning-like sound as the other pushed back and it continued shouldering forward. Was this was fighting was? Just pushing against each other? Apparently not, as the orthoclase switched its tactics, one of its legs snaking around its neck.

And that didn't sit well with the Ruby. The neck was important. It was an instinctual knowledge that they needed to protect that soft, fleshy area and having a hard-plated, spiky arm wrapping itself around was both supremely uncomfortable and more than a little frightening. A stranged hiss came from the Ruby as it jerked back, head slamming backwards towards the other one's face, the point of its trangular face-shape aiming at eye-level, but missing by a small margin in its wild attack.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Round: 2/?
Attempt: jab in the eye with its...face?
Defense:
Injuries: in a headlock

The ruby's wild movement only served to encourage it, an eager chirruping echoing from its throat as it leaned onto the purple mass - purposefully putting as much weight on as possible and twisting its upper half on the spot. Pinning down was a good way to victory, right? It was supposed to pin down prey and whatever it was hunting. The orthoclase wasn't sure what to do from there.

Eh, it'd burn that bridge when it got there.

Dropping its weight lower, essentially squatting and shoving against the increasingly frantic ruby, Alpha leaned slightly to its right, nearly dropping onto an elbow. Try as it might, Beta wouldn't just fall over, it seemed. The orthoclase reached out with its left middle-limb and made an eager swipe for shaggy purple limbs - hoping to sweep the other monstrosity off of its massive paws and make an opening to go for the takedown.

Round 3/?
Attempt: Sweep Beta's legs out from underneath
Defense: hee hee pointy
Injuries: Punched face

Garnet - Epsilon

They manage to throw the large, curved chunk of their chrysalis off their back with their wings, seemingly ticked off at the undignified enterance as it immidetly sets to getting out of all of the nasty goop and liquid. The shattering of other chrysili nearby drives them to watch in curiosity, sharp red eyes a little too observant for someone of their age.

Another being like them, darker in color and absolutely shrill as it left and returned with a much larger, noxiously colored... something lumbering behind it caught their attention, and then yet another - great gem this is getting complicated - tan and winged creature approaches them. They know this one. This one's voice, and they offer a chirp to the tan one and move to get closer until they're interrupted.

Their siblings moving about, flailing, fighting. They arch their back in a displeased grimace, picking up their wings to arch above their back and open their beak to flash the bright blue of their mouth, turning to face the commotion and turning their back to the wall, before sprinting - as well as a baby can, not very quickly or elegantly, slipping and getting confused slightly by the sheer amount of moving and colored THINGS, but the intent is obvious - low to the ground to avoid the many moving bodies, and orienting themselves near the brightly colored one. The one that seems the least interested and the most important here, at least until yet another brightly colored monstrosity emerges in a flood of nasty ooze.

What do I do? They as sat bolt upright in surprise, ears flat and what little hair it had mantled up in alarm as they observe everyone else for a clue. We bow to the bright ones then? They wonder, looking at Desert before copying the gesture, backing up a little bit so that they can face both the Bright Importants, as they are now dubbed until they figure out what else to think.

Vargas watched, with interest, the wingless one hatch. He studied it closely, though without moving or otherwise drawing attention to himself. It was scrappy, and though at first he was tempted to dismiss its worth based on a lack of wings, he reminded himself that cats did not have wings, and apparently they were very successful. He was making a mental note to watch this one, when the sound of the oily stone cracking jerked his attention--and by extension, his head--to one side.

At her voice, his face split into a savage (but cheerful) grin. He reached forward to help pluck the stone away but--unsurprisingly--he was not needed. To a backdrop of battling children he stepped back, inclining his head in grinning greeting.

"Still alive, I see! It is good to see you," he said, and it was honest. He watched her yawn, stretch, and there was almost fondness there; for who would Vargas be friends with, if not an almost-version of himself? At her question he looked over the tussling hatchlings, and snorted.

"I just got here, but yes--in a sense. There is... there have been changes." He settled himself back on his haunches, staring as one of the children charged into another; his two creations, in fact. They were clumsy, as children were wont to be, though he noted that the six-limbed one could at least use its front pair as arms--of a sort. And he completely ignored the rest, not seeming to find it necessary to offer orders or introductions. "We have been asleep for a very long time. I take it most of the creations are gone. A new generation woke--spontaneously--in the interim. We are retaking control, beginning training and trials again. We created these with the new generation as experiments." This was all offered with half-indifferent gruffness; a sort of professional aloofness. But at this point, a spark of mischief entered Vargas' face, and he grinned at Vakornol beside him. "You've awoken just in time, if you want to be the one to train them," he added.

When the small one--black and white, and winged--approached, and said his name, he peered down at it with a demeanor that said, 'I don't have a brow, because my eyes are on horn-like protrusions, but if I did, it would be arched.' What he actually, verbally said--with quiet solemnity--was, "That is Overseer Vargas, to you." He then leaned a hand down to try and gently grip the child by the head and turn it back to face the others, as if guiding it back into the fracas.

Babysitting, it seemed, was not his thing.