Esther was persistent, the orthoclase could give them that. Being called something it wasn't couldn't be that good of a reason to beat up another canine-looking thing. At least Deli had instigated with violence.

Acidic eyes stared down at its paw, soot marring the pads and sides. There wasn't much burnt, but the stinging sensation remained. Alpha squinted, then blinked slowly. "Fire." Good word. "Only you make fire?" As in, is it natural? Or was it just limited to magic?

The monster baby tilted its head, quills seeming to glow brighter for a moment, mostly towards the middle of its neck. "Magic..." it rumbled, before promptly going completely dark. If it was standing in a shadow, it might have disappeared completely into it. But, no - Alpha was just standing in the middle of Canis's floor, a hulking dark figure. "Like this?"

@Esther

Esther blinked when Oro asked if they were the only one that could make fire. Esther didn't think they were the only one. If it were magic, certainly someone else was bound to know it! Now, they didn't know if it was natural, per se, as they'd never seen it come from anything but themselves.

Their eyes looked back to the burning creature, which still smelled incredibly bad. The skin and fur of it was melting into some kind of slop. Looking real nasty, smelling real nasty. It made them want to cover their nose with something. Of course, they didn't. There was nothing for them to bury their nose into other than Oro's feathers, and Esther didn't seem too keen on that one.

One of their large ears flicked when Oro casted some magic of their own. It was.... weird looking. The creature was shrouded in some kind of darkness, and would have been completely impossible to see for it not going completely to the shadows. Flicking their tail, Esther bounced on their paws.

"Yes like that!" They barked out.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha was going to assume that this was the only thing that could make fire - likely until the point it saw someone else that subverted that expectation completely. Or, y'know, a naturally-occurring flame. That was apparently enough of a rarity (but, to be fair, the orthoclase had been in two caves total in its entire one-month lifespan.)

The monstrous baby seemed completely unbothered by the putrid stench of burning flesh; if anything, it seemed to be staring with eagerness and licking at its chops. "Fire done eating soon?" Yes, it was going to wait for an intangible thing to be 'done' so it could gobble down the free rat. No, it was not going to share. Alpha was not some communist.

Its quills rattled slightly as it 'shook' off the illusion of darkness, blinking owlishly and staring down at its paw. In a few failed attempts to do something regarding fire, the orthoclase scraped meaty claws over the rock and grunted. Giving up on that, Alpha went right back to patting at currently-not-on-fire parts of the rat, waiting in slightly feral anticipation.

Back to square one, as far as conversation went.

@Esther

Despite Oro's thoughts, Esther was indeed not the only one that could make fire. Maybe natural fires were incredibly rare (at least, Esther had never seen one before), but fire magic was a thing! Esther couldn't be the only one with fire magic, no! Many other creatures had to have it!

Esther was confused at the prospect of the fire eating the rat. Fire couldn't eat could it? The odd.... substance didn't have a mouth. It just kinda... was there. Toasting the rat's fur and body. Was Oro trying to eat the burning stinky rat? ew! Who knows how long it was sitting around before Esther got to it?

"You... Want to eat it?" They asked as if it was the strangest thing in the world. Esther liked eating meat, and rats were meat- but this rat was decaying and burning and it was... moderately gross. Maybe if the rat wasn't currently on fire.

They watched as Oro touched the parts of the rat that were not currently on fire. It was... odd.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

"Is good food," Alpha grumbled over the crackling - dying! - fire. It continued to paw at it, but with arguably more fervor than before. Esther had the misfortune of witnessing the monster baby's discovery of how to kill fire: it was just like anything else... smash it. The orthoclase gave a few more solid whaps until there was nothing but smoldering embers and billowing fur-scented smoke.

Without even offering to share part of the thing (Scruffy had shown no clear interest anyways! It was fair ball.) the hybrid darted forwards, easily snapping up the charred - and boiling-hot - rat and tossing it back. Alpha panted the entire time, but it eventually managed to crunch up the carcass enough to swallow it in one gulp.

The orthoclase's eyes narrowed slightly from the mild pain of a heavily burnt tongue that now lolled out from over crooked-jagged teeth. Plopping down heavily, it panted some more and managed to muster up a few choice, but hesitant words: "you pick good rat."

That was... kind of a compliment?

@Esther

Esther's ears wiggled at the mention of the burning fire rat being food. It was burning, practically melting with the touch of the fire- at least the fur was. The meat of the creature was turning an odd shade of brownish black. Most likely from the fire touching it and cooking the old killed rat that Esther had found. The fire was dying off by now, and Oro had seemed to like that fact, and had continued to pat at it. Wasn't that hurting? Esther's paw was hurting and they were the one that had to touch the fire to start it.

When there was nothing but smoke remaining, Oro moved quickly to eat it even though it was still hot! Esther had moved to begin to speak "It's still-!" But Oro had eaten it anyway. Oro's mouth was clearly burning, some smoke coming out of the odd creature's mouth when it was panting.

Esther was going to say a thank you to the compliment- but it really was an odd one. "Doesn't your mouth hurt?" They asked, tilting their head.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Not even an ounce of Esther's worried protesting was enough to slow the monster baby's warpath against this poor rat. If anything, it seemed like Alpha started chewing faster with every word - like a dog that had something in its mouth that it shouldn't.

It coughed and sputtered once, but put the force of a thousand behind it. The resulting sound was a cacophony only a dad with a megaphone could generate. As Alpha cleared its throat and panted, tongue lolling out, it became obvious that there wasn't as much glowing. Fur-ash was clinging to the entire inside of its mouth (and if it'd any idea about what taste was, it'd be glad it didn't have any.)

With a single grunt of determination - because there was quite a bit of pain accompanying the burning sensation - it answered, "no." Then, for unrelated reasons, it stood up and trundled towards the nearest pool of water, "I'm getting drink."

Once it got there, Alpha bowed down, squaring off its legs until they were nearly straight out from its body, and dunked its entire head underneath the water. There it stayed for far longer than should be reasonably possible, not even actually drinking. The monster baby took one glug only as it lifted back up, licking its chops and leaving a charcoal smudge along both sides of its jaw.

@Esther

As Esther watched Oro eat the toasted rat, the other creature couldn't look like anything but an apparition- it was pretty astounding that Oro could eat the rat when it was still smoking hot from previously being burned. Esther didn't think it would even taste good! Their paw was still hot and most likely smoking as well, just like the rat had been. Some of the fur there was singed, but it wasn't bad. It just made Esther adore the fire and burning sensation even more!

Esther blinked in confusion at the noise that came out of Oro's mouth. It was... a strange sound that was rather loud and Esther couldn't help but lower their ears to stop some of the noise. When Oro opened their mouth, Esther had spotted some of the fur that was clinging to the mouth of Oro, and they wondered how the other creature was going to remove it. It looked pretty stuck there...

Esther followed Oro when they moved to get a drink. Watching the weird way the other drank- Esther couldn't help but be confused. Moments passed, and Oro still hadn't brought their head out of the water. Until that last moment when Esther was going to try to save the other themselves. Some of the parts on Oro's mouth were covered in a black color that wouldn't wash off easily.

"You've got some uh." They paused thinking of the word. "Ash on your face." Maybe it wasn't the right word but hey, it was close enough!

@Orthoclase-Alpha

Alpha swallowed once, like it was making sure that all of the water in its mouth had gone down the right path. It made a few more smudges of charcoal on its upper jaw before finally acknowledging that Scruffy'd spoken. Acidic eyes leered down at them, quills rattling with the shift of its head. Easing weight from one cracked forearm to another, it grumbled, "what?"

Ash? Sure sounded like a bad word - not that Alpha knew a difference between what words were and weren't polite to use. Some were just those you didn't use towards the Overseer and other authorities, and were usually too exotic for it to bother with anyways... like milquetoast.

Esther had at least specified that it was something on its face, so the orthoclase shuffled forwards, moving so that the dim water was reflecting its face and not a harsh light glare from above. Glaring down into the puddle, Alpha tilted its head from side to side, as if inspecting the damages. It stuck its tongue out. The bright green kisser lolled out the side of its mouth, glow dimmed by the prominence of charcoal and ash.

Then, Alpha set right back to sticking its head underneath the water - but more aggressively this time. There was quite a massive spray of water on all sides as it first bowed down, shaking its head, then just fully submerged itself in the middle of it. May as well go full hog, right?

@Esther

Esther watched as the ash was smudged on the face of the strange glowy thing once again. Well... that didn't help much did it? Esther walked forward to watch as the strange creature moved to look at its own face in the water, trying to spot the ash on their face.

When Oro dived forward and the water splashed out, it covered the fur of the red animal and made Esther jump back with a huff.

"Water bad!"

@Orthoclase-Alpha