Blight just stared, blankly. He had no idea what Glaive was getting at, with this claw-waving, and before he could explain as much she'd popped onto the next topic. Her enthusiasm was infectious, though (apparently more than his unhelpful diseases)--especially to the equally-enthusiastic little dragon, and he hop-bounded along behind her. He was excited to see what she had to show him, almost forgetting his now-passing nausea.

When she asked about moss, after clambering to a break in the stone, he squinted. He opened his mouth to guess, and to say that he couldn't see in the dark, and then he blinked as he looked back at his new friend and saw that her eyes were almost glowing.

"Hey, your eyes are glowing-!" he cried, and then, blinking, "But--mine always glow?"

Time to do magic, then.

The little dragon quickly hunched over, concentrating on trying to see in the dark with glowy eyes, as a concept; he even grunted a solid "HNNGH-!" for a brief instant.

His eyes popped back open.

"GREEN! -Ey! Yellowish-greeny-brown! But mostly green! -How did you do that?!" he asked, turning to stare wide-eyed at Glaive.

@Glaive

Glaive tilted her head in a bird-like motion. "Glowing?" Rather cleverly, she tilted herself down so that her head was just about to the ground. There wasn't a glow on the rocks when she did that - now Blight must be kidding her. She huffed and said as much, "no they're not!"

But, whatever. Blight seemed to get the hang of it, complete with appropriate amounts of grunting and effort and - he got it right! It didn't occur to Glaive yet that he could just know what moss looked like, so she cheered him on without any suspicion.

"I'm a FISHER-DRAGON! That's how!" She crowed, puffing out her chest and swaying her back half so her sail flashed. Quite a display. The whelp blinked, squinting into the light, and gestured for him to "follow me!" again. Moving back to the water, she urged another bit of magic to sustain the lack of shadows and tossed her snout towards it.

"See all the fish? They can't hide in the dark now!" Glaive broke into childish, evil laughter, "you hear that fishies?! You can't hide! MUAHAHAHAHA!"

As if on cue, all the shadows winked back in, and she whined softly. "Sorry! The fish must've heard me and they can hide again."

@Blight

Blight bound-hopped after her, his wing-walking, rocking gallop about as awkward as Glaive's rapid on-land waddle. "They were glowing!" he insisted.

And then, she was cackling; and Blight snort-laughed. "You scared them all away!" he crowed, and dissolved into another giggle-fit. After a moment he pushed out over the lip of the lagoon, peering closely into it.

His own vision retained a spark of the magic, not strong, but enough to see by.

Which he quickly informed Glaive of. "No, wait!" he cried, glowing eyes springing wide. He leaned even further out, so that the slightest push would've sent him toppling into the lagoon head-first. "They're still there! -Glaive! I can see 'em! They're still there!"

Just why he was so excited about this wasn't clear, but the fish--apparently--were still there.

@Glaive

Were wouldn't cut it. Glaive blinked again as the lights faded to a more manageable level, and she asked quickly, "are they now?"

Not that it really mattered. She had scared the fish back into making the darkness appear, and the spinosaurus had the brief resolve to swear she'd never make another sound again. A promise almost immediately broken by a shrill squeak, "you can?!"

Trundle trundle.

The whelp hunched over as best she could, claws gripping the sides of the lagoon's lip as she craned her neck to see. "No way!" As far as she could see, the water was just sparkling in that weird way it did when light hit it. Glaive leaned further, somehow managing to not slip and fall into the lagoon. "You can see them? All the shadows are back for me."

Lag, maybe? Were they watching the same cutscene?

@Blight

"I can SEE THEM!" he insisted, and then--finally getting the hang of this concept--"Maybe all this magic is just--for us? Maybe the red's in your eyes." Okay, not quite- "And maybe when they glow, only YOU see! But mine glow all the time-" No, but- "Watch, I'll catch a fish! With my EYES!"

...and the narrator gives up in disgust.

Blight focused, for a moment, to sharpen his vision, that permanent grin widening across his face.

He dove, a slow and flapping thing rather than the swift and graceful sweeps of strong momentum. This left him catching a fish, and then bobbing to the surface and flailing wildly as he struggled to get back out.

He called up, not panicked but insistent, for help; but it was mostly muffled around the scales of the fish, and came out more like "GLRV HRLP MR GRT RT! -RF WRR!"

@Glaive

Blight's explanation made plenty of sense, as much as the narrator thought otherwise. She bobbed her head at cartoonish speeds, squatting down more where she was perched. Baby blues watched as the dragon descended, not in a swan dive but just flapping down towards the water. Mistake number one, apparently - since he came right back up in a paddling mess.

Time for a water dragon rescue.

"I'm coming!" Glaive waggled her rear, prepared to leap down for a swan dive into the water -

She slipped some, of course, but ultimately managed to retain her grace as she slunk into the water.

The whelp approached her New Best Friend in a slinking swim, but realized belatedly that she wasn't sure how exactly Blight wanted to help. She stared in confusion for a moment, and then tilted her head back, jaws open. "Hold fish?"

Was that it?

@Blight

Blight stared.

He blinked, unevenly, even as he struggled to stay afloat, at the spinosaurus staring at him with her head just above the water. Well, he couldn't talk with the fish in his mouth, and her jaws were open, and waiting, so--Blight shoved the fish into Glaive's jaws, and then spoke.

"No! I can't get out!" he explained, and thrashed, briefly sinking.

It took him a moment to realize that he could float. It was when he'd stopped fighting, for an instant, and bobbed up to the surface. It was cold, sure, but when he just lay there he sort of floated like a duck, wings sprawled loosely out over the lagoon. "It's COLD," he complained, just leaving the fish right in Glaive's mouth.

The little dragon looked around, and then, with slow, awkward sweeps of his wings, dragged himself back to the water's edge. It took a moment of wet, scrabbling clambering to realize he could not get out on his own.

"Can you get me out?" he asked, half-clinging to the steep edge. He could swim around to somewhere shallower, but with his slow-ass wing-paddling that might take awhile and there was no telling if the current of the falls might take him.

He glanced back at Glaive--at her teeth, and claws--and tried to do something--anything--to harden his hide. If she did get him out, he didn't want to accidentally get torn apart by her sharp bits.

@Glaive

Much like a crocodile presented with a hot dog, she gently took the fish and clamped her jaws tight around it once Blight was out of the bite-zone and safely talking up a storm.

Now that she was holding the fish, Glaive was limited to just grunting and nodding her head and following after him paddling towards the edge. Maybe she was taking her ability to swim for granted, since the slowness of Blight was like following a slow walker down a hallway. She wanted to just let go of the fish and start nudging him (and hadn't realized that she could just hold onto the fish and nudge him yet) so it'd go faster.

Baby blues widened a bit as she was asked to help him out of the swimming pool, and she tried to think of how best to do that. Surely swimming up really fast underneath him would work? Glaive took a deep breath and slipped beneath the surface, sail and all.

She came up a moment later, nearly missing Blight on her ascent but managing to smack her foolish face into his rear at an awkward angle and giving him a fair bit of upward momentum. Probably not the most helpful upsy-daisy, but it sure was one.

@Blight

He felt the impact before he realized what Glaive had planned, and for a moment, one dizzying, shocking moment, he was airborne. Water sprayed up around him, seeming to drop into slow motion, and he spread his wings, trying desperately to flap for air.

"-AHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He began to tilt backward--tipping, falling--and then his wings caught, and he snapped back upright, flapping frantically for the shore.

He tumbled down and across the rock a moment later, soaking wet, and gasped a few times, shivering.

Wide, shocked eyes sought out Glaive, and Blight's mouth opened tremblingly... "That was... AWESOME!"

@Glaive

Glaive belatedly realized that she should've given some kind of warning - not any sort of warning with words, since she still had a fish in her mouth and sure wouldn't let that go, but a warning nonetheless.

She shied into the water as Blight flailed and flapped around, squealing in a panic but then finally getting his air-footing(?) and that was it. On safe ground, he spun around and proclaimed how awesome it was.

Well, she'd just have to be even cooler.

The whelp grunted the affirmative with an eager nod and a few flicks of her head. Move out of the way! Spinning on the spot and adjusting the fish in her mouth, she tossed it sidelong up the steep edge. Once their second meal was ready to go... Glaive dove back down.

This time, she went deeper, deep as she could go without bumping her snout in the still-relatively-shallow floor, and pushed off of it. Surging out of the water like a bullet or some kind of flying fish, Glaive belly-flopped onto the edge, back half still hanging off and threatening to pull her back down. The spinosaurus squirmed in place, claws scrabbling and wimpy hind legs pushing against the rock until she at last slid forwards into a crumpled heap of fat baby.

Back on solid ground, Glaive gave a shrill cry complete with an outspreading of her arms: "FISHERRRRR-DRAGONS!"

Everything seemed to warrant that battle-cry, now.

... and an overly eager giggle-fit. What an adrenaline rush!

@Blight