The small red and black egg was half-buried in the dirt, looking not much different from a boulder, aside from the red veins lacing through the smooth surface of the egg. It shuddered suddenly, shaking and shaking before going still.

Inside, the small being within stretched out, limbs pushing and pushing, the eggshell straining against them.

A crack rang out across Canis, before a leg shot out, tipped with terrifying black claws, with shiny black scales and dark paw pads. It pulled back inside the warmth, the baby within curling around to position its head in front of the gap. A single orange eye flicked open wetly and peered out of the safety of their egg, and it wasn't long before it extended, shoving through the gap and breaking the rest of the shell.

The hydra fell onto the ground, bits of dirt and dust clinging to their ebony scales, turning them grey as they rolled around, struggling to get onto their four limbs. Their heads weighed them down, forcing them to plant their wings to the ground to shove themselves up, panting from exertion. They shook themselves out, noses bumping together and then shying away, before sniffing at one another curiously. A nip, then a snarl, before the leftmost head snapped at the two as if to say, 'cut it out!'

Yellow-orange eyes peered around, each head looking a different direction, their wings folded in as much as they could be without lifting off the ground. They were nervous. What was out there...?

@Vargas

Vargas mostly ignored the sounds of hatching; or well, ignored wasn't exactly the right word. He'd usually plod over, give the child a cursory glance, and move on. Once or twice he'd yanked stone away when a hatchling couldn't escape its stone; maybe their "being trapped" was a weakness but he knew that the rock's shape was something left to chance, and he preferred to get a better idea of a being's abilities before consigning it to death.

This crack was audible halfway across canis: a strong snap of gemstone, and Vargas found his curiosity a tad more piqued. He made his way over, having to search mostly by nose and eyes when his magic picked up nothing (or had it failed-? Likely the latter, he thought). Spotting the creature at last froze him in place, a sharp intake of breath and widening of eyes.

It lay coated in dust, its heads arguing with itself, scales clear even beneath the layer of filth. Horns, spines, wings-... It was... perfect. No--almost perfect. It could use more limbs, maybe, more wings, but it was very like the designs he'd had in mind, lately: draconic, massive (or likely to be so, judging by its hatchling proportions), with spare heads! Spare HEADS! -He'd been mulling over those, lately. Oh, yes; this was better than the mere single-headed dragons in Monoceros. This thing, he could use. And what of its flight? -Well, he'd have to test that when the time came; was it hard, to fly with three heads?

He paced up to tower over the child, staring down with instant approval. His voice came booming, full of authority, but pleased; and his eyes took only a cursory glance at the chrysalis to recognize the common gem.

"BLOODSTONE," he cried, and there was rare enthusiasm in his tone. "You'll be of use to us, I think. Walk around, move," he demanded; "I want to see your movement."

Would its strides be smooth, strong? Or wobbling and uncertain, with the direction of three heads? Oh, but hatchlings were often clumsy, too--ahh, he should make allowances for that...

@Hellfire

Each head snapped up to look at Vargas, breaths catching as they stared up at the massive creature above them. The middle head craned up the furthest, wings flapping gently to balance as he tried to sniff at Vargas, the other heads either too scared (the left) or disinterested (the right).

Bloodstone? Was that them?

Heads cocked as they tried to figure out what Vargas wanted them to do, and they stood there for a few moments, eyes narrowed and ears flicked forward, the gears turning. Carefully, they tried to step forward, their wing claws touching the group to make up for their heavy heads, their long, thick tail dragging behind them, as their focus was on each head and the more forward parts of the body. They seemed to fight on which direction to go before the center head grumbled and forced them to trudge forward towards the Master, though they didn't know his title.

The other two heads, offended, curled up and settled down as the center head took charge and started to sniff around, their tail flicking back and forth to balance better, their wings able to be... sort of folded up. They were overly large, as most dragon hatchlings were, so they were held up a bit awkwardly to get out of the way of their feet.

The center head peered up at Vargas again and cocked his head, wondering if he'd done right. His steps weren't the surest, as he was still struggling a tad to figure out all 6 (7, if you included the tail) limbs and where they would go, so he wasn't fast yet.

But... he could be.

@Vargas

Garnet-Epsilon

Epsilon had been practicing their flight around Canis, what with Tunnel P being too cold and echoing with the reminders of a Trial in progress, and missing the desert sun itself.

Arching up to the terminus to it's flight path, pulling it's wings in, and dropping before opening wings at the last second... training it's muscles and reaction times, and partially amusing itself with it's own game, and running over some situations in it's mind, and considering hunting a rat or something before an earsplitting CRACK shakes their concentration-

and causes them to crash into a pile of bones.

They are unscathed, happily, but their pride took a more than massive hit, and so with that recent event they take to wing again, and go to find the source of the noise.

A boulder that had drawn their attention a few days prior was now split, with some mighty creature having broken out and made it's way to stand before Overseer... no, Master Vargas.

This draconic beast was impressive but the extra heads make Epsilon slightly confused, but the wings- now that's something they know, along with scales and talons...

Another dragon? The caves are crawling with them. Perhaps this is another sign.

With that thought, they wing down towards the pair, circling once around before landing a distance away, not trying to hide, but not stepping forward either. Better to not interrupt.

@Bloodstone
@Vargas

Vargas grunted his approval.

The child was clumsy, but that was to be expected; it could walk, so the heads (despite the apparent disinterest of two of them) weren't splitting the work of running the body, at least.

"Good! I am Master Vargas, and you belong to me, now," he decided. He didn't really want the responsibility, though, so he glanced up and around--and ahh, perfect! "Ahhh, good. Garnet, find one of your leaders, bring them here. I want Orthoclase-Alpha in charge of this one's upbringing and training, with my consultation--do you know where that one is?"

He glanced back down, and then walked a quick, smooth, pacing circle around the Bloodstone. He was already imagining its usefulness (sowing absolute chaos via surprise attacks), picking out possible weaknesses (potential lack of agility, and lack of armor, and the uselessness of those two side heads) and deciding how would be best to approach its training to address both. It meant little or nothing to him that this was but a child, and that children needed childhood--Vargas had never heard this concept and if someone had explained it to him he would have offered a gruffly confused "What? Why?!" As it was, he nodded to himself again. "You have potential," he told the Bloodstone, and wondered if Alpha would see the same things that he himself did.

@Bloodstone

Bloodstone's heads followed Vargas, the left-most following until he left their sight, then the right swiveling to follow him instead when he entered theirs. Each head seemed to be... thinking. Chittering quietly before the center head rose up again to face the Leviathan. Three pairs of yellow eyes blinked and studied Vargas, before the left head swiveled to face a spot of movement in the air, squeaking gently to notify the others.

A winged creature. Like them... how odd. They watched it land and only the right head seemed to listen to Vargas at all, the other two bumping into each other as they tried to see behind the Master, before the right head grumbled and made them side-step, making them stop wiggling so much.

You belong to me now.

All heads looked up at Vargas, Right's ears flicking forward while Left's pinned to her skull. Conflicting opinions, it seemed, with Middle being rather indifferent, or missing the tone of voice completely.

Either way, understanding would come eventually. Their scales were already starting to harden, no longer kept soft in the liquid of the chrysalis, lifting off their skin slowly to form plates of dense material. The more they shed, the harder and thicker they'd become.

@Garnet-Epsilon

Garnet-Epsilon

Epsilon steps forward as they make eye contact with Master Vargas, and they chirp quietly at Bloodstone to denote their presence.

That tail could hurt, if this large child gets startled...

The small alien hybrid gives the new addition to the Sentinels a once over as they bow, and then they turn their full attention to Vargas.

"I will go locate Orthoclase-Alpha immediately, Master Vargas," is their quick response, wings open again as they stand to their full height - relatively nothing near these beasts, and honestly Epsilon would feel threatened if they weren't the only flier for right now- before they look once more at the Right head, the one with the spots like them before they take to the air, starting a search circle and widening it in order to locate one their hatch mate.

@Orthoclase-Alpha

As it happened, Alpha was skulking around in the fortresses as it was suddenly wont to do. It might've been wiser to just relocate the zoisite it had stashed away - maybe somewhere more inaccessible, like the squirreled-away Warren - but we'll never praise this one for being the most immediately logical. The orthoclase's one true specialty was thinking on its feet and flying by the seat of its pants in combat. That, and being more than a little obnoxiously brutal. At least it learned from its impulsive-at-times decisions, such as not being swarmed by hundreds upon hundreds of Batcats -

Anyways. It wasn't difficult for the Garnet to locate it, and certainly not to bring it back. All it had to mention was Master Vargas, and it was there.

Plodding up to the purple behemoth, it quickly bowed. Taking quick stock of the other body here, Alpha felt goosebumps crawl along its neck. Quills stood on end, but smoothed down quickly. The wings matched - as did the tail and the four limbs. A walking, talking dragon. Not just with one head, either. The orthoclase clenched its jaw, teeth grinding near-audibly against one another, and it glanced up to the Leviathan. "Yes, Master?"

It... quietly hoped it wasn't about to be placed in charge of this one. All dragons knew each other, and having one of their spawn would bring many a problem.

@Vargas

While the others were gone, Vargas spoke to the Bloodstone. Simple things, like "You eat flesh, correct? Meat? Does that sound appetizing?" and "You are part of this nest; we will help you reach your full potential, and you will strengthen the nest in turn," and "You will answer to myself and Orthoclase-Alpha, and be trained and tested as you grow."

Well, not super simple things.

When Garnet returned, Orthoclase-Alpha in tow, Vargas nodded to them. "Good! -Orthoclase-Alpha; tell me what you see in this one," he demanded, stepping aside and gesturing at the hatchling.

@Bloodstone

There was... an awful lot to take in. The winged creature taking flight and coming back with something so big that they had to crane their heads just to look at it. Then the Master was speaking, words that they'd said before and ones who's meanings flew right over their heads. The middle head just blinked rather stupidly and side-eyed it's siblings, wondering if either of them knew what was going on.

Right was perked up, taking in as much information as possible, their golden eyes fixed on Vargas. They seemed to be absorbing as much information as they possibly could, like a sponge. Left, on the other hand, had shrunk back to hide from the appearance of a new behemoth, chittering nervously.

All three heads seemed to be in agreement of one thing- Vargas was someone to respect, and so was the Orthoclase. They still didn't quite know what to make of Garnet. Smaller than the others, a bit bumbling (at least to their limited knowledge of what 'bumbling' meant).

Middle yawned all of a sudden and turned their body around, much to the surprise of Left and Right, and toddled off in a seemingly random direction. When poked and proded by the others, their response was simply-

"Hungry," he growled softly, eyes flicking about as their nose sniffed gently, face nearly to the ground as they searched for something pictured in their instinctual mind.

Right wasn't very amused. The Master was talking to them! They had to listen! But as their tummy grumbled, even they had to admit that food wasn't a bad idea. But still!!

@Garnet-Epsilon