she smiled and let out such a happy cheer that it could melt the strongest soldiers hearts of steel. she danced around excitedly, before looking back up to it. "yay! yes yes! i will show you!"

"carja says we use dye or chalk, there should be some around here, maybe! lemme look..." she mewed, looking around, walking away for a moment.

it found a decently sized chunk of chalk a ways away , dragging it, hilariously, with great struggle due to her size, over to ruby, and by the time she got back, she was panting from exhaustion, wobbly, but persevering and biting and pulling at a chunk for ruby, gagging at the bad taste, rolling it over to ruby, before grabbing a smaller one for herself. "here! we can draw using this! i like drawing flowers, look!" she mewed, taking the chalk she had and proceeding to draw a very mediocre flower, but it still atleast looked like one. it took a moment, because she still didnt perfectly know how to use her paws, but it was ok. just ok. she looked up at ruby, eyes wide. "do you like it? go ahead, you try now! what do you like the most?" she asked, moving her floppy petal hair out of her face

@Ruby-Beta

When Lass got up to go find some chalk, Beta also got to its feet, looking down at the immediate area. The flower that Lass had been sitting on...that might work! It carefully picked off the petals and began to crush it in its paws - it had seen other gembounds do this. When it saw Lass trying to draw a piece of chalk over, chalk that was way too small for it to feasibly pick up and use without breaking, it let out a small rumble. "No, it's ok. I have something here." It raised its paw, covered in light pink dye.

It eyed the flower that Lass had drawn and attempted to do the same, reaching forward and, using the pad of its paw instead of claw, drew another, far worse flower, next to hers. "I don't really...like anything? I like training and sleeping...and that's it." A sad fact, but it didn't seem to notice. "I think your flower looks better then mine."

@Lass

she nodded. "okay! your dye is prettier, i like pink!" she mewed.

she watched him draw a flower too, and while admittedly it wasnt as good, she liked it! "yours is pretty too! it is very good for your first flower! and colorful! colors are good! and practice makes perfect!" she mewed.

she listened to him, tilting her head, and humming. 'well, i like sleeping too! sleeping is very relaxing! i like sleeping in flowers, though sometimes they close during the day and i get stuck. someone has to help me out, or i have to wait until they open again!" she mews. "maybe you'll find other things you like soon! maybe we can discover new likes together, i dont know many things yet either!" she chirped.

@Ruby-Beta

Beta stared at its little thing of dye on the ground, trying to figure out the purpose of this. Why draw? The furred reptile had talked about doing art and drawing too - why was it such a popular activity? It really couldn't find the use of it in its training. But, then again, obviously there was more to the world then just what Master Vargas had told it. Still, maybe there was a way to turn it around...

What it liked...what it liked? It liked to sleep and train and it wasn't interested in finding anything else. It looked at the pink color soaking into its paw and, suddenly, it had burst of inspiration. "Wait, I think I had an idea!" It looked around for things it could use - plants or rocks and more dyes, but there...wasn't much. It was Orion, there wasn't a ton of plant-life to explore. "Uh, well, I guess this isn't really the place, though. I was thinking what if I put dye on myself? You know, made myself not purple and look like something else? That would be cool."

@Lass

she beamed "yeah! yeah that sounds super cool! i hadn't thought of that before, it sounds super fun! i bet that'd be super useful too, imagine looking like a plant! and sneaking up on someone! that'd be cool! like a fun game of hide and seek!" she peeped

"i wonder if i could do it too! hey hey hey, what if i tried? theres not alot of colorful things around here but theres dust n rocks! those can be useful! you can practice! i can try and hide and you can find me!" she offered, if ruby really liked training, she can help!

@Ruby-Beta

Beta chuckled a little awkwardly. "Oh, yeah! A game of hide and seek would be easy if you could just look like the wall or something." But it was thinking more along the lines of hiding its identity. After all, the dragon had noticed it almost immediately from its color and shape. If it could somehow alter that...

But that was a topic for a different time. Right now, Lass was offering it exactly what it had been searching for through the caves - some training. "Oh? You'll help me train? Alright, we should make it a proper game, then. How does that sound?"

@Lass

she gasped. "YES! a game! i love games!! this'll be amazing!" she cheered. "be careful you dont step on me on accident! if you arent able to see me, then that could happen, yknow!" she advised.

@Ruby-Beta

It snorted. "I'll try not to. But okay, I'll give you the rules of the game." Beta sat up and looked over at the nearby ruins, tail flicking behind it. Vargas had, a long time ago, sent it and some black cat running through those very same ruins, its first hunting game. Now, it would hunt again, with more skills then before.

"Do you see those ruins?" It pointed at the buildings nearby. "You're going to go in there and hide. Prepare however you want. You'll have three minutes to find a good spot and then I'm going in too. I have to find and capture you!" It nodded to itself, yes this was the same exercise that Vargas had given it some cycles ago, if it was remembering correctly. "Any questions?"

@Lass

"nope! i wont disappoint you, ruby friend! i'll do good!" she beamed. "im gonna hide so good!" she peeped.

"im gonna go get ready! i'll shout when im ready!" she beeped, running off

Beta nodded and watched after her, waiting for her to go into the buildings before it followed. It didn't see any problem with not telling her what tricks it had - this was training with the face of a game. Her disguises would be useless, unless there was some other creature running around that would mess its tracking up.

It would wait for her, and then it would begin.

*exit

@Lass