He sat there, with his permanent alligator grin, the expression unchanging as he tried to parse confusing word-soup alongside the coherent bits.

"..Sure! We can be masters of the caves!" Imp crowed, encouragingly. He wasn't sure what the fuck that meant, but yeah!! It sounded good! -Oh shit, I told him I was the master of something, didn't I-? Crap. Well, I guess we'll be masters soon! Then Fahl was offering him the fish, and--well, the visibility of blood was now petering out but boy did he not know what to do.

He didn't want to take the kid's first kill, but nor did he want to be rude and outright refuse it. After a moment's quick thought (and another moment's searching with snout and wings) Imp settled for taking a tiny bite, and pushing the rest back in what he assumed was Fahl's general direction. "Thanks. AWESOME kill, by the way." (He hadn't actually seen it, being blind and all.)

"You know your magic yet, buddy?" he asked, after swallowing the fish-bit down. Blind gaze still stared encouragingly back at Fahl, empty sockets slack, yet the grin somehow bright.

@Fahl

Oblivious to exactly how Imp's magic sight functioned, Fahl burst into another fit of overjoyed nods at the compliment and small bite taken out of the fish. His offering had actually been taken, and he must have said something right because they were going to be masters—surely this could only mean good things.

He bent down and took a bite out of the fish as well, something to chew over in the face of yet another question not entirely understood by him. What was magic? It must be something he had, otherwise why include it in the lesson or ask him now. Imp had been using it apparently, but that was the problem; how could he know it if he couldn't even see it? Were his eyes simply not attuned to whatever this force was to witness its demonstration? When had he ever encountered—?

Wait a minute. He just might have. All this excitement of fishing had drowned out the earlier experiments at the pond's edge from his memory. Failures, all of them, but it'd all been started by that strange and life-saving warmth. Would it be worth another attempt to draw upon it?

Fahl breathed in deeply and demanded an answer from himself. And this time his call was not refused. First, his tongue heated, then his head, and eventually it spread to his entire body. Like when he clung to the ledges on the cave wall, the surrounding chill melted away, replaced by a cocoon of warmed air.

He stepped a little closer to Imp, seeing if the other could sense the radiance. "No know. You know?"

@Imp

Silence, as he waited--as Fahl stepped forward, heat roiling off him. And Imp-... Well, Imp didn't know about elements, or classifications, or the like. He just knew that hot meant fire, obviously, and so this other guy was also clearly "FIRE!"

His crow was excited, not afraid--the way a person might throw their arms out and exclaim a close friend's name upon seeing them, welcoming them in. "HEY! I'm fire too! That's great!"

"Here! Watch!" He splayed his legs and wings, bracing himself, and turned--jaws opening to emit a stream of superheated air, wavering like a mirage. It was hot, comparable to the searing warmth given off by Fahl at that moment, and Imp turned back happily.

He was too stupid, or too happy-go-lucky, to worry that this one was a spy and a traitor like his last new friend had been. Instead, he was lost in the moment, and praised Fahl again.

"Good job, buddy! That's real good magic!" he exclaimed.

@Fahl

"Fi... err," Fahl mumbled. He stared up at where the air now shimmered with barely perceptible ripples, eyes blown wide with awe. That... he could do that? Although too young to scheme or assign any significant purpose to the display, he was not too old to recognize the power contained in that blast of heat. And it was his to use.

Not just his—Imp's as well. He'd expected good things; this went beyond that and into greatness. They were the same. The perfection of the entire situation evident to him now, he bellowed out his delighted revelation.

"Masters! Fire masters!"

Just thinking about the prospect gave him a surge of energy. In his overactive state, he grabbed what remained of the fish and threw his head back, gobbling it up with unprecedented speed. And when Imp turned back and delivered that wonderful praise again, the excitement became too much to contain. Unconcerned by consequences, he launched himself at his teacher, shrieking.

He did not account for the slick rock beneath him though. His back legs slipped at the attempted leap, and his upper torso hit the ground with a thud. Air whooshed out from lungs.

@Imp

"Fire masters! Ha, we sure are, buddy."

Thump.

The kid's excited calling had turned into a wet thwack, and Imp peered blindly down toward the sound.

"Uhhh... You okay, kiddo?" he asked, squinting without his eyes at the lizard he couldn't see. He tried to use his magic, but nothing came, so he waddled forward a little and reached out one wing. This wing patted here and there, searching to find Fahl, to check on him.

"I'm gonna catch a few fish more myself, Fahl, right? You can fish with me if you want or, you know, whatever," Imp added, easygoing. "Anyway, uh... do you live here?" He was still pretty sure that Fahl was a new hatch, but he felt kinda bad at the idea of just... leaving him behind. Who'd look out for the kid then-?

@Fahl

Recovery from the rough landing was a bit of a mess. For who knew how long, Fahl remained thoroughly grounded, his breath snatched from him. A brief flicker of awareness wondered how much worse this might have felt if he'd fallen from the ridges; had that happened, would his bones be aching even more? Or would he feel nothing since the impact pulverized his bones? It turned out with this line of thought that his imagination had a dramatic streak. Although the danger was very much real, the soreness of his limbs compared little to this hypothetical.

Then he heard something lightly tapping on the ground. A softness brushed against his face. Putting in the tiniest of efforts, air whistled into his mouth, which hung ajar. Imp's words registered, and he groaned. Next time, maybe, he'd be careful when he jumped. Thankfully, his body was built so that he did not need to move much to return to a standing position. Fervently ignoring the stinging pain, he shoved himself upright.

"Okay," he insisted through wheezes. His teacher deserved more food for the help he'd given, and this setback would not stop him from putting those lessons to work. "Can fish. Be good fishers too."

Live here? He'd been evicted from his last home, so Fahl had naturally assumed this was as good a place as any to call his new home. So, if that was what Imp meant, then, "Live here."

Mind already fixed on catching more food, he began to awkwardly drag himself back to the water. If his body cooperated, the denizens of the pond would not know what hit them.

@Imp

Imp gave a nod at the poor lizard kid's wheezing reassurance. Well, at least he wasn't dead. Imp wasn't even sure what had happened, but he turned with a brush of too-many feathers back toward the water's edge.

"Well, I guess I oughtta keep an eye on you, then." A pause, and then rough laughter; "Not that I've got any eyes."

A moment's focus, and his magicka flickered up; he could see the red shapes, as he touched the cold water's edge, of the fish in the pond below. "Anyway, yeah! Master fishers. There's some fish here--those I can see, at least. Hey, wanna see who can catch one first?" he challenged, in a friendly enough tone--and then, glancing blindly back with realization, "Uh, if you're not too hurt, I mean."

@Fahl

"First?"

The question almost could have been a statement for how harshly Fahl pushed it from his throat. In forcing himself to catch up to Imp, the wheezes had not yet returned to normal exhales. But soon he too was back at the pond to stare at the fish. They'd swarmed back during the conversation, sensing peace take hold once more. Of course, that was not going to last long with danger hovering above them.

He took in gulps of air before speaking again. "Yeah. Can see who catch first." It was a novel idea—for him, nearly everything was. Perhaps it would be fun to try. Attempting to demonstrate his wellness, he sucked in more air so that his voice rang true without a hint of rasping. "No hurt."

Without further attempts at communication, Fahl went into action. His dive was more of a tumble, legs not quite extending to their full length on the push off. Although his body still moved with greater speed underwater, the previous jostling of bones left his limbs somewhat sluggish. Nevertheless, he ignored any disadvantages and repeated his first performance as best as he could. He swam after whichever target seemed the slowest. The chase was a tiring one, but eventually his teeth closed around it.

Once he'd broken through to the surface, catch secured in mouth, Fahl searched left and right for wherever Imp might be.

@Imp

"All right!" Imp crowed, to Fahl's agreement--and listened, and 'watched' with magic, for the splash. When the lizard went in, he jumped as well: wing-arms spreading a little awkwardly to help propel him down.

The alligator-like tail had once been more useful in swimming; it still was, but the scorpion tip made it somewhat less hydrodynamic. The feathers, also, most certainly did not help, and despite 'seeing' the fish, Imp's entrance was questionably clumsy. He may well have confused his school more than outwitted him, but regardless, he had a wriggling set of scales in his teeth in but moments.

He surfaced, sputtering a little, waddle-paddling his way awkwardly back to shore. Ahh-... but he could hear that Fahl was already up, probably already with his own fish; so Imp hauled himself heavily back onto the shore, pinned his fish, and asked--"Did you win!?"--and then, hungrily (and with no further ado whatsoever) gulped down his catch.

@Fahl

It didn't take long for Fahl's scanning to catch a brown, feathery mass heading for the shore. Arms flailed about in the water, aches a continuing burden on him as he aimed himself to pursue. Ever reliable, his tail whipped to provide the necessary propulsion so that he could sail forward. He sliced through the pond, ripples spreading outward in his wake.

Upon also crawling onto land, he followed suit. The fish was swiftly deposited onto the ground, and a claw hindered its squirms. When the struggling became a tad too strong for even his pinning to contain, Fahl struck down so that it finally stilled with the loss of its life.

His position in the water hadn't been ideal for judging, so he offered a guess. "You win." That seemed reasonable enough, though the thought of a potential loss cast his gaze down. Sure, Imp deserved triumph if his assumption was correct, but still... it would've been nice to impress. Maybe it was all the swimming, but the disappointment almost felt like it was clogging his nostrils.

Fahl took a bite out of his fish—or was about to before he tilted back and let loose a rip-roaring sneeze. A mixture of water, salt, and snot spewed everywhere. At least that answered his breathing difficulties.

@Imp