Haven had gone looking, and it seemed like weeks since she'd done so. Electrum had gone missing and their hideaway had gone empty, and something else had moved in (she wasn't going to try to kick them out at this point). So here she was, flying through Cetus, the damp and the water and just the air itself making her feel right at home. Maybe she ought to ask Electrum if they could take a hollow tree as their den instead.

"Electrum!", she called out, her cry echoing through the trees, bouncing back to give her very little input. Sigh.

No Electrum.

She floated further and roosted in the branches of a massive, towering tree, hanging upside-down as she peered about, wings held close as she fiddled with her claws. Where was he...? Was he okay? Was he dead???

No, he wasn't, of course he wasn't! He was Electrum.

... He was Electrum, and that's exactly why he could be dead.

Haven shook her head out and kept going, searching up and down for him, worried out of her poor mind.

@Electrum

Electrum

He'd be offended at Haven' internal monolouge if he could hear it, to be honest.

The lapis dragon wouldn't be dead because he's Electrum, he'd be alive because he's Electrum thank you very kindly.

So, when he finally gets himself to move, uncurling from his pile in the base of a gnarled tree, and taking a first non impressed note that he'd hit more than a few more feet in length, and then having to double take when he realizes he's got some green on him.

How gross. Whoever put this on me must think they're funny.

A stretch, and a yawn- and an inhale of a leaf leaving him to cough and sputter to get it out before he shakes his head and really looks around.

Did these get smaller a tad, or did I get bigger...? Ah, well, I'm glad I'm larger at least. Hungry... that last thought is accompanied by a gurgle from his belly and a quick glance around, as he tries to pinpoint Haven so they can go eat.

Haven....

Haven?

"Haven? Are you around?" he calls, voice a bit croaky from the sleep, but also... Oh, a good deal deeper, and he's very pleased with that.

@Haven

Haven's cry may not have reached the other's ears, but his cry met her's. She shot forward like a rocket, darting between trees, narrowing in on the source of the sound before letting out a shriek.

"ELECTRUM!!", she cried, seeing blue among the black and brown.

She dove down and smacked into him clumsily, wrapping her wings around him and burying her face into the crook of his neck, crooning and cooing and... crying.

"You were gone!! For so long!", she said, pulling away to smack his shoulder weakly, "Jerk!! I was so worried I thought you were deadbutnowyou'rehereandnotdead-"

Her words slurred together as she spoke, her lip wobbling as her head bobbed up and down anxiously, upset and distressed by his disappearance and reappearance.

@Electrum

Electrum

The lapis dragon can hear... something...

Okay wait, wingbeats..

Huh, that sounds like-

-lectrum!

"Have-oph!" the name is knocked out his lungs and he is knocked into the dirt with a thud, and he happily rolls to make sure that neither of them get hurt any more than need be by their boisterous reunion. "Ha-ow, you're on my fin- Haven, I'm fine!" Electrum chuckles a bit as he tries to soothe her, finally managing to het his tail free and drape it around her shoulders.

He finally registers the fact that she thought him dead, and he rears up a bit in some shock. "Hey. I'm not dead! I may sleep like it but I'm not, and you'd know if I was hurt like that. I'd make the caves shake if anyone tried to off me like that." two parts arrogant, one part soothing, Electrum tries to use his magic to check his and Haven's heartrate, and barely manages to suppress their racing hearts, offering a very small amount of... well, calm isn't quite it.

@Haven

Haven panted gently and swallowed as her heart slowed before hugging Electrum tighter, sniffling.

"I didn't know where you went... I left Pisces and I came back and both you and Binh were gone," she said softly, "I thought you both just left me."

She snuggled up to Electrum and sniffed before bringing her head back and nosing at his scales, "You're big now... and your scales are hard too."

She pulled away to rub at where her eyes would be, but were only small divots in her skull. They were sore and puffy from crying gently, though no tears could be shed. She curled up against Electrum again and hid her head in his chest, seeking comfort.

"I missed you," she mumbled.

@Electrum

Electrum

Finally shifting his weight fully into his hind legs, he uses his wings and wraps around Haven like a not-quite-warm blanket, and the panels of his wings crinkle quietly like cellophane. "I'm sorry. I was quite tired, and fell asleep here in this tree. It won't happen again, I promise." Something like a breaking of a string sounds in the back of his mind, and he continues while humming in his chest, "I've changed, yes. I'd say I'm also more... colorful, to a degree. But that just makes it so I can protect you more easily, I think."

More colorful? No, not really, but the intensity of the blue in his scales had darkened as he had slept, to something that made him look more like a post-dusk sky, with the gold set within his scales and shimmering under his skin as his blood acting like the blush of the setting sun itself. A single line of gold still arc across his tail, from where he'd snagged the membrane while climbing rocks, but it seemed like the streak of a comet instead of some sort of blemish.

"I missed you as well, and I'm glad to see you've become very self sufficient... I'm proud of you. I'd like to see how to hunt here-" A small growl from hi stomach, and a faint gold blush between the scales on his face and up the fin on his head, "If not only to eat something. How long was I asleep, good caves..."

@Haven

Haven pulled away and shook his head, tail shifting back and forth, "I am! I've been wandering around a lot! We can probably go and catch fish in the waters."

She took off, wings flapping and quickly carrying her into the air. She hovered easily, tail hanging down beneath her as her arms pumped. She let out a squawk and dropped down towards the water, a toe skimming the surface. She suddenly whipped her claws out and caught not one, but two fish in a single strike, and quickly flew away, the things wiggling in her claws.

She landed on the tree again by gripping the back with her front claws and grabbing a fish in her mouth, using her free foot to clamber up.

"I go' ih!", she said past the fish, grinning happily.

@Electrum

Electrum

Electrum watches her take off, and tracks underneath her in the underbrush as they head towards the water.

Her amazing catch makes him whoop in excitement, and he turns his head towards her as she perches in the tree he's been using as a vantage point to observe. "That was amazing, Haven! Let me see if I can catch... something." with that, he coils his whole body and launches from the tree as best he can, the force of his takeoff sort of rocking it as he leaves. Wings open wide, he lets his magic crackle along his scales as he seeks a fish or two to slow down, or speed up like he had with his own heart and Haven's...

Hmm...

With a flick of his heavily finned tail, the snap of the membrane arcs a subtle electric current into the water and towards a relatively large shadow deeper in the water, a Silverling if Electrum could see the color from his vantage point, and he feels the magic snag on the heartbeat and slow it down, way down... to the point where he can see the shadow slow.

"Hey, Haven, I think I see a big one- should I dive for it?"

@Haven

Haven quickly gulped her fish down and peered at Electrum, head bobbing up and down as he flew towards the water.

"Go for it!", she encouraged, incredibly happy to just be hunting with the dragon again.

She gobbled down her second fish before she missed anything and hopped to a different branch, swinging upside-down so she could wrap her wings around herself and hang properly.

"You can do it!", she encouraged with a giggle.

@Electrum

Electrum

Electrum throws Haven a smile, and then looks back at her again as he notices her climb up and hang upside down- "Oh, the hanging thing seems new! Nice." a beat, and then one large downstroke- "Here I go!" and he drops, letting his wings go loose and trail upwards so that he drops towards the water feet first, and he angles his head sideways to even better watch his target.

Of course he misses. He's got horrible aim when he hunts like this, and with a fountain if dirty water and that caves be damned fish actually flying into the air past his head when he finishes his drop, the caves add insult to injury when the fish slaps him as it comes down and swims away into the water.

Electrum looks miffed, ears dropping to the side and snout twisting in a half hearted sneeze and growl as he hauls himself out.

"How did I even MISS that? It was perfectly still!" he grumps, and flicks some muck off his fins with a disgruntled sneer.

@Haven