Dragon had landed with a thud in the mud of Cetus, the scythe-like gemstone gripped carefully in his jaws. It was the one he'd picked and pried from the wall of the Eyes of Eridanus, and thus it already held some special value to him.

The Eyes--he mused, as he waddled to one of his regular haunts--were a place he'd gone as a hatchling, and as a young adult. A place where he'd seen horrors in the deep, and the only place that had ever made him flee for his life. It had been the prison of Farina, and now the prison of Nemean, and so the sign of the success of the first goal he'd ever been given upon hatching.

Ahh-... his hatching.

The alligator pushed up toward the matted growth beneath the arching tree roots, squeezing beneath. As he checked the tangled grasses--ensuring they were warm enough, dry enough--he thought back.

He'd tumbled from his stone straight into water, had found Aquarian fighting other Gembound and had immediately attacked him. Me! he thought, amused. Barely a foot long, hardly as large as his eye, and I was trying to kill him! Amused affection for his younger self, the indulgence of a long-time father, filled him. He'd been such an idiot. Adorable, but an idiot, and he could look back now on that with clarity even while admiring his hatchling self's moronic inner fire. Some of his children held that fire; if this gemstone could be brought back to life, would it-? Or would it be stoic, tough, like Skein; or quiet and somber like Revenant? Creative, like Brandle--and like Imp, now?

Well--he'd see, he supposed.

He eyed the little nest he'd made, and considered. "I found you in water," he said aloud, thinking, and glanced about. If it had gills... as he did, now--what if it could not breathe in air?

Thoughtful, he waddled to the nearest thread of water just a few feet away, and began to slowly claw and dig at the channel. Mud and tangled grasses were torn away as the diligent father created a new little stream. He dug it to the foot of the nest, and then nudged about to ensure there'd be a place where land and water met cleanly.

Then he hauled himself back a bit, and picked the jade-like gemstone back up, hefting it in his teeth. Back he went, settling in where the fresh water--as fresh as the swamp water ever got, at least--met the nest; there he slouched, and spent time tucking the gemstone in among the roots.

"There," he said at last, when it was safely held by branches and grasses. Unless it grew enormous--and if it did, he'd spend more time digging in more water--it'd find itself tumbling into shallow water which it could either breathe, or scramble out from.

That seemed a wise safeguard, to the alligator.

"Well, then," he rumbled, nudging it--wondering who it had been, and why it had died within the Eyes--"Let's see."

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Dragon felt the life give, threading in trickles from his own power and off into the gemstone. He closed his eyes when it was done, settling in to rest for a moment. But he was pleased, a little relieved; it had been just enough of a spark, and with his experience as a father he recognized that it had taken.

"I look forward to meeting you, little one," he said, nudging the scythe-like stone gently. It was already beginning to take root, to grow, and Dragon settled in now to watch it.

Well-... maybe he'd close his eyes, for a little while; he felt drained.

But just for a little while.

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exit!