The dog-stag was having fun, as she so often did. Usually there weren't that many others around Orion to have fun with, so at the moment she was (again, as she so often did) making her own fun.

Part of that was training, honing her magic skills. She wanted to expand her repertoire, a little, but Pride wasn't here just now, and after a little incident with nearly killing herself with backfiring spells and spending two weeks in a chrysalis, she generally stuck to him for training these days.

This was why anyone approaching the Throne and its nearby garden might see a near-black, antlered deer-dog cascading through the air, soaring gently with a pleased, excited "WHHEEEeeeeeeee-!"

Hooves touched down with a click and she pushed off again, sailing off across the dusty, 'star'-studded rock. "I'm FLYINGGGGggggg..."

She wasn't, of course, but... this never got old.

@Cadenza

A dragon-deer climbed was soaring through the air as well in the directions of the garden, but they were not having a good time at the moment.

But the sounds of glee almost made them pause midair. They did actually pause, losing some height in the air, when they spotted the maker of the sound. They were not sure what kind of creature this was exactly, but this being had antlers. Like them. Was this one of their siblings…?

What a time to finally meet a sibling.

Cadenza landed near the garden with some hesitance. ”Hello? …Are you one of my siblings? My dads are Pride and Dread,” Their musical voice was full of awkward hesitance.

@Acheron

Acheron paused, coming to a neat halt on the ground with her head now up, ears forward and silver eyes alert. It wasn't alarm so much as realization that she wasn't alone, and she blinked, taking a step toward the stranger.

Her head tilted as she briefly examined them. "Hey!" she greeted, and tipped her head down--for a brief moment perhaps looking like she might be threatening with her antlers, though her voice was friendly. "We have the same antlers!" That was, in part, her answer; when she lifted her head again she was grinning in a dog-like fashion, the corners of black lips peeled into a smile, tongue lolling, eyes squinted cheerfully. "You must be Cadenza? Pride's mentioned you!" Their existence, anyway, so that none of the close family of Orion would be surprised if a white dragon-deer flapped down in front of them. Not that it'd helped, much--count Acheron surprised, regardless. "I'm Acheron." The hesitation didn't escape her, and she tilted her head a bit to one side again.

"You okay?" she asked, bluntly direct, but with a friendly lilt to her tone. She'd never really had a reason to be nervous around others, and had greeted pretty much every stranger she'd ever met with open abandon. To her mind, Cadenza must be worried about something--or afraid. There some kinda danger about? she wondered.

@Cadenza

Pride had mentioned Cadenza to others. For a moment, their mood started to climb, especially when the fellow antlered gembound gave her name. Acheron was one of the names that they had noted when their deer-dad had listed his children. "It is nice to meet you, Acheron," Cadenza sincerely told the other. "I am Cadenza."

They did absentmindedly wonder why Acheron did not call Pride her dad directly like they did. But before they could ask, there was that question. And Cadenza remembered why they were here.

Cadenza's posture drooped, and they looked distraught. "...No," They admitted before pausing, remembering their dragon-dad asking that same worried question and the conversation that had followed. "But not because..." They trailed off for a long moment, unsure of how to word their statement.

"...I am not physically hurt," They decided upon.

Because to say they were not hurting would be a lie. "I did something..." They started to explain, then paused once again for a while. No matter what, they would never regret their children. Their children were not mistakes.

So how to describe their actions? They did not have the words for it. Except, perhaps, the full explanation.

"...I had acquired three stones from lessers, and I gave them my magic so they could be my children. But... My dragon-dad says that I do not know enough to be a parent. And he is right. I do not regret giving them life, but..." Their draconic form further wilted.

"My dragon-dad is protecting the chrysalises, and I am supposed to learn a lot so I can be a good parent when they hatch," They stated in their sad yet lyrical voice. Cadenza had already decided that they themself were currently a bad parent. And it was very distressing, to think that, when they loved their unhatched children so much.

@Acheron

Acheron visibly winced, in a sympathetic sort of way. She even did that intake of breath--a sharp hiss between her teeth. "Oof, dude, that's not--damn. Spur-of-the-moment, huh?" But she shrugged, a little, and grinned. "One thing the old bastards won't tell you, though, because they're old and forget shit, is that they didn't know shit about being parents, either. 'Scuse my language," she added, turning idly away to sniff along the ground.

She trotted a few steps away, hooves clicking, before finding what seemed to be a suitable spot--about where her last bounce had rebounded. There she flopped to her haunches, lifting one hind leg to scratch behind an ear with a hoof. "They all woke up outta the rock--either Dad tell you that?" (And maybe here was why she'd called him Pride--she, too, had two fathers, in a sense.) "But they all had to make it up as they went along. You'll be fine," and here she tilted her head. "You don't even need to start from scratch, like they did. They'll help you--your Dads, I mean. -Oh! That why you're here? Pride was out in uhhh. Eridanus, but he should be back soon."

Acheron squinted. "Hey, when... you say your other dad--Dread, right? When you say he said you don't know enough to be a parent, he wasn't, like, an asshole about it, was he?" She sure hoped not. But Cadenza did seem pretty upset. But if he had been mean, that sounded like something that somebody should address. Acheron didn't know who. Pride, maybe. But it didn't seem... right.

@Cadenza

Acheron's way of speaking was nothing like their shared deer-dad's way of speaking. It honestly left Cadenza a little wide-eyed. Cadenza's speech pattern lay somewhere between their dragon-dad's bluntness and their deer-dad's intricacy. In comparison, Acheron's speech pattern might have well as been from a whole different cave system.

No one they had met had ever spoken like this in presence. But, in the grand scheme of things, they had met very few gembounds, and most of them had been very young children. And though the language itself made Cadenza wince, the ideas conveyed in the words were important.

It had never occurred to them to think of where their dads had come from. They both simply were. But neither of them had ever mentioning having any parents. "I did not know that," Cadenza admitted.

But the more important idea being conveyed here is that their parents had never experienced any form of parenthood before first becoming parents. Still... "They still had more experience of the world than me before having children, I am certain. I hibernated soon after I first hatched and I only awoke a few weeks ago," They confessed. How could they have ever thought that they would be a good parent with such little experience of life overall?

Cadenza simply dipped their antlered head in acknowledgement of the reason why they were here. "I will wait for him." They knew their dads would help them. That's why they trusted their dragon-dad to guard the chrysalises, and that is why they had come to their deer-dad for advice.

They drew back in shock at the question regarding their dragon-dad. "No!" They responded immediately, then paused to explain. "He was very blunt. But he is always very blunt..." Cadenza paused to think over their dragon-dad's reaction and words further. "...He was worried." That much, they were sure of. It had not been malicious. Their dragon-dad would never be malicious, and certainly not to them.

"...He was worried about me too," They realized, and then they fell quiet. Cadenza had been so focused on the idea of lacking as a parent that they had missed that undercurrent to the tone of conversation.

Their heart hurt more, for some reason, instead of less, now that they had thought of this.

@Acheron

Acheron listened, head still a little canted to one side.

She wasn't the sort to... worry. Or even think, much; her father tended to plan and micromanage his plots and schemes, when needed. But Acheron had never had the need. Even when shit went wrong, well--it worked out; was there maybe a way she could get this idea across to Cadenza-?

Well--first things first. "At least he wasn't mean about it," she said, but it seemed to be more to herself than to Cadenza. Arranging a very stern talking to to a dragon didn't seem like it'd have worked out--and anyway, better to know that Cadenza wasn't being beaten down, even verbally, by a parent.

"Listen, if you don't mind the uhhhh. ...Story or--anecdote? I think that's the word," and she scrunched her nose up just a little, thinking. "Dad--Pride--used to warn me all the time not to use magic alone, especially the dangerous stuff, while training. I did it anyway and damn near blew my own legs off. Basically, I crushed myself!" she explained, with bright cheerfulness. She seemed almost enthusiastic about it, like it was a hilarious story, in retrospect. "At the time, I thought it was all over, y'know? Like, I screwed up, I did wrong, ruined everything, life over. But I went back into my stone, and I woke up. And Dad taught me a little more how to train. And now, here I am! I'm fine. It worked out."

She eyed Cadenza for a moment. "Not everyone's lucky enough to have family to support them, yeah? You'll be fine--and your kids will be, too. Family's important." She hesitated. Was she being... supportive enough? Reassuring, and not just... too wordy? "I mean--it'll all work out okay in the end, so try not to ruin the here-and-now for yourself?"

Acheron shrugged. "Anyway-... There's a garden, if you want, while you wait. There's nothing in there a dragon could eat, I think, but it's a nice place to rest? Or we can go and look for Dad in Eridanus, if you like?" She had no idea that Cadenza could eat plants--Pride hadn't mentioned that part--or that they'd seen the garden already. It just seemed like the best place to invite a guest, especially one who was family.

"Or we can find something to do, if you like? What sorts of things do you like to do?"

@Cadenza

Cadenza was not sure what counted as dangerous magic, so despite the bright cheeriness of that horrific anecdote, it added another worry to their list that maybe the magic they knew might have an effect like that if they failed. They had just been making up magic as they went. What if they had used dangerous magic without realizing it?

But... They could understand what Acheron was trying to say, over all. Sort of. And... "Family is the most important," Their musical voice had a hint of solemnness to the words. They really did hope that everything turned out alright, especially for their children.

"...I do not know how not to worry," Cadenza admitted. "But our dad said I could go to him if I needed someone to listen. And I hoped he would be able to give me advice, too. He knows so much."

"You are good at listening," They told Acheron. "I have been to the garden before. I ate some plants. But only a little, because I do not want to destroy the garden."

"I like to swim. My other dad gave me a pendant that allows me to breathe water, in case I fell into the water when I first tried flying. I still have it. Two of my three children actually have stones that came from glowing fish I found in the deep waters in Fornax. I caught the fish by turning the water around them into ice with magic. I made sure their chrysalises were near enough to water that they could be moved into it, in case they need water."

Cadenza realized they had gone off on a bit of a tangent, but they loved their children. They would happily talk about them as much as possible.

But, Acheron had asked a question, and Cadenza had only given one activity they liked. And they knew they could not swim here in this cave. "I like magic, too. ...How do you know if the magic you are using is dangerous? I have made the air cooler, and I can freeze water." There might be more magic they also could do, but they had not experimented overly much.

"What do you like to do?" They asked the question right back at Acheron.

@Acheron

The 'I do not know how to worry' struck Acheron as an immensely sad concept. They really are a kid, still, huh..? Pride had mentioned it--had mentioned that Cadenza was a fresh hatch, even though they didn't look it. But somehow, it was one thing to see an immense, shining white antlered dragon with that assumption--and another entirely to hear them talk, to hear their uncertainty. "It comes with experience," Acheron answered, bullshitting with utter confidence. Maybe if she sounded convincing enough, Cadenza would believe it. And if they believed it, well, it was about perception, right? Maybe it'd come true.

She laughed, then, at the mention of swimming. "Well, I'd take you for a swim but unfortunately Orion's one of the worst places for it. There's not a lotta water here." She wished she could think of an alternative, but... oh well. "So you're gonna have water kids, huh? Neat! I have a friend who lives in water. Her name's Lorelei! She gets kinda lonely, I think, because there's not all that many Gembounds who live in water, so maybe we can introduce 'em once they're hatched! It'd be nice for her to have more friends to hang out with."

She stood back up, stretching in a dog-like fashion before shaking herself thoroughly. A tongue lashed out to lap her jaws, and she yawned widely. "...As for what I like to do, well--anything, really! Exploring, adventure, magic! And on the magic topic--a lot of magic can be kinda dangerous. You saw me kind've... bouncing around, before? If that failed while I was jumping off a cliff, or something, I'd just fall and probably break a buncha bones. But I usually use it before a little jump, so it's not bad. But it sounds like you have our magic," she went on, eyeing Cadenza more solemnly. "And, uh... It's powerful. Dad--Pride, he says it's one of the most powerful magics in the caves."

Acheron turned, looking around herself. She picked out a rock a good distance away, nodding toward it. "See that rock over there? -Don't go near it," she added, and then squinted, focusing her magic.

It flickered--went dark, a faint hole forming above the stone--then popped and faded, failing. "Shit," Acheron breathed. "Well, that just didn't work. But... when it works? Anything near it gets destroyed. And I don't mean a little damaged, like the rock would chip or something. I mean destroyed," she added, firing the dragon-deer a somber look. "Yanked into a hole and crushed to dust. Dad can turn stone to molten fire with a look, or throw things across the cave without making a movement. It's scary stuff, and it takes a lot of practice to get the hang of--and even then, it can go wrong."

Shit, they don't know this--and they made kids with the same magic? She tried to spin it to a positive bent, swallowing down the grimace that threatened to cross her face. "Hey, maybe once your kids are hatched, we could all train here together for awhile? Dad's a good teacher, and if you want to learn more, and maybe your fish-kids can too!"

@Cadenza

For a moment, the deer-dragon looked forlorn. "Experience..." The mention served as a reminder that Cadenza still had so much to learn, and they needed to somehow gain more than sufficient experience in pretty much everything if they wanted to be a good parent in only a few weeks.

At the mention of their children making friends, though, they perked up. "I would like that," Cadenza agreed. Then they paused. "...One of my children has a stone from a non-water creature, though, and I would not want them to feel left out. Their stone is from a lesser creature with six legs and hooves," They added.

They considered this explanation of Acheron's earlier magic usage. The magic that they used to bounce sounded as if it would be useful for helping creatures that lacked wings from getting hurt from falling, so long as it was successful. It was not something Cadenza was eager to test out, but nevertheless they noted down the thought.

Cadenza expectantly stared at the rock, and they were confused by what they were supposed to be looking at until Acheron said her spell had failed and then explained what was intended to happen. "That is dangerous magic. But most of the time, when magic fails, it just does not happen, like that, right? So usually failing is nothing to worry over? Except when it is," Cadenza tried to verbalize their thought process.

They paused. "I would like to train, and I would like to bring my children here as well. But..."

"...Do you think our dad is going to be upset with me?" Cadenza asked, worry shining though. The implied 'when they told him about the less than prudent decision to have children with few life experiences' was in there.

@Acheron