Orion was woefully fishless, generally dry, with not a large body of water in sight. Because of this, Gaheris was not a happy camper, having only bugs, rats and bats to chase and nothing more than a few miserable little puddles to roll in. Every scale felt coated with dust and dirt, stuffing itself in each unprotected crevice as if it had been invited over for tea. He missed Leo, but for some reason, Leo was not considered safe.

The Gemling would prove that dangerous or not, she could handle herself easily - her parents were worrying over nothing! Maybe Alek or Kaizer would get eaten, but she was the cream of the crop! She could handle anything! Including the poor glowfly she was currently chasing around, hover just out of reach until - fwoosh- a shockwave knocked it senseless, and it fell helpless to the ground, now at her mercy.

Great, now he'd knocked it down. Now what?

The insect kicked in concussed surprise, wriggling around on its back. He considered his options - there was a good chance it wouldn't recover from the blow, and it would writhe around until its brain finally puttered out and died. If it didn't, then it wouldn't be much fun to play with. A second hit and he might blow it to pieces - no, there was only really one option. Gaheris was hungry, and he hadn't eaten a bug before.

She gobbled it up, quick, efficient. Brutal. It was not like fish - it was crunchy then chewy, with a bite to it she hadn't been expecting. And then it started tasting awful, really quickly, and whatever texture she had previously enjoyed melted into a puddle of goop. She sputtered and hissed, spitting oil and a sequin-sized gemstone - one she hadn't noticed until now.

Picking it up with careful talons, he brought a winged limb to his face to peer at the item - now conveniently distracted from his surroundings. It would be such a shame, really, if someone were to take advantage of this...

@Slinky

He was on the prowl yet again.

His previous plans- for power, for a legacy- had been squashed by a unfortunately long gemstone nap. Now, he was back in action, seeking to make up for lost time. Orion was a fine place- plenty of gembound lived here, and the ruined terrain made for great escape opportunities should any of those interactions turn sour.

Then, he spotted something interesting. Maybe even a treasure.

A pale glimmer like Orion's false stars, accented with deep blue and warm, glowing amber, like orb-light. A gembound, and one that combined power and elegance at that. He remembered, long ago, when he had been looking for an ideal heir.

This could do. This could do VERY nicely.

Of course, they would have to be HIS. But it was small, no bigger than a lesser bat. It would be easy to extract the stone for his own uses.

He would creep from behind, his scales matching the dull navy-grey stone that made of the majority of Orion's landscape. He would prefer to do this quick, painless- but with such a small, weak target, that would be easy, right?

He was creeping over a pile of rubble that wasn't as sturdy as it had seemed- it began to crumble while he was still upon it, and he was forced to scramble off before he got caught in the fall. The loud crash of falling stone was sure to draw attention.

Damn It.

@Gaheris @Cadenza

He had been admiring the gem, watching with interest as it sparkled in Orion's dim light - when the sounds of crashing snatched his attention back, and he stared at the intruder wide-eyed, spine curving as he scrambled back. A forceful hiss escaped him as his tail waved a warning. "HEY! This is MY shiny... thing. It was on the bug - and then I ate it - so now its MINE!"

It had not occured to her that the gemstone might not be the creature's target - that she, herself, was being hunted. Now a thief was something she could concieve of, threaten, scare off from her prizes. "I have SPELLS. I can USE THEM. GET BACK."

@Slinky

He had the little thing's attention. An angry, defensive, foolish little creature. He'd let him prattle off about shinies and bugs and spells. The thing about magic perked his attention, but only barely. Something so obviously a child- or at the very least, childISH- would not have any formidable spells.

"I do not want to steal any of your things." He said, placating, moving ever closer. He squinted at whatever she held between her claws- a gemstone? How curious. Almost ironic. A dull chortle rumbled from his throat. "I know other places to get 'shinies', after all."

That was enough fooling. Time for real business.

He would lunge forward- a little awkwardly, dodging those antlers- teeth aiming for Gaheris's neck. His mark- if Gaheris didn't dodge completely- was a little lower, closer to the shoulder or chest of his prey. He had gotten soft, evidently, if he was having trouble with THIS. If he wanted any sort of power, he had to get his skill back.

@Gaheris

If the creature had looked up and seen the large dragon perched rather high up on the cliffs above, he might have realized that this young child was not unsupervised at all. But he did not. So, it would likely take him by surprise when his attack hit against a far larger dragon that had dived between the two and pushed the child away as gently as they could with their tail.

"Gaheris, stay back," Cadenza warned, their usual musical tones coated with notes of a growl. Their gaze fell upon the attacker of their child, and Cadenza came to a decision. They could not let this being escape with his life. Chasing him away was not enough, for he could come back stronger or with allies. Any danger to their child was not allowed to exist in this world.

They focused on the heat of their rage, on making that tangible enough to burn the attacker of their child. The air around the enemy heated up and kept heating up until it was hot enough to potentially boil a being alive.

Content Warning
This post contains potentially sensitive material:

gore

death

strong language

He was about to tighten his grip around the thing's neck, or maybe bang it into the ground to pacify it, before a shadow flew in from overhead.

Shit.

He dropped the gemling, tensing and fulling intending to get the HELL out of there. He snarled, backing up, before he was stopped in his tracks by visceral, burning pain.

Fucking magic. Must've been where the little one got it. Unlike the little one, this spell was INCREDIBLY formidable.

His body heated up hotter, hotter, hotter, going far past the bounds of a typical fever. His thoughts evaporated, and all he knew was that he was angry and wanted the pain to stop.

He snapped at Cadenza, but it was laughably easy to dodge. His body quickly gave out to the horrible, inescapable heat, simply unable to adjust and shutting down entirely. Panicked, flailing attacked turned to full on seizing, a gurgle-growl bubbling from his throat along with foaming spit. His body became limp and twisting, scales flashing various colors as chromaphores seized along with muscles.

When it was over, he his scales were a pale white, not unlike a dead octopus. He was dead.

Never mess with a Mama Dragon, I guess.
[exit thread: he freaking dead]

@Gaheris @Cadenza

Finally, the reality of his situation sunk in as the snake-like thing launched at him with horrifying speed. He forgot his prize, the gem clattering to the ground as he tried to make use of the few milliseconds he had to react. It wasn't enough, it could never have been - A shrieking hiss was the only reaction he could manage to the teeth that sunk into his shoulder. He had been bruised and scraped, but never bitten, and not with the intent to kill.

She flailed and buck, blood welling from fresh wounds - her newly formed scales breaking away under his teeth with ease. Unfortunately, the gap in strength was immense; Gaheris was barely a cycle, and Slinky, well... wasn't. She was still stuck her fight response, but soon she'd probably have to grapple with the fact that getting out of this situation wasn't likely.

That is until she caught glimpse of a swooping ghost, heard a voice like a melody - Cadenza was her guardian angel in this moment. She was soon reacquainted with the ground, hitting it running, scrambling to get away. Then she felt a wave of heat, of all things. She twisted around in confusion, and caught full sight and smell of Slinky's gruesome end.

It wasn't incineration, as part of him had expected - it was something invisible, like his magic. Except Cadenza had somehow managed to direct it internally. It was like his body had decided to die. The smell of boiled Gembound reached her, cooked through - maybe a bit overdone.

He approached the corpse, nudging the thing with his uninjured shoulder. No reaction - eyes unseeing. "How did you DO that?" He turned to Cadenza, expression full of nothing but shock. Maybe some admiration - maybe some envy.

@Cadenza

It was a torturous death that Cadenza had sentenced the other gembound to, and for a brief moment, a part of them they did not knew existed thought he deserved it, for attacking their child. It was that thought that caused reality to snap back.

Because no one deserved this kind of horrific death. It had been a necessary death, so Cadenza could not regret their actions. Yet, a lack of regret did not mean a lack of guilt in this case. It was guilt they would have to live with. They ripped the black diamond from the dead gembound's chest for good measure regardless.

Then Gaheris spoke up, and Cadenza focused on what was most important, turning worried eyes to their child and said child's bleeding shoulder. Yet, Gaheris seemed unbothered, more interested in the dead gembound and said gembound's death.

Cadenza realized they had just killed another gembound in front of Gaheris, but she did not seem to be bothered by that, unlike her parent. Instead, she was curious.

Guilt gnawed at Cadenza further, but they did their best to push it aside. "Listen carefully, Gaheris," They spoke, voice more serious than it ever had been. "I will tell you how I did this, but only if you promise to never use try to use this magic without your dad, my dads, or I around."

They did not want to scare their child, but... "Because this magic of ours is very powerful, but there was a chance it could have killed me instead if I failed this particular spell. I deemed it worth the risk, to protect you."

"Do you promise, Gaheris?" They asked, their voice still that absolutely serious tone.

@Gaheris

The emotion on Cadenza's face confused her. There was so much of it, much more than she'd expected. Concern for her, yes - but a deeper kind. And something else too, something not meant for her - could they really feel bad for the creature that lay limp and pale beside them? It had known the cost. Her shoulder stung, red blood dripping. It had gotten what it had deserved.

He blinked at their instruction - unreasonable, his mind hissed. Why where they entitled to this power, while Gaheris was not? Did they want to keep it all to themselves? He was wise enough to keep quiet; Or maybe the corpse melting in the corner of his eye had willed him into silence. Entitled toddler or not, the gravity of the situation was hard to dismiss.

'A chance it could have killed me instead.' Well, Gaheris was clearly skilled enough to not let that happen - but she wasn't in the mood to be scolded, and the longer they both stood around the more her injuries stung. "I promise."

@Cadenza