Binh was not having a good day.

Of course, he didn't know it yet. For now he didn't exactly exist.

For now, all there was was a slab of opal nestled near the top of a deep trench. It glittered like the stars the caves have never seen and full of vibrant shades of blue and pink, though it's beauty was hidden among the massive ferns that choked the area. For cycles or potentially years it laid undisturbed, unknown to the world, as war and peace and change raged around it.

Which was probably a good thing, since there was a baby growing in there.

Not a four-legged beast, not a winged avian, but a snake, coiled around itself like a long strand of spaghetti. It was almost completely black, save for a pale throat patch and some vague markings on it's back. A large crystal nestled around its neck, jabbing out in both directions where his hood should've been. Pale eyes laid closed, dreamless and thoughtless. Within a cycle it grew from nothingness to a large snakelet, until it grew so large the crystal that hosted it shattered into a million tiny pieces.

Binh opened his eyes.

For a brief moment he could see. In the seconds after his chrysalis broke open and the amniotic fluid rushed out, he saw wonders. Brief blurs of green and gold, of lights high in the air, of massive trees and ferns beyond his imagination. He heard the calls of birds and bugs, smelled the whiff of flowers, and felt soft earth beneath him. Truly, what a wonderful world to be born in.

That all went away the moment gravity kicked in.

With a shudder, the frail neck muscles that had been unknowingly keeping him up this whole time snapped. The opal he drew Binh magic from was way too heavy for a newborn. A brief serpentine hiss, and his body went tumbling down the steep sides of the ravine. The world spun around him as he tumbled head-over-tail, the sights he briefly took delight in spinning around nauseatingly.

He hit the bottom. The dizziness stilled. For a moment the snake was grateful, but quickly realized he had more problems to worry about. His muzzle was partially buried into the forest mud, and it came to his attention that, for some reason, he couldn't move his neck to get himself out. In fact, he couldn't seem to move any of the first third of his body, which was encased in stone. The rest hurt sorely. His nose was still above the mud level, but he instinctively knew that in a few more minutes he'll start sinking and die before he even got the chance to do anything. Any attempt to shout for help would just fill his mouth with dirt, and his body was too heavy to simply slither away.

So what did he do? The only thing he could. The newborn cobra slammed his tail-- the only part of him that could move-- around, thwacking it against the ferns, slapping it on mud puddles, and making a ruckus in hopes that someone, anyone, could save him from this early death.

@Haven
@Electrum

Haven had Electrum's tail in her mouth as she plodded along happily, her own tail wagging behind her as they made their way through Eridanus.

"It smells so nice!", she said happily, dropping her hatchmate's tail to speak, "It smells fresh and green... is this what green's like?"

She trotted forward and walked in step with him, tail lashing back and forth, "I hope we can find something here... I'm hungry."

Haven peered around, ears open and listening as she took in everything she could.

Thwack thwack- THWACK!

Haven stopped in her tracks, body stilling as she listened carefully. What was that...?

She inhaled and opened up her senses, spreading her mental eyes around to see what exactly was making that sound. The of something long and small filled her mind, stuck in the mud and thrashing around, unable to move.

"Electrum! There's someone over there- they need help!", she exclaimed urgently, taking off into the brush.

Haven dodged branches and rocks before skidding to a messy halt, mud clogging her feet and squelching grossly under her as she sniffed around for the creature she sensed. Her nose booped against it and she grabbed it gently, hoisting it up as she tried to find a dry spot.

She set the long, noodle-like creature down, her nose gently grazing her body to sense any wounds.

"Are you okay?", Haven asked, sensing no odd heat spots that would suggest a wound.

@Binh @Electrum

Electrum

The lush green cave has him... on edge. Everything has him on edge, to be quite frank. His fins are flushed a deep gold, evidence of high blood pressure, but he is keeping his swaying and fidgeting to a minimum so that he doesn't dislodge his sibling from his tail.

I might have tooth marks back on my tail as we get older, he idly thinks, deliberately stepping on a flimsy and sagging fern bough, trying to see if it makes a satisfying noise or texture.

"Huh... yeah, this whole room is green, and wet. It smells how it looks, honestly," he turns his head to look at Haven s they draw even, not really able to stop a small smile of his own at her glee. "Maybe we-" and there goes Haven.

Why- what?

"Wait up, be cautious!" he hisses, scrambling after Haven and coming to a similar sliding stop, watching her lift the pale, scaly other creature up and place him somewhere solid with an... almost thump. "His gem is... too big..." he mutters in concern, and sweeps his tail forward to try and get some muck off the slithery other one.

"This one looks newer than us... maybe we're scaring him..."

@Haven
@Binh

For a few nerve-wracking minutes Binh was certain he was going to die. Of course, he didn't really understand anything about the world, let alone death, but the nerves firing in his tiny brain definitely weren't telling him something good. The claustrophobically close mud just seemed to ooze closer and closer to his eyes as he sunk; through his tightly clamped jaws, his tongue could smell the disgusting tang of dirt. Internally, the cobra promised himself that if he survived his birth, he was never going near mud ever again.

Luckily enough, a savior came. Well, two saviors. He became faintly aware of the sound of running, and then suddenly he was in the air, hoisted by something much larger than him. The world swam around him again (though less violently now) and he was set back down on dry ground with a slight plop. The snake gasped, a hiss rustling through his throat as he desperately tried to rub the muck off his snout. His pearly eyes glanced back up at the two figures sniffing him worriedly. One was a large grey thing, with wings, two legs, and a startling lack of eyes, while the other possessed a long indigo body complete with a set of spinal fins. If Binh were any smarter, he probably would have run from the much-larger creatures, but he just lied there passively, smacking mud off his lips.

"Hhhhiiii...." The voice came out high-pitched and smooth, though horribly ineloquent (after all, this was his first time speaking). "Aaarrreeee.... yoouuu.... frieeend?" He tried to shift himself to look at them better, only to be met with immobility and harsh pangs of pain from his overexerted muscles. "Caaann't mooove... muuch," he whined, contorting his face in a serpentine sort of frown. "Buuut frieendsss... ssaved meee? Frrriends.... nicee?"

@Electrum
@Haven

Haven blinked and tilted her head, brows furrowing at the slurred words, "... Oh- yes! We're friends, we won't hurt you, promise."

She turned her head to look at Electrum, concerned, "New?"

Her head tilted upwards, facing the fading heat source above. The creature's egg... freshly hatched. Haven gently lifted the snake up in her jaws again before laying them across her back.

"Stay still, we need to get you somewhere less... mucky,", she said, before walking over to Electrum, "Let's go- maybe out of here? My feet are sinking."

They were, and she could feel the mud oozing between her toes, faster and faster with every time she lifted them up to free them. If they stayed too long, they could get stuck too.

Haven opened her wings and stood on her hind legs for a moment before flapping down hard, praying that the baby remained safe in the hollow between her neck and shoulder-blades, before flapping downwards to get herself in the air, hovering so that she didn't risk getting stuck.

@Electrum

Electrum

"Friends," he replies, echoing both Haven and the snake, tail weaving back and forth as he makes a few more soft swipes across the other's body and removing a bit of mud, and blinking at the gleaming scales of the other Gembound.

H' sinking as well, so he offer a hum of agreement and waits until his companions are off the ground, Why am I including that... noodle looking thing already?, before following after, winding up with his tail beneath him as a wider footprint, giving him a bit more launch power to get into the air, managing to get out of the mud with a gross squelch, and not a lot of flair as he steadies his hovering with some difficulty.

He twists his body and tail like a ribbon to pivot midair, scanning for a dry spot and taking note of... a part of land that looked less soggy in the distance. "Not far, other here- focus on my wingbeats, and I'll lead," Electrum declares, hoping that the small crack in his voice as it drops doesn't reveal their new friend to be a milquetoast of sorts.

Dragon puberty is fun... lets see when his voice cracks next.

With a deep breath, he torques his tail to tilt himself forward, and heads over to the slightly less deadly patch of ground.

@Haven
@Bihn

Binh's world shifted around him once more as the dragonet picked him up in her jaws and plopped him on her back. Here there wasn't any icky mud, and he found himself curling up in the little crevice between her shoulder-blades. The others began talking about leaving, which he had no qualms against, though a slight hiss of surprise eeped when Haven opened her wings. As a limbless creature, he wasn't exactly aware of the idea of flight, and found himself a little unprepared when they left the ground. Thankfully enough, after a bit of quiet scrabbling he found a purchase and spent the rest of the flight in quiet contemplation.

Just over the curve of the faceless dragon's wing, the cobra could see his birth-cave opening up before him. Monolithic gaping stalagmites reached for the sky, overcome with plant life. Massive trees continued on all the way to the distance. He could even see the details of the odd structures surrounding the trench as they ascended, now realizing that it was an ancient, serpentine skeleton. How comforting.

Binh finally decided to speak as he felt them descend once more. "Soo... whaat are you name?" he questioned in his clanky way of speaking. The thought of a name hadn't crossed the coba's mind until now, but it seemed reasonable that these older, social creatures would have one. "Not haave own yet... but you?"

@Haven
@Electrum

"Sorry-!", Haven exclaimed, feeling the snake slide around a bit as she flew forward to follow Electrum's wingbeats, "Didn't mean to take off so fast..."

She flew forward to fly above Electrum, and reached her head down to nibble on one of his ears, teasing his audible wingbeats, "You fly so loud. I'll bet you're scaring off all the prey around here."

Her own were audible as well, but how she flew was less flapping and more minorly adjusting to follow Electrum's jetstream, each section of her wings twitching and adjusting so she could follow behind him comfortably. She only flapped to gain altitude before letting her wings stretch out.

Haven's head turned around to face Binh, nostrils flaring, "I'm Haven. That's my hatch-mate, Electrum."

She reached down to nuzzle him instead before swooping forward and down, slowing underneath him so she could return to following his trail.

@Electrum

Electrum

Snorting, he shakes his head to attempt to keep Haven's teeth away from his ears- the fins are sensitive- nd he drops a bit in the air, trying to avoid her and doing his best to keep from knocking into her.

"Stop it, you know I'm doing all the hard work!" he snorts again, his chest rumbling a bit in irritation, "Now stop moving so close- one of these times I'm going to wind up hitting you with my wings!"

The navy dragon doesn't introduce himself, having heard Haven do so, but he does offer a grunt of confirmation over his shoulder.

Electrum is trying his best to hold position in the air after his first attempt at avoiding Haven, letting her arrange herself in whatever orientation is easiest for her as the come up to and then start to circle a possible landing spot. "This looks safer, here, so lets land."

@Haven
@Binh