Zoisite had been getting bigger, and already it had its first shed. Once it was fully grown, it wouldn't shed its skin completely, but while it was still a four foot and growing long grub, it would have the compulsion to shed that exoskeleton periodically. Within hours, it had its first hard shell, and exhausted from the effort of getting its old skin off, it had laid around on its back, staring up at the ceiling.

It was getting bored of that, though. Shuffling its way on to its feet, it began to wander about, staring down at the floor and sniffing at the air to navigate. It wanted to do something productive... What could it do to be productive? An idea came to mind, and it ambled its way toward a spot where it had seen some loose stones. grabbing at the rocks with one of its talons, until it found a large, semi-clear chunk of stone. Though it didn't know it, it had grabbed what was actually a piece of gemstone, surprisingly light for the size of it-- Zoisite could barely get a grip on it with one talon and lift it up to look at it with its six bright yellow eyes.

Zoisite was really good at making itself glow, but as it tried to manifest magic and make the stone glow, nothing seemed to happen. The rock was really pretty on its own, though, and as Zoisite sat back to use its other foreleg to manipulate it, it could admire the way it caught and reflected the glow of its eyes.

... Maybe someone else would like this rock! Zoisite's pincers clicked with thought, and it set down the stone so it could step around and grab it with the pincers on its tail, before shuffling off to find someone to bother with it. Most of the adults were wandering around and busy doing important adult stuff, and its siblings were either sleeping or with the adults... There was one Sentinel that was still nearby, and Zoisite could smell the brimstone from here.

As it scuttled across the floor, it had trouble seeing where it was going. It could smell just fine, though, so it wandered headfirst toward Bloodstone with no sense of, um, how close it was getting. It'd probably barrel right into the hydra, unless stopped.

@Bloodstone ; private but technically open to SoS since its just happening in the warrens

Bloodstone was laying in the sand, having just had a nice roll, the sand buffing their scales and making them all nice and shiny. Only one head was truly active, the others resting, an endless cycle of sleep and repeat in order to allow each of them to be able to function the next day.

The white head, beautiful, kind, and pristine was the one active. Her name was Koi, and she didn't expect something to bump into them rather suddenly. Looking over, she blinked at the small grub, and leaned forward, sniffing at it gently.

"... Hello," she said softly, eyes warm, "You're a teeny little thing... what do you have there, small one?"

Curling their tail around, Koi very gently brought Zoisite a bit closer, looking around to see if anyone else was watching. Hellfire made an appearance for a moment to also sniff at the child, before yawning and returning to sleep, flopping on top of Luci and snoring softly. When it seemed no one was (at the moment), she turned back to Zoisite and watched curiously, childishly cocking her head.

Luci rose their head and pushed Hellfire off, hissing at him when he growled at them, the two of them snapping at one another for a good minute or two before finally flopping back down again, too tired to fight for long. Good for them, Koi hadn't even needed to step in this time!

@V-Zoisite-One

Oops! Zoisite bonked right into the bigger dragon (who was still growing, just like the grub, not that it knew that), and scrunched up its body as much as it could, plating pressing together like an accordion. It had to resist the compulsion to clamp down on the thing it had run into, and instead it twisted its head back, trying to get a better angle to look at Bloodstone from its upside down head, pincers opening to reveal a jaw full of glowing, golden light and teeth.

Zoisite hadn't actually met this Sentinel, yet. It was still only a few days old, after all, and there were a lot of Sentinels. But this one had a sweet, gentle voice, and all six eyes peered up with awe. "I'm not teeny!" It protested, a gurgle coming from the back of its throat.

Again, it tried and failed to make a light happen, freezing up again as the two other heads snapped at each other. Once things settled down again, however, it unfroze. "... I brought you a gift!" It still said with as much enthusiasm as a hatchling could have, wriggling about to create some space. It had to be careful not to wiggle too much, or it might poke the (arguably poke-proof scaled or not) nice Sentinel with its belly-quills, but it needed to move enough to hold its tail up where the hydra could see. It pushed its legs against the Hydra, flopping on to its side and curling its tail skyward toward the pretty white-scaled face.

"For you," it insisted, though its pincers remained gripping the transparent, light stone in its jaws without any intention of letting go. Sometimes the pincers had a mind of their own, or, well... The zoisite grub simply didn't have the best dexterity and control over its body yet.

@Bloodstone

The hydra giggled softly and nodded, "You are to me!"

Koi trilled in interest and dipped her head down, sniffing at the rock, "Wow... it's very pretty- and it's for me?"

Very very gently, she lifted their front paw to grip the stone between their front claws, carefully wiggling it free from the mandibles holding it prisoner. She gently set it down and inspected it, head tilting this way and that. She picked it up in her mouth and placed it between their legs.

"I love it," she said, the fins on her head and neck flaring out in pleasure, eyes crinkling happily.

She was touched. A gift... just for her. She admired it for a few seconds more before daring to give the child some affection, just a nuzzle on the top (or rather, bottom) of their head.

"Thank you," she said, trilling softly as she rolled the gem over itself, before tucking the child into her side instinctively, barely even feeling the quills.

"You're... Labradorite?", she asked, not too sure of the names of the children, "I'm probably wrong- are you bored? Is that why you came?"

@V-Zoisite-One

Success. They loved it. They loved it! The zoisite could not be more thrilled. Outwardly, it made little show of it; it could not smile nor did it wiggle like some of its hatchmates, only squinted upward, though its mandibles clacked shut tightly as the hydra's snout brushed the top of its fresh head plate. It squished down to the floor, legs splaying out, only to be scooped closer by the Bloodstone again.

Labradorite?! The grub stared upward, pincers grinding on each other. "Labra-do-rite is black," it clarified with a grunt.

Even though Bloodstone didn't seem to be bothered by the needles poking into the scales, the grub didn't want to risk hurting it. Twisting and weaseling out of the hydra's grip to roll around on the ground, it ended up on its feet a few steps away, throwing its head back to stare at the hydra as it slowly made words.

"My des... des-ig-nation is Vee, Zoisite, One." Big mouthfuls, hard to say around mandibles. It lowered its voice, scuttling forward to hiss an insistent, conspiratorial whisper-- maintaining a safe distance-- "Call me Zoisite..."

@Bloodstone

"Leave the kid alone, Koi," Hellfire said, yawning, "They don't need you to smother them."

Koi pinned her ears and looked away, the control passing over to the center head as he glanced at the kid, setting his head down rather lazily, "You're neat lookin'. You and we have the same amount of eyes despite having a different amount of heads."

"No kidding, Captain Obvious," Luci said dryly, shooting the stink eye at Hellfire.

The center head rolled his eyes and focused on the child (though they inwardly thought that they were one too), eyes narrowing in thought.

"You hungry?" he finally asked, perking up, "We could catch something around here, if you want."

Koi perked up, and so did Luci, their shared tail flicking back and forth happily.

@V-Zoisite-One

Koi, the white one with spots, was told to leave them alone.

Them? Mandibles opened, yellow tongue tasting the air, as the middle, black head spoke. Pointed out that they had the same number of eyes, to which the child slowly blinked and closed their mandibles again.

"Captian Obvious", the black one was called? By the silver one. Zoisite tried to keep track of each of the names, but it was complicated by the fact that each head seemed to have a different one.

Names, rather than designations, too. Were they important, like Grandpa Master Vargas, then? Zoisite sat, half curled on themself, considering with slow, silent blinks. The hydra inquired-- Captain Obvious inquired-- if they were hungry.

"... no," Zoisite answered. They needed food to not be hungry, but they spent a lot of time doing their best to not think about food ever since they learned where it came from. It was easier to eat if the food was already not-moving, but the idea of someone smashing a rat just to feed them made them lose their appetite. They felt their stone prick at the base of their tail, and their pincers clacked together at the thought.

"Why do you have so many names?" the grub asked instead, tilting their snout back so they could fixate their stare more intently on Bloodstone.

@Bloodstone

Well, Hellfire was more thinking of stealing fruit from somewhere, since hunting sounded like too much effort at the moment ("Lazy," he nearly heard Luci say), but he considered Zoisite's question instead.

"We're... not supposed to have names," he said slowly, "But think of it like this. If you were with your siblings, and only called them, 'sibling', then it would get really confusing, because they'd both look at you thinking you were talking to them. So we gave ourselves words or names that suit our personality or look. I got Hellfire, because I glow when I breathe fire, Koi got her name because she looks like one, and Luci got their name just to piss them off. It's such a sweet name to contrast their horrible attitude."

"I'M GOING TO RIP YOUR-"

"Language!", Koi protested, before looking at Zoisite again, "But yes, it's to lessen the amount of confusion. We doubt we'll tell anyone like the Overseer or Master Vargas. They might get angry, you see. We've told one other, so you need to keep our secret safe, okay? We haven't technically earned our names yet."

Koi stood them up, ignoring the snapping of the other heads, "Do you eat fruit? I'm pretty sure I stashed some away when these two weren't awake."

Twin gasps followed her statement, and they grumbled in betrayal, somehow getting along again. Siblings...

@V-Zoisite-One

Not supposed to have names...? Zoisite stared, expressionless but for the six golden eyes that slowly blinked. Designations were basically names, just long and hard to pronounce... V-Zoisite-One was a mouthful, and now they shuffled slowly back and forth on their talons. "Hmnnh..." Keeping it a secret from mom Alpha and Vargas seemed wrong. Secrets were... Wrong.

That was their blind trust working against their better interest, and they were too naive to know it.

"Why would they be angry?" They asked, mandibles clicking. "It seems okay to me..." But they had said they hadn't earned their names yet. Why and how did one earn a name?

The grub continued to stare at Bloodstone, head sweeping one way and the other to look at each individual head at a time. They focused finally on Koi and the mention of fruit. Fruit, from what they knew, did not move like rats. It had a good texture, too, even though it made them sticky.

"I eat fruit," Zoisite answered, blinking again and lifting their head higher to look around, mandibles wobbling in the air.

@Bloodstone

Bloodstone shrugged as each head considered. They just didn't earn it. They hadn't really asked what they could do to earn a name, but clearly not what they'd been doing.

"I don't know why he'd be mad. Because we disobeyed? But what do we need to even do to earn a name? Maybe we just need to do something really big," he said, "Like... I dunno. Defeating a huge monster!"

Luci rolled their eyes and grumbled something before they stood up, heads shaking out.

"Come on, there has to be like... an apple or something lying around," Koi said, and made their way forward, turning to face Zoisite, "Oh, do you think we should bring food back for your siblings? We could bring food for them, too."

@V-Zoisite-One