Breaking from the Shell

Varek had dragged the serpent a few more meters before smartening up and grabbing the tail before laying that on the sandbed so that most of the serpent was protruding out of the water. This thing was huge, there was no way they could eat it all.

Of course, he knew how to preserve it, immediately getting to work to cut the thing in half. He didn't tell anyone that he was going to smoke this half, so it kind of just looked like he was being greedy.

The purple dragon got on her feet, which were still sore from her rough landing several minutes before, and listlessly dove over the cliff edge, trying to fly. She noticed how stronger her wings were becoming, so quickly. She assumed that it was because she had very recently hatched, she was still a little stunned.

She smoothly flew over the lake, where she thought the roar had come from. Putting her head down, she saw the large serpent with the babies gathered around it. Wincing, noting how something bad must've happened, she dove straight towards the lake and, at the last moment, changed direction to become parallel with the ground. For some reason she had no trust in her swimming abilities, and safely landed on the edge of the lake.

The dragon closed her eyes and opened them again, glancing at the cobalt dragon do his work. She was half hoping that he would acknowledge her and pass her a piece before she personally had to ask.

The Cobalt dragon froze, forgetting to glance at the cloaked man in a 'what...?' type look. He extracted a gem-like scale from the stomach's center as to not get burned, making it clearly visible to the rest of the dragons before setting it down.

He said nothing and continuing the division, this time slightly to the side of the stomach. He knew the stomach for some reason would be an obstacle, sort of running an experiment and seeing how easily tissue cutting was improved by cutting at different parts of the body in a near scientific manner. When his hunger grew to an unbearable point (a single minor growl), he delved into part of the body away from the stomach and took a nice big bite of the corpse before continuing on.

The purple dragon shrugged her fine shoulders. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to voice her thoughts.

"You know what this means?" she piped out. "It means there's other dragons here. We're not alone." It seemed like the only logical explanation. But she did recall that she had been referred to as an experiment, though honestly she had no idea what an experiment was. Maybe every dragon was born the same as as her, and one's birth was an 'experiment'.

It also meant that there were creatures that ate dragons, too, she thought to herself. But she'd let that obvious observation be figured out by the rest of them.

Validus observes the happenings around him, as well as the the purple dragon's input.

He walks over to the corpse of the large serpent creature and looks at it, then at the others, and then to the mountain they had come from.

He stares at the mountain with a cold intensity.

Varek had finished chopping up the serpent and fashioning a sloppy raft. He took half the serpent an rolled it on, oblivious to any comments that would be made about being greedy.

"Dig in." He said, setting it in the water... where it sort of sank and needed a boost every few seconds. That was a failed experiment, but it got the serpent back to the nest. At least to the point of the rapids, where the raft hit something and was deemed no longer worthy of use.

It wasn't easy as an almost 10 foot dragon to carry the individual pieces up into the nest, but manageable. When there, Varek got to work on collecting sap, or, failing that, chewing up wood to form makeshift glue for a temporary barrier between the main chamber and the tunnel leading up to the higher up rapids. The reason; smoke. Varek eventually concluded drying the serpent would be impractical, so, being a trap-setting clever Cobalt dragon, worked to set up a smokehouse which was doomed to a lack of confidentiality, but that was hardly an issue.

The purple dragon had no particular reservation towards eating a dead serpent. In fact, it was strangely reassuring to know that you could eat a creature that sort of looks like you. And awfully satisfying, too.

She dug her teeth into a piece of flesh she thought was a little more tender, and gave a big grin to nobody in particular. She ate until she thought she was full, and then stopped, looking at it in dismay. She was confused how it was far more than she could possibly need, but her instinct dictated that she eat everything up.

Sighing, she personally decided that it would not be necessary, and lifted her eyes to look at the smoking of meat with growing apprehension. "You want help with that?" she asked after a moment of hesitation.

((EDIT: Btw, the cave's a little far, this was intended to be my night schedule seeing that I probably won't be on for a while, but I assume this is when I was still dragging the meat.))

"No." Was all the Cobalt dragon said. He was afraid of both becoming dependent and the Purple dragon ruining something. So, naturally, he declined.

Just then, he used the same mechanism as before to light the fire, set back from the meat. Although he was far too young to understand soil physics, he was fortunate that this cave in the forest was made mainly of clay, which hardened to heat, as opposed to soil, which would probably have collapsed.

He darted to the top of the small island the cave was situated in, almost climbing the huge tree before realizing the view here was good enough. Smoke was coming out from the upwards tunnel. A good sign. Granted, this would take longer than he expected.

Validus jumps into the air and flies back to the cave as well, executing another thudding landing just outside. He slinks inside and lays against the back wall.

He waited to go to sleep, however, with his eyes partially closed.

The purple dragon hesitated again, and after a moment of just standing there on the edge of the lake, she flew off and flapped her wings strongly until she reached an altitude in which she could comfortably search for a good place to place her nest.

She quickly realized that trees and hills were not places that she was even remotely interested in nesting in. Silently, she dived down into a lush part of the forest, under a couple of intertwined trees much older than she could guess. The ground under them was wonderful; thick, dark green and soft. And shaded. She could feel safe there, and decided that even if it might not be her permanent nesting place it'd be the place she's be sleeping in.

Satisfied, the purple dragon left a mark of her claws on one of the trees and flew right out of the foliage once more, looking forward to joining the other dragons. She still had absolutely nothing to go by, but if she remembered correctly it wasn't shameful to suddenly figure something out. She had something brewing in mind, she just didn't know what.

Pacis had awoken from his uninterrupted slumber, only to notice Validus and the cloaked man around in the cave. He stretched his limbs and yawned, his claws pushing into the cave floor causing it to be slightly crushed under his feet. (Whoops...)

"Everyone's still out?" He asked, not looking towards anyone in particular.

For the kicks, and because she knew that maybe half of them were gathered there, the purple dragon flew into the cave and gracefully landed. She smugly remarked to herself that she was getting used to this fast.

She gave a nod at Pacis and Saren, and craned her neck to get a better look at the man leaning on the wall. She decided that she had no reason to be afraid of him, and therefore her mind immediately struck him out of the list of interesting things and placed him on the list of uninteresting pieces of scenery.

"I see..." Pacis said to Saren, as he watched the Purple dragon enter the cave.
"Welcome" He said, feeling as if he was inclined to welcome her. He walked towards the cloaked man, and stopped five meters away from him. Sitting on his hind legs, giving him a curious face.

"Can I speak with you in private?" Pacis asked abruptly, seeming adamant in his request.

Pacis stood up on all fours walking with the Cloaked man a short distance outside, away from the cave. After what seemed like only a short minute down the path, Pacis stopped and turned towards the Cloaked man.

"This should be far enough so that the others won't be able to interrupt." Pacis said, as he sat back down on his rear legs. He seemed to wait for the Cloaked man to acknowledge, before furthering the conversation.

"Yes."

The reply was plain and non-disputable. If the man had asked about the location she wouldn't have replied, most likely. the dragon actually kind of liked hearing herself talk. Her voice was smooth and attractively low enough. She didn't even care if the man had time to hear her before he went off with Pacis. She just wanted to make an impact.

The purple dragon watched the sun set through the mouth of the cave and wondered what else to say. She was thinking about the word she would like to be identified with for the rest of her existence. It was difficult, because she was aware that depending on her mood she might give a different answer.

However, a couple of arrangements in her mind stood out, and she began to realize she had found a part of herself she couldn't disagree with. She bared her teeth and said, "My name is Nerea."

(Basque for "mine", lol. Her name is hers.)