a lesson in hording 3/3

After a minute, he let out another questioning noise before remembering that talking was a thing. "What do...no..w? What do now? No...nono...What do...I? do...now?" He stared down at the cave floor, eyebrows turning downwards in a display of perhaps anger? Trying to figure out how to say what he was trying to say but closer to how Hecate would have said it. He was trying his best, he really was but it was starting to get on his nerves.

"What do we do now," Hecate smiled, moving to walk over slowly and gently nudge his large chest with her snout.

She felt warm to the touch, fiery, but damp and smooth enough to clearly telegraph her oceanic heritage

"And what we do now... is find you some treasure"

Egg seemed a little surprised and confused about the light nudge. He stared for a moment, it didn't seem like something aggressive and a giddy feeling welled up inside him. "How do...WE find tr-ea..sure?"

Hecate looked up at him, before she slowly just sat down so she could look him in the eye without craning her neck too much, sweeping her tentacles and her tail gracefully around her talons and settling her wings against her back.

"Those things I was telling you about on the way here. A treasure is something you really like. Like most in the whole world, that's a thing. You can't collect living creatures, because they die or run away. You can't collect other dragons, because of the same reasons. But things like gold, and silver, and... well anything else, I listed them for you before" she snorted.

"I prefer precious metals in my horde"

The water around Egg’s tail began to move in small waves, as his tail began to move. The movement of his tail was slow and not quite a wag but it still seemed a way to express his excitement as his eyes lit up. The fin on his head wiggled a little and he rumbled happily. He thought about what he should hoard, he didn’t really want metal or whatever that was. He liked gemstones and shiny things and…shells! “I want sssshhhhiny…things?”

Hecate watched his little wiggles with a gentle snort, smiling. "Mm... shiny things? Well then. That's a wide enough net to cast" She got up, slowly turning to head towards the water. "Shall we then?"

Egg perked up once again and gave a nod, pushing himself off of the rocky surface and into the water with a "plunk" noise. He rumbled excitedly under the water, sending vibrations throughout it. Where would they go? What would they find!

Hecate watched him for a moment, her tail curling in the sand, before she smiled a little and slowly slid into the water herself, easily swimming deeper so they could exit with her large wings and strong tentacles to propel her It didn't take her long to resurface, treading water as she poked her head up above the rolling, gentle waves and sucked in a lung full of air with a sharp hissssss When she gulped down enough, she turned, waiting for her new buddy to come join her

He himself took in a deep breath, preparing to leave the cave. He filled his lungs with as much air as possible before dipping his head underwater and heading towards the exit. When he emerged, it was leisurely, while he didn't have gills he was practically raised in the water. He did however take a deep breath, his chest puffing up with the amount of air before he let it all out. He turned to face her as he waited for her instructions.

She watched him for a moment, letting him catch his own breath, before she started to slowly swim her way over to a rocky outcrop in the ocean.

Heaving herself up, she settled on top of it and flapped her wings, holding them aloft to shed any residual water from them so she could fly, scales glimmering in the sunlight now they were wet.

Egg was quiet as he watched Hecate climb out of the water and his eyes widened when he noticed her glimmering scales. They were pretty, very, very pretty, perhaps one of the prettiest things he had ever seen, so far.. One might even call them shiny. Shiny? Shiny good for hoarding? Right? He thought quietly to himself before speaking aloud. “Scales shiny.” His attempts to sound more like Hecate previously had slipped his mind as he stared, wide-eyed at his mentor. Yes, yes, scales WERE shiny, at least his mentor's scales were. Perhaps there were other dragons out there with scales as shiny as his mentors or…or even MORE shiny. His eyes seemed filled with awe at the realization. He hoped that scales were an acceptable hoarding item because that was all he wanted.

She turned her head towards him at that, still holding her wings up and letting them drip dry in the warm sun. It never took long to dry her wings enough to fly. Sometimes she didn't need to do it at all and could take off from the water. But she was tired after swimming all that way down.

"Thank you" she practically purred. Clearly Hecate enjoyed compliments.

After a few moments of silence, the large blue dragon spoke. "Want collect scales..." His voice seems to falter for a moment, his gaze filling with confusion, as if he isn't quite sure if scales were something that should or even COULD be collected and stored in a hoard of sorts, his very own hoard to be exact. He tilted his massive head, eyes narrowing in confusing thoughts that he honestly couldn't answer himself. Was it okay to hoard scales? Not scales stolen off the back of some unlucky dragon like his mother might do but scales that had been shed and are no longer needed by the dragon who had shed them.

"You would be in luck in shedding season" she hummed, amused. "There are many dragons here, after all. Many scales to be had, if they allow you to take some. Come see me again, and I'll see what I can do"

Shaking herself out a little bit, she laid herself down on the rock and peered at him.

"So, you do not want another treasure, though? You do not have to only have one kind. Scales will take time to gather, but shells or metals would be easier to our claws right now. Depends how patient you feel like being"

Egg tilted his head, another treasure? Shells...Shells? He seemed to think long and hard about it but he was too big and clumsy to collect something so small without breaking them surely. He seemed to droop after a while. "Shell break too easy..." He was a sad sight, indeed. Like a puppy who had just been told No to something it might have really truly wanted. He wished he could collect shells but alas, he was too big and too clumsy, cursed by his size.

"Metal...boring?" Was that the right word? He didn't get the same rush of excitement thinking about metal as he did when he thought about scales. "Scales Shiny." He reconfirmed both to himself and out loud. Scales. He only wanted to collect scales.