Ny'v'thalnosan stirred slowly, trying at first to ignore the sound, to ignore the insistence of the sorrow. But it was no good, and something within him seemed to stir. Though he fought against it, he found himself on his feet, crossing to the stone without thought. The impetus that carried him was sheer insistence that this was important. This stone, soot covered and plain, carried that sound, issued it and drew the dragon's curiosity.
He wanted to will himself back to sleep, but the chiming seemed oddly familiar, and the male knew he would never rest with it continuing to issue. He snorted softly, warm air flowing from his nostrils to knock some of the soot from the standing stone. That did nothing to stop the sound. Frowning, he uttered phrases in several languages, magical key words that should dispel any simple magic. They did not work. Growing irritable, he reared up on his hind legs and wrapped his forepaws around the stone, trying to rip it from its very matrix, but to no avail. He raked his claws over it, for the sound was maddening by this point, but all this accomplished was to leave grooves in the soot where his talons had passed.
For many long moments he stalked the cave, circling the stone and wondering if this noise was the reason so many others had abandoned the cave in the past, not the sense of sorrow after all. Each pass he made, he lashed the thing with his armored tail, still hoping to uproot it so he could toss it out. But, more and more, this seemed like the wrong thing to be doing. He sat before the stone, watching it with dark, quicksilver eyes. His tail, curled around his front feet like the tail of a housecat, twitched ever so slightly. The more he looked at the infernal thing, the more he felt drawn to it, as if the sorrow found a home in him, called him close, and bade him to protect it.
It was such that, moments later when a small bit of rock came loose, he threw himself atop the stone, the pebbles bouncing harmlessly off his scales. He choked on the dust for a moment, berating himself for showing such human sentimentality over a bit of stone. And yet... and yet he could not force himself to turn away. Crouching, he again eyed the stone, narrowing his gaze and peering at where his claws and scales had scraped away enough soot to reveal bits of rose color in tiny patches. So it wasn't just a plain rock, but something better. Something his dragon's eye saw as treasure. Now more than ever, he felt a surge of protective nature, but wrote it off as simple draconic greed. Here was a prize to be had, perhaps only semiprecious, but larger still than anything he had seen in the hoard of another beast.
Once again, he put his forepaws upon the stone, but this time it was in an active attempt to clean it, channeling his magic into a web similar to that he had carried his own treasure within. This time, however, the magical spidersilk was used to peel away centuries of grime, leaving the pink stone standing relatively devoid of its erstwhile covering. Disappointment welled up in his heart. This was not the flawless stone he had hoped for. In fact, it had a rather large inclusion taking up most of the stone. He was about to turn away and gather his things to leave when something seemed to pull at him. There was always the chance that a large gold vein could be in quartz of that size. At least, that was what he told himself, trying to ignore the strong, sad pull the stone had on him. He should open it, should see if that was what colored it so. It certainly wasn't some romantic feeling of wonder and sorrow, he thought to himself. But his best efforts had not managed to break the stone or prize it loose, and he doubted his normal flame would affect it, either, judging by the soot that had been. Someone had tried fire before, or, at the very least, flame had been present.
He had one last option, however. Stepping back, he inhaled deeply, focusing on the spark of magic that dwelt deep within his being. Activating it, he laced the power through his own fire and sent flames forth through his mouth to splash against the surface of the gem, curving around it, trying to find any tiny crack or flaw to pry apart. There was the sound of stone exploding, some of it bouncing off of his own face. He let the flame fade, brushed his eyes against his shoulder to clear them and looked. The dragon did not move, for what stood before his eyes was no prize of gold or silver at all, but indeed something completely different.