ORIGIN

She'd first happened upon this spot about a year and a half ago--maybe a little more; it was hard to tell. Or-...

Back up, just a little.

She'd first happened upon this spot, nestled between the Eyes of Eridanus, almost two years ago. Kai had, then, been searching for her mother and so it was an unintentional irony that two pieces of her own stone--fallen away--had become new lives of their own. She hadn't known it at the time, of course--she'd just noticed that her beak had sort of splintered, and while that was worrying, she hadn't thought much more of it.

Then, maybe six cycles later, she'd come across a full-sized chrysalis. She hadn't realized what that meant, but she was certainly intelligent enough to note that it was as emerald as the stone that shone in her reflections, and that it had grown in the place where she'd lost a piece or two of hers.

Time had, since, claimed the gem. Overgrowth and earth had hidden it, but she had visited, sometimes, pensive and wondering about its origins and purpose.

It was, she had concluded, probably some form of tumor that had sprouted up from her beak. Still, any time she was in Eridanus and thirsty, she'd wandered past to check its progress with a sort of detached interest. Reproduction hadn't ever really been clarified to her, so to her it was just a strange growth of stone. But now--now, as Kai picked her way through the ferns, she noted that the distant stone was gone.

Wait, she thought--not gone. Just... collapsed? Maybe it had been hollow, and grown too large, because the moss had fallen down and-

-ahh.

She didn't know how long ago this stranger had hatched, but she could see two things: first, it hadn't been all that long and second, it looked just like her. Well--almost; a critical comparison would find some differences in color, but their shapes and sizes were very close.

Kai stepped out, and paused, staring.

Was this a... sister? A child? A weird clone made by the plants in Eridanus, somehow? Kai did not know. But just walking away wasn't something she could do--not now. This stranger was clearly related to her somehow, and she carefully cleared her throat and tried to formulate an appropriate greeting as she came into the clearing.

When she came to a halt before Evangeline, her throat was dry and she hadn't come up with anything.

"...Hi," she tried, the first thing that came to a blank mind. "-I think we might be family." Eyes searched the hybrid's form, but she saw no sign of a gem--Evangeline's eyes, though, matched her own.

She almost said "hi" again, and managed to avert this social disaster just in time. "H--are you all right?" she managed, instead.

But deep down, Kai was a little panicky: what was the protocol for greeting a newborn maybe-clone?

Oh.

Evangeline was-... Newborn, she realized. Big, but shaking, and wet, and standing up for the very first time. Staring at her with big, green eyes-...

...Oh.

Kai took all of seven seconds to process this strange flicker of parenting instinct that blossomed in her chest. It was... faint, it was confused, but it was there. She felt warm, softened, and suddenly a little protective of her child/younger sister/rock tumor (?).

But she still couldn't find the right words, and 'I'm okay' was met with a soft, "Okay," in turn. She was mentally on pause, pondering if that had been at all a good response, when Evangeline--thankfully--started what could almost be called a conversation.

"Oh, it--it is bright," she agreed, looking around with all the social stiffness of one trying to entertain a guest with whom they held absolutely nothing in common. "This cave-? I think they call it Eridanus. Oh, the--you're at the water," she added, and hastily tried to find some way to segue into new things to talk about. "Ahh... you can drink water," she suggested, and stepped delicately to the water's edge.

Neck bent low; beak dipped in, and Kai took a long sip of water that served to soothe her dry throat. Demonstration complete, she turned to peer at Evangeline. She quickly vetoed such other comments as "the light comes from the lights" and "do you know if you're my child"--as far too stupid and far too deep, respectively--and then hesitated.

"My name is Kai," was what she settled on, which was not--comparatively speaking--a very bad choice of thing to say. "Do you... think you have a name?"

And suddenly, she had so many things that she wanted to ask: did this adult-child know where she had come from? Did she know who her parents were--if she was indeed Kai's own daughter? Had she, perhaps--slumbering in her stone--heard hints whispered from outside..?

Did she have desires, yet--fears--dreams? Did she... want to be family? Family, like mother, she thought, and wistful loneliness suddenly gave way to a faint but fierce determination. I will stay with her, she decided, and it was firm--she'd not abandon Evangeline, no matter what they were.

She wouldn't disappear.

...Now, if only she knew how parenthood was supposed to work.

There was a long... long list of things Kai had never been taught. She was immediately on shaky ground with these "difficult" new questions, mentally stumbling along to try and keep up with even a brand new hatch.

She stepped back, oblivious to the leaves tangling in her feathering, to the flower petals dropping off the plants growing from her back. "I think you would... just... know," she ventured, but--ah!

A memory!

"...Sometimes parents name their children," she added, recalling having been told this, once upon a time. But was Evangeline her child-? She didn't know, for sure. Maybe? But what would she name such a creature? A critical glance might have decided "toasted marshmallow" if Kai had known what such a thing was, but she did not.

"I could... try to give you a name, if you like," she offered tentatively, but it was a doubtful sort of offer, because how many names did Kai really even know? She could make up a jumble of syllables like Curckleploo and call it a name but she somehow didn't think it was wise to burden a child with that level of nonsense.

"Otherwise!" she added, more brightly, "you could just sit on that one. Um--metaphorically. A-" Wait. I can't explain what a metaphor is to someone three minutes old. "-I mean, you can leave the topic of names alone, for now. And if one comes to you later, you can choose it," Kai explained.

Still grasping at straws, as if the next few minutes would make or break her skills at parenthood, Kai glanced around the jungle. "So... do you see anything around here that you like? Flowers you find pretty--ahh... these are flowers," (she leaned forward, delicately tapping a beak to a small white bloom) "-or, well... anything?"

How did one ask what likes and dislikes a newborn had-? "-Did you like the water?" she tacked on, hopefully.

The revelation that water was wet prompted a gentle nod. Light was bright; water was wet. They were off to a solid start when it came to the fundamentals.

But-! A harder question: were names forever?

"...I don't think so," Kai answered thoughtfully. "Mine was, but," but she had declared herself to be another person once, just because--why not. "But nothing would be stopping you from picking a new name," and for the first time, she felt relatively confident in her answer.

Then, a single white petal spiralled to the ground. The distress in Evangeline's 'what happened?' sparked an unfamiliar feeling in Kai--a sympathetic sort of panic of her own, so that she thought Oh NO! and stepped quickly over again.

...Was she going to have to explain death to a maybe-baby?? She sure hoped not, not least of all because she didn't really get it, herself. "Um, things--can break, if you aren't quite careful with them," she answered softly, dipping her own beak to more gently brush the remaining petals. "But you didn't hurt it. It's like... our fur," she tried to explain. Granted, yanking fur out hurt, but losing hairs here and there didn't. "It has all the other petals... it will be fine." A breath, and she again tried a little magic.

To her surprise, it actually worked, and not only a new petal but a couple little new white blossoms sprang up and opened, pristine and pale. "There--that's magic," she explained, hastily going on--"it's fixed, okay? It's all whole again, better than before," and she hoped that she sounded kind and reassuring.

Really, she was worried, as she looked to Evangeline--hoping she'd managed to soothe the other owldeer's fears, and calm her worry somewhat.