ORIGIN - we dream of stars tonight

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Never before had a cycle dragged itself out as it did for Wilder now. Never had she wanted time to move more faster, but it refused to budge so much that it seemed to drag slower and slower. She tried to fill out her days with something, anything - wandering, decorating, playing with magic. But finally the day had arrived - she'd kept it in her mind, waiting the days down until it had been exactly one cycle to the day she had set three stones into the wall and given them new life. They had all grown now, taking up half of her little crystal hut. They were in varying sizes, most of them about the size she expected, being her own blood. That was a relief, at least - she hadn't accidently given life to some humongous beast whose chrysalis would completely knock her house over.

She definitely wasn't thinking about how nice it would be to cuddle with them all. After all, she could end up with another gas cloud. Hopefully not, though.

She milled about the hut for most of the day, impatiently waiting for them to hatch, but then forced herself to settle down. Her nerves were on end, a mix of excitement, anticipation, and anxiety. She wanted to meet them, but she also feared for what they'd be like. If she'd be a good mother to them. If they all hatched. If any of them hatched at all. She settled herself against the cold stone, which she imagined to have little pulses of warmth just beyond the exterior, purring, tail twitching nervously. Vaati watched for a moment, and then moved forward, laying himself down next to her so that their flanks were pressed tight together, offering her his grounding comfort while they waited, together.

The first to hatch would be Yume. Coiled in the magical depths of her lumpy, oblong stone, she heard--no, felt the calming vibrations of Wilder's purr. It was pleasant feeling, one she longed to be closer to. Before she could even begin to stretch her neck towards it, her stone tumbled apart around her. Chunks of her stone tumbled down around her, leaving the fresh, eight inch long snake confused and writhing in a puddle of fluids. The world was a confusing mess of shapes and colors. Yume tried to move to shield her yes, but only got so far as flailing her new strange appendages. She had too many, too many sets, and she didn't like that. Most of all she didn't like that she didn't know how to use them. After flailing and squealing in discomfort for long, long moments, she managed to get one pair under her control--her wings.

With an ungainly flap of her wings Yume pushed herself onto her stomach. Now she could focus on what she saw. Which was much the same. Her world was a mess of muted bleeding colors, eyes still bleary from the rapidly drying fluid of the chrysalis, but she managed to center them on the only constants in her environment. The large grey and black lumps close to her. Were they alive? Was that where the purr had come from? Yes--it was. She could feel it. Yume rubbed her eyes with clumsy paw swipes, grumbling the whole while. Now she could see.

Her eyes glanced over the over the two and their odd shapes, before roaming over the crystal hut and the two unawakened chrysalis, coming to rest on the cat and the rat again. Where was she? Who were they? What were those rocks? Were they like her? How had she gotten here? She had too many questions. They begged to be voiced, thoughts too complex to not be shared. Her voice sprung out out like a leak in a faucet. "Weah-ho-ere?" Her mouse squeak of a voice came out.

@Wilder ((the creature has breached containment))

It was not much longer before the second stone, made of dark, glassy obsidian with flecks of starlight trapped within, began to stir. The stone's blessedly thin shell splintered at the movement, breaking neatly into a handful of shards and leaving a goop-covered kitten behind. Baby blue-tinged eyes blinked open, bleary and confused, but there were warm bodies nearby: a similarly fresh-born, noodling thing of hair and scales, and two more fully formed things covered in fur.

The second child was fairly naked by comparison. Black peach fuzz bristled down dark grey skin, and tiny sprouts of buds poked out from his neck and tail. Goosebumps prickled at his wrinkled skin and he mewled pathetically at the chill, stretching out his paws to begin to wiggle into the others. He wanted warmth, and comfort, and he took very little stock of much else as he bumbled his way into Wilder and Vaati, tiny hands grasping and kneading for any bit of softness he can get his weird little hands on.

She was just about to start dozing when, without warning at all, the first gemstone hatched. It gave no notice, no quiver or crack, just a loud, sudden sound and shards were falling everywhere and all over Wilder. She yelped in surprise and bounced to her feet, whipping around, her fur puffed out in shock. But it flattened almost immediately as she gazed upon the snake-like creature flailing on the stone floor.

"Oh!" she purred, stepping forward and carefully nosing it, helping it right itself and then stepping back, giving her some space to properly wake up. Her entire body was vibrating with how intensely she was purring, whiskers quivering in her excitement.

"Hello there," she offered after a moment, but didn't get any farther as the next one suddenly broke open. Her heart fluttered as the little kitten came tumbling out onto the stone floor. This one had been the one that Tenzin had given her. She had not known what any of the gemstones had looked like...but with this one, she was curious. She leaned forward as it mewled, trying to gauge its appearance. But so far...it looked like a normal kitten. With an extra set of eyes, she noticed.

She saw the tremble and realized that he might be cold, with all the fluid from the chrysalis still sticking to his near hairless body. She quickly heated up her body, causing her eyes and nose to begin glowing the intensity of the heat, and then stepped closer, loafing down next to him as his odd little paws reached to knead on her fur. She reached forward and nosed him close to her body that had now become like a living space heater, and began to gently lick the fluid off his body.

After a moment she turned towards the snake, reaching forward to offer this same service, if she wanted to get in on the warmth as well.

@Yume @Beans

Yume could feel the moment that Wilder warmed up. Her pits picked up the bloom of heat as one might feel the tickle of something barely brushing by. It was an inviting warmth that had her wriggling. The questions tumbling around in her head fled when she realized Wilder was inviting her into that warm embrace. Yume's reply was instant: yes. She flopped her spaghettine body forward. It was an awful, embarrassing thing reminiscent of a dying fish, but she more than made up for it with her sheer enthusiasm to be next to her family. She scream-hissed in excitement. Warm! Family! Yume smashed into Wilder's wall of fur, her snout bending back. Unable to truly hug, she contorted her body so that every part of her laid against either her sibling or Wilder, splaying herself in a truly awkward display. But Yume did not care. This was warm. This was family. Yume purred, her face buried in Wilder's fur, a sound inbetween a deflating tire and a spluttering engine.

"He..ere sssa--fe," she said, her words mumbled. "Hha...ppy." Yume tried to dig her teeth into Wilder's fur. Not hard enough to break the skin, but enough to (try) to make herself hard to budge.

@Beans @Wilder

There was one left, a chrysalis of green-blue grandiderite, but its time came too. It cracked open, and out came a... kitten of sorts. At first, one might mistake the tufts of black fluff as fur instead of the pre-feathers that they were, until the little life began trying to stretch its currently small wingspan.

This little life would grow some actual feathers quickly enough during the first cycle or two, but for now, as long as he was wet, he looked as awkward as any newly hatched chicken wet with yolk. When the wetness of chrysalis fluid cleared, this would be as much a ball of fluff as any newly hatched chicken, too.

It flapped wet wings usefully, only to cry out a pitiful squeak from his beak as it suddenly recognized how cold he was. All at once, the wet wings came back to the body, and mismatched front and back sets of legs, one set paws, the other bird-like, shakily kept the little gembound up for a bit.

Mismatched eyes, one matching Wilder's purple, the other made of grandiderite, were set in the beaked face of this little gembound, and he shifted his head.

He blinked one pink-purple eye blearily, but he could feel a warmth emanated from a being it had not seen immediately, the being having been on his blind side. The warm was both literal and metaphorical. He stumbled towards the being.

The slick fluff of pre-feathers was uncomfortable, and he wanted to be dry. His own body heat was high, but that just made him feel all the colder. He would likely stick close to his parent and the potential warmth of her, even after he dried off.

All at once he stumbled on awkward limbs and collided the being, who was indeed very warm. He shuffled a little, then snuggled closer. "...Mama?" he tried a title out, that seemed like it might be right. The gem eye and real eye gazed up at the being that he knew instinctively as parent.

Then the eyes shuttered close, snuggling even closer. "'m Cyg, mama," the odd half-chick half-kitten murmured sleepily.

@Wilder @Beans @Yume

A bundle of warmth was found in his mother: a blanket of plush black fur radiating a soft heat. The kitten squeaked with the rasp of his mother's tongue, gentle and quick to wash away the chilling fluid from hatching. He settled down with a soft rumble, tiny needle-like claws kneeding into Wilder's flank.

The first of the children spoke in a hissing, stumbling murmur, but his ears pricked to it anyway. A strange, smooth thing rubbed against his bare skin, but he wasn't bothered by this development.

Sssafe. Happy.

Yes, the little kitten agreed with that. His little body vibrated with a hearty purr, as the sound of cracking tried to draw his attention. It was a difficult thing to do, because he was tired from the effort of hatching, and already so cozy. A single pale blue-purple eye peered out of the corner of his mother's fur: another strange kitten of a littermate.

Mama.

That too, was a good word.

"Warm," he decided to add to the pile of sounds the babies had made, "Warmin' m'beans."

@Wilder

Wilder was surprised and even overwhelmed for a moment as the snake-like hatchling just suddenly thrust itself forward, tangling itself all over the newly gathering family. She briefly squeaked but then settled as the warmth and comfort of all three of them began to gather around. Wilder felt an immense sense of relief when the third chrysalis hatched. Memories of an unbroken labradorite, fear that she would wait next to another chrysalis for cycles on end quickly dissolved when all three were picking their way out of gemstone shards and moving into the family embrace.

Wilder was by all means not a very large cat and didn't fill a very large space, so all three children trying to snuggle up and press into her fur would have to fight for the best spots, and she suddenly felt herself set in on all sides by three very wet kitten hybrids looking for warmth. "Oh!" she squeaked again, and then quickly began licking whatever fur or feathers or scales she could reach to try and start cleaning them up. Vaati, sensing her quickly becoming overwhelmed, swiftly stepped in and began to gently groom as well, although perhaps not as effectively.

For a few moments, there was quiet, besides the rasping and chittering of Wilder and Vaati swiftly cleaning up the kids and the purrs of four very very happy cats almost vibrating the crystal walls. "Yes, I'm your mom," she got out between licks. "I'm Wilder and I'm your mom and you're safe here. You'll always be safe here. And I'll keep you safe with all my power. I promise." It was much a promise to her children as it was to herself. A promise to protect, to love, to cherish, to not make the same mistakes, to not leave them behind. Be responsible. Be good. Love as you want to be loved.

She almost cried, but she held it in and instead her love and joy came out as those cosmic pink and gold wings, shimmering above and around her and curling in, veiling all five of them in a blanket of stars. She purred and groomed and loved them so much and she could barely speak beyond the vibrating in her chest, but she managed one last bit - "Do you have names? Or do you need them?"

@Yume

Yume had been out of her chrysalis for only a minutes time, but already she knew this was better. It was warm and safe and she was surrounded at all sides. She flinched when a new thing touched her, but relaxed as it dug its way into the pile, their purr joining the chorous. Her family was strange, and she was not sure why the grey sibling was so big, but they were her sibling all the same.

She blinked wide, curious eyes at the newly arrived beaked sibling, then at Vaati as he helped Wilder groom the trio. It felt strange, but it was...comforting. Yume tilted her head up at Wilder, relinquishing Wilder's fur from her deadly kitten teeth. "Mom," she repeated, staring up at Wilder as if she'd invented the word herself. "Ssa--fe...beans warm," she agreed, having absolutely no idea what she'd been agreeing with. Yume's purr petered into a soft gasp at the wings that spread around them.

Yume reached out with a front limb to graze one with her paw. But her body was wobbly and new. She lost her balance and fell backwards onto the ground. There was no squirming nor no crying as one might expect. She simply stared up at the sky, expression blank and confused. Then, still staring blankly, she said, "naaame...? Yu...me."

It felt right. Nice and soft. Soft and sleepy. Yume was good; it was soft, sleepy, and warm. Just like how she felt. She flexed tiny paws, making biscuits of the open air. She closed her eyes, lulling herself to sleep right then and there, the paws biscuiting for only seconds longer.

@Cyg

Cyg's gaze opened a bit, peering at his mama as she spoke. He didn't entirely understand the words that his mama voiced, not really, but they felt important, and he purred contentedly.

His one functioning eye became wide open, suddenly, at the sight of starry wings. "Pretty!" he chirped, voice full of delight and awe. Yet he did not connect those starry wings to his own weird extra limbs that also happened to be wings.

The child purred even louder, somehow, delight rumbling audible from him. He quieted a little, though, when his mama asked her question. "Name's Cyg!" he repeated happily enough, not even realizing he had repeated his words.

Technically, his name was longer, though... "Name... Cyg...nus," he corrected, falling back into sleepiness.

He felt so very safe, here under the starry wings of his mama, alongside his siblings.

@Beans

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