Her ears roared, as if deeply underwater. Suspended in time and in warmth. Fluid and shell wrapped around her like a hug. Only, there was no ‘her’, not yet. Not until the pressure increased and space ceased to exist. The darkness and heat became unbearable, unmanageable, and downright uncomfortable. The little one felt this in her core. This sensation was not wanted. This sensation wasn’t right. She shifted with an inaudible, almost painful, whine, and miraculously something gave way.
With a crack, white seeped out into the black. Blue-purple eyes open, only to force themselves closed again at the piercing light of the outside. It felt cold. The spotted cub wanted to stay warm. However, wet from amniotic-like fluid of her chrysalis, she was quickly becoming cooled anyway.
‘She’, ‘her’, ‘me’, ‘cold’. This was all that was known. Language were like distant memories. Still there, like the pieces of her shell that the nameless one so desperately clinged to.
The golden bird flew unevenly through the tunnel, his eyes a little glassy and his wing flapping off balance. Every so often he swerved and hit a wall before regaining his balance for a bit. He looked around a little lazily. ...wait, he should be in Monoceros by now. Or, at least, the tunnel should look different. Weren't there broken bits of armor and stuff? And metals lining the walls? Had he taken a wrong turn?
No! Impossible! He was Glory and Glory made no mistakes! He might have just had a little bit too much to drink at the party. That fermented fruit stuff sure was good. He'd been feeling warm and wonderful for quite a while now. Ah, the wonders of being alive!
He heard the cracking noise and stumbled in the air again. A child hatching? Ah, good! A child hatching! He would go see the child hatching. Yes, he'd make them warm and he'd see a child hatching! He tried to gracefully angle himself down but he ended up just nosediving and plummeting just in front of where the young cheetah had just appeared. He threw up dust as he crash landed very much ungracefully.
A little winded for a second, he soon was able to shakily regain his feet. He puffed out his feathers proudly, despite the fact that he was tottering on the spot. "HELLO," he shouted, a little louder then he had expected. "DO YOU NEED HELP?"
Speech. Thought.
A sudden crash prompted child's eyes to reopen to investigate. Her tiny nose ventured out of the broken shell to see what in the world that was. It was inevitable. Curiosity was her very being. She wore the hard, flaky surface like a hat as she popped slowly up. When the thing before her became loud, however, she quickly plummeted back inside with ears pinning to her head for some relief. But then something strange happened. She couldn't explain it. Apparently, without meaning to, some sort of magic was attempted. But it didn't work and went almost completely unnoticed.
"Hel...Help?" The child echoed with wonderment. Only her purple eyes would peer from the safety of the shell.
The tiny voice alerted Glory to exactly how loud he was being and he immediately toned down his voice, even though it was still a little louder then his usual tone. "Yes, help! I am excellent at giving help! In fact, I am the best! I'll bet you're cold! Don't worry, I shall make you warm again!" Of course, he had absolutely no way of knowing if this little thing was cold or not but, as usual, he assumed that everything would be better with a little heat.
He opened his beak and breathed out, releasing a wave of warm air over the hatchling. Despite being quite drunk, Glory did not lose his ability to control his magic. The scalding heat that would have usually come with the spell was merely a nice warm breeze. Hopefully hot enough to at least temporarily warm up the cheetah, if it was cold.
"Is that better?" Why did he bother asking? Of course it was better! He took another shaky step closer and opened his wings magnificently. "Meet your savior, Glory!"
Speech. Thought.
A (small) wave of heat prompted the cub's head to again try to lift up from the shell. This loud thing must be good, as he gave her warmth and seemed caring. With the cold no longer a problem and his voice softer, the child gave a small smile. She hadn't even noticed that her crystal 'hat' had fallen off and broken into more pieces onto the ground behind her. Wide eyes were all on the bird. Well, she didn't know what he was.
Her small body lifted to sit, still keeping her gaze on him. She wished to mimic his movement, front legs coming upwards and trying to be pushed out as Glory did. However, cheetah bodies did not move the same way. The girl quickly lost balance and fell forward onto her stomach. This crushed the front side of her 'egg' and sent her tumbling towards Glory's feet.
Glory took a step back as the baby came tumbling towards his feet. He had no idea what it had been trying to do before and it took his intoxicated mind a little moment to catch up. Was it trying to mimic him? Walk around on two legs? But that was silly! Everyone knew that not-birds didn't walk like birds! Perhaps this thing was too young to understand.
"Ah! You don't know walking yet. Then I, Glory, shall teach you to take your first steps!" For few seconds, nothing happened as Glory processed what he was supposed to do. The weasel walked on four legs. That big lizard did too. And, wait, wasn't there a cheetah at the party? Yeah, and it walked like that!
Never, in his right mind, would Glory ever stoop so low to mimic the walking patterns of other creatures but this was a special case and he certainly wasn't in his right mind. So he stretched his wings forward, letting some of his weight fall on them and mimiced the movement of the cheetah. Well, actually, it was more like the way that Dread walked except a lot sillier looking and a lot less coordinated, made worse by the intoxication. "Youuu....walk like this, see? Four limbs. Four feet! Try it!"
Speech. Thought.
The girl was disoriented, head somewhat spinning as she came to a hault no more than a few centimeters in front of the bird. She laid there with large, round eyes looking up and her mouth in a 'oh'. She didn't move even as the bird came down onto his weirdly elongated forelimbs. The ones he had been stretching out previously. She looked down onto her own paws and pushed herself up. Again, she attempted to mimic Glory. Her feet spread wide and she tottered forward a couple steps--exactly as drunkedly as Glory had. She fell backwards onto her butt not long after, but looked up at him thinking it a success.
It might have looked clumsy but Glory didn't notice anything wrong at all. No, it looked perfect! He stood back on his feet (with a little stumble, of course) stood tall and proud again. "You can walk now, amazing! I'm amazing too! Congratulations!" He threw his head back and let out a loud screech and released a ball of flame from his beak. the fire exploded above their heads, sending a wave of heat down but not much else.
The action unbalanced Glory and he ended up staggering back before tripping and falling on his back, wings splayed out. He was there for a second, a little winded, but then he laughed. It was ridiculous. This was all ridiculous! That drink he'd had was ridiculous! He wasn't in Monoceros and that was just funny!
Speech. Thought.
The firework startled her. She gave a jump in surprise but then the weird male started laughing. Her head swung back at him at the sound. It wasn't hard to assume both the screech, the sound, and the fire came from Glory. Well, if he was okay, everything must be okay then, right? Nothing to be afraid of. Everything was amazing. A purring rumble erupted from her throat. Like a burp, it poured awkwardly out of her mouth as she tried to laugh like him. Ever the mimic. It was funny, Glory fell down too, as if copying her. It looked uncomfortable being on the hard ground on one's back though. After all, she slept like that in the 'egg' for... who knows how long. She sure didn't. She hadn't been born yet.
(Un)gracefully, the slender cub rose again to her feet. She was again in a wide stance and tottered toward the drunk eagle's head to look at him closer.
Glory was too busy laughing to really notice the cheetah coming close and only when he stopped did he really notice her so close. He stared at the little cheetah for a moment before really responding. "What, little one?" He brought his wings back in against his body but didn't get up just yet. "Can't you speak?"
Speech. Thought.