A bulky nugget of antozonite crystal protrudes from the ground in this particular tunnel. It's a dark crystal, hard to see through. It looks harmless, smells and probably tastes like a regular old rock, and doesn't seem to be doing much. Not a lot to see here.
Not yet, at least.
Within it, a cub resides, curled up and yet unconscious. What an oddity. How will it grow? What can it accomplish? It has so much to do, and no space to do it in! Does it need help? Maybe it needs time?
Help it may receive with time, and time it may receive with help. That's a silly pickle to be in.
we can wander through the forest, and do so as we please
Should Sharp have been here? No, probably not.
Was Sharp here anyways? Yes, yes she was.
The little lizard had taken another one of her walks around the southwest quarter-- after all, there didn't seem to be any scaries yet, so it's perfectly fine for a newborn child to go waddling alone. She was on the search for more shiny things to soothe that perpetual want for light she had, and so far had a pretty good collection. A couple of polished pebbles, a funny gem that glittered if she nudged it at the right angle, and a smooth vertebrae she found buried in the sand. She tried to add the glowing orbs that gave light to the rooms to her collection, but alas, she's just a tiny gembound and those lights dangled tantalizingly out of her reach. One day, she thought, one day.
But then, as Sharp made her way back to Monoceros, her finds nestled awkwardly in her mouth and claws, she saw it. The biggest gemstone she had ever seen. It was a funny grey color, jutting out of the rock walls, and she probably would've just walked right by if it weren't for the fact it was so shiny. Immediately she dropped her previous finds and went skittering up towards it. Oh boy, Dip and all her other friends were going to love this! She tried to move it, but realized with a start that it was 1. much larger than her and 2. bolted to the floor. How was she supposed to bring it back now?
After exactly zero seconds of deep thinking Sharp decided the most sensible option was to dislodge it with her own, dull claws. Immediately she got to work scrabbling at the stone surface, though she found her efforts were in vain. This rock simply refused to budge!
thinking | "speaking" Whoops accidentally posted without the roll, sorry if you got a double notification
Kethri was wiggling around in her chrysalis, ready to come out at any time now.
Her chrysalis was on the opposite side of the tunnel, hidden in shadow. Her downy wings stretched out as far as they could, and her beak was pressing against the side of the Chrysalis, trying hard to break it.
The owl burst free of her chrysalis and slid to the ground in a mess of amniotic fluids, shivering and coughing weakly as she tried to expel the fluids from her lungs. She struggled to stand, her wings spread in order to make sure she didn't topple over onto her face.
Once she got her balance, she looked around, blue eyes blinking, before staring at the... thing at the other end of the hall. It was so spiky and weird-looking.
"... Hello?", she spoke, shuffling her wings as she looked around, a bit mad.
Honestly, she thought her birth into life would have been met with serenades and two beautiful parents looking down at their creation and rejoicing. Not a barren tunnel with a weird lizard and... silence.
The hours--or days--after hatching were lonely and silent. Just as Erick liked it. What he inherently didn't like was how lost he felt. He knew nothing of his world he was thrust in to. It was rock and darkness, like his moment of birth in Orion. When he figured out how to walk he simply picked a direction and went for it. He'd honestly have liked to stay in the room of stars forever but staring at a ceiling and having existential crises was not as appealing.
Erick trod onward. Beady indigo eyes searched the half-light for something. Anything. What was his purpose? What was this world's purpose? His thoughts were suddenly cut by the echoed trill of a voice. '...Hello?' He paused at the sound. His eyes narrowed. Normally, he'd like to avoid all social interaction. He didn't know that, of course, as he didn't know others existed. However, the strange sound that sounded like a word didn't sound far and curiosity killed the skunk.
He turned the corner and happened upon an intriguing scene. He had yet to meet anyone else. Avian and reptilian stood dormant. Well, the bird did at least. The lizard appeared to be concerned with a strangely colored crystal. The owl was surrounded by shards and fluid, much like he did when he awoke in Orion. It wasn't hard for him to connect some dots. The bird had hatched. Did the strange crystal also hold life? Erick wanted to know, but he didn't want to just skate past the others to find out. So he stayed where he stood watching from afar. How would all this play out?
Ah, this cub's laziness had turned into waiting, and the waiting would soon turn into reward. Perhaps it was not time or assistance it needed, but rather... an audience.
Ch-chr-cuh-CRACK! said the crystal as the baby inside at last felt too big to contain. Patterns like a lightning storm began to form rapidly over the chrysalis, and within moment, segments of antozonite crystal were in shards and shambles on the floor. And before any sort of child was released, a most terrible stench came crawling into the tunnel, at an alarmingly fast pace.
A scent tends to travel faster than its wearer.
Soon enough, the neonate too would step outside, with little a mind to understand what was happening on the outside, whether or not it was normal, what all the tedious details were. This was his first chance at life, and by golly, unbeknownst to him, it had a most glorious start.
@Elrick @Kethri@Sharp
((enjoy getting stunk'd on ;3))
we can wander through the forest, and do so as we please
At first, Sharp didn't notice the new visitors. She was too busy scrabbling at the stone, trying to find a purchase against it's smooth crystalline sides. Suddenly, she heard a slight craaack come from the other side of the tunnel and turned to look. A tiny, pale fluffy-thing stood by the walls of the cavern, looking quite disgruntled and covered in goo. And at her feet-- strange starry shards that were previously hidden by the shadows.
It took an uncomfortably time before Sharp realized that the gemlet had just hatched and was not just some weird cave sculpture. "Hi! Hi hi!" A wide grin broke across her features as she trotted towards the owl, her voice ringing in the silent tunnel. "Hi! I--" she tripped on the pebbles she dropped earlier, but quickly righted herself: "I am Sharp! I am very sharp and spiky! 'Whuddabout you?"
Suddenly, she heard another crack, and spun back around again to see the stone she was just prodding at was splitting open. Did she do that? Probably not, since a little wet kitten was now inching around where that stone was just at. Another friend! Wow, this must be the cave of make-friend-rocks! Sharp didn't sense anything out of the ordinary just yet-- lizards smell with their tongue, not their nose-- so she happily trotted right up to the newborn with just as much enthusiasm.
"H-" her voice abruptly cut off, her face wrinkling up like a Shar-Pei. Dear caves, what was that smell?! It was everywhere and was claws-down the worst thing she had experienced in her tiny lifetime. She recoiled back several steps from the stink-friend and spent a few moments just getting the stench out of her mouth before daring to continue. "...Hiiii... friend..."
Since snowy owls have a terrible sense of smell, Kethri wasn't all that bothered by the smell in the cave and focused on getting all this goop out of her feathers.
Her head swiveled around to face Sharp, blinking gently as she shuffled her feathers gently, unsure of the creature in front of her.
"... Who?", she spoke- or cooed. Who knew? It could be both.
Kethri could see that Sharp was sharp and spiky, thank you very much, and it made her a bit annoyed, though of course, she couldn't speak her mind yet, her beak full of feathers as she preened herself. It would take a bit, but she couldn't fly if she was covered in goop, and flying was an owl's main defense against predators, which was what she deemed the other creatures in the cave to be.
"... Hello,", she finally said, but no one could really be sure if she knew anything else. She was quiet, so far.
A babe erupted from the lodestone, furry and wide-eyed. The lizard flitted between the kitten and the owl before making a most wretched face. Erick caught its name as 'Sharp', a name that simply described as it was. Erick, though in this narrative had a name, was left nameless as reality had it. It was just another thing to think about later among his growing life concerns.
As he was still rather far from the trio, the skunk didn't smell much of a stink. There was something that hit his nostrils as he slid closer, but he wasn't in the slightest bothered too much about it. Perhaps it was because he had some innate immunity to smells. Or perhaps he just wasn't in the blast zone yet. He was indeed quite reluctant to interact with the others, but they could have answers or information for him. His damn curiosity was driving him again. He stopped short of Kethri, revealing himself from the murk.
The kitten slowly rolled out of the broken chrysalis, a slippery little bean covered in amniotic fluid. For a moment, he laid there on the floor while his body figured out how to adjust. As soon as he caught the flying noises about the room, his energy spiked and he was at last compelled to rise. And shake. He shook a lot. Whatever was on him was a bit stubborn in getting off. Ah well, it'd come eventually, probably.
The first word he heard was a 'Hello' that sounded sort of... well, the cub didn't have the words to describe it yet. Thought, for a few seconds, or even minutes, would just be surges of emotions for him. So in silence he would sit up for a bit, staring wide-eyed at any figures or creatures he could see around him. He would, at one point, open his mouth to chirp at them, but before he could a drop of fluid that hadn't left would slide too close to his nostril, causing him to sneeze. It was a tiny sneeze, comparable to a mouse's squeak.
Once his head cleared a little more, the child would at last manage a word-- well, more of an attempt at a word. "Heh..." And then he'd start trying to get the remaining fluid off with his tongue.