... So Is The Present a Gift for the Future

It's time.

The neonate inside this chrysalis—the black pearl which shines like ice—isn't aware of this, but then again, she isn't aware of anything. It's not time for her; she isn't aware of time, yet. Simply: it's time for nature to run its course. She's now too big for her little chrysalis; sleeping upside-down, her legs pressed up against its top. Each breath shifts her form by just a little; each breath tests the integrity of her gemstone egg.

And now the cracks which were once invisible within the stone begin to spiderweb outwards, as pearl finally gives way once and for all. It starts as a rumbling, a creaking, crackling noise—and then it grows into something visible, cracks dancing over the gemstone's surface, invisible fracture lines deep within the stone finally becoming very, very visible.

And then—with a sound as sharp as a thunderclap, a sudden crack!, the smooth stone gives way completely, and a tiny little harpy only about a foot in height topples to the stone floor, sharp eyes snapping wide.

"Aa!" She gives a startled squawk that isn't words at all, not really, not this young, wing-arms flailing and flapping against the floor as the little chick is unceremoniously shoved out of her hatch-place upside-down, beak to the floor.

Its time.

The quartz shone pure white like snow, if only because of the fluid protecting and obscuring the hatchling growing within. One could see a shadow of it, a faint hint of what it might be, but nothing more.

However, this went both ways. The growing neonates could see shadows travel across aer vision. The vague shape of aer father seen through dirty glasses. And ae became curious. What was out there? What did all those shadows and all that light come from?

Tap tap tap.

Aer beak met stone. Stone? What was this? A barrier, the gatekeeper between here and whatever may lay beyond?

Tap tap tap.

Their talons joined in, all trying to earn freedom. Soon, cracks began to grow across the stone's surface. Nearly invisible, until they grew and grew and grew even more.

Tap tap t-

"Eep!"

Bellyflop'd onto the ground was a rather pitiful hatchling. Pitiful, and strange, with aer biggest eyes and multitude of limbs. Ae looked up at Nemo unblinkingly.

"Eep?"

Movement. Her eyes lock onto the bird approaching her, pulling away her chrysalis; childish babbling stops for a moment as one set of light-on-dark eyes look up at her father, apparently enraptured by his movement. She moves her beak a little alongside his words, as to mimic his movements, but no sound comes just yet.

Another sound. Tip, tip, tapping—both father and daughter look to the second chrysalis, one with far more understanding of the situation than the other. All she knows is her father is here and saying things and they make her happy and she's almost happy to stay there, lying on her belly face-first, staring up at the bird—

—at least, until he starts to move away, and she flails awkwardly at him, not wanting him to leave her side. "Da!"

Is it a first word, or just awkward babbling made to sound like one? Either way, it's a vocalization of exactly how displeased she is with the situation—come back!

But then he's opening a wing, and sweeping both her and the newborn hatched from the other chrysalis close, and everything is right with the world again. A gentle breeze lulls her close, lulls her eyelids to fluttering; but childish curiosity gets the best of her again, and her eyes lock this time not on her father but on the figure of her sibling, both sets narrowing at aer curiously.

She reaches a paw out to bap aer on the head gently. "A?"

The world is big and small at the same time. It was now so much bigger than that tiny, cramped, murky chrysalis. But right now, all their world consisted of was aer father, aer sister, and that feeling of happy, fuzzy warmth.

Ae don't spend too long on that cold stone before ae are swept up into the warmth and safety of aer father's feathery wings and chest. A delighted little chirp would escape the chick, their head pressed into colorfully dyed feathers, head tilted to look up at Nemo's face the best ae could. The two sets of alien arms would hug aer chest, half-hidden within damp feathers. Were they trying to mimic aer father, or was it just the most comfortable? Ae didn't know aerself, but seeing how ae didn't know many things at this point, that was hardly surprising.

The weird fruit would go ignored at the moment, both because ae were unaware of it's existence and simply preoccupied at the moment. In aer eyes, aer father and sister were far more interesting than some sparkly, mushy fruit. At least until ae got hungry, that is.

At the gentle head-bapping, ae let out a soft squeak of surprise. Ae stare at aer sibling for a moment, before reaching out a spindly arm that had been tucked close to aer chest prior. Slowly, ae would reach out, before returning the gesture. "A!" Yes. What a meaningful conversation.