[hatch] abstract with me - Printable Version

Lichen didn't bother to turn her head. When your roommate was also blind, you didn't usually have to worry about eye contact or looking at noises. Instead, she just made a grunt of acknowledgement towards the movement in the nestroom and waited.

When nothing followed, she called out. "Are you--" Her words were silenced as she heard the wet slap. That made her shift from where she was lazily plucking wads of lichen from the walls (in a very minimal attempt to clean up the place). Then there was whimpering.

"Are you having a cry?" Lichen called softly, poking her head into the nestroom. "Is it a 'leave me alone' cry or a 'I want a hug' cry?" She asked the room, unaware of Aurelle's whereabouts and that she was, in fact, asking an infant. Stone eyes stared unseeing at the sopping pup, waiting for an answer.

Aurelle had, sure enough, been in the nestroom, changing out the soft bedding that her and Lichen slept on. They got a little gross after a time, after all-- so she'd pack them into her bag and give them a wash in Pieces, warm them up to dry, and set them back into their nest. Lichen in particular seemed to enjoy rolling into a bed that had been magically pre-heated, after all.

The elf was also a little more aware than the dragon. She'd been periodically checking the chrysalis Lichen had set to grow, and a few hours prior she'd noticed a little divot in the top. She'd assumed either she or Lichen had bumped into it, or maybe something had fallen on the roof, and chipped it. When the chrysalis cracked and whoever was inside whined, her ears pointed upright and she turned her head towards it.

"No, no, ahh-- that wasn't me," she told Lichen. It'd been some time since she met someone that had just come out of their chrysalis, but she personally remembered being very cold. She lifted up a blanket into her hands, and a little spark of magic had it warming up pleasantly. "It's, ahh, the person you tried to help."

Gently approaching Vizard, she put the warm blanket around her shoulders. "There you go," she soothed. "Are you alright? Do you, ahh, remember anything?"

Lichen had established it wasn't Aurelle whimpering in the room, but rather the stone. Or what came out of the stone. The stone had survived! She'd done it! The first time she'd tried to help anyone that wasn't Aurelle and it was paying off.

Lately, this whole 'being involved in the lives of others' has really been paying off and in a sense of accomplishment and joy, as opposed to literally earning wealth from it. An emotional wealth, perhaps.

Her feelers unfurled, seeking and searching, but when the feelers prompted Lichen's gemstone for magic nothing happened. Odd. She tried again a little more urgently; she wanted to find what had emerged, she wanted to know where it was; to come close without stepping on them.

Her gemstone crackled, then a painful shock pierced through her skull; an awful feeling like an icepick through the brain. Outwardly, she pulled a face like sucking a lemon, then groaned. Reaching one big clawed hand to clutch her head. It hurt.

Blinking away the water in her eyes, she shook her head. "Oh-- Yes. Were you hurt?" Lichen asks through gritted teeth, lowering herself to the floor, so she might cradle her head in both sets of claws.

As per, Aurelle was a little more aware than Lichen was. Her ears twitched contemplatively for a beat-- and her head swivelled briefly towards Lichen as she groaned, then back down to Vizard. "Ahh... I think she's new," the elf said slowly. "A child."

Maybe it was for the best. Who knew how whoever had that stone before had died? If the child didn't remember, maybe she'd be happier for it. "That's alright, ahh, don't worry about it," she assured Vizard. "You're here now, aren't you?"

She tapped a finger against her chin, thinking. It'd been... well, some time since she was a child. It'd been even longer since Lichen was a child, too, so there wasn't any help there, no doubt. Usually, though, when Aurelle woke up, she was hungry and thirsty. "How about, ahh, you settle in the nest and I'll get you something to eat? Would you like, ahh, something fruity or something meaty?"

In the meantime, Aurelle went for one of their bowls, hovering her hand over it. Her magic drew water from the air and filled the bowl steadily with clean, cool water, which was then offered towards Vizard.

A child. She hadn't considered that a possibility, but here she was now. Dazed by this sudden realisation, it took her a beat to realise that said child was talking to her. "Oh! Yes! Magic just sometimes doesn't work like you want it too." Lichen tutted as if she'd stained her favourite apron, opposed to having her eyeballs backfire.

She'd brought a child into the caves. It seemed the implications of that were finally hitting as she listened to the small voice in the room with her.

Well, it was too late for regrets. What did she like as a child? It'd been a while since either of them had been one or seen one; one that wasn't a living host of fungi, at least.

She shook her head out and tried again, this time her feelers were drawn towards Vizard, perhaps even gently brushing her skin and wool, should she not flinch away. "Ah, there you are."

"Do you know if you have a name? Names are very... fun." Lichen grimaced at herself; very 'how do you do, fellow kids' sounding.

"Ahh, we can't see very well," Aurelle supplemented Lichen's comment, explaining-- though she wondered, dimly, if the child had been Lichen's, could they also see? She wasn't certain, thinking about it, if Lichen had ever been able to see at all. "Magic helps us get around when there's new people or things around."

She brushed by Lichen, hand grazing along the dragon's flank before she went to access their food storage, which was kept under a blanket. They're essentially cavemen. Nobody's invented a cupboard or fridge yet, to their knowledge. She took out a fruit, feeling it beneath her palm before returning to Vizard with it.

She worked on breaking it open. "Ahh, my name is Aurelle, and this is Lichen," she said, popping the green, scaled fruit into two halves. She offered it out towards Vizard's nose, sitting down in front of the child. "And, ahh, this is a cherimoya! They're my favourite."