[hatching] the undercity - Printable Version

His was a messy chrysalis, with crystalline shapes reaching off of its mass and shades of blue swirling in the facets. Tucked away in the corner of a building, surrounded by the debris and dust of the abandoned city, he hatched—unceremoniously. The sound could have been mistaken for a piece of rubble clattering to the ground, a golem's movements, anything...

He was not awake at first. With his body still curled in a fetal position, the pup lay in the wet for a moment, before his lungs could not breathe fluid and he woke violently, coughing and spitting and hacking—until finally, a breath of air.

Cold air. Dusty air. He sneezed, stood, shook his coat, and hacked a few more times.

One dark, silver eye looked around the ruined buildings and the mess he stood in.

Disgusting.

Bayo had finally flown from the nest and decided to explore the nearby caves around Canis, namely Orion, since setting foot in Gemini had made his eyes want to bleed, and Hydra was a terrible idea on a bad day.

So he was here, trotting through the empty streets, snooping through houses, searching for something, anything interesting. And so far? It hadn't been much. Not until now, at least.

A crack had made him jump in alarm, yelping as he sprang away from the noise. Was a house crumbling? He didn't know, but he didn't really want to find out, so he ran into a different house and waited. And waited.

"Not a house," he finally said, and peeked out, seeing no collapsed rubble or dust cloud.

Then... what was it?

Bayo trotted forward and started poking his head through doorways again, eyes skimming the room before moving on. He actually looked inside the room that the newborn was in before moving on, and only two houses later did he actually register what he'd seen. So he backpedaled and ran back, eyes wide.

"Baby!", he said, trotting inside, peering at the creature that looked a lot like him, even the same shape, though it lacked his own stocky shoulders and thicker neck, "Are you alive? Baby?"

Hopefully it was, because he didn't want to drag back a dead baby to Giggle.

What a miserable state to be in. Cold, wet, his fur sticking up in several different directions, and worst of all? To be as pitiful as his surroundings. His little mind was already cranking gears, still standing in the pool of fluid that came from his chrysalis, still standing where bits of his stone littered the ground around his feet. But he was standing.

A shadow passed before his doorway, but he nearly didn't catch it; until it came back.

'Baby!' He tilted his head slightly, a large ear flicking. Baby? Who, him? 'Are you alive? Baby?' He blinked his single eye and then narrowed it.

"...not baby," he mustered. "Ein..."

He could feel the ridge of fur along his back rising, but the creature before him didn't seem like a threat. Still, he felt defensive. His little lips peeled back to show his teeth. Just in case.

Bayo lowered his head and sniffed at Ein, ears perked forward, "My name's Bayo. Are you okay?"

He eyed his bared teeth and wondered if they were mad or just smiling. His mother appeared to smile almost all the time, and she wasn't angry, so he was getting some mixed signals.

So, boldly, he stepped forward, deciding to take a chance.

"I can get you out of here, are you cold?", he asked, eyeing their wet fur and the dusty floor, leaving their black paw pads a dusty grey.

His mother would know what to do, but alas, she was still in Canis, so it was his duty to try and help in her stead. If he could help. He lowered his head again, acting submissive, to show he just wanted to help. Maybe he could clean the other, or go and get food. Hm.

The other offered its name and asked if he was okay. Ein considered the question, but did not answer, as the other animal was already encroaching on his space. His little legs took a half-step back. But when it—Bayo—said they could get him out of here, Ein hesitated. He did want to leave. This place sucked.

He was cold, but he wasn't going to admit that.

With a swish of his tail, Ein eyed Bayo carefully.

"To where?" he asked. Would it be just as shitty as this hellhole? Because he didn't want to go. He didn't know the names of any places, he didn't even know any places. He did know that he wanted to go somewhere that was not dusty, or dirty, or smelly, or wet. He did not know the word for it, but he was hoping for a tidy place. Clean. Open.

He felt himself frown in preparation for disliking whatever Bayo's answer would probably be. Ein did not have high expectations considering the only few moments he knew of this world.

Bayo turned and pointed to the door with his nose, "Out there. It's not dusty and the ceiling has glowing specks, it's real pretty."

He shook himself out and licked at his paw, not liking the dust on his fur. He trotted to the doorway and looked back before exiting, glancing around to make sure no one else was here.

"Ein?", he called, "Can you walk?"

He was only able to really flop coming out, his paws big and his limbs not wanting to listen. Now it was slightly better, but he still looked a mess. An adorable mess, but still.

Ein was sold simply from it's not dusty but he was curious what it meant for a ceiling—?—to have glowing specks. It was pretty, apparently. Bayo turned to leave, and for a moment, Ein hesitated to follow. When he heard his name, his large ears flicked up and again, he considered the question.

He took a few steps forward and nodded, following Bayo from the dilapidated house, but keeping his distance. He felt horrifically dirty, with gunk clinging to his matted fur, so he would definitely need to sort out an area to wash up in. Not that he knew, of course, what that was entirely, but it felt appropriate to think about. That's what his brain seemed to tell him, anyway.

When Bayo was clear of the doorway, Ein made his way through, slowly peeking his nose around the corner first to investigate before sliding free from his birth prison. His single eye darted back and forth, nose sniffing, ears swiveling—it was so much larger out here than he could have imagined, hell, than he knew to imagine. He really didn't know anything yet. And above them, as promised, were twinkling specks.

Ein didn't know the word for stars. He wouldn't know to compare them to that, anyway; but he liked it. It felt like the air up there must be so crisp and free. There were several moments where he did nothing but stare at the ceiling, before the word popped into his mind again and he asked, "Ceiling?"

Bayo sat down and nodded, staring up at the ceiling, watching the stars 'twinkle'. It was nice out here, not as cramped as in the houses.

"I've heard 'em be called stars," he said, "They're pretty, ain't they?"

In the eternal twilight of Orion, everything was dark, but it was peaceful, in a way. Sort of different from Canis, where it was a bit warmer. He himself was a plains creature, meant to hunt mice and the occasional bird, so a lack of vegetation wasn't really weird.

He did like how Ein was so similar.

"I can clean you off," he said, "Or teach you if you don't like that stuff."

The pup got to work grooming his paws, cleaning the dust and grime off of them, a bit clumsy, but doing good. He'd practiced with his mom a few times after he got into something he shouldn't have and come home doused in mud.

Stars. Ein tucked the word away, his eye grazing the ceiling. He still wasn't sure what it meant. What did it mean: ceiling? Did it go on forever? Were there always stars in the ceiling?

At Bayo's offer, Ein's head snapped back down and his eye narrowed toward the other pup's direction. He watched as Bayo began to clean his own paws, licking between each toe, each pad—

"Uh," he sounded as his skin crawled with every ounce of no it could muster.

"Is there a better way?" Other than licking the grime off of himself with his own tongue, or worse, having someone else's tongue do that?

Bayo paused mid-lick and squinted, trying to think.

"... There might be water nearby?", he said, "We could find some and clean you that way, but you'd get all wet and cold again."

He cleaned off his paws and stood, shaking himself again and craning his neck, peering around, "Grooming's faster and easy once you get it."

He trotted off down the lane and peered around, looking for divots where rain could have gathered. None here where it was flat. Perhaps elsewhere?

"Over here!", he called out, finding a dip in one of the houses where the roof had caved in and water had collected, "I found some water!"

Bayo took a hearty drink before Ein dirtied it, tail wagging back and forth enthusiastically.