CASSIE

The Chrysalis shuddered.

It had been attached to the wall for many, many cycles. It had seen many Chrysalises come and go, birthing Gembound after Gembound. But it had held on tightly to the little Gemling inside itself, keeping it from growing.

The lights had come on, then gone off, then come on again, and the Gemling had begun to grow. The Chrysalis had gone from a plain white, to a dull grey-blue, with patches of brown.

Over several cycles, the creature inside of the Chrysalis had grown slowly. But now, its shoulders and paws pressed up against the Chrysalis, leaving it with no room otherwise.

Over-sized paws lashed out, making the Chrysalis to bulge. With one push, two, and then a third, the bottom of the Chrysalis gave out, dropping a grey-brown pup on the ground. It squeaked, trying to get its bearings, whining pitifully.

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

Tuck actually laughed when he came across the, what, fourth? hatching he’d seen in about a month. But he couldn’t laugh for long because this pup was squealing so pitifully. He clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth, and then hopped toward the helpless little thing. Well — little was a relative term. Everyone was bigger than Tuck, but that didn’t bother him anymore. “Hey, hey, hey!” Tuck called out to the puppy, in a happy and encouraging tone of voice. “You’re okay. You’re fine. No need to cry.” Trying to think of something to distract the Gemling with, Tuck waved a paw in the air and summoned a glowing yellow ball of light. It flickered, a weak cast, but stayed in the air. “Look, see? Light!” He tracked the light with his eyes, moving it downwards in front of the baby, hoping to get it to stop crying.

@Cassie

CASSIE

The pup's ears perked up, hearing... something. Her crying softened as she lowered her head, still whimpering in her throat as she looked around with her cracked-glass eyes. She... wasn't alone? Yay! But, wait... that could be a bad thing, too, right? Instinctively, the pup knew that, indeed, it could be a bad thing. She wasn't strong, having just hatched, and thus wasn't terribly strong. But, seeing what was approaching her, she didn't feel terribly afraid. It was small, even smaller than the pup, and surely it couldn't be much of a danger, then?

Her eyes on the marmoset, she whined pitifully once more. Her ears twitched at the sound of his voice, and her head turned to keep her eyes on his waving paw.

She yipped, startling as he formed a something. However, she quickly found she liked it, and the sobbing whines turned into playful yips. The pup dropped down into a play bow, tail speeding rapidly as she followed the light with her gaze.

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

@Tukluk

Tuck was surprised at how quickly the pup seemed to forget her crying. He watched her as she stared at the ball of light, tail wagging behind her like she wanted to play. Grinning, the marmoset started moving the light slowly side to side in front of the puppy’s face, tempting her with it. “You wanna play?” he asked, although he was kind of sad he didn’t have anything to actually give her. The light wasn’t a physical object so he wasn’t sure if she could really play with it much… As he continued moving the light around for her amusement, he tried to think of something else to give her that would be fun for a baby to play with.

@Cassie

CASSIE

The catahoula cur pup yipped excitedly, a sound drastically different from the sad whining she'd been making only a few moments before. She dropped into a playbow, chest touching the ground, tail whipping back and forth with such a force she could almost fall over. The pup danced from paw to paw, yipping and whining.

Her head swiveled side to side, eyes never leaving the glowing orb. She didn't know what it was, but she wanted it! So, without thinking, she darted forward, attempting to bite it. When it simply slid through her jaws, she sat down, a confused expression on her face. The pup leaned forward, nipping at the light again, before looking at the marmoset as though he could tell her what was wrong.

"I'm speaking..."
'I'm thinking...'

@tukluk