Curled within the muddy-colored jasper stone, which lay somewhat haphazardly in a shallow puddle beside the black Heart of Cetus, was a new creature.

It wasn't visible behind the stone wall, not really--perhaps, had a light been shone through, it would have been a darker silhouette behind the crystal sheen. Something black and jagged, sleek. There were two other stones here, but this one protruded, its surface glistening in the dim orb-light of the caves, slicked with Cetus' ever-present mist.

Thus far, the little one within did not stir. It was growing--sleeping--and, at the moment, vulnerable. Oh, it had a guardian--the sludge-slicked black creature once known as Equinox--but she was not, right at the moment, present.

The stone lay silent in the mists, its inhabitant near hatching, a little twitch finally visible within the rock. It was as though a dark worm twisted within darker water: barely-visible, unless one knew precisely what to look for.

@Nox

Ripples formed in the marsh below as an unknown creature approached from the murky waters. Too large to be a toad, too limber to be a tortoise. Would there have been any witnesses the creature might have looked like a strange four-limbed spider, body covered in muck and flesh on its back writhing like a bed of worms.

No not flesh. Hair. Long flowing strands of silky black hair matted and tangled from the mud running from the top of its flat-faced head to a tail that trailed behind it.

As water sloughed away its smooth hoary skin caught the light even as in a jerky motion it skittered toward the crystals ahead, its large eyes fixated at one in particular.

No sound nor smile nor evidence of soul might be perceived from it as gangly limbs gripped the unborn child's egg. A soft embrace, like a mother cradling its young. Its dirt-covered and mouthless face lowered to rest sideways upon the smooth stone.

This one. Yes. It had been so long.

Bulging eyes closed as it cradled the child's womb, almost seeming peaceful even as a subtle sickly green light shone from under its pure skin.

Hairs from its head, its mane, its tail sprung to new life as they grew in length and began to crawl across the jasper surface.

This one was hers, imperfect though it was. She would feed from it. She would fix it. She would help form it into a more fitting being. Then as her decreed by curse she would disappear, lest the child grow to hate the one that loved them so.

@Hunger

Nox was nearby- burbling quietly in the mist as she moved, simply going about her usual activities of eating and roaming- today she happened to be almost chest-deep in water.

It was pure chance that her paws carried her to the small, secluded lagoon where she had hoarded the stones of bird, the dragon and the singing crystal. She dipped her head and foraged as the went, consuming slimy pondweeds, drowned rats, and small fish with little discrimination.

With a low rumble in her throat, she came closer, and was greeted by a curious and unfamiliar sight rising out of the mist; one of the stones she'd left had grown massively, towering out of the muddy pond where she'd left it. Curiosity drew her to approach them, and as she did so became aware of something else hunched in the mud, cradling one of the stones.

Nox didn't know why, but the thing frightened her- with its long fingers and trailing locks of hair, and she approached, looming, softly hissing, her neck arching upwards in a graceful curve, swaying like a cobra about to strike.

This was her hoard; no other creature had the right to touch it.

@Hunger

Within the stone, the unborn creature was... drained. Drained, and changed. Whatever form nature had dictated for it, or perhaps magic had dictated for it, was altered. Just how far could not be said; perhaps Nox's arrival, and presumeably the stranger's departure, interrupted the worst of it.

Whatever influence the monstrous stranger had, or had not had, the little one within the stone was destined to be what would become, by most opinions, monstrous in its own way. Its shape shifted within the stone as its true mother approached, a slick black form curling slightly against dark jasper so thin as to seem translucent, now.

A soft, long scraping sound came from within as a single clawed limb scratched over the stone, though it would still be days before it hatched.

I don't know if Norvilion wanted to post again; Hunger can hatch regardless after a timeskip oooor just continue in the thread with All the Babies?
@Nox