Though she knew very little, it didn’t take a genius to realize her home was growing too small - that she was growing too large for the black stone encasing her and protecting her from the outside. She didn’t truly know this, either, in such words. She only knew she was constantly pushed up against the sides of the chrysalis. She wondered if there was any way to get out.

This led Laurette, though she wasn’t “Laurette” quite then, to push more intentionally against the walls surrounding her, finding they cracked eventually. Some of the chrysalis broke, and a large white paw popped out into the open air, feeling around for anything around her and finding nothing. She pulled her paw back and stuck her face out instead, able to see much, though understanding very little of it. She pushed some more, and more stone broke, freeing her other paws.

Finally, with one final attempt, she escaped, rolling softly from her confines and tumbling out into the cave.

Standing as tall as she could, bright orange standing out against the green of the plant life surrounding her, the newly hatched Gembound looked around. There was so much, especially compared to the nothingness inside the chrysalis. The thought of her shell caused the child to look down at all the fragments, and she wondered, should she keep a piece of it? She reached down to grab one of the smaller shards, before turning her attention back to... everything, and wondering what she was supposed to do now.

Oliver was not far off when the hatching took place, and the quiet crack of gemstone had his tufted ears pricking up. He took a moment to tamp down the wildflowers--complete with balls of roots--that he kept in the crooked basket held over one winged forelimb's wrist; it wouldn't do to let them fall out, after all. He had to take good care of them.

The bird-dog picked his way carefully over moss and under the ferns, all the while seeking--with nose and ears--the origin of the cracked gemstone. Was it a new child, or someone reawakening from a long hibernation--or something else entirely?

When at last he happened upon the little orange kitten, he paused at once, sinking down to set the basket in the dirt. His blue eyes widened. "Oh, hey," he offered softly, not daring to yet draw closer in case he frightened the newborn creature. He'd never seen one quite like this before: feline, but without much tail, and spectacularly tiny.

"I'm Oliver," he said gently, and settled himself to sit in the leaves. "Do you have a name?"

@Laurette

It had been (adoring) love at first sight.

Shiloh had been padding along in the jungle, as seemed to be the usual, a flat sort of woven basket situated between her waist and her elbow. While she frequently scanned her surroundings through eyes and ears, most of her focus was on what came in through her nose.

Her sense of smell, keen as it was, served none of its intended evolutionary purposes. Things seeking out the saccharine, sometimes nauseating scent of a flower or its nectar was usually classified as an insect, primate, or some sort of bat. Pollinators, y’know? Not full-grown human(oid)s intent on crafting their fiftieth flower crown or necklace of the week… or, in this case, checking out what new life was beginning to flourish in Eridanus, now that the cold “weather” was finally moving away.

Once she caught the tell-tale, milky scent of newborn, the elf had taken on a hurried pace off the beaten path.

An undignified yelp preceded her arrival to the scene, having lost a sandal in particularly deep mud.

Before she could ball up the bottom of her dress in one padded hand and kneel down to retrieve the shoe, Shiloh caught sight of the frankly adorable kitten. Witnessing the joy of birth and one’s first moments standing on one leg, she was enamored. Sunny gaze fixed on the neonate, she hurried to just untie the other sandal—abandoning ship—and stride over on the soft blend of moss and grass.

Someone else had come to this little spot, too, and the elf-hybrid was half-tempted to point right at his basket full of wildflowers and nod her solidarity.

Instead, she focused on the kid, so small and definitely able to fit in her own palm. Her thoughts were some approximation of holy moly as she popped a squat, balancing easily on her full foot. Completely on Lesser-petting instinct, she extended a hand out.

"Hi… I’m Shiloh," the elf-hybrid nearly cooed, barely even looking at the bird-dog.

Wuh-oh! Baby alert!
@Laurette

Already, she could tell she was smaller than most of the world, at least the part of the world she had found herself in. So it was hardly a surprise to see when another creature approached her, he was much bigger than herself, and though he seemed friendly as he made his way towards her, she found herself crouching down, oversized ears flattening against her head. The being was so much different from herself, and she had wondered if - hoped, maybe? - the first one she would see might look like her. Be like her.

Still, she supposed the strange creature didn't seem to have intentions of attacking her, and so the kitten relaxed, ears perking up again as she tilted her head. His words meant very little to her, as she barely understood them. They did, however, rattle around in her empty head, helping to begin the process of filling it. "Name?" she repeated, internally surprised and impressed with her own ability to repeat the word as the bigger Gembound had spoken it. What other words could she repeat? "He-heh- heyyyy." Though almost simpler, the word came out a little more broken, but she was able to get it out in only three tries, and she looked up at the beast, possibly looking for encouragement, or maybe just more words to repeat.

A different creature approached, another big one - she wondered if there was anyone her own size other than her, or if the whole world was made up of giants and her. Would she get that big? Would they shrink? "Shiloh?" she parroted, stretching so she could hesitantly sniff at the elf's extended hand.

How strange, something inside her thought, to be born into a world where nobody looked like you. To be the only one of you there was, at least in your first moments of life.

@Shiloh

Oliver glanced up, blinking in surprise, at the sudden appearance of a total stranger. Suddenly he felt uncertain, as though he were intruding, and he quietly flattened down a little bit himself: unintentionally mimicking the kitten's initial movements.

"Oh, hey. Sorry, do--you don't know each other, right? I'm not, um. Intruding?" This was directed at Shiloh, soft and worried, though it would've been fairly obvious to most that no--they did not know one another. But still, maybe the kitten was a child Shiloh'd left behind-?

He wasn't sure what else to say, or do, and so he fidgeted a little, looking between the (adorable) new kitten (and hadn't its first words just been the sweetest-?) and the elf-stranger.

"Hey," he double-parroted softly, eyes slipping back to Shiloh again. "I like your flowers," he said quietly, but that was all, for now.