Juggernaut could not nod, but the thoughtful rumble that left it was it's own equivalent. Cave-mother was hardly a true mother, as the foal had been denied, but it understood that to explain this would take tact it most likely did not possess. There was a vulnerability deeper than their exterior - the drone had to watch its step in more ways than one.

He wouldn't call them fragile, he couldn't see past the Gembound's eyes. Just uncomfortably small.

"Sair!" He exclaimed, a little too loudly. "Good name. Nice to say." One syllable, minimalist, easier for the Juggernaut to wrap his head around.

How many now? "Uh." He didn't want to make Sair feel insignificant, if they cared about numbers at all. Maybe they'd take it in stride?? "Many. Too many to number. That's why you begin with a name. I get a number, because my family is very small. Easy to count."

It paused, yet to recognise the shift in Sair's body language as fatigue. It studied the foal, worried - were they becoming ill? What had changed?

@Sair

Sair

They chose well! A good name! "Thank you!" It seemed the right thing, to thank someone for kind words. It was good, they thought, not to have to number themself. What would they be? Some ridiculously big number like... like... 2319?! That was so many! They'd never be able to remember everyone's names AND numbers!
"It's good you have a small family!" They nodded sharply before trying to shake the sleep out of their eyes. If they had a number like 2159, they would never have been able to remember it! Besides, a small family meant they had to be close, right?
"Are they all as tall as you?" They were trying to picture Juggernaut's family in their head, a cave full of massive crab-like creatures in a variety of colours.

"Are there others like me?" They wondered aloud after a pause, wandering closer to the drone. They knew they had no family, but if Juggernaut was not the first, and there were so many others, surely they were not the first either? Maybe they could be pointed in the right direction, at least towards somewhere with some better food than the mosses they could see in this cave. Another yawn escaped them, and they smacked their lips. Maybe they would nap, first? But they had so many things to ask! "And where do those go?" They gestured vaguely towards tunnels A and N, the most visible from where they currently stood

"Speaking." Thinking. Doing.
OOC:

We don't know how to accept we're just a product of a chance /
And less like gods but more like plants

@Juggernaut

A small group made everyone easier to remember, certainly. He hadn't seen it that way before, and mulled over the idea with a grinding of mouth-parts. More to lose. Less to give. But would he see his family the same way if they were as expansive as the other Hives? He refused to believe his home wasn't special. That was their advantage then - the intimacy of a smaller number.

"Not all - most. Not many as big, within or outside." He said with pride, knowing he had been lovingly crafted by something more powerful than random chance. He was beautiful as Mother had determined.

"Like you? Sorry. You may be many things. We are all many things." Sair was full of challenging questions, and he wished he could sweep into their mind and answer every single one, as Mother had done for him. They walked a different path, and he could only hope that it would reconnect with the Hive's in the future.

He gestured with a wing to each tunnel mentioned. "That one goes to Orion. Cave of dust and stars. The other, Gemini. My family has made a home there." Perhaps their paths would cross sooner than he anticipated.

@Sair

Sair

"You're special, then!" The little one declared, beaming up at Juggernaut. If they were the biggest of all of them (who was them? his family? all gembounds? They were both gembounds, weren't they? And yet so different, and still the same. How strange.) then surely they had to be a special one! Sair decided that she was special too, because she was 'many things'. She didn't know what they meant, but she liked the idea of having many paths laid out before her.

"I will remember!" The foal declared with another yawn. "Gemini. Home..." Stars sounded pretty, Sair thought, their mind starting to drift away before their eyes opened again. When had they closed them? "For after?" What started as a statement turned into a tentative question. Would the offer still stand if she didn't take it now? She hoped so. Sair touched a gentle hoof to Juggernaut's limb. She was right, the feathers were soft. She liked the word home, the idea of it. Of family. Somewhere to belong. Would she belong there?

Thoughts drifted to dreams as Juggernaut would realize Sair had drifted off, lifted hoof sliding slowly down their feathered carapace limb to settle firmly on the ground. Her question would not be answered, not yet, but she would seek out the Hive eventually, if only to thank Juggernaut for not letting her hatch alone.

"Speaking." Thinking. Doing.
OOC:

We don't know how to accept we're just a product of a chance /
And less like gods but more like plants

@Juggernaut
/exit , nap time