For a whole cycle, the chrysali had been growing as the new life within them developed. Each of them, the two dark stones and the blue, had grown as large as they could be and would soon come open. A lioness was lying next to them, her head resting on one of the black stones while her side was pressed against her husband. Her breaths were rhythmic as she slept, dreaming of the children to come. Within the stone that she rested on the creature slept as well. She slept until something told her to awake and a blue eye came open. Around her the world was dark, cramped, but warm... Though it was time. She knew it was because her limbs were starting to ache. Tentatively she reached out with a gentle paw to touch the top of the tomb, then her claws unsheathed and scraped against the top. It created a rough sound... One that alerted the lioness.

Makyna's ears perked as she sleepily raised her head. Was... Was it time? The lioness touched her nose to the bear's cheek, eyes sparking excitedly. "Leon! I... I think--" Crack! A white paw burst from the black tomb followed slowly by another paw and then, a head. Slowly, the sleepy eyes of a hybrid poked from the tomb and blinked around at the dark room until finally they settled on the bright eyes of the lioness and the bear. For some reason she knew that these were her parents and instantly she felt a love for them.

A smile came onto her face followed by a happy giggle as she clapped and then spilled from the rest of the chrysalis. Makyna picked the tiny fluff up by the scruff and then placed her right in front of her and Leon. "Hello there, my child, welcome to the world!" She squeaked excitedly. The child's eyes looked up happily at her parents before she yawned and fell onto her back. The lioness in front of her could feel joyful tears forming in her eyes... Oh, she was so happy.

Cadence

@Baroque @Sonata @Leon

For a long, long time, there was nothing. It was a comfortable nothing, safe and quiet. Only the muffled, dull roar of a great beast sometimes disturbed the creature inside of its dark prison... But most of the time, it was relaxing, hushed and gentle, soothing the being deeper and deeper into sleep.

... But occasionally, especially as of recently, the slumbering denizen felt something. A tremor. Perhaps the fog of sleep was not quite as thick as one might think, but rather more like hundreds and thousands of tattered blankets. The movements came irregularly, the slumbering being noticed, often in in bunches, punctuated by a great fwump or just as often, they would fade away until it could not feel them anymore. These things did not make sense for it had no context for them, but it noticed and remembered them anyway.

The creature dwelling in the drifting darkness grew accustom to the tremors as well, taking them in stride along side the ever distance roar. For a while, the sleeper found peace and continued to let the world go by around them, comfortable and as always, safe.

Until one day, a horrible noise. One so much worse than the tremors or the distant rumbling-- a screeching, squealing, like nails on the dweller's own tomb. It brought panic to the half-conscious beast, waking it like a monster being struck in the face. Tiny noises escaped from a mouth the thing did not know it had, and frantically it tried to move and found that the blackness was solid around it.

Baroque

poor bby is stuck...

The hybrid trapped away in the blue chrysalis had opened their eyes days ago. She was content enough to lay in the warm, dark place for longer. It was almost comforting, as if she were an infant in a crib - but the sound of nails against chalkboard caused the rims of her eyes to abruptly widen. Her mouth moved to produce soundless words into the endless darkness; something she was sure meant 'who's there?' or even 'what are you doing?'

Chills of fear abruptly shot down her spine and huge, bumbling paws pressed against the dark walls of her stone prison; pushing and banging against the wall until a thick cracked appeared in her world, light piercing the darkness. She gasped and she tried to back away from it; but the chrysalis began to cave in on itself.

The cold air hit her like a kick in the gut. As the blue stone shattered around her she sat, soaked and shivering, wide-eyed in fear. She gasped and she coughed, shoulders hunched as she stared around her. There was a massive brown thing, a smaller yellow-thing, and an even smaller white-thing. Somewhere, she knew there was something near by and a quick, frightened glance told her it was a huge black rock.

A pink tongue lolled out, grazing over her jowls. Who were these people? What was this horrible place?

Leon was exhausted. The past few days had simply been a mess - from practicing his magic to heading out at the last minute to curbstomp Hasira into the ground, it felt like he hadn't gotten a chance to rest. His body was still recovering from the fight with the stag a few weeks ago, just after the wedding. He had sustained burn upon burn, his skin was gnarled and blackened and twisted with recovering skin, and his bones often ached. If it wasn't his bones, then it was the wounds themselves, sometimes reopened from extraneous movement or boiling over with blisters. Not to mention whatever damage he had received from the fight with Hasira; even though they'd left him alive, the bear was near confident he wouldn't be posing a threat to his children with Makyna. Not after he'd seen what Leon could do to him.

Still, the bear treasured sleep. He relished this comfort with his wife, and when she had prodded him awake, at first he was tempted to brush her off and continue sleeping. But then there was a shattering sound - obsidian and aquamarine breaking. The sound caused his eyes to peel wide open, jerking his head towards the chrysali - on instinct, heat roiled in his stomach, concentrating near his paws, preparing an onslaught against whatever fiend tried to harm his children.

Instead, it was them he saw.

First a small white face poking out of the obsidian. Makyna wasted no time reaching forward, plucking it from the chrysalis and bringing it to them. Leon sat up, blinking down at the little thing. His brain could hardly wrap around what he was seeing. Orange eyes lingered on her, then flipped to the next chrysalis as it too shattered and revealed a second white form. His sleepy smile broadened and the bear reached forward, gently lifting her from the shards to hold her in his big, fat bear arms. Just as quickly noises has begun to radiate from the final chrysalis, and he turned to look - only whatever was inside was struggling for escape. Leon hesitated, glancing down at the one in his arms, then inched his big rump over to last chrysalis. "Just wait," He mumbled to no one in particular. There, he picked at the stone, trying to open up a hole in it. Meanwhile, a gentle heat began to emanate from the bear, as did a soft glowing light, illuminating the den and bringing its temperature to something a little more comfortable.

@Makyna

After the initial one there soon came another one. Another white creature with the undeniable features of both her and Leon came into view. She was absolutely gorgeous! Burning orange eyes and there was the stripe, the same stripe she had on her own face. It was strange to see her own features mirrored in another... It was strange and a beautiful thing. The lioness reached out with her muzzle to flash her pink tongue out and gently caress the new life. Then, she turned her attention to the other tiny white ball of fluff with the blue-eyes. She licked at the blue-eyed ones headfur. For some reason it was a bit more tufty than the other's fur but after some diligence she was able to press it down which the cub didn't seem too pleased about. She too was precious. They both were and still there was another.

Makyna's eyes turned to the dark chrysalis that till had the last child in it. It appeared that he was having trouble escaping. Makyna felt a strike a fear go through her. Plenty of times she had seen young gembounds struggling to escape but when it was her own child she felt a little different. These gems weren't like the ones the cave birthed. They were of her own breath and stone. Precious and different. Perhaps there were different rules to these sorts of gems.

She appreciated when Leon attempted to help the last one and in anticipation of the new arrival Makyna laid on her side and offered her own warmth along with Leon's. She didn't know how far along in their development they were or if they would want to explore or talk. To be quite honest she was still stunned, stunned into silence at her children's beauty. Tears still rolled down her face as she saw the blue-eyed one head over to the obsidian. Its large paws began to drum a rhythm on the outside of the stone. Musical at birth... She wasn't expecting that.

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337
@Baroque @Sonata Leon
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6/10

"Talking looks like this!"
"Singing looks like this!"
Thinking looks like this...

More noises, cracking and shifting. The earth rumbled distantly, stirring the prision as the being inside tried to escape. There was a sensation as though there was something in the creature's mouth and it gagged, unable to find something else that it needed now that it was concious. A horrible fear arose in the unborn child as the sound of scratching came again, this time all around the poor denizen.

Soon after, a pounding louder than the thing's own core began to bash into its ears. More and more it was coming to understand its shape, despite being confined in its cage. Panic seized the creature and it tried to cry out again, choking more on the strange, thick volume in the shell... But suddenly there was a light.

The child did not know what to make of the initial pinprick of light. It knew what it was, essencially, but coming to terms with yet another sense beyond hearing and touch-- it was almost too much. The void of solid shadows that contained the youth started to fall apart around it and there was a chill in front of its nose, but heat, so much heat, tracing down its back.

A golden baby boy spilled backwards from the shell of obsidian, right into his father, a sticky-paw nearly hitting his sister in the face as he went. The liquid that once kept him alive in his gem egg he fought fiercely to cough out now, trying to get his first breath of fresh air. Warmth washed over him again as his big blue eyes focused on the huge brown, glowing face of his father, fiery gaze burning down at him.

Finally, Baroque took his first breath. The oxygen rushed into his half-drowned lungs and the boy felt an overwhelming emotion, his first of many to come... And he immediately burst into sobbing tears, whining and flailing his paws in the air. His bright cyan eyes closed and his lips pulled back, slobber and spit sputtering from his muzzle as he wailed away.

No, life would not be easy for this one.

Baroque

@Sonata

A quiet mewl escaped the hybrid's throat as the bigger thing grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. As the warmth began to touch her again she felt a wave of contentment wash over her.

That was until the third rock broke open and a gold-brown tiny thing rolled out and nearly hit her in the face. A second mew was forced from her vocal chords as she promptly ducked down to press her entire face against Leon's fur, digging and crawling until she was 'hidden'.

Which... wasn't very much. The white rump and stubby, grey-rimmed tail was still visible, but the rest of her was covered in thick brown fur. Regardless, it seemed to suffice.

@Cadence

The tiny fluff had been rapping her paws on the side of the black chrysalis. She didn't know why it just felt right! Besides, wasn't there someone else in there? She and another white ball of fluff had come out of their rock-things... Wouldn't there be another coming out too?

She wasn't long to wait before the big brown thing reached over and helped break a golden thing out. Oh! It was another! She was right! The blue-eyed white fluff stopped pounding on the stone as she turned to look up at the golden thing who was making loud mouth-sounds. It was kind of... annoying. The white blue-fluff sat on her rump and stuffed her paws in her ears. Gee! How loud! Why was he doing that?

In protest she began to make a few growling sounds, indicating her discomfort of the loud thing. Would the big brown and big yellow stop him?

The bear adamantly picked at the chrysalis with one paw, clutching his orange-eyed daughter with the other, in a slow and delicate attempt to free their final child from its shell. Before long, he had cleaved a hole into the chrysalis and then the whole thing just seemed to break down in front of him, shards of obsidian crackling away with a rush of gestational fluid and the grand reveal of the third grizzlion. A small tawny form came tumbling backwards out of the chrysalis, thumping against Leon's leg; he was barely quick enough to protect the white one from the bump, and then suspended his free paw just above the boy, staring with panic as he seemed to struggle with his first breath. And then... he cried.

That panic only exacerbated and coupled with alarm, fear, and confusion, but most of all it was smothered with an overwhelming love and affection for the tiny creatures that had all at once broken into this life. While his orange-eyed daughter mewled in protest against her brother's cries, trying to burrow into Leon's thick fur, and the sweet child in Makyna's grasp grumbled in response, Leon sucked in a breath and scooped his son up into his other arm. "Hey, shh... It's alright. You're gonna be alright." The bear murmured gently to his son, tendrils of heat persisting in radiance from his form. He leaned his nose in close, giving a sniff to the boy's forehead, and then touching it ever so lightly. Then there was a tender kiss, and Leon withdrew his head.

He could feel the magic crawling over his skin, aching for release, for the practice that he'd been honing all this time in preparation of their emergence. The bear closed his eyes and he allowed it free. There was a soothing glow that shimmered over their heads, all of them, in the maw of the den. It was first a pale colourless light, and then it began to take shape in a yellow ripple in the atmosphere. It gleamed and sparkled, turning to green, and then a sweet cerulean with streaks of chartreuse. Then it became purple, and then it adopted a reddish glow to it while strafes of green and blue shifted among the heart of the illusion. A colourful aurora began to dance above them, subdued and playful all the same.

@Makyna

despite all the time spent in polaris away from his parents, the constant reminder of when exactly his new siblings were going to emerge did not dare to escape from his thoughts. time was flying and the chrysalis were going open up anytime now which was why quintus had made sure to spend some time in pisces with his parents, not wanting to miss the birth day of his siblings. the gembound was not too far away from his parents once he had heard the joyous voice of his mother, molding up the magic inside of him, quintus would cast the red sense spell and instantly register everything that his mother said along with the noise of a shattering chrysalis. eyes would widen in surprise before the deactivation of the spell and instantly the feline would quickly make his way to his parents and his soon to be born siblings. quintus would make it just in time to see the first one come out which caused a smile of pure joy to show in his face, he was always curious as to how a combination between his father and mother was going to look like and here he was looking at the result. despite the excitement bubbling inside of him, surprise seemed to have stunned the gembound evident in the fact that his mouth was stupidly gaping open. another white furred one, eyes would scan the frame of the two female grizzlions with admiration knowing that despite their current awkward look, they would surely grow to match the beauty of their mother. the struggle of the babe still stuck inside of his chrysalis would come to his attention causing quintus to chuckle in amusement, not being sure on how he could help the newborn the gembound would merely sit and look in anticipation. eventually leon would come to the rescue and out the chrysalis would come the chubby frame of a crying grizzlion, life is definitely not going to be easy for this one. watching as his father would attempt to comfort his spawn caused him to smile once more, i'm already in love with their life, taking a moment to look over the three newborn cubs the lion would look to his mother with a tilt of his head;  "you two decided on names?"