Sorda shifted in her sleep, still curled tight in her chrysalis. As she slowly drifted to awareness, she was keenly aware of being squeezed, the tight space of her chrysalis feeling impossibly small. The faint question of why she was in her chrysalis popped up, but it was quickly drowned by the need to escape. She twisted, kicking out with both talons, scrapping and scratching against her pyrite prison. After lots of pushing and scratching and desperately trying to escape, the crystal gave way to sweet fresh air. She breathed in gratefully, greedily, until the flood panic and instincts calmed and she had room to think.

What had happened?

She sat in the middle of her shattered chrysalis, beginning to examine her surroundings. Evenetually her gaze drifted up to the blue crystalline giant looming above.

Oh. That had happened.

As soon as she remembered, she pushed it back. Now wasn't the time to think about... that... She quickly looked to the other three chrysalises, waiting for them to hatch and desperately hoping that they were alright.

"Words Words."
Thoughts

tags: @Tupu @Un Poco Loco
notes: Its hatchin' time!!!

coding by wulf for template purposes

Tupu awoke with a start. Her limbs kicked, trying to fight an enemy that wasn't there. She hadn't exited the state of pure fear from before. The pain was gone, but the experience was still there. She bleated for help from within her chrysalis. She thrashed. And then, slowly, stopped. Not from calm. No, they were exhausted. It took the gembound a moment of exhaustion, one full of fear but it set in. She was in that weird round thing that they had been in the beginning. The strange attacker wasn't here. Tupu is safe. Tupu didn't know who tried to eat Tupu before, but they didn't like it. Herd should have seen danger.

Tupu wanted free. Tupu needed to find herd, warn herd of danger. Tupu thrashed against the walls of her chrysalis, but this time with intent. Her hooves came crashing against the black stone. Once. They paused to regain their breath. Twice. Another pause, a small crack. On the third clatter of hooves against stone, they burst free. The stale air within their chrysalis was replaced with the cool from outside. They slid out, tumbling head over hooves. The experience left them exhausted. Tupu tried to stand, finding their legs feeble.

She was unaware, but she looked gaunt, pale, like a ghost. Ribcage visible through thin skin. They found their feet, and whipped around in a panic, stumbling over each leg.trying to spot other herd members. They needed to warn them. Tupu spotted Sorda, and trotted towards them, ungainly. They didn't have the words for it, but they had to warn the bird. 'Danger!', they wanted to say. They did the only thing they knew how to. They bleated a warning.

She woke slowly.

Paws stretched out, testing against a corrupted chrysalis, painted and tainted, finding herself trapped. It didn't scare her, though--nothing much scared her. Instead, she just knew she needed to get out.

So she stretched again, pressed against it. Pulled for her Magic as she had before, although that had been more of a sneeze, and found it wonting. She should have been concerned--a smarted Gembound would have been.

She was not a smarter Gembound.

She was not a smart Gembound.

Period.

So instead she whalloped her paws against it, over and over.

Of course, nothing happened.

@Sorda @Tupu

Sorda felt immense relief when Tupu broke through her chrysalis, but that relief quickly dissipated as she noticed how gaunt the Gerenuk was. She closed the distance, though being wary of Tupu's clumsiness and their small size compared to their friend. "I'm sorry.." She said, thinking Tupu's panic was directed at them, and what they had made them do.

Sorda was distracted by the faint thumping and scratching coming from the kitten's chrysalis. She whipped around to face the chrysalis, and upon seeing faint movement inside, she ran over, motioning for Tupu to follow. She scratched against the chrysalis with her beak and talons, trying to help her friend escape. She made a small frustrated growl when her scratching proved ineffective, but continued trying nonetheless.

"Words Words."
Thoughts

tags: @Tupu @Un Poco Loco
notes: Its hatchin' time!!!

coding by wulf for template purposes

Sorda was saying words. They did not seem scared of danger like Tupu. They tried to identify the word. Soh rie? Tupu did not know what the word meant. Did it mean danger? Did it mean no danger? Small fluffy gerenuk Sorda was not scared, maybe it was no danger. Tupu paused in her bleating, perplexed. Tupu moved her lips in an odd manner, trying to form the word. "Ssah." She said, quietly struggling to say the word. "SAH. WIE." She said. Tupu flickered her ears, satisfied at a job well done. Confirming Sorda's thought that there was no danger.

Tupu followed Sorda closely, fearful of the strange noseebighurt. If she strayed from the herd, then it would get her. She sniffed the chrysalis. It smelled familiar, but she was too stupid to place the smell in her memory. The small feather gerenuk was scratching it, was this food? Tupu licked it. It did not taste like food. Did they want to break it? Never one to go against the herd, Tupu stood for a while, gathering their strength, before turning around and giving the chrysalis a kick.

@Sorda
@Un Poco Loco

She kept whalloping her paws against the chrysalis, perhaps not as panicked as she should have been, finding her thumping joined quickly by scratching and then a loud crunch as something dark slammed into it, sending cracks spiderwebbing across it before finally shattering.

The kitten tumbled out, landing on all four paws in a sit. She blinked.

Her under-chin eye blinked.

Her eyes widened.

Her under-chin eye widened.

"I can see my paws!"

@Sorda @Tupu

Deli

Deli was a little late, having gotten a little lost and confused after leaving the strange hole in the ground. The visions and voices were disorienting, but they were focused on this task - they had to get back to those chrysalis they'd left alone in Polaris! Before they all hatched and left! They wanted to see what they'd look like, what abominations they'd become.

They came just at the right time - they were still there, only just beginning to emerge from their shells. At first, Deli was disappointed. They all looked totally normal from here, but they they got close and noticed some things - the fracture gemstone on two of the children and...

The cat. Had an eye. On her chin.

Deli stood over them, staring at the cat for a moment before laughter burst from their jaws. They doubled over, holding their stomach as they howled. "Oh! OH! Oh my gosh, look at you! You look ridiculous, look at your chin! Oh the Spire really fucked you up, didn't it? You idiots I can't believe you actually at the Spire!" They wheezed and barked, caught in absolutely off-their-shits hysteric amusement, laughing at the four kids and their idiocy.

---

Sorda paused as Tupu began to speak. She wasn't exactly sure how to react- Was Tupu trying to apologize back, or was she just mimicking the words? Did Tupu even know how to speak? Sorda hadn't heard her speak very much before. Deciding that she'd have to investigate this more later, Sorda went back to trying to break Poco free.

Sorda shot Tupu a thankful smile as she managed to crack the crystal open, even in her skeletal state. The kitten tumbled out, landing in a sit in the middle of the shattered chrysalis.

"You can see your paws?" She asked, but the question was halfway out her mouth before she noticed the chin-eye.

Oh.

Well, of course what she'd done had consequences, other than what had immediately happened. Sorda glanced at Tupu, and quickly concluded that Poco was the only one who had the misfortune (or maybe fortune?) of growing a new eye.

Sorda didn't have long to think about this, however, when some weird, colorful dog came out of nowhere and started laughing at them.

"Hey!" She shouted, indignantly. "Shut up!" She fluffed her feathers up, glaring angrily at the dog. "Who even are you, anyways?"

"Words Words."
Thoughts

tags: @Tupu @Un Poco Loco @Deli
notes: ---

coding by wulf for template purposes

Tupu turned around, staring at first the bird, and then kitten blankly. Then it clicked--this was the cat! Tupu lowered her neck, sniffing the small kitten. They had a weird mark on their chin. Did they eat too much grass? Tupu stuck a tongue out, intending to clean smallfuzzy herdmate. A shadow grew, dwarfing the children. Tupu's tongue zooped back within her lips. She flicked her ears back, and turned around to face it with wide eyes.

It was tall, taller than all of them and with big sharp teeth. It made a loud noise, like high pitched coughing. This was noseebighurt. Tupu attempted to buck, to scare the large dog, but her front legs buckled, atrophied from the time spent in the chrysalis. She merely ended up falling flat on her belly. But her white feathery herdmate was using words at the big one. Tupu was awed by their bravery. They weren't scared of the big hurter. She wouldn't be either! Tupu picked herself up shakily, and gave the laughing dog one good long bark.

@Deli
@Un Poco Loco

For a moment, Poco giggled, bouncing her forepaws and watching them shift, looking from paw to paw using her chin-eye. And then there was a shadow over her, and she grinned, leaning up to sniff at Tupu, "Hello Tupu!" she beamed, happy to see the deer-thing even withered as it was, and the bird too though she was sad not to see the other.

Something approached them, large and fluffy and somewhat familiar? And then it was laughing, and Poco Loco puffed up, scrambling to stand up all the way, her short fur standing on end and tall fluffing up like a bottle-brush, hissing and hopping from side to side, "It's not bad I can see everything! Can you see everything cause I don't think you can!" she spat, although it might have been scarier if she were a bigger cat.

@Sorda @Tupu @Deli