A playful paw bats against their leg, and Chitin gives a short bark! of surprise, falling into a play-bow. Their little reindeer tail wags furiously, and they watch with eager patience as he bounds into the grass. They don't wanna leave Mama, not yet, but Bayo is right there and they wanna play!

Their sibling emerges from the grass slowly, carefully, then goes right back to his cheerful yapping. Chitin gives another weird bark and bounds over to him, giving Bayo another lick, right beneath his chin, before leaping away, reindeer heritage making them mobile and quick.

They stay next to Mama, of course, because the thought of leaving her is kinda scary right now, but there's so much to do, so much to explore—a cluster of brown mushrooms against the nearby wall catch their eye, settled next to other clusters of white and red and more white, and with a little glance back over their shoulder, as if making sure their siblings are still there, they run over to the shelves of rotting wood and soil.

They stare, imploringly, at the mushrooms, as if wanting them to reveal their secrets. They lean closer, giving those brown ones they spotted a little sniff—then, with a quick bite of their teeth, they pluck the dome of one of the mushrooms clean off.

It tastes weird, but not in a bad way; Chitin's tail gives a couple more solid wags in excitement before they turn around and head back to their mother, sticking their head out to present the mushroom to her. Their voice is muffled as they speak around the specimen—"Mama!"

What's this? they would ask, if they had the vocabulary or pronunciation needed right now to express a question like that.

@Enoki

Enoki waved a paw at Omen, perhaps trying to bat at the bird or perhaps just saying hello. Either way, they were far too far to actually hit the thing. They raised their head from where they were laying and looked down at the siblings, quietly weighing their options. On one hand, Enoki would have rather liked to go play and cuddle with them, but on the other hand, the marsupial instinct to cling to Mama at all costs was a strong one. Enoki whined, unsure which instinct to give in to, before ultimately deciding that she was pretty close anyway and that they could just go back if they decided they didn't like this new thing.

Carefully, Enoki dislodged themselves from Giggle and crawled over to Bayo and Chitin before reaching with grabby hands to squeeze at whichever one of them was nearest, a happy whining noise bubbling up out of their throat. "Bayooooo! Chi'in." Close enough. They'd get it eventually. The hard sound was just kind of a lot for them at the moment.


@giggle
whoof sorry, i lost the tag

The children were proving to be... well, children. Some were hatched and spoke, questioned, or even used their magic--these three were adorable, babbling, and content to play and snuggle. Giggle was fine with that, of course; let them be adorable for as long as they desired. She basked in the warmth of it.

After a moment, inspiration struck her. A moment of focus, and a wisp appeared: a light that bobbed over Bayo (and his new belly-lying hole in the ground) and then lifted up, over the bird-swiping Enoki, and finally up over Chitin. It flicked this way and that, not unlike a sort of slow-moving, glowing cat toy.

"Look!" Giggle encouraged, warm, playful. "That's a wisp--made with magic. Can you catch it-?"

It was a gentle challenge that she offered--a little game, if they wanted it. Or perhaps they'd prefer to rest; hatching could be such a tiring business, for one who'd done nothing but sleep, she knew.

Omen, meanwhile--despite Enoki's distance--had fluttered up a little farther away.

Just in case.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

@Bayo

Bayo yapped at Enoki and waddled forward eagerly, only looking up to peer at Chitin's mushrooms curiously before rolling around to paw at Enoki, giggling wildly. He bumped his head against the other and cooed his affections for his sibling, tail wagging.

A light distracted him, and he perked up, standing and walking after it, eyes bright. A wisp? Magic?

"What mean?", he asked, standing on his hide legs to paw at it as it hovered over Chitin, accidentally hitting his head on them on the way down.

A head bump was given in apology before he ran off after it, jumping and trying to catch it in his jaws, barking at it and cackling. He already loved it, and wanted to catch it and bring it to his mother as a prize.

Bayo leapt into the air, paws reaching for it.

A hind paw caught on a rock and he pitched forward, face hitting the ground as he tumbled and rolled. He lay on the ground in a heap, stunned and not really knowing how to react, his nose hurting. He slowly turned around with watery eyes, nose bleeding, his own muss up bringing tears to his eyes.

"M-mama?", he whimpered, "Owie..."

Bayo may be loud otherwise, but his cries were practically non-existent, though his tears fell easily. He just sniffled quietly, embarrassed more than he was truly hurt. Head wounds just bled a lot.

@Chitin @Enoki

There's—there's light! Bright light, glimmering and floating above them; Chitin stares for a few moments, enraptured to the point that the mushroom they were so curious about just a little earlier falls from their mouth.

Pretty…

Before they can try to catch it, or even try to examine it further, however, they're distracted yet again by the sensation of gentle hands grabbing at them. They blink and look down, confused; only for a soft, childish grin to show on their face as they register the presence of their sibling.

"Enki!" they exclaim. Not quite, but close enough—and, besides, it's not like they care, being a literal toddler and also too excited about the presence of their sibling grabbing at them. They lay back down, flopping down onto the ground with all the grace of said toddler, nudging at Enoki with a nose. There's a word for this; a word that they want that expresses how they want to squeeze back at Enoki despite not having the same kind of paws at them, but alas, they are one and cannot grasp the word 'cuddle' just yet, so instead they just nudge into Enoki and repeat, "En-oki!"

They occupy themselves with nuzzling at their sibling, soft and happy and loving, and for a few moments, all their head is filled with is warmth.

The sound of a sniffle draws their attention. Not just any sniffle—a sniffle from their sibling. A sniffle from their crying sibling, and just like that, Chitin is up in an instant, hooves scrabbling for purchase on the stone as they dart up to see what happened, not really thinking about whether or not their other sibling is still clinging to them. "Bayo!"

They slow to a stop as they come closer to him, eyes—eye, rather—filled with worry as they sniff at him. The source of his hurt is made clear in moments; there's blood on his head.

He's bleeding.

That's a lot of blood.

Chitin nudges at him, expression full of trepidation. "Oh… ouchie…"

That's a bad ouchie, they think. Why else would there be so much blood?

They turn to look over their shoulder at Mama, their first instinct to ask her for help. "Mama!" they exclaim. Bayo's hurt and that's bad and they don't want their sibling to be hurt!

@Enoki

Enoki was babbling meaninglessly as they hugged their siblings, basking in the affection and feeling more than happy. But then Chitin was startling and scrambling away, and Enoki looked around with wide, confused eyes. What had happened? Then, they noticed -- Bayo was crying, albeit quietly, and Enoki felt confused. When had he gotten hurt? They crawled over and grabbed him, hugging him close as Chitin called out for Giggle's assistance. That felt like a good idea, they decided.

They licked the side of Bayo's face and patted him. "G'nan be okay," they managed, probably squeezing him too tightly.


@bayo
@giggle
@chitin

Of all the infinite things that could've happened, Bayo immediately smashing his head open was not one that she'd foreseen. Not that she'd tried to actually, magically see this particular moment.

Maybe she should have.

Worry spiked up in her, and she was at his side in an instant, though for the others' sakes she tried to appear calm. The scent of blood screamed down her nose and into her brain, fear flaring in her eyes. "Shhh, I got you--it's okay," she crooned, hurriedly, but what the fuck could she actually do? Black nose settled in the fur around the little wound, and--as if summoned from sheer panic--her magicka welled up.

She felt a pain her own skull--the ache and tear of a minor fall, really--and realized, suddenly, that the wound had been... shared. And after a moment's startled inspection, she realized it'd been healed. Wonder twinned with confusion--how the hell did I do that-?

Ahh-... but that magic. The magic of what could be. Had she just drawn from another time, one where he hadn't been injured, and simply... imparted that reality on them?

Well, the bleeding had stopped in any case, and she stepped hesitantly back, trying to ignore the emotions swirling like black chaos in the back of her mind. "Better-?" she asked Bayo, and then looked to Chitin, and to Enoki. She forced a warm, placid expression, the better to try to calm them with, if they needed it. "We all fall, some time or another. We make mistakes, we can get hurt. It's okay, though," she offered, gently. "That's a part of life, okay? So's getting back up again, and trying again."

She gave a light nod toward the wisp, bobbing half-forgotten; it was there, a distraction, if they wanted it.

rain stock: D Sharon Pruitt wiki commons; hyena Benjamin Hollis on flickr

ooc note: this thread's gettin OLD folks, wanna close soon? happy to fade to black or whatevs!

@Bayo

Kind, sweet little Bayo bumped his head into his siblings, trying not to get blood on them, "S'okay!! S'okay, am okay!!"

He hugged Enoki and thumped his tail gently, nuzzling Enoki to try and say that he was alright. It was a bump and he wasn't hurt too bad. Then he looked up at his mother and pressed against her too, even as his tears fell.

"Mama...", he sniffled, "I okay. Bayo okay."

Bayo winced at her nose, his little tail going the entire time, but stayed still, his childish energy dampened by the sting of pain and his wounded pride. He felt a bit dumb, actually, since he'd been so clumsy as to hurt himself so easily. But maybe that was him. Maybe he was clumsy and it had nothing to do with smarts. Yeah! That was it!

"Thanks mama," he cooed, wowed by the power of a mother's kiss.

Even if it was magic, he didn't recognize it as such, at least not yet. He grinned up at Giggle and snuggled into his siblings, ears down as he snuggled into their fur, licking at them and nuzzling them to calm them down. As their big brother, it was his duty!

Bayo ignored the wisp in favor of curling up with his siblings, careful of his belly gem, his head ducked and limbs all tucked in. He was too tired to play all of a sudden, the classic case of having 100% energy until his battery ran out. It was nap time, and he willingly let his eyes close, sighing softly as he dozed off.

ooc: i'll start the end of the thread and maybe have a wee cuddle pile :o
@Chitin

Never underestimate the power of a mother's kiss. (Or, in this case, a panic-casted spell that appeared to be from a mother's kiss; Chitin was much too young to tell the difference, in any case.)

As the blood fades from Bayo's head, Chitin calms as well; walking over with soft, searching eyes, looking for an injury that just isn't there anymore. Relief and awe glints in their working eye.

"No more bad..." they breathe, shocked. They wanna do that. They wanna be a healer, some day; they wanna be able to help others like that.

They wanna be able to keep their siblings safe.

Bayo's nuzzles and other gestures of affection are returned in kind by Chitin, snuggling back into their brother's warmth and following him as he curls up, undeterred from his side for even a moment. Gotta keep him safe... gotta keep their siblings happy...

Ever-so-slowly, their thoughts drift off, curled up at their brother's flank, at peace.

Zzzzz.

@Enoki

;exit to sleep