Feire

This time you're free; I know it's hard to believe.
It was blissfully dark. Dark and soft in only a way one coming out of a deep, full dream could experience.

Little paws clenched and relaxed periodically, twitching with every little movement that the tiny being inside made.

As a numb sort of consciousness began to dawn on the little fox, it’s limbs stretched just a little further, half-formed claws poking out to curiously scrape at the interior of… whatever this strange holding was.

The little fox gave one final stretch, this time using it’s tiny, nubby forepaws to reach out further than it had ever done before.

But-

With a little jerk of movement, rooted in surprise, it found itself horribly compressed, like this infinite world it had found itself in had suddenly become a cage. A new sense of something this little fox would one day come to call ‘Claustrophobia’. It kicked and wriggled in it’s gemstone shell, feeling the membrane give with a certain twinge of satisfaction.

Shards of the egg began to crack and splinter away, gathering in the bottom of the container and tinkling onto the hard ground outside.

Splinters turned into shards, and shards to great chunks of shimmering stone, tumbling down with a --clunk!

The little fox was free of it’s gemstone prison now, but he had become horribly aware of how cold it was in the mysterious outside. The warm fluid that had once filled the egg had spilt itself over the cold stone, rapidly cooling into a chilled goo that left the tiny Gembound shivering.

It’s first sound forced itself out of it’s wet jaws; something between a chirp and a pitchy bark, all wet and bubbly in the back of it’s throat. It was a cry for something-- warmth, food and air, all at once. It coughed to clear it’s airways, stumbling out of the now-broken and useless stone one paw at a time.

It’s heartbeat pounded furiously in it’s chest. Where was the warmth? The food? The comfort that it had once taken for granted?

It nosed around for a miserable few seconds, sat on it’s haunches, and without any thought of the danger that might be about or the unknown creatures on the prowl it started wailing to the high heavens.