Latched to the soft, round belly of their dearest pops, Pelly found themself spun into the plot of some intriguing dream.

~ * ~ * ~

The sky, soft, white, blazing with a scent unknown, perhaps familiar in some distant past . . . . ozone rippling beneath the skin, thunder crackling, grazing the lens of each eye, good natured laughter . . . . and like some towering sentry over an outstretched field, there was noise! hope! joy! vastness . . . . trees and trees and trees and trees, bedazzled, bedazzling . . . . the sun covered by its own ashen smoke, a blanket warm, milk draped over their backs, the stone workers, the farmers . . . . and their god! their god? defender, amongst the hoard, the baker's dozen baking soldiers, guardians, bananas in his bright and bushy beard . . . . and noise and laughter and warmth, a guiding gaze, the ozone layer and how it battled the sun, the dazzling sun!, the dazzling trees! trees! trees!, the vineyard feasting, creeping from their fingertips, never-ending, the carrot.

-- the carrot?

~ * ~ * ~

And with one swift lick to Pelly's fuzzball of a head, the field was drowned in water like honey. The carrot? the carrot? the carrot? The child awoke. Hello child!

...Hello!

What a strange dream. Pelly fully expected to forget it in oh, one, two seconds from now... but to their surprise, it didn't go! Huh. A strange facet for a strange dream.

Strange dreams weren't actually that out of the ordinary for Pelly. Ever since hatching, they had occasionally been graced or visited by a dream that seemed... out of their control. Dreams that took a life of their own, waltzed into Pelly's life, and then sashayed out the door soon after. Usually they only left one or two keepsakes in Pelly's eager paws -- just little snacks to spin a story from. Pelly would then stuff those (often nonsensical) stories like cotton balls into Mercy's patient ears, spinning and spinning and spinning 'til they finally ran out of breath or attention and started doing something else. It was a whole mill, a whole drill, a system. A system through which Pelly had discovered their own name, actually!

But, besides, that, dreams of... something protecting something? and plants growing on stuff were commonplace. Pelly didn't think much of of, assigned the cause to Mercy's garden and the side effects of living in a safe and cozy home. But this dream in particular... felt different...

carrot? carrot? carrot?

...in several ways.

Pelly had an urge to take a walk through the garden. Goofy, gangly limbs hauled themselves upright, and the cub groggily stumbled off in some... partially unknown direction. Pelly was developing a subconscious understanding of the layout of their home, so the direction couldn't be completely bewilderingly unknown. Nevertheless, Pelly was in a sort of daze that prohibited them from thinking of any movement beyond "one paw in front of the other".

Eventually Pelly would wind up in a relatively clearly space near the edge of the garden. Was this... where Pelly was supposed to be...? Uhhh... well, anyways, Pelly would... Pelly would...

Staring at a clear spot for some time, Pelly could feel something near the back of their mind sort of... kicking in? It was making their nose a little itchy. Pelly figured it might just be a sneeze, so they would start to close their eyes, but then--!

POOF!

Something rapidly sprouted from the ground. Something bedazzled, bedazzling! Frantically, Pelly would swivel their head around, seeking for some kind of source or explanation. When none was to be found, they would smile wide and start calling out, with feeling! They were honestly a little too excited for words right now, so the weird pseudo-screaming noise they produced would have to work for now.


OC:
Pelly is calling out (their calls are sort of concerning, as is their smile) for anyone in their family to come and look at this awesome thingy they just grew!!

New children. Hatchlings, babies, kits, younglings. There was many names for the young ones new to the seven. Precious ones that should always be protected, never allow them into Hydra - don't let them close to danger. Rainstorm would not allow them to be hurt. It wasn't their job, not their job - they're being protected too. Shrieking. Danger, DANGER!

Rainstorm flings themselves forward, attempting to push magic through their being. When the feeling clicks, they're sent forward at a faster than brisk pace, whiskers quivering, ears picking up every echo of sound. Deep black claws scrape the ground with force, sending the sound forward along with it. They dodge the blobs that bounce through the sounds, around each of the wide pillars that streak out of the rock.

Crest in the air, tail-feathers splayed, Rainstorm listens. Clicking with their own voice, it takes a moment for them to find the thing they are looking for. Child, the baby, shrieking - crying.

"Are you hurt?" Their voice rings out, to the child - Rainstorm approaches - slowly, the child is part of their group, no danger here. But if the child is hurt... They could attack blindly. Blind bird. Rainstorm is a blind bird.

@Ampelio

Sure enough, something -- someone! -- would come, faster than Pelly could say something short like 'carrots cheez-its'. This person wasn't familiar to the baby-cub, but upon seeing them, Pelly's calls would drop into a quiet, mystified "Woooah..." They were so cool and pretty!!! Looked nothing like either of Pelly's pops, or Casimir or even Tobie. When they came, they didn't seem to catch onto what Pelly had just done; instead the asked if Pelly was hurt! "Wha-? Oh, nononono! Not hurt... look! Lookie!!" Pelly would point emphatically at the bananas they had just CREATED, formed from magic and earth! Pelly wished the spectacle to be BEHELD!!!

And while the stranger was (hopefully) beholding Pelly's masterful creation, the little cub would try to garner more information regarding identity. Stranger-Danger protocol stuff, right? ...Did they know about Stranger-Danger? Anyways- "Who're you?" The cub would plop down into a little sit and stare. "'m Am-pelly-oh. I like your earsies..." (The cub would raise a hand-paw and sort-of-point towards the aforementioned 'earsies' as if this stranger did not know the part to which they were referring.) They were pointy and tall, like Pelly's!

@Rainstorm

Rainstorm paused when the cub was clearly impressed with something. Was it them? Rainstorm wasn't... They weren't cool enough to warrant that kind of reaction. Only, there was no-one else here. Just the bird and the cub. The kid wasn't hurt, which was good - they didn't know what they would have been able to do if someone tried to hurt the child. Probably scare them away, but a small bird was not as scary as some would make it out to be (that wolf they scared before came to mind).

When they were told to look, Rainstorm let out a few clicks. It caught the things around them and filtered back the sounds in a way that let them know where things were. Rocks, lots of those - something else. It was curved in the slightest way, but Rainstorm couldn't tell what it was. It didn't move, or seem any dangerous, so the bird nodded confidently.

"Very nice." Things could still be nice even if Rainstorm didn't know what they were.

When Pelly moved, Rainstorm looked away from the curvy... Thing, and instead followed the movements until they stopped and the voice picked back up again. When their ears were mentioned, both of them wiggled a bit.

"Rainstorm. Nice to meet you Pelly." And that was genuine - it was so much easier to interact with children than adults. When they asked questions it was out of genuine curiosity and not other motives. "Thank you." They hummed. "Your earsies are nice too" Not that Rainstorm could see the color of them, but they knew the shape well enough.

"What are you doing out here?"

@Ampelio