In The Dark Of The Night...

[Thane Hampden]

To Thane's absolute delight, the rescued egg began to shake in his arms. "Oh hey, it's hatching!" he exclaimed, turning so that Kalla could watch as well. The pale Boreas bent her head as the egg continued to rock back and forth before a green snout suddenly poked through the shell and into the cool night. Eagerly, the pilot assisted the baby still stuck inside by peeling away the bits of shell and membrane that clung to its snout, quickly widening the hole so that the new arrival could see out properly. With a little more work, the top half of the shell was gone, scattered on the sand at Thane's feet.

Well, he wouldn't exactly call it cute, Thane thought at his examined the hatchling. It looked vaguely dragon-like, but even he could see the muscles rippling under the baby's skin was unlike that of dragons of fairy tales. He got a good view of its teeth as it snapped at the air, and so made sure his fingers were well away from its mouth. "What now?" he asked, wondering if he should keep carrying it or put the hatchling down.

I think we should go see what's nearby, the giant eagle said, training her gaze on the rustling patch of bushes. Thane had been so caught up in welcoming the new baby into the world that he hadn't noticed the sound, but a quick look at the bushes indicated that there was something there. Nodding in agreement, he slid down the quicksand-equipped sandune and approached the bushes, watching them wave slightly from the movement of whatever was hiding in them.

"Sibling of yours?" he murmured, glancing down at the baby Wher to see its reaction to the event.

[Deleted]

The lone Amethyst was just not having a good day. The shell was annoying her, the noises were annoying her, she was hungry, and she didn’t really know what was happening. The egg shell clung to her as she flailed around, but she was quickly chipping away at it, and in no time at all, it fell away. Not that that improved her mood any, of course. Hissing more, just so the world knew how upset she was, she was slowly working herself into one hell of a tantrum...at least until she found something shoved in her mouth. There was a moment of confusion where she went silent, while Meow Mix started poking around her dead parents.

The silence didn’t last for long, however. The brightly colored Amethyst was pretty promptly disgusted by what was in her mouth. From the crunchy bread to the sauce to the sauerkraut, it was just foul to the little beast. With a violent shake of her head, the sandwich went flying, and the Idiotic Brilliance Amethyst let out an angry screech. How dare they? That wasn’t proper food! She maybe didn’t know what ‘proper food’ was, but it certainly wasn’t that. With another angry hiss, the Amethyst promptly went to try and bite Mixie’s hand, wanting to make sure she understood the problem here.

And she would only get a brief, very untasty mouthful of not-flesh, before everything went weird.

Alice’s plan to move the parents was a good one, but perhaps not well thought out. With possible eggs or hatchlings under them, and Mixie’s hand poking under them also, everything just went badly. The dead Gold rolled at the cougar’s push, and knocked firmly into Mixie, trapping an arm under her and jostling the already unhappy Amethyst out of her other hand. Thankfully, the little hatchling landed safe on the sand, but Mixie was stuck for the time being.

The squeaking also stopped.

While the movement of the dead Gold had trapped Mixie, the shoving of the dead male did far worse to another. The Cinder Egg had been somewhat safe when things weren’t moving, tucked mostly under the Bronze, in a small sunken area in the sand. The Disobedient Brat Opal hadn’t been strong enough to do much more than make a small hole in it’s egg, and thus there simply was no way to move or escape when things became unstable and the dead male had been moved. The egg offered no real protection to the little Opal as it got crushed under the movement. Buried half in the sand, and still mostly under the dead male, all that could be seen were fragments of the egg, a leg, and part of the Opal’s muzzle.

The death of a baby was always tragic, but there was, perhaps, still life to be had in that area. If Alice, or anyone else that ventured close, were paying attention, just the tip of an egg could be seen, a sliver of shell surrounded by sand and blood.

Never fear, Ophyra, even a simple spell would defeat the dreaded gerbil-hamster-rodent thing. There the beast would collapse in the sand, completely unharmed and very much alive, but out like a light. And for such a small thing, it certainly had one heck of a snore. How long the spell would last on the odd creature was anyone’s guess, but it was probably safe to say that it wasn’t going to be happy when it woke up. Especially since Ophyra was searching it’s dinner table, basically. And it wouldn’t be long before her fingers touched on the egg the rodent had been jealously guarding. The Rose Egg was neither cracked nor moving, but warm to the touch. Thankfully, it wouldn’t become someone’s dinner tonight.

It wasn’t the only thing that was there, however. Yvalm’s movement to circle around to the killer rodent would have him almost tripping over a lump in the sand. A closer look would reveal that some sand had brushed away, and that was possibly an egg there. Maybe the gerbil-monster had a hoard of eggs. Who knew.

Leonard shrugged at Aurelir as he did his very best to ignore the death of another baby. He wasn’t here to get into that mess, he had to remind himself. “I don’t really consider myself to have a ‘people’.” Reapers came in all shapes, sizes, magics, and forms, and frankly, Len wasn’t too interested in lumping them all together. Too complicated, too time consuming, too everything. “I don’t eat meat. And depending on the planet, the culture, the people….well. I’ve met many that don’t eat predators.” But even that was complicated, and why the hell did he open his mouth?

But hey, at least Aurelir found an egg. The doctor wasn’t about to tell him what was probably going to happen to it, either. “I don’t know. I don’t know what they are or what they’re called, but everyone at the village seems to like to collect pets, so maybe ya’ll should bring ‘em home.” Flicking ash off his cigarette, Len shifted and nudged a suspicious looking rock with his toe, pushing it further away from the place he had claimed as his seat. Hey, not his fault if no one wanted to listen to his advice.

The Galaxy Egg clearly wasn’t going to be stubborn about things, at least. At Aurelir’s touch, it sort of shivered, and then broke apart. But something wasn’t right. The Obsidian that spilled out of it was thin and dull looking, and just collapsed there. It wheezed for air, the noise wet and painful sounding.

The Rock Egg that Leonard nudged also hatched at just about the same time as its doomed sibling. With a shove, the nose of the Cowardly Lion Ruby pushed through the shell, and the egg all but fell apart around her. With a scared hiss, the Ruby didn’t know what to do or where to run. She was hungry and cold and needed saving, clearly.

“I can take care of that one, if you need me to.” Len offered quietly, motioning to the struggling Obsidian. It was fighting to survive, but there was little hope, and he couldn’t just leave the creature to die a slow and painful death.

Thane seemed to be the lucky sort. Despite the drama pretty much everywhere else, things were going pretty good for him. Sure, the sand had tried to, you know, eat him earlier, but ya gotta let that go. The Sweet Sadist Emerald was settling pretty well. Definitely helped that Thane got the top part of the shell off of her, so she could properly see what was going on. With a happy little noise, she continued to squirm and try to break free of the rest of the egg, but in no way was she trying to escape. Wasn’t she just the prettiest and nicest wher ever? Of course she was.

Also, she was hungry, but for now, she was content to wait. Patience and all that.

Her tail broke out next, and a leg, and then another, even as Thane headed down to the swaying bush. She hissed a little at the noise that was being made at her, it sounding more or less agreeable. Whatever he meant, yes. Sure. Sounds great to her.

Of course, with everyone all distracted by the movements of the bush, Thane wouldn’t see the Ocean Egg that was buried just under the sand. No, but he would notice it as he stepped on it with a sickening crunch. Immediately, there was a foul smell wafting up from the crushed egg, as whatever in it had clearly long since died. And now sand and gross goo was all over Thane’s shoe.

And still the bush wriggled, like there was something hiding in it, and the Emerald just gave a sad sort of hiccup. Or maybe she just had to burp. Either way, she didn’t seem to mind the stench.

[Deleted]

This wasn't working out to be a good evening for Mixie.

It wasn't so much that she minded being magicked into a cold desert to poke around dead things while giant ugly-cute dragon lizard things started hatching and screaming like the dickens. That part was just about par for the course here as far as she could tell. It's just that her plans had involved a sandwich, finishing up the repair of that old stove for what's-his-face, and then relaxing in a fleece hammock while listening to the recorded music that came with her on her mecha and stitching her new jumpsuit. If she was feeling up to it, her evening might have involved experimenting with one of the local grains to see if she could figure out if it could be simmered in sugar until it popped, thus turning it into some makeshift kettle corn.

Her plans had CERTAINLY not involved watching a person turn into a gigantic cat and start nosing around uncomfortably close to her, but here she was. Up to her elbows in dead beastie, minus one sandwich, utterly devoid of kettle corn, and watching altogether Too Much Cat stalking around like it owned the place.

Her plans had been good plans. She'd liked her plans. She really wasn't sure she liked this.

But hey- babies still needed saving. She could still hear some trapped little one squeaking away like the dickens, and that was a good sign. Any baby making that much noise had to be at least mostly okay!

The big, gold-tinted dragon was just about as heavy as it was ugly, and even with her suit's capabilities, she found herself struggling to move the dead weight. Her mecha was made to take the place of human strength so she could participate in a human-centric world, not to turn her into some kind of a superhero. It certainly wasn't meant to move what felt like a solid ton of slowly rotting dragon.

"I hope you don't turn out this big," she muttered to the little amethyst that was cradled to her chest. "Take a lot of sandwiches to keep you filled up if you do."

And speaking of sandwiches...

The little mechanic's eyes went wide and there was no mistaking the squeal of despair that burst out of her as the tiny dragon-thing spat her sandwich out like it'd bitten down on a sour lemon instead of a delicious, savory delicatessen delight. "Nooooooo! Bad dragon! Bad dragon!" she whined, watching the little amethyst try to bite her hand. "Oh, you ridiculous little beast, that isn't-"

She didn't even manage to finish her sentence before all hell broke loose.

The excessively large cat had not just been content to nose around dangerously, it seemed. Instead, the hairy brute had decided that the middle of the night was just clearly the perfect time to start flinging gigantic dead dragons around as if no one were around them what the hell. Mixie managed to let out a shout before everything went topsy-turvy. Between sand, movement, and a wall of dead dragon flesh, her mecha's cameras just displayed to her a confused blur before settling extremely uselessly on the sand.

"You threw a dragon at me!" the little rat screamed in outrage, struggling against unresponsive servos. The damned suit wasn't going anywhere, and she wasn't sure how muffled her voice would come through, but she was certainly not going to be QUIET. "You threw! A dragon! At me! You stupid CAT!" Inside the her control center, Meow Mix punched a console ineffectively, trying to get the cameras to move. She'd been holding a baby dragon. Where was the baby dragon? "You could have killed me!" she continued. "Weren't you listening? There's babies out here! You can't go throwing dragons around! You'll squish-"

And, with the sort of timing that only comes when someone is writing things, one of the suit's external cameras finally cleared... just enough to reveal to Mixie the tiny, pale, broken little snout of the now-dead Opal crushed beneath the dead creature.

"Oh gods no," she whispered in shock, going briefly still and much quieter. That had been another baby. The poor tiny creature hadn't stood a chance.

The purple baby. Where was the purple baby?

If the cameras weren't going to do their job, at least Mixie knew she had ONE backup she could always rely on. It took a little wiggling, between the awkward position and the dead dragon, but it was still the work of mere moments for her to pop a hatch and wriggle herself free of her mecha. It was a lot colder and more dangerous out here, but the little rat would be damned if she let herself be stopped by a pinned exosuit.

... the amethyst was alive, she quickly saw, but damn if the little beast didn't look a lot bigger on this side of her suit. "Hey little one, you okay?" she cooed at the tiny sandwich-hating dragon, before turning to Leonard and the barefoot lizard-alien-dude near him. "Hey!" she shouted, cupping her hands around her muzzle and hoping she could be heard. "Can one of you give me a hand with this? The stupid cat threw a dragon at me and I'm stuck!"

She would love to be looking for more eggs- there certainly seemed to be plenty around, and she could see a couple of new little hatchlings out in the open, so at least not EVERYONE was getting squished under a dragon- but it was kinda hard to even attempt that with her suit out of commission.

[Deleted]

Alice heard the shell beginning to creak, but there was nothing to be done for it. Momentum was already doing it's job, just as she had hoped, and she watched impassively as things settled and the hatchling was crushed. Judging by the look, and smell, of the thing it was unlikely it would have survived anyway. There wasn't really anything to be done for it, except burn the bodies. An act she had already resigned herself too when this whole situation was over.

But before she could properly mourn the creature there was yelling from the odd-smelling junkheap. Alice turned to look at it, her head cocked to the side. "I did not throw it, I rolled it." She pointed out, leaping over the deceased gold-colored creature to get a closer look at the robot, and where it was pinned under the beast. It wasn't that bad, she could just push the thing over again it probably wouldn't even do any damage to the machine. It was kind of hard to say, she wasn't sure what the machine was or how it was held together at all.

And then Alice's life made a whole lot more sense.

Which is to say Alice's life made considerably less sense.

Which is to say further that out of the mouse-smelling mobile junkheap came a mouse. An honest to god, live, breathing, yelling mouse. What in the blazes was going on here?

Alice walked over to the creature, settling down in the sand where she could get a better look, and smell, of it. That was certainly a mouse, it smelled like a mouse. Well, it smelled like a junkheap-smelling mouse which she supposed made sense. Except why did a mouse have a mobile junkheap? Why did it have a vaguely human-shaped mobile junkheap? Why was it so angry?

Despite the fact that she had only just heard the mouse yelling at the other two in English, she reflexively responded to the little mouse in it's mother-tongue. A cougar speaking mousetongue was unorthodox but Alice was kind of having an unorthodox life right now and it was precisely how she communicated with the mice living around her apartment. They had a contract you see, they left her alone and she fed them. She doubted this creature was one of the mice she had a contract with however, because none of her mice had mobile junkheaps.

"You are a mouse?"

[Thane Hampden]

As the hatchling continued to squirm out of its shell, Thane helped it along, discarding the broken pieces of eggshell as he slid down the dune. Finally, he lifted the baby up with his free hand and dropped the remains of the bottom part of the egg to the sand, holding the hatchling securely to his chest. He thought things were progressing rather nicely, aside from the man-and-egg-eating sand. Hopefully there was no more of that around. The baby seemed content for the moment, hissing back at his words but not in a threatening manner.

And then he felt the sand shift beneath his feet again. Crunch.

Thane tried to adjust his weight to the foot that wasn't sinking downward, but even his superior reflexes weren't fast enough to prevent him from stepping directly onto an egg buried in the sand. "Shit." Stepping back out of the mess, he was somewhat relieved to see that the egg had been rotten for a while and that he hadn't killed the baby Wher inside. No, nature had done that. As the first hint of rotted flesh reached his nose, he quickly pressed a finger to the side of his helmet, sealing his flight suit to the outside air and switching to the limited air supply that was in the rectangular box on his back.

Kicking sand over the ruined egg to both stop the smell and prevent predators from locating the area too quickly, Thane turned his attention back to the still-shaking bushes. Kalla hung back as he cautiously moved towards it, fearing a misstep would crush any other buried eggs. She did shuffle to the upwind side of the rotten egg however, not willing to tolerate the smell any longer.

Reaching the bush, Thane removed his combat knife from its sheath on his belt and crouched down. Ensuring the baby Wher he held wasn't about to escape or be within reach of anything dangerous, he carefully parted the branches of the bush with the tip of his knife. As he searched, Thane was always ready to jerk the blade backwards in case any unseen hatching tried to chomp on the gleaming tip.

[Deleted]

To say that Meow Mix was unimpressed with the giant cat that was sniffing around her mecha would be an understatement.

To say that she was unimpressed, annoyed, furious, and more than slightly terrified would be a bit more accurate, but instinct was instinct, and that was a LOT of cat going on right now.

She could feel her hackles raising as the giant furry animal slunk closer to her, and she was downright bristling when Alice started sniffing at her. She didn't like being out of her mecha with predators around, and she certainly wasn't appreciating Alice's attention. On top of it, the cat had already proven itself hard-headed and dangerous. How was she supposed to trust that the big beast wasn't just going to try to make a meal out of the little purple dragon Mixie had just been holding? It'd be just like a cat to prey on a helpless newborn after thoughtlessly squishing one like a grape under an errant boot.

The final straw was when the person-turned-cougar started SQUEAKING at her. What the hell was a cat squeaking at her for? Not only did the little mechanic not understand mouse- what with the fact that she was a RAT, and not a mouse, and all- but she didn't understand rodent chatter in general. All she heard was Altogether Too Much Cat making little snuffly chittering noises at her as if making fun of her, and it was really just too much for her temper.

The strength of a rat was in their bite, not in their throwing arms, but Meow Mix got a lot more upper-body exercise than most of her kind, and so, when she lifted up a convenient pebble and FLUNG it with all her ratty strength into Alice's fuzzy face, it probably stung at least a little bit.

"Speak like a PERSON you big furry oaf!" she squeaked irritably, stomping her foot on the loose sand with an unusual sort of thud. "Are you just mocking me? Stop it! Shoo! Go chase your tail! Or make yourself useful and unbury an egg or something! Just shoo!"

She was a bold little creature when her safe refuge was literally a hop away from her, miss Mixie was.

A few minute, ratty heartbeats after stomping her little feet down, it finally clicked in Meow Mix's head just how weird the stomping noise she'd just made was. The ground under her feet sounded a lot less sandy, and a lot more, uh. Drum-like? Hollow? Dare she say, eggy? Momentarily distracted from the giant cat she was antagonizing and the little hatchling both, Meow Mix took a short step back, and then promptly dropped onto all fours to start rapidly unburying the dusty shape of the Sands Egg. These things were everywhere!

[Deleted]

Aurelir was having a night. Obviously, so was everybody else, but this was all...a lot, for the so-recently-abruptly-retired captain. The little dragon not far away flung the mech's sandwich off into the distance, which was not promising since he had no food, not even apparently-bad sandwiches, on his person.

In fairness, he'd been damn asleep. Asleep. Where he would dearly have liked to return, but, well. Sometimes work had to be done. And there were small, helpless animals here. It had been a while since he'd done anything purely...kind.

His contemplation on this was interrupted, rather abruptly, by hubbub -- the person who'd turned into a terran feline of some sort was moving the dead beast, and before he could even open his mouth to warn against it, there was a noise he'd recognize anywhere. He didn't need to see the little opal to know that it was dead; or Mixie to know that the suit was not going to get out of the situation easily. Aurel sighed, a metallic, grating kind of sigh, and glanced down at the egg in his hand. He'd need to put it down for a second, to go and help the shouting mech.

It was hatching, though. Abruptly, and. Painfully. The hatchling was wrong, hurting, wheezing like it couldn't breathe. Had he hurt it? But...no, the shell had been intact. Maybe something else. The little beast's hide was dull and it didn't feel like it was living, really, and -- Aurel swallowed, steeled his resolve. "Easy. Easy, there." He pitched his voice low, couldn't really help the subvocal attempt at hatchling-soothing. "It's fine." He told the maybe-not-a-human, glancing up briefly with a one-mandible look that could either have been a smile or a grimace. The second-opinion on his imminent disposal of the creature, at least, was appreciated.

A quick, hard twist, and the turian moved away from the other hatching egg and Leonard, settling the newly-dead hatchling in the crook of one of the bigger ones' stumpy, weird wings. When he turned to move back over, a very, very little voice reached his ears, and briefly Aurel was flummoxed, staring around the small gathering wide-eyed. The actual words took a moment to catch up, but they did eventually, and he finally caught sight of the actual pilot of the mech. A. Rodent? One of earth's sort?

Did they...all talk, like this one? Aurel's world-view shifted, just a little. "Ah." The captain stammered, a little awkwardly, then nodded, once. "Of course." He could, and he did, shuffling his feet to ensure he wasn't kicking anything around as he moved closer to the dead dragon-beasts again. The delicate matter of moving it enough to extract the mech-suit without shifting the bulk too much took a few moments' contemplation, but eventually he settled on what seemed like the easiest course -- shifting the dead thing enough that he could pluck out the suit one-armed, then heaving that over his shoulder.

It was heavy. His back protested significantly to the strain, but it was brief, before he settled the suit on the only non-dangerous place he could think of -- across the dragon's flank. Well. It would just have to do. A little macabre, but such was life. "Ah...there. Your suit. It's a fine suit." The turian murmured, still awkward, shuffling backwards out of the way of the possible bloodbath about to go down between the rodent and the feline. Who was he to comment on the distant worry that terran felines and rodents had a relationship not entirely conducive to chucking rocks at the larger predator. No, no, it was probably for the best that he stayed well out of that, no matter what his instincts towards a more orderly sort of life told him. Clearly, the rodent had things under control. Probably.

"You look like a human. Are they not your people?" Maybe a little keen to move on from the possible blood feud he'd end up jumping in the middle of if it started, the turian returned to the friendly-seeming not?-human's general vicinity. He contemplated the frightened-looking hatchling who'd hatched from the egg while he was killing its sibling for a long moment, then crouched, extending a hand tentatively. "You don't want to take home one of them? They're so charming, though." Aurel murmured, maybe a little sarcastic. They were definitely a little ugly. But so were plenty of pets across the galaxy. Maybe they could be put to work in some way -- they certainly seemed to grow large enough to be of use.

So he wiggled sharp talons in what he hoped, theoretically, was an enticing manner at the Ruby, humming under his breath. "Come, little one. I've got stores of food at home. You've certainly got a face that would keep people away from them." Bless. For all he knew, the terrified look was passing. "I haven't seen a great deal of plant life in this area." He added, after a moment, huffing. "Or anything resembling food my people eat. I don't suppose whatever anomaly that brought us here had enough sense to think of things like dietary restrictions." The turian made a grating noise that might have been a laugh, delivered flatly on another wary glance over at Mixie and the cat-shaped-person.

[Deleted]

Oh good, her spells still worked. The killer gerbil thing rolled over and fell asleep, which was satisfying for the elf as she searched where the creature had been lurking. The wolf standing in the sand snorted at such a grand sense of satisfaction with such a small defeat. He was more concerned with whatever he had stumbled on and was peering at the lump in the sand. "Aha!" Ophyra said triumphantly after a short while, her fingertips pressing against the warm shell of an egg. She carefully dug it out, gaining the kyorli's attention away from the sand as she pulled the Rose Egg out of the flower patch and into her lap.

As she brushed away the dirt from the shell, the peered closely at it. It didn't appear to be harmed in any sort of way- which was a relief. Ophyra was the caring type even though she didn't like to let onto it. Her gaze remained impassive as she finished clearing it off, and her gaze met Yvalm's. "Seeing as how there's no parents to surrender this to, I'm probably stuck with it aren't I?"

Nobody is forcing you to. You could leave it to die. He broke off contact and padded over to the lump in the sand that he had tripped on. Aware of the curious eyes boring into his backside, he began to carefuly dig out the object from its sandy cradle. Ophyra hadn't seen him trip over it originally, but figured that he had spied an egg-looking thing and was investigating so she didn't verbally question him. As he dug, spreading out his toes deep into the sand before dragging it around and away from the suspicious egg-like object, his bond returned her attention to the egg in her lap.

"So, do whers lay on their eggs like chickens? Breathe fire on them to keep them warm? Set something on fire and lay their clutch in the smoldering remains?" The elf had shrugged off her cloak and tucked it underneath the Rose egg, creating a cloak nest that reached halfway up the sides of the egg. When she looked back up, Yvalm had stopped digging and was staring at her. "What?"

You have too much of an imagination. He turned back to his excavation, missing her flash of a grin.

[Deleted]

Alice let the rock hit her with a wince, she probably deserved it.

There was a long moment of silence as the rat got distracted by something under it's feet, and in that time Alice sat blinking slowly in confusion before, finally, looking down at herself.

"Oh!"

Seconds later a woman sat cross-legged in the sand where the pale cougar had once been. Alice rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, "Sorry, I've been a cougar most of the day I guess I kind of forgot." She did, at least, switch to English just like the little creature had demanded of her. Carefully she picked herself up off the sand and moved back to where the mech lay trapped, getting a grip on the beast and lifting it up with more strength than a woman of her size and stature should really possess. A careful foot hooked around the arm of the mech and pulled it out from under the beast before gently setting it back down. "I'm sorry about the... you know this thing is really impressive for a rat. I've met a lot of rats but none of them have been capable of this." She took a brief moment to give the machine a cursory glance before stepping over the deceased and seeing if there was anything else buried in the sand that she assumed used to be a nest.

[Deleted]

Leonard was content to sit back and watch, for the time being. Mixie might be having a very bad night, all around, and Alice was certainly not helping issues, but things seemed to be in good hands. Aurelir had gotten to the rodent’s mecha suit long before Alice had even turned back into a human-shape, and the doctor didn’t see much of a reason to get involved. Not when Aurelir took care of both the dying Obsidian and getting Mixie’s suit unstuck and draped over a dead thing.

“I can look like a lot of things. Just ‘cause I look human doesn’t make me one.” He was not a shapeshifter like Alice, but this certainly wasn’t his natural form, either. “It mostly depends on where I am, what the people look like.” He explained a little to Aurelir. It was a little more complicated than that, and it involved a lot of rule breaking because the living weren’t really supposed to see him, but hey. Breaking rules was a great past time.

The Cowardly Lion Ruby wasn’t at all sure what to do with herself. Whining lowly, she eyed Aurelir’s outstretched hand, not at all sure, but his tone was nice enough, and she decided to inch her way over to him. All the angry noses certainly weren’t helping, but after another moment’s hesitation, she darted more quickly, ducking under his hand and just pressing herself up against his bare legs.

“Oh, they look adorable. How about you take one home first, and then let me know how that goes?” Len shot back, matching his sarcasm. Though with his luck, they’d all go home with one and within a week he’d see them all in his clinic, needing to be patched up.

Angry rodents, oblivious shapeshifters, and a cold alien dude aside, the eggs weren’t just going to stop hatching because no one was finding them. Thankfully, though, for the Sands Egg, Mixie had noticed it and was unburying it from the sand. A crack had already formed, breaking further into a small hole, where the Skittish Sweetheart Opal was trying to push out of. It wasn’t having all that much luck, too small and weak to properly break the egg. Soft little distressed noses could be heard, as it continued to try.

The Idiotic Brilliance Amethyst wasn’t at all bothered by the fall, but it was still very hungry. She kept quiet as she watched the showdown between cat and rat, but it all ended pretty quickly and then there was just more digging in the sand. Huffing to herself, the Amethyst prowled around Mixie, and was almost about to wander off when she spotted the rat’s tail. The moving tail. It wasn’t really big enough to be food, and she wasn’t really smart enough to understand that moving pink thing was attached to anything. She just knew she had to have it.

As soon as Mixie started uncovering the Sands Egg, the baby pounced and snapped at her tail. And, okay, so the Amethyst was no great hunter, and Mixie’s tail was far smaller and slender than she had thought. Mixie probably wouldn’t lose part of her tail, but blood was definitely spilled. Whining, she jerked her head back and huffed, still hungry. Meowmsk!There. Now maybe she’d get fed?
Bond! Idiotic Brilliance Amethyst to Meow Mix.

There was still an egg buried where the parents had been, but it was shaking and beginning to crack. Still mostly buried, with only a hint of shell here and there, it was clearly struggling. It would be impossible to tell the color, unless Alice or someone else noticed it and helped uncover it, but something was clearly ready to break out. Whether it was healthy or not, well. That was up in the air. And possibly depended on it being found.

Leonard squinted a little at the Amethyst that had just bonded. “Looks like you’re taking that one home.” He mused thoughtfully. “I guess if ya’ll want them to go home with you, ya need to bleed.” He called out to the group, if any of them were paying attention. And if not, well, they’d figure it out themselves.

Well, that just wasn’t fair. Sure, the Sweet Sadistic Emerald didn’t mind the smell of the rotting whatever under the sand, but Thane should have to deal with it, at least. But hey, he had helped her out of her egg, and while there was nothing tasty to chew on, she was content to stay rather mellow and lazy as she watched things go on around her. With a soft noise, she stayed focused on the bush, making no attempt to escape or try to stick her nose into trouble.

While nothing would come rushing out to attack the group, there was still something moving. A particular hard shake, and with the help of Thane moving some branches, the Frost Egg came rolling out. Muffled angry noises could be heard, as the egg had started to hatch, but at the moment, only a gold colored tail of the Tiny Terror Gold was sticking out of part of the cracked shell. And it was lashing in a very unhappy manner.

The Emerald wheezed out a noise, and began to wiggle to try and get down. She saw an opportunity for a snack, after all.

Things seemed to quiet down for Ophyra and co, at least. For now. But that included the Rose Egg that had been saved from being someone’s dinner. It still was not moving, nor was it making any noises, or otherwise suggesting it was going to hatch. The cloak nest was a nice touch, but if there was anything living inside, it wasn’t taking the bait and breaking out.

But that’s probably okay, for the Kal’daka would have more luck with his egg. No sooner had Yvalm uncovered part of the Twilight Egg, than it started to hatch. With surprising force, the Bottomless Pit Sulphur came into this world. His head and front feet burst out of the egg, though he didn’t manage to do much else. He cocked his head a little and looked around, staring up at the Kal’daka and his partner, and was looking quite baffled at the world. Momma? With an annoyed little hiss, the barely hatched Sulphur opened his mouth in the most demanding way ever, and stared expectantly. Food now, please. Hatching was hard work!
[/b]

[Deleted]

Oh, to have the strength of a humanoid.

Mixie couldn't help but look on in open envy as Aurelir shoved aside the entire dead dragon with what looked like zero effort, and then lifted her probably-not-quite-as-heavy-but-definitely-not-lightweight mecha suit out from under the big beastie just as easily. She was pretty sure most humans wouldn't have been able to manage that, but there was no question that even a hundred rats working in unison still wouldn't have managed to budge either dragon nor machine.

"Thank you!" she shouted up to the big alien, momentarily taking her eyes off of both cat and baby dragon. "You're the best!"

Know what else was the best? Kitties that knew their place.

It was with great satisfaction that she watched the giant cat back off and submit with a confused look on it's big fuzzy face. There was no mistaking the pride that straightened Mixie's tiny spine as Alice shifted back and started talking like a normal person. "That's more like it," she muttered (a bit haughtily). She wasn't sure what Alice was trying with her suit, since Aurelir had already dislodged it and left it laying on the dead dragon for her, but she was certainly willing to accept both apologies and compliments. "I'm the best rat mechanic you're gonna find," she added with clear pride in her tone, fuzzy little chest puffing out in delight. She loved it when people appreciated good work when they saw it.

It wasn't long before both cat and rat were distracted, though. Alice wandered off to the far side of the dragon and Mixie got to work unburying an egg. It looked like she wasn't a moment too soon, too- the egg was already starting to hatch, and the tiny shiny-white baby inside didn't even seem strong enough to break it's own eggshell, much less unbury itself from the sand. Mixie could only see the very tip of the struggling snout, but it was enough to tell that the little critter was alive, at least. Moving hastily, she grabbed another convenient pebble and started hammering away at the hard shell, breaking off some chunks to help the tiny Opal get free. She wasn't going to let another little baby get squished or die unhatched, dangit!

She hadn't realized that her tail was wriggling, she'd been so distracted by the egg and the feline-related-drama. She hadn't even noticed the little purple hatchling's awkward attempts at stalking. But there was definitely no missing the sharp, searing sting of a pair of clumsy baby jaws closing on her tail. With a loud squeal, Mixie turned away from the Opal, clutching her bleeding tail protectively... only to be faced with open curiosity and warmth rather than hostility by the little dragon-beast behind her. All at once, she felt a very UNUSUAL sensation inside her head, as a strange mind reached out to touch hers.

Meowmsk!

Bafflement, utter bafflement froze Meow Mix in place for a long moment. She instinctively knew that the little dragon-beast was announcing it's name, which, uh. Sounded? Like hers? And now there was a connection that she automatically associated with the connection between two radio receivers, only between living, organic minds. She could feel the little creature's hunger, and affection, and interest in her, and she just.

This.

She.

"Wow," she finally managed to gasp out. "I... wow. She's Meowmsk. She says her name's Meowmsk."

This was definitely worth a little blood loss.

The long moment of wonder was broken by an insistent headbutt from the little Amethyst. She was HUNGRY. And if she was hungry, the others would be hungry. And there were definitely plenty of others around. Mixie saw that her purple baby and the tiny white baby she was working on freeing weren't alone. There was a shy red one, and a yellow one, and the lashing tail of a brighter sort of shiny yellow one- bright like the big dead momma they'd been flinging back and forth out here. And there were obviously more eggs. She was pretty sure she could see one nearby, between the dead dragons, but she had to finish getting this one unburied first.

... wait. Her mecha had been un-dragoned. There were faster ways to do this.

Taking a moment to stroke the ugly-cute purple muzzle of her new best friend, Mixie turned and scrambled her way up the mecha's leg, not noticing the dribbling little blood trail she left on the suit's foot and up into it's control center. Thankfully, the suit hadn't been damaged by it's draconic encounter, and once she was settled in it was the work of a moment to properly scoop the hatching Opal into one mechanical hand. While not quite as dexterous as her own fingers, the suit's stronger grip was definitely better at breaking away too-hard eggshell, too. She'd get that baby out of there, no problem!

[Deleted]

Okay so sometimes tired people read things out of order and confuse themselves. And sometimes vampires make excuses to examine weird mechs built my mice. Tomato tomato.

“I don’t see very many rat mechanics.” Alice commented before realizing that probably sounded really rude. “I don’t really know many mechanics at all. I’ve definitely never seen anything like this. That’s pretty cool.” Alice added cheerfully, actually rather impressed by what the rat had come up with. She was pretty sure most rats didn’t go around building mechs. Or speaking English. Suddenly Alice was really questioning whether or not that creatures was really a rat, or just some very confusing Fae creature. It certainly smelled like a rat.

Alice stopped thinking about it. There was a disturbance in the force sand in the destroyed nest, and she focused all of her attention on digging it out and dusting it off while the rat was eaten alive by one of the reptilian monster babies. She tried not to think too hard about that either. Not that she wanted the rat to get eaten just that, you know, that was kind of the way that things were and what was she going to do about it? Rats gotta build, baby godzillas gotta eat. Or something like that.

Instead Alice’s focus was on the egg she was digging out of the nest, the Storm Egg was dark enough to almost be invisible in the dark night, but it didn’t take very much light for Alice to be able to see clearly. Carefully she pulled it out of the sand, doing her best to be delicate and not to violate the integrity of the shell. She didn’t know a whole heck of a lot about lizards, but she was pretty sure they followed the typical rules of ‘if you aren’t strong enough to break out of the shell you probably aren’t strong enough to survive’. But being strong enough to survive and being strong enough to dig your way out of the sand and out from underneath your dead parents was a completely unfair hurdle for a baby to have to jump in their first few moments out of the shell.

Once it was free of the trap she dug a little divot in the sand and set the egg back down, leaning in close to it and whispering “Good luck.” To it before turning back to the destroyed nest and digging about in the sand some more. She had sworn she had heard a noise of something already out of the shell, or scrabbling against it trying to get out.

[Deleted]

Ophyra supposed the egg was secure enough for now, in it's little nest. It made no noises, movements, or other sounds of life, but the summons hadn't said the missing eggs were ready to hatch, so no matter. Instead, she inspected the shell, the shape, the weight, anything that she could discern from just looking at it and trying not to disturb it all too much. The dusk elf had her face quite close to the surface of the Rose egg, so when Yvalm unearthed the Twilight egg and it hatched forcefully, she exclaimed and jerked away from her own egg. Yvalm even jerked backwards in surprise. Both of them stared at the Bottomless Pit Sulphur, the majority of its body still in its shell despite its violent reveal.

As the witch was about to question.. well a lot, honestly, the Sulphur looked around and then hissed. Half expecting the creature to attack, the witch tensed up as the dragon-esque looking thing opened its mouth; but nothing happened. She snorted a little. Wasn't that anti-climatic? No fire, no acid, not even a noise! It's waiting for food, the kyorli said calmly, correcting his bond in her train of thought. She scowled at him, wrenching her mind away from his firmly. The fact that she couldn't completely disconnect from the wolf was still disconcerting, and she wasn't adjusted to it. Even with her familiar, she could fully withdraw. This... was more permanent, somehow. It unsettled her (obviously).

"I didn't bring food," she snapped, carefully lifting the rose egg off her lap- still in its nest- and placed it on the sand. "I came out here originally for flowers, remember?" The woman stood and dusted sand off of her legs and rear, peering at the creature. Her gaze drifted, looking for a solution blindly, and then- "That!" she said, sounding almost smug, pointing to the still sleeping evil gerbil creature that had tried eating her face. The kal'daka looked at it. His gaze swept to the wher, then to her.

... It could work, he slowly said. The witch grinned, turning to the Sulphur and locking eyes with it. "Food," she stated firmly, gesturing to the gerbil creature. The kyorli shook his head. He suspected this wasn't going to end well.

[Deleted]

The difference between determined and stubborn was a matter of opinion, honestly. The priest was both simultaneously. But mostly he was bit nuts considering he was scrambling through a desert as night looking for dead monsters.

Of course, he wasn’t alone in his search but everyone else was looking for alive monsters, or could be alive monsters depending on how you looked at eggs. More of course, the priest had no idea he wasn’t the only one out in the desert looking for anything at all. The drums were still a mystery to him; he didn’t know they summoned the residents of this strange place to find stranger creatures. At least, he didn’t know it yet. And now The Author is just rambling but supposes the point of the whole thing was to emphasize that the priest is actually more than a bit nuts. He’s a lot nuts.

Anyway, resuming with the actual important part of the post.

When he felt his knife get stuck in something under the sands, Father Clarence dropped to his knees in excitement. And immediately regretted his decision.

“Augh!” He choked, recoiling from the smell that was wafting up from the mound. He could still smell whatever it was even when he pinched his nostrils closed. Hell, he could taste it, he was pretty sure.

But.

His knife was stuck in it. And you know what smelled pretty awful sometimes? Dead things. The mound was too small to be one of those giant creatures, but it could’ve been the clue he’d been hoping it was before he smelled it. Doubtful considering how rotten whatever it was had to be to smell like that. The possibility, no matter how unlikely it was, made him feel slightly about trying to dig it out with his hands. It did not make him gag any less while digging though.

[Caliburn]

tsk. What I asked was a question not an assumption

Cal smirked the laugh lines about his mouth deepening as he did so, his prodding didn't seem for naught as something still seemed to be within the nest, now be it egg or otherwise he intended to find out. Eyeing the area critically he didn't feel eggs would move this much but even if they didn't and it was something else perhaps he could stop the creature from digging at places it shouldn't. Pulling back his cane he rolled up his jacket sleeves and reached down fearlessly into the sand hoping to make a grab at whatever was giving such a thrashing down there.

He completely ignored the others for the moment, he had too many questions anyways, it would be best to mull them over and find what he thought to be the most important before voicing his curiosity or so he thought.

[Deleted]

(Better late than never??? 8I And Meowmsk is the damned cutest Wher name I have ever heard.)

Something in Luna had decided that she should wander as far as she could go and see if it could lead her...somewhere. It had come as quite the rude awakening coming from only enduring these sorts of hardships within a video game, completely able to step away from it whenever she was hungry or bored or tired. The fact that she couldn’t step away from this, whatever this place was, terrified her, but she was getting used to it. She had always said that the best ways to face your fears were head on, and while she regretted those words immensely now, she couldn’t really say she could think of a better way than that.

And so she wandered, leaving the comfort (well, “comfort”) of the cave that she’d called her temporary home. If she could call it that. After what felt like hours of being confused and borderline hysterical, she had stumbled into the Weyrd, which she sort of assumed was the name of the town, and was told to “pick a cave”. Luckily she had a decent sack of currency on her, translated into pretty quartz-like crystals that had afforded her a sleeping bag, extra blankets, and some food, which seemed normal enough. But it’d only taken her a night of crying herself to sleep, waking up in the same body and the same world, for her to decide that she needed to figure out a way to get out.

And so she wandered. She pulled her coat (which she also traded for) closer to her face, blinking back some of the tiredness that weighed down her bones from her lack of sleep. She barely noticed the sound of the drumbeats, hell if she knew what those were, hopefully not some kind of boss battle, and realized after wandering for awhile that there were some faint traces of footprints in the deeper parts of snow. Sand. When had the snow turned into sand?

She didn’t really mean to follow the footprints, but she did as best as she could, not knowing if it was some kind of curiosity or maybe a lapse in sanity. And she heard the bustling commotion before she saw it, especially because it was the middle of the night. She’d chosen against one of the elf classes, which she regretted now, but her eyes had adjusted enough to see this whole mess of mechanical creature, lizard alien, and a dude with bright orange hair, among other less abnormal looking people. But what shocked her more than anything, even the two large mangled bodies of, well, she wasn’t sure how much of it was mangling and how much of it existed in life, was the smell. Sure she’d killed things all the time before, but in a video game. Complete with fake spurts of blood, bodies falling to the floor, only for them to disappear into the data when enough time had passed. Nothing like this.

She was sure that some of the people might’ve noticed her approaching, because it was a dessert and it wasn’t like there was much cover, besides the darkness of the night, but she didn’t even try to ask questions or make herself known, really. Her stomach roiled, and she felt like she needed to keep herself from throwing up. Everything told her to just avoid this, none of her business, but her sanity was lapsing a ton today. Plus she had her revolver handy, clipped to her belt beneath her long coat. Not that she knew whether it worked or not. She hoped it did.

“Wha-what’s going on?” Her eyes flicked around to more things to keep track of her surroundings, a wolf (a big one), a bigger bird, squirming little colorful things, eggs? Maybe? And really, what was that lizard-guy, anyway?

Yeah, she should’ve turned around and walked away.

(Yell at me if I've missed something. x_x)

[Thane Hampden]

Thane blinked in mild confusion as an ice-coloured egg rolled out of the bushes, surprised that such a relatively small thing could move so much. The hatchling in his arms seemed intrigued, but thankfully remained calm as he sheathed his knife and watched the rocking egg. The baby Wher inside it was definitely alive, and-oh hey it was hatching! He leaned back as the tail bust forth, showering him and the Emerald with bits of eggshell. The Coordinator wanted to help the new arrival out, but the angrily lashing tail and the suddenly wiggling hatchling in his arms prevented him from doing anything.

"Alright, alright, settle down," he said, quickly setting the Sweet Sadistic Emerald down on the sand. "Wanna go say hi to your sibling, huh?" Despite his sealed flightsuit, his voice could still reach the restless hatchling easily enough. One point for advanced technology, zero for stinky rotten eggs. He watched curiously as the Emerald wobbled towards the twitching tail, curious to see how it would help the trapped baby.

His curiosity turned to horror as the Emerald snapped at the Tiny Terror Gold's tail, and not in a playful manner. Don't interfere, Kalla warned him as he reached forward to try and separate the two. A newborn's bite is just as strong as an adult's. Although, she paused, eying Thane's flightsuit, I've heard Whers need to drink the blood of the one the form a pact with, so you may with to remove your protective suit.

"What? But-" Thane cut himself off, frowning at the Wher siblings. Whether or not the Emerald manged to get a piece of the Gold's tail, the latter was rapidly freeing itself from the remainder of the shell, and he sensed that a fight might break out between the two. The gloves of his suit were thick, but not thick enough to stand up against the fangs and claws of the babies. Hell, his fingers were still healing from the bite a baby Firelizard had given him - if Thane was to stick his hands in carelessly, he could lose a finger.

Unsure of how to proceed, he sat back and decided to watch what happened next.

[Deleted]

Aurelir was cold. And were he younger, he would have been whining by now, like a nestling. As it was, he was distinctly glad that these people didn't Know turian subvocal patterns, or they'd be able to interpret the low thrum his were doing pretty easily as extreme discomfort. He couldn't have that. They had their own things to worry about, and also, so did he.

The captain fixed the odd human-shaped person sitting in front of him with a curious look. "Interesting. I've never known anything of the sort. You're not an incredibly advanced AI, are you?" He wondered. A beat. "...I'm sorry." That was rude, really. You don't just ask somebody if they're an AI, no matter what kind of war you just got out of with the AIs. "Hah. What the people look like." The turian glanced back towards the distant volcano, mandibles twitching in a flash-quick grin. "Was that easy to determine, in a place like this?"

He'd seen a person made out of what seemed to be gelatin, recently. Walking alongside one whose skin was distinctly rocky. This place was the strangest place he'd ever had the, er, fortune, of seeing.

The tiny dragon finally decided to dart up against him, and Aurel fought a croon, managed to remain relatively stoic as he soothed a hand down its back. It was...gross. Egg-wet, covered in dirt. "Hello, little one." He murmured, scritching a little bit of the sand off primly. "You're disgusting. You don't look terribly imposing." He told her, gently enough, not very concerned that she could understand what he was saying. Babies usually couldn't, right?

"Hah," The sarcasm got another quick grin, a roll of his cowl that might have been a shrug. "Fair enough. Having a food-tester to ensure the plate isn't poisoned is a decent plan for anyone." He bared his teeth in a more human-style grin, then, browplates lifting jauntily. Or possibly gently-tauntingly. Aliens. Not real easy to read, sometimes. But he wasn't growling, and that noise was probably a quiet laugh, so it was fairly easy to assume Aurel was amused.

He was also amused by Mixie -- the rodent calling a thanks after him got a quick salute with his free hand. "Any time! It's truly an impressive suit." The captain echoed Alice's compliment easily enough; they were both right, Mixie's suit was damn impressive. Considerably more impressive than his own feats of brute strength, but still, it was probably good that Aurelir couldn't hear the rodent's thoughts. Too much ego is never good for a man. Or alien. Whatever. "Be careful with all the, er, blood!" He added, loudly. Just, you know, in case. "...the joints. blood. sticky."

Keehar, help this doof. A little awkward, and also trying really hard not to stare at the human priest who seemed keen on continuing to dig even for the...well, truly abominable smell coming out of the ground. Say something about it, though? Nope. Why would he do that. He'd reached his quota for volunteering helpful advice, awkwarding hard at the talking rodent. Instead, he turned his attention back to the wher currently cowering next to him. Well. That, and Leonard's directive to -- "Bleed, you say? Ah...that's. Bleed?"

What.

"Hello. Rescuing dragons." The lizard-alien added to the newly-arrived Luna, because it seemed polite. But that only had a fraction of the attention still focused on eyeballing Leonard like he'd possibly taken leave of his senses. They needed blood?

[Deleted]

Thank goodness for Mixie, or the poor little Skittish Sweetheart Opal would never have gotten out and doubtlessly would have died in its shell. The baby quietly whined as the rat went after the shell with a pebble, and more and more of it was breaking off. But it was slow work, and the Opal was growing more and more distressed as time went on. And then Mixie disappeared, and the Opal’s shell was still mostly intact, and the poor thing felt abandoned for a moment. It struggled in its shell, pressing its nose to the hole that had been left, trying to break free by itself. No such luck.

And then things got weird, and the next thing the Opal knew, the eggshell was being broken away far quicker and in bigger chunks, and in no time at all the little eggwet wher was flopped in the mecha’s hand. It crooned a little, head cocked as it peered around. Beyond that, though, the baby made no attempt to get up or move, too worn out from hatching.

It couldn’t be said that Leonard was thoroughly enjoying the night, but hey, it could be worse. He watched as Mixie freed the Opal, and was kind of concerned by how small it was. But, well, unless someone dropped it in his lap, that was not his problem.

“Did you just call me a robot?” Leonard’s attention was quickly dragged back to Aurelir, because really? He probably should be more insulted than he really felt. “I’m not certainly not.” He huffed, unimpressed. But as for his choice of form, here, eh. Len could only shrug. “I woke up like this, wasn’t much conscious decision. Didn’t see a need to change it. Someone around here should look normal, and you, my friend, look exceedingly normal.” Len should probably not be allowed in public, okay? We get that.

The Cowardly Ruby wasn’t at all sure about any of this. Aurelir was rather big and scary, but so was, well, everyone and everything else. She sniffed at the hand that was offered, but was obviously far more polite than her siblings and didn’t go about trying to take a finger off, yet. And that was probably only because she didn’t understand a thing he was saying. She did like the tone, though. It was a start? Though she did try to hide more behind Aurelir when Luna showed up, because look, Luna was just scary, okay?

Leonard smirked a little at Aurelir’s flailing. “Bleed, yes. Do you bleed? If not, I suppose you could just kidnap one of ‘em.” He looked thoughtful for a moment, squinting at the alien. “Or are you the type to just pass out cold at the sight of your own blood?” The ex-reaper kind of hoped they were on the same page, with the sarcasm and teasing and all. Either they were, or Aurelir was going to eat Leonard’s face and he was going to deserve it. “Don’t worry. I’m a doctor. I can patch you up nice and good, when it’s all over.” There was definitely no leer there.

Clearing his throat, he turned his attention to the newcomer. “Welcome to the party.” Leonard gave a bit of a wave at Luna. “Everyone is on a rescue mission to save these ugly damned carnivores. You wanna take one home, ya gotta bleed for it.” Len told her cheerfully. “We’re clearly all crazy around here.” Because that was pretty much the damned truth. “Might want to watch where you step, though.” The doctor motioned vaguely towards the sand, and what was sticking out from it, right at Luna’s feet.

The top of the Ruby Egg was just peeking out of the sand, but more importantly, the head of the Anxiously Friendly Sulphur was fully out. Just sorta...watching. He didn’t seem distressed by being mostly stuck, though there were no promises that he wouldn’t bite if someone stepped on him. For now though, he was just hanging out.

As careful as Alice was with the Storm Egg, it was not meant to be. The egg was fragile, and while it had survived being buried, perhaps it was only the sand that was holding it together. As soon as Alice got it out and resettled it into the sand, the shell all but disintegrated, leaving a deformed and dead emerald.

But while the Storm Egg was a dud, Alice was definitely right about there being something else there with her. The Smokey Egg had hatched, wordlessly and without fanfare, and the Destructively Vicious Agate was hungry and bored and feeling rather ignored. The vampire was quietly being stalked, or, well, as quietly as a newly hatched anything could. She probably gave herself away when she hissed before throwing herself at Alice’s foot. It looked like a good chew toy to her!

The Bottomless Pit Sulphur wasn’t too happy to be ignored. There was no food in his mouth now, and that was just wrong. He didn’t understand what the wait was, but there he was, still waiting. Huffing a little, his jaws snapped closed, and instead he focused on getting himself out of the shell and sand. And then Ophyra was looking at him and gesturing and, why yes, food. That’s what he wanted. And so the little Sulphur lunged and snapped...at Ophyra’s gesturing hand. Because movement was far more interesting than a sleeping gerbil. It wasn’t a move of aggression or even anger, but hunger, and that was enough to make him clamp down on Ophyra’s hand. The taste of blood made him hungrier, but the snap of a bond made him let go of her hand. Ophysk He grumbled, tail lashing. Rrrrrf. Food now?

While the Rose Egg would continue to do nothing, there was a surprise under the Sulphur’s egg. While everyone was distracted with a hungry baby, the Flame Egg that had been buried near the Twilight Egg had hatched. The Big Baby Sapphire made his way out of shell and and, and just looked around for a moment. Confused, lost, hungry, he didn’t know where to go or what to do. Ophyra was right there, but other people weren’t too far off, and, oh, what was he supposed to do?

With a whine, the Sapphire flopped to the ground and just made the most pathetic, loud noises ever. How could anyone ignore a sound like that?

Things just weren’t going well for the priest. All that stabbing Clarence was doing had to be tiring, but hey, a work out was a work out, right? And then, of course, he finally managed to stab something worth noting, and that was all sorts of gross. The stench just kept coming, and as the Father continued to dig, black goo would start to leak out. And wasn’t that just gross? He would find his knife stuck into the Moss Egg. Black, stinking goo was leaking out around the blade. Unsurprisingly, the egg wasn’t moving, and it looked rather dull. It wasn’t looking good for the egg.

The shaking in the sand was starting to subside; perhaps whatever was in it was tiring, or maybe it just was waiting to see what happened. Whatever the case, it had stopped moving moments before Caliburn reached out to grasp whatever it was. And behold, blending in surprisingly well with the sand, the Sunshine Egg would be dragged out of it’s hidden spot. There were cracks over most of the surface, but upon closer inspection, Caliburn would see a milky white, limp foot of the doomed Opal hanging out of the egg. The bright colors of the egg hid the bleak truth within it.

The Sweet Sadist Emerald was positively thrilled that Thane put her down. And oh, was she certainly not interested in helping her sibling, oh no. Before the Tiny Terror Gold could hatch further, she chomped down on her younger sister’s tail. With a hiss, she shook her head viciously, clearly trying to damage.

The Gold screeched and thrashed in pain, sending egg shell flying everywhere. It was enough to startle the Emerald into letting go for a moment, and that’s all the Tiny Terror needed as she swung around and lunged after her sister. Her tail might have been bitten and bleeding, and she might possibly carry those scars with her the rest of her life, but that wasn’t going to slow her down. And her sister simply didn’t move fast enough to avoid the Gold’s jaws. With an angry snarl, the Tiny Terror latched onto the front right leg of her sister. She clamped down hard, and the crunch of bone could be heard before the Sweet Sadist squealed in pain.

The Emerald squealed and struggled to get away, snapping at her sister’s head and face, causing more damage, though the Gold hardly seemed to care. At least until a tooth caught an eye, that is. She was quick to let go then, jerking away from her sister and putting space between them.

Bloodied, injured, and panting, they completely ignored Thane as they sized each other up. Both trying to decide if another attack was worth it or not.


(All babies have been hatched! Don't be afraid to mingle and attend a baby that hatched elsewhere, if you don't like the one you're with. :3 Also, I'm gonna try for another post Wednesday, if enough of you guys post.)

[Caliburn]

Concerned Caliburn heaved the strange egg up out of the sand its shaking having all but stopped as his hands dove in the soil, he feared it dug deeper some sand creature sensing his want to snatch at it, but no, something hard roughly met his hands as he grabbed at it, it felt brittle, mildly rough and pulling it free of the sand stared at the very large and very strange egg!

Staring at its odd colorful shell he turned it in his hands only to pause and see the sad little leg hanging out, silently he moved his way out of the empty nest cradling the dead egg in his arms he glanced over at the supposed doctor but once before moving back towards the ravaged parents. All the while he broke the shell from around its sad package and cradling the dead Opal he crouched near the parents.

If the child of there's was dead it at least should be closer to its parent, perhaps they would have a kinder life once reborn. Carefully moving a leg Caliburn tucked the baby Opal against its breast. Creaking back up onto his unsteady legs in the sand he seemed to stop and stare his mouth moving quietly as he gave some sort of words for the poor beasts. He was distracted though, much squealing and snarling from somewhere broke his attention his amber gaze sliding towards the boy from before.

He leaned heavy on his cane and worked his way towards Thane, a giant bird?, the scuffling emerald, and the gold, he watched their fight curiously himself as he approached but unlike Thane made a grab at the gold attempting to swipe it up and under his arm, perhaps he'd have a better time of it too since they seemed to separate. Seems to be a bit of a scuffle going on eh? Raising a bushy brow at Thane his mouth twitched towards a half smile.