Opening her eyes, Fragile Form found herself surrounded by thick, darkly colored lizards. A dozen of them at the least. They seemed intrigued by the egg- not hostile, at least, but she could feel an almost accusation in their gaze. Eventually, as she stared, the creatures settled in, each taking up a watchful pose. The marine iguanas had, apparently, deemed her a worthy guardian. One of them had staggered closer, and lay alongside a very confused Pure.
Once more, time began to slip into the slow blur of sameness. Day progressed towards dusk- darker, though, than usual.Clouds began to gather, and the wind picked up. With a frown, Fragile turned her head up curiously. The scent did not betray rain, but the wind picked up ominously. The egg rolled with the wind, and she tightened up her own curl about its mossy nest to keep it from being blown away.
The wind eventually passed, and the marine iguanas had begun to doze off. Pure was out cold, long ago deciding that it was peaceful enough to become slothful. Mine had scuttled off to go feast on Fine's fine leftovers. The great caveworm had even deigned to bring Fragile some of the delicate leaves to eat. The warm form of the massive beast, despite its spikes, was a comfort as it curled up beside her, and, after a time, she found herself dozing off. It was another hour of peace before she rose again, hearing the loud whistle-shriek of alarm from Mine. Fragile's head shot up, and she nearly threw Fine as she spotted Mine cussing out a pair of Floxes. Fragile blinked, and turned her head back to the sleepy nest- only to discover it was empty of eggs. With great alarm, she shoved over the caveworm, and began to look about, delicately stepping over sleeping marine iguanas and her own tea dragon, heading after the floxes. They did not seem interested in sticking around, and they did not look to be eating anything, luckily. She turned back, and began her desperate searching for the egg. In the end, it wasn't her, but Mine, that retrieved the egg from a pitcher plant.
Almost as soon as the egg was returned to its nest, there was a fluttering of great wings, which sent the iguanas scattering off. Worried, Fragile looked up, and froze, as a great big crane landed, its lance-like beak gleaming in the dusky sunlight. Fragile tried to make her dainty form look intimidating- but the creature was not to be dissuaded. It struck at her, and she squeaked, twisting away and rearing up to avoid being hurt. "Oh, MotherFather, why?" She balanced precariously, and pawed at the crane. It drew back, and lunged, darting for her very face- only to get thwarted by Pure, coming to her rescue. The tea dragon bit and nipped at the maddened bird, twirling expertly and lashing out as it could. Working with Fragile, the two fended the bird off until it tiredly winged away. Fragile turned back- and squeaked, having to shoo off Fine's sleepy attempts to eat the egg once more.
The rest of the night was, thankfully, mostly peaceful, until a mere hour before dawn. Squinting at the lights that were slowly pulsing towards the nest, Fragile frowned, deeply. No matter what that was, if she ever came across another of these eggs, she had decided she would leave it where it lie. Tiredly, she put herself back on her hooves, and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, a flock of jellies came close to the nest, lazily pulsing as they passed. Long, painful-looking tendrils made her wary; one grazed her, and she flinched, hard. Rather than remain upright, she laid down and curled up to try to avoid further pain.
Finally, with dawn, the egg began to tremble. Fragile squinted at it, and, carefully peered at the emerging salamander.Statistics: Posted by seru_ame — Wed Mar 27, 2024 2:59 pm
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