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SariStar @
Mollusk @
Returu
"I can't believe you two are on nests of your own! I'm so proud!" Debris exclaimed for the millionth time, prancing around the nesting grounds by Mariana and Myosotis.
"Moooooooom, stop iiiiiiiiiiit," Myosotis whined, looking embarrassed by her mother's excited prancing. Mariana just rolled her eyes and kept her two eggs close to her side, sitting up.
"I'm so excited to meet my grandhatchlings," Debris cooed, rubbing her neck against Myosotis' in a display of affection. Myosotis blushed, but she didn't push her mother off. "I'm sorry I can't be in the grounds with you while you're nesting; once my eggs hatch I'll be taking care of the hatchlings while you two are in here!"
"No problems here," Mariana said, groaning as her mother rubbed necks with her. Her saving grace came in the form of Fiona, calling across the nesting grounds.
"YO, the eggs are hatching!" The bogsneak bellowed.
Debris whipped around and craned her neck, seeing Pongo sitting amongst the eggs, getting jostled by the two huge eggs sitting next to the two smaller eggs he had pressed against his belly.
"Good luck love you bye!" Debris said quickly, running off to see her eggs hatch. Mariana sighed in contentment and her and Myosotis both coiled around the eggs, ready to nap after exerting the energy it takes to lay eggs.
"Control your half," Pongo monotoned as Debris got closer, the two guardian eggs hopping ever closer.
"Sorry sorry, got caught up," Debris said with a grin, sitting on her haunches and pulling the two eggs closer. Luckily for her, she got there just in time to see the first egg crack open, one of the ones Pongo was sheltering. A tiny fae head poked out, and the baby chipped away at the shell until finally, he tumbled straight out of the egg.
"Ohhhh, he's so beautiful!" Debris cooed, watching as Pongo gently picked him up to look over him. "And small! He's so small. Just... The smallest. Oh Gods above what if I crush him," Debris lamented, immediately spiraling.
"You could swallow him like a ****," Fiona commented, greatly not helping Debris's fear for her tiny offspring who was barely 1% of her size.
"You won't crush him, don't worry," Pongo said, crest flared out with happiness at the sight of his son, who was similarly stretching his own wings.
"But he's soooooo tiny!" Debris whined, shuffling her wings anxiously and swishing her tail. "If I sneezed I could kill him!"
"He's like, not even the size of your eyeball," Fiona added, and Debris swatted at her, knocking over as she snorted in amusement.
"I can watch after him and the other fae child if you like," Pongo said.
"I still wanna see and love them," Debris said with a pout, lowering her head to inspect her speck of a child. The small fae yawned in her face.
"You would of course still be able to see them, you just need to be careful around them," Pongo said, flaring and withdrawing his crest to entertain his child.
"I know I just-" Debris cut off as the two big eggs she had by her both cracked at once, and one little head poked out as the other egg wobbled. The grey-headed baby broke out an arm and the egg toppled over as she kicked at it to get it off.
While the baby freed the remnants of the shell, the second guardian broke out her top half, and the two were freed from their shells together.
"Oooooh, look at you two pretty girls," Debris cooed, lowering herself to lay on the ground just behind them, twisting her neck to encircle them. They cried out back at her, growling and squeaking and sniffing at the world around them. "And one of them has my genes, the Vipera!"
"I think one of them is the same color as you too," Fiona offered, looking over Debris's neck at the third baby to hatch and then back at Debris. She then squinted at the baby with Vipera. "That one has the same color underbelly as well."
"Oh my goodness you're right," Debris said in delight, the fins on her head fully extended happily.
The sound of more cracking diverted her attention from the two guardian girls. "Don't miss out on the last hatch," Pongo said, their son perched on his back and looking sleepy.
They all turned their attention to the last egg. It wobbled and spider-web cracks arched their way from the top to the middle of the egg, and tiny pieces fell, not revealing the baby inside yet.
"... Should we help?" Debris asked after a minute of that. Pongo's crest scrunched up in thought.
"I don't think so, not yet," Pongo said, and finally a little claw bust out of the egg. Two tiny little arms punched holes in the shells before retracting for the little head to poke out, showing off a small, female fae head, before she finally broke away at the rest of the shell and gingerly climbed out.
"Look at you, taking your sweet time," Fiona quipped, lowering her head to sniff at the baby, which flapped her wings at the oncoming bogsneak.
"They all have your wings," Debris said after surveying all the children. "The paint look."
"Yeah, your wing genes are rarer than mine, that's why," Pongo explained, gently picking up the small fae girl. She fluffed up her crest at him, and laid across his arm. Pongo laughed. "That's probably as close to indignation as a baby can get." Debris smiled, and, after looking over them for another moment, Pongo said, "alright, then he's Ephraim and she's Theodosia, if that's alright with you.
Startled, Debris blinked at him. "Uhm, yeah, uh, you had named picked out?"
"Yes," he said with a small nod.
"Why are they so long as stuffy sounding," Fiona asked, getting cuffed over the head by Debris again and chastised for being rude.
"My name is 'Pongo'," Pongo deadpanned, only the tops of his crests arching upwards in what seemed to be exasperation. "I wanted them to have better names."
"Fair," Fiona said with a shrug, and looked at Debris. "And your two guardian daughters.
"Do you have names for them as well?" Debris asked Pongo.
"No, I figured you might want first crack at the other two," he answered.
Debris had nothing. Which became apparent as the silence, save for the groqling and squeaking children, stretched on. "Uhm..."
"Debris Jr.," Fiona suggested, and Debris rolled her eyes. "Debris the second."
"How about no."
"No is a weird name for a kid." Debris narrowed her eyes at Fiona, who grinned at her. Debris did like the idea of the kid sharing the same first letter as she did, though. Like... Denise? Debra? Darlin? Dimina? D names, D names, D, D, D... DD?
"Deedee!" Debris finally exclaimed after working through all of that in her head. "Deedee, for the second baby."
"Sure," Pongo agreed.
"Cece!" Fiona exclaimed.
"What?" Debris asked.
"If her name is Deedee," Fiona started witha wild grin, pointing at the vipera guardian, "then her name she be Cece," she finished, pointing at the piebald guardian.
Debris was silent, glaring at Fiona for a long time, before sighing. "I... Actually like that." Debris hated herself.
"Yes! You hear that, Cece?" Fiona said with a laugh, peering over at the girl she got to name. Cece reached up and licked her face, and Fiona recoiled. "Rude."
"I think she approves," Debris said with a smirk.
The small family settled down and Debris looked over all her children long and hard. She loved them. She enjoyed having them. She would do anything for them. She... Didn't feel The Call lessen.
With an tired sigh, Debris resigned herself to continuing to look for her charge. Picking up on her friend's lack of closure, Fiona nudged her with her head and assured her everything would work out.
Pongo took off with Ephraim and Theodosia, saying they would be safer in a fae-woven sap cocoon, and Debris curled up with Deedee and Cece to nap with them. She would find her charge eventually, but for now, she needed to sleep.
All seven of Debris's children are open for adoption to good homes!
<--- Second Mate
