WilloWisp

The Viral Circus-100 Hatchlings!!

WilloWisp congratulated himself once again on his brilliant decision to take a small leave and tour other circus troupes. It had been a spur of the moment decision, as most of his decisions were, and he hadn't had to go very far at all to find another batch of performers.

This particular group suited him just fine. They were an eclectic batch that really branched out into a wide variety of performance types. True, there were one or two that had the refined stuffiness he associated with his birth family. By and large, however, they were a group that, like him, lived exactly in the moment.

It was this living in the moment that had led him to his current task of monitoring a clutch of his own future progeny. The five eggs were gently ensconced in a makeshift nest of various scarves that had been perfectly encapsulated inside an old prop bathtub. As he couldn't exactly fit his entire self into the tub, he gently nudged and turned the eggs every so often, making sure they stayed swathed in starry cloth. As he was a dragon of action, he'd had the help of the troupe's propmaster to rig the nest onto a rolling frame so that he could gently tow it about. After all, he didn't want to miss a thing or be tied to one spot for too long. And, of course, he had to show off his future progeny. This particular morning, he strolled up the empty midway, idly looking for his mate. She was limbering up near the fortune teller's tent, yawning and rapidly fluttering her wings to slough off the slight spring chill that still clung to the air.

"I love it," Mirsa said as she saw WilloWisp approaching, his nest caravan in tow. "They get used to the traveling life before they've even hatched."

"That son of yours is a wonder with a hammer and a few scraps of material," WilloWisp said, halting slowly so as not to jostle the precious cargo. "I just told him what I was after and it seemed like a moment later he'd made it up for me."

"All of my children are exceptional in their own ways," Mirsa said with a boastful grin. "These will certainly be no exception," she added, gently nudging the eggs here and there. "Oh, look," she pointed to one of the bright globes that had begun to tremble slightly. In response, another one shivered harder.

"Mornin'," a sleepy-eyed tundra called agreeably as she stumbled toward the cookhouse.

"Good morning. The eggs are hatching," WilloWisp responded excitedly as a crack split yet another egg.

"Oh they are? Oh how fun!" The sleep vanished from the tundra's eyes and she roared in delight. Turning nimbly on her heel, she scampered back toward the caravans, voice ringing out in the midmorning quiet. "I'll get the others! HEY EVERYONE!"

"Determined to make it a spectacle, are we? I approve," Mirsa grinned up at her mate as the eggs began to hatch in earnest.

By the time a modest amount of the troupe had gathered together, WilloWisp was busy corralling five squirming hatchlings inside their nest tub. The dragonets pushed and jostled, attempting to use one another to escape the tub in pursuit of the coos and accolades that showered down upon them from the adoring observers. He was extremely delighted that one of the hatchlings took after him, but he was certainly no less proud of his little tundra daughters. "Exceptional," he murmured as he picked one of the tundras up and held her to meet his gaze. She goggled for a moment at an eye the size of her head, but then reached out a paw to touch it. "Absolutely exceptional." Grinning, he set her back into the tub and then lowered his head down closer to his children. As they began to clamber eagerly onto this new addition to their universe, he closed his eyes in contented delight.