Kate

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It had been a normal day, nice and warm. The sound of the ocean lapping at the shores of the cove and the warm sun had everyone in a good mood. Katherine was busying herself with her daily routine of feeding the inhabitants of the aquariums and watering the various plants, while Katerina dragged Katia away from her nap on a particularly sunny rock to go swim with her. Everything was going just swimmingly, pun intended, and as Katherine was finishing up with a particularly fussy plant, she heard a strange noise, a thump.

Upon further investigation of the mysterious thump, she notices that a sack of fresh soil had fallen over, and a rip in the top of the sack had spilled some of it on the floor. She goes over to the sack, figuring it just fell over, and sits it back up. As she does this, Katherine notices something green inside the sack of soil.

"What's this..?" she mutters, and digs her claws into the soil, uncovering a small sprout of bright green leaves. Hmm, that was odd. Why was there a plant in her soil? Perhaps it had accidentally got swept into the sack when the dragon collecting soil was filling it, and they hadn't noticed? While thinking over possible reasons for the appearance of the unexpected addition to her gardens, she almost jumps when the plant suddenly moves.

Now even more curious, Katherine digs her claws into the soil again to try and pull out the plant, roots an all, to transfer it to a nice pot she had been meaning to fill, but realizes that this plant doesn't have roots, and instead has a round, bark-like bulb attached to the leaves. No, not a bulb, but as she pulls it out and wipes the soil off of it gently with her paws, that this is an egg. She is confused, then is stunned, and then worried, and then even more so worried when the egg shakes in her claws. So that's how the sack had fallen over.

The last thing Katherine was expecting to do today was have a mysterious egg she found in her recently bought sack of soil from the market hatch in her garden, but it seemed like this was what was going to happen today. She held it close to her chest and ran around, gathering some things that might come in handy for the hatching while the impatient egg kept shaking, the hatchling inside wanting to escape it's containment.

Katherine did her best to make a makeshift nature nest in a planter bed she had filled with some of the new soil, and make sure to put the egg in the center of it, surrounded by plants. She was pretty sure she had read somewhere that nature dragons had their nests surrounded by plant life in order for their hatchlings to feel safer and more in-tune with their element. She wasn't sure how true it was, but she figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.

She waited patiently, whispering encouraging words to the hatchling to help it further, as it was starting to break out, little scratching noises and punctuated by it testing out its voice, responding to Katherine's encouragements with little babbles. After half-an-hour or so, it started breaking through, its tiny claws poking through the bits where the egg's walls had given way to its effective scratches, and after another ten minutes pass, the holes on the egg widen, cracks in the bark-like surface of the egg form and seperate, and finally, the egg breaks in two, revealing a little green female ridgeback. No, not just green, but made out of... plant material?

As she stretched her tiny limbs, Katherine noticed her wing membranes were made of some sort of somewhat stretchy leaf material, the ridges over her body were the thick leaves of a succulent, and the spines along her neck, spine and tail are those of a cactus. Her body itself was made of a mix of plant and dragon, though it seemed that her back, shoulders, and tail were more plant-like, while her face, stomach, and legs were primarily dragon.

She opened her big green eyes, looking at Katherine, and she chirped at her, reaching out to grab her with her tiny claws. She picks up the hatchling, holding her close to her chest, cradling her, and she baps at her face with her paws, trilling at the dragon she had imprinted on.

"What a strange little hatchling you are..." Katherine says softly, and the little hatchling purrs in response, settling into the comfortable hold, and quickly falling asleep. Katherine simply finds a comfortable spot in the shared bedroom that her and her mates share, deciding to nap while she waits for Katia and Katerina to return. Very soon she finds herself falling into a pile of pleasant dreams, cuddling her new hatchling close to her.

Katia and Katerina were returning from a nice day spent in the ocean, trudging along the path as the sun was traveling closer to the horizon with every minute passing. They had swam a lot, Katerina zipping around with energetic movements, chasing fish and trying to catch turtles, while Katia followed along with practiced, instinctual strokes, her large figure intimidating the nearby sealife. It had been a day full of ocean fun, and both were happy with the time spent together, but Katia wanted to get back to her girlfriend and charge to check up on her, and Katerina was just itching to tell her about all the things they had seen that day.

They were having a nice conversation, with Katerina filling the air with her excited voice, talking in length about the biggest stingray she'd every seen, while Katia explained that it had been a manta ray, not a stingray. Suddenly, Katia picked up a particular scent when they were at the entrance of their home, something different, and new, and most importantly, an unknown dragon, who didn't smell quite right. Katia called out to Katherine, but became worried when she heard no response.

Had something happened to her charge when they were away? They had spent the whole day in the ocean, and Katia's heart panged with guilt and fear as she quickened her pace, much unlike her usual slow stride.

"What's wrong Katia?" Katerina asks quickly, picking up on the sudden and unexpected change in behaviour from her mate

"There's someone unknown in the home. They don't smell right" is Katia's curt reply.

Weirdly enough, Katia also felt another strange feeling in her chest, something familiar.

She and Katerina rush into the home, and Katia beelines for the bedroom, picking up both the unknown dragon's and Katherine's scent in there. As she enters the room, her fears are immediately quelled, and instead replaced with love swelling in her heart, as she sees her mate and charge cuddling peacefully with a hatchling. Wait, a hatchling? Where had a hatchling come from?

Katerina, who had been close behind Katia, entered the room, and let out a d'aww as she took in the scene that her overprotective mate had just encountered. The noise of the two dragons wakes the other two, and Katherine mumbles a sleepy hello, and the hatchling in her arms, now rested and curious at the presence of the two new dragons, tries to amble over to them, moving awkwardly the way a newborn hatchling might, still not used to its own legs.

Katerina picks up and starts cooing at the little hatchling, a sweet little girl who immediately chir-ups happily at the positive attention, snuggling into the dragon cradling her. Katia, now relaxed and curious as well, notices that the reason the hatchling didn't smell right was because of her... being partially made out of plants? What? She looks at Katherine with a questioning look, and her mate, now sitting up, shrugs.

A conversation ensues among the trio as they all take turns holding the hatchling and lavishing her with attention, as Katherine relays the finding of the egg and the resulting hatchling that came from it. They discuss what to do, but knowing there would be no real way to track down the parents of the hatchling, they simply resolve to keep her. The hatchling had already imprinted on the three of them, and they didn't mind raising her. In fact, they were over the moon about a chance to have their own hatchling together.

"What should we name her?" asks Katia, the one currently cradling the hatchling.

"Maybe something that's a combination of our names? Like Katiarinarine?" says Katerina, her mane being pulled at by the curious hatchling.

"That is a nice name, but a bit too... complicated. I think I have an idea though" says Katherine, gazing at her mates and their new hatchling lovingly.

"What about Kate?"

And so, the new hatchling, an unexpected, but happily welcomed surprise, was named Kate.

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