Jeer

Jeer wrapped lazily around their most comfortable 'throne' -- a large, overstuffed chair that had obviously seen better days and much better care. Their many hands worked in tandem, pulling thread and fabric and stuffing together into a shape.

They were fine with any shape before -- truly, any shape as long as it made sense to them -- but now they were working on something more sensible! Something that made sense.

Dragon-shaped.

Dragon-shaped made more sense than a wheel of clawed paws or an orb of random button eyes that neither really could move very well. But Dragons? They could move perfectly! Jeer knew that, being one themselves. But it wasn't as easy as they had expected. Dragons had so many moving parts, so many joints, so many concepts and goals and frustrations.

Many failed attempts -- pulled apart, scrapped, thrown out -- they had finally managed to get at least one shape correct:

Snappers!

Big, chunky, slow moving. It didn't take long for Jeer to see enough Snappers roaming around for them to get the general shape, the general mood, the general energy of one. Now with the ease they could make them, it was calming. Stitching, pinning, stuffing. They focused intently on the face detail, what Jeer considered "The Friendship" of the Snapper's face.

The spiral held up the small plush up to the fire, rotating it with a multi-mouthed grin as the many hands clapped excitedly.

They gently, lovingly, set down the plush Snapper on the plush footstool with genuine fondness. The shadow hands gently wrapped around the velveteen Snapper, runes alighting across the surface. Steadily the magic thrummed with a steady heartbeat, glowing and dimming until the once simple button eyes shimmered with life.

Jeer leaned down, resting their chin on the cushion next to the new 'hatchling'. The plushie looked up at them for a few long moments before uneasily toddling closer. The newly made hatchling sniffed them before snuggling in -- bonding immediately with the Spiral.

"Hello, dear one," Jeer's voice rasped out. "It is so good to meet you. Your siblings will be excited to see you too."

They gently lifted the hatchling with their natural claws and set them lovingly in a large wicker basket with four other Snappers. Jeer coiled around the basket and watched their new children with interest, despite having to nudge the curious hatchlings back into the safety of the basket periodically.

It wasn't long before having to tend to a nest of perpetual hatchlings started to become too much for the shapeshifter, even with magic and mundane safeguards in place. They'd get out of the nest and try to roam -- The Snapper instinct, Jeer would constantly begrudge -- to only get hauled back to safety until the next big attempt.

It took a month of constant vigil until Jeer decided enough was enough and hauled the basket of hatchlings off to find a more suitable home for them that was not their home. Any home would do, if it meant not being awoken well after dusk to the sound of the little Snappers attempts at adventure.

Unsurprisingly, convincing other dragons to take in curious hatchlings, destined to never grow beyond the 'wander off into danger' stage of their life, was harder than Jeer considered. After a long day of convincing and begging, two of the four hatchlings still remained. They hauled the two rune adorned Snappers back to their abode, mulling over their next big project:

Adult-sized Snappers to take care of the eternally curious terrors.

They quickly tucked the two remaining hatchlings away and started to gather materials -- a lot of materials -- for their first attempt at new parents for their hatchlings. Anything to get a full night's rest without a plush Snapper attempting to escape by falling on their face at night.


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