Grub

bought 50g
aether skink: 140g
eternal youth: 350g
unusual sight: 84g (was uncommon)


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When the first four Aether tumbled from their Astrolab and found their way to the clan, it was a... disorganized affair. That, plus their clumsy and airheaded nature, meant they didn't even notice an egg had been tossed out with them. Or that it had somehow made it with them all the way to their new home without being noticed. But in their defense, there was a lot going on at the time!


It wasn't until the poor kid hatched that Anthene said, "Was that thing always there?"


After a bit of humming and hawing, the group eventually landed on a possible theory that the hatchling should probably be taken care of. That, of course, meant deciding who should be the parent.


"Hatchlings look similar to their parents, right? Saturniid is kinda the same color, so he should be the parent," Fritillary said.


"Huh? Well look, it's got purple too! And Papilio is purple, so he should be the parent!"


"Nuh uh, Anthene found it first, so HE should be the parent!"

"Well, how do we know it's not actually one of our hatchlings, and we just... I dunno, forgot?"


"Wait, you have a point! Okay, show of hands everybody. Either four works. Does anyone here remember having a nest lately?"

"...No takers? Huh. I thought we were onto something there."


At that point, the hatchling tottered up to the closest dragon- that being Fritillary- and squeaked at her, likely seeking food and attention. Instead she booped it on the nose. "Awrk," it said.


"Aww, it's actually kinda cute." Fritillary scooped up the hatchling in her arms. "Maybe we shou-"


The Aethers' attention was then brought to a new presence at the entryway. Nep stared at the new hatchling, confusion and wonder and joy- probably- in her eyes, and whispered, "What's this?"


The Aether responded in unison, "A child!"

In the end, the four agreed to raise the hatchling together. After being told by Nep to finally feed the poor thing, they watched in amusement as it munched on a black swallowtail caterpillar- then screeched in horror upon learning those are in fact venomous, and while it is quite mild and harmless, it was eaten by a very young hatchling. As it turns out, sounds of chaos is normal in the Aether Lab.


After that whole fiasco, the kid was lovingly named Grub- though it continued to be referred to as only "it". Grub didn't seem to care though, and gleefully accepted any and all attention as a normal hatchling would. In the end, Grub was just Grub, and the four Aether continued on as normal.


Then Grub cloned itself one day. It was just was a simple accident. Grub hit its head against a table and a bit of its horn chipped off- no reason for concern, until the broken piece grew. The result was another baby Aether identical to Grub, save for strangely bright wings and different colored eyes. This time, the normally cacophonous Aether had absolutely no idea what to say.


"Wanna... hide the evidence and pretend this never happened?" Papilio finally asked after a long, long silence.


It was the fastest the four have ever agreed with each other.


"Don't tell Nep," Saturniid said, hurriedly reaching for the dustpan.


"Don't tell Nep," the rest agreed.


(Little did they know, the clone safely tumbled out of the clan, grew up decent, and ended up settling in Light. Interesting how the world works.)