• The Plagued Earth •

[HomeForFlowers]

"So what if it is coming down?" Clem huffed. "It's coming down really slowly. If it gets too close, we can just walk out of here. I doubt it'll have enough time to get us." Although Clem's words were brave, her heart was not. What if the dot was coming down? What then? Where was her mother? She would save her, right?

[kronosdragon]

Sunder just watched the dot.

 

"I guess you're right...what do I know?"

 

He took his attention away from the dot and continued to eat his berries. He was really hungry, and while the berries seemed to fill his stomach, his hunger wasn't satisfied.

[HomeForFlowers]

Clem stared at the dot for a few more seconds before turning her attention back to the berries. She was getting acquainted to the taste now. She didn't like it, no, but she could at least eat it without wanting to gag. Clementine ate the berries in peace, licking the juices off her lips and occasionally sipping water from the stream. She hadn't known a more peaceful moment.

[kronosdragon]

Sunder finished off his berries, licking his face clean and taking a drink from the stream. He looked up at the dot once more, water dripping down his chin. Something about it made him feel nervous, like he was being watched.

 

"M-Maybe we should go back to the cave," he said, looking at his crusted-over wounds. "I should make a new eye cover, to...you know..."

 

He gave a small frown.

 

"I would rather not be attacked again, and I feel tired."

[Lilithachaos]

-->

Ashni was debating whether or not to explain to Lucifer what happened when Jean piped up with his own version of events. Sitting down in shock as she stared up at Jean with her mouth slightly a gap was not her most shining moment, but Ashni could not help it. Her mind was a mix of ‘did he really just say that’ and half thought out sentences before Lucifer broke her out of her stupor. Not that his statement was much better since it just made her want to fall on the ground in laughter, but at the same time it made her want to break down in tears as that one statement oddly fits the situation to a ‘T’. Yet she knew that if she did not hold it together and did that, they both would think she was the crazy one as she laughed and cried at the same time on the ground.

 

Watching Lucifer walk off and then having Jean break down was not helping her own little mental breakdown, but life did not like giving one breaks it seemed. “Hey, hey it is alright! We will fix it, I promise you. It’s alright to be sad and cry, but just know that everything will be alright,” she almost cooed as she moved over and nudged herself between the forepaws on his face to nuzzle him. Which, she had to admit a little distantly in her mind, was slightly odd to be nuzzling your own face. Though hopefully with her own body in the way Jean would not be clawing at his face as he cried. “Jean, hun, I will try everything I can to fix it so you can have your body back. In the meantime it is fine to be mad or sad. But think of it this way, you get to try out flying a lot sooner than most other hatchlings and you will even have experience in it when you do grow your own wings in. I bet you will beat all the others in flying first and you will be the one teaching them how to do it.” Ashni knew that she was rambling somewhat in hopes that she could get Jean’s mind off being upset and more on the bright-side of things, but who knew if she was actually helping when all she wanted to do was cry alongside him. Being the ‘strong’ and ‘older’ one sucked sometimes, but some instinct would not let her cry while he was in distress and she could perhaps do something about it and give comfort. Motherly instinct perhaps, but who knows and she would surely not know since no one had one growing up around here.

 

Medea had not been looking towards Aerix as he started to sneak out, too busy stretching out her muscles that had stiffened up from laying still throughout the night and most of the morning. The rush of pure anger should be no shock to anyone when she looked up and saw that the male was gone, Medea emitting a loud growl as the thought came to her that the stupid Bleeding Moon could have at least said he was leaving. ’Whatever. As long as he is doing something useful and does not get himself killed with my powers. If I have to do all the work then he might find himself at the end of my claws,’ she mused to herself as the growling slowly ebbed off and the unconscious swaying of her tail, with the unwanted tail barbs, stopped as well. This thought made her feel better as Medea might tolerate Aerix, but that would come to an end if she thought he was one of the weaker hatchlings that depended on others to do everything for them.

 

Either way, there was little point in staying where she was in longer. Without having to factor in Aerix’s wound and the potential poisoning, she would just put her focus on getting their powers switched back and this means finding Rakushun. The only question was where to start looking. ’I have looked across most of the areas in search of my own home so I know where not to look,’ she thought to herself as she exited the shelter and took to the air. She’d fly as low as she could without risk to herself as she noted that could not maneuver as well as she normally could in flight for some reason, but would mentally put this in the back of her mind for now as something else this Rakushun messed up with the ‘power switch’.

 

((OOC; I do have permission from Tala to look and find Rakushun. Just leaving it open since I am not sure what he would be doing at this moment in time since he would have spent, I think, two days fixings the crystal necklace. Giving Tala room to make a post so I know what to put for Medea to find him. Please don’t run into her, thanks!))

[GreatDragon]

 

I'm saving this shape. It won't experience the pain that the thing inside would give it. The thing inside is like the creatures around here, the ones that seem so...slow. That chaos didn't make sense, the green creature didn't make sense, none of them make sense. The shapes make sense, so I'll help them. I'll take all of the things inside them out. All of them.

 

Hissing, she brought up her hands and dug her claws into the bottom of the green shape, breaking the skin. Something was oozing around her claws from the holes, but she ignored it and ripped downward, the green skin parting easily.

 

The stuff oozing out became a flow and it flooded out onto the ground, mixed with red and yellow veins. Ducking her head to look inside the hole she had made, the Cavern Lurker hatchling could see the thing inside taking up all of the room in the round shape.

 

Selfish, slow thing. Get out.

 

Flicking her tongue out, smelling the sticky scent of the oozing stuff and the thing inside the shape, she poked her snout through the hole and grabbed onto the things tail. The skin was wrinkled and nasty tasting, a huge difference from the flavors of the round shapes. Snarling, her lips pulled away from the creatures skin and teeth pressing against its flesh, she pulled it away from the round shapes insides.

 

A few pieces of the shape splintered off as the creature inside slid out of the opening and she dropped its tail, hissing at the taste that stayed in her mouth. Her hands and feet were a mess from the stuff inside the shape, her tail spared from being dirtied because the flood didn't reach that far.

 

She spared the limp creature only a glance before hurrying around it towards the round shape. The hole in the bottom was jagged, but didn't reach too far up towards the middle. Circling it, she readied herself to push the shape back up into a sitting position.

 

It's out. It won't hurt you ever again.

 

((I changed the egg into a Neglected so that it won't mess up anyone trying to make a character or anything. Past posts are already changed to fit the Neglected appearance.))

Edited December 4, 2013 by GreatDragon

[HomeForFlowers]

Clem, who had begun to lick her paws, turned to face Sunder.

"I don't really see a problem with your eye," she confessed. "But, I guess I can understand if you want to cover it." Clem didn't mind the injured eye so much. It was actually a bit homey for her. It was much like that of her mother's bad foot. Whenever she looked at Sunder's bad eye, she was reminded of her mother. Thinking about her loving parent made Clem warm inside. It was selfish of her to want Sunder to keep his bad eye out in public just because she wanted to be reminded of her mother, but Clem didn't realize that. Finishing off the last of her berries, Clem hopped off her boulder.

"Where to now?" she asked, not knowing how to get back to the birth cave.

[kronosdragon]

Clem shook his head.

 

"N-No, you saw how that other hatchling attacked me...I don't want to risk that again."

 

He looked toward the direction of the birth cave, sighing before taking another drink from the stream.

 

"Let's go back. I want to go home..."

 

He started off toward the cave, hoping not to pass the green hatchling on the way in.

[Lemniscate]

Sierra

Sierra woke up from her nap. She didn't feel refreshed, if anything, she felt more tired. Seeing the red and pink hatchling coming towards the cave, her stomach felt as if it had a hole in it. Half of her wanted to apologize, but the other half wanted to curl up and dissapear. She moved a paw towards the hatchlings, feeling like her paw was pushing through water. Taking a step, she felt magneted to the place she had been. It pulled her back, but she put another paw forward. With each step, the imaginary water grew harder to push through, and the pull greater. But she didn't turn back. Oh, her whole body wanted to run back up the mountain, but she knew she had to apologize. Her paw touched grass, and she almost couldn't take another step. She took one last step, and was almost in their view, but she couldn't move anymore. 'That's it.' she thought 'I'm too weak to apologize.' The least she could do was gift them something, so she did. She had remembered seeing a berry bush, and ran back up the mountain to get some of the berries. She had eaten a few before, so she knew that they were sweet and tasty. Grabbing a fern, she wrapped up the berries and headed back down the slope. When her paws touched grass, the magnet pull and water were back. But this time, she continued. walking up to them, she dropped the fern with the berries in front of them. Her entire body felt like stone, and she wanted to run away. But she was paralyzed there in front of them.

[HomeForFlowers]

Clem bounded cheerfully after Sunder. She wiggled her hind quarters and set off after him. She wasn't sure why the dot had made him so scared. Sure, it was different, but that was about it. It wasn't like it was swooping down upon them with big teeth and giant claws. Clem shivered at the thought. Now that she thought about it, a giant animal falling from the sky, grabbing her with giant claws, and dragging her into the sky.

Good lord, that sounds horrible! I would never want to be in the sky like that.

Clem continued to pad after Sunder, keeping a few feet distance a part, accumulated by her stopping to look at leaves move or to stop and bat at the flowers.

[kronosdragon]

As Sunder approached the cave, he spotted the green hatchling looking at them with something in its mouth. He lowered his head and paused, realizing that it was approaching. His feet stopped in the dirt and grass, and despite his urge to bolt to the cave, he found himself rooted to the spot. The other hatchling dropped a bundled-up leaf in front of them and seemed to stare expectantly. Sunder was very confused and just wanted to go inside.

 

"U-Um..."

 

What little courage he had left tucked tail and ran, driving him to do the same. Little heart pounding, he made a mad dash for the cave. His claws scrabbled over the stone floor, making quite the racket as he bolted toward his nest and dove beneath the grass layer. He gave a small sigh of relief as he buried himself in the grass, hiding away from the frightening world. When he calmed down, he suddenly realized that he had left Clem behind.

 

Oh no! Why did I do that? I left Clem all alone!

 

He frantically poked his head out of the grass, searching to see what had become of his little pink friend.

[HomeForFlowers]

Realizing Sunder was far ahead of her, Clem bounded over to where she suspected he had gone.

"Sunder!" Clem called out to her red friend. "Don't leave me be-" She skidded to a halt. In front of her, was that horrible green hatchling from before. The one who had attack Sunder for no good reason. The one that reminded her of that witch Kalana. At the mere sight of the slightly elder hatchling, Clem's eyes hardened.

I don't want to deal with the likes of her.

For a moment, Clem just glared at the green hatchling who's name she did not recall. A renewed hatred burned in her eyes. This person was a monster! She attacked someone as timid as Sunder for no good reason! She didn't deserve to live in the same group momma was in charge of. Why her mother hadn't sent out this ridiculous hatchling, Clem did not know. Without even giving the green hatchling a greeting, she began to head into the cave. She didn't have to deal with her. She had better things to do.

[kronosdragon]

Sunder saw Clem heading inside. He wriggled out of his nest and padded up to her.

 

"S-Sorry, Clem," he said meekly. "I-I didn't mean to leave you behind. Are you okay? Did that other hatchling get you?" he asked, concerned about her well-being. He poked his head around to either side, checking to see if she had any wounds.

[Lemniscate]

Sierra

Seeing the red hatchling run away, she dipped her head. She thought 'This is it. Look at what you've done. They'll never forgive me.' She looked away, then looked back hopefully, realizing the pink hatchlings was still there. But the pink hatchling's eyes showed no forgiveness. When the pink hatchling started glaring daggers at her, it was as if there were real daggers shooting at her. She left the berries in the entrance of the cave, hoping for one last chance at forgiveness. Then, she ran away, farther and farther. She ran back to her cave, curling up.

[HomeForFlowers]

Clem marched right into the cave, ignoring the green hatchling all the way in. She was about to go to her and her mother's nest when Sunder came up to her and began asking her all sorts of questions. Feeling a strange sense of superiority, Clem blinked at her friend.

"She knows her place," Clem barked.

That green hatchling deserves to be punished. If was my mother...

Clem shook the thought after. She didn't need to worry about the green hatchling. She was below her concerns at the moment. Besides, she had other things to do.

Like wait for mother to come home...

[kronosdragon]

Sunder-Eye cringed at the force behind Clem's statement. When did she become so bold?

 

"U-Um...okay, as long as you aren't hurt," Sunder said feebly, backing away. "I'm uh...I'm going to go. Back to my nest..."

 

He hurried away, a sense of dread overcoming him. Clem had gone from fun and friendly to cold in a heartbeat. He silently blamed himself.

 

If I hadn't hurt my eye in the first place, none of this would have happened, right? Clem must be mad at me for putting her through all this trouble...

 

Sunder dug himself under the grass blanket in his nest, curling up and tucking his head between his paws.

 

I'm such a troublesome hatchling...

Edited December 7, 2013 by kronosdragon

[Lemniscate]

Sierra

After curling up in her cave, Sierra began thinking. The sad part of her slowly faded as she thought. 'What right do they have to ignore my apologies? It's not like they're better than me.' she thought. 'No, stop it Sierra. You'll just hurt more others if you think like this.' Yet, even as she thought this, anger burned in her as she imagined the two hatchlings with smug grins. 'They're probably all smug and superior now. They're probably happy that I'm suffering. No, Sierra, don't. Don't let anger carry you away.' she thought. Sighing, she closed her eyes. 'If only I controlled myself better. I let my dream get the better of me.' After resting for a bit, she suddenly shot up. 'That's it. I know what I can do now.'

[HomeForFlowers]

Clem anxiously watched as Sunder sulked away. He didn't seem so happy anymore. In fact, he seemed pretty distressed. Clem could only come up with one conclusion as to why.

It's my fault. I said something or did something wrong and now he's mad at me and trying to avoid me. What did I do wrong?

No longer feeling her rush of superiority, Clem sighed and begin stalking to her nest. Her newborn mind couldn't comprehend what had just happened and she assumed Sunder's sudden recoil of her was her fault. Crestfallen, Clem rolled herself down onto her nest and placed herself down. She glanced at the blanket her mother had made which was only several inches away.

Oh, yes. Mother has to be coming back soon. I should wait for mother! She'll get rid of this cold pit in my stomach.

Gratefully pulling the blanket over, Clem wrapped it around herself, her whole body already feeling better with the knowledge that mother was still taking care of her. Now laying down, Clem, with her head lifted up, waited expectantly in her nest, her gaze marked straight at the door.

She's going to come home soon! I just know it!

Clem waited, her entire being ready to wait an eternity, if it need be, for her mother to return.

[Ayesthine]

The hatchling stirred in its sleep, two sets of eyes squeezed tightly against the cold touch of day. The two-headed lindwurm turned over in its collective sleep, pressing itself tightly into the musky fur of its stolen food. Two identical jaws smacked as awareness slowly seeped into the hatchling's stiff muscles. A single pair of eyes slowly blinked open, and a paw reached up to rub the sleep away. One of the heads stirred slowly, staring with bleary eyes at the cold brown roots of the tree. The enticing scent of the fresh meant lay heavy in the air. The hatchling's belly grumbled. An arm scrabbled against the dewy bark, trying desperately to move the shared body of its owner. The head it belonged to snorted in disappointment. The other head lay curled against its respective arm. The first head, now fully awake and very hungry, snapped at the sleeper angrily. A short bark, full of surprise and hurt, leapt from the startled head's throat. It pursed its lips together, and roused itself from sleep with righteous indignation. The hatchling slithered over to the weasel, hunger pricking painfully. The first head lunged out, ripping and tearing with serrated teeth at the flesh and muscle. A lofty expression carefully cultivated on it's features, the other head watched from above. It stared about the twisting caverns of wood and dust, blinking against the piercing light from the opening above. Fresh blooms of blood and meat perforated the air as the hatchling tore in.

A new scent interrupted their quiet reverie. Something not quite prey, and not quite predator. It smelled milky and soft, like the image of starlight. A face peered at them, dark and glittering with the light of a thousand distant stars. The hatchlings perked up, glittering black eyes staring with new intensity at the foreign animal. The shimmering black-and-gray scaled thing shrieked out a garbled noise filled with anger.

"Hey! That's MY food that you're eating!"

The lindwurm blinked, curious. Squirrels and rabbits never made any noise besides screams of pain in the throes of their death. One of the heads opened its jaws and let out a trilling query.

"Trrr... i?"

[GreatDragon]

 

The green shape wasn't as heavy as it had been earlier, making the Cavern Lurker realize that the creature that had been inside it also made it heavier. Another mark against the creatures.

 

Stupid things. I'll get rid of them all.

 

Using her head first to push up the round shape, she steadied it with her hands and let it balance back up. The bottom was jagged from her opening it and only splintered a few cracks up, but it didn't have any more damage.

 

The gloomy round shape was now back up and looked better, at least to her. The limp creature on the ground hadn't moved yet, but she ignored it. The thing had been inside the shape with the intent of hurting it, so it deserved to get the cold shoulder.

 

Some sounds caught her attention and she swerved her head to look at some creatures coming into the cave. After a second of studying them, she turned back towards the shapes. The creatures were none of her concern and she didn't want to even see them. They must have come out a shape as well, and they didn't even care about the pain they must have caused.

 

Gritting her teeth at the thought, she hissed irritably, tongue flickering out of her mouth.

 

Stupid, disgusting, horrid things.

 

Glancing over the shape that she had 'helped', she cleared her mind of the creatures and nodded at her work. Turning away from the green shape, she walked over to the nest that it had originally sat in.

 

Taking the time to kick the limp creature on the floor with a clawed foot, she stood on her hind legs and looked over the round shapes clustered in the moss nest.

 

They still have the things in them. I'll take all of them out. Stupid, slow things.

[kronosdragon]

Sunder-Eye heard movement somewhere in the darkness of the cave. He poked his head out of his nest and looked around. His one good eye was not accustomed to the darkness of the cave, but he thought he had heard something rustling around. He decided that it must be another hatchling, and fearfully pulled his head back into the nest. Unfortunately, his stomach began to grumble loudly.

 

But...I just ate a bunch of berries! I shouldn't be hungry...

 

A peculiar scent reached his nose, and slowly, he pulled his head back out into the open air. It was a tantalizing scent - one that called to him, and made his stomach grumble.

 

What is that? Is it food?

 

He followed his nose into the blackness of the deepest corners of the cave. When the smell became stronger, Sunder followed it until he recoiled from stepping in something wet and gooey.

 

"Ew..."

 

He pulled up his paw and sniffed his foot, finding that the peculiar smell was coming from the...goo? Lowering his nose to the puddle around his feet, he stuck his tongue out and tasted it. It was slimy and tasted awful, like something rotten. Sunder's stomach no longer growled at the smell, once he realized that it tasted gross.

 

But where did it come from? What is it?

 

He snuffled along the cave floor, following the puddle inward. As his eyes adjusted, his nose bumped into something wet, solid and cold. When he finally made out what the lumpy shape was, he let out a loud yelp and scrabbled away, tears of fear flowing from his good eye as he cried out for someone to help. What he had bumped into appeared to be the cold, unmoving corpse of a hatchling.

 

"Clem! Clem, help! Someone help!"

 

He leaped into Clem's nest and burrowed under the blanket that he had made for her, covering his eyes and sobbing.

[Fiirewolvar]

"Trrr... i?"? What kind of a response was that? Astra was momentarily confused about the big hatchling's intentions. However, she quickly recovered, and shook her head. 'Erm. Sorry about that, I reacted a bit too quickly, I guess...' she sighed. This hatchling shouldn't attack her now that she'd apologized, surely? She quickly followed with, 'But, it IS my food you're eating. I don't really mind...' though her expression showed otherwise, '...but I'd rather you asked before eating another hatchling's food.' She grunted, annoyed at how what she'd just said had come out - bossy and sulky, as if she had power over this big hatchling, as if she was superior to it! She decided to try and take its mind off her, and inquired, 'My name's Astra, what's yours? And how-' she cut off quickly. She wasn't in a position where she should be asking about how the other hatchling survived with two heads. She was slightly worried about how it would react, but hoped it would turn out to be friendly after all. She wouldn't blame it if it attacked her, though. It was bigger and stronger than her. Hungrier too, probably. If it wanted to eat her food, then it would. She couldn't exactly stop it. She forced these thoughts out of her head and attempted to twist her mouth into something reminiscent of a smile; however she ended up just looking stupid and gave up, letting her face relax back to a slightly sulky expression.

[HomeForFlowers]

Clem let out a yelp of surprised as Sunder began screaming his head off.

"Sunder?" she called to the panicking hatchling, piping her head up from underneath the blanket.. "What's going o-" Just then, the red hatchling rocketed himself forward and into her and her mother's nest. Clem let out a series of grunts as Sunder scrambled himself underneath her blanket.

"Sunder," Clem squeaked as Sunder adjusted himself underneath the blanket. "What are you- ugh!" Clem pushed herself away from the red hatchling and shook her head furiously. She sputtered and climbed underneath the covers to face Sunder.

"Sunder?" Clem asked looking at the two bright eyes sparkling in the dark. "What happened?"

[GreatDragon]

 

There was noise behind her and the Cavern Lurker hatchling swung her head around, catching sight of the retreating form of one of the creatures. She snarled, irritated and annoyed at its presence, but it left quickly, dashing back to another creature.

 

Sniffing and flicking out her tongue, she turned back to the nest, deciding to ignore the intrusion on her thoughts. Sniffing over a few of the round shapes, she picked one that smelled different than the others. It had different colored circles covering its skin, indenting slightly. The surface was soft and spongy, but the shape didn't give her any trouble when she pushed it sideways, over the moss nest and onto the ground.

 

Flicking her tongue out again, she glanced at the green shape that she had helped and then back onto the spongy shape.

 

You'll feel better in a second. Then, I'll put you up with your friend.

[Lemniscate]

Sierra

Sierra arrived back in the cave after a while. The first thing she noticed was the huge smell. Well, at least she didn't smell it that much after a while. This would require investigation, but she would do that later. Looking around, she eventually found the red and pink hatchlings. Walking over, she declared "Sorry." She didn't lower her head, she didn't say it softly or with any hint of fear. The way she had said it, there was almost no room to decline her apology. But, it wasn't really like an apology. It was more like declaring the word sorry. It was her way of apologizing.

Edited December 10, 2013 by Silverphoenixx