Survival of the Youngest

[Shibadruid]

((OOC: Aaand I'm back! Sorry for the long absence, I'll try to keep up.))

 

Through the time until sunset, Madlia had decided to find as many berries as she could. Leaving the stream, she had gone far into the forest and eventually had gotten lost. It was only when the sun was about to touch the horizon that she managed to get her bearings and find her way to the cave. In her expedition, she had found five or six berry bushes, but did not have to time to figure out where in the forest they were. Madlia was peckish, but not quite hungry from her foraging expedition. Finally getting back to the cave, she said, "I- I'm back. I g-got lost. It was ... s-scary." Madlia's stuttering was in equal part from her young age and her fear, as she was visibly shaking. Curling herself into a tight ball, she lay down next to another hatchling, though she couldn't tell which one in her panicked state and with what little light was left in the day.

 

~~~~~

 

Calearn continued to hunt into the night, not realizing the darkness because of his night-vision. His first hint at the time was his fatigue. He could no longer keep up with even the mice in an extended chase. He had managed to keep himself somewhat full, but did not have any food to bring back to the others. Hacking up excess bones and fur on his way back to the cave, he walked calmly past the fox carcass and sat down, waiting to see if the Black was still angry at him.

 

~~~~~

 

Seraza didn't fear the dark, nor did she fear the inhabitants of the forest. Both would learn to fear her. Her hunting had been ... less than successful, so she gave up around sunset and went back to the stream to get a drink of water. Seraza decided that, although blood was delicious, it was not as satiating as water. Leaning over the stream to get a drink, Seraza accidentally inhaled, and started choking. She fell backwards, the combined fur, bones and water almost completely closing off her airway. Rolling back and forth, she started coughing violently in an attempt to dislodge the blockage. However, nothing seemed to be helping, because her vision became less and less precise. Just before she lost consciousness, however, she felt a sharp pain in her throat and a sudden surge of oxygen. She had managed to survive, but decided that she had no more energy after that traumatic event, and attempted to fall asleep next to the stream, convincing herself that she hadn't almost died ten seconds before.

[HomeForFlowers]

Nein glanced up at Rale as he announced that he would be leaving the cowardly hatchling's side. His white tinted eyes watched the Guardian leave. He didn't avert his gaze until the other hatchling was completely out of sight. As soon as he saw Rale's tail disappear into the shrubbery, Nein placed his head on his paws. A soft whimper escaped his throat as he stared at the ground. Why did everything have to be so hard? Catching the mouse was probably the easiest thing Nein had done, and even that was not without its difficulties. The other mouse had disappeared and Nein, in the process of catching the first mouse, had probably scared all the other prey away. If anyone else was trying to hunt nearby, Nein probably just ruin their chances of finding anything. With an aspirated huff, Nein turned his gaze onto the prey in front of him. The brown ball of fur was matted with blood and was barely recognizable as a mouse. But it was still warm and ever so tempting. That orange Nein had earlier didn't exactly satisfy him. Maybe this piece of meat would. Standing up, Nein crept up to the piece of prey and bit down into it. It took him less than a minute to shove the entire thing down his throat. With blood dripping off his muzzle, Nein lifted his head and looked around. Rale said he would be nearby, but Nein wasn't sure he wanted to go back and see the Guardian. His eyelids were beginning to feel heavy and the urge to sleep was great. He didn't exactly want to go back to the cave since there were other hatchlings there. Turning his attention to a nearby bush, Nein waltzed forward and settled himself underneath it. The leaves prickled his skin, but that didn't matter. He was far too sleepy to care at the moment. Resting his head and closing his eyes, Nein attempted to fall asleep.

 

(Since it seems Shiba is getting all his characters to sleep, I'll go ahead and have mind do so as well. If anyone still wants to interact with Nein, go ahead. After all, he's attempting to sleep. That doesn't mean he achieves doing so.)

[GreatDragon]

 

The other creature had wandered away only a few moments after he had taken a drink, leaving the red hatchling to his lonesome. He had tilted his head as they left, watching their retreating back before turning back to the water. Now with less hesitation, he dipped a clawed hand into the stream, feeling the cold shiver up his arm and spine. He played with the water for awhile afterwards, flexing his claws in the cold and, at one point, dipping his head down to blow bubbles (which ended badly, as he accidentally sucked in water through his nose and caused a rather long bought of coughing.).

 

After catching his breath, the hatchling looked up into the once gray sky to find it steadily turning blacker and blacker. Small points of white sometimes popped up and the hatchling spent even more time staring at the sky. It wasn't until his stomach gurgled did the red hatchling break his focus. It was a new and foreign feeling, and he didn't think he liked it that much. The scent surrounding him increased as he stood up on shaky legs, having sat down for longer than he probably should have. Flicking his tail around and shaking his head, the hatchling took a look around. There was almost no white or even gray around him, only dark shades of black. The sudden viewing of everything being so dark scared him, jolting the hatchling from his current state of slow and content.

 

He lowered his head down, visibly trying to become smaller. The amount of time he sat there, staring off into the darkness with the scent steadily becoming decreased, is unknown, but something eventually steadied his fear. It was a low flicker of gray and white, floating above the covered ground. The red hatchling stared at it, slowly growing interested in watching the flickering light. A few more appeared, though they were spaced so far apart that only small beams of pale light reached his eyes. As the drifted, the red hatchling raised his head and the fear in him drained away. These lights were catching all of his attention, distracting his few hour old mind from the darkness. The scent that surrounded him came back stronger, curling like a blanked around him and drifting in streams of good smell.

 

It seemed to affect the lights, since they started to slowly float towards him. The first one he saw got to him first, its gray and white light flickering lightly. The red hatchling started at it as it floated around him and, like any other child, tried to grab it. It easily moved away from his clumsy hands, now with a second light joining it. The hatchling narrowed his pupil less eyes in concentration and, raising both clawed hands, slashed down.

 

This seemed to work, as one light darted away and the second went down to the ground. Lowering his head, the red hatchling sniffed it as it's light flickered hectically. And, like any other child, he stuck out his tongue and tried to roll it into his mouth. That didn't work as well as he thought it would, as the thing had lots of sharp pieces moving around and the lighted area warmed his tongue uncomfortably. Unfortunately for the bug, he was able to get it into his jaws and crunched it up. It didn't have much of a taste and the light stung his throat on the way down, but the feeling of actually eating something was new and definitely good.

 

So, for the next few minutes, the red hatchling used his time to leaping around and swallowing the lights. Of course, it was still very dark and he tripped endlessly, leaving some light aches on his chest, neck, and chin, but the feeling of eating was euphoric. Eventually, the lights he was still chasing went out, leaving the hatchling in the cold darkness. Even with a belly full of distasteful bugs, the hatchling didn't like seeing nothing and curled himself down, pulling his tail around him. He didn't know where he was, but he could still feel the multiple stalks on the ground and hear the low humming of the stream he had drunken out of.

 

Tired out by his activities of the day, the hatchling slowly drifted to sleep.

[Dream_Dragon]

<OOC: Darn it, I did it again, didn't I? I don't know if anyone will respond anymore but I might as well make my reply...>

 

Almost immediately after he exited on the other side of the bushes, Rale Rock smacked himself hard in the face. How could he have just left the Electric hatchling like that? That had really been dumb of him. What if some...wild animals attacked the hatchling? What if he lost his way in the forest? What if...what if... Rale smacked himself again, taking a deep breath. "Calm down. Calm down. Think." The Electric hatchling wasn't stupid - he could take care of itself. The way he had caught his prey had proven that he could be more than shy if he wanted to and all Rale had been doing was making the poor hatchling more nervous just by being there. "I need to give him space. I can't be so...so over-protective all the time..." Rale sighed, feeling decidedly disappointed with himself, and curled up against the bush. He may as well get some rest.

 

~~~

Dream Dell turned her attention back to the fox carcass. She watched, curious, as Rim ate some of the pinkish red squishy stuff. He seemed to be enjoying it...well, if he liked it, that must mean she would too!

 

"Yay, food!" she squealed, not quite sure about what she had just said but dismissing it as nothing important, and scampered closer to the fox to take a bite as well but almost immediately recoiled backwards at the smell. It smelled...awful. The smell had a metallic scent to it, something Dream Dell couldn't quite understand. However, she shook her head and went forward again. If Rim liked it, who was to say she wouldn't? The Daydream hatchling lowered her head to pinkish red squishy part of the fox (she was adamant about calling it the pinkish red squishy stuff) and bit out a small chunk of it cautiously. After her choking incident, she didn't want to take any chances!

 

She chewed slowly, her taste buds tingling at the taste of meat. Her face looked serious as though she was about to make a very, very, very important decision. So she chewed, and chewed, and chewed. Then, when she felt like she had chewed enough, she swallowed, making a cartoon-like gulp as it went down her throat. As soon as she did so, her eyes widened.

 

"Hey!" she cried aloud, jumping up.

 

"The p-pinkish red squi-squishy stuff..." she paused for a dramatic effect, "doesn't m-make you ch-choke!" She beamed happily at her amazing discovery of all time.

 

"Hee hee!" she giggled, covering her snout with her paws adorably.

Edited June 26, 2014 by Dream_Dragon

[skiddajane]

Madeline realized that Rim had left them. In her curiosity, she key go of her sister and ran to look for him. "RIMMMM!!" she shouted into the cave. Her voice echoed off of the cave walls, making her voice project in all directions. Loudly.

 

 

[Dream_Dragon]

<OOC: >

 

Sparkly Scaler's ears twitched as an extremely loud yell echoed throughout the cave. Then, on reflex, she jumped up, her eyes wide open. "Is there trouble? What's going on?" She took a step forward, then stopped as her mouth broke open to release a loud...yawn, she thought it was called. She blinked in surprise and shook her head to rid herself of her sleepiness. Now that she wasn't so groggy, she took a good look at her surroundings. It was still dark in the cave. There wasn't even any light coming from the entrance. "That must mean that the sun has not risen yet. Who in their right mind would be yelling at this time?" thought Sparkly crossly. She was still rather hungry and the pinching sensation in her stomach had returned. Her hooves clopped against the stone floor as she went forward, trying her best to avoid bumping into too many eggs. When she reached the cave entrance, she could just about see the little group...and the fox carcass from earlier. She cringed at the sight of it but quickly returned her attention to the group.

 

"What is it? Who was yelling?" she asked, sounding a little bit grumpy from being awoken from her rest.

 

~~~

At the sound of the yell, Dream Dell jumped nearly three feet in the air, landed on her cloud, which swooped in just in time, and promptly giggled at the touch of her fluffy, puffy cloud.

 

"Hee hee hee...waiiit," she abruptly stopped giggling, making "wait" sound like "white".

 

"Rim?" Dream cocked her head curiously with a kitten-like smile on her face, staring at the albino Swallowtail.

 

"He...he's rrright herr!" she said cheerfully, not caring a scrap about her could-be-intentional-or-not mispronunciations, bounding over to Rim and poking him for the heck of it. Her head whipped around as the tired-looking purple Horse hatchling from earlier emerged from the back of the cave.

 

"Hiii!" she chirped excitedly, bounding over to the hatchling and bouncing all around her. She could have answered the hatchling's questions but... "Nah, it's so fun to bounce around these hatchlings! Hee hee!"

Edited June 26, 2014 by Dream_Dragon

[skiddajane]

Madeline thought she heard someone reply to her. She went in the direction of the voice, and finally came to see a blue dragon on a fluffy...thing... Right next to Rim. Upon seeing her friend, she squeaked with happiness, and sprinted over to him. " I missed you! You made a new friend though, so that's good." she said, gesturing to the blue dragon that had called her over. "

What are you?...And what is that poofy thing there?" she asked her.

[Dream_Dragon]

Sparkly Scaler watched as the hatchlings spoke with each other and a frown crossed her face. What?! They didn't even notice that she was right there! Even the hyperactive light blue hatchling had lost sight of her! They could have at least answered her questions! She snorted, obviously frustrated for being awoken for completely no reason, and walked to the entrance of the cave to stare outside in the darkness. It wasn't quite as dark as it had been earlier for now the moon shone down on them, as did the array of stars across the sky. She lay down slowly, wincing slightly as her stomach pinched again. She wasn't going to go back into the cave to sleep for she was far too wide awake for that but she wasn't going to wander out either. It was way too dangerous for she was vulnerable in the dark and she wouldn't be able to see where she was going. However, she knew that there were some other hatchlings out there and she hoped that they were okay.

 

~~~

Dream Dell stopped bouncing around the purple hatchling and scampered over to the Swallowtail. She grinned at the questions that the two-tailed hatchling asked.

 

"What am I? I'm a hatching-er, hatchling, j-just li'e you, silly!" she giggled, bopping the Swallowtail gently and rather playfully on the nose.

 

"Pwoo...feey? Poofy?" Dream Dell tilted her head slightly, a little confused as to what she meant. Then, the gears clicked in her head and she did the kitten-like smile once more just for the adorableness of it. She jumped onto the - no, her - pink cloud, rolling over and snuggling into soft, pink fluff.

 

"It's m-my...my...uh..." Now that she thought about it, what was it? It was fluffy, puffy, and poofy...

 

"It's my cl-clud!" she blurted out. No, that sounded wrong. Was it another mispronunciation?

 

"I mean...cloud!" she corrected herself, beaming at yet another successful word spoken correctly, which she had decided was worth beaming at. Then, she decided to stick her head into her cloud like an ostrich. Except that her head was actually in the cloud, unlike an ostrich. All of a sudden, Dream Dell remembered something terribly important that she had forgotten! In a hurry, she took her head out of the cloud and jumped off the pink puffy thing, bounding closer to the Swallowtail.

 

"I'm Dream Dell, what's your name?" Having said this so many times, the sentence rolled off her tongue smoothly, without a hitch, and she beamed again.

Edited June 26, 2014 by Dream_Dragon

[skiddajane]

Madeline smiled. "My name is Madeline!" she said. It was then that she noticed a purple hatchling sitting nearby. She looked like she had..fur? Feathers? Something different than the rest of them. "Oh, who are you?" she asked.

Edited June 27, 2014 by skiddajane

[Dream_Dragon]

<OOC:Huh? What fur or feathers? Sparkly has scales...I think. Also, she's lying down like she is in her sprite, not standing up anymore. By the way, your sprite's not working. ">

 

Sparkly Scaler turned her head when she thought she heard a voice being directed to her. "Oh, so now she notices me?"

 

"I'm Sparkly Scaler," she said, after a pause.

 

"Would you...rather not go to sleep? I think there's little else we can do until the sun rises...unless your sight is...different," Sparkly spoke slowly, especially at the new words that kept popping up in her head. At the last part of her response, though, she was reminded of Tenebris and wondered how he could see well in the dark. Perhaps it was because of his bright eyes. That must be it. Hatchlings with really bright eyes must have good vision in the dark as well as in the light. If that was how hatchlings saw in the dark, then Sparkly could only conclude that...Madeline, was it?...did not have that...night sight, she thought it was called.

 

"Then again, I think that is highly unlikely," she added. "Highly unlikely that you hatchlings are going to sleep, that is," she thought afterwards, watching as Dream Dell jumped towards Madeline in what seemed like an attempt to hug her.

 

~~~

Dream Dell glanced at Madeline as she spoke to Sparkly. There was suddenly a strange urge that overcame her, telling her to...to...

 

"Hug!" she squealed, leaping towards Madeline and attempting to wrap her paws around the Swallowtail, nuzzling the other hatchlng's shoulder as she did so.

 

"Hee hee!" she giggled, not paying any attention to what Sparkly was saying.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Dream_Dragon

[skiddajane]

((Sparkly is a horse dragon, so she has a mane and hair on her tail, right?))

 

Madeline was startled by Dreams hug, and tried to resist at first. After she realized that her efforts were in vain, she relented and returned the hug. It seemed that Dream was going to be a good friend. And Sparkly and Rim too. They were all going to be good friends. Once Dreams' hug finally ended, Madeline stood up to face Sparkly. "Yeah, I'm not going to sleep! Let's go do something!" She said, smiling. It was only a moment later when she remembered Noelle. She was about to go back for her, but stopped when she saw that she was already coming. "NOELLE!" She shouted. "Come meet my friends, Dream and Sparkly!" Madeline started jumping up and down in excitement.

 

Noelle was surprised at Madeline's sudden disappearance. She was going to lie down and just wait for her to return, but got curious as to where she ran off to. It didn't take Noelle very long to find her. As soon as Madeline saw her, she started shouting her head off. Noelle followed her yelling out of the darkness. Madeline was standing near 3 other hatchlings. Rim, and two females. Sparkly and Dream, Madeline had referred to them as. One was a horse dragon, and the other a Daydream dragon. It was easy to tell which name belonged to which dragon. She walked up and smiled. "So you're Dream and Sparkly?"

[GreatDragon]

 

The Purple Dorsal hatchling really should not have allowed his mind to wander and his eyes to stare up at the darkening (and now darkened) sky. Before the call of his name caught his attention, Rim mused on what those shining dots were high up in the black ceiling. Once he turned his attention back to earth, the hatchling realized how dark it had actually gotten. He could not see much, but he knew that the others from earlier were around him, though the group was now joined by Madeline, Sparkly Scaler and Noelle. He stayed quiet as everyone went around introducing each other, blinking his eyes in a vain attempt to see his surroundings better.

 

Something tickled at the back of his throat, making the hatchlings eyes water and tugging at his jaws. Opening them and expelling some weird breeze of air, the Purple Dorsal let out his first yawn. Snapping his jaws closed again, fin twitching up and then down slightly, Rim switched his gaze over to Madeline.

 

"Nnot go seep? Don know seep, bwut wat dwo of sometheng?...Me can't see yuo two, how do sometheng?"

[Dream_Dragon]

<OOC: Oh, right, I forgot...sorry! ^w^">

 

Sparkly Scaler released a soft sigh as another hatchling that seemed very similar to Madeline, save for the colour difference, arrived as the albino Swallowtail called for her. The black hatchling with purple fins joined into the conversation as well.

 

"Yes, I am Sparkly Scaler. And the purple-finned hatchling has a point. What are you all going to do when it's dark out like this?" questioned Sparkly, slightly impatient as she was eager to return to her sleep and escape the horrid hollow feeling within her middle.

 

~~~

Dream Dell had bounced back onto her cloud as soon as she released Madeline. She didn't know what exactly she had just done but, oh boy, that 'hug' made her feel sooo happy! It filled her with joy, filled to the brim with bubbly goodness, and she just wanted to jump around with glee! So she did, jumping up and down on her pink, fluffy cloud and giggling almost uncontrollably. However, she stopped doing so and tilted her head slightly when another hatchling that looked just like Madeline, with the exception of their different colours, entered the cave.

 

"I'm Dream Dell! Yay~" she squeaked, leaping off her cloud, rolling on the ground as she landed and came to a stop in front of the blue and grey Swallowtail, tummy-side up.

 

"Hey, are you and Madeline twins?" she grinned.

Edited July 9, 2014 by Dream_Dragon