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The Hatching []
Aria and Brianna, after finishing their shift of work managing to find a few thousand gold and a large handful of relic coins, even able to get a shabby pair of frost saber boots, a frost saber cap, and a frost saber robes tangled in the bushes, they teleported themselves away to where they'd give the hoard to the other trialmasters. Little did they remember about the eggs and that they were gone as soon as they arrived back there. Well, here's the scoop. While the duo of wizards flew away into the skies with their Browl-morph form, a mysterious figure came to take them to a whole other area!
<<Nike's POV>>
It was reaching yet another nightfall in my lonely forested area of The Lost Island. Just like the rest of them, when it turned nighttime, I would always rush around to the Island Center and take a quick nap near the midsection that separated two North openings to the Swing Bridge. I could do whatever I wished to do as I was a lone wolf (pun not intended) and had no other recruits in my tribe despite by great charisma and motivational/persuasional deep speech. After the nap, I was fully recharged for the entire rest of the night and whole day coming up. I would usually awaken to a soft moonbeam blinding me as I would make up at midnight; I have rarely ever slept longer or through this light. As most other diurnal creatures in the area were asleep, I would be able to have half of them out of the way while I'd gather some berries or whatever I could find for sustenance; I would never kill other monster-kind for the sake of use as sustenance. Strangely enough, I would usually go North, East, or West for gathering food, but instead tonight, I went on a South path and entered the Central Village. As always, the little wooden abodes of the Floatling tribe were smashed to the ground by the evil forces of the Order of Influence, and since the delicate little creatures were diurnal, they'd be asleep by the time I crept over to their social hub. As a small beach was located beyond the rim of rubble to the very far south, I decided to take a peek as I'd like to try to taste seagrass and see how that would turn out.
The beach was small, but I could see as far as Shipwreck Shore, the Academy, and of course, the Dark Tower from here. As the moon was full tonight and at its highest peak, the waves were lapping hard on my hind paws. I slowly raised to my full height and made a small howl, only waking up the nearby monsters swimming close to me. I was a storm element monster, so that wouldn't matter if I was given a blow by some weak Geyser. I decided to dive into the water to grab some seagrass from the ocean floor, as the waters dipped frantically steep as soon as you set foot into the ocean. Breathing in, breathing out. I did this a few times so I could open my lung capacity. Finally taking one large breath, I plunged my head into the water, and it was extremely cold to my surprise; I usually was able to swim far, onto the main island, without a fear of hypothermia. I just decided to roll with it, and kept swimming deeper into the ocean until the water pressure was immense. Miraculously, I was able to uproot a large bit of seagrass and make it to the surface just a few meters away from the sandy shore of The Lost Island again. Inspecting it, I looked closely to see if any small Funkeel would be attached. As it was clean, I took a small bite of the grass and it was kind of plain and bland, but salty from the seawater. I felt like it would be a good source of energy and would be worth getting my fur wet for.
After a few more dives and meals worth of seagrass, I decided to go to Lamplight Town by swimming over as I would be able to stock upon some wizard food like applies, croissants, and salad there. It would only be a quarter of a mile by sea, a few miles by land, and then I'd be there. Planning some thoughts carefully for a while, I brought up the courage to swim over to Shipwreck Shore and then do some prowling over to Lamplight Town. Once again, I hurried into the freezing waters and checked around to see if any Crookfang or Aquariot were around as even though they're of the water element, they're nasty and could drag me down to my death. The water was clear except for a few Aquaster, Funkeel, and Squibble, all minding their own business, so I plunged and made slow, steady strokes as not to faint of hypothermia. I did so until I reached the shore of one of the causeway islands on Shipwreck Shore; all there was on the island was a flat land of grass and sand with a small Pokkit crawling around. I wandered along some wizard-made bridges until I made it to another causeway island with a few odd TripTrop playing around with ice spells. As I knew they were rare and knew spells of ice, I decided not to make it a bad night for me and I swam all the way around the entire place until I reached a shoreline. A few drowsy wizards and pirates stood outside, exchanging spell incantations for treasure and titles for gold. There was an odd wizard-made building along the shoreline, shabby, but large. It seemed dilapidated, but it had a lively buzz of wizard/pirate speech and faintly glowed with the light of fireflies.
Stepping closer, I looked all the way around the premises as quietly as I could, not to bother or startle any entity or wizard into battling/catching me as a slave for their hoard or meat for eating. Deciding to look inside through a crack in the walls of the building, I saw a few pirates and wizards talking a bit loudly and a positive vibe. Inside was also a bunch of signs and posters, somewhat supporting "Get into the group of trialmasters!', "BECOME A MEMBER NOW!", and "Benefits of having two of your pets breed." This was clearly a daycare center; as there was a receptionist in the back with purple facial features and was usually talking to a wizard or pirate with two of their pets out ready to summon. I decided to look through another crack in the walls of the shack further back, partly near the ocean shore. I saw and heard a few pets, usually just making audible cooing, growling, and barking. I could hear the pets speak gibberish about eggs, food, water, the shoreline, and more. Most of the pets inside the dimly-lit space were glum and sighing a lot, usually staring down at some live young they've recently given birth to or eggs they've laid not too long ago. However, I saw two very large creatures huddled in the back of the animal pen - a giant legendary dragonlike creature and a large figure I couldn't really make out. All of a sudden, the hidden creature roared and took flight on massive, hidden wings it lad, shaking the entire building a bit. It scooped up four eggs it probably laid with the dragon creature and raised one of its large fists, punching right through the far wall and flying out. The creature quickly flew high and far into the sky, carrying a group of eggs in its hands while soaring around Prodigy Island and mach speeds. I had an urge to chase the creature by foot, so I blitzed around the island and eventually saw it fly into Lamplight Town. How convenient - if I was able to get a glimpse of the creature here, I would be able to skimp and scrape around the place for some wizard food.
Eventually, I arrived in Lamplight Town, hiding behind a sharp-edged hedge and peered around, seeing two wizards looking for something near another far-sided hedge and the large beast landing somewhere else in the area. Its saw the wizards and placed down the eggs in one of the nearby bushes, immediately abandoning the children in the eggs and soaring away into the night sky at an even faster speed. I realized that I would have to save the eggs as soon as the wizards would go away. I waited however, as one of the wizards, the taller one with her hair and eyes having an unnatural coloration and strange, godlike clothing looked powerful. I saw the older wizard point her wand at the eggs, step closer to them, moved them around, used a few spells on them, and both left by magically transforming into Browl, flying away into the night sky as well. Hoping that they wouldn't come back too soon, I quickly decided to save the precious unborn infant monsters. I crept silently over to the clutch as not to startle or get attention by a potential wizard wishing to catch me, then picking them all up, finding an odd, large burlap sack near the walls of one of the wizard-made buildings, and putting what seemed like all four inside. tying it up with a rose conveniently found near the sack, I then, was able to sling it over my shoulder and decided to travel around, collecting more food (I was able to find some near a Southern Dock, and all that was guarding the piles and piles of apples in crates was a sleeping old man in a suit, carrying a scroll and a shield looking like a pencil, making a large snoring sound every so often in his slumber). I then put them in the sack too, and traveled all the way again, back to The Lost Island.
I arrived back at my strip of forest near the Swing Bridge but still in the midsection of the Island Center, very weary and almost feeling like passing out. I looked to the sky to see that it was becoming day, and nothing could go wrong while I'd sleep a bit more, so I did. Waking up at noon with the sun in my face, I hopped back up onto my hind legs to hear loud cracking noises - coming from my bag. Unsheathing all my claws on one paw and tearing it open, I took out a few apples and all four eggs, now with visible color. So far, the most damaged egg was violet-lavender purple with a scaly pattern. Actually, all of the eggs had a scaly pattern. A frosty blue egg, a hazel egg, and a fiery tangerine egg were also in the sack.
I realized that the purple egg was hatching, right now. The egg shook violently, and lights, mist, and steam poured out of the egg on its largest cracks. With a blinding beam, I fell onto the ground in shock of the blast. Opening my eyes and getting up again, I could see an infant Hob creature asleep in the bottom part of its cracked eggshell. It was sleeping while floating with its lavender-violet wings gently flapping while it didn't seem to notice; I stepped a bit closer to see that it was male (its horns were a bit larger from birth than I'd thought and it didn't really have that much of a peaceful movement in its floating). The wobbly creature eventually dropped from a few feet in the air, and I reached out to successfully grab its back part of its neck and its lower spine, supporting it like a mother holds her child. I rocked it back and forth, eventually able to hear it hum for some reason. I listened closer to hear it reciting numbers in the ones, then hundreds, and thousands, millions, trillions, and more all in its sleep. Deciding to give it a name as now rightfully, I'm its adoptive mother, I gave it the name "Cloudmath" for it floating in the air and able to recite numbers verbally in the dreamy sleep state it was in.
I set it down onto a mossy part nearby (in my eyesight to keep it safe from predators possibly wanting a baby Hob for a meal). I then watched as the frosty blue egg started to wobble a bit. After a few minutes, frost began to form on the surface of the egg, and after a few seconds of violent shaking, the layer of ice fell off, instantly dissipating into the air as the air was a bit warm for Springtime. A second layer of ice formed, this time freezing the egg solid a bit. The ice around it eventually cracked up, dropped onto the grass, melted, and left some marks on the shell. This happened a few times more, and eventually the egg was pierced by a long, sharp horn. A few minutes of the creature inside writhing made it hatch, and it was a Rascal, lively and awake from the start, making a childish laugh. Deciding to name it "Scamp," I picked the Rascal up and rocked him to sleep as well, laying him next to his older brother, Cloudmath.
The hazel egg hatched way faster than the rest. I was surprised when all of the sudden, the egg hopped and shook violently for a few seconds and then, a whole top half of the egg was shattered as a dome of spikes burst through the shell, and then retracted to let the infant out. After I cleaned the egg out of the mess of shelldust, I uncovered a baby Scally. Male as well, I named it "Cobnut" as it suits the species, laying it to sleep next to its brothers.
Hours passed, as I snacked on a few apples trying to see if the fiery tangerine egg would just hatch already. I was so bored and full that I then chewed up a puree out of a few apples and fed each of the three twins some of the puree from my front paw, similar to how a bird mouth-feeds her young puree of worm. Meals of this happened a few more times for a few more days, the tangerine egg never hatched yet. However, each day passing, I felt the egg for warmth and it grew hotter and hotter, eventually igniting the top section of the shell on a large fire. I rushed over to stop if from combusting as it would probably kill the baby inside, by I was too slow. The whole shell quickly incinerated into ash as a baby Puck was born. I named it Paul (I ran out of ideas) and immediately cared for them.
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