For a long time, she'd been safe inside her shell, protected and looked after. It had been a little lonely, sometimes, but she had her clutchmates and the occasional visit from their caretakers, the scientists monitoring their health, the doctor in charge himself, and Callidei, who had gone through all this before, herself, from the inside. She liked Callidei, she seemed nice, if a bit frazzled at times. Better, Callidei had been consistently nice, and reassuring whenever she felt on the verge of panic.

She felt close to panic a lot. Fear was a nearly constant companion, inside her shell with her. Whenever a mind brushed hers individually for longer than a few seconds, a few shared words, she felt afraid. What if her fellow clutchmate didn't like her? What if he started yelling at her? What if she made him unhappy? Whenever someone she wasn't familiar with asked her a question, she felt afraid. What if she answered wrong? What if she wasn't helpful enough? What if she was just being a burden? Whenever she thought about the future date scheduled for her hatching, she felt afraid. What if she couldn't find anyone? What if the person she found didn't like her? What if, once people could see her, she was ugly and everyone would stare and stare-- or worse, not stare and pretend they couldn't see her?

Doubts and fears chased themselves around in her head whenever she had to deal with someone who wasn't safe, wasn't familiar, wasn't a known variable. There were times when she could feel herself shuddering and trying to hyperventilate despite her sticky, gooey, non-breathable environs, usually choking on some of it in the process until she could get herself back under control. Doctor Schroeder or Callidei always could calm her down, if they noticed and weren't too busy, and occasionally one of her more understanding clutch-sibs managed to distract her without making things worse. She hated to be such a burden on them, but her surety that she was such a burden only made her feel worse.

Other times, though, she felt happy and safe: when Callidei came and visited, when Doctor Schroeder-- who insisted she call him "Grandpa", and she wasn't about to say no-- spoke with her in her head, when one of the caretakers came in to tell the whole group of them in Alpha Bay a story. If those times happened all the time, she would never want things to change. Even as it was, she still wasn't sure what she'd do when hatching happened.

And the hatching was going to happen. Every happy bedtime story and mental visitation from her human Grandpa or Callidei brought it closer. Sometimes people came-- candidates, Callidei and Grandpa called them, or sponsors-- to talk with the rest of her clutch-sibs, but she never spoke up with them. Not even when Denique, Callidei's brother, came in trying to tell her about his Ampilae group and how special she was. She wasn't special; she was a nuisance.

Not even when the pair of Asandae-- like her and the rest, she knew, though she wasn't really sure what that meant-- named Chiya Diemicana and Ketvia Pariyani came in. They seemed nice enough-- but then, they didn't know her yet-- but she remembered them because, like Denique, they had last names that reminded her of Callidei. Only separate, one for each of them. When she dared ask, Callidei told her they were her parents, even told her a little of what they were like. After that, she had mixed feelings about them-- she didn't ever want to be yelled at the way Ketvia had yelled at Callidei's bond, but the protectiveness was attractive, and Chiya sounded like she'd at least be patient with her being so difficult-- but in the end, on the day of the hatching, they were the only ones she knew.

~~~~~~~

"It's like a demon-cursed Ampilae meeting in here," Ketvia muttered, though she sounded more amused than annoyed despite the mild oath.

Chiya, standing beside her, giggled softly-- which was probably what Ketvia was going for. Really, though, her friend was right: there were so many multibreeds in the hatching bay that it did seem rather like an Ampilae meeting! A few of them were even part of the organization, like their son Denique and the rest of his party, but mostly it was just the hatchlings themselves, all free of their eggs now and each visibly of two elements. It was a very colorful hatching, and only just familiar enough to Chiya and Ketvia's own memories of their own children's hatching to make the ten different combinations seem all the stranger.

Strange, but not bad. The rainbow of kits, with the amazing variety of features between them, was certainly something to see. Chiya couldn't stop looking around at them all.

Before the eggs had hatched and the ten firstborns came out, though, she'd been mostly focused on her children-- there were so many of them here! Denique, Tripudia, Vir and Regius up in the stands watching parents and siblings, Cura and Fiducia, and of course Callidei. They hadn't had much of a chance to say hello to Callidei since they arrived for the day, almost two hours ago, because she'd been running around like mad, getting candidate names noted down and checking that everyone who had signed up actually arrived. But Chiya had made sure to speak with each of the others, exchange hugs and smiles for their bonds and companions. Ketvia had teased that she was impressed she hadn't broken down and cried. Well, the sight of Cura and Fiducia had been a little heart-tugging, since she hadn't heard from them since they left with their bonds, but really, she didn't want to spoil the day for anyone-- even herself!-- by being all teary.

All of the eggs were now hatched, and all of the firstborn-- first-hatched?-- had bonded, or had chosen who would now take care of them. Only a few of the newly-hatched children had made their way out of the remains of the eggs to do the same, but more were coming. Chiya was trying not to crane her neck around, looking for someone who might make the choice to come home with them.

"Relax, Chi," Ketvia murmured to her. "Kids will know a good mother when they see one, so just relax."

"I am relaxed," she protested in an undertone. "I'm not even twitching!"

"No, but your tail is trying to strangle mine," Ketvia replied, looking at her sideways, with an amused expression in her eye.

"Oh. Oops." Chiya carefully detangled her tail from her friend's and curled it around her paws primly.

When she looked up again, there was a kit tentatively approaching them-- still half the bay away, but with her eyes fixed securely on them and no other likely destination. She was a little Air-Water mix, not a type Chiya had ever actually seen before today, colored like an Air in warm yellow and brown but with a ridge-like fin from head to tail rather than a fluke and head-crest and, most telling, no wings. Her eyes were green and decidedly nervous, especially in the way she very obviously didn't look at anything to either side of her, and the way that, though she looked at them in order to keep her course straight, she didn't meet Chiya's eyes when she tried to smile encouragingly at her. The poor thing looked so shy.

The kit stopped well before actually reaching them, but near enough to make it certain she had come to them. Her head was ducked, eyes on the floor, and little hands plucking at the bay floor insulation. Ketvia had already hunkered down, stretched out on her belly to make for a less imposing sight-- anyone laying flopped like that simply couldn't look threatening, in Chiya's opinion-- and Chiya lowered her own head, closer to the kit's level.

"Callidei told me about you," the kit almost-whispered. It took pricked ears and focused attention to pick out the sound from among the various sounds and conversations in the bay. "Will you-- be my mommies?"

Chiya couldn't help it; her heart went out to the shy little one. "Of course, sweetling," she promised soothingly, and held out her hands. The kit let her half-pick her up, climbing the rest of the way into a secure seat across her palms. "What's your name?"

"Chrysoli Toerii," answered the kit, managing a shy smile.

"Welcome to the family, Chrysoli," Ketvia said.

The Hatching Story

Chapter Nineteen

Back to Chiya - Back to Ketvia

Back to Chrysoli