[PRP] Your Basket-Egg Hatched! (Eleanor and Serenity)

[belloblossom]

Ellie had had the basket in her possession for quite some time now. She had found it originally in a small patch of field beside a riverside, but she had thought nothing of the location. What she had noted were the dozens of fireflies surrounding it and she was very much enamored with it all.

Her familiar, Valentina, had spent the following days searching up and down the spot that they found the precious basket in, trying to locate its family. When no family showed, Valentina relented to what Ellie had been telling her this entire time: They must keep the basket and raise whatever was inside for themselves.

They watched it constantly. Ellie had grazed a circle around it, for she wandered around the basket as she ate, making sure never to take her eyes from it. Valentina remarked that this was the most excited Ellie had ever gotten about anything before. Ellie replied that it was natural, because you could find adults anywhere and everywhere, but to find a basket or a foal to take care of was a truly rare and beautiful thing. Besides, it was obviously meant for Ellie to find it.

"After all," She said to her buffalo companion, "Just look at the color of the basket!"

Valentine looked from the mare to the basket, but saw no immediate answer. The basket was various shades of blue and just a little bit of gold. It was about as far from the bright pink unicorn as one could get. She told Ellie as much, who snorted indignantly.

"You silly thing, it's just that. The basket is blue! And I'm pink! Pink and blue just simply go together. Honestly, Val, don't you ever listen to me when I'm talking?" Valentina did not, usually, she just kept her eye on the unicorn to make sure she didn't plummet accidentally off a cliff to her doom. She declined from telling her bonded this, however and turned to idly begin munching at some grass nearby.

The basket hatched in the middle of the third week in the middle of the night. As soon as it began to move, Ellie was on awake and on her hooves, peering curiously at the basket. It didn't move much at first, but then the lid popped open and a tiny navy muzzle poked out of it, followed by a head. Glowing gold eyes gazed up at them and Ellie cooed in delight.

Then the fireflies swarmed and Valentina spooked. The bugs floated around the foal's horn, around his furry coat (which was rather long) and all about Ellie and Valentina too. Ellie found this wonderful, Valentina did not. Especially not when one flew up into her nose. She spent the next few minutes sneezing and hacking, while Ellie pushed the basket over with her muzzle and sent the basket tumbling.

"Oh, you serene little creature!" Ellie gasped and rubbed her muzzle against the little one's cheek, before smiling. "Serenity, that's what you shall be named. My precious Serenity."

ABVirus

 

[ABVirus]

The foal was small and delicate (having recently hatched.) He knew some things, of course, because all were born just knowing some things. He didn't know how he knew these things, however, but he knew them all the same. For examples, he knew his colors, like how the giant mare standing in front of him was pink, though the items she draped over herself were a good deal of other colors, like blue and purple, green and orange... Some of them had more than one color too! It was really quite a sight to behold, even if the colors were muted in the night sky.

He also knew the bugs as though he had known them before he tumbled out of his basket. He knew them by the way they flickered, each of their glows slightly different than one another. He knew they were called many things, like fireflies and lightning bugs and probably other names too. He knew that he loved them, immediately and let out a shrill whinny when they grew close.

The push from his basket he liked less and his whinnying came to an abrupt halt, being replaced with a squeal of alarm and then the sound of him landing on his stomach with an 'oof' and a thud in the same moment. Before the foal could really react, there was a pink muzzle at his cheek and he found himself rubbing back against the soft surface. The mare was speaking and he paused in his nuzzles to look up at her.

"S-Serenity?" He echoed and smiled. "I... I am Serenity." His smile grew and then he turned his eyes back to the mare, glowing eyes imploring and affectionate. "You are... Mama?"

belloblossom

 

[belloblossom]

Ellie was grinning from ear to ear at the little foal, while Valentina had finally stopped her sneezing long enough to come inspect the young thing. When he suddenly started talking, both of them started in surprise and then Ellie cooed down at the little one.

"Oh, aren't you the sweetest thing! Did you hear that, Val? He called me his mother! Oh, what a sweetheart!" To her foal, she smiled and nodded. "Yes, dear, I am your mother, your mama and the one who loves you most in this world." She paused and then giggled. "But you can call me Mama, that suits me just fine." She declared and then nodded in Valentina's direction.

"That curious buffalo over there is Valentina, you can call her Auntie." Announced Ellie, only to be overruled by Val.

"No, he can't. Val will do just nicely." Said the buffalo with a snort and a toss of her bushy head. Ellie huffed right back at her and whispered into Serenity's ear. "The two of us will call her Auntie, just for fun."

"Kind of... little, isn't he?" Valentina said, coming closer to inspect the colt. She pushed her muzzle into his face and sniffed, before turning and sniffing at one of her legs and then at Ellie, who smiled, though wore a puzzled expression. Seeing this, Valentina went on to share her hypothesis. "He may have a horn, Ellie, but I don't think he's a unicorn and I doubt he'll grow much." She sniffed the little one again and nodded. "Yup. I reckon he's one of those 'mini' breeds. Though how he got by himself is a mystery..."

"Valentina, stop it!" Ellie shouted suddenly, sending the fireflies scattering as she stomped a hoof on the ground in front of the buffalo. "You will not say such ridiculous things about matters that no longer, well, matter! Serenity is ours to take care of now and that's all the fussing we must do on the matter at hoof! If you don't like it, well, well, I don't know, go eat some grass or something!" She flocked to the side of her little one, laying beside him and nuzzling him again. "Worry not about Val, dear Serenity. She is of an uncertain mind, but she will come to love you just as much as I do." She said and settled in for the night where she lay, leaving Val to huff and puff, before eventually the buffalo came to stand near them, silent and brooding, though even she seemed a bit sympathetic.

I did do a lot of searching for the parents already... Maybe there aren't any to find at this point... Thought the buffalo with a sigh, before she too lay down on the other side of Ellie's flank. She would fuss about it in the morning, no doubt.

ABVirus

 

[ABVirus]

Serenity was rather confused by all that was going on, for he had only been in the world a short while. He was happy to have correctly guessed that the pink mare was his mother and let out a pleased whinny, only to be cut short by the sharpness in the tone of the fluffy beast nearby.

He wasn't quite sure what to make of that beast, because no name came to him on whatever she might be. She was called a... a Val? Though Mama said she could be called an Auntie, despite the Val not wanting to be called Auntie and... he closed his eyes and mewled, the stress of not knowing what creatures were to be called or not called causing him some distress.

He wanted to know everything. He knew the names for lightning bugs or fireflies or whatever they chose to be called. He knew colors and what trees and grass and flowers were. He knew about the sky and rivers and all manner of nice things that would aid him in basic survival. He also had the utmost certainty that he was loved very fiercely and he had no doubt that it was his pink Mama that loved him so. Who else could it have been?

Suddenly, the beast that may or may not have been called a Val was in his face and looming over him. He looked up at her with wide, nervous eyes and then tentatively reached out his neck and bumped his nose onto hers. Her words were foreign to him, his mind was so new to everything that he couldn't seem to comprehend much of anything.

He was fairly certain that it had something to do with how little he was. Standing up wobbly legged, he tried to stretch out a hoof in front of his eyes to examine it or compare it to his Mama's or something, but to no avail. His legs were too short. With no other way of knowing how to see himself, he looked into his mother's eyes. They were clouded with anger, so he couldn't see himself in them. Whatever had the Val had said his Mama didn't take very kindly to it.

In fact, she was suddenly very loud and the fireflies scattered only to swarm Serenity before he could cry out in distress. The fireflies bounced and danced in front of his eyes, distracting him from the fight his Mama and the Val were having, until his Mama came to lay beside him, which is when they dispersed to the trees and bushes and grass surrounding the young colt and his mother.

When his Mama lay beside him, Serenity was suddenly overcome with sleepiness himself and contentedly sidled himself close beside his mother, laying his head down and drifting off to sleep, happy to be near his mother and ready to face whatever tomorrow might bring.

belloblossom

Fin?