The not so quiet woods.

[shadica]

Valko was sitting down watching two greenish eggs that sat upon his flour sack. Hatil had made such pretty eggs! He was on guard duty while the harpy sisters went of to hunt. Speaking of Hatil his Super Best Friend should be back soon.

His tail wagged excitedly as he thought about what kind of meat or berries the sisters would bring back. Nothing beat good meat~

Except Hatil.

One of the eggs sitting on the spotted flour sack wiggled and clacked against the other. It seemed like the eggs where close to hatching.

So far borkbork had manged to stay in one piece. Borkbork had no idea that there was a good chance that the baby harpies would shred up the poor flour sack once they hatch. Due to the fact that he is a flour sack.

Daisicle

 

[Daisicle]

Hatil was in a good mood, positively glowing, really. It had been so long since her bestest friend ever had moved in. She wasn't really too sure what had happened at the party, but before she knew it there were eggs! Her eggs. They were really the prettiest of eggs, and they looked just like her and Valko; that meant they were his eggs too, and that's why he was back at the hut making sure they were safe and not cooked for dinner. She didnt want her eggs cooked, just kinda warm. Softboiled, if anything. Poached?

Nope. Cooking her eggs was a bad idea.

Very bad.

Cooking this pig on her shoulder?

Less bad.

Decidedly so.

That said, by now she was flying quite quickly back to the hut, excited as she was to see her bestest friend forever (<3) and the eggs. They looked so comfy on the pillow Valko had brought with him. They'd started moving more often recently, so maybe they'd hatch soon! She had to be there when that happened.

Plus she was hungry.



Further back behind, Saira glided lazily through the underbrush with the excuse of "looking for hares, etc" to add to the pot. Truthfully, she was just tired to tears of the whole lovey-dovey act the other two were putting on. Even more so since they didn't realize they were doing it.

And now that they had obviously done something else, it wasn't just gonna be those two she had to deal with for much longer.

Ugh. Gross.

Maybe now was the time to find a new perch.

But that didn't make sense. They should find their own perch, this one was hers. She couldn't leave it and risk mama coming home and her not being there. Absolutely note. Plus, she was first. That meant the place was hers until mama came home. Boom.  

[Dream WhiteWitz]

The chick, rather the harpy chick was roaming a bit under the rough underbrush. Its' texture was a bit too rough for her delicate feathers, making the chick just roam around all airheaded-like. Its' egg was mostly shattered from her recent hatching, as bits and pieces of the colored egg were sticking to her itty-bitty wings. The weather wasn't fairing well either with her, she hated it. The whole...cool humid thing, making what feathers she had stuck like sugar syrup. Not to mention, she was terribly hungry, her stomach growling.

The harpy toddler gave a chirp, jumping around aimlessly, rustling the underbrush quite violently and then she made a jump once too far, exposing herself to a rather tall looking thing. Her eyes became wide, like pools of water, her body shook with youthful fear. Who is this? Who are you?! her mind raced with these thoughts, lifting one leg up out of instinct to scratch whoever came near her. Though, it wasn't successful, because she didn't have great balance and so she fell over like a bowling ball and rolled in the dirt, squawking madly, causing a major fuss.  

[shadica]

Valko was being very good. He had not one thought of boiling the eggs. Keeping any eye out for any potential predators (who would eat a harpy egg?) Still he would remain vigilant.

He frowned as he watched the eggs one of them was wiggling quite a bit as if where trying to hatch. "Stop wait Hatil." He commanded the egg. Which meant stop hatching and wait till Hatil gets home.

The egg did not head Valkos command and kept wiggling away

Borkbork remained a soft cushion for the eggs.  

[Daisicle]

Almost home~ Almost home~ Soon she'd be back home to the eggs and Valko, and with a super yummy boar no less! Sure, she needed to get the meat cleaned pretty quickly so it wouldn't go bad; she might have been able to handle it, but she didn't want her best friend eating old meat.

But she'd take over watching the eggs this time. Let him have fun with cleaning it.

Actually, she just hated cleaning it. Would rather just eat it then and there, but then they could attract scavengers since some would go bad. That was never fun, especially since she didn't want them to notice her eggs.

And with the weather beginning to get cooler... Well... it was always a better idea to stock up on the jerky for winter.

Oh look! It was the hut! As she neared, she gave a happy little call out to her bestest friend to announce her arrival.



Saira really was killing time as she aimlessly drifted through the underbrush when a certain small pink... thing... a pink something-or-other popped out of literally damn nowhere and then stumbled back on itself.

It was here she made a crucial mistake.

She let her curiosity get the best of her.

And she followed after the rolling hatchling to get a better look.

It was obviously weaker than her, so no harm no foul, right?  

[Dream WhiteWitz]

The small toddler squawked, flailing up a storm as she rolled around in the dirt until she got a better footing, or at least until she stopped rolling and hit a tree trunk. She used her foot to push herself up, after a bit of trial and error looking like a bowling ball with stubby wings. What feathers there was puffed out after shaking the dirt off her, she jumped around finding that the same giant thing had followed her. The face took on a surprised look, backing away before she gave a sniff. You smell...weird. You smell... like me! thoughts raced through her new now thinking mind. The small thing actually looked pleased. The blue-pink patterned harpy toddler chirped happily, now took on a run at Saira squawking excitedly; of course, she stumbled a few times in her short distance of a run, but she made it nevertheless.

The toddler stopped short of an inch, tossing up dirt on the blue harpy's feet by accident and looked up. She gave a happy chirp and then bounced up and down, to show her pleasure at this finding.  

[shadica]

Valko jumped up when he heard Hatil's cry. yes she was home! Annoying egg wouldn't stop wiggling! "Egg!" He yelled back at her. Truthfully he was very excited to see the eggs hatching. But Hatil would be sad if she missed it and he didn't like it when she was sad.

The wiggly egg continued to wiggle fiercely.

Borkbork remained stationary  

[Daisicle]

"Valko! I bring boar!" there was pride leaking from her voice as she touched down in front of the house and took the carcass from her shoulder to present. Hopefully he would praise her like usual; she liked praise!

Peering forward, she tried to look into the hut where the eggs were (supposedly) resting. "How are they?" she mused as she waited for him, nearly bouncing as she resisted the urge to run inside and see for herself.

Leaving fresh meat alone was bad.

Bringing fresh meat inside would be worse.



That little thing was faster than it looked.

Saira hadn't had time to process what exactly she was seeing before it was back on its feet and headed to her. So dumbfounded she was that at some point she'd settled to standing on the ground rather than hovering.

It was the feeling of dirt that brought her out of her stupor.

No. Nononononononono. Guardians hell no. This was not her problem, that was not hers. She did not want it. Nope.

Taking back to the air, she flew off into the distance before hovering again and looking back. A certain idea had came to mind; if Hatil could have a baby chick, why couldn't she have a chick? How was that fair? Huh? If she was going to be forced to listen to tiny screams again, well then Hatil could suffer the same fate.

But wait. Wouldn't she do that already? Not like she would go dump those eggs in the woods when she realized how noisy and annoying they were.  

[Dream WhiteWitz]

The toddler harpy squawked happily, and just got a face full of dirt when the bigger harpy took off. She looked stunned, but it didn't faze her in the slightest. She batted her wings too out of instinct but found that her body was too heavy for the wings that she had at the moment. And so, the chick just ran, stumbling once again, as she followed the big harpy. So far, being motivated by potential food and bonding was making this chick run as fast as possibly can, giving a squawk along the way.

And so, the blue-pink patterned harpy just happily ran, following the shadow of the harpy above, all the way back to its homestead. And by that time, the little one fell over from being out of breath.  

[shadica]

"Good!" He cheered when hatil said she brought back a boar. Boars were large and very tasty. It would last them a long time which was good since they need to stock up for winter. "Hatching" He stated in response to her question.

The egg continued to wiggle around on borkbork occasionally whacking its sibling as it moved. A small crack seemed to be forming on the shell.  

[Daisicle]

"Hatching?!"

Her eggs were hatching! Oh how lucky! Good timing good timing.

But she still had to do something with the boar or it would go bad, and Saira wasn't back yet.... But she wanted Valko to watch their eggs hatch with her... What a problem...

Oh look! Saira was back! Good timing again.

But that wasn't all! There was a tiny thing following after her. And falling down. Oh, it looked like a baby bird had followed her home. A baby bird...?

Looking at the little pink-and blue chick that fell over, Hatil silently looked between her sister and the little one. Her sister had been pretty distant (and annoying) since Valko had moved in and she'd laid her eggs... And now right as her own eggs were supposed to be hatching, there was another baby bird blue like Saira. Hmmm... Umu umu. She blinked and nodded before plopping one fist on top of an open hand as a realization was made clear as day. "Saira. You could have just put your egg with mine y'know. No need ta hide it in the forest just because you lost your best friend somewhere."

Given the circumstance, this couldn't be a simple coincidence.

Without giving Saira the chance to comment, she zipped over and tossed the boar carcass to her. "Valko says eggs're hatching. You can have this." before zipping back to the hut door, grabbing Valko's hand, and quickly running to the eggs.



Inside, the quieter of the two eggs seemed quick annoyed with having been hit by its sibling and began moving fiercely in response on top of her fluffy bed. Where it retaliated, a myriad of small cracks formed.



W-What...?!

Nothing could be said of Saira's expression other than complete dumbfoundment as she stood near the periphery of their hut's clearing, dead boar in hand.

Egg?

But she didn't have a...?

A chill ran up her spine as she finally looked back to see a very worn-out, very dirty chick laying in the dirt behind her. Had that thing really followed her home?

Nonono.

This was some kind of big misunderstanding.

That was not hers and she needed to put it back where it came from.

Now.

But the boar would go bad if she didn't clean it soon. Ughhhhh.... Fine. She'd deal with the chick later. Ignoring the problem completely, she went to fetch a length of "rope" woven from dried vines to hang the boar up so she could drain the blood and prepare it for preservation.  

[Dream WhiteWitz]

The harpy chick just breathed, laying in the dirt. She gave a feeble squawk, fluttering her tiny wings around. And then just laid there, looking almost kind of hopeful. After some time had passed, the chick gave a squawk and moved to get up to its' claws, she was hungry and if she laid there any longer, she would surely starve to death! And so, with a second wind, the toddler harpy fluttered her colored wings and made a run for it, practically barreling up to the homestead.

Her gaunt face indicated just how hungry the poor chick was being in a forest by herself. She toddled up to the blue-colored large female and blinked, looking up at Saira and then proceeded to nuzzle her leg. "Mama."  

[shadica]

Valko grinned at Hatil as she grabbed his hand. He settled down near Hatil impatiently watching the eggs that where now cracking. Was it normal for eggs to hit each other? it looked like they where hitting each other. Where they fighting? Maybe He should have gotten another pillow.

The fussy egg seemed annoyed that the other other egg was hitting it back and continued to thwack the other. Suddenly a beak broke through the crack as the egg hit its sibling again. Distressed the egg started screeching and wiggling more. It was very distressing, the egg wanted to move but also liked being an egg inside the egg was safe.

As egg shards fell on Borkbork he did not blink an eye, for he had none.  

[Daisicle]

Sparkles were near visible in Hatil's eyes as she watched the little eggs wiggle about, so happy and full of energy! She glanced over at Valko as if to say look at this! before focusing her attention squarely on the pair of eggs.

If she had known that BorkBork were anything but a sack of flower, perhaps she would have shown concern at all the debris and other fun egg things that were falling on it.

But as it were, BorkBork is just a pillow.



Bouncing against its sibling's eggs, the less fussy of the two fell over quite dramatically from the recoil and nearly continued off of the pillow. The impact sent a tiny talon breaking out from the shell and into the outside world, where it lingered as if it did not know what to do now other than just freeze.



Saira was completely and wholly ignoring the problem near her as she prepared the boar to drain; she wrapped its hind legs with the "rope" and secured it with a double knot before tossing the end over the top of a medium-height, yet strong, tree branch. She used this particular one quite often for hanging larger game to bleed out; it was just strong enough to support the weight without being so close to the ground that she had to be mindful of (most) scavengers trying to sneak off with it. She gave the "rope" a strong pull to suspend the boar upside-down before wrapping it around the base of the tree. Lastly, she added a fresh slit to both of its coronoid arteries to get the blood flowing out.

She didn't notice the chick run back at her.

With a flick of her wrist, she rid her claws of most of the blood before moving to lick them clean; Shahrazah would have had a fit if she saw her cleaning herself like this rather than using water, but it was such a pain to lug water all the way here. And besides, blood was kind of tasty and full of good nutrients.

At the touch to the side of her leg, Saira instinctively (passively, but firmly) gave her leg a small kick. She didn't even register at first that it had been a mangy, soft feeling brushing her; no, that didn't happen til she absentmindedly looked over in the direction she'd kicked and saw the chick.

Oh for the love of...  

[Dream WhiteWitz]

Now the chick had become determined, whether it was slow from starvation or that the big being didn't notice her, she just bounced away from the light kick. Rolling over, the harpy chick got up and shook off the dirt that accumulated on what delicate feathers she had at the moment. "Mama!" the chick squawked, approaching her with a slight hesitation. She butted her head against Saira's leg and then proceeded to attach herself by grabbing the flesh of the leg with her talons, so that the mama in question couldn't drop-kick her anywhere at the time.