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Calder leaned to one side, taking deep breathes. Yup. He felt like he was going to be sick. He wanted to sink into some water and sleep.

It was surprising Zar even had the energy to walk anywhere, and he was amazed he even felt the desire to move.

As he attempted to see if he could stand too, his head swam and he plopped right back down, covering his mouth. Ok. That was a bad idea.

"I feel sick."

"I feel sick also." Zar volunteered, and when Barth touched his hoof he'd get a kick of tangled and twisting emotions, before the link faded off, not from Zar shutting it off but waning out like a dying battery. His posture was stiff and forced and didn't soften at the question, still reeling at the thought of having to handle the emotions around Barth and Calder themselves.

He made a very quiet and strangled sound, trapped in place by Barth's request as if it was the mark's doing when it was nothing of the sort.

He clenched his hands slowly, pained by the effect even a simple touch and request could have on him. He knew before he even replied that even if Barth's reasoning for asking him to stay was as a bed warmer that he would stay anyway. "If you insist." he said, and stayed exactly where he was.

It had a few days, and while it was impossible to time these things Barth had hoped...

On Halloween, everything and everyone was stirring. There would be a big party in the Town square, the thread between this world and the human world grew its thinnest, and power hummed through the streets of Halloween, everyone at their brightest.

Even Barth woke up from the coma he had slipped into after the whole affair, with his tongue buzzing. He opened his eyes, on and off, briefly energized by forces that had energized the entire world. He knew he wouldn't be able to last, and in the interim had sent Grimhold to check the patch, which Grimhold had done faithfully, during cool days and the colder and much more friendly nights.

It was Grimhold that had gone to fetch all three of them, emphasizing that something was in there (although his hearing was very sensitive), and bundled each of them into the carriage to once again head down to the patch.

There was, indeed, something inside.

Barth stood, swaying unsteadily and blearily blinking in the morning (and he had, in his lifetime, ever done a total of two mornings) at the faint scratching. They waited there for what seemed like ages, and they couldn't be sure, of course, that it would happen to day at all- but at last a tiny crack appeared in the rind, and pulsated as something pushed it from the inside.

Calder was nervous and pacing when they got back, and despite the sick feeling in his stomach, he couldn't lay down without feeling tense and unsettled. The pumpkin alone had him anxious, and he could only envision how the slightest breeze would somehow ruin everything for the scarling's chances. Every time he closed his eyes, he would see that bright, strong glow go cold and dim, or either grow too bright that it bursted.

This left him pacing about, rearranging pots noisily or going outside to move hay about in the stable. At times he would stop, sleeping where he stood, only to jolt awake at the slightest noise, thinking someone was calling to him. Whenever Grimhold returned, he'd wait there, getting a report that it was still ok but inactive.

It wasn't till the message came that he felt that sickness double again. The ride there was much longer than before, and he looked at them both, wishing Zar had been in the same cuddling mood when they first came so he could have something to hold. Instead, he made pointless braids in his tail and let it fall loose.

At their arrival, he stood, looking at the pumpkin that was not gone and indeed was active. The crack had his focused attention, and he held onto the lapels of his coat as he watched the smallest motion inside start to show itself. What he first saw had him turning his head, completely confused.

A….beak? He glanced to Zar and Barth as if to double check that he hadn't missed a beak in all the times he had been with either of them. Looking back, he continued to watch the scarling work, the little beak making the faintest noise that had the kelpie pressing his hands to his lips. Whatever it was, it was downright ADORABLE!

On the other side of the pumpkin came more scratching, a new crack forming on the other side of the rind. Once the crack was wide enough, a slender tip came out, scratching to chip away at the small hole it created. A muffled hissing came from inside.

Calder only glanced at either side. It was a big scarling and and odd looking. But it was at least alive!

Zar tensed up uncharacteristically when he was touched and the link cut off in a surly fashion with only a lingering touch of fear in its wake. The fear had its effect but Barth in turn got a sidelong look of concern, it was fear he should have been conserving.

"I don't know what it is." Zar hissed.

It didn't take long for the beaked creature to peck a hole large enough to slither out of as it just so happened that it was very small. It pulled itself free of the confines of the pumpkin, with a flap of unfeathered wings and flailing tiny claws.

It dropped to the ground and lay there, exhausted but victorious, covered in down which hadn't dried out and looking like some kind of bizzare mutant. It was bird shaped, chicken shaped to be precise, but with a short stumpy snake tail where a bird tail would usually terminate and with an extra set of limbs set like a small raptor. It had two eyes in the usual place but with another eye on its forehead and one on its chest along with a set of blunt juvenile horns.

It was very, very strange and seemed to catch sight of Zar first of the the three of them, even exhausted pulling itself to its feet and trying to run towards him before stumbling and falling down again only to keep trying.

Zar stepped back from it, putting Barth between himself and the creature and shaking his head. "Someone pick it up or something." he said with disgust. "Calder, get it!"

Two. They were very...tiny.

Barth took the opportunity to sink back into the ground, feeling like a first year again, gravity was taking such an immeasurable toll. He'd just...stay seated. For a little while. Maybe for a long while.

"Oh, let them explore a bit," Barth said. "They're very err, energetic, aren't they."

Calder turned his head away and held the bird out as it flapped and peeped, wanting NOTHING to do with him. It broke his heart a little.

"Zar....please.... don't go...." He said between peeping as he knelt down to set the bird down. "They're your twins too." He pointed out. He hadn't been the only one in the pumpkin patch.

The spider poked back out of the hole, it's motions jerky, before it did a few short bursts out and tucked itself under a few, large pumpkin leaves and started to use it's fuzzy appendages to clean its face.

Zar bristled at the request not to go, and narrowed his eyes at the eagerly peeping chick. When it was put down it charged towards him excitedly, still peeping. He almost ran away again, in fact he would have if Barth hadn't given him an Order. As it was the mark seared and he slumped in a sitting position as if pushed down from overhead, hissing irritably, his tail lashing like an agitated cat.

The scareling was delighted and closed the distance at a jog, climbing up into Zar's lap and nestling there, fluffing up what dry parts there were of its fluffy down.

Zar was having none of it and rapidly pushed the scareling perhaps a little too roughly off of him, the tiny chick was very light and hurtled quite some distance before peeping in distress and running towards the main point of safety its mind told it there was which was of course, Zar again.

The second time it got swiped away by his tail and exhaustedly lay down in the dirt making sad and defeated peeping sounds.