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 Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 9:03 am
This was nothing like how he dreamed. Then again, he hadn't exactly dreamed he would be raising demons of this kind either. While he was still wanting to fill the role of a caring, great parent, the scarlings had other plans.
In the time Calder was waiting for the scarlings to be born, he had made a pen made out of mesh and a sturdy frame fencing, strong enough should the creature be equine in nature yet safe for a small scarling. At least, he hoped so. After that, he had confiscated pillows and soft blankets and set them down. For added measure, he set down hay – just in case. It always suited him just fine as a colt.
This was placed in the living room since he wasn't sure if the scarlings could survive the outside and to be a place everyone could interact with them. The center of the house.
When he got back, Zar and Barth went to rest and Calder was left with a small bird and a small spider. Alone, he played the spiderling down in the covers and then placed the chickling down there as well who seemed not at all happy with anything.
Over the past few days, he struggled trying to figure out what he could feed them. He moved the pen so a corner would have a patch of sun from the window and yet still have shade. As often as he could, he would reach out to try and touch the little ones, hoping they would get he was here to help them. At least they both didn't seem to hate each other and he was glad that in the moments he had to step away, which was rarely, they weren't alone.
Feeding was his biggest concern, and he tried everything. Hay was out. Grass and clover was out. He threw in corn and meat and it just sat in the corner before he had to remove it. Taking Barth's computer, he tried his best to see what they might like to eat, but avians and arachnids had a variety of diets. Panicking that their scarlings would starve and HE would be the one to report to Barth and Zar he neglected them, he went into the yard and found whatever insect he could and dumped them into the pen.
He spent a lot of time just looking at the two of them, half-awake, twisting his hair as he tried to gauge if they were happy or not. They didn’t' seem to be.
In the past day, Calder was started to make small whining noises in the back of his throat at each time something didn't delight or just make the scarlings absolutely happy. Picking any of them up seemed like a bad idea so far and he would set them back down, trying to dissect where he went wrong.
In the past couple of days, the spiderling had started to ooze webbing and make a very sloppy nest against the mesh fencing and pillows. The kelpie took this as a sign that it wanted nothing to do with him anymore and wanted to hide. This did not improve his outlook on his parenting skills.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 12:36 pm
Superbia had reacted reasonably well to the meat, but it had been too difficult for him to eat at his small size, the bugs were slightly better fare, but he simply didn't seem to want to eat, disconsolately sitting in the pen and sleeping when he wasn't hopelessly peeping.
Zar on the other hand was feeling better and less afraid as he made his way to where Calder was, a part of the house that he had been avoiding for the last few days. There were a lot of very animalistic broody instincts he was contending with and he was finally in a place where he felt it was acceptable to express any of it.
He was more rested than he had been and stood in the doorway, rapping the door with his knuckles.
"Mind if I come in?" he asked.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:12 pm
Zar's voice jolted him awake from he had been sitting and he stood up, looking around to take inventory where he was, and shortly after, that both scarlings were in the pen. When he noticed it was not the scarlings who woke him, he turned around and looked around to spot Zar.
Straightening his hair behind his ears, he picked up the laptop that had been slipping off his lap and stood up. He was still wearing when they were in the pumpkin patch. "Huh?! No!..no. Um... Please, come in. Um…..did you have a good nap?" He said, tense as he set the computer on the table. He had no idea what Zar would think. The scarlings had been in his care when the two of them had been resting, but the birdling was still peeping whenever he wasn't sleeping and Calder couldn't even begin to know if a spiderling was happy, sad, or hungry. It only hissed whenever he tried to take it out of its web and so he left it there.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:17 pm
Zar entered the room, making his way into the living room and over to lean on the pen. As soon as he did the small chicken scareling perked up immediately and made its way over to yell hopefully at him, forgetting its previous fear. He ignored it for the time being and kept his attention on Calder.
"You can go rest if you like." he said, "I can take over for now." He flicked his ears back. "I had a talk with Barth, there were a lot of things I just...couldn't handle and didn't understand. But I er. I understand it a little more now. Are you all right?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:44 pm
"Oh......." He didn't know what Zar had been feeling, and seeing as the incubi had went downstairs, he decided not to press it right after such a tiring exchange. "That's good. This is all....really overwhelming. More than I thought." He said with a sigh as he sat down.
"I'm ok."
"Well, no. That's not true. I'm not ok. I'm...kind of a mess right now. I don't know anything about these types of demons. I'm not even sure they are happy or need anything special. I threw some bugs in there when they didn't eat anything else I put in there and put down some soft things, but ....I don't think I'm doing any good. The ....." They hadn't even decided names yet.
"The winged one peeps a lot and sleeps. The spider one has been hiding from me. I keep going near it just to make sure it's alive." How horrible was that to admit. That he had to check on their scarlings just to make sure it was still around.
He ran a hand through his hair and picked up the computer, opening it up. "I don't know what else to do. I'm sorry I''m not helping our kids as well as I should. I just...thought it would click. That I'd just...know."
Apparently all those years of hoping for scarlings in no way educated him on how to raise them.
"I don't think they even like me." He whispered to the screen.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 2:59 pm
Zar made his way over to Calder and sat down next to the kelpie, his tail slinking around him as he put one arm across the other boil's shoulders and took hold of his sad face with the other, if he let him, giving him a reassuring kiss on the side of his lips.
"There is no should Calder. If they were kelpies you would know exactly what to do, as it is, they aren't anything any of us are overly familiar with, we don't know, there isn't a guidebook. You've been doing just fine for what you have to work with."
The smallest of the two was still peeping loudly the whole time. "I can maybe help with the spider shaped one, my erm. My father - or one of them anyway - had a lot of bugs."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 3:13 pm
His eyes were on the last website he had been scouring for information before he had closed the laptop in frustration and accidently dozed off again. It was proving just as fruitless the last time he opened it. As Zar neared, he glanced up, glad to just have anyone around him, and was surprised to have his face held and a kiss given. Despite the 2 other occupants in the room, he still felt hungry for those kisses, but it made him breath out in relief in having him here, to offer those kind words, to reassure him he wasn't failing everyone.
Yes, if they were kelpies, he would have something to work with, but he couldn't think like that. He had two wonderful scarlings here who needed him. He had to figure this out.
"Thank you. I....I needed that." More than a nap, though he did need that too.
"I look a mess." He added, feeling once again like a mess in front of Zar's handsomeness.
Zar's offer had Calder looking back up, eyes bright and brimming. "Could you? That would....that would be amazing." He felt ready to cry, and set the laptop down again.
The spiderling had managed to make a small web against some pillows and was underneath its messy construction. It was also watching them both, and poked its head out from the entrance of its sloppy tunnel.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 3:27 pm
Zar ruffled Calder's hair with a claw, catching one of the kelpie's ears between a thumb and forefinger and rubbing it affectionately. "It's fine, we have a long time to figure this all out, they are just like very large minipets we aren't allowed to eat."
Leaning in he rubbed his cheek against Calder's and in an undertone (despite the fact that the scarelings were much too young to understand) murmured. "Nonsense, you look as delectable as always, in fact, if we weren't so busy I'd give you some very physical stress relief right here and now."
Instead with a grin he reluctantly moved away over to the pen and climbed in, picking the small chick scareling up in his tail. He stopped peeping immediately, finally getting what he wanted and was stowed in Zar's coils at his waist.
Making his way over to the sad little nest, he shook his head. "Nice try little guy." he said, and retrieved as many pillows as he could get, constructing what was essentially a little cave of pillows, and then picking the spiderling up (regardless of protests) he dabbed his spinnerets against several key web-building points of the small cave to get him started before putting him in the middle of the makeshift web and giving him a pat. He tossed a few larger bugs onto this same web with nimble claws.
"Might be better, I know Vadra's spiders always liked a good nest." They had also liked to eat birds too, but he didn't mention that just yet. "How do you think they'd be with milk?" he asked thoughtfully.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 3:50 pm
He leaned into the nuzzle, closing his eyes and feeling himself slip dangerously close to sleeping again at such a soothing action. One moment the kelpie had been chastising himself for not reading more scarling books and being nominated as the worst parents to having Zar swoop in and put himself back at ease. Everything felt a little more manageable now, that he could honestly do this without jacking everything up.
The offer had him debating how bad of a parent he could be if he took that offer to, say, go to another room out of sight of easily-influenced eyes. "That sounds sooo good." Calder whined as Zar left him to mope on the chair.
Watching, he saw Zar at long last pick up the neglected birdling and he felt so relieved that Zar actually was holding it. Whatever talk he had, he was glad he had it. Calder was overjoyed and relieved by the help.
Zar went to pick up the spiderish scarling too, who at first hissed at him, raising its front legs at it getting too close, before it was picked up. At that point, it then just curled around the fingers and remained still, sensing this person smelled similar to its pumpkin. It tapped its fangs against Zar. With the new web, it climbed in and seemed content, poking its head back out to look back at Zar and its sibling, curious.
"Milk? I… really don't know. I don't think I have any though." Should he run to the store? What kind of milk would they like.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 4:01 pm
"I have..a lot." Zar said with an awkward clear of his throat. "I'll see if they are all right with some of it in small amounts and go from there."
The small bird scareling had at the very least gone from distressed peeping to far more contented cooing, nestled against Zar's skin where he had climbed up under his shirt and refused to come out, his snake-like tail wrapped firmly around the girth of Zar's tail or at least as much of it as it could manage.
"I think this little guy." he gestured at the spider scareling. "Is all bark and no bite, you just need to ignore his fancy leg waving and pick him up." He wasn't sure what gender either of the kids were but didn't care, he would suffice as a pronoun for now, it certainly did for him.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 4:07 pm
Calder was confused and honestly too tired to catch what the milk mention fully meant, and just guessed that, at some point, Zar went to the store.
"You're....really good at this. Thanks." Probably better than him, but at least Zar was giving him some major pointers.
"I thought I was making a mess if I would get to close to the spider one. I guess that means I can move it around a bit." It didn't seem to mind Zar at all, though both of them seemed fine with him.
Setting an arm on the armrest of the chair, he leaned his head on his hand. "I don't know what I would have done if you didn't show up."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 4:25 pm
"I'm not good at anything, I'm just used to dealing with fussy little minipets before I eat them and these, well they don't seem that fussy. The winged one seems to have some bizzare fixation on me which it will hopefully grow out of and the spider one just seems like it needs a bit more handling and a safe dark place to go when it wants to." He realized he probably needed to stop calling his children "it", but it was all baby steps at the moment.
"You'd have done fine. If it wasn't for you they'd have been entirely alone and just wandering the castle. You kept them safe and intact."
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 4:44 pm
"Yeah, the bird one really likes you. I think it will be fine after a while. It at least doesn't hate me touching it so that makes my life a little easier. "
He closed his eyes for a few seconds before opening them again. "I'll move the pen away from the sun for the spider one. We....probably should do that naming ceremony.....whenever." The past few days felt both rushed and long to him, and he wasn't in a massive rush to do much of anything.
"I try." He muttered, eyes closing again as he leaned more into his hand. "Are you doing ok?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 4:57 pm
"I think it likes you just fine, it's just a little too tied to my fear for one reason or another, it'll wean itself off of it over time probably, once it gets its fill of me."
He raised a brow. "Naming ceremony? There's a ceremony? Shouldn't we just get together in a room and choose some names once Barth wakes up?"
He moved to sit on the floor and shapeshifted into his natural form, sprawled on his side. "I'm doing fine /now/." he curled his tail, beckoning Calder over as the bird scareling nestled into his bellyfur. You should shift out and join us, lay down for a proper nap, I'll watch everyone, I'm not tired.
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Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:14 pm
He peeled his eyes open again to looka t Zar, now shifted and resting on the ground. "Okay." He said with only the whispered hush of relief.
"Barth mentioned that demons have a little naming ceremony. I wasn't sure since demon names seem so important. I wouldn't mind just sitting and picking two we like."
Heaving himself out of his chair, he shifted out, and she laid herself beside Zar. Tucking her legs in, she got comfortable and leaned her head down before leaning over and flopping to one side. The floor felt amazing, and her bones felt like they were made of cement.
"Just....wake me if you need me. Ok? I shouldn't be long." She said, but even she knew that her body was telling her to just give up on that idea and rest. With someone else nearby, she felt she could finally just let herself drift off without panicking about sleeping for a day and having the scarlings get themselves in trouble. That everything was ok now that Zar was here.
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