[PRP] My dear innocent ones (Gators)

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Troubled, Zyanya looked at the two baskets sitting on top of a pile of broken reeds. Where had they come from? They were deep in the swamp. There were no paths over solid ground that led to this place and the closest soquili that she knew of lived a day's swim away. Occasionally they had marsh kelpi pass through, but none of those had been sighted in weeks either. She couldn't imagine a soquili even being able to make it out this far, let alone deciding inexplicably to bring baskets along.

Worried, she felt at the side of one of the baskets with her tail. It wasn't as warm as she thought it would be. Gator nests could often be quite toasty on the inside, thanks to decaying plant matter. If eggs needed to be warm, she had to imagine that baskets did too. How long could they be left alone like this before the inhabitants began to suffer?

She scanned the ground around the baskets. There were various marks in the mud, but none that looked anything like a hoof. The mystery deepened. Could a human have brought the baskets over on a boat and left them? It was possible, but why would a human go through such efforts to abandon them? She lifted herself as high as her legs would take her, bracing her tail in the soft earth as she looked around. Of course, she saw no one.

Her worry grew. She was an alligator and gators were predators, yes. But their tribe would never intentionally eat anything with a spirit. They would not harm a soquili or a basket... but there were other beasts in the swamp that might. There were serpents and screaming birds and the giant fish that sucked animals off the bank.

"Hello?" She wasn't fond of raising her voice without reason. Gators were beasts of stealth, after all. Still, she had to check. Maybe the parents of the baskets were waiting nearby, in earshot but out of sight. "Is there anyone here? I found your baskets." Belatedly, she wondered if that might be considered a threat to an overprotective parent. She knew she would tear someone apart if she thought they might harm her own hatchlings.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Her voice echoed into silence, broken only by the hoarse croaks of frogs. No one answered. "Hello!" She shouted louder now, using her booming gator voice that rumbled and vibrated in her throat. This time, birds were surprised out of trees and flapped around, squawking their disapproval. Zyanya gave them an apologetic rumble, and listened.

No one answered.

She turned again to the baskets, concern for them welling up in her green eyes. They were alone. Whatever had happened to their parents, there was no one here to care for them now. She thought of her own children, four hatchlings that were still small enough to ride on their father's back, all the while peeping for food or attention. She had her own children to return to. She couldn't stay here to guard these baskets indefinitely. She had to go back... and leave them.

"No." She spoke the words to herself like an iron mantra. She wouldn't abandon the baskets to their death. She would return to her family... with the baskets. She could come back here every day to see if the parents had returned. If they did, she would apologize and return their children. If they didn't... she resolved to find another soquili family that could take them in.

"You poor innocent things," she murmured at the baskets, rubbing one with the side of her snout gently. "You have been left here, but you are not alone."

~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"They are hatching," said Zyana's mate, Cualli.

Zyana nodded in excited agreement. Muffled sounds were coming from the baskets, and she could hear the inhabitants shifting about inside.

They had not found the parents of the baskets. They had not even found a replacement family for them, though Zyanya had stopped looking quickly. After just a few days spent with them, she couldn't imagine passing the baskets to someone else. At first she had made excuses. She couldn't let a winged family adopt the foals. If they were born without, they would always be left behind. She couldn't give them to a family that lived on land. What if they were kelpi and needed the water? Finally, she had spoken with Cualli and he had agreed: They would keep the baskets and raise the foals themselves if they were able. She had agreed that if the foals seemed to be suffering in the swamp that they should find others to adopt them.

Her hatchlings were being watched by a friend of hers. She hadn't trusted them to behave around newborn soquili. Her heart sounded loudly in her chest as she watched the baskets rumble and bump. Did soquili hatch on their own, or did they need help, as some of her own eggs had?

She didn't have much longer to guess. With a final rattle, the first basket spilled open, and Zyanya and Cualli both gasped.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

The filly emerged into the dim light that had made it past clouds and trees to reach the swamp. Even this much light was enough to make her squint and recoil away. She had never seen such light before... and her eyes were not well equipped for it. They were pale and pinkish. Her newborn skin seemed translucent as well, with cream scales and white fur.

Even with the painful light, she was not willing to go back into her basket again. She pulled herself out of its depths with webbed claws. It was then that she noticed that she was not alone. She saw two scaled monstrosities staring her down, Zyanya and Cualli. Agitated, the filly gave a sharp hiss. Her open mouth showed pointed teeth. Though barely emerged, she already had ferocity.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Her brother was not far behind her. His snout appeared first, emerging over the rim of his basket and sinking his teeth into it. He chewed at his wicker prison, aggravated that it stood in his way. He gnawed at the thing until the fibers separated and he was able to push himself through the rest of the way. He fell out, no more gracefully than his sister, and met the swamp floor just as solidly.

"Rrrrrr." He growled inarticulately. The light was not so strong in his eyes and he was able to see more clearly than his sister. He saw her there, a somehow familiar white form amidst the plants and murk. The alligators were strangely familiar as well, though it was more of a spiritual familiarity than a familial one.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Zyanya's breath felt like it was caught in her throat at the sight of the two of them. She stared in awe and amazement as her tongue fumbled to find words.

"Cualli... they're alligators." She couldn't take her eyes off their tails, their feet, their scaled heads. "Look at them..."

He was no less stunned than she. "The gods have sent us a blessing," he rasped, voice hoarse with emotion. "They have sent us alligators in soquili form."

Zyanya nodded. The feeling within her now was like the one she'd had when she first learned she carried eggs within her. She was so happy that she thought she might overflow.

"Little ones," she crooned as she hurried to them. "Do not rush to stand. Take your time."  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

The filly didn't like the alligator approaching. She let out a defensive squawk and tried to move away. Unfortunately, her legs weren't cooperating. She got her feet underneath her but her legs buckled. She fell back to the ground in a heap and her jaws snapped shut painfully. The sudden shock and hurt brought tears to her eyes. A whimper slipped out of her throat. She was a skinwalker, but she wasn't strong yet.

In confusion, pain, and fear, she began to curl around herself. She hid her face behind her tail, knowing that she couldn't stop the toothed creature from devouring her. She had only just emerged, but her wordless mind was convinced that she was going to die.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

The colt stared at his sister, seeing her display of abject fear. A new sort of sound came from him, one he had never experienced before. It was a low sort of chuckle. He liked what was happening. He liked seeing her afraid like that.

He didn't laugh for long when he suddenly realized how close the alligator was. Now it was his turn to try to get out of the way, hissing furiously. He fared only a little better than his sister and collapsed again only a few steps away. The alligator was still too close for his comfort. He snapped at the air in her direction, but his bites were weak and unfocused. He could do very little to defend himself in his current state.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Cualli watched as Zyanya calmed the newborn foals. Bull alligators weren't the ones that managed hatchlings. In their tribe, the father might not have much to do with the children until they were old enough to learn to hunt. Times were changing and he certainly loved and did what he could with their hatchlings, but he didn't quite know how to soothe a soquili child.

He suspected that the foals were so worked up because they were looking for soquili parents, not alligators. Their instincts probably told them that Zyanya was a predator, even though they looked remarkably similar. Even though the foals were still troubled, he could sense that Zyanya loved them already.

He smiled to himself, seeing how she already had begun to dote. A tribe of alligators, raising alligator-like soquili orphans? Such was the thing of stories, and he had great hopes for this new tale that had just begun.

~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"There is enough food for everyone." Zyanya didn't mean to snap but the words spilled out harsher than she intended. She'd been growing tense lately, but it pained her to think she might take it out on the children.

"Please," she repeated, calmer. "Papan, take one of the smaller fish." She addressed one of her trueborn alligator hatchlings who was currently holding onto the end of a fish already in another sibling's mouth.

"And Teo..." She paused as her gaze lingered on one of her two soquili children.

They had named them Teocipactli and Nateica after blessed mythologic figures important to their tribe. Everyone had agreed that the foals were a miracle and a gift from the gods. Zyanya thought that way too... but the foals were difficult sometimes. It was not their faults, of course. Even if they looked like alligators they were soquili, and she knew they couldn't give them everything a soquili family could. The twins were deprived of a mammal's milk, instead having to rely on the fish, insects, and frogs that young alligators ate. Zyanya was sure that some sort of dietary deficiency made them cranky, but there wasn't much she could do about that...

"Teo, please watch out for the smaller ones," she sighed, seeing how Teo pushed away the hatchlings to get at the choice morsels.

She glanced behind her, into the shallow waters of the nursery area. The two twins were there and three of her four hatchlings, but where was the fourth? "Nateica, have you seen Xoco?" she asked, recalling seeing the two of them swimming together not long ago.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

A sly look passed across Nateica's face but only lingered there for an instant, soon to be replaced by an expression of bored indifference. "Don't know." She chose a particularly fat frog out of their food pile and dragged it away from her siblings. "She wanted to go to the heron nests."

The heron nests were a favorite location for bored and hungry alligators, Nateica included. There were little baby herons up in the trees. No alligator or soquili could climb those trees well enough to reach the nests, but you didn't need to. Every once in a while if you waited patiently enough a baby heron would get knocked from the nest by another sibling. Once the hatchlings fell into the water they were easy prey and delicious eating.

Nateica smiled. She had gone with Xoco to the nests that morning. As hoped, a hatchling had fallen from the nest. This time, Nateica had seen what happened. The sibling of the hatchling, an older and stronger bird, had intentionally pushed their competitor to their death. Only the strongest survived in that brood.

With the much smaller Xoco as oblivious as usual, it had been easy to decide what to do next.  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

His sister's response actually got Teocipactli to pause, letting one of his adopted siblings make off with the fish he had been tearing at a moment earlier. He looked between her and their mother with wary interest. Had something happened to Xoco? He hated the chatty little mud-colored lizard and had been glad when she hadn't shown up to the meal. Was she going to be gone for longer?  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

"All right..." Zyanya didn't pressure the children more, but she was still troubled. She couldn't exactly put her worry into words, but she had the feeling that Xoco wasn't just running late.

As she watched, Teo forcibly shoved another of his siblings away from a prized food piece.

Her alligator children were so independent and kind, but the soquili.... Was there something wrong with the children?

~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Teocipactli waited. He floated in the water with just the upper part of his head visible. He was utterly still, aside from his moving eyes. This was the way alligators hunted. This was what he'd been taught by his adoptive father. They didn't chase down their prey like a fox or a cat. They waited and were still until the time was right.

Irritated, he narrowed his red eyes. It was taking too long. His belly was grumbling with hunger, but his mother had insisted that he try to hunt for himself before she would feed him. Anger at her decision coursed through Teo. She had always fed them before. What good was she if she was going to stop feeding them now? His claws, lightly holding onto the muddy lake floor, tightened reflexively. He'd make her pay if she made him go hungry. Somehow he'd-

Prey! A raccoon ambled along the banks, fat and stupid after a night of activity. Teo knew this was his chance. Without another wasted thought, he lunged out of the water and closed his jaws around the hapless raccoon. It struggled against him, but he yanked it into the water. He struggled to remember his father's lessons. Was he supposed to bite it again? Or drown it?  

[Revolutionary Roniel]

Nateica was also hungry. She too cursed their adoptive parents for refusing to feed them. It didn't matter to her that they promised to feed them later if they were unsuccessful with hunting. She was hungry now and wanted food now.

She wasn't quite so patient as her brother. She'd tried to run down frogs and even a few snakes, but they were all too fast for her. They disappeared into the brush before she could snap them up. All the running around only made her hungrier, and the hungrier she got the more foul her temper grew.

She was in a bad mood indeed when she spotted her twin brother floating around like an idiot log. She wasn't impressed by his technique mimicry... though that changed when she realized he had food. Instantly, greed filled her. He had a raccoon, but she was hungry. While he thrashed with the animal, she jetted towards him through the water, using her thick and muscular tail to propel her. She'd steal the raccoon from him and finally be able to eat!