Eggs...?

[Swix]

"Oh... that's too bad"

The boy said, face falling and staying in the disappointed expression.

"What's an aq-uar-rian?"

He asked, scratching his head as the the grey haired girl came and sat by her sleeping brother, watching both them and the egg curiously.

Meanwhile the runt girl had seen fit to wander over to Harpy and stare at the dancing flames while enjoying the smell. She reached out one of her four small arms to touch the hypnotic, dancing flames... only to have it grabbed and wrenched back by her mother.

"Don't touch it" Harpy hissed, her bright green eyes flashing at the same time her voice was laced with concern "it'll hurt you, a lot. And neither of us has the skill to treat a burn. We'd have to take you to the city and find a doctor"

Harpy sighed as she saw the girls frightened expression, and gently released her arm. The girl rubbed at it where Harpy had gripped too tight, a frown forming on her pretty face.

Harpy didn't apologise though, she simply returned her attention to the eldest, who seemed to have already grasped the concept of cooking before they'd had time to teach him.

"You're a smart one" Harpy commented, rather than saying strange "Perhaps I should teach you sign language afterwards"

[GBE]

The eldest had watched the runt girl attempt to touch the flame and would have intervened himself had Harpy not scolded her in an entirely different way to how the flame would have.

Kafka brings his vision back to the brown haired boy, and narrows his eyes and considers the boy for about a minute, "Harpy, I'd like to name this one Ordell..." he says in a questioning tone of voice..

The egg rattles again slightly, reacting to the slight bass in Kafka's voice as it travels through his arm, vibrating the egg slightly. Feeling the rattle Kafka reactionarily rapidly removes his hand from the egg as if it were boiling hot...

[Swix]

Harpy looks over at Kafka, briefly forgetting her fascination with the two who were closest to her, the runt and the eldest.

"Ordell?" Harpy repeated, squinting at the boy, who was looking chastised at being ignored "Sure. I haven't really thought about their name's yet, too many... distractions..."

Harpy said, with a general frown generally directed at everyone within the room.

The brown haired boy looked up, curiousity alight again.

"Ordell? What's one of those? What's a name?"

[GBE]

Kafka stares in disbelief at Ordell. Just how many questions did he have? The others seemed quite competant with the knowledge of things and how some things work. He wondered perhaps if this one would be less intelligent than the others. Finally answering him, "A name is something given to each person or thing in order to describe it, or gain that persons attention.

if I said Ordell, I'd want you to pay attention." He stops there, struggling to find any simpler way of explaining things to him. He turns to Harpy again, "Ordell mean beginning. It fits his attitude, doesn't it?"

The eldest nods in agreement with Kafka, a tiny smirk just on the very front of his lips making itself known for the briefest of seconds before disappearing back to his serious face. He turns and pays attention to the cooking meat, inhaling its warming scent.

Suddenly, with some effort, the egg resting near Kafka begins to roll about more as the scent of cooking meat fills the cave. Part of the egg explodes open, revealing two hands wavering in the air where the hole was. Slowly a figure stands up, at only five feet high, he looks around, seemingly looking through everyone.

He sniffs once or twice and turns to face where the scent of the meat s coming from. For a few seconds he stands there, and then makes an audiable sound along the lines of a deep hum, cut short. The vibration in his throat is visible. A second later he suddenly jumps back against the wall, trapping his wings, and only just clearing the top of the egg.

The eldest watches him carefully, almost as if he himself knew something the others didn't. Arms still folded. He walks towards the newly hatched and stands in front of him, looking down into his face. The new hatchling again releases a sharply stopped humm and looks up at the eldest, now releasing a constant humm, almost wavering...

[Swix]

"Oh, I see"

The brown haired boy, now named Ordell said, satisfied for now. He looked over as the egg began to hatch, watching his newest sibling.

"Why's he making that noise?"

Ordell asked everyone in general.

The grey haired girl had been watching all the time, though her focus had been mostly on the sleeping boy. He had grey hair like she did, she was curious about him. Her attention though was diverted to the newest addition to the family, and she watched him owlishly.

The runt girl took one look at the humming boy, and started to sniff, as though she were about to cry. ~He's only just hatched and he's still taller than me. What's wrong with me?~ she thought miserably, and deliberately began paying more attention to the fire.

Harpy nodded to Kafka before carefully watching the newest young, and the eldest. She'd have gone over herself, as she was relieved that the last one of her children hadn't turned out like the ones they'd lost, but the eldest had left the fire and food unattended to go have a look.

"It is a fitting name, we just need name's for the others now"

[GBE]

Slowly the humm fades into silence, allowing the crackling sound of the fire, and the crackling skin of the pantheresk to fill the room with a slight crispy echo. The newest then one by one looks at the others, all of them standing and staring at him. He realises the post-egg fluids are still running down his body, and dips his hand into a part of it, pulling his hand away and looking at it almost with distaste.

The eldest takes him by the other hand and leads him towards the exit of the cave, and turns once to catch Harpy's eye...

To Ordell's question Kafka shrugs his shoulders, not knowing the answer himself. He watches them for a few moments as the eldest leads the newly hatched to the mouth of the cave...

[Swix]

Harpy nods her head briefly at the eldest with the new hatchling, as if to say 'it's okay'. Her eyes had a hard edge to them before she turned back to watching the food and the runt, who was looking as unhappy as ever. Harpy had seen what the eldest was capable of, although she wasn't sure how he'd done it. she did at least trust him to keep the youngest safe. The hard edge to her eyes was a warning and a worry, just i9n case. If they weren't back soon she'd go out and look for them herself.

Ordell frowned, briefly out of questions he went and sat by the grey haired girl. She glared at him dangerously when he knocked her though. It would seem that although the runt resembled Harpy the closest physically, this one had her temperament.

"Kafka" Harpy called over "There are two more feline carcasses and a deer I caught earlier, they need to be stored. I have to watch this little one while I'm doing this, so you'll have to do it"

~We probably won't have to store them for long though...~

[GBE]

The eldest sees Harpy's nod, but also notices the warning and concern within her eyes. He doesn't make a return exchange, but jst simply turns to face the open air, and leaps, taking flight as he fully extends his slightly ragged wings. For a few moment, almost a few moments too long, he doesn't even move.

Then, with a sudden leap, he dives out of the cave mouth, and rapidly extends his wings to take flight. As his wings expand, its noticable that he has fewer feathers than all of the others, slightly more sparsely spread, but also thicker, fluffier and lighter than his siblings feathers. As the wind ruffles them, a thin membrane can be seen underneath.

At first, he doesn't seem to have a pattern of flight, flitting almost, here and there as if direction is alien to him. For all this time, the eldest flies around below him in circles watching him carefully until at last, he begins to synchronise with the eldests flight pattern.
Going towards a different direction of the lake first visited, the eldest takes lead, with the youngest only just behind him, copying any turns a few seconds later.

Kafka stands and walks to the Pantheresk and deer carcasses, aknowlodging Harpy's request for storing them. He takes hold of the cave wall, and moves into position on the cave roof. There, with four of his free arms, he crouches, and, one by one, he fires a line of webbing at them, and hauls them towards him, and slowly puts each one into a coccoon, completely sealing them from the oxygen, and vastly slowing down the decomposition of them.

As he finishes each one, he carefully hangs them from the cave ceiling a little further inside of the cave, leaving them in a single file line, gently swaying to the very slight breeze flowing into the cave, which is causing the smoke to slowly fill it. Concerned, Kafka drops from the ceiling, "Harpy, we need to funnel the smoke out somehow.."

[Swix]

Ordell watches Kafka curiously as he walks up the wall and does what Harpy asks, the hatchlings mind filled with questions once again.

Harpy nods, but keeps an eye on the meat as it cooked, an even closer observation on the runt.

"I can't burrow through soft ground, never mind solid rock without tools"

Harpy commented, slightly irritated.

"And we have none. I can't flap it out, my wings are too big. You've seen yourself that I can't open them properly"

The runt girl looks at the two, listening, a frown tugging at her features.

"Everyone's bigger than me. Why?"

She said unhappily.

The grey haired girl smirked before raising one of her four arms, a slight breeze appeared almost instantly and began moving the smoke out towards the cave mouth and into open air. Her eyes glitteres dangerously as she carefully watched her parents.

"I could do this all day"

She said arrogantly, and mockingly yawned.

[GBE]

Kafka looks at the grey haired girl for a few seconds, "You ca yawn all day?" he asks, a little puzzled by what she meant. He shivers a little as thecool air shifts te smoke out of the cave.

Meanwhile, the eldest and the youngest, who are of almost even height are circling around a lake, checking for hidden dangers, not wanting to get caught out by anything that could potentially kill them. Finally, the lower their flight path gradually, and when they're close enough, they both fold in their wings and dive towards the water.

The youngest gasps as the cold water temporarily shocks his body. But eventually, he becomes used to the temperature, and keeps up with the eldests pace as he swims easily through the water, the sky darkening above them. The eldest comes up to the surface first for air, and waits patiently as his sibling emerges from the depths of the water, shaking his head to stop the annoying trickles of water running down his face.

For a few moments they just 'stare' one another in the eyes, unrelenting and questioning. Eventually the youngest turns his attention to the forest for some reason, while the eldest looks up towards the sky, to see his first full moon slowly appearing from behind waves of partially highlighted couds in the dusk of the day...

[Swix]

"No, I can do this all day"

The grey haired girl replied, holding her other arm up and making wisps of smoke curl around her arm like a snake, completely unbroken.

"See?"

Ordell simply stares at Kafka with a look of intense interest and curiosity, though he still sat protectively by his sleeping brothers side.

The runt girl has her four arms crossed while staring deeply into the fire, watching the flames and colours dance and leap about.

Harpy keeps a close watch on the cooking meat, although she worried about the two that were out of her sight. Her eyes had the slightest hint of worry in them, although it would be difficult to pick out.

((You asked for this mister ))

From deep in the forest came a haunting howl, it wasn't quite wolf but it wasn't quite human either, and the sound was tinged with pain.

A young woman stumbled out of the forest, her shoulder length hair brown and tinted with silver, moving in the night's breeze. Her eyes were also brown, but they has a yellow tint to them, and her clothes were of a silver hue.

The woman doubled over in pain, looking as though she was bent in two. She lifted her head with difficulty to look up at the lake, her already twisted expression contorting with horror as she saw them.

"Leave... run... go... far-"

She said, but was interrupted as another howl was wrenched out of her, making her stand up and spread her arms to the full moon.

Once that was finished she doubled over again, though now her eyes were yellow with a brown tint, and clearly showed the Bloodlust. The woman snarled at them as her teeth grew into long points, then fell onto all fours.

A tail burst from the back of her spine, devoid of hair as her hands and legs creaked and cracked. The bones rearranging and re-shaping themselves into the form of canine legs. Her hands and feet shrank into paws, her nails elongating into cruel looking claws.

Another howl was torn from her lips as her face transformed as well, her mouth elongating into a long muzzled as her ears became pointed and migrated to the top of her head.

The very last thing that completed the transformation was the silver fur that burst from her spine and quickly grew around her body until the now-wolf woman was covered in it.

[GBE]

Kafka stares at te grey haired girl. She was making wind from nothing and was controlling a wisp of smoke around her hand. He found this a little worrying, not as worriying as the runts psychic powers, but she still had something he had never seen anyone possess.

Kafka looks to Harpy. "I really would like my uncle to see them. He would understand their genes much more easily than I might. Do you know how we could take them home with us. I miss my siblings." A sad look slowly creeps across his face.


The eldest watches in interest as the lone figure stumbles out of the forest. Then she yells at them both to leave. But they stay where they are, watching from the pool of water that was keeping them refreshed. His only worry was that their clothes were at the edge of the pool.

Watching the transformation take place, he was surprised, as he had only seen his mother and father change and had yet to experience any kind of wolf in person. His brother seemed to be weaving his head from side to side for some unknown reason, and occasionally making a clicking sound from behind his tetth with his tongue. The eldest seemed to appear to know what hewas doing, if a little unsure....

[Swix]

Harpy looks over at Kafka and shakes her head, frowning.

"I don't know of any way you could, unless we tried the Warp Portals that are around here. You could ask someone to try and find the place you came from"

Harpy had no siblings, and no family until now. And she still had no desire to find them, because as far as she was concerned they'd dumped her in the orphanage and that meant they never wanted her in the first place.

The sounds of the howls drifted through the cave, and Harpy looked up with an unguarded and worried expression.

"Tala" she whispered with hatred, making the runt girl look up at her.

"Is it a full moon tonight?"
_____________________________________________________________
Tala growls at the two boys in the pool, the bloodlust made it seem deeper and louder than any normal wolf was able to. Her lips were pulled up over her fangs as salive dripped from them, ears flat back as her hackles raised.

She then turned and ran back into the forest, leaving the two boys in peace for a few minutes.

It was soon shattered however as the large wolf charged back through the trees, her muscles bunched near the start of the lake and the werewolf jumped. Talas canine body quickly covered the distance between the shore and the boys, her muzzle was open and ready to bit either one of them when she splashed down.

[GBE]

Kafka heard Harpy mention something called Tala, and was close to asking her, when she asked about the moon. Walking to the cave entrance, he looks into the dark skies, to see a full moon partially covered by a cloud from his angle. Turning back, "Yes, it is a full moon. What is Tala?" he asks, almost sounding a bit like Ordell...
________

The eldest had started to relax as Tala went away, to leave them alone, when his brother had stopped, dead still, as if listening for something. Watching his younger brother, he turns as a crash through the forests trees indicates Talas iminent return, followed by her impressive leap into the water.

Without hesitation, his brother had already leapt from the water, but, not being used to flying with wet wings, and not having his brother to guide him, he seemed to struggle flapping his wings enough, the soft light feathers now acting as more of a weight as he attempted to pull himself higher than just a few metres above the pool.

The eldest, could see his brother struggling, but his larger wing span would do little more than float or fold back in. He was not going to be able to take off until he reached dry land and shook his wings dry. The only problem, there was an unfamiliar creature, barely highlighted by the moons glow on its silvery fur swimming towards him.

Taking te only course of action he could, he dives beneath the waters surface, and tries to loop beneath the creature, and head for the pools edge...

[Swix]

Harpy frowns, shaking her head.

"Tala is a name, not a thing. She's a werewolf"

She said, then quickly began an explanation before Kafka had a chance to become confused again.

You have wolf morphffers where you come from, right? Well, imagine one of them that goes mad during the full moon, forced into it's wolf form for the night until morning. They have no control over themselves, and they'll try and bite others. You become a werewolf if you're bitten"

Harpy explained, hoping he'd understand.

"She can't fly though, so our offspring should be okay. All the same, would you go and make sure? IU'll stay here and look after the rest"
_____________________________________________________________
Tala snarled as she splashed down into the cold water, dampening her fur but not her bloodlust. As the werewolf began doggy-paddling towards the larger target, it suddenly disappeared from view.

As her wolf side was predominant right, Tala saw no option but to turn around and start swimming towards the one she could see who was struggling. The youngest provided a much more tempting target, not able to get bhigh enough off the surface as it's wings splashed and struggled.