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The hatchling dreams, curled up in her egg. It is warm, and there is white light all around her. Sometimes there are Voices that talk to her, and sometimes she talks back, peeping until the Voices get louder and excited. There is the big loud voice that rumbles, and there is the small voice that comes with the BIG warm, and then there is the quiet voice that sings. She likes it best when it is very warm and all of the voices are there.
Then there is a time when she wakes up. She knows! It is time to be out! It is time to go out of the egg into wherever the Voices are. She wiggles as hard as she can, but she can’t go out. She manages to move her egg a little bit, but it holds onto her. Let her out! She scratches at the egg with her claws. She wants to be free! The egg does not let her out. She is angry! She YELLS at the egg.
There is a Voice from outside the egg, responding to her, and then all of the voices. She yells at the Voices. She wants to be OUT! She gnaws on the inside of her eggshell. It is too strong! It won’t break. Scratching and biting!
“I think she needs some help,” says the voice that sings sometimes, and the big voice rumbles back. Something hits the egg, and she hears it crack. YES! There’s a crack in the egg now, outlined in the light and when she scrabbles at it with her claws, she is able to push the pieces out. She fights the egg! She breaks it, and spills out onto a big softness.
Yes. YES. The hatchling is OUT. She yells triumphantly. Oh no! It is COLD in the Outside. Oh, she is cold and she is damp. Where is the voice that makes the big warm! She demands the warm!
“I have you, you’re okay,” says the little voice, and she opens her eyes and blinks up at a big red blurry shape. It is shaped like her! She peeps at it, and then is picked up. Oh, there is the big warm! She LOVES the big warm. She snuggles up to it.
“Fuck, she’s so small and so beautiful, ” says the big voice, and then she looks up and there is a VERY BIG SHAPE. The biggest! As big as the WORLD. It bends down, and one VERY BIG CLAW comes and touches her wing. She blinks up at it. Oh, she knows this shape! She knows the shape’s magic. She remembers it! This is her mother! Her mother is so big and strong and the hatchling is full of LOVE. The voices must all be her parents. She LOVES them.
“Oh, gods,” says the parent who is holding her and making her warm.
“She loves you so much, ” says the quiet voice, and her mother shakes, and makes a sound.
Another shape comes over. Another parent! This one says hello and it is the quiet voice, and she peeps hello to it. She has so many parents! She is so glad to be out of the egg and to meet them! She is surrounded by parents and she is safe and warm and held.
Her mother goes away after a short time, and she hears the voices talking. She puts her head down on her warm parent’s shoulder. She is tired from getting out of the egg and she wants a sleep.
“Welcome to the world,” says the warm parent to her, quietly, and holds her tight, wrapping his wings around her. “I’m your dad. I’m so happy to meet you. I promise I’ll do my best.”
Her dad! She LOVES her dad. She hugs him with her tail, and flutters her fins because she loves him so much. Oh it is fun to move her fins! She didn’t know she could do that! She flaps her fins very hard because she can. Her fin hits her dad’s face, and he laughs. That is a good noise and she likes it very much. She flaps her fins again and he laughs again, and that is very good! She settles down. Too sleepy to make more moving right now. It is time for napping.
Her other parents are talking.
“Do you think the other egg is ready too? If she is?”
“It’s hard to tell,” the quiet voice says. “I don’t think she wants to come out yet. We should probably help her out, though, it’s not good for her to be in the egg for too long after the incubation’s done. One of my eldest was the same way.”
“Should we bust her out, then?” says her mother, and there’s more talking, and then a cracking sound.
Another hatchling is making noise! The hatchling turns her head to see who it is, and her dad turns to show her. There’s another egg! The baby inside of the other egg is not clawing and biting to come out, though. Mother is tapping at the egg very carefully, removing pieces, and then reaches in and takes out a hatchling. The other hatchling looks like her! Two of them! Her sister! They were eggs together!
The other hatchling peeps sadly, and curls up into a ball in their mother’s big claws. She is not STRONG and YELLING. The hatchling is STRONGEST. Mother pulls the other hatchling close to her chest and shushes her and rocks her so they are both warm.
“What are we naming them?” asks the quiet parent.
“Oh, fuck, names. Shit. Uh,” says her mother.
“Gods, I don’t know,” says her dad.
“I was thinking Iscadia for our little fighter? And Danaus for our sweet little shy thing,” says the quiet parent, serenely.
“Derrima, you are a fucking lifesaver,” says her mother, fervently. “Yes, I love it.”
“What do you think about being named Iscadia?” her dad asks the hatchling.
Iscadia screeches her approval, making her dad jerk his head back. YES!! She is NAMED. She has a NAME! and her name is ISCADIA. Later she will get to see her sister, and she will get to move around and look at things and be warm. For now it is time for sleep. She curls up in her dad’s arms and sleeps.