in which ivan becomes a father at 9 weeks of age | weekly prompt

He had to collect something for his weekly task. Originally, he wanted to collect books, but that was a stupid idea considering his lack of reading skills. After all, Beck had made it seem that his object of collection should be something that was valued for its physical sake.

Coming across this tree was a mark of fate. There was really no explanation as to why Ivan was wandering so close to it and just barely caught the glint of something round and promptly decided to investigate. There were three golden eagle eggs, which should have been an alarm to any bird enthusiast. Eagles didn’t normally nest in low hanging areas, but then again, the mutated ecosystem thriving in Tanglewood’s borders must be playing by different rules.

Ivan batted one with a paw. He was tempted to eat them, or preserve them for a collection, but he decided against it, not keen in robbing innocents of their lives. He continued on, but the next day his curiosity prompted him to check on them again. They hadn’t moved. Ivan noticed that he could not detect any parent’s scent either.

This third afternoon, Ivan sat down and watched them longer. He was beginning to feel tired after a few hours and was preparing to leave before the sun came down. A shifting caught his attention and his large ears pricked, excited to witness the miracle of life. It took a while but the first chick emerged, a horrible disfigurement of a bird, with two heads instead of one. It fumbled around on the ground. The next two came shortly after.

The two-headed eagle chick perceived its younger siblings, and crushed them immediately. Ivan hated to admit it, but they were executed almost with a certain art and fashion to it. A fantastical gladiator show. Their crumpled, tiny bodies lay strung about the nest.

“Why?” He muttered, feeling his dinner crawl up his throat, “Why would you do that? They were innocent, you rotten ugly thing!” The two-headed monster turned its four-eyed gaze on the black kitten. Ivan didn’t know it now, but the chick had imprinted on him. Wrong place at the wrong time.

Fear boiled in Ivan’s chest and he dug his claws into the ground, holding back from ending the creature’s life. He just couldn’t do it. He was too cowardly. His eyes burned with tears and his lip trembled with unease. He shook his head. He won’t cry.

The chick moved closer to him and curled against his paw, the paw had had the extra toe, just as this bird had an extra head. But he could not so easily fraternize with something that had just done something like that. He moved away but the chick persisted.

Ivan was really at a lost for what he should do and the sun bearing down on the horizon wasn’t making matters any better.

The fauna of Tanglewood was certainly... amusing to say the least. Caustic had a morbid fondness for the mutated creatures of the swamp, and had already set to collecting test subjects. A side project from the portal maker, something to take his mind off of the blasted machine. He was attempting to be as sterile as possible with them, but poisoning them required Caustic to bite them. He knew he was exposing himself, but he didn't have much choice. Asphyxiating them with his paws was so much more work. A bag hung around his neck, where he carried his mutated prey. It was an effort to minimize exposure.
The crying of a child and the hushed sounds of comforting parents attracted the wolf. Caustic was easy to hear coming- his paw steps were heavy and lumbering, and the scientist smelled of electronic parts and singed fur. The portal maker had burned his paws a few times now, but alas. The gas emanating from his mouth gave him away at all times, as each exhale of his breath came out as green smoke. He left the bag nearby, stepping closer to stand over the bird nest, inspecting its siblings. His eyes glanced over to the child now, its mutated brother holding onto Ivan. He huffed, the dots above his eyes narrowed in disinterest, but understanding. A parent watching a child cry over spilled ice cream. "Do not worry," Caustic was not known for being comforting, but grappling with death was easy to handle.
He thinks of Luc's limp body. He shakes the thought away.
"Everything dies, in the end. These two have served their purpose, and can be appreciated even in death." He waved a paw to the bird's dead siblings. It was as close as the morally questionable and ampathic scientist could get to comforting a child he barely knew.

TAGS • PLAYLIST • PENNED BY OWLIE

THERE'S ONLY ONE WAY OUT

Ivan bristled in shock, too caught up in his own whirling mind to notice that his mother had come to his rescue. The little kitten blinked and trembled, his throat closing up. Feeling some sense of semblance come over him, he jerked his head around and promptly aimed to bury his face in his mother's fur as she brushed against him. Muffled sobbing noises left his throat and he desperately tried to hide it within Moth's chest. He was young, but crying never really came easy to him. It actually shocked him, to know what was capable of making him shake and shiver like this.

He could only nod weakly in response to her question. A lie, but a harmless one. It wasn't like he was lying about staying up or going further than he was supposed to. He scented his father and sniffled. His tears began to dry up and he blinked blearily at the sawbone. Who's this? Who's who? He had forgotten the monster claiming sanctuary under his paw.

"I-I-I don't know." Ivan stammered. Was it one bird or two? Why was it following him like this? He didn't want to be its parent. "It won't leave." A bitter taste entered his senses and he glanced up to see a wolf he might have only seen once so far. He sneezed at the smell, and suddenly Caustic was addressing him.

It wasn't reassuring. It wasn't comforting. But it transfixed Ivan in a way he wasn't quite able to grasp. Caustic smelt bad but he was ... intelligent? What did Caustic mean, if nothing ever mattered except the purpose of survival? What purpose was served when the chicks lost their first breath at the claws of their own sibling? He found it difficult to accept, but it was better than any fluff about heaven. Ivan could not quite figure out where he stood. He blinked rapidly and almost instinctively curled his paw around the mutated one, as if expecting Caustic to grab it to serve some purpose. "That's cruel to think one's purpose is to die for another to live and grow stronger." He managed to say through blurred vision.

He turned sheepishly to his parents. "Should I ... leave it ...?" He motioned to the dual-headed bird with his free paw.

☆ HUNG PICTURES OF PATRON SAINTS UP ON MY WALL TO REMIND ME THAT I AM A FOOL. TELL ME WHERE I CAME FROM, WHAT I WILL ALWAYS BE: JUST A SPOILED LITTLE KID WHO WENT TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL —

Aurum had made his best attempts in the past to, for the most part, entirely avoid Tanglewood's flora and fauna. He did this mainly so that he wouldn't be forced to face the odd horrors that were growing within his own backyard, and also so that he wouldn't be forced to dispose of them as a result. He knew that there were some awful things out there, such as the enormous mutated bear creature that had once attacked him and snatched away the necklace he had been given by Poetking, but for the most part he wasn't confronted with things such as that. Most prey still remained blissfully unmutated when the angel got his claws into it, and the few mutated creatures he had met otherwise were, thankfully, most of the time friendly. Of course, the proxy had never been forced to bear witness to their births as Ivan just had, and he had certainly never been forced to watch any of the mutated beasts murder their siblings in cold blood, even if it was not necessarily done with malicious intent. Perhaps the little beast had just intended to eat them, and had been interrupted by the presence of someone to imprint on... it was hardly a comforting thought, but it was at least one that made some sense.

Late night walks had begun to come a bit of a habit for Aurum as of late, the proxy eager to get outside and enjoy the territory while he still could before he would be forced to remain in camp due to his pregnancy. He had been out on one of these walks when the strong scent of Tanglewood invaded his senses, not because of a border-line, but because of several Tanglers all clustered together in a group. Feeling curious, the tigon made his way over slowly to where Ivan was, accompanied by his mother and father, as well as Caustic. Aurum found himself recoiling slightly when he caught sight of the mutated chick, but he bit his tongue to keep from saying anything that would make Ivan even more upset. It was obvious that the child was also horrified by the avian, but Aurum didn't need to insult it either. Hesitating, Aurum mumbled softly as he sat nearby, watching the chick cling to Ivan's paw, "Like your father said, you don't have to do anything... although I doubt it'll survive very long without anybody caring for it... maybe you could see if somebody else would want to help it, if it upsets you so much?" His suggestion wasn't quite the same as Selby just saying to leave it to die if it really frightened the boy so much, but it had the same spirit behind it.

[div style="text-align: right; text-transform: uppercase; text-shadow: 0px 0px 2px #722227; font-size: 24px;"][color=#c16f78]— AURUM

#psychosocial.

Being raised in warmth and love perhaps had slanted Ivan's mind this way. He did not necessarily think of himself sheltered, though. But the world was much bigger than him and as he witnessed, played by different rules. Some lots were drawn to be a life of one or two breaths, like the birds. Ivan had gotten the better lot, and so had this two legged eagle chick. But it wasn't quite fate ... it was more of the will of an individual that propelled the dual headed chick to a higher status. Now Ivan was faced with a choice. He had the choice of life and death in his paws. He could not tell if the bird was male or female, or perhaps both. It didn't matter.

Kindness. He liked the idea of kindness, but he wondered if kindness could be granted to a murderer. Aurum brought up the argument of survival. Obviously there was something wrong in the chick's mental capabilities to be treating a feline so lovingly. He was probably right, but then again, it felt like something Caustic would say. Yes. A "fact of life". Ivan was silent for a few moments, actually sort of warm that adults were letting him make such a big decision. It made him feel bigger than he really was. A desire to attain acceptance from people older than him. He'd nearly forgotten he had shed tears over this eagle chick. This was probably why he decided to take the route they were likely egging him on. "Okay, I will take care of it. I'll make sure it won't cause any trouble at home, pa." Not a lot of conviction, but it was there.