WHEN THE COLD WIND IS A-CALLING

During one of her outings, the young girl had been going through the swamp with a thoughtful expression present on her face. She might as well get acquainted with her new home and she decided to do this by exploring the swamp, she hated the feeling of muck on her paws so she decided to try finding a path that wouldn't get her trapped in the said mud. She was aware that there was alligators around too which made her exploration even more dangerous but that hadn't stopped her at all, Sophiea found a spot to briefly sit on a gnarled root that belonged to a large tree. She pulled out one of her journals slowly beginning to write her surroundings, she noticed a few symbols on some of the trees which she scribbled down with a frown on her face. "Interesting... They must indicate something," She supposed that she would have to learn what they meant on her own, she slid her journal into her satchel slowly making her way to the tree before feeling a gasp leave her maw.

An owl was trapped within one of the traps, it appeared to be dead and the sight saddened her as she drew closer "You poor thing," Sophiea did her best to get it free from the trap itself before realizing something rolling away from the feathered corpse, an egg. "Oh, those damn brutes..." She growled with gritted teeth, Sophi didn't seem to hesitate to find a place to bury the fallen owl slowly placing flowers on their newly dug grave. She muttered a few inaudible words before her attention turned in the direction of the egg, she scooped it up into her arms feeling relieved to sense some warmth from the small egg. Still alive. She would have to remember what kind of owl the parent was though that would have to wait for another time. Turning her satchel to be on her chest, she would find a place to set the egg there without anything crushing it though only after putting down some moss and materials for nesting.

Walking back to camp, Sophiea made a beeline towards her home and pushed the door open with a frown still present on her maw. She found a place on her couch to push a cushion down and hopped up, she would settle the egg down with a huff leaving her. "Great... Now, I'm stuck raising an egg..." She would likely have to read some books on how to take care of it and eventually another set of books on how to take care of a hatchling, feeding, cleaning... She closed her eyes, this would be quite a bit of work. Sophiea plucked a few of her feathers off surrounding the egg with them, she would hum quietly pulling out one of her journals. She might as well make a few journal entries on how the egg was doing. Another sigh left her as she wrote without a word slipping from her maw.

Entry one; Congrats, you're a parent. 

ANGEL ❝ AURUM ❞ TANGLEWOOD

At some point, Aurum would really need to speak to Vig about some changes that needed to be made. For one thing, the newest generation of tanglers really needed to learn about the tree markings for the good of them all. They were useful in that they not only signposted traps, but also good places to go hunting, and places where there was clean water. Not only that, but the lion really needed to speak to Vig about them possibly getting rid of the traps that were littered about their territory. There was little reason for them nowadays, especially without Beck around to go around resetting them near daily – he found himself wondering where the fuck the ghost had decided to wander off to. Either way, it had been proven that the traps weren't exactly useful. They hadn't done anything when The Pitt had tried to raid them, and the angel somehow doubted they'd be able to do much more if anybody else tried to attack. As it was now, they only represented a threat to new joiners. Or, in this latest case, to the wildlife that lived within the swamp as a whole. That was far from a positive, considering that wildlife was what they turned to for food.

Of course, that was something to address at a later time, when the lion wasn't feeling so exhausted, and injured. At the moment, Aurum had just been laying outside of his home, curled up on his porch and letting his golden pelt absorb the sun's rays. He was comfortable for the first time in a while, his injured leg carefully tucked off to the side, along with his broken wing. He couldn't help but wonder whether or not he was finally comfortable because he had found a good position to rest in, or just because of the poppy seeds he had been given earlier. Either way, he didn't mind, his eyes drooping and his breath coming out in soft and deep waves as he laid there, simply observing the world around him. His interest was piqued, however, when he noticed Sophiea quickly trotting by, holding her bag especially carefully. He had met the new feline rather recently, and while he didn't want to be nosy, he couldn't help but notice the slightly worried and thoughtful expression on her face. Always willing to be helpful, Aurum reluctantly pushed himself up from his laying down position, a little pained grunt leaving him as he descended down from his own porch.

The scent of an owl on the air only pushed Aurum farther forward, the angel eventually stepping into the doorway of Sophiea and Eternalknight's home. He might've felt a bit bad about just letting himself in, if it weren't for the fact that Soph seemed to perpetually leave the front door open. With his kinked tail flicking slowly behind him, the former proxy letting out a soft and surprised chuckle when he noticed the egg that was now sitting on Sophiea's couch. He muttered as he slowly stepped inside, looking over the egg and stretching out his neck to nudge his nose gently against the shell of it, "An egg...? Where'd you get an egg, Sophiea? I'm gonna assume that you didn't lay it, so..." Even though Aurum had seen a great many strange hybrids in his day, he heavily doubted that Sophiea had the ability to lay eggs, even with the feathered wings that laid upon her back.

WHEN THE COLD WIND IS A-CALLING

She figured that she would have to learn what type of hatchling she was going to raise soon though before Soph had been able to move, the familiar form of Aurum walked past her door causing the small feline to stare at the large brute. She supposed that it was her fault for continuing to leave the door open but he hadn't even bothered to knock and make her aware of his presence. She set down her journal to the side watching as Aurum gently nudged the egg though at his next comment did she feel her face grow hot with embarrassment and grabbed her journal aiming to lightly hit Aurum's snout with it. If successful, she glared at him with narrowed pupils only to say rather defensively "I found the poor thing during one of my outings. The parent was caught in a trap, which was rather unfortunate." She went silent for a few moments adding with an angry wiggle of her tail "Laying an egg here would be less than ideal," With a soft hmph leaving her, the small feline would discard the journal once more and pick up the egg.

Then someone else spoke up and they were a stranger, mostly like everyone else in their group. Sophiea, at this point, wore a scowl on her face as she would hiss with ears pressed flat against her cranium "Can we move on from the topic of child birth please?" Setting the egg down as she hopped off the couch, she would add with a shake of her head still feeling rather flustered "It's uncomfortable." And frankly, she had better things to do than raise a whole litter of kittens... That and well, she would never bed with a swamp dweller. Everyone here seemed dumb in a sense aside from a few people, they lacked the intellect that she'd normally be interested in. They aren't and will never be Chevalier, she thought as she walked to one of her bookshelves looking for a book on owls, Soph perked up the moment that she spotted it and took it out of its place "Now, I'm going to try and see what I'm going to deal with once the egg hatches."

Sitting near the living room table, Soph would open the book before pulling her journal over and flipped it to the pages where she had drawn the symbols that she had seen on the trees. "Aurum. What do these indicate? I assume this one, where I found the dead owl... Means that it's a trap of sorts," Sophiea relied on knowledge and if she was going to survive out here in a god damn swamp, she may as well have the wits for it. "There was several more on other trees but with the given situation at paw, I wasn't able to investigate entirely." She would add as her eyes locked onto the owl book, she was trying to remember the owl she had seen and buried. A thoughtful hum leaving her as she sat there without another word.