◜ . chapter one ┊ an egg in the territory . ◞

[EGG]

Nestled in the tree roots that bordered the swampland, an egg with pale green blotches sat as still as stone. Surrounded by it were eggshells, a sure sign that the egg had not been alone. Not even a wiggle or shift in its position could be seen for hours, or even days. Could the living being growing inside of it have perished? Perhaps, considering that no mother was in sight. However, there was a chance that the humid heat radiating from the swamp waters could have kept the egg somewhat warm.

The scent of its mother was stale by now, and the clock was ticking for the large egg. Was it too late, or would someone discover it just in time?

[arcy]

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Oh, shit.
Crowley was not a particularly observant person, but he was not particularly unobservant, either. In all honesty, the only reason Crowley had noticed the damn thing as he passed by at all was because it was .. such a bright color. Listen, Crowley doesn't thing white and green were safe colors for an egg that was just ... sitting on the swamp floor. Which was to say .. this probably wasn't a normal egg. Probably. Maybe. Just a theory.
Crowley wrinkles his nose. He got eggs, to an extent -- Crowley was more snake than he was serval, after all*. He hadn't ever cared for one, because he didn't care to, but he'd picked up a bit over the years. The many, many years.
This isn't the point. The point was -- sure, some eggs were left completely unattended, but an egg this old and .. bright probably shouldn't have even a whiff of a mother's scent, should it? It was old, but still there.
*Physically, yes, he was more serval, but he meant more like ... in general.
....
Crowley didn't have to help. He had no reason to. He couldn't carry it in his stupid, small legs, and, being coldblooded, he didn't produce any heat to warm it up in this late November. There wasn't a lot he could do, even aside from the fact he shouldn't.
Crowley scowls at the unassuming thing. He doesn't move for a long few moments. He slumps in defeat.
"Hey, hello?" Crowley shouts. This was both a general message to the world, but also just said that somebody was passing by that could deal with this better than he could. There was generally somebody nearby, after all. "What the hell should I do with this?" His tail gives a lash. He's a little out of his depth here, honestly, despite the whole ... demon snake in serval form thing. Besides, somebody else might know more about what the hell this thing was than Crowley did, because it sure as hell wasn't anything Crowley was aware of. And Crowley knew about quite a lot of animals.

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[arcy]

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Oh, good. Just in time.
Crowley barely has any idea who the hell this is, but that doesn't matter to him. She was a Tangler, apparently, and also apparently, didn't see the alarmingly bright egg. The demon sputters, feathers ruffling. Something of a mockery of some negative emotion or another. Admittedly he is a touch agitated, though less by Melantha herself.
"Look at this!" Crowley squawks, shuffling to grant her a more obvious view of the egg. He braces a wing against the tree -- ow, by the way. He'd used that wing to slam Hastur, and it still aches. He ignores it, and lifts his front half to use his paws to motion aggressively towards the eggs. "This sure as hell isn't any type of egg I've ever seen!" He seems to be gradually working himself up. This isn't much of a surprise -- Crowley is emotional and dramatic by nature. And even if it hadn't been an unknown animal
s egg he'd probably have stressed himself out just by caring too much.
Crowley, worried of accidentally losing balance and crushing the egg, promptly drops his paws back to the ground, and primly folds his wings back in. "Judging by the size and the eggshells, it's not even too far from hatching, so if it was one of those animals that hatch alone, there wouldn't even be an old scent of its mother," Presumably its mother. Crowley swears to .. someone, though, if he's just confused and embarrasses himself he's going to lose his fucking mind. Crowley never claimed to know anything about nature besides the fact that he probably would have recognized the egg if it was something familiar. "So it's just sort of .. here. Hopefully not fucking dead," Crowley, very, very gently places a paw on it. He seems mildly stressed about this. Crowley didn't frequently handle fragile objects, and it didn't help that he couldn't do anything about his fucking claws and also that, despite how he occasionally seemed, he wasn't the most graceful being alone. He withdraws very promptly, seeming unable to gauge anything from this brief touch. Possibly because he'd barely touched it for a second.

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[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

It didn't exactly take a lot for Aurum's keen hearing to hear Crpwley shouting in a panic over the egg that he had found, sounding utterly frazzled and confused as to what the hell he could do to help. A soft chuckle left Aurum as he flew over, coming to a landing nearby and walking over to Crowley's side, "Relax, Crowley. I'm pretty sure it's not dead. And if we can't find its mother, we only really have one option, don't we? Until we can figure out if we can find some sort of parent, I guess Tanglewood has our own little egg now." Unlike Crowley, Aurum was quite comfortable with children and their care in general, along with the fact that he was warm blooded, so he could actually help the egg with staying warm. Moving closer, the lion took a deep breath before gently scooping up the egg with a paw, carefully moving it close to him and into his golden fur so that it could seep off of his warmth. A shiver went up his spine as he felt the cold surface of the egg, although for some reason he had a feeling it was still alive. Perhaps it was the fact that the swamp heat could easily keep it as warm as a mother could, even with the heat waning as a result of winter approaching. The angel brought his wings down low to cover the strange looking egg, holding it protectively as he glanced from Crowley to Melantha before looking back towards the egg, gently touching his nose to it experimentally. It still seemed hard and faintly warm, with no signs of rot or death, so he was pretty confident in saying that it wasn't dead.

Looking towards Crowley, Aurum's tail flicked back and forth before he smirked at the demon, saying in a rumble, "Besides, shouldn't you be more comfortable right now? You've got the whole eyes of a snake thing going on, surely you have some experience with eggs? More than I could ever have, anyways." Lions certainly never had to deal with taking care of an egg and protecting its soft and vulnerable outsides. Sure, they had to protect the lionesses who were carrying the cubs, but Aurum knew from experience that lionesses could be pretty damn powerful and intimidating, so they didn't need too much protecting. He couldn't imagine what it must've been like, developing within the confines of an egg. He doubted whatever was inside would remember it, but it still seemed so... claustrophobic, and lonely. At least when you were a lion cub, you had a mother and siblings with you the moment you were birthed, with the entire world around you full of warm and smiling faces – most of the time, anyways. His very young cubhood had been one of the only times he had truly been happy as a child, since his parents had actually treated both Poet and him kindly back then.

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[arcy]

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It doesn't take a lot for Crowley to ease down in the face of Aurum's arrival. And, in truth, he'd probably deny panicking to begin with. As was, he half-scowls at the lion for implying he should relax, though, admittedly, he did find it relieving to have the situation out of his hands ... paws. Crowley liked children, he did, but at least you could talk to them, or know what was going on with them. He wouldn't, however, consider an egg a child.
"Right, 'cause we're gonna know what in the world laid this and abandoned it for .. however long," Crowley huffs, apparently bothered by this part of the plan. Crowley's sense of smell is no good with just his nose, so he's not quite sure how long it'd been, but certainly a while. Who knows if it was still in the territory to begin with? Even as he says this, he fretfully circles Aurum to peer at the egg. In all honesty, Crowley wouldn't be able to tell you why he's so invested in this. This is probably because he'd buried a good half of himself behind walls, and so ceased to be able to find some of it.
Hearing no bad news, the serval gradually allows himself to relax. Cool. Right. An egg. Fuck.
"Hell're you implying?" Crowley allows himself a grin as he, cautiously, relaxes into the conversation. He was more of a snake than just the eyes, though he can't say he'd had any hands-on experience with eggs. Ever.. And he certainly hadn't ever planned to. "Was I hatched in an egg? Would I have eggs? Do I eat eggs?" His grin gains a teasing touch, a hint of tooth. There were quite a lot of ways to interpret that question, after all. And the answer to all of them was -- no, actually. Literally, every single way you could interpret that question was no.
... Well. No. He used to try and eat eggs* whole on impulse, yes, but then he'd choke. It wasn't altogether pleasant, so he'd been trying to get out of that. He thinks he'd succeeded, considering that the thought had literally not occurred to him before this moment.
*chicken eggs, specifically. its FINE.

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[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

It seemed as though Aurum had somewhat been able to alleviate the panic that Crowley was feeling – even if the other would never admit he had been feeling it – and that put the lion at ease somewhat, even if Crowley ended up grumbling afterwards about how they could possibly find the mother. Shrugging his shoulders, the guardsman rumbled softly, "Alright, so there's a chance the mother might not come back at all. But if that's the case, the kid's gonna need a home and people to take care of it, so either way it's a tangler for the time being." That seemed simple enough to the angel. After all, what were they going to do, just possibly ignore a child in need? The mere thought made a frown tug at his muzzle, and he firmly shook his head, rejecting such an idea immediately. There was no way they were just gonna leave the egg unattended here. Thankfully, it seemed like Crowley lightened up a bit afterward, clearly amused by Aurum's comment about him and eggs. The lion snorted before rumbling, his plume of a tail dragging across the ground, "I don't know if you were hatched from an egg, but I'm sure you've at least seen one before." He doubted that Crowley would've done any of the presented options, except perhaps the eating, so he just chuckled at the comment.

It was after this that Melantha spoke again, obviously annoyed by the fact that Crowley hadn't realized she was blind. Chuckling softly, Aurum immediately tried to defuse any hostility by saying with a shake of his head – even if Melantha couldn't actually see such a thing, "Sorry Melantha. I'm sure he just didn't realize you were blind, since it's not really obvious if you're not looking." When Melantha confirmed that she didn't smell any rot either, another relieved breath left the guardsman, and he rumbled at her third comment, a sigh leaving him as he nodded, yet another gesture only he and Crowley could see, "I'm pretty sure you're right. Still, just like I said, if no Mother shows up, then this kid will just be a Tangler. We'll definitely treat it better than the cold hard wilds would, that's for sure. I would say we should gather up some sort of supplies for when it hatches, but... we can't really know what it needs until we know what it is. For now we'll just have to get it back to camp..." He wasn't exactly sure how to do that, since he didn't want to dig his claws into it, and he'd be petrified of it rolling off his back if he placed it between his wings.

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