Prologue
Cracks
skip to the bottom for essentials
"It's been two weeks."
King slid his eyes open. The room was silent, the handful of dragons crowded together as the nocturn finally growled out the few words everyone was thinking. His eyes closed and he sighed.
For the clan of scum, it had seen much chaos unfold. Battles, internal fightings, change in leadership, changes of all sorts. But the Nests and the wait for hatching somehow always felt like the tensest of situations. Even within the warm walls, the deepest and safest of caverns, it felt tense.
It was the waiting. And when eggs didn't hatch for over weeks? That feeling was worse.
"I know."
He growled back and shifted, tail swishing across the ground as he let out a rumbling chuff, eyes sliding open as he looked around,
Bloodlust clearly not pleased with that as she huffed, shuffling closer to her larger mate who leaned down, tail flicking, "Are you even worried about your own eggs? They haven't shook once."
The guardian felt his lips curl back and he let out a warning growl before it dipped and fell into another sigh, shifting on his paws as he grumbled. "I have been,
of course I have, Blood. I'm just, tired."
The room was silent at that and everyone shifted on their paws. Then the curtains to the nests shifted. Deep blue feathers,
Becket, peered his head in and let out a chuff, his crest flicking at the hard gazes he quickly earned, before letting his wing push the curtains up. "The nests are secured, all of you can now enter. No need for the wariness either-"
"You know why we are wary.
Becket."
There was a dull rumble and
Cygnus quickly stood up, even for the shortest end of the Imperial's in the room managed to cause the coatl to retract and slip inside the nests with a chuff aswell. Everyone else followed suit and King found himself last as he stared at the floor before looking up.
While the Wait area was not overly large, a fairly blank cave space with some crafted chairs and benches to lay along, the nesting was. The walls opened up, were high, and very comfortable. There was a clear dull warmth all around, a mix of body heat and actual heat funneled in and out from the Forgework area, and the nests were pulled together in a sort of multi bubbled center that dipped inwards slightly. Circles of nests, only four in use but a total of seven circles and semi fused around, with the largest in the middle, bones and flesh gently built up as protection, but enough space for one mate to huddle and stay with the eggs up close. There was currently a Fae,
Jasmine, hopping between the nests, an Imperial,
Nikolai also carefully examining each while Becket led them down the crater.
"The eggs are warm, so don't have worry there. We believe with the sudden shifts of magic in the area, Jasmine has been sensing, the eggs went into a semi frozen state for a while. Nothing
should come of it, but we'll see once hatching occurs."
Becket explained as his tail swifted and his 'mate', if King could even call her that,
Dragonfly walked up to his side and started mumbling to him, the two speaking between each other, and then everyone started to spread out quickly to their nests. King approached his own, the fleshy material layer overtop the eggs hiding them protectively as he watched a familiar Fae, his mate
Muaru, peer her head up and fins flick slowly, smiling. She quickly greeted him in the air, flying and landing on his face, nuzzling her head into his in a very brief motion before settling in his horns, voice coming out weak.
"The eggs are fine, I've been letting them settle, making sure they're warm..." King nodded slowly so she wouldn't fling off and gently rocked his head soothingly, sighing out. "I know. Thank you. Rest for now, I'll watch."
There was just a huff in response and he could feel her weight slack a bit, keeping his head level as he met a familiar gaze and gently nodded.
Lilith. She was good. She watched the clan when they were gone previous, was extremely loyal, and even stayed with Muaru for days to keep her spirits up during this whole nest confusion. Even with the...changes to their bodies being odd, it was...appreciated.
But with this clan the good vibes couldn't be held and he watched the fae's gaze drop, fins pinning back as a voice growled out.
"Step back."
King slowly got up and let out a sigh as he turned his gaze all around, each mated pair in their own current nests but. Well. The yelling happening over by Koiko and Bloodlusts, Imperium and Nikolai staring down each other, or more
Imperium staring Nikolai down.
Remind him again why he thought bringing two imperials, one with a temper problem, that at one point had the same mate as the one who didn't revive said mate when she died, was a good idea?
He approached and told everyone around to settle back to their nests and he let out a growl as he approached, "Imperium,
move away. The last thing we need is you bringing up old wounds, let alone
now when everyone is stressed and tired."
The Imperial met his base and growled, lips curling back and his tail flicking, green fur bristling, "You really think Nikolai here is any help? We've seen Stalk, and now how he completely refuses to revive anymore-"
"Stop." Nikolai finally relented, the dull red eyes tightening as he let out a rumble, before sighing and shaking his head. "Please. I'm just making sure the eggs energy is stable... I won't revive anything."
Imperium paused at the grief fueled tone before his gaze hardened, lips curling back as he growled low.
'We know you wont...", His gaze then shifted over to King and growled, tail swishing along the floor,
'And with your rules, I wonder how everyone will react once they waited so long their children have to be thrown out once again. Even your own?...'
King twitched at that and let out a rumbling growl, Muaru waking up and flinching as the guardian slammed his chest against the Imperial and the two growled before a sudden cry made them pause.
"Cracks!"
And that was the prologue! Hope it was good! Longest I've written in a while lol. The first nest should hatch soon enough here!
Sorry if that was confusing, I may.
May have introduced a fair many character, and I will be writing shorter, hopefully, but there's a few things. My clan has rules set up since it's founding and one very very disputed rule is the Hatchling rule. Applied to everyone, even the leaders, if their is space issues, all hatchling need to be sent to the wastelan. Only one can be kept if any. There is a lot of woven drama I haven't written out, mostly cause I'm bad with lore lol
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Ratdealer @
PioneerPenguin
