Aching to pupate

[Mania]

The sway of the trees was all that he could hear, even with the layers of shell between his tiny body and the outside world. There was the occasional bird song, or the rat-tat-tat of a beak against one of the orchard's own trees; nothing made sense for the still-forming creature. He sat within his cocoon, with his back legs (what he assumed, somehow, were legs) tucked close to his chest - toes brushing at his tiny nose, touching something that sprouted from his snout but he could not see. There was a dull light that filtered through the chlorophyll of the cocoon; it illuminated just enough of the space within, so that the beast could see. But, at the same time, he couldn't see - his eyes were closed, still developing. The flickering light danced across his face and he felt the instinctual need to adjust himself. In doing so, one of those odd rear limbs kicked out and hit his jaw; "Ah, ahhh, ahhh-" The cocoon began to shake, and any outsider walking through the grove of trees would see it - hanging from one of the black-barked Cerasus trees, swaying awkwardly in preperation for the drop.

"CHOOO!" With a violent sneeze (the likes of which echoed throughout the orchard in it's entirety), the cocoon gave one final sway before a great, ominous crack was heard. He could hear it - through new ears, which had just finished unfolding inside of his little haven - and then the cocoon fell. It fell quickly, slamming against the ground and splitting open before the creature inside could even make sense of the events. The crack in the cocoon's surface was enough to let the brilliant autumnal light in, and it filled the sack with golden light. With a moan, the creature tried to right itself - but his head, his head! "Dropped me on it, that's what!" The thing chortled with a low huff. There was a pain in his head - which later, would explain so much, but right now it throbbed and the newborn was annoyed.

By rolling, he was able to somersault himself on to his paws; and then, as his ears poked out of the cocoon, the feline slipped in to the world. Around him were great pillars with swaying arms - "No, idiot, those are trees - trees, haha! They're so green look at that! So green," He chattered, slipping one dark paw in front of the other in an attempt to get closer to the plants around him; at first the limbs would not co-operate, they were stiff from the fall. "Legs, good. I have legs. Oh, brilliant!" They didn't work very well though. "Legs, toes, claws? Ooh look at that-" Distracted, suddenly, (by his own body parts, no less) the newborn plopped his rear against the ground and began inspecting each toe. By pressing his paws down against the soil, he managed to make a tiny claw pop out of each one - and that, judging by the cheshire grin that slid across his little face, was just as entertaining as all the rest of this nonsense. "They just keep popping out! Pop pop pop!" Ugh, was he ever going to stop talking? (Probably not).

[Deleted]

Nerah's footfalls were slow as she walked into the orchard, having walked the whole way from her pack's den as she had been doing since she realized the wind could adversely affect her teleportation ability. She was already...well...not exactly bad at teleporting, but she lacked the finesse her friend Silva possessed. It seemed the dark canine could make herself appear anywhere anytime. Nerah was less accurate, usually ending up in the area she wanted but never the specific spot she had been thinking of.

Nerah was perhaps a little tired, but there was another reason she was dragging herself. Her heart was unusually heavy today. For one thing, she noticed Silva focusing more and more on Antares - their other pack mate - as of late. It wasn't that Nerah had a crush on either of her pack mates, and she wished them the best if things were headed where she thought they might be, but it would change their dynamic. She wasn't sure why that made her sad - surely her friends would always make time for her - but...well...she couldn't help but feel a little left out of things.

It'll be okay, she promised herself. Just wait it out. You'll see.

A movement caught her eye, and she saw one of the pods on the Cerasus tree shake. For the first time that day, her tail wagged. Another newborn to meet! There were so many being born now, it was almost overwhelming. In a good way. She had met several of the newborns already, but she desperately wanted to meet this one as well, and her paws carried her swiftly toward the pod, stopping at a safe distance. Her ears pinned themselves to her skull as a loud sound a sneeze, she thought - rang through the orchard before the pod cracked away from the tree and fell, the pod itself cracking as it hit the ground.

Nerah sat down and forced herself to watch instead of help. The creature needed to free itself, if it could. Her ears perked up as she heard a voice speaking from within the pod. Was the creature able to talk before it even escaped into the world? She had never heard of that before. Interesting.

As she watched, the creature's ears poked out, followed by the rest of it. It was a feline - male, from the scent. He was black and white with beautiful blue-violet eyes. She continued to watch as he contemplated the tree and talked to...the tree? Himself? Either way, he hadn't noticed her and likely wasn't expecting a response, and she didn't want to interrupt, so she waited for the best opportunity to introduce herself.

Only, that didn't seem to be happening. He examined the plants and then himself, keeping up a dialogue with himself all the while. She had been trying to keep quiet, but she couldn't suppress a small giggle. He was so cute! She had never seen a newborn quite like him before, and she hoped he was half as friendly as he was vocal. Her troubles were already forgotten, and her mind was focused on coming up with ways to form a friendship with the feline.

[Mania]

Oblivious to the fact he was being watched, the newborn feline continued to inspect himself. When he had tired of his paws (which did not take long at all), he focused his attention upon other things. The crunching of the autumn leaves made him duck against the ground, plastering himself upon the fallen greenery in order to inspect it. His little nose wiggled as he inspected the debris, and then he got the bright idea to open his mouth, and try to devour them. As soon as he started, something else grabbed his attention - just in time too! The creature was perilously close to closing his gaping jaws upon some decaying plant matter. The thing that distracted him, was a sound. It wasn't just any sound - "Giggling! Laughter! Mirth!" He suddenly exploded in to a cacophony of synonyms, shouting against the ground without lifting himself. By lowering his head, he was able to peer between his own legs (upside down, but that works too,) and then he spotted it. The creature; "Oh look! A big fat... Me!" But that wasn't right; and as he turned to appraise the stranger, he seemed to realize this.

"Big fat me? No, not a reflection - I'm not fat like that am I?" Part of the jabbering seemed to be directed at the bearish figure, but then the question he posed was either rhetorical, or directed back at himself; he hadn't decided yet. With slinking steps, the newborn approached the strange other without the sense to be afraid. He examined the odd coloration of her pelt, the size of her paws, the arch of her neck, slipping along her right side - and for a handful of slippery moments, he was quiet. But, it did not last long; thoughts sprang in to his mind, and thus, words fell like a storm from his mouth. "CANINE!" He shouted, with a great big smile on his tiny face. "Big and strong and fast, faster than the others - than me, I'm a feline! Yes, oh, glorious!" But what did that mean? "Evolved - you've evolved! Didn't always look like that, no, no-no-no." The words nearly began to blend together, he spoke so fast. Zipping around to her other side, the feline continued to examine her - but then, he stopped, freezing in place. "You're an adult, why are you in the orchard? Tsk tsk, this is a place for newborns - for me, I'm a newborn!"

[Deleted]

((Sorry to keep you waiting! ^.^; He is so cute...))

As Nerah watched, the feline continued to inspect himself and his surroundings. Her tail wagged as she remembered her own excitement the first time she saw the world beyond the pods. Granted, she didn't remember her time in the pod itself. She figured she'd slept through that phase of her life. That was fine by her, though. The world was infinitely more magnificent than she could imagine the inside of a pod to be.

Her laughter grabbed his attention, and he turned to her, his mouth running the entire time. Her tail continued to wag even through the creature's discovery of her. Good thing it was Nerah he encountered and not someone more..volatile. She didn't mind being called big or fat. She was sure her bulky body must appear so to a new feline. After all, their bodies tended to be slender to the point where she worried that they might break in half.

She giggled again as he continued to ponder over her. "Might not want the 'f' word around any other creature. You could wind up in trouble." She remained still - even willing her tail to stop wagging- as the creature examined her. He had gotten quiet as he started, but it wasn't long before his voice was heard again, loudly declaring her to be a canine. Giggles increased to full-on laughter at this, and her tail wagged at the compliments that may well have been unintentional. She could have explained about everything to do with canines and felines and evolutions, but - unless she wanted to interrupt him - there was no opportunity.

Then he stopped and chided her for being an adult in the orchard. She shook her head smiling. "It is the birth place, yes, but that doesn't mean adults can't come here and see the newborns when the mood strikes them. It's a great place to make new friends! I met my pack mates here long ago..." She shook her head, clearing away the memory. Now was not the time to reminisce. "I'm Nerah, by the way. Do you know your name, yet?"

[Mania]

The feline more-or-less ignored the words that fell from the stranger's mouth, but he did seem to hear them; the roaming of his little ears stopped from time to time, or he grunted, or he even gave a little nod; but there wasn't a single instance where he directly responded to anything she said. Until of course, she mentioned names - naming herself first and foremost, which seemed to shut him up for a time (and by 'a time', really it was only long enough to gather a fresh breath). "Nerah, that has no meaning, none that pops to mind - a meaningless name, pah! What is the point of a name if it has no, no -" And then he seemed to catch up to her question, which had been obliterated by his own raucous response.

"I have a name?" He commented after a longer pause (two breaths, golly was he really starting to slow down?). "Of course I have a name! It's, um. It's -" But, for the life of him, the little tuxedo'd feline could not think of his name. "Flabbergast? No no no, that's too big. Shpoofle, spongle, liverwurst, um, cardigan!" He began to vomit words out of his mouth at a voracious pace, many of which made no sense, or were things that didn't even exist in the known world; but he didn't know that, the feline was just throwing sounds together. He began to pace around the canine, shouting out the names of things around him.

"TREE! Leaf! Grass, mud! TWIG! Egg - bird?" But with each exasperated shout, the creature seemed to dim in his level of energy; none of the words seemed to fit him, and he appeared to be fading. "No, no, no - these are all wrong. What could it be? What could it be." He turned towards the canine and looked absolutely forlorn; a pout forming on his nubile face while silence suddenly blossomed - he didn't have a name yet, how could that be possible?

[Deleted]

She blinked as the newborn insulted her name. Well...that could have gone better. Way better. She wouldn't let it get to her though. She liked her name. Everyone else she knew of liked her name. And it did have a meaning - it meant her. So what if it couldn't be used to name anything else found in the world? Anyway it was all right. He was a newborn. He would learn.

He seemed baffle at the concept of having a name, d she suppressed laughter as he rattled off names that didn't seem to be his at all. It was cute, even f half of the words were alien to her. What was that he had said about meaningless names again? Never mind.

As he went on searching for his name, he seemed to wear himself out. The poor guy...it must be hard not being able to think of it right away. Was that always the case? Well, that was all right.

"Don't worry, you'll find it," Nerah tried to assure him. "If nothing else, you can simply take a word or sound that you like and use it as your name."

Her stomach growled, and she grinned sheepishly. "I should go. I live in the maple forest just beyond here. If you need anything at all, come find me, all right?" She then teleported away.