PBEM Game: Yarnspinners 2 (Running)

[puffyn]

(At some point I'm sure I'll get lazy and just post to the wiki, but for our loyal readers who have not yet found the wiki, here's my first turn, aka "Turn 3". To see Turn 0, you'll have to go to the wiki.

--- C'tis, Turn 3 ---

KEE-RACK

"Are you sure we should be in here?" The dank air hung closely around the two little lizards as they struggled to see, to find movement their eyes could latch onto. So far the darkness was winning.

"You scared, little egg-brother?" came the taunting reply. Laph's cohort had hatched a mere four days before his, and she wasn't about to let him forget it. Ruli ignored her, and focused on trying to find what they'd come for. It was his idea, after all.

KR-R-R-R-R...

There, by the shaft of warm air. A few photons, much battered after their long passage through tiny crevasses and barely perceptible cracks in the rock, were bouncing again, this time off of something vaguely off-white, on the far side of the cavern. And it was definitely moving.

"Found 'em!" said Laph, as Ruli opened his mouth to announce his discovery. She had sharper eyes than him, too. They skittered over to the weary dancing photons, eyes locked now on subtle movements they hadn't noticed before.

... ck

When the tiny lizard finally broke through, the final bit of eggshell popped off with an anticlimactic whisper. The hatchling took a hesitant step forward, stopped, then looked around wide-eyed, taking in the nest; already, cracks were forming on two other eggs, and three more were not far behind. His eyes moved next to the two slightly larger lizards hovering over him, one of them staring at him with great fascination... and the other busily scooping his discarded egg shell into a bag. The hatchling began to cry.

"Oh, now look what you've done, Ruli," said Laph, hastily scouring the floor for something.

"They have to be fresh," Ruli protested. "Great-grandfather says otherwise they don't have enough life force left for his incantations to work, and ..." And she wasn't listening to him, again.

But at least the hatchling was no longer crying. He was making happy gurgling sounds as he shook something that looked suspiciously like a falchion, but rattled. "I always knew the elite nurseries were well taken care of," said Laph, "but wow. Remember Crotalus?"

The legendary sacred serpent, from when Mother Gehyra was a hatchling, the one who drove the scale-leavers from the land, and spoke persuasively with a certain dragon about relocating his lair... He remembered the stories. "I think that rattle was his," said Laph.

"Oh," said Ruli. What lucky hatchlings. I bet Cole will take them on raids with him long before Laph or I get to go. He turned to leave. "Laph?" She had disappeared. "C'mon, stop playing games." He looked all around, but she had vanished. "If Cole finds us here..."

"He'll eat you for dinner, is that it?" There was a deep chuckle. Ruli jumped, then looked up, and saw Laph high above him, dangling by her tail. "Now why would I want to eat such enterprising and scrawny youngsters as yourselves, when the world is brimming with fat, lazy warm-blooded prey?"

The giant head bent slowly down, placing Laph gently on the ground. Her eyes shone with excitement; Ruli wondered idly why he was the only one whose first response, on meeting the huge carnivorous lizard up close, was a little healthy fear.

But do stop bothering the hatchlings, said Cole. They're no good to me terrified. He turned to the remaining five eggs, intently watching one whose cracks were beginning to grow.

Ruli grabbed his bag of eggshell, nudged Laph out of her reverie, and they skittered quickly toward the exit tunnel. "Did you see me?" said Laph, a little breathlessly. "I must've been nearly a thousand centimeters in the air!" They were almost out of the birthing cavern when they heard Cole's voice again.

"Do be patient, Ruli," he said. "There will be plenty of battles left for you when you are ready for them." The last thing Ruli and Laph heard as they scampered out of the cavern was the sound of a rattle shaking, and a very deep voice saying, "Coochie-coochie-coo."

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