"Shhh, baby," Aquaria murmured to her newest addition.
Two evenings ago the leathery shell of her egg had split open. A flurry of activity had disturbed the surface of her nursery pool, the surface boiling over its bounds until a slippery little colt had burst forth. She had watched in mute fascination as the process unfolded.
When the boy had splashed onto the stoney edge of the pool, she'd laughed. "Aren't you a funny little thing," she said, nosing along the length of him. Her soft muzzle rubbed his skin, from the smooth plane of his head to the long, slick flukes that his tiny body flowed into. "Will this stay, do you think?" The appendage in question flipped merrily in her face in reply. He whickered shrilly as his skinny forelegs scrambled for grip on the wet stone, hindered by the fact that there were only two out them. "Never mind, never mind," she hummed, nuzzling between his flopping ears. "We'll figure it out together."
He'd had his first meal in the pool, after which they'd learned that drying him out was the trick to getting all four legs under the boy. Once they got that sorted out, it was easier to get him going than to slow him down. Long legs, made for running and newly freed from their tight shell casing. A boy made for keeping his mother busy.
It would have to happen soon, though. The quiet, intimate days of a newborn could never last forever.
Just as well that on this early morning, when her boisterous child woke before the sun and thirst drove her from the shelter of her cove, that she spotted the familiar blue and white coat of Pteron heading toward the river. She paused a moment, glancing between the stallion in the gloom, and the milk-sweet colt at her side.
The boy blinked at her with guileless purple eyes so like her own. So like... Well. It was easy to sigh. To mope. To hide them away from the world. It couldn't last, though. With a smile that looked braver than she felt, she kissed the middle of the sun that decorated his brow. "Come on, my sea star. There's someone you need to meet."
"Pteron," she called out, the patchwork colt leaning hard into her side. The river flowed in its carefree way, oblivious to the tension that hovered above it. The boy looked past the grown ups to the shining water, more interested in its flow than in their talk. He took one cautious step from Aquaria's hip towards it, tail flickering curiously.
@[Pteron]