Upon Vestia: Chapter Sixteen

First topic message reminder :

"All those aliens, always hyping up how great they are, and it always turns out to be a lie," James said sagely. "I'm not like that though, I mean I've been known to punch minotaurs. I'd be a proper villain, I wouldn't lose."
He watched as the guy went back into the train, "Ooooh nooooo. They so should not have done that. It is ON!"

The two older ones left Kay to feeding the baby, since they had access to the food.
The girl took the food from Kay, eating it quickly as was their way. She and the others would eat until their bellies were bulging then they would sleep in the warmth of the incubator.

Asher would return before too long with supplies to repair the hole in the youngest baby's wing. He knocked softly on the door before coming in.

Well good, at least these babies weren't completely helpless. He put the lid back on what was left of the food and made sure all three of them were safely in the incubator then started to clear up the mess.
He looked up as Asher knocked, it always kind of amused him, like he expected a reply or something.

Knocking was just the polite thing to do, right? You couldn't go barging into a room unannounced. That would be rude.
Asher came over, carrying his box of supplies. "It looks like we should be able to glue here wing and cover it, and it should heal fine," he said. "She's all right otherwise?"

Kay nodded and picked up the tablet. [No other injuries I can see, if we can get the hole closed up I think she'll be fine.] He glanced over to the sleeping dragons. [It seems mean to wake them, but it really does need to be done sooner rather than later. ]

Asher nodded. "Agreed. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner she can heal. You hold her, and I'll dress the wound?"

Kay nodded. He set the tablet down again and reached for the youngest dragon. At least the three were easy to tell apart. He lifted her up and brought her over to Asher, if she remained asleep good, if she woke, oh well. Sorry little one, this is for your own good. He thought.

She did wake, but turned and snuggled into his hand, letting them do as they wanted to her.

Kay tilted his head. Well, she was obedient and docile wasn't she? He helped to steady her wing so Asher could dress it.

"Sorry, this is going to hurt a bit," Asher told the baby dragon softly. He took a good look at the hole in the wing, then used some of the medical glue to stick the edges of the hole together. He'd done this hundreds of times before to himself and to his siblings, so in a way it was oddly familiar. Of course, the androids never flinched, but even so this wasn't too different. As long as she didn't struggle too much, getting the glue to set wouldn't take too long at all.

She chirped and raised her head to look at what they were doing, wanting to pull her wing away at the pain. She grabbed his thumb with her front legs, holding onto it then looking up at him. She didn't understand words, but she understood the 'calm' feeling even though she didn't feel calm herself. She sent 'ow' feeling back to him, trembling a little as she tried to match his calm.

This was a natural part of the imprinting process, a way for the parents to keep the babies calm to not draw a predator's attention and make them stay quiet simply by projecting calm at them and them trying to match that feeling.

Kay help her steady, hoping she'd stay still long enough for this to set. Then she could go back to sleep and they would leave her be. Honest.

The butterfly shifted a bit. After Tala would stand there for perhaps several long and agonizing seconds, the butterfly finally dared to move and fly off on its own, breaking the trance as it returned to resting on a wall.

Once the glue dried, Asher covered the injury in a lightweight bandage, and bound the little dragon's wing loosely to her side so she wouldn't try to flap it too soon. "There," he murmured, "You're okay. You're a brave girl, you know that?"

~~
Tala stumbled and fell to the floor, panting hard. She couldn't think. Would she ever see Nadira again? No, she wouldn't. What a mistake. What a mistake.

When that process was done, the little girl simply wrapped herself around the finger she held as close as she could and made a soft keening sound before falling silent again.

It wouldn't take long before a dark-stained cup whacked itself around where the buttterfly rested. Sonata silently slid a paper between the cup and the wall as she tried to contain the creature. "I'm going to need help if we're going to help Tala." She told Vestia without looking at her, checking to ensure she had caught the thing.

Starr was headed back to the ship with the supplies she had bought for Vestia, coming in and setting the stuff down to the side.

~~
Shane was on his way after having untangled himself from the nest of a fort he and Ellie had made in the closet weeks ago.

Vestia had called for help a bit before, so hopefully someone was on the way.

"Starr, you might want to go visit the babies. The last one hatched," Vestia said.

Starr looked up at that and frowned then went wide eyed "Oh, no, was Kay still in there?" Well, if he was, he was a dad now. She dipped her head, finding that amusing in a way even as she started for her room, of course she would find Tala and Sonata along the way.

Kay tried to pry the baby off, being a bit tentative and careful not to hurt her. Drat. He smiled grimly to Asher and found somewhere to sit. Looked like he was a bed for now. great.

Asher looked a bit guilty. Now that the emergency was over, he had time to think about what had happened. Thanks to him, Kay now had a baby. He knew Kay had never, ever, wanted that.
If he'd just let Kay stay in that room, this wouldn't have happened. Sure, the butterfly was a risk, but Kay had handled crippling guilt before. This was different. This was a new life.

Tala tried to pull herself together. Regret wasn't something she thought about often, she had a very literal and uncomplicated view of the world, and thinking about past mistakes didn't really fit into that. But the butterfly's magic had pulled her back, and made her look at that decision she'd made again, and now her mind was roiling with thoughts of Haakon at war with the Satare, and Nadira growing old alone, and someday Nadira dying to a chemical bomb without the ever having spoken again.
She got up, trying to shake the thoughts from her head. This wasn't healthy, she knew that, but it was hard to snap out of this.

The most comfortable place to sit in Starr's room was her 'bed' made from many pillows. Yeah, waterbeds were not really her thing, especially when she slept in her natural form. That needed either a hammock, like on her ship, or a nest of pillows. She did have 1 chair, at the desk she had in there.
The baby girl didn't care about leaving Kay's hand, she was comfortable there with her 'dad' and had fallen asleep already, full and safe.

~
Starr came over to Tala, reaching out to help her stand "Are you alright Tala?" She asked with concern, glancing over to Sonata then to Shane as he came to them.

Kay sat in the chair because sitting on someone's bed felt a bit rude. He looked to Asher and wrote [it's not your fault. She needed help, you couldn't help her hatch and watch the other two alone.] He looked down at the baby dragon so happily asleep. No it was true, he'd never wanted kids, but he'd made a decision back there. Her life mattered more than getting imprinted on, he knew he'd made the right call.

Tala knew she was too heavy for Starr to probably support her weight, so she leaned against the wall to stand. She said something in a grunting, deep-toned language, then shook her head and tried again, "My thoughts are most unsatisfactory."

~~
Asher nodded. "You're right. Given the circumstances, and what we knew at the time, we couldn't have done much differently. It still seems unfair to you though."

Kay smiled grimly. [Nothing much we can do about it now.] He reasoned. He watched the sleeping dragon and shook his head. [Besides, it's not like i'm doing this alone.]