[Gift] Small Love

                Today was the day.

                The darkness that marked her time in her egg was coming to a close. It was too cramped, there was no room to move around anymore and something within her just screamed for release. She had been moving more and more the last few days, trying to find a comfortable position inside her quickly shrinking home but nothing felt correct.

                Outside of the hardness that encased her, Wellspring could hear her parents as well as what sounded like her siblings. There were small, muffled, chips. Chirps that sounded like her own as she called for the warmth of her parents. She didn’t even know what they looked like, but she knew their voices. She knew that she was called Wellspring, her mother and father would say that word whenever they came to her.

                Her mother would whisper it to her and she would reply with more chirps and baby-grunts. It was always met with laughter, a warm sound that filled Wellspring with joy. She was safe inside her egg, and loved. But she was cramped.

                And it was starting to really piss her off.

                “I don’t know if we have everything we need. Do you think we need more food? Is it warm enough for them if they hatch? Maybe we should close the barn door. I’m going to close the barn door.”

                “I think we’re okay with food. And alright.”

                It was her mom and dad. Her mother sounded worried, which made her worried. But her father’s voice was soothing, slightly amused. Wellspring scraped the inside of her shell with her feet, her claws were hard enough that she could feel them catching slightly on any imperfections. But they weren’t helping. She was no closer to being free than she was the other day.

                She chirped in frustration, flicking her head up against the shell of her egg and felt something get stuck in the shell. It took some force for her egg-tooth to get free again, but she could now make out the barest sliver of light. Wellspring tried again with her head, the tiny tooth getting caught in the shell again. Though this time a crack formed, connecting the two points where she had started to poke through the shell.

                “We’ve got one coming, Snap.”

                Her dad was the herald of her coming. A calm voice that carried an untold amount of warmth and love. A voice that Wellspring very much wanted to see, that wanted to run to. She didn’t know what exactly running was, but she just wanted to be near him. She wanted to be with him and her mother and see them.

                She flipped in her egg, growing frustrated with how hard the shell was to crack. But her movement weakened the shell that much more, additional cracks splintered away from the two holes she’d already made. With a final, angry, grunt, Wellspring kicked her legs out. The shell that had protected her for months peeled back, breaking away and let in the horrifically blinding light that was the outside world.

                She scrunched her eyes shut quickly and kept kicking, little legs flailing around as she destroyed the top half of her egg to present her to her parents. The light, even with her eyes closed, hurt her eyes as they tried to adjust. The outside was cold and she felt…wet. It made her feel uncomfortable and she quickly longed for the warmth that her egg had given her.

                A snort made her quickly open her eyes, the sound familiar, but it actually had feeling now. Warm air was blown over her and she was met with the sight of a massive black nose that was covered in feathers. To her side somewhere came a chuckle, deep and soothing. Dad. Which meant…

                “Little Wellspring. Hi. Hello. Welcome.”

                Wellspring blinked as her mother whispered down to her and backed up, allowing Wellspring to focus on Snapjaw and then over at Starburst. She realized she was upside down in her egg, her butt up in the air where she’d been kicking away at her shell. It took a moment of flailing around before she righted herself and looked around, sitting in the pool of egg-goo that filled the remaining little bit of egg she sat in. Beside her were two other eggs, chirping and calling for their parents. But they still sounded sleepy to her. They wouldn’t be hatching that day, she could tell.

                Her attention went back to her parents and she took them both in. Her mother was nothing but feathers, every one of her feathers splayed out as she kept her attention on Wellspring. Wellspring liked how colorful she was, the yellows that bled to brown with black that broke it all up. She was striking to look at. The shapes were fun and Wellspring chirped as she tried to get onto her feet and fell out of her egg. She tumbled, flipping head over feet until she got to her butt where she sat and looked back up at her parents. Snapjaw was already up on her feet, hovering over Wellspring.

                She looked up at her mother then over at the other massive being that had been sat beside her. The massive smile that spread across his face was full of nothing but pure love. Unlike her mom, her dad was soft. His colors not as bright as her mother, but no less beautiful. No less eye catching to Wellspring. The darker brown marks on his face and neck caught her attention for a few minutes, taking in all the colors and subtle shifts on his feathers.

                Snapjaw leaned down, carefully nudging Wellspring towards the small amount of meat that had been set out for her and her siblings. It had been carefully pulled apart into small shreds. And while she hadn’t been hungry as she took in the world, the smell of the meat was quickly making Wellspring aware that she did actually want some.

                “Well. I think we picked a good name for her. Look at those colors, just as beautiful as her mother.” Starburst said and smiled over at Snapjaw. She looked back over at him, her feathers laying flat as she was called out. She would never get used to the sweet names he called her, or the nice things he said to her. But Snap looked back down as Wellspring teetered over to the food scraps and started to gnaw on one, her tiny teeth ripping easily through the meat that she downed.

                “And apparently just as considerate as her father.” Snap replied to Starburst, smirking as she watched Wellspring rip off a bite of meat and quickly skittered over to Starburst. She looked up at him, meat hanging out of her mouth that she quickly put down in front of him before she ran forward and snuggled into his chest feathers while he lay near the nest.

                The rumble of amusement that Wellspring felt as he chuckled was like a lullaby. The warmth his feathers provided added in her comfort. She was safe and warm. And as she started to close her eyes slowly, she took in her feather color compared to Starbursts. There would be no way she could hide within his feathers, she was a horrifically bright blue compared to his natural browns and yellows. Before she could consider how different she looked compared to him and her mother, she was already falling sleep again.