Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kiki jumped off of Merlyn and ran back towards the hole in the door, slowly peeking out to see if the large creature was still there before running out and finding a nice soft patch of grass to dig her roots into and sit in the sun to absorb some sunlight and enjoy the nutrients of the soil.

Merlyn, given her larger size and perfect eyesight was able to spot two of her older siblings as they awoke. She made a happy sound that sounded almost like the soothing tunes of a slow beautiful flute, and then she stood on all sixes and moved closer. She saw her older brother had a beak just like she did and she gasped. "You have beak like Merlyn!" She towered over her older brother, and she wasn't even rearing up on her hind legs. she seemed to be in awe of him, and the fact he has a beak too. She just couldn't believe it. then she giggled and when she noticed the other twin, one of her older sisters, she moved closer and tried to snuggle.

Athena finished gorging herself and, slightly heavier and noticeably darker in coloration, wandered back into the barn and straight into the middle of a meeting of her kin. Two new ones - two final ones, a certain knowledge informed her - were among the four now there. One of the new kin was scaled, the other somewhat covered in downy fur like Buddy-brother, who had wandered off into the fields. That one worried her. His mouth was well-suited for piercing her shell, if they angered one another.

A dragonfly hovered over the rippling surface of the pond, midges buzzing around it as it chased after groups of them and minnows swimming underneath, oblivious to its presence. It had been this way for time out of mind, and would have continued in this fundamentally stable state, had not a new creature been introduced to the ecosystem.

Reos was ecstatic as could be. He was graceful and beautiful in this, his element, moreso than he ever was or would be outside of it. His form twisted sinuously through the water, and the other creatures - not yet knowing that he was their new top predator - did not run as he snapped them up to feed his hunger. He leaped from the water, spinning through the air in an adrenalin-fueled moment of impulsiveness. The sunlight sparkled off the water and his scales, and the majesty of the situation was quite ruined when he accidentally swallowed a dragonfly and started choking on it.

After a minute of hacking, safely underwater where his dignity was preserved, Reos reflected that it had actually been quite tasty.

Reos was chasing after a fish when he noticed something larger than himself. It was underneath the bottom of the pond, and the eyes he could see looked... almost like his own, actually. Probably one just as graceful as himself. He flicked his tail and turned to make his way towards the new being.

Reos reared back in disgust, the earlier dragonfly apparently trying to escape from his insides. Reos couldn't fathom why this might be the case, the being before him wasn't anything to go to such efforts to see. The creature was... like him, but not. Almost as if someone had made a copy of him and taken out all that made him graceful and... himself. Reos fled with all speed, not because of the creature's words but because he could almost feel himself growing more heinous just by being so close to such a thing.

Minutes later, hiding among some thick parts of a plant that grew next to the stream, Reos decided that he would have to see about getting his kin together. Something like that couldn't be suffered to live. It was so... so ugly.

Merlyn moved to snuggle with ren, Wanting his company above all others. He had a beak, he was her true brother. She was the younger sibling of them all, but he was the one she felt closest to.

Outside a shadow fell over Reos, and then a large figure landed in front of him, a figure easily the size of merlyn with a wing span twice it's body length. The looks would be familiar to Reos. Then a familiar squeaky voice said, "Reos Brother, why you no have limbs?" Then a cloud moved out of the way and light fell upon the figure. It was buddy, but he was much too large to have been the same squirt from earlier. The truth was it was him. His metabolism put as much food energy as possible toward physical growth. He had apparently found significant food of high value.

Kiki watched as the small insect flew past herand she slowly began to follow it, smiling and bouncing around behind it, stopping after bumping into something large. She fell back, sitting down before looking up to see Buddy for the first time before widening her eyes and quickly jumping up to her feet and quickly running away, hiding herself behind a tree, peering around its trunk to look at both buddy and Reos. both of who she had not yet met with.