She has no idea how the egg ends up in front of her. For once though, she happens to be in the right place at the right time. Or maybe the Gods did see her. Maybe this was their gift for everything they’d taken away. Though she doubts it. She suspects it was sheer luck combined with a very full and distracted Yeti. For a moment, she stares dumbfounded at the egg, not entirely sure what she was supposed to do with it. Though after a moment, it dawns on her if she does nothing, someone else might try to snag it from her.

With that thought, she quickly begins to move the egg and it’s nest away from the crowd. She takes it as far as she can, finding a nice grassy field where she immediately begins to rip grass from the ground and cover the egg more. It was damn cold up here, and she’d be lucky if the thing inside wasn’t already dead. She keeps piling the grasses until the egg is nestled in a rather overlarge nest, but it seems like it might be warm enough.

And then she waits, not sure how long she’s going to have to wait here. Worst case, she can drag the egg in increments to somewhere warmer in general. Or find some carnivore to feed on the possibility the egg doesn’t hatch. That would actually be her luck. Or, more likely, the Gods form of a cruel joke. Give her something just to snatch it away again.

Her thoughts grow bitter as time passes, but eventually, there’s a cracking sound from the egg. She looks, moving some grass around to see a little crack in the egg. She stares intently, not even sure what was going to come out of that egg, but finding that she didn’t care. Whatever it was would be hers, and no one could take it from her. Well, Death could, but then Death could claim her too. She waits, eyes glued to the crack in the egg as it grows until finally, finally, a little tiny rainbow colored toad is visible.

“A toad. I would get a toad,” she says to the creature. Almost immediately, something like anger rolls through her, but it’s not her anger. The feeling is alien, and she almost recoils, almost looks around to see who or what is causing it until she realizes it’s the toad. “Oh. Are you not a toad?” At this, agreement and pleasure rolls through her, and she almost laughs. “Then what are you?” But of course, the little frog has no words yet to answer.


les words "chat chat"

Syrena

let the water take me

She hears footsteps first, moving quickly, and she tenses briefly, finding herself actually worried. And not for herself, but for the little toad (displeasure again at this), frog. She would get a tiny little helpless thing (more displeasure, though Syrena doesn’t know why), and she was hardly equipped for protecting anything. But then the voice that calls to her is familiar, and a familiar white bird lands nearby. She relaxes, looking up to find Kaida coming toward her coving in sweat like she must have been running through this freezing wasteland.

Fine, it wasn’t a wasteland. It was beautiful, actually, but it was still cold. The little toad eyes Khairi, and soon the little toad is neither little nor a toad. She looks like Khairi, white and tall, standing stark against the rocks of the Steppe. The coloring isn’t quite right, her eyes staying purple where Khairi’s are red, but still, she’s close. She coo’s back at the vulture. A hello? Or a look I can do it too,? Syrena has no idea, but hopes it’s the former for the toad’s sake.

“Uh…” she says, staring at the toad that’s not a toad and is now apparently a vulture. “I think. Do companion’s shapeshift? Or is mine broken?” She’s largely asking Kiada, but anger hits her from the vulture and she glares back. In a moment the creature isn’t a vulture, but a snake. Sort of. Her skin is scaled and gray, not unlike Syrena’s. But though her lower half is snake-like, she has five heads and a weird combination of fins and spikes atop their heads. The eyes are still purple.

“Stick to that, whatever that is,” she tells the hydra, and there’s a mixture of annoyance and pleasure from the creature. Annoyance because Syrena should know the word for her and does not, but pleasure at finding something that pleased her bonded. At least, Syrena thinks this is the case, but there’s a jumble of emotions now and she’s never even been able to read her own. It’s strange to read someone else’s.

She turns back to Kiada, wondering what the girl knows. Hopefully more than Syrena. The hydra slithers over toward Khairi, if he lets her, investigating, Her form seems to flicker between vulture and hydra for the moment, unable to stay in one. “ A name….um…” again she pauses, thinking of her sisters.

Her eyes find the vulture/hydra thing as she says, “Aglaope?” which is just the first name she can think of. Her companion, currently a hydra, swings all five heads in an unhappy no. So Syrena tries again. “Thelxiepeia?” The hydra stops moving, all five heads and all ten eyes staring at her. It’s mildly concerning, actually, but Syrena thinks she’s on the right track now. “Thea?” she says, as a nickname. This time, all five heads nod before turning back to try and investigate Khairi more.


les words "chat chat"

Syrena

let the water take me

Of course hers would be broken. To be fair, hers was broken in the coolest way possible, but she was still broken. Khairi seems a little unsettled when Thea decides to look exactly like him, for which she can’t really blame the bird. Kiada giggles, and Syrena can’t help but let the sound of that giggle infect her mood a bit. Not that Syrena giggles in return, but she just shakes her head in Thea’s general direction, looking almost amused.

The two companions begin to get along after a moment of uncertainty. Which Thea hadn’t helped by deciding to have five heads. Though Syrena sort of liked this particular form and hoped the creature might stick to it, or at least come back to it. When it’s clear the two companions aren’t going to try to rip each other’s heads off, Syrena turns her attention back to Kiada more fully. She was pretty sure Thea had no bad intentions, that all she felt from her recently bonded was curiosity and excitement, but Syrena really didn’t trust herself to read emotions all that well. Let alone so quickly. Their bond was a baby of a thing, and it seemed unreliable at best.

Kiada seems to agree to Thea, pointing out that their names have a nice ring to them. Syrena never would have even thought about that. That she might actually be introducing herself and her weird, constantly changing companion. It seems even weirder that she can feel her companion, that there’s this weird sense of nagging in her gut like worry. She’s never worried before, but she finds herself eyeing the hydra now and again just to make sure she’s not getting into too much trouble. She trusted Khairi well enough, but she didn’t trust her baby idiot over there not to do something stupid.

“Wait, it’s going to talk?” she says, entirely uncertain how she feels about something complaining at her in her head. Or encouraging her with too much pep to stop being a grouch. But somewhere beneath the complaining, she’s secretly sort of pleased. Someone to keep her from being entirely alone. Though of course, Syrena also likes being alone. It would be an adjustment, at any rate.

Thea has turned and is now looking pointedly at Syrena with ten bright purple eyes. It really is unnervering. Something like annoyance rolls through their bond, and Syrena stares back at the hydra. Half the eyes turn to Kiada, who is probably freezing as the sweat dries on her skin. Or freezes, because it is always cold in the north, even with Tallsun not far off. “Oh.” she says, figuring it out. “You must be freezing. Maybe we should head toward the Edge now?” And then, turning her blue eyes back to Thea, “You are going to be annoying, aren’t you?” But beneath that deadpan voice, it’s clear she doesn’t mean it.


les words "chat chat"

Syrena

let the water take me