Devilspawn || Ausk's Clutching

Audren had left the red well alone since her Run. Right away, the woman knew that something was different about Ausk. She knew the signs. Ausk grew increasingly vocal about all her distresses and increasingly sluggish but just as irritable. When Audren noticed Ausk's gravid belly, she let Ridan, Fajra, and the candidates know that Ausk would, for certain, be clutching this time, like they had expected. Now that it was a fact, though, Audren wasn't so sure that Ausk was a good thing. Ausk would never be a good mother.

Eventually, Ausk became too egg-heavy and too snappish to even agree to go out on patrol. All she did was seethe in her room until finally, when it looked like her belly was about to burst, she stomped out to the Hatching Sands without even telling Audren. She dug out her hole in the dark corner for whers close to the wall where she could stand between her eggs and everyone else. She was completely silent throughout the whole ordeal. In her mind, she cursed and complained, but nothing was said aloud. She didn't want anyone there. She never would. Attracting attention was the last thing she wanted to do while she laid her eggs. She was rough about it. There was little care shown for the soft shells, but she still felt something for them, at least. She wanted to protect them from the outside world. When she was done, four eggs sat in her nest of sand, and she glared at them.

The first and largest was dusty red in hue. Faintly darker splotches adorned one of its sides, and it sat there with poor posture. Whether it had been from Ausk's lack of care or how cramped it had been inside of her, the reddish egg was flattened slightly on its bottom and backside. Its bluish neighbour was doing much better. Despite being smaller, the smoky blue egg was more uniformly round, though its light brown highlights gave it a deceptively rough texture. A dark tan egg lay beside it, on its side rather than sitting upright, dotted with darker brown. The fourth and final egg was also on its side, mottled reddish brown and gray-blue. In no way was the quartet near as impressive as a clutch of dragon's eggs, but they seemed fitting for a creature of the night and a mother of blood.

Ausk then dug herself a hollow and settled down. She scowled at the darkness around her as it crept in on her and her eggs. There, she would stay until they hatched and bonded. Even when Audren came, sleepy and confused from her early waking time that evening, Ausk refused to move. Hers was only allowed whatever snippets of the eggs she could see behind Ausk's crimson form. When she tried to get closer, Ausk tensed up. She growled deep in her throat, murder in her eyes. You leave, she hissed. The voice was quiet and dangerous. Audren rarely ever heard Ausk hushed like this, and it chilled her. Something in her wanted to stay by Ausk's side, but she knew Ausk did not want that. Reluctantly, she left the red and her children alone in the dark.