Fantasy Cursed Island

[Darkling0096]

Jerry blinked. "Beri, come here." Beri flinched, recognizing that tone of voice from when Adran was in trouble, and darted off to go hide.

 

[Fangs9090]

"That is the opposite of coming here." Asta shook his head before looking at Jerry. "Should I go get him?"

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry sighed, "No, I'll kill him on the road." She rolled her eyes, "Let's just get you strapped up so we can start packing." She went around Asta and started attaching his saddle harness to him. "I guess that's another reason we can't do that again for a while," she muttered after a moment, "Dumb shit like this happens."

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta nodded. "If we choose to do something like that again, we'll have to be sure to set something up to stop Shuffle specifically from getting near."

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry just shook her head, "Let's just hope we won't be down here for that long. Once we're out we'll be able to go our separate ways." Once Asta was strapped up, Jerry ducked back into the tent to start folding things into cards while the laundry barrel was running.

Around halfway through re-packing, the dragon turtle egg started wobbling in the heater.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta sat outside the tent while Jerry was packing, keeping an eye on the rest of the camp since he couldn’t do a whole lot to help her directly. He was trying to avoid looking at Shuffle, but the way she was moving kept drawing his eyes, not to mention her little trills and chirps.

 

[Darkling0096]

A loud crack as the turtle started to hatch was audible through the open door, "Asta!", Jerry sounded freaked out.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta looked over before quickly ducking into the tent. “What’s wrong?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"That." Jerry pointed at the wobbling egg, which kicked over the heater. Jerry sprang into action to collect the red-hot stones before they could set fire to the tent, using her eraser to remove the effect on the rocks. The egg rolled around, cracks spiderwebbing until a head punched through. The baby turtle almost completely filled the egg, curled up in as tight a ball as it could. When it finally got free of its shell, the dragon turtle hatchling was the size of a medium-breed dog, with a soft shell and bright green scales, and short fins. It was actually pretty cute.

 

[Fangs9090]

“Is it time?” Asta hurried in to watch, and stop it from rolling to far if necessary. He crouched down to look at the dragon turtle as it finally emerged from the egg, smiling at it.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hehe," Jerry chuckled a bit as the turtle waddled around, getting used to its legs. "That's adorable." She knelt down to get a better look at the turtle, "What are we gonna name it?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"Hm... I had not considered that yet. What sort of name would be fitting?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm," Jerryn thought about it for a moment as the turtle waddled around, exploring the tent. "I think we need to figure out if it's a boy or a girl." She stopped the turtle so she could lift it up. The bottom of the shell was slightly concave, "It's a boy."

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta tilted his head as he leaned down to look. "How can you tell?"

 

[Darkling0096]

"Turtles," Jerry set the turtle down to let it wander, "The male's shell curves inward on the stomach, the female's is flat. I'll let you guess why that is," she winked at Asta, and then screamed when the turtle bit down on the thick part of her tail. There was surprising bite force behind that tiny head. "OW! FUCK! Get it off, get it off!"

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta didn't have any time to consider turtle anatomy before the turtle chomped Jerry's tail. Asta moved over and sat down, trying to pull it with his paws. They weren't nearly as coordinated as his hands, nor could he really get a firm grip with them. But he also didn't want to use his teeth for fear of hurting the turtle.

 

[Darkling0096]

The turtle had a pretty good grip, and Asta definitely wasn't as coordinated without thumbs to help him grip the turtle. By now Jerry was digging her claws into the bedpost to keep from being pulled around by the massive chimera.

"Are you two seriously doing this ag- Oh." Nyah had come in to complain abou the noise but paused when she saw what was actually happening. 'How'd this happen?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta glanced over. "He opened his mouth and then closed it on her tail. And he doesn't seem to want to let go... Can you get a better grip on this? Or find someone who can?"

 

[Darkling0096]

Nyah sighed and floated over, "He's probably just hungry," she snapped her fingers and summoned some raw meat, waving it around in front of the turtle's nose. "Come on, come on." The turtle let go to pursue the food, leaving a triangular bite mark from the turtle's beak. At least his teeth hadn't grown in yet, or there might have been a more severe injury. "Go get Veo," the djinn gestured to the door.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta paused before nodding. "Right. Thank you." He turned and headed out to find Veo.

 

[Darkling0096]

Veo was helping Emil finish pack up their tent, They were just working on folding the tent itself now. "Hey, Asta," Veo smiled.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta dipped his head in greeting. "Hello, Veo, Emil. The dragon turtle just hatched and it decided to take a bite out of Jerry's tail. It's not too bad, but it did leave a mark."

 

[Darkling0096]

"Oh no!", Veo looked towards the tent, "Is she alright? How bad is it?"

 

[Fangs9090]

"It...left a mark. That's about all I can tell. She did yell when he bit down, so it must have hurt."

Emil spoke up. "I can finish with the tent. See to Jerry."

 

[Darkling0096]

Veo nodded at Emil and grabbed her bag to go see to Jerry, "Come on," she rushed over to the tent and took in the scene. Jerry sat on the bed, hugging her tail up out of reach of the turtle, which had curled into its shell after eating. Nyah had vanished again.