Chapter Text
The adults are going crazy. That's what Edyn thinks.
She doesn't understand what the big deal is. It's just an egg. And nobody was this excited when the thing got laid. Sure, there was a celebration and a whole bunch of smiling, but it's not like anyone but Mom and Dad cared.
Edyn is sure she was meant to be excited too, because that egg is her little brother. But come on, it's an egg . It's not like it does much other than sit in the nursery.
But now, everyone is freaking out. There's a bunch of people that have come down from the palace to look at the egg. There's talk about taking it back to the palace.
She's not sure why they'd do that. Her brother is hatching soon, and hatchings are always meant to happen with family. The only family in the palace is her grandpa Finn, and she's not sure he even knows that she exists, let alone any egg.
She huffs, looking at her supposed little brother from the hallway. She's been told she shouldn't go into the nursery because eggs are fragile and she could be diseased and kill the guppy inside. But the door is always left open and they let random strangers go in there, so really Edyn thinks that they don't trust her to not accidentally knock it out of its crib.
That's fine, she doesn't care. It's just some boring egg. And the nursery is just as boring. The only things in there are things for guppies.
“If you keep glaring like that then he'll never want to hatch” her father jokes. He's poked his head out of his and Mom's room, probably to check on the dumb egg.
“What's the big deal, it's just an egg” Edyn grumbles, curling her tail around her knees. She's sitting in the hall, straight across from the nursery.
“Well, it's also your brother,” Dad says, coming to take a seat next to her.
“Yeah, so why’s it anyone else's business?” she asks, keeping her voice down in case there are strangers in the house that she doesn't know about.
“Well he's going to hatch soon, yeah?” he waits for Edyn to nod before continuing. “The full moon is also soon. If he hatches during a storm then he could be very magical, so there are people here to see when he'll hatch”
“Oh” she didn't think about the full moon. “But he probably won't, right?”
“Probably not,” Dad agrees. “But it's better safe than sorry”
“So once he hatches they'll leave?”
Her dad chuckles a bit at her question. “Yes, once he hatches they'll leave”
That's fine then.
Fancy people get excited about dumb things all the time. And this time they got excited because her brother's hatching might line up with some weird prophecy prediction. But it won't, and then they'll leave, and then when her brother hatches she can laugh with him about how stupid adults can be sometimes.
She looks at the egg across the hallway. It's rounded, spherical in shape, the shell is soft and thin, murky blue in colour. There's a dark shape curled up in the centre of the egg. When it first appeared eight months ago it was just a dot, now it takes up most of the egg. Her brother, just about ready to hatch.
And when he hatches it'll be with her and Mom and Dad. And he won't be magical. And it'll be great.
Edyn is sitting in the living room, trying to focus on her book. She can't. She's pretty angry right now.
They took the egg. Her brother . Because he hasn't hatched yet, and today is the stupid full moon and storm. She asked to come, they said no, because it might be dangerous.
If it's dangerous to her then it'll definitely be dangerous for an egg.
She hopes it's not actually dangerous. She hopes it's just a ‘can't have a young kid doing dumb things’ situation.
Her dad offered to stay home with her, she declined. If Edyn isn't allowed to see the hatching then her dad should. Family is meant to be there.
She also wanted some time alone to yell at the top of her lungs and rattle out every swear she knows at those dumb palace people. But now all she can do is sit on the couch and stare at the door. Maybe if she glares at it enough she can rip it off its hinges and make her family magically appear behind it.
It's dumb . That's what it is. Who cares if some random guppy is magical? Plenty of people are, and they don't have a parade of fancy palace people watching over them.
He might not even hatch tonight. He might hatch tomorrow . And then they've just taken the egg out of the nursery for no reason and possibly hurt it. If her brother hatches sick will they give her family compensation? They better. If her brother is hurt she wants a whole mansion to make up for it.
Edyn is tearing the paper a bit from how tightly she's gripping the page of her book. Her tail lashing behind her.
She takes a deep breath, gills fluttering, and tries to focus on her book.
Edyn wakes to the sound of the door opening. She didn't exactly fall asleep, but she had drifted enough to practically be there. The creak of the front door snaps her out of it pretty quickly.
In a flash she pushes herself off the bed, scrambling to keep her footing as she rushes to the door. The moment she catches sight of her parents her energy drains.
They look tired. More tired than the week that they didn't sleep because there was a leviathan in the area and they wanted to make sure the egg was safe. Their fins are sagging, tails whipping sluggishly in the water. But despite the exhaustion there's a smile on both their faces.
Her mother shifts her arms and that's when Edyn catches sight of him .
He's small. That's the first thing Edyn thinks. She already knew he was going to be small, he would have to be to fit in an egg only a bit bigger than her head, but it's still jolting to see how tiny he is.
The second thing she notices is that he looks like their mom. He has the same blueish, teal skin, and darker markings. But he has Dad’s hair. Going from dark to light green. His eyes are squeezed shut, tiny tail curled between his legs as he grips his fins.
“Can I hold him?” she asks, voice quiet yet so deafening in the silence of the house.
“Of course, just be careful” and her mom kneels and shows her how to hold a guppy before passing him to her.
She supports him with her hands, and feels his tail curl up to wrap around her arm, like he's making sure she won't drop him. His tiny pinprick claws dig into her forceps, they're too small to hurt, but by the time they're big enough to gauge scratches into someone he'll be more careful.
He's perfect. In every way.
“Hello” she whispers down to him, like they're sharing a secret. He blinks, blue eyes staring back up at her.
She looks back up at her parents and they look so… happy . Happy but also sad. She doesn't know what they'd be sad about. They're probably just tired.
“What's his name?” She asks, still enraptured by her baby brother.
“We were thinking Gillion” Her dad says, exhausted but smiling.
“Hello Gillion” she says to him, to Gillion . “I'm Edyn”
He babbles at her, nothing close to a word, but still she says: “Yeah, that's me. I'm your big sister”
She leans in, pressing her forehead against his. Gillion's tiny hand coming up to rest against her cheek.
And it's amazing. And it's perfect. And it'll be fine.