Creatures Caves

(Oop, sorry, forgot the metaroom thing! XD Since the Hand would know from the genome that the egg is for an amphibious breed, let's go with the Deep Abyss. To make our characters' meeting easier though let's have the door-crystal be in the Norn Terrarium rather than the Norn Meso though - that way when Brax discovers the door-crystal in the Abyss he'll end up in the Terrarium instead of the opposite side of the ship from, probably, most everyone else. Or, alternatively, since she's amphibious, it'd give her a way to find her way into the Abyss eventually. Assuming the Abyss has the basic marine setup - its own native plants plus Zander Fish/Mites, Shrimpton, maybe Crobsters? Let me know if there's anything else in there - perhaps surprise him with a Rainbow Shark swimming out of the depths or something? Marine Terrarium fish and plants? Those Biodome anemones would be great since geddonase is healthy for him, but there's so many possibilities I didn't want to assume more than the basics he'd need to survive in there and which you as the Hand would've been very unlikely to have not provided even if running a relatively unmodified world - without Zander Fish and Shrimpton he'd have none of the basic food he needs, so those were a given, as were the plants that come with the metaroom. It's up to you what else might be in there! Also, since you said the Dragon Skulls are near the exits, I'm assuming in this case it's near the door-crystal on the bottom.)

Placed on the bone shelf in the Deep Abyss, the egg from the Genetics Kit sat for an unusually long time. If the Hand hadn't known better, the egg might have seemed like a dud, or as if it wasn't going to hatch due to being underwater. But the oops-egg had hatched underwater, so this one couldn't be inhibited due to that. The embryo was just taking its time to develop, apparently; or else it had an unusual number of instincts it needed to dream about before hatching occurred.

In spite of knowing that nothing serious could be going wrong - after all, the other Hand who'd made the genome must have tested it before passing it out - this Hand may have begun to worry after a minute or so with no sign of life from the egg. But then, all of a sudden, a moving shadow appeared within, and the familiar sound of an egg rocking and breaking open could be heard by the Hand even through the waters of the Deep Abyss. At last!

Within another few seconds, the egg broke in half, and the newborn Norn rolled out of it onto the bony shelf, falling a little bit since the egg had been perched on the lift, which was raised above the level of the actual shelf. It was only a short fall, but it was still a fall. Some Norns might have gone 'ouch!' in that moment, but the newborn was covered in richly colored scales - indigo and violet mostly, with bright turquoise on his arms and wings - instead of the soft fur that most Norns exhibited. More importantly in this particular case, he lacked a stimulus gene for 'impact after falling'. Thus, although the baby Norn knew he had just gone over an edge and landed on a hard surface, that meant little to him - he felt no pain or fear, or indeed, anything, in response to that fact, so therefore he paid it no mind, and soon forgot it had ever happened.

Content to stay where he'd landed for the first few moments of his life, the newborn Norn looked around, blinking, taking in this place he'd hatched into. He was underwater, and at first, bubbles rose from his mouth and nostrils as he tried using his lungs - to his surprise, without success. Just as he started feeling a little woozy and the dim beginnings of an anxiety he instinctively knew was drowning-fear, he felt a deep chemical prompting and realized he had another option for breathing. Accordingly, the baby Norn sucked water in through his mouth, expelling it through the gills on the sides of his neck behind his jawline. Immediately the air-bubbles from his struggling lungs disappeared, and he felt the airways to them close off naturally now that he was no longer attempting to use them in this place where they - apparently - were not meant to work. It was fine. It turned out could breathe here after all. After that, the baby Norn felt much better. The bad feelings from trying to breathe with his lungs were gone within moments of switching to his gills.

By now, he'd been named. Having worked out this whole 'breathing' thing and feeling pretty good, the baby Norn felt an urge to express himself, so he did, although he had little to actually say. So he just said, "Braxton bibble." He didn't know the word 'express' yet, so it just came out as, well, bibble, instead of 'Braxton express'. That didn't matter to Braxton. He was content with his bibble for now. After all, there didn't seem to be anyone around to hear him. Instinctively he knew there ought to be a Hand somewhere around here, but at that moment, the Hand was observing Bell in the Norn Terrarium and so was not visible or apparent to Braxton. Being alone puzzled Braxton. It seemed as if there ought to be some other creatures like himself around, if not this 'Hand' thing he had no name for yet but instinctively knew existed. But he seemed to be alone.

It was chilly where he was, high up on the bone shelf, but he could smell that there was warmth nearby, somewhere down below. Also, Braxton was hungry, and he thought he saw movement down there. Braxton crawled to the edge of the bone shelf and looked down. Yep, there was stuff down there. A lot of stuff. He saw the 'weather' rising from the heat-sources (the volcanic sea-vents) at the bottom of the metaroom, a colorful forest of shapes he didn't know a word for yet (but which were in fact plants), and other colorful shapes that, unlike the first group, moved and darted about on their own instead of staying rooted to a single spot down there. Most of them weren't even limited to the bottom, instead moving up and down and all around through the water. It was pretty amazing, but for some reason, seeing all of this also made Braxton feel... well, pretty hungry! Now that he was paying attention to it, a lot of it seemed like it might be edible. But where to start?

Some of these colorful swimming things - they were fish, though he didn't have a word for critters yet, like everything else - moved very fast, moving together in oddly coordinated groups, changing direction frequently. This particular group of objects, the fish, got his attention above everything else. Something about them made him want very much to approach and grab one. He remembered, vaguely, that before he'd hatched, he'd dreamed about being hungry, and eating one of those moving things. It had made him not hungry anymore when he dreamed about it. So maybe he should try that now, since he was hungry now. Braxton was only a baby, but that made sense to him.

By now, his body had recognized that he was underwater and begun producing Swimmerase. Braxton was not consciously aware of this at first, but when he felt a desire to approach the fish-critters, he suddenly realized that crawling wasn't going to work. He couldn't crawl unless he was on a surface, and the fish were out there in the water. Braxton reached for them, but they were too far away - his tiny claws just couldn't stretch that far. No - this wouldn't do. There had to be another way to get to those enticing, moving things...

And just as Braxton had that thought, he felt something in his body change. His Swimmerase levels were now high enough to be functional, and that combined with his desire to reach the fish-critters activated his ability to swim. Braxton felt himself rising gently upward into the water, moved by nothing more than his desire to move. Now this was pretty cool! Immediately, he looked around and zeroed in on a nearby fish-critter. He wasn't sure why, but that one appealed to him above all the others at that moment. That was the one!

So he began to swim, moving his body not so differently than if he were crawling, but experiencing the very different sensation of rising upward through the water, changing direction with only the slightest desire and movement. Swimming was natural to his breed, and he picked it up very quickly. Within moments he was moving as quickly as the fish he pursued - which, sensing danger, was doing its best to avoid him. But Braxton was enjoying the chase, and didn't allow the fish's attempts to escape to deter him. In addition to being hungry and wanting to eat the fish, he discovered that - just as he remembered vaguely from his pre-hatching dreams - it was pretty fun just to chase the fish around, too, so he had no reason not to pursue it as it fled through the dark water.

Trying to evade him, the fish-critter dove toward the warmer bottom waters, but Braxton followed. The fish reached a school of its own kind and slowed automatically, hoping to be lost among the others that looked just like it. But it didn't work. Braxton's fixed attention on that particular critter had never wavered, so he could easily pick it out from the others. And unlike the fish, Braxton never slowed down. Moments after the hapless Zander Fish tried to hide among the school of fellow Zanders, Braxton was within grabbing range. Immediately, a new instinct activated for the first time and urged him to grab the fish, take hold of it, so he did so before it could get away again.

He had caught the fish! Braxton was proud of himself. He treaded water for several seconds, looking out into the water at no one in particular, grinning widely. There was no one around to share his happiness with, though, and the grin faded quickly. Although less prone to loneliness than earlier versions of the Dragon breeds had been, Braxton could definitely still feel that emotional drive, and it was beginning to rise, the more he realized that he was alone here except for the fish-critters and the shrimp-bugs.

"Braxton boop," the baby Dragon said, meaning 'Braxton lonely'. No one answered. It made him feel even lonelier.

But Braxton was also hungry for protein, and that drive was stronger than his loneliness, so it was only another second or two before he returned his attention to the fish-critter. For some reason, it was pretty fun just to hold onto it - but it would feel better to eat it. So Braxton did, efficiently stripping the little Zander Fish down to bones with his sharp carnivore's teeth. Left with the bones in his hand, Braxton looked at them and felt weirdly conflicted - it was the first time his unconscious mind had ever seemed to be in disagreement with itself, and he wasn't sure what to do. Although he instinctively knew that this 'detritus' could be eaten and would make him feel less hungry for carbs, he also felt strongly discouraged from eating it for no apparent reason at the same time. So despite still feeling a bit hungry for carbs, Braxton hesitated, staring at the fish bones.

Eventually he dropped them. He wasn't hungry enough to try to eat them in spite of that heavy sense of foreboding. Maybe there was something else... a bug? Yes, a bug!

Braxton occupied himself for the next minute or two with chasing and eating Shrimptons. The nutritious Shrimptons soon filled him up, but he kept chasing and grabbing them for a little while anyway just because it was fun. Now being full, he simply dropped the little water-bugs after holding them for a bit. Then the chase began again! It was pretty fun, though not as fun as fish chasing because the Shrimpton were much slower-moving and didn't go as far. So the little Dragon Norn abandoned the Shrimpton and began chasing fish, releasing them soon after taking hold of them. Soon enough, though, his loneliness overwhelmed the boredom reduction, and he stopped playing with the fish. Braxton looked around, now frowning. He was holding a fish, not letting go, to try to comfort himself, but it wasn't working well. On top of loneliness he was beginning to feel an odd sensation that he supposed was homesickness, even though he found himself longing for other Norns' company, or a positive word from a Hand, instead of a Norn Home. Having no way to know that was unusual, the Dragon Norn took that for granted. He just knew he was lonely and homesick and wished there were other Norns around. "Braxton rly boop," he sighed - Braxton very lonely...

(Leaving off here! If no one else ends up in Deep Abyss in a few posts I'll have him discover the Dragon Skull and the doorway out.

Doesn't matter to me either way! Sorry this got so long... I tend to be longwinded with character introductions. x.x Future replies won't be so bookish, I promise!)