Chapter 215: Going Smoothly From Here On Out
Midnight stared down at the green and purple egg in his arms and sighed. This was supposed to be a hunting mission, one of life and death, where nothing was guaranteed except for the fact that blood would be spilled.
And now it had turned into what his mate referred to as an Easter Egg hunt.
Not like it really mattered, he guessed. After all, as long as she was happy, then that was all that he cared about.
But why was he the one stuck carrying the egg?!?
The bright blue eyes poked out of the top again and looked at the giant Njeriuujk. After a few rapid blinks, a single, pure white ear poked out from the top of the egg. It twitched from side to side before a second one joined the first.
One ear twisted around until the tender pink inside was facing just off to his right, and the other one bent in two, almost as if it was trying to point the way. Was there another egg? When the Istar in Mei Xing’s arms also pointed in the same direction, he knew that he wasn’t mistaken.
"There," he said at the same time as his female. "There is something there." Almost as if it was satisfied that the big lug carrying it could be trusted and trained, the two ears popped back into the egg, and the lid closed shut.
The one in Mei Xing’s arms once again jumped down and hopped over to the egg surrounded by the mist. However, where both Pumpkin’s egg and the one in his arms had been by themselves, this one appeared to have companions. Four eggs laid side by side in what looked like a giant nest made out of woven branches. There was a soft layer of green moss right under the eggs, keeping them both warm and safe.
Pumpkin hopped into the nest and knocked at the egg closest to it.
Midnight and the others waited, expecting it to rattle around like the other one had, but instead of movement. There was only stillness. With a very unique shrug of his shoulders, Pumpkin picked up the egg and opened his mouth as wide as it could. The egg disappeared into the little creature’s mouth, and Pumpkin let out a very satisfying burp.
As if the noise was a call to dinner, the white Istar inside of the egg poked its whole head out, twitching its nose back and forth. Pointing to one of the three remaining eggs, it looked up at Midnight as if expecting him to feed it.
"Oh no, I don’t deliver to anyone but my mate," said Midnight, shaking his head. "If you are hungry, go eat."
As if understanding his words, the white bunny puffed out her cheeks in protest. Once she realized that she wasn’t getting anywhere with Midnight, she turned her attention to Pumpkin. Pointing to the egg she wanted, she waited for Pumpkin to deliver it to her.
Pumpkin lifted his chin and spun around until his back was facing the white bunny.
With a very put-out sigh, the white Istar gracefully jumped out of her egg and Midnight’s arms before hopping over to the other eggs. Picking up the one that was the most interest to her, she quickly devoured it in much the same way that Pumpkin had.
"Is Princess full?" asked Mei Xing, crouching down beside the new bunny. The white bunny, Princess, shook her head and petted Mei Xing on the top of hers as if to lament the stupidity of the human female. Then, she proceeded to eat the other two eggs as if it was nothing.
Hopping back over to Midnight, Princess jumped up and into her egg, only to realize that her tummy had gotten too big to fit in it anymore. With an upset cry, she folded her ears over her eyes as if she were embarrassed.
Pumpkin, the idiot male that he was, let out a sound that sounded a lot like a snicker. Enraged, Princess launched herself at Pumpkin and sent the two of them rolling around in the white, foggy bottom of Sha Shou’s ship.
It took only a second before the fighting was over, and Princess was sitting on top of Pumpkin, licking her paw. Pumpkin, on the other hand, was lying out on the ground, his tiny limbs sprawled outwards like a starfish, his overly large tongue hanging out of his mouth like he was dead.
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There was no doubt in my mind that we were keeping both of the adorable creatures. Picking Princess up under her front legs, I handed her back to Midnight. As soon as the weight was off of him, Pumpkin stood up and seemed to dust himself off.
Hopping away, he pointed out where every egg was located on that lower level. Some of them were already hatched and had disappeared, while others were opened and killed by either Princess or Pumpkin. The eggs that clearly had nothing inside of them were eaten.
I was surprised to see that while the two little cuties had eaten a lot, they didn’t really seem to grow. Well, Princess seemed to be getting a bit of a tummy, but Pumpkin was still the same size as when he first hatched.
There was something nagging me in the back of my mind like I should know something about these things. However, the only thing I could really remember about the Easter Bunny (Queen) was that they went around hiding eggs in the springtime. And at night, I assumed, since no one had ever seen the Easter Bunny before.
But still, something was nagging me.
Deciding it wasn’t important, the six of us, plus two cute little gremlins, got onto the lift at the other end of the corridor. The Queen was still nowhere to be seen, but there were still at least ten more levels to check out.
All in all, things were going great, especially with two egg detectors in mine and Midnight’s arms. Things should be going smoothly from here on out.
