![|:|CotHS [Story: (Prologue) A Long Way To Fall]|:|](https://cdn2.scratch.mit.edu/get_image/project/499109646_480x360.png)
Prologue: The winds and snow outside blew strong. Cobalt was sure this was the worst blizzard the Empire has received in years. Just in time for Alpha Ether’s soon death too. It was almost like Stardust herself was mourning the great Falline that would soon have to leave them. Last night the winds were too strong for any Falline to fly, so Skyracer had left early in the morning when the winds had calmed enough to let her wife fly out and make her rounds in the Empire. Skyracer had just been promoted to Head Knight, and she took her job very seriously. Cobalt sighed as she sat by the brick fireplace of her and Skyracer’s home. The two had recently moved to a larger cave home closer to the capital, mostly thanks to Skyracer’s promotion. The house was lavishly decorated, had a few bedrooms and bathrooms, a nice kitchen that made Cobalt especially happy, and a nice big living room with a brick fireplace. Cobalt was sitting on one of the couches, a blanket wrapped around her comfortably as she knit. It was a nice pastime, knitting quietly and listening to the fire crackle warmly. It was only when the sun had begun to set and the blizzard started to pick up again did she put down her work and become nervous. Where was Skyracer? Had she been caught in the storm? The blue furred Falline stood up, wondering if she should go out into the night to search for her beloved when the particular white and dark grey Airborne she was stressed about walked through the door. She was covered in ice and snow, and a few icicles hung from her fur. “Skyracer!” Cobalt rushed over to embrace her lover, but then stopped and grimaced at frozen snow and ice that covered her. “Where were you?!” She demanded instead as Skyracer shook out her fur. “Do you know how worried I was? You’ve been gone all day and you’re frozen solid!” Cobalt pushed Skyracer to the fire, ignoring the biting cold in her paws as she did so. Skyracer shook out her wings, and untied the red scarf around her neck. It looked like it had a lump of something in it, though Cobalt just assumed it was snow. “I’m sorry for worrying you, but it was for a good reason.” To Cobalt’s surprise, as Sky undid the scarf, instead of the wet white sheen of snow tumbling out of the scarf, a Falline egg is what fell into the Head Knight’s paws. It was a charcoal black colored, with 2 rings of blue and purple near the top. Skyracer immediately wrapped it in a blanket and pushed it close to the fire while Cobalt stood there mouth agape. “You’re catching flies, my love.” Skyracer mused, her magenta eyes shining in amusement but also worry. Cobalt snapped out of her trance. “Where.. How… When… Wha…” Cobalt’s eyes did not leave the egg. “Where in the 3 gods did you find an egg? And one so close to hatching?!” Cobalt finally half yelled, though not in anger. By the looks of the egg, it looked like it was incredibly close to hatching. So close, that Cobalt was sure that it must be overdue. Skyracer didn’t speak for a few minutes, and when she did it was not the answer to Cobalt’s question. “Umber’s dead.” Cobalt blinked in surprise. “This is his egg.” “...What..?” It was common knowledge that Umber would become the Alpha after Ether. He was the most respected knight in the entire Empire, and she remembered how surprised SKyracer was when SHE was promoted to Head Knight rather than Umber. She ended up just assuming that it was because Umber was the next Alpha. She knew that he had a wife, Lavender, who he would have to divorce once he rose to the throne, but she never once in a million years imagined that they had an egg. What was even worse now, Umber was dead while Ether was nearly on High Spirit’s trail. Skyracer’s sigh brought Cobalt out of her thoughts. “I’m not sure if it’ll even hatch. When I found it, it was buried in the snow. It was probably in there overnight.” Cobalt shivered, knowing that overnight in the freezing cold was a death sentence for the poor unborn Hatchling. It also raised the question of why exactly it was out there in the first place, why not in the hatchery? “What should we do? Should we go bury the egg with the parents? Should we give it to it’s closest kin?” Cobalt asked. She couldn’t stop a look of sadness cross her face for the little Falline in the egg. So close to hatching, and the world was torn away from it just before it could reach it. Of course Ether would then HAVE to choose someone other than Umber to become the Alpha, but maybe this egg would have become the Alpha after. Maybe it would have become a skilled and noble knight like it’s father. Maybe an excellent healer like it’s mother. “I suppose it would be the best thing to do. Tomorrow I’ll take the egg to where some of the other Knights and I buried them.” Skyracer said, and draped the blanket around it over the dark covered egg. Cobalt nodded, and followed her wife to their room.
As they shut the door to their room, the house became still and quiet again besides from the fire continuing to crackle and burn. Maybe it was that, or the exhaustion both Fallines felt that masked the slightest sound that would change the future entirely. Tap. Tap tap. . . . Cobalt woke up, and guessing by how dark it was outside, it was sometime close to the middle of the night or the wee hours in the morning. Far too early for any Falline to be up, but Cobalt couldn’t stay asleep. She felt restless, and thoughts of the egg kept plaguing both her waking thoughts and her dreams. She resigned herself to getting up from her warm bed, careful not to wake Skyracer. The winds outside were still blowing hard outside, and snow rushed past the windows. When Cobalt reached the living room, the fireplace had long burned out. All that was left of the warm glowing flames was the dark black cinders that smothered the remaining embers. The oil lamps still lit the room dimly, and she spotted the blanket that Skyracer had wrapped the egg in, still there by the burned out fire. Once again the feeling of sadness for the unborn hatchling arose within the blue furred Airborne. “You could have been so brilliant, little one. If only life had given you a chance..” Cobalt sighed and started to turn away, when a rustling in the blanket made her freeze. She whipped her head around, wondering if she had imagined it. Must have just been the wind making her hear things.. Right? Still, that was an oddly specific sound that the wind could have made from outside. Maybe it was just the distant, far shining hope that Cobalt was clinging onto making her imagine things, but she was sure she just saw the blanket move. It couldn’t be.. How could an egg that spent overnight outside in the snow hatch? Still, Cobalt found her paws slowly moving over to the blanket. As the Airborne lifted the part of the blanket covering the egg, she was startled to find that there was no egg. At least, not anymore. In the place the egg used to be was a black furred hatchling and a bunch of eggshells. The young Falline had stripes of purple and blue, desaturated feathers that were a mixture of blue and purple, and mismatched colored wings the same colors as his feathers. He looked up at Cobalt with beautiful mismatched blue and purple eyes, and squeaked in a way that made Cobalt’s heart completely melt. Cobalt knew what she was giving up when she married Skyracer. She knew that she wouldn’t be able to hatch a clutch of her and her partner’s own blood. While there were other options, she never thought it would be the same magical, special moment that other Fallines talked about obsessively. Cobalt couldn’t believe how wrong past her was. Looking down at this young hatchling, a hatchling that wasn’t even her own. A hatchling she didn’t think would even hatch. It really was somehow the most special and happy moment of her life, and she didn’t even know this egg existed before yesterday. She picked up the young newborn hatchling, who glady clambered right into her paws and snuggled close to her chest as she lifted him gently. Now she was truly reminded of a purpose she always wanted to serve: as a mother. She held the tiny life form close to her, silently vowing to never, EVER, let go. “Hello, little one” Cobalt purred at the tiny, perfect hatchling in her claws. His response was the tiniest squeak that had ever graced Cobalt’s ears. She smiled and nuzzled the hatchling. Her hatchling. To think that he was almost taken away far too soon from this world. Thank Moonstone they were wrong. “I know that you will do great, incredible things one day” “Void” Characters, Art, Writing and rp by me Look inside for something extra ;) Next Chapter: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/499731724/
