There are a lot of abandoned creatures out there. There's usually not much chance for the creatures themselves; by the time they're discovered, they're usually long dead. Their eggs, on the other hand, those can be saved. It is the Stray Egg Rescue Unit, SERU for short, that works to collect these eggs, to give them a second chance. Often there is no chance at a second chance for these eggs, but the ones which can be saved... they make the whole endeavour worth it. Some creature keepers take it upon themselves to accept whatever SERU eggs they can, hatching countless stillborns in the hopes that even one egg in their latest batch of rescues will be at least somewhat healthy, so they can find a home in their arks. As of today, I am one of these people. If all goes to plan, my Aquamarine Sanctuary will soon be alive with creatures who would otherwise have been lost to the depths of space.
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When the first egg hatched, I was overjoyed. The hatchling was attentive, making a beeline for food. Everything you'd expect from a healthy baby norn. She seemed to have a lot of Harlequin heritage, and so I named her Harley. Unfortunately, her apparent health was only on the surface. She didn't make it halfway to her first meal before she passed away. I suppose it's inevitable to have that happen to a SERU newborn, but it's still quite disheartening...
The second egg didn't make it either. Stillborn. In need of a break from the egg deaths, I decided to go for a wander around the sanctuary. It's a good place for potentially fragile creatures; plenty of different environments, plenty of places to quarantine any sick creatures, or confine the aggressive ones. What I hadn't realised is that there had been a stowaway on board. I found a teen norn with a collar and a name tag labelled 'Titania' in the jungle enclosure. I took her back to the holding bay, where she was taught her vocabulary (she was very quick to learn, and started constantly saying how happy she was), and I took the opportunity to look over her genes. Surprisingly, she seemed to be a three way hybrid; with norn genes, grendel genes, and ettin genes. The norn genes and grendel genes I had expected, she has that look about her, and I had to tell her not to gleefully beat up the dummy. Wouldn't normally be an issue, but her sheer joy about the violence coupled with her cheerful nipping at whatever part of me she could reach when I was taking her from place to place suggests to me that she may not exactly be the safest norn for other creatures to be around. The ettin genes, however, were a surprise. But they were undeniably there. I sent her back to the sanctuary, and hit the SERU call button again. Titania will need a companion, after all.
More stillbirths. I know there will be a creature who survives eventually, I know it! Discovering Titania gave me hope, as I suspect she may have been a SERU creature herself. The main thing, besides her strange mix of genes, that leads me to suspect this is that my tests revealed she's old enough to be an adult, but is still an adolescent. That doesn't typically happen with regular norns. If she could make it that far, then other SERU creatures can too. Finally, someone who lasted more than ten seconds hatched; Ursa, named for her Bruin norn appearance. She needed a little extra coaxing to eat than most young norns, and had to be taught via the amulet of teaching rather than the holistic learning machine, but I'm confident she'll survive with a little help.
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I am... less confident in Ursa's ability to stay alive. I got the x-ray running, and she only has four organs. I have no idea how she's even alive right now. I'll do my best to help her, but she may need a little extra help compared to most other creatures. She can eat when prompted, which is good, but I doubt she'll be able to do much else. When she was moved to the sanctuary, she was able to call advice up to Titania, which was a good sign.
Ursa was able to understand most things she was prompted to do, such as 'eat seed' and 'push elevator', and did these things with no problems. She eventually came across Titania, who quickly took a liking to the little zombie. A look at Ursa's genes revealed she's missing half of her genome. And yet, she's still kicking. Perhaps she's missing the gene that makes her die.
Another young female, Dusk, was next to successfully hatch, although she is a little disfigured. She learned her vocabulary without any issue. Getting her to eat was a slight issue; when told to eat food, she wanted to eat everything but the food. She may need extra teaching, I believe. She also doesn't seem to have much of an attention span.
Fortunately, the three seem to get along, except for a few slaps from Dusk to Ursa. At least Ursa doesn't seem to be particularly capable of taking damage, it seems. Unfortunately, Dusk is also very, very reluctant to eat. I've only gotten two morsels into her so far. And Titania seems to have anger issues that weren't immediately apparent when I first found her; I caught her slapping Ursa in a brief fit of rage, after which she went straight back to her usual, joyful self. Her constant exclamations of how happy she is now fill me with concern. What is going on with this unpredictable norn? I can't explain her.
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One thing has become clear to me: these three are going to be a lot to handle. I'll end this entry here; I need to try to convince Dusk to eat and rest, and convince Titania that violence isn't going to help her at all. Thankfully Ursa seems perfectly content to wander the jungle enclosure. I wonder if she'll be like that forever?
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