Scrambled - Decra Drain Quest

Prompt #4 - Freestyle

Have an exciting idea of your own about how to handle the story? You can make up your own reason for the orb’s loss of power. Is it being stolen? Is it draining off into a portal that opened inside it? Is there an energy eating plant that grew on the temple and is now overtaking the floating island as it eats the orb’s power? Draw or write about your character’s own adventure to discover the mystery. Your piece must include your character and an element of the story you’ve come up with for the orb’s troubles.

-

Normally Paiko liked shiny things. This shiny thing was a handful. Were baby Orbytts supposed to be this active?

"Where did it even come from?" Kirianne asked, watching the newly hatched translucent creature run circles around the pedestal where the actual orb should've been.

Paiko tucked his tail in, having already been trodden on twice and trying to avoid a third injury. "It was an egg. The cracks - it was hatching." Which explained all the weird egg goop puddling about. Eughh.

"If the egg had been sitting here since the end of the festival, it's absorbed quite a lot of energy from the Tura temple," Kiri concluded. "But that also means the actual orb is missing. I'm going to look around." She flared a fire in her hand and went to inspect the trail of egg shards.

Mozza had tried to fashion a collar and leash of some sort, one that could contain all the excess energy of the Orbytt. The trouble now was trying to get it on the wild child. The Orbytt decided to take off at a dead sprint around the room, dragging the poor mouse-girl behind like some water-ski gone rogue. "Eeeeek someone help me!"

Paiko sprang to his feet and chased after them, tackling the energy creature and forcing it to stop. It chirred in surprise, wiggling around, but didn't put up a fight.

"Hope the mommy comes back soon-" Mozza panted, scooting back safely while still holding onto one end of the rope. "I am not doing that again!"

Still on top of the Orbytt, Paiko twitched his ears at Mozza's words. "If the mom comes back... will she get mad at us?"

"Oh~ I did not think of that..."

An exclamation from Kiri startled Mozza and Paiko, and they turned to see her pointing at one of the entrance arches. "Aras, what are you doing here?"

The vampire shrugged with a slight smirk. "Investigating the missing orb."

"I find that difficult to believe."

"I see you have a new playmate."

Kiri put her hands on her hips. "Did you have something to do with this mix-up? Where is the actual orb?"

Aras held up one hand. "To be honest, I don't know where the actual one is. This one was working as a fine substitute. Until you broke it just now."

"It did not break. It hatched," Paiko piped up. His arms were getting sore from holding the baby Orbytt in place.

Kiri sighed, pressing her fingers to her forehead. "I'm not even going to ask where you found the egg, but you're going to help us return it before the mother notices-"

A distinct tremor through the ground made them all pause. Paiko could tell something big was on its way. "Speaking of the mother..."

The baby Orbytt chirped and squirmed around even more restlessly, then somehow flipped Paiko over so that it now had the drakon pinned under itself. Mozza clutched the rope with a squeak of alarm, trying to avoid being smacked by the creature's wagging tail.

"Hey!" Kiri hissed, noticing Aras trying to sneak out the entrance. "You can't just walk away without taking some responsibility!"

"Why not? The mother's come to pick up her child. Nothing more for me to do. Good luck, have fun." He waved and disappeared through the arch.

As Paiko tried to shield his face from the slobbery, eager snout of the Orbytt, he saw a huge, glass-green silhouette at the edge of his vision.

"H-hello Momma Orbytt... would you like your kid back?"

-

A fun take on the Decra Drain orb troubles - though who knows where the real one is, maybe Momma Orbytt has it stashed somewhere? Thank you to Minimaid (Kirianne), Bordayus (Mozza), and SchwarzerAlptraum (Aras) for lending me your characters ^v^