Andrew sat on his rock as he carefully watched the little hatchling, now on high alert now that he had already nearly lost it twice in the space of a few minutes. He had to remember that, despite it being much quieter than it was on his way down, this was still the 7th Layer. There were many caverns to go through, and while there was little that could threaten him, this little defenseless bird was an easy target for anything more dangerous than a neritantan.
So, he watched and waited for it to be ready to move. The terror bird squeaked as it wobbled on the ground, using its heavy egg-soaked wings to drag itself around, leaving smears of albumen on the rock. It couldn't see as the liquid made it impossible for it to open its eyes, so it was just operating on random direction and the small amount of scents it could recognize.
After a few minutes, it realized that if it vibrated its body and flapped its wings, it could shake, sloughing off the goop and fluttering its feathers, now freed of the restraint, to fling the droplets away. The excess made a mess as it splashed around it, but soon, it bent over, flicking its tongues to test out the odd liquid it found itself sitting in before twitching its head, the squeaking stopping as it became curious of this new taste.
Andrew watched as Rico began lapping up the remains of its own egg, its tongues acting like straws to suck up the goopy mess into its beakless mouth. He chuckled as he leaned to set an elbow on his knee, placing his chin on his fist to watch it as it had its first meal.
This was a normal thing for the species, he was aware of that. Eating the egg gave them a boost of protein to replenish the energy burned off by hatching and learning to crawl, and as it finished off the egg on the floor and started licking its own body, it was learning to preen itself, all without ever needing an adult to teach it. Terror birds were social animals, often living in medium-sized colonies of around thirty members, but they still operated on natural selection. Even the hatchlings had to learn to handle themselves.
It did all this without the use of its eyes, still sealed shut while it first learned to move by touch and smell. Unlike the adults of its species, the eyes were still symmetrical, set on the sides of its head as it had yet to develop a preference for which eye to use.
After cleaning itself off and shaking off the remaining liquid, it flufffed its feathers up to dry itself, before lifting its head into the air, twitching it from side to side as it turned to the boy, who blinked as it started crawling to him, its movements still wobbly but with a bit more control now that it had figured out that it could use its clawed feet to grip the rocky terrain.
Rico made a low cooing sound, different than the squeaks from before, as it approached him, and he laughed at the sight. "Finally realized I'm here, didn't you?" he asked, moving his hand to rest open-palmed in the air ahead of the bird.
It bumped into his hand, reeling back and ruffling its feathers in confusion, before tentatively moving forward again, tongues flicking out to rub against the surface of his skin. It wasn't trying to eat now, having had its fill earlier, and he knew that it was simply checking his scent.
It sat back on its rear, its head shifting around as it registered the smell into its memory, before squeaking, shifting its haunches before straightening its legs to hop up the rock and onto his lap, where it curled up and rested its head on his knee.
It was warm from all the activity, and his eyes lit up at the feeling of the creature, moving his hand to rest on its back. The feathers were soft now, having gained shape from the preening it had done and the shafts hardening to give them actual shape, so now, it felt like any other bird, and it reacted in much the same way as one, its wings flapping out as it lifted its head.
The low grumbling sounds it made seemed to be more for announcing that it was aware that he was safe rather than any sort of real communication, and as he looked at it, its eyes slowly began opening, the nictitating membrane sliding back to reveal the massive pale green lens common to its species, the blue iris narrowing as it hissed from the brightness in its eyes, rearing its neck back as it flinched. The caverns certainly were dimmer than the 2nd Layers' harsh sunlight, but Andrew still had his glowstone turned on and shining almost directly at it, and he laughed as he raised his hand to turn it off.
"Sorry about that, Rico." he said, running his hand along its feathers. "First thing you see is me blinding you." As its eyes dilated, getting used to the more natural lighting around it, it returned its head to face closer to him, looking him over as it took in the details of this creature it found itself bonded to.
Terror birds were extremely social animals, and while they generally don't possess an imprinting mechanism, the fact that he was the first thing not to attack it marked him as an ally, and he intended to follow through with that and protect it as best he could. "Andrew." he said, pointing to himself, then pointed at it. "Rico."
"Aaaa…" it said, its voice possessing the usual husky noise that its species were known for, but the tone of his voice was still notable underneath the strange pressure of its vocal cords. "Aaan...Andruuu…"
He laughed, continuing to pet it as he encouraged it to continue. "Keep it up, you'll get it eventually." he stated, and it fluttered its wings again, shifting its feet to nestle in the space between his legs.
"Andrew." it said, and he nodded, raising his hands up next to him to show it had succeeded, and it gave an excited squeak, standing up and hopping so that it was facing him, stretching its long neck up to look more directly at him. Its tongues flapping wildly in the air as it repeated the word, as well as copying the laugh he'd given it. It sounded a little creepy coming from the animal, but it was learning fast, and Andrew couldn't help but wrap his arms around it, proudly embracing the creature.
"Good job, Rico." he said, once again wishing that he could give it a genuine smile. He certainly felt happy, he was already very attached to the creature. He silently thanked Lyza for giving him the chance to meet it, and from the way it rested its head on his shoulder, moving its wings to give its own awkward hug to his torso, he could tell that it too was happy to have a friend.
Normally, being down this far meant certain death for an upper-layer creature like terror birds, but this one was lucky enough to have him on its side. He had a mission to return to the surface after all, and even without Lyza making him promise to, he now wanted to see this journey through with his companion safe as well.
It had a powerful ally in him, and he also was familiar with their species. He'd raise it right while they were still below the boundary with the 5th Layer. Terror birds were incredibly intelligent, he had a strong feeling that he could train it to understand not to attack humans and to communicate effectively. After all, while he wanted to protect it, he also wasn't going to allow dead weight on the expedition.
But all that was in the future when it was a little bigger and had settled into its new life. For now, he had to follow the sound of water and use the cavern's river system to find his way upward. Water always flows from above, after all.
Still, he'd give it some time to rest before they had to move. It had just hatched after all, it was still exhausted from the process of escaping the egg and registering all the new things in the environment around it. He himself wasn't particularly tired, but he did have to remember that this was still a baby.
He released it from his embrace, and it blinked at him, before returning to curling up in his lap, noe resting its head under a wind as it sighed, before its eyes slowly closed and its body went still.
He lightly patted the sleeping creature, before moving his hand so as not to disturb it, and focused on the area around them. While it slept, he would stand guard and defend it if anything was lured by the noise and the smell of egg innards, as well as the corpse of the monster he'd squashed.