Some things start out big.
And some things start out small; very small.
But, sometimes, the smallest thing can make the biggest change of all.
No one knew where it came from. It fell through the leaves until it embedded itself in a clump of moss on a thick branch. The lemurs scattered, chittering in alarm, only stopping when they were several branches away from the strange object. They sat or hung where they landed, staring at it in confusion.
It was a large, round object. It was tan in color, with random spots of blue and green. Even among the thunder of the storm, it didn't budge. It looked too smooth and perfectly-shaped to be a random rock.
One of the lemurs parted the fronds she was hiding behind, narrowing her yellow eyes at the object. Behind her were an older male lemur with blue eyes, and a younger golden lemur with matching eyes. "Yar, what is it?" the younger lemur whispered.
"I don't know," the elder lemur answered. He grunted as the youngster tried to climb up on his shoulders, trying to get a better look. As he pulled him down, the female lemur began crawling through the fronds and down the branch. "Plio!" he snapped, though he still kept his voice down. "Get back here! We don't know what it is!"
Plio didn't pay any attention. She barely heard the younger lemur warning her to be careful as she inched down the branch. She looked at the branches above, briefly wondering if more strange objects would fall. But nothing came, not even rain.
Her eyes refocused on the object, and she continued to crawl towards it. Everyone stayed quiet as they watched, poised to run again if something else happened. Their eyes were glowing in the darkness, several pairs of eerily-shining orbs.
Lightning flashed. The object turned white from the bright light for a split-second. But there was a dark splotch in the middle during that flash. It happened almost too quick for Plio to register. And even when there was a second flash, she couldn't determine what was inside the object; only that it indeed wasn't a rock
Once she was within an arm's reach, she sniffed at it. It didn't smell like anything familiar. Before she could get closer, the object began to twitch. Suddenly, the side bulged out. Its shell cracked into smaller pieces. She flinched back with a gasp. The bulge relaxed, and the pieces interlocked, as if nothing had happened. But she could see the spiderweb-like cracks along the shell.
She crawled closer until she was right next to it. After giving it another once over, she hooked her thumb between one of the biggest cracks and pushed the piece up. There wasn't much resistance as the shell was lifted. Inside were strings of a gooey substance, like a fruit being cracked open and pulled apart.
But there was something else inside. Something alive, with tails and limbs.
All at once, she realized what the strange object was. She recalled seeing birds on the island with similar objects. Except they were smaller. Even from the birds that were bigger than the lemurs.
Whatever laid this egg was huge.
She opened her mouth to call her father over, but faltered when she realized something was unusual about this egg. It wasn't just that it was huge, or that it fell from the sky. "D-Dad, get over here!" she finally called out.
Rather than looking to see if he was coming, she focused on pulling away the top half of the egg. Sure enough, there wasn't just one baby inside. There were two, still huddled together in the previously-cramped space. Their limbs were wrapped around each other in a fetal hug, with one head tucked under the other's chin, and their tails curled around each other's bodies.
Twins weren't a foreign concept to Plio. She had seen a handful of lemurs give birth to two babies at once. But she had never seen it happen with eggs. Nor had she seen babies like these.
They looked nothing like birds. True, baby birds weren't hatched with feathers. But these two still didn't look anything like birds. Their limbs were thicker, ending with paw-like appendages. Their tails were long and thick. And their skin looked to be covered with scales. They looked nearly-identical, pale tan with light-blue along their backs, and purple dusting between the two colors. One of the babies was quite a bit smaller, though, and had a narrower head.
She carefully pulled both of the babies out of the egg. Once they were cradled in her arms, they finally separated. One leaned back against her bent arm, and the other nuzzled against her chest.
"Well, what is it?" Yar asked, finally sitting behind her.
"It was an egg. Look!" she exclaimed softly, turning around to show him the babies.
He cringed back with a gasp. "What?"
"They're cold-blooded monsters, from across the sea!" he cried out. "Vicious, flesh-eating—"
He was interrupted when one of the babies opened its mouth with a small burp. Its eyes briefly opened, revealing them to be blue, similar to newborn lemurs. The smaller baby grunted in response, though its eyes remained shut.
Yar groaned in disgust. "They look like babies to me," Plio remarked.
"Babies grow up! You keep those things, and one day, we'll turn our backs, they'll be picking us out of their teeth!" His ears perked up at the gasps. Some brave lemurs had ventured out of the brush to fully-see what was going on.
Yar took this opportunity to give a warning lesson to the clan. "Things like those," he pointed at the two babies in his daughter's arms, "eat things like us!" he gestured to himself. "As snacks!"
Everyone, save for Plio, gasped in shock. Two young lemurs leaped away, screaming in fright.
Plio glanced at both babies and asked dryly, "So, what do we do?"
"Get rid of them!" Yar snapped.
She instinctively held the babies tighter against herself, raising an eyebrow at him. He turned away with a humph, swinging his hip to the side as he climbed back up the branch.
"What has gotten into you?"
Yar stopped and shook his head. "Plio, those things are dangerous!" he exclaimed, turning back to her. He had a desperate look on his face, showing how serious he was.
Plio sighed and gazed down at the babies. They had remained quiet during the exchange, barely even moving. "I'm sorry, little ones. Okay, start with this one." She shifted the smaller baby so she could hold its sibling in both hands, and held it out to Yar. He took it with a surprised gasp, and looked at her in horror. She simply turned away and swung her hip to the side with a hmph, still cradling the other baby in one arm.
"All right, I will," he sniffed.
Everyone gasped as he stood up on both legs and held the baby up over the sudden drop. Even though they were afraid of how dangerous it could be, it was still a baby. A newly-hatched, innocent baby.
Everyone stared and held their breath, except Plio. She sat down on the pile of moss, with the smaller baby still in one arm, and watched him with amusement. "You better hurry up, Dad," she said coolly. "That one looks hungry."
He humphed in response.
Even from her distance, Plio could see the moment the baby opened its eyes again, and how Yar's face softened before he shook his head with a grunt. The baby yawned with a squeak. It almost looked like it was smiling at him.
Plio looked down at the baby she was still holding as it began to gurgle as well. Its eyes opened, revealing a matching blue to its sibling's. Its eyelids blinked heavily as it looked up at her. She chuckled as it inhaled deeply and sneezed. It snorted almost indignantly, sharply shaking its head.
When she looked up again, the other baby had just finished its first urination, much to Yar's disgust. She stood up and approached him just as he held the baby back out to her. "Here," he grumbled.
She shuffled it around until she was comfortably holding both babies. "It's okay," she said, nuzzling her head against Yar's. "We'll teach them both to hate meat."
He grunted in return as she turned to walk back down the branch, holding both babies against her shoulders. The other lemurs began to gather around like she was a new mother. "Watch their heads!" he suddenly exclaimed.
Everyone glanced at him in awe.
Realizing what he had said, he stammered, "I-I mean, watch it. They could bite." He climbed along the branch back where he came, pausing as the younger golden lemur crawled under him to finally come up and see the babies.
Their mouths were unlike anything they had seen. They looked like bird beaks, except thicker and shorter, yet not as sharp. The youngster pushed the bottom lip of one of the babies down and looked inside. Nothing but a pink tongue. He did the same with the other, and got the same results. "These monsters got no teeth," he declared. "What're they gonna do, gum us to death?"
"Zini, come on," Plio scoffed. "Look at those sweet little faces."
The bigger baby looked up at her and cooed, almost like it was reacting to the compliment. Its sibling nuzzled against her chest, rubbing its snout in her fur.
"Do they look like monsters to you?"
A/N Yes, after many years (read: one year) I'm back writing. And yes, it's not for the one I'm currently writing. I'll get back to it, I promise. Think of this as me dipping my toes back into writing. Plus, this idea kept itching at my head, and I just had to write it out. Especially since there aren't many stories in this category.
So, this is just going to be a simple "original character-insert" kind of story. But I WILL be adding some additional plot/fleshing out of the story and characters. Not to mention, after this chapter and part of the next, it will be from the POV of the character I created. In that case, we won't see everything from the movie, only what she sees and experiences. The general idea for this story was inspired by "Across the Desert" by Silver as the Rain, and "Rava's Journey" by ZabuzasGirl.
That said, this was a very simple character to come up with. I toyed with the idea of her meeting Aladar when he and his family wash up on the mainland, using Aladar's previous interpretation of him having blood-related grandparents, but I couldn't get that to work. I knew I wanted her to be his sibling, but I couldn't make two eggs going to the same place work either. Then, I had a sudden idea. And upon researching it, though it's very rare, twins in eggs CAN happen. They don't usually survive, but this is a Disney movie about lemurs raising an iguanadon :P Also, the title came from a cut song.