Her younger siblings were being more seriously affected though, particularly her newborn brother whose own outraged cries joined the tirra'taka's own. Only Sturn seemed unaffected, though he was curious about what the cause of the noise was.
...
Gritting her teeth, Tan'ya all but gave up on her own sleep for the night and had just switched on her holo com when she felt her younger sibling's minds settle to rest in the Force. They actually slept through that?
Taking the egg with her if only to momentarily calm it, Tan'ya ducked down stairs to find her mother walking upwards towards her, a relieved expression on her face and a picture book in hand. "Is something wrong, Tan'ya?" She asked.
"...How did you get them to sleep?" Tan'ya finally asked.
"It took a few tries." Athemeene smiled. "But reading helps. You can do the same thing with music."
Tan'ya considered for a moment, before asking, "Can I borrow that?" Looking at the picture book.
Looking bemused, Athemeene handed it over, and Tan'ya went back to her room with it. Flipping it open, she started at page one, and read aloud in a soft voice. The egg stilled for a moment, listening to Tan'ya speak. Buoyed by success, Tan'ya kept going, recounting the tale of the Little Fleck Bird That Could to the very last page, before glancing up to see if it had worked.
There were a few moments of silence, before the egg started crying out again.
"Oh, come off it!" Tan'ya groaned, throwing the book to the bed, and burying her head in her palms. "Why won't you be quiet?!"
She tried again, of course, to much the same result. While Tan'ya was reading the egg fell silent, but shortly after she stopped it would cry out again. Even worse, the sound of its cries starting again had woken up Ideon. Tan'ya felt her mother's mind descend the stairs, before deciding to find out if maybe Athemeene was doing something right that she wasn't.
Carrying the egg with her in its incubator, Tan'ya waited in the doorway outside as her mother softly murmured to Ideon. The egg seemed confused at first by Athemeene's presence, but it did stop crying out. Tan'ya felt the creature reaching out, its thoughts mingling with Ideon and Madalee, and as their minds began to still and peacefully turn over, so did its.
Finally, lapsing into relieved silence, the egg rested.
Tan'ya let out a relieved sigh, for a moment almost tempted to thank the Force or even that bastard Being X, when her mother stepped out, surprised to find her daughter resting with her back against the wall.
"You should be in bed, sweetie." She warned, softly. "What's this?" She indicated the egg.
"It's the egg of a tirra'taka." Tan'ya whispered back. "Father found some, and I'm going to attempt to rear it."
Athemeene pulled the nursery door closed behind her, before crouching down to examine Tan'ya and the egg more closely. "Then why is it here, and not somewhere it won't be smashed by accident?"
"It just won't stop crying! I know it's comfortable, but it just wants its mother, but she died a long time ago. Sometimes it stops crying for me when I'm near it, but eventually it gets upset again, anyway." Tan'ya sighed. "But you're reading was able to put it to sleep, somehow."
"I haven't heard it crying?"
"It's crying in the Force, its species is Force Sensitive."
Athemeene considered it thoughtfully. "...Children crying out is their only way of communicating with their parents. If it's crying, it might be trying to tell you something."
"Like what?" Tan'ya asked, adding. "It's just an egg. What more can it need then to be at the right temperature?"
"It can communicate through the Force, right?" Athemeene said. "Maybe its social development begins even before it hatches? Human children learn the sound of their mother's voice in the womb, which is why reading to them can help them relax and sleep. If its entire species can use the Force, it might think Non-Force users are a threat. If you're leaving it alone here, and with me and the servants around, it might think you've abandoned it among potential predators."
It sounded like reasonable speculation, though obviously it needed testing.
Following Athemeene's advice, Tan'ya was able to begin getting the rowdy egg under control. It turned out it really didn't like people who weren't force sensitive. If Athemeene or any of the other palace servants approached it, it would begin to cry out until Tan'ya calmed it. If the whole species was Force sensitive, it made sense to Tan'ya that it would regard anything else as dangerous to an unborn egg.
Extended reading sessions of around thirty to forty minutes would help calm it. In keeping with the idea of socializing the creature, Tan'ya started reading her reports out loud, or saying what she typed as she worked at her holocom. It seemed to work. Eventually it had calmed to the point where it would no longer panic around the servants, as long as it knew Tan'ya was close.
That was the big problem, though. It was only calm when Tan'ya was around. If Tan'ya was ever to return to the digsite, or attend to her business as Advisor to the Defence in the city, she'd have to find other Force Sensitive to help look after it.
Sturn was more than willing to try, though he warned her that he wasn't going to be her teacher forever. "It might be best to look for more helpers than just me. I might be called back to Corellia at some point."
And he did have a point, Tan'ya realized. His loyalty wasn't really with the New Temple or her father. Even with the best of intentions, he might have to leave at any moment due to some kind of emergency on his homeworld, though Corellia was by all accounts a peaceful and prosperous place.
The only other Force Sensitive around was Vai, who Tan'ya didn't really know well enough to ask for help. Eventually though, an answer did present itself.
Madalee was incredibly curious about Tan'ya's egg. If she'd been hanging around near Tan'ya's room before, she was almost a constant presence now. At first Tan'ya had been worried Madalee would upset the egg, but it had long gotten used to her since Tan'ya had learned it was easier to get the egg to sleep when her younger siblings were being put to bed as well. If anything, the egg seemed to view Madalee as a younger member of its… family? Pack? Flock? Tan'ya supposed there wasn't really a word for a collection of dragons.
To keep things simple, she decided to go with family.
Surely with a little training, and perhaps some supervision from Athemeene and M8, Madalee could learn to watch over the egg as well?
"Hello there." Tan'ya opened the door one day when she felt her sister hanging around outside. She crouched down so she could talk to her sister more easily. "Want to learn how to read?"
Unsure, Madalee didn't really give a clear answer at first. She shyly tucked her arms behind her back, and looked away.
Tan'ya tried a different track. "I'm raising a pet. Come and see it."
Now that really excited Madalee, and Tan'ya led her inside the room to where the egg was incubating.
"Can I touch it?" Madalee asked.
"...Sure, but be gentle." Tan'ya slightly lifted the lid of the incubator, and gave her sister a chance to run her fingers over its rough surface. "One day, a baby tirra'taka is going to hatch from this."
"Really?" Madalee frowned, looking at Tan'ya. "M8 says tirra'taka aren't real."
"M8 is wrong." Tan'ya said. "This is an egg. You can feel it in the Force, can't you? Close your eyes."
Clumsily, shyly, Madalee squeezed her eyes closed and reached out with her mind to see if the creature really was there. Her eyes shot open with a gasp, when she felt it curiously brush up against her. Her jaw dropped, and she looked at Tan'ya, gasping excitedly. "I felt it!"
"See? It's real."
...
Apparently, chapters write themselves faster when Power Stones are involved. Who knew? Feel free to test the theory go ahead, toss a few my way.
...
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