In the Name of Research

"It's a miracle this place is so... untouched." The voice bounced off the damp cave walls, punctuated by the soft trickle of water. Veins of moss and algae lined every surface here, softening what may have otherwise been a loud, trailing echo.

"One of the few pockets of nature your kind has not yet discovered," a cool-toned voice concurred, though this voice did not echo off the rocky tunnel walls but rather, within their minds. 

"Let's hope it stays that way," the first agreed. "Kero? Front and center, if you please! It's dark as all get out down here."

"Sorry, Lucas!" Heavy footsteps rushed from around the bend, bringing with them a warm glow in this pitch black cave. "I found a spider back there," he panted. "It seemed lonely- I just thought it might appreciate the company."

"Come now, Kero," the other scoffed. "We have more pressing matters than accompanying insects." Lucas just chuckled.

"Kero, ever the soft heart." Lucas fondly pat the side of the passing creature. The paralogos smiled slightly at this encouragement, and pressed on to take the lead. A small flame flickered atop the lantern paralogos, making him perfect to lead the way.

"Hopefully yours won't be the only thing lighting up this cave much longer."

"I'm still not convinced we will find your glow worms, Lucas." Pebbles skittered across the rock floor as the second paralogos brought up the rear.

"And Axiom, ever the pessimist," Lucas's chuckle grew into a belly laugh, undeterred by his words.

"I'm not a pessimist, I'm realistic. And honest," came the retort. "Every book we've read on the subject suggests they've gone extinct."

"I showed you my findings before we left," Lucas reminded.

"Yes, and I told you then that I thought it was a stretch."

"It is just a theory," Lucas agreed. "But don't you think if there's even a small chance to recover an endangered species, we should take it?"

"I do not disagree," Axiom backtracked. "I just don't want you to be disappointed if we don't find what you're looking for."

"I appreciate the concern, Ax."

"I'm just excited to explore outside the city," Kero piped up. He was good at knowing when to divert Axiom's tangents.

"It is... refreshing," the latter had to confess.

"An untouched eden for troglobites!" Hopeful enthusiasm dripped from Lucas's voice. Practically in unison, Kero and Axiom sagged. They could only laugh- Lucas had a one track mind for finding these supposedly extinct glow worms, and remained completely oblivious to Axiom's efforts to quell his excitement, or Kero's redirection. The two paralogos often found each other at odds, bickering like siblings, but for their caretaker's sake, they would play along.

"I think the tunnel is opening up!" Kero announced, picking up his pace. Lucas turned back to deliver an "I told you so" eyebrow wiggle, and sped after Kero. Incredulously, Axiom threw his arms up.

"The cave getting larger means literally nothing!" Axiom called after them. But, seeing as their main source of light was fleeing, he let out an irritated huff and charged after them. 

"Oh, it means something alright," Kero dared to breathe. Lucas and Ax rounded the final corner moments later, and too were hushed with a sense of awe. 

The tunnel hadn't opened up that much, admittedly, but just enough for the trickle of water they'd been following to collect in a pool here. Stalagmites dotted the rocky floors not covered in water, and a few more still poked out of the pool. The algae and moss grew densely here, accompanied by even more advanced lichens, grasses, roots, ferns and other plants Lucas never would have expected to grow in a dark environment like this. Of course, that could be credited in part for the fact that there was light. Bluish twinkling specks dotted the walls in webs and threads that dangled from stalactites.

"I TOLD you! Ha HA!" Lucas loudly whooped, clapping a hand on Ax's back. "We were right!" 

"They're so beautiful," Kero crooned, moving in to get a closer look.

"Kero, hand me the field pack, would you?" The lantern paralogos didn't hesitate to comply. He had volunteered to lug the supplies all this way, after all.

"I'll be." Axiom had never been happier to be wrong. He exuded genuine pride for his caretaker- not that Lucas was paying attention. He was already busy documenting their findings. Kero's head was buried in unloading the supply bag. Axiom himself would help too of course, but he had a moment here to himself. 

Kero's lantern light flickered on the other side of the cavern, but the small amount of light produced by the glow worms, and Axiom himself, was just enough to navigate the opposite side without tripping. Ax knelt by the pool, squinting into the dark liquid. Perhaps cavefish or olms lived here too? Those too would be well worth documenting while they were here. If only the glowing markings on his on body didn't create such a reflective glare.

Wait... speaking of reflections, what was that?

A faint white glow reflected in the water beside Ax. It wasn't Kero's orange light, nor from the blue glow worms. Axiom traced the source of the light back to a slight recess in the cave wall behind him, and froze. If he had blood, it would've run cold. 

"Lucas, we need to leave," he called.

"What is it?" Lucas snapped to attention. He knew that tone of telepathy. Something was wrong.

"We need to leave," Axiom simply repeated. With no further explanation, he began to withdraw from the cave. Kero and Lucas exchanged looks of worry, but Lucas's gaze fell back to where Axiom previously stood. 

They hadn't come all this way to leave without explanation. Lucas quickly, albeit cautiously, retraced Axiom's steps, Kero in tow for light. Not that he needed the light- their query, he would soon discover, produced it's own faint glow.

"Oh my stars, is that-?"

"A paralogos egg," Kero softly confirmed. 

Lucas knelt to the floor, hand over mouth in awe. "Few humans have ever seen an egg."

"Paralogos either, for that matter," Kero concurred. 

"Exactly," Axiom promptly turned back upon realizing his companions hadn't followed. "Lucas, I know what you're thinking, but we should not disturb it."

"Axiom, it's all alone!" !" The caretaker argued. "Not to mention, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So little is truly known about the life cycle of your kind... We have the chance to study it first hand- to take it in, to raise it. The more my kind knows about yours, the more they may be put at ease, meaning the closer we can bridge the gap between us!"

"As hopeful as you make this out to be, we cannot influence this paralogos's development," Axiom insisted. "A paralogos must be free to find their own way in life. Once it hatches, it is up to them, and them alone to choose it's word focus. If we interfere in it's development, we may well deprive it of latching to the word focus it was meant to find."

"I never took you as one to believe in fate or destiny," Lucas jokingly smirked.

"I don't, but no one knows quite why paralogos eggs form where they do. We are formed by the literal, physical realization of a concept. It is a perfectly plausible and accepted theory that eggs form near the sites of words that need representation."

"That human superstition has been disproven time and again," Kero rolled his eyes.

"Regardless, it isn't even possible to move it. An egg is not even fully tangible until it is near full developm-" He was cut off when Lucas reached out a hand, and was able to stroke the pearly, ridged surface. "It's nearly ready to hatch," he silently thought to himself. It would be even harder to talk Lucas down from removing the egg.

"It's so... warm," the human hardly dared breathe on the delicate shell.

"Kero, surely you agree?" It was unlike Axiom to seek reassurance in Kero, this the mere fact he asked for his input betrayed how desperate he truly was. Kero looked between both of them, but the egg continued to win over his gaze.

"I... don't know, Ax," Kero sighed. He lay down on the rocks, looking over the lonely light of the scaled egg. "Paralogos are born... alone. The tablu rasa that hatches from this egg, will be alone and in the dark. That's no life-"

"That is just how we grow," Axiom snapped. Kero startled at the sharp reply, then grew equally agitated.

"That's not at all how you grew," Kero snorted indignantly. "You don't know what that's like- but I do!" It was unlike Kero to take such a firm stance. Was that anger rising in his voice? That was VERY unlike him. So much so that Lucas stepped back in to take the focus back off of him.

"Alright, guys, easy!" Kero furiously turned his attention back to the egg. It reminded him all too well of how he hatched, and he adamantly didn't want that for this egg.

"What if it was meant to find its word focus here? In some of the lichen? The moss? The glow worms? Our interference could prevent it from connecting with its word."

"So we bring samples, of every lichen, every moss, bits of every stalagmite," Lucas proposed. 

"You cannot relocate an entire ecosystem!"

"True, that did sound ambitious," Lucas backtracked in agreement. "Okay, so we bring the tike back here, show it where it came from."

"It's word focus is not the only concern." Axiom pinched the bridge of his nose- a mannerism he had picked up from Lucas. "Human interference with such an undeveloped tablu rasa is beyond questionable.

"I know you have your reservations about humans." Lucas almost sounded pleading by now, "but-"

"Lucas, a paralogos is not meant to be raised in captivity!" Kero startled at the words. His eyes flicked nervously between Lucas and Axiom. He often found himself mediating their ultimatums, but Axiom's reaction brought him to a genuine loss for words. Lucas too, took a moment to collect himself.

"Axiom... Do you feel... captive?"

Axiom's gaze uncomfortably shifted. He paused, choosing his next words carefully.

"Do I give you reason to mistrust me? And know you will, but I want you to tell me honestly, because if so, I want to fix it."

"I... No."

"You are not my captive, Axiom," Lucas placed a firm, perhaps consoling hand on the dinosaurian's back. "You never were, and you never will be. You are my friend. And you may come and go to our library as you please- I'll never stop you."

"I know." A sing-song whistle of a sigh escaped Axiom. 

"I understand your hesitation. I do. And believe me or not, I'm just as concerned about this egg's wellbeing. Regardless of whether we reported finding this egg, this cave will become a place of interest for other humans if we report the glow worms- or even just return with specimens for conservation. We cannot control the intentions of anyone else that passes through, but we can step in here and now to protect it.

"And besides, it won't be only my human influence they're exposed to," he kindly smiled. "It'll have you, and Kero. It would be good for them to grow up around their own kind, no?"

Axiom couldn't deny that. He had been so worried what influence human greed may have on the hatchling that he hadn't considered that if they were to take it in, he himself would have a place in this tablu rasa's life. And as humans went, his own caretaker was one of the few Axiom could trust.

"Alright," Axiom relented. 

"Glad we're in agreement" Kero spoke, finally garnering their attention again. While the two bickered over their debate of morality, Kero had already emptied the supply bag and readjusted the traps to serve as a makeshift egg carrier.

"Kero... that was... fast." Axiom narrowed his eyes. It seemed no one here was interested in his input regardless.

"There was no way I was going to leave this egg." Kero stood tall to match the older paralogos's slightly higher eye-level. Some amount of hurt still reflected in his eyes, catching Ax off guard. Kero was usually so... easygoing, so submissive. Axiom had been so caught up in advocating his own stance that he hadn't noticed how agitated and oddly protective Kero was becoming. Lucas noticed, though, and he appeared far more empathetic. It was the human's turn to pinch his nose bridge.

"Ax, would you take the lead with the camera? Your framing has always been better than mine." He pawned off the device before Axiom really got a say. "The sooner we record our findings, the sooner we can get that egg back to the library."

Lucas sidestepped his companions to where the rest of their gear was laid out. He refrained from assigning Kero a task. Though Axiom didn't quite understand, Lucas realized Kero saw himself in this egg, so to speak. The typically quiet peacemaker would never have taken such a strong stance otherwise. This clearly affected him on a more personal level than Axiom's tirade of hypothetical morals. 

It was a rare occurrence when Axiom found himself stunned into silence. Dutifully he took up the occupation, but his mind was elsewhere, still puzzling over what had transpired. The social nuances of a family always eluded him. He didn't believe he had spoken out of turn, but then why did he he feel... guilt? 

---

While unhatched, their newest family member took up a place of great prominence within the library- out of public sight, of course. A paralogos egg was such a rare and precious thing, they all had to do their part, taking every measure to ensure its protection. Lucas had new security measures installed, and kept his private study (housing the egg) under lock and key. He was a smooth talker and casually redirected anyone asking over the tightened security.  

"Oh, some books went missing over our trip."

"I'm getting so forgetful, keeping the records tight keeps me out of trouble!"

"We brought back some valuable specimens- can't be too careful."

With his upstanding reputation, no one batted an eye.

Meanwhile Axiom took it upon himself to reorganize the library shelves. Theirs wasn't a public library per se, but they saw a fair amount of foot traffic from friends and colleagues coming to borrow or trade. Most were well trusted, but Ax refused to take chances. He moved the most popular topics close to the entrance, and as far as possible from the study.

And Kero...

Kero hardly left the egg's side. The "Night Light Reading Program" he usually headed was put on an indefinite hold. He spent his days reading, sidled up beside the glowing egg, or painstakingly adjusting the makeshift nest. True, paralogos technically didn't have the same physical needs as most organic lifeforms, but Lucas and Axiom worried over his disinterest in doing anything else. All their convincing brought him as far as the opposite library wall, only long enough find new literature to read. If anything, Axiom's well-intentioned lectures pushed him further away- Kero continued to give him the cold shoulder since first finding the egg, and Ax had not formally apologized nor addressed it. Axiom never did warm up to the idea of bringing the egg back, in fact, but presently was more concerned with winning back Kero's favor.

"Any change?" Axiom cautiously stepped into the office, triple checking that they were alone before even opening the door. 

"It feels warmer," Kero hollowly responded without so much as a glance in his direction. His gaze had been fixed on the egg for some time. Axiom noticed the pile of discarded books. They were tossed haphazardly to the side, some open to random pages as though he had become frustrated with their distraction. With a heavy sigh, Axiom patiently gathered them into an orderly stack. 

"You suppose that means it's close to hatching?"

"It must," Kero optimistically affirmed. His certainty caught Axiom off guard- enough to convince Axiom to feel it's surface for himself. Upon inspecting it personally, the wrinkled paralogos had to admit he couldn't tell a difference. Yet, hope still glimmered in Kero's eyes. Axiom's heart sank to see Kero like this.

"I certainly hope so," was all Axiom could bring himself to say. Having cleared a spot amongst the scattered tomes, he took a seat on the floorboards across from Kero. In this moment, the silence was almost comfortable. It had been weeks since the two had been able to share a space without argument. It made what he had to say all the more painful.

"Why don't I watch the egg for a while, Kero?" He lightly suggested. Immediately, he could see panic begin to rise within the lantern paralogos- his flame flickered, and his tail twitched defensively. 

"I can't leave it," Kero preemptively insisted.

"Kero, you have watched over it dutifully for weeks. You have done your part and then some- truly above and beyond. But in doing so you neglect yourself."

"I'm fine." His voice dripped with agitation. Axiom's on the other hand, reeked of desperation. He spoke faster with every sentence trying to get his message across before he was shut down completely.

"Lucas and I can't bear to see you like this, please just-"

"I said I'm FINE," Kero's lantern flame flared, dancing menacingly, daring Axiom to speak one more word. "Lucas just wants to study it- YOU don't even want it here. I am ALL it has! Neither of you can understand-"

"I DO understand now, Kero." These words finally broke through, calming him from the brink of rampage. Well, at least lulled him into a dumb stupor. But given Kero's state even that felt like progress. Axiom swallowed - he had to proceed carefully.

"Our kind come into the world alone. An unfortunate reality, but it is our reality nonetheless. That is how you and I came to be, but we are presented with a rare opportunity. Life can be different for this one. Perhaps with guidance from you and Lucas and I, it will grow strong. More well-rounded, more socialized, more... happy.

"I... Still think it should come to know it's origins," He stutteringly admitted. "But, if it truly is meant to take up a word focus from it's birthplace, I'm sure it will find a way."

Axiom bit his tongue, fighting the urge to ramble on and instead gauge a reaction from Kero. He had been staring blankly since he was first quelled, and the ensuing silence made Axiom uncomfortable. It was becoming too much, and he was about to ramble on when Kero finally spoke.

"Do you mean that?"

"I... I said it didn't I? I wouldn't lie, it's against my word focus."

"I mean, do you believe it?" Kero pressed. "Sometimes you say things, just spewing facts, but deep down you don't believe in what you say. I need you to believe it, Ax. Believe that it will be better off here than abandoned somewhere out in the wild. Believe that it belongs with us."

Axiom released a heavy sigh, and with it, the weight of a burden he didn't know he was carrying. 

"I believe YOU will be better off knowing it is safe and cared for, Kero. And frankly that believe trumps anything else I may say or think. So please believe me when I say I will support you in this."

Embers erupted like fireflies from the wick of Kero's lantern- a tell he was satisfied with this answer. Tension left his face as he too felt a weight leave him. A smile even managed to break through.

"Thank you, Axiom."

"Now please," Ax insisted with a throaty, melodious thrum. "Will you let me take over? Give yourself a rest."

"Fine, fine," he begrudgingly agreed. "But call me the second there's any change."

"You have my word," Axiom solemnly vowed.

"Alright." Kero made a brief search of the room to retrieve his last book, dusting it off and adjusting the bookmark. He still hesitated to depart, but another stern look from Axiom finally sent him on his way. 

The older paralogos slumped back in relief. He couldn't believe that actually worked.

A quiet rattling emanated from the eggshell. The entire egg appeared to quiver- on closer inspection, it wasn't the egg itself moving, but the lattice of scales armoring it's surface. They wiggled and pulsed of their own accord, synchronized like waves of the sea. The scales began shuttering faster, faster, faster! until one by one, they began to fall, loosed from their lattice. Squirming light poured out from the gaps they left. Although, the more scales that fell away, the more the light dimmed- the tablu rasa's physical shell was forming.

"KERO!" One of the best things about communicating via telepathy, was you could speak to one another over any distance. Axiom wasn't sure where his friend had gone, but he prayed it wasn't far. He'd never be forgiven if the egg hatched without Kero, especially after talking him into taking a rest. Luckily, Kero sensed the urgency in his call, and came flying back into the library within seconds.

"What's happened? What's-?" That expression of terror morphed instantly to elation when the hatching egg entered view. "It's... It's-?! LUCAS!" Kero loosed a sing-song bellow in excitement. It didn't take much longer for the concerned human to burst in after him. 

"What-?"

"The egg!" Kero practically danced on the spot before barging in to take up a more convenient post in the study. Awestruck, Lucas cautiously followed behind him.

"Incredible," Lucas breathed. Every fiber of his being itched to grab a journal and take notes, but at the same time he didn't dare look away. Instead he picked up the nearest book- something on a far unrelated topic, and started scribbling in the margins.

Each scale that fell away dissolved into light; the physical form of the shell fell away and diverted into the tablu rasa's new tangible construct. The light within, as it was finally revealed, squirmed in the form of a tiny paralogos- a tablu rasa- but was gradually dulled as it's body covering formed. Though, small portholes of light still shone along its neck and sides. When the support of the egg melted away, the creature clumsily somersaulted into the makeshift nest. The gangly thing took a moment to untangle itself. While un-contorting, all that could be made out from the vague lump were some shapeless, nondescript swaths of gray which stained its neck and tail (compared to the off-white of the body).

All three onlookers watched with bated breath for a minute, two minutes while it figured up from down, wondering if they dared touch the frail thing to step in and assist. But at least, more by accident than intent, the tablu rasa flopped right side up and blinked open its eyes.

"Hi, little one," Kero whistled a gentle welcome song while directing his telepathy to the babe. 

"Its... so small." Axiom couldn't help but join in the audible song. Perhaps he didn't even realize he was harmonizing. The hatchling considered this music for only a moment before mimicking a shrill cry. 

"It's beautiful." Lucas' eyes hadn't left the scene playing out yet his pencil still scribbled furiously- he could only imagine the state of his notes. 

The song of the older paralogos died off, and the baby likewise quieted... mostly. It seemed fascinated with its own ability to make noise, and now belted out a series of honks. 

"Noisy fellow," Lucas chuckled. The tablu rasa responded positively to his laughter with an odd bobbing motion. This in turn, turned it's attention to newfound motor control. Still honking, it fell forward a few times while attempting to stand.

"What should we name them?" Kero fondly thrummed.

"Let them come into their own name," Axiom absentmindedly urged. His tone now was unlike Axiom's usual knowing demands; he was clearly distracted, and awestruck by this tiny thing. Anxious Kero looked ready to protest, but Lucas quickly interjected.

"We can afford to wait a few days," their caretaker concurred. "No need to rush something that will stick with them lifelong." Kero snorted impatiently but did not press further.