A/N: Jolly Heart Platypus and Pledge Heart Platypus are owned by Fauna Greywolf
Chapter 27: Baby Boom, Cozy Heart and Jolly Heart
Jolly Heart was curled up around his and Cozy Heart’s eggs in their riverside home, one bright blue and the other lavender. The colors weren’t that odd to them, since every animal in the Kingdom of Caring was brightly colored anyway.
Movement from the eggs startled Jolly out of his nap. He looked down to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating and saw the eggs shaking.
“Sheila, Cm’ere! They’re hatchin’!” Jolly called out.
Cozy Heart came waddling as fast as she could, still wet from when she had been swimming. She watched the eggs, “Come out, we want to meet you.” She coaxed without touching the eggs.
Of the two the lavender egg was shaking more violently, then cracks appeared and began to flake off and a white bill began pushing the shards aside. Eventually half the shell was in pieces and a baby platypus covered in egg goo crawled out.
Jolly was the first to scoop up the baby, “Don’t worry, nippah, I’ll get you cleaned off.” He retreated to the bathroom and prepared hot water to clean him off.
Cozy kept her eye on the blue egg, which only shook every so often before a single crack finally appeared. “Ssslow and sssteady,” Cozy said as she watched. Eventually more cracks appeared and the bottom of the egg crumbled away, leaving the bottom half of a penguin chick sitting under a mostly intact shell, but still covered with egg goo. Cozy wanted to reach down and pull the egg off her child, but she had to let them do it on their own. After some awkward shuffling around the penguin chick pushed its feet on the shell and forced it off. Cozy scooped them up before they could shuffle away and waddled towards the bathroom.
Jolly had already finished cleaning off the platypus, a boy with dark lavender fur and a white bill and tail. “Here ya go, Cozy. He’s cute.”
Cozy giggled as she moved to carefully bathe the newly hatched penguin. “He’sss beautiful, and ssso isss he.” She carefully bathed the goo of the penguin, a boy, and revealed his ice-blue fur. “We ssshould take them to Take Care.”
“Roight Shiela,” Jolly nuzzled his beak against Cozy’s, since they couldn’t really kiss, then picked up his platypus son as they headed for Take Care’s hospital.
Take Care was out when they arrived, having gone to her reading spot with Indy, so Get Well looked after the two cubs. “This is a bit odd, I mean you two are the most unique cousins up here.” She commented as she ran the baby penguin and platypus through their tests. “As far as I can see they’re healthy, if I compare them to your own records. Just let us know if you have any concerns.”
“OI think we’ll do alright. Thanks Dr. Get Well,” Jolly said.
Get Well beamed slightly as being called ‘doctor’ right before Brave Heart arrived to give the new cubs their tummy symbols. The baby platypus was named Pledge Heart and had a close envelope with a red heart shaped seal for a tummy symbol and the penguin was names Chill Heart and had three heart shaped ice cubes for a tummy symbol; bokth had a red heart stamp on the front of their bills much like their parents.
It wasn’t too long after the twins were at home and diapered that they started crying. It didn’t take much to figure out what was wrong.
“They’re hungry,” Cozy said.
“Yeah, so how do you, err, feed them Cozy?” Jolly’s tone had become a bit concerned.
Cozy patted her chest, “I’m a bird so I can’t nurse them.”
“Unless you sweat milk.” Jolly’s comment made Cozy give him a funny look. “It’s how platypuses feed hatchlings.” He turned to their children, “A bottle might not work either. What’ll we do?”
Cozy stared at her children, “Noble Heart and Take Care had to feed me mussshy food when I wasss a cub sssince I couldn’t drink from a bottle.” Something clicked in Cozy Heart’s mind and she turned to the nursery door, “I think I know. Watch them, Jolly,” Cozy hurried out of their home to the water’s edge and dove in.
“What’re you doing, Cozy?” Jolly called a bit too late for Cozy to hear before she was underwater.
Some might have found it odd that Cozy and Jolly fished for their food, but both of them occasionally enjoyed raw fish so there was no reason for them not to do this. The circle of life was still a thing in the Kingdom of Caring. Cozy found some small fish quite easily and snatched them up in her beak. She jumped back out onto the back next to her home, still chewing the fish in her mouth as she walked back to her newborn children.
Jolly just watched his wife in confusion as she approached the crying babies and leaned over, beak open. Instinct kicked in for Chill Heart first and he stood up and reached into her beak with his own, chewing at the food stored in Cozy’s craw. Pledge had some more difficulty so Cozy resorted to pushing some of the food into his mouth.
By the time Cozy finished and her children were asleep, Jolly was just staring at her.
Cozy smiled, “That’sss how penguinsss feed their chicksss. Platypuss mothersss have their way, penguinsss have this.”
“I see,” Jolly nodded, “Lookit ‘em sleeping. You sure you’re alright doing that for every meal?”
“I have to be, for their sake.” Cozy leaned up against him, “Besssidess, penguin dadsss spent more time raising the chicksss than the momsss.”
Jolly put an arm around Cozy, “Alright, Shiela, don’t worry. I’ll do my part too.”
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