Turning to Stone 4: New Leaders (Rewritten)

Chapter 3: Egotistical

Jerrick seemed... unimpressed to meet everyone else. He hardly even looked up from his book, a bored look on his face. "Whatcha readin'?" Ephex asked, trying to start a conversation. Jerrick simply lifted the book, showing the cover.. It looked like a book way beyond his age, something about mathematics that even Ailura couldn't understand (or maybe she was just bad at math).

"Jerrick is our most intelligent young monster around, and a Deedge is the perfect monster to lead Cold Island." The mammott explained. "He looks like a boring weirdo." Bertilda muttered.

"I heard that." Jerrick remarked calmly, his eyes never leaving the page. "Do we have ta take 'im with us?" The entbrat whined. "Yes, we're taking him. If Cold Island believes that this monster will be a good leader, then we'll make him even better." Ephex patted her shoulder.

"Oh please. I'm already perfect." The deedge scoffed. "Nobody's perfect. You have a short while to pack whatever you need before we leave." Ailura told him blankly. "Where's the nursery?" She asked the mammott.

"Right this way!" They said, already walking towards it. "Here, Bertilda, you can stay here and hang out with the other monsters for a bit." Ephex said, nudging the entbrat so she stayed in the room. "Fine." She huffed, pouting a bit. Xander stayed close to Ephex, not wanting to be in a room full of monsters. They could stay with them.

"Plenty of monsters have heard about the latest Wublin advancements, and have offered to donate their eggs. Those ones are stored over there." The mammott pointed to a basket within the nursery. "Plus, there's the usual orphaned eggs."

"Wow." Ailura's ears perked up. She wasn't expecting so many monsters to really care about the Wublins. Jolthead's gonna be pretty happy when we tell them. "Ephex, you've got the lists, right?"

"Yep!" The Wubbox exclaimed, pulling out the papers. "According to Jolthead, the 'cooldown' doesn't apply if you're using a different nest or zapping to a different Wublin, so we should be able to zap plenty of eggs."

"I'll leave you two to do what you need to." The mammott gave them a quick wave and left. Ailura took the opportunity to look through the donated eggs. "Here's a Deedge, that's one we need, right?" She held up the egg. Ephex checked the list. "Yep, we'll definitely need one of those. Hand it over." She did as they asked, and the Wubbox zapped the egg easily.

Xander seemed intrigued by the process, staring as Ephex and Ailura zapped a couple more eggs. "Basilio and Jolthead said they'd take care of the plant eggs we'd need." Ephex reminded her. "Oh, good. I could probably open a small portal and try to contact them." The Ghazt suggested, earning a nod from her Wubbox companion.

The process of making a portal came as naturally to her as breathing or flying around, and she had a portal just big enough for her to get through within a minute. "I'll be right back." She slipped through, landing on the floor just outside Basilio's room.

She knocked on the door, hearing surprised sounds from behind it until Basilio eventually answered. "Ailiura? Shouldn't you be on Cold Island? How..." He looked behind her at the portal. "Oh. That's how. I should have guessed."

"I'm not staying long, but I figured a 'check-in' might be good." She explained. "Of course, of course. Come in." Basilio gestured inside the room with his head. She looked back at the portal for a second, confident that it would stay open long enough for their conversation, before following the T-rox into the room.

It didn't look like Jolthead was around at the moment. The room seemed pretty empty without them."So, you've got the eggs from here under control?" She asked. Basilio nodded. "Don't worry, we'll handle everything we can from here. What about you? You're taking care of the Cold Island eggs?"