Sins of the past

Chapter 1

The damp corridors of the deep nest always seemed to be filled with a sense of dread for those not native. It's unnatural quietness and hostility proving more over that this was not a place for those who rely on the light.

Down one particular tunnel a smaller then normal but still quite large female nosk hustled along dragging a large, black, fleshy, sack of stolen eggs in its fangs. Much like most native bugs of the deep nest, the nosk was a vicious carnivore that fed on anything it could hunt but giving the lack of prey to be found lately and the fact that most of the food that could be found was far stronger then she was, she had to adapt new hunting techniques. One such technique was to steal bundles of eggs from a dark pit she had found during one of her searches for food. Most of them didn't show signs of hatching basically telling the nosk that the eggs were stillborn and that the mother of them must of just tossed them away. A cruel fate for such young blood to be cast aside without a care, but to the nosk it was food and food she needed badly.

With one last heave and struggle, the nosk brought her catch back to her den of hanging trophy's and past prey. She then began slicing through the veiny sack to get to the eggs with unhindered hunger. It had been days since she was able to find a decent enough meal so her hunger was desperate.
Using her hard forearms to crack the fairly hard shells with ease and a long stiff tongue to lap at the rotting carcasses of dead hatchlings she began eating.
A gross meal for any normal bug but the nosk couldn't care less. Food was food in her eyes so she happily devoured the eggs one by one in a dirty mess of spoilt egg yolk and undeveloped limbs. Once the nosk had fed herself to a comfortable fill, she noticed that one of the leftover eggs wasn't as smelly as the rest. It was black instead of the light grey of the rotten ones and had a fair bit of weight to it. Studying the egg under a delicate claw, the nosk had determined that against all odds, this single egg was not dead but very much alive and thriving. The egg seemed to shutter at the cool air of the den and without much thought the nosk gripped it with her jaws as gentle as she could and carried it away to a nearby nest of dry moss and other silks. The nosk then laid down and shoved the egg under her soft mid section where her species normal held their offspring. Be it maternal instincts or just the desperate attempt at stuffing away the solitude, she decided that this was her egg now and that she was going to raise it as her own.
For the first couple nights the egg remained mostly unchanged in terms of growth leaving the nosk to question its vitality, but soon would relax seeing it twitch and wobble as the hatchling inside developed more under her body heat and protection. As the days slowly passed by she continued to watch over her future broods progress, until finally the day came. Only small little cracks of the egg shell happened at a time and inbetween each attempt the hatchling would stop to regain its strength. Since there wasn't much the nosk could do to help it, all she would do is chitter noises of encouragement for her child.
In terms of food the nosk didn't know what kind the hatchling would most likely eat and had decided to prepare a few different stockpiles incase.
From meats to fruits and fungi as well as even a jar of honey she had stolen from a weavers den during one of her scavenging hunts, All in preparation for the slowly hatching child.

During the time she was gone from the nest quickly hunting another weaver or two, it had hatched leaving its egg shell in a mess on the webbed nest. Covered in sticky leftover egg fluid and small bits of grime the hatchling shivered in both fear and cold. It was alone in the dark and all it knew was that its mother was not here and she was always here. Letting out a high pitched cry of despair the hatchling began calling out for its mother, hoping the other would hear its pleads and come to its aid.

At this moment the nosk in question had only just returned to her den when she heard its howl filled with fear, dropping the grubs in her maw to rush for her distressed baby. As carefully as she could the nosk tended to her small child with small noises of endearment, using her long tongue to safely clean and stimulate the hatchling to start breathing better. Much to her surprise the hatchling was far more developed then she had anticipated and obviously didn't need her to encourage it to breath on its own, but the comfort and affection her licking was giving seemed to justify her reasons for continuing. Once it had calmed down under her warmth and nuzzles only then did she really look at what her hatchling looked like. It was small like way smaller then she would of thought and had a hard shell on its head with two twin horns that curled in on themselves. Its body was mostly soft and squishy with an almost fluid like feel to it, They also had small padded paws with short nubby claws and a very long tail that they would suck on through a thin mouth on their mask. The biggest and most noticeable feature it had was its wings, Long and dark like a butterfly but also delicate and thin like a dragonfly. While the hatchling was nuzzled into her side the nosk noticed that she couldn't identify the child's gender. No amount of pheromones it gave off indicated if it was male or female but the nosk didn't mind for she found the mystery more intriguing.

A week passed since lefty hatched, a name the nosk had given her baby because of the way they would always tilt their head to the left when they slept. It was a cute trait that often had the nosk cooing with happiness from just how adorable lefty was. As the days went by the hatchling continued to grow heathy even on rare occasions eating a whole dirtcarver by themselves. The hatchling didn't get hungry very often but when they did it was very apparent because they would get grouchy. The nosk learned to read her child's body language and rarely did she have to punish them for being naughty. Though it wasn't all easy as the hatchling seemed to be distracted easily by any sort of sound or light. More than once the nosk had nearly lost her mind when she realized her child had wandered off listening to the nearby weavers and other deep nest creatures going about their lives. Normally a hatchling nosk would be able to camouflage themselves almost as soon as they were hatched. It was a survival technique her species adapted so that the high death rate of nosk hatchlings would decrease.

But her child was not a nosk by nature and it was very clumsy with its own exploration mostly tripping over its own tail and flopping on its belly when it felt tired. The only saving grace to the whole wandering off thing was that she knew Lefty could more or less deter another from approaching them with snarls and spitting noises. A technique the child had shown when their mother had come home from a long hunting trip smelling unlike herself, to which the child responded with clear aggression and fear.

Hustling down the path the child had wandered only stopping briefly to sniff and scan the area for lefty's trail, the nosk ran for her baby.

The young vessel couldn't help themselves from being curious of the deepnest and it's inhabitants, they would often follow behind the strange creatures with the large white heads listening to the noises they made. On this particular trip lefty wasn't following any sounds but a smell, a deep scent that made the young vessels mouth water. It wasn't like they normally got hungry in fact lefty could go for a long time without eating but for some reason this smell called to them. Like a moth to a flame the vessel followed the smell until they reached a cavernous room filled with the delectable scent. It seemed to be a hot spring that was the source of the mouth watering smell much to their confusion. Leaning over the edge of the water the young vessel pawed at it watching the soul tainted water swirl around their outstretched claws and get absorbed into themselves filling the weird hunger slowly. While their focus was on the hot spring before them, lefty failed to see the flash of blue as a small object crashed into them knocking the startled vessel face first into the water.