Work Text:
Peep.
Peep peep.
Peep!
Thaesa clutches the peeping basket to her chest as she sneaks from the storeroom to the barracks, a little tuft of red fabric sticking out of the basket near the bottom like a flag trying to call attention to the Southern candidate even more than the distressed calls of the guinea chick inside. Somehow, she manages to make it back to the barracks without getting caught and quickly makes her way over to her neatly made cot, gently setting the basket down before sitting beside it. Fortunately, everyone else is off doing morning chores, so the barracks are empty but for a few firelizards hanging about and enjoying the indoor warmth as winter rages -- as much as it ever rages at Igen -- outside.
Peep!
Settling beside the basket, facing it with one leg curled under her, Thae lifts the lid and carefully scoops the chick out onto her cot where it immediately runs for the edge and she has to scramble to catch it before it can take a nosedive off the edge, "Careful, baby! We don’t want you to get hurt." She holds the chick up to her face, body carefully cradled in her hands, and gets a sharp peck on the end of her nose for her troubles, "Hey!" She jerks back, holding the little peeper at arm's length, "That’s not nice."
Peep.
"Yeah, same to you." Thae carefully tucks the chick into her shirt, willing to try anything to keep it contained while she rearranges the delicate red fabric inside the basket into what she thinks might be a comfortable nest for her tiny little charge, "There. That should do it." Her shirt gets untucked so that she can pull the chick out from the bottom and deposit it back in the basket. For now, with the chick so small, the basket is plenty big enough to keep it contained with room to grow. A sleepy peep comes from the basket as she secures the lid and carefully slides it under her cot, hidden directly behind her press and behind a drape of blanket pulled over the edge to dangle toward the floor.
All that's left is to get the other candidates in on it and figure out what to feed their tiny peep.