It's really starting to struggle its way out of the cocoon now. You want to help but know that you shouldn't unless it seems like it won't make it on its own--and even
then you shouldn't if you were really taking the place of a lusus, getting out being the last trial a troll went through in the brooding caverns to prove it deserved a chance at life--it's important that they make use of their newly-formed muscles, the struggle teaching them how to use their legs and arms.
Its blood is pear-green, you learn when more of its body breaks out and you get a good look at the goop coating it, a bright and cheerful color. It's a girl, her body slight but that was expected when she hadn't eaten anything since spinning her cocoon. Her hair was short, a matted mess, tangled around her branching horns.
Unable to think of anything else to do you dig a loaf of bread out of your handy bag of supplies, pressing a bit to her mouth when she doesn't seem to know what to do after taking it. As soon as she realizes what you're trying to get her to do she starts eating ravenously. It's not much, but it will buy time for you to get her to your camp where you can set her loose on your supplies. Even though she's made it out this is still a dangerous point in her life; she'll need to eat an incredible amount over the next day or two to make up for the time she spent going hungry.
"You can't mean to keep her," Equius says as you lift her into your arms.
"What else can I do?" you ask, a tinge of hopelessness in your voice. Getting saddled with a little girl isn't something you'd have chosen for yourself either. Will you be able to keep up your explorations with a freshly-limbed child tagging along? "She won't take a lusus now."
"Yes, but the law is very clear on what must be done to a child without a lusus..." he starts, only to trail off. Anyone who didn't know him well would say he looked as impassive as ever, but you can tell that he doesn't actually want to suggest that you cull the little thing.
"Nobody knows
what the law is now," you tell him firmly. "Everything's changing. Nobody's going to kill her and risk making Feferi angry when they don't know what she might end up doing once she takes her throne." You stroke the girl's hair, trying to untangle it a little with your fingers. "Humans can do this, Equius. Humans only do it this way. If they can, we can. Or are you saying we're less capable than them?"
"...We?" he asks, and your heart stutters.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have presumed. Of course, if you want nothing to do with her I won't try to make you help. If I need assistance I'll try asking Sollux instead, it's probably fits more under moirail territory any--"
"I would gladly remain with you as you care for her," he cuts in, "if you would wish for me to remain near for as many sweeps as that would take."
"I--" you start, than pause. This is something you should think over carefully, you know, because you know that he'll take your answer very seriously. But you find that don't really need to spend much time considering it at all. "Yes, Equius. Let's be parents."
The human word feels strange in your mouth, as strange as the feeling of the child snuggling into your shoulder. But his hand linking with yours when you reach out towards it seems entirely right, and his strength at your side leaves you hopefully suspecting that this strange new undertaking will turn out right in the
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