Crack, crack.
Inside a room, in an insect nest carefully cushioned with padding.
The plump, smooth eggs trembled.
Amid a persistent, faintly noisy rustling as something wriggled within.
The first larva broke out of his shell.
It was an immeasurable moment: a new life had entered the world.
Out in the wilderness, these larvae's first lesson would have been to immediately devour their eggshell fragments for the nourishment they needed to survive.
They would also have had to run as fast as they could and hide in the darkest, safest corner.
To evade potential predators and dangerous natural disasters.
Even their own hungry mother.
Yet things did not unfold as expected.
Those instincts, which should have been passed down along with his genes, did not influence what this larva did next.
He first rose unsteadily, then looked around. He was not searching for his mother, but for something else.
Standing shakily, he felt the movement and temperature of the air.
He listened, looked, and sniffed, using every part of his body to search carefully.
Then he found it. Standing at the edge of the nest, he looked in that direction.
Light, and warm flames.
This was Ashen City, the place closest to the Sunfire God in all of the Flame Capital.
"Eee!"
He gave his first cry since birth, hoarse but full of life.
This larva had done something no insect in the wilderness would ever do, and soon, something was drawn to him.
Thud, thud, thud, click. Amid hurried footsteps, the door opened.
"Oh my goodness! My child, you hatched earlier than I expected!"
Another voice, gentle but slightly anxious, came from behind the larva. Then he felt a familiar pair of hands lift him.
It was his mother. The bond of blood made that easy for him to