🌟 The Caged Bird 🌟 [Rebooted Reader Insert]

part 6: new day, new life

"Hey...."

"Hey little buddy..."

"It's time to wake up."

You awaken to soft nudging against your wing, companied by a faint, warm whispering voice gently whispering to you, gently pulling you out of sleep. You yawned groggily and pushed yourself up, and sniffed the air a few times, before looking up at your caretaker, Steven standing over you with a warm smile. "Good morning." He greets with a soft giggle, scooping you up into his arms and rocking you gently. "Did you sleep alright?"

You chirped tiredly in response, stretching out your arms, legs and wings with a long yawn. Steven smiled, walking over to his bed and sitting himself on the edge. "That's good. Got you some breakfast." He stated, holding up a feeding bottle. You chirped excitedly, latching eagerly onto the bottle, purring softly at the taste. "Heh... easy bud. Don't want it going down the wrong pipe or something."

You looked up at him quizzically. You didn't know what he meant by wrong pipe, but you still slowed your feeding pace down a bit, which made him giggle in amusement. "That's better."

After you finished off the last few drops of your milk you wiped your mouth off and looked up at him, signalling Steven to set the bottle aside. "Okay, today we're going to try to get you settled in." He states, standing up from his spot. "First, let's show the gems that your okay."

You chirped and cooed in enthusiasm. You didn't know what he was talking about, or who he was referring to, but you were still content to spend more time with him nonetheless.

"Aww... let's go." He headed towards the stairs, once again feeling a dull warmth ignite in his chest.
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"Good morning, guys!"

Downstairs, you were then greeted by 3 very interesting looking individuals.

A tall, thin pale woman with a notably pointed nose and peach colored hair in a slicked back pixie cut style. She also, strangely enough, had an large shiny pearl in the center of her forehead. She looked up from her task of dusting the table to greet the boy with a smile. "Good morning, Steven!"

The next one was a short purple woman, with long pale lavender hair that covered one eye and stretched to the floor. She had a purple gem on her chest. She waved lazily from her spot on the bar stool, with her mouth full of food. "Mornin' Steve-o."

Finally, there was a tall, maroon/red woman with a dark square-like afro of hair, and an interesting crown-shaped pair of orange-yellow glass over her face, which obscured her eyes from your view. She turned from her place in the kitchen and gave a small but friendly smile. "Mornin'."

Your brows knitted. These must be the "gems"... you thought, staring pensively at the three women. How peculiar. They looked human, but you sensed an unearthliness about them.

As Steven approached the trio, the "pearl" one seemed to have noticed you curled up in his arms and tilted her head. "Is that the... creature you hatched last night?"

"Yup! Aren't they cute?" Steven chirped cheerfully, holding you up for emphasis. He then cradled you in one arm, to gesture to the trio with the other. "These are the gems."

"That's Ameythyst..." He pointed to the purple one, who leaned forward a bit, her eyes lighting up in amazement upon seeing you up close. Namely your wings and tail. "Cooool..."

"That's Garnet..." He pointed to the afro haired one, who simply looked at you. She then offers a serene smile. "...hello, cutie pie."

"And that's Pearl!" He points to the thin one, who looked stunned, her hand on her chin in contemplation. "...what a unique little creature." She muses, walking up to him. She squints at you, looking oddly suspicious as she crosses her arms. "Exactly, what is it, though?"

"That's the cool part," Steven chirps, going back to cradling you with both arms. "It's a baby Siren!" Pearl blinked a few times, her brows lifting in surprise and confusion. "A... siren?"

"Yeah! It's supposed to be mythological, but there's one right here!" He smiled brightly, poking you lightly in your belly, eliciting a dolphin-esc laugh out of you. "Isn't that cool?"

Pearl and Garnet suddenly looked worried as they exchanged glances between each other. They may have been at least somewhat aware of what mythology was, but actually dealing with one of its creatures wasn't exactly in their field of knowledge or experience.

Steven continued, still smiling. "And they're gonna stay with us for a while."

Pearl blinked, taken aback. "Wh-what?"

"Alright!" Amethyst exclaimed excitedly. She wasn't too familiar with mythology, but it didn't stop her from being excited to get to live such a cool looking creature. "Where's it gonna stay? Can it stay in my room?"

"Just a minute, you two," Pearl steps up hurriedly, suddenly looking stern. "We have no experience with mythology. Let alone any of its... creatures." She said with a bit of hesitation. "We don't even know what a siren is, or what it's capable of!"

"I-I know! Me and Connie are gonna do more research on them today!" Steven quickly reassures, unconsciously holding you closer to his chest. "Besides, i-it's only until they get bigger. And come on, you guys took care of me when you weren't familiar with humans!"

Pearl flinched, looking hesitant. "But that's different." She insisted. "We had Greg guide us through it. We don't even know this little one's parents, nor do we know how they operate... for all we know they could get..."

Her voice faltered off as you pressed your face against his chest, purring as you listened to his heartbeat. "It seems they've grown attached to you already." Garnet calmly notes, to which Steven blushed faintly. "Y-yeah. I-I guess so." He chuckled, lifting a hand to you, letting you play with his index finger.

Pearl sneered, feeling her resolve to protest against this idea fading. Even with all of the alarms going off, she couldn't deny that sending you out underdeveloped and vulnerable like this would be heartless. Steven would never forgive them or himself if anything were to happen to you under their choice.

Besides, he wasn't wrong before when it came to giving things a chance. Peridot is proof if such insistence.

"Well... I suppose we can try to learn about them as well." Pearl said quietly.

"Yes!" Ameythyst pumped her fists into the air.

"But we'll need to take precautions!" Pearl warned. "We need to keep an eye on it at all costs!"

"Don't worry, I will." Steven smiled, as you lightly teethed on his finger.
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Even in the future, I'd think Pearl would be iffy with allowing an unfamiliar creature live with them.

I mean come on, a bird-fish-human hybrid?