"Don't know about pleasant, but it's bloody well alive," Cian said, aware he was stating the obvious, but then sometimes the obvious needed to be said out loud to try and become believable.

He wasn't certain that had actually worked this time.

The heat had apparently dissipated rapidly, and he approached the edge, crouching down, still wary, but now curiosity starting to creep past that. He peered down at the 'egg', which was not so much an egg but more like a cocoon upon closer study. "Don't look like no cockroach," he said, squinting a little in the growing darkness, the light from the goop having started to lose its intensity as it seeped away from the cocoon.