all allowed near the den!
mireille stared down at the pillbug which had made its way from some mossy underworld out under the clumsy paws of little ones. and into a den no less. "oui!" she hissed, a correct syllable said by someone with no inkling of its meaning.
the armored thing rolled itself protectively.
"no!"
that word, somewhat more familiar.
her sister's hiss drew the elfin sea-sprite from hiding, a mixture of concern and curiosity tinging autumn-kissed features as coraline drifted up alongside mireille in the sluggish manner of gentle low tide with an owlish expression to match. bright eyes turned first to her sister, then to the tiny balled up intruder, then back, blinking. what was mireille doing? why did she seem so perturbed by such a small thing? seeking to understand, coraline pawed at the unknown little visitor, touch featherlight and oozing wariness. but this offered no more explanation than she'd found before, so she turned back to mireille once again, voice soft and shaky with disuse (for she'd always been a quiet girl, even as she learned to imitate her siblings in the vocalizations of infanthood) as she questioningly parroted her sister's earlier exclamation: no?
mireille's outburst startled the girl a little, drawing a wary side-eye with an expression that spoke to coraline's poor impression of her sister's stability. the pebble edged away from the ticking time bomb that had shared a womb with her, even as her sister lowered herself with a whine toward the tiny foreign creature. belatedly it occurred to coraline that perhaps the whine signalled some sort of change, and her gaze drifted back to the bug, now unfurling in a swarm of legs that set her heart racing and her stomach clenching sickly. she started to step back, then froze as the tiny thing flipped itself to show a gleaming ribbed topside and made for her delicate toes. a shriek tore itself from her throat even before she knew her own horror, and she scrambled back in a panicked tangle of limbs, fearblind to whether such an action would drag mireille down with her.
sorry for the wait!