the bed of flowers near the den had been ravaged some time in the night. scores of lavender boughs upended, a bevy of queen anne’s lace trampled underfoot.
ava turned her sights to the beach. the tunicate lingered in her mind, conjuring a wellspring of concocted ideas she was too young yet to act upon.
an impossibly large figure loomed on the beach. its surface was a shadowed disc; it moved in heavy flops of each heaving limb. she struggled to define the true shape of this thing, for its silhouette shimmered like a mirage the longer she gazed upon it.
its cumbersome head lowered, sharp beak scissoring across the very bed of tunicates ava had come here for. a quiet, half-strangled cry sprung from the girl’s lips as she saw the last of the floral jelly scraped from stone and consumed by the lumbering beast.
The massacres to the flowers at the desired, neatly placed by Dinah, Heda and likely so Judah alike, did not go without notice. Surely, many noticed, as they all shared the same den. Kai however, had now known the culprit. She smelt heavily of the flowers and he even thought he saw some petals stuck to the bottoms of her feet as she left the scene of the crime and towards the beach!
Kai followed. From afar, he could easily be thought to be guarding his little sister. Learning the role of watching over the flock in the same manner which he had begun minding the borders. However, Kai really had no intention of protecting the younger pup. Simply see what else she might be getting into and catching her in the act.
Then, she was approaching Psalm. Then, she was crying out in a rage. Between her now and Tzedeq prior, Kai had only had bad experiences with these new siblings of his each of the very few times he had interacted with them. The sin of their mother seeped into them like a demon's claws. The darkness which cloaked them may never be lifted.
Assuming it was a fault of Ava's own, Kai runs towards and around the girl, so that he might stand in front of the great lumbering beast protectively. Leave her alone!
around the monolith an aura shimmered; ava watched as it supped the last of the tunicate. it turned, and for a moment she felt a chill rake her spine as she was regarded with the flat edge of a half-lidded eye.
malakai strode between them, prompting ava to step back in surprise. his posture plainly threatened her, but it was not the large thing she wanted!
sourness stole across ava’s features. malakai was Other, belonging to a family ava would never neatly fit inside. she was a nest parasite, partitioning off resources the Other harbourlings coveted. he was aware of this, and she was aware that he — and the Others — did not truly love her or her siblings.
ava fixed him with the turtle’s lidless stare. an unbidden emotion knifed within her breast. nearby, the great thing’s flippers shifted, heaving it to the glittering edge of another tide pool.
she strode past malakai’s bristling form, sniffing the empty spot the tunicate had left.
Ava's eyes had yet to turn their true colors yet, but already Kai's had begun so and that moon and sun gaze stared her down hard. His tail high up over his back, lip quivering. If she came to hurt Psalm, she would surely regret it.
But she didn't.
The turtle slowly turned and moved into the next tide pool. Ava strode past and with a careful eye, Malakai watched her. If she had hurt the cherished turtle of his parents, him beating her down for it might have been warranted but she seemed to not care for it. Only staring at a spot in the sand for some odd reason or another. A part of her poisoned, blackened mind, he guessed.
Now, he was left to only watching her. If she were doing no evil deed, Kai would no longer have been able to justify his actions. So, instead he sat neat on a sand dune and watched her and a hard eye.
for a moment, both withstood the bite of the other’s stare. they did not know yet their shared darkness: each an asp clad in ruffled wolf-furs, yet cut from the same snakeskin.
ava’s nose snuffled over the bare spot. it smelled damp, of brine and seaweed — but the slate was licked clean.
while malakai moved away, she did not forget the curl of malakai’s tail, nor the hostile fireshow in his eyes.
onwards the seabeast forded, large gouges in the sand left as it trawled towards a band of kelp.
ava fell in step behind it, playing by herself as lonely children often do.
The turtle retreated, onto the next spot to eat or either to retreat back into the deeper waters of the salt sea, maybe to get rid of the annoying dark pup following behind it. Malakai watched on, claiming the role of God's warrior well. Psalm was the innocent. Ava was the product of sin and filth. He would protect God's creation if the need arise.
For now, he watched his little sister. It was odd that each of them were cloaked in a darkness of black, some more so then others- like this one and her half-blind sister. Their mother's evil had dug deep into the flesh of these children. Surely their mother must be evil by abandoning her pups! It's no wonder why they were the way they were. Why they were marked by it, physically and mentally.
Kai's parents were the best thing that ever happened to these pups and maybe, if they continued to act as heinous as they did, his parents would be the only good to happen to them.
gosh i love his thought process
on ava amara went. she pounced on each new ridge produced by the leviathan's churning flippers, noiseless save the occasional gurgle of amusement. the tiniest grains of sand rolled away from her batting paws, and she delighted at the coolness of the sand between each small toe.
malakai stood watch behind her. anyone besides ava might think his presence there was a protective deterrent -- but ava knew it was not her he stood watch over.
she paused as the water-beast paused, her nose glistening in the bright sun as she sampled the brine on the breeze. watchful of the great thing, ava mimicked her and pounced upon a bundle of kelp, taking it greedily into her mouth.
blech! it tasted too salty and astringent! she spat it on the sand and looked back to the turtle in bewilderment -- surely it preferred better cuisine than nasty sea-grass?
and that was when a most delightful idea came to little ava amara.
Haha, thanks! He's such an ass.
Yes, one might think, that the older brother was patiently and protectively watching over his sister. Both knew it not to be true, yet both likely would never speak otherwise. Malakai, because he would enjoy the praise of being called a good brother and well protector. Ava, because, well, she didn't speak at all. None of them did, at least that Kai was ever aware. Their mother, even in the few moments she had them in her care, had certainly did some damage to them.
Malakai didn't care for his little siblings, but should their birth mother ever return for them, knew he would put a swift end to it. Malakai would help to purge this land of evil, one step at a time.
Kai's head lifted as Ava's did, scenting the salty air and others of their pack in the breeze. Bi-colored eyes turned down to see her spatting out clumps of seaweed and he snickers. Idiot. Was he that dumb at that age?
watchful malakai and the troubles he wore as a cowl around his shoulders was left behind. ava had a new fixation — and playmate.
she bounded after the heaving turtle as it grazed; a fistful of bright flowers clutched to her person.
here! her sparkling eyes seemed to communicate as she placed the bundle of flowers close to the turtle’s grazing maw.
she stepped back breathlessly, hopeful gaze upon the lumbering beast as it inspected its new verdant offering.
Flowers? It seemed Ava had a change of heart then. Instead of being angered by the turtle ripping apart the plants and eating them, Ava was now offering food to it. Between seaweed and flowers, Malakai didn't know what the creature preferred. It's not like it actually spoke their tongue. In fact, Malakai didn't exactly know anything about the creature, other then their parents calling it 'Psalm' and it being a friend to the islanders.
Malakai shrugged to himself and lowered, flattening his body to the mixture of grass and sand earth, forelegs stretched in front of him and back legs kicked out.
malakai settled between blades of emerald seagrass. ava kept one thin ear turned to his person, half-anticipating some sort of reprisal.
transfixed by psalm she watched as the grazer turned its attention to her small offering, sniffing with deep draughts of breath before turning its head sidelong and seizing the verdant stems in its beak.
did it like it? ava’s gold-studded eyes lit with childish joy. as the turtle ate, she scampered off to the bushes for more sprigs, laughing each time she deposited a new plant — finding joy in seeing what psalm ate with gusto, and what she overlooked for better offerings.
Time passes by as Ava went back and forth, seeking more flowers and anything else of bright interest that she could rip from the earth and give to the large, lumbering beast to eat.
Malakai watched her and after a time, laid his head down on his forelegs. Now, he could just see pieces and flashes of her crude coloring beyond the long grass. Eventually, with Ava's quiet rummaging and the sound of the waves washing over the beach, the boy fell to sleep.
with each new plant laid across the sandy plate of psalm’s five star course, ava’s delight grew. there were some things the turtle snubbed; marigold, aster, and clover. but the anne’s lace, the yarrow, and lavender! these she ate heartily.
after a while, ava forgot malakai had been watching her. in her bustle she did not see he’d slipped off in a patch of late summer grass. while he snored, ava’s quiet laughter filled the sound as she found each new treat to present to psalm.
that night she would dream psalm ate a thousand crabs — gliding through an ethereal kelp forest that somehow seemed intimately familiar, as if her soul had once lived there long ago.