Redhawk Caldera Back at base, bugs in the software

Not long after @Fox left on her trip to go see Wildfire, Peregrine fed the boys lunch and then tried (and mostly failed) to get them to settle down for a nap. He plopped nearby, keeping a shrewd eye on them. They were particularly rowdy, so the Alpha decided he could use some backup. He tipped his head back and called for @Eljay primarily and secondarily for @Elwood or @Finley. Hopefully one (or more) of the trusty Blackthorns could spare some time to help him babysit.

While he waited for help to arrive, Peregrine looked up at the sky with a furrowed brow. There had been a strange humming sound vibrating in the air all day, though he had shrugged it off as cicadas or something. Now, though, the noise grew and a great shadow fell over the caldera. He stood uneasily, balancing on three legs as he tried to figure out what he was seeing.

They washed over him—over the entire rendezvous site—like an ocean wave. "Grasshoppers?" Peregrine guessed out loud even as several clung to his fur. One even perched right atop his head. He turned and shuffled over toward the pups, wading through several inches of the creeping, crawling insects. One pegged him in his blind eye and he hissed as he came to stand over the (likely mesmerized) @Ferret, @Gannet, @Whip and @Peter.

"Uh, should I be concerned?" he consulted them before playfully flicking a particularly huge locust in Ferret's general direction.

Ohhhh this was just splendid. Boredom be damned for the boredom-busting bugs had barged in! Eyes glinting with mischief and tail swatting the air with joy, the boy wasted no time in snapping his jaws at all the locusts. It was downright overwhelming how many there were, and he pounced and dashed in all the directions because he could not pick just one spot or area to play in, as he was determined to have the impossible (that is, all of them).

Ferret frolicked through the swarm barking and woofing, crushing innumerable critters between his teeth, and happily lunging at the bug his father flicked toward him. It too met an undignified end between his molars, before his darting eyes found their next victim. And the next one. And the next one. Annnnd the next one.

Best. Day. Ever!

Fin felt sluggish as she roused herself and answered the call of the apparently desperate but not-at-all-picky alpha as he summoned a bundle of his subordinates to him. She felt like she was coming down from a high now that her hormones were beginning to settle. While panic at the thought that in spite of endless humping, Elwood had not managed to impregnate her in time threatened to ensue, the Blackthorn did find herself a bit relieved that her body was willing to allow her to return to her regularly scheduled crazy rather than this insatiable mega-crazy for peen monster she'd been the past week. It was likely also to be a relief to the alpha she would soon be seeing again. Certainly Peregrine had not been overly pleased to lose both of his beta wolves to puppy-making so soon after breaking his leg. Whoopsies.

The Blackthorn had become aware of the buzzing as she made her way to the rendezvous site. For a moment, she'd thought that it had just been her ears. But as the grasshopper-like vermin began to appear in the air before her like large bits of dandelion fluff, she recognized that something odd was happening outside of her brain (for once). She wasn't particularly concerned, but still when she arrived at her alpha's side, she fixed him with a somewhat wierded-out expression.

"This is normal, right?" she asked as she dropped to her haunches next to him, taking care not to plant her bum right on top of one of the insects, "Like. This happens here every five years or something and is not at all bizarre or kind of gross?" She eyed Ferret as he snapped them up, cringing slightly at the crunch they made between his teeth.

It was a combination of Peregrine's request and the worrisome cloud of insects that spurred Elwood onward. He kept a wary eye on the sky, watching the swarm of locusts that very literally darkened the caldera's doorstep as he made his way to the rendezvous site. Never before had he seen such a strange phenomenon, and while the loud bugs didn't seem to be trying to cause any harm to him, they still made him uneasy.

When he arrived, he found not only Peregrine present with the puppies, but Finley as well. Catching the tail end of her statement, he grimaced as he sidled up to her. He gave her hip an affectionate bump with his own, then said, "It's totally bizarre and completely gross. What's going on?" His gaze strayed to Ferret, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the unusual snack that Mother Nature had provided. He ran his tongue over his teeth, wincing as he imagined spindly insect legs wedged into his gums.

Ferret might have been having a field day, but Gannet was completely overstimulated by the cyclone of insects that randomly overtook the rendezvous.  He'd been enjoying gnawing on a particularly wonderful stick when the first of them came, and as the rest followed, he sat up and stared.  They were EVERYWHERE.

He couldn't even follow, though he tried to watch all at one for a moment or two.  In the end he just ended up focusing on one particular one in front of him, which just happened to land and crawl a bit.  Bringing a paw forward (and ignoring the other bugs for the moment), he tapped it..... only to have it fly into his face a second later.

Letting out a small noise of surprise, he scrambled backwards, only to meet a wall of it's bretherin and feel their wings beat at his pelt.  Ok.  Nope.  This was done.  Seeking the nearest available adult (ie for these purposes Finley) he slunk beneath her as best he could, ears flattened against the offending army of crawlies.

Initially, while the impending swarm was still benign, the arrival of the locusts had been such good fun. Like his brother Ferret, Whip spent his time chasing the first few flying pests around the rendezvous site with reckless abandon and a rapidly wagging tail. At first, they had been few in number -- nothing to worry about in Whip's mind, but as the hum of the swarm grew and the sky grew dark with millions of bugs, Whip's fun came to a swift and sudden end.

He was awestruck -- dumbfounded by natures blind fury. What had once become a thing of innocent fun was now a brimming source of terror. Frozen with fear, Whip stood fast with his brothers and his body shriveled and shrank. His mouth hung agape. Thankfully, Peregrine stepped in to protect them from the swarm.  Whip looked up and pushed into his father for comfort and protection. "I dun' wanna play no more, Duh," the child spoke, fearfully.

Participants: there's no posting order, as far as I'm concerned!

Others: please feel free to toss your toons in here anytime. :)

His eldest son seemed thrilled with this development. Peregrine grinned as he watched Ferret scurry hither and thither, batting at his new playthings. The other three did not seem quite as amused about the situation. Peter remained close to his father's leg, where Whip joined him. Meanwhile, Gannet slunk toward the newly arrived Beta pair, clearly trying to use her as a makeshift umbrella against the storm of bugs.

Elwood and Finley seemed just as bemused as the swarthy Alpha. "They're just passing through," Peregrine mused, "right?" Some concern began to seep into his demeanor and his lips fell slightly as he informed them, "Fox went to see Wildfire earlier today. Think these guys got her too? They don't seem to be doing any harm..." Except for the part where they kept banging into various parts of his body and fluttering and clicking and buzzing so loudly it made his brain rattle in his skull.

He idly watched Ferret for a moment, then said, "Maybe we should go to ground? In that cave where we sheltered during the storm last summer? Just until they move on or whatever...?" Maybe he should have been more concerned, yet Peregrine didn't see this situation as harmful so much as inconvenient. Although, as his single eye scanned the view, he noticed patches of bare dirt where he could have sworn there were luxurious green grasses just moments before...

Finley cringed as the little beasts fluttered against her. They didn't seem to be biting or stinging, and it didn't hurt to be bopped by as they flew wildly about. It was fairly annoying though, and she was quickly growing weary of the constant flicking of her ears and tail as she tried in vain to swat them away.

She looked down as one of the Fireboys pushed his weight beneath her. Finley smiled at Gannet and dropped to her haunches to make herself into a better tent for him, pulling him closer with a forelimb. She snuffled at his ears comfortingly. There was not much else she could do for him, so she looked back at Peregrine after giving her mate a welcoming nip to his shoulder.

"That's probably good idea," Fin replied parrotted unwittingly being too distracted by the bugs to fully pay attention to what Peregrine had said (and Stevie is also oblivious). She winked as one of the stupid things bashed into her eye, "They don't seem to mean us any harm, but oh my god am I starting to hate them." She snapped at a pair that flew towards her muzzle and growled irritably.

Except for Ferret, all of the wolves that had gathered -- puppy and adult alike -- expressed some level of concern. The swarm only seemed to thicken around them as the moments passed, and Elwood felt his skin begin to crawl. His hackles prickled uncomfortably.

He glanced down as Gannet pressed himself against Finley's legs and would have been touched by the image of his mate with the pale-furred pup had he not been preoccupied. "I think Fox will be fine," he said -- although the insects were a nuisance, they didn't seem to be causing any actual harm to them. The grass and leaves, on the other hand, wouldn't be so lucky.

Finley showed her irritation by attempting to gnash one of the buggers between her teeth. Elwood watched her, then nodded his agreement with Peregrine's suggestion. "Yeah, going underground seems like the best plan," he said, taking a preemptive step towards the slope. The caldera's expansive caverns had protected them from the storm and would hopefully offer the same guard against this apparent insect infestation.

He did not hear the concerns of his family and packmates, nor would he have paid any attention to them at all. The boy lacked the ability to see past the swarm of locusts, in both a literal and a figurative sense. He was too consumed by his game of chomping and chasing, distracted only when one of the insects caught in the back of his throat and caused him to gag and sputter until he had wretched a small, slimy glob of spit and crushed bugs at his black toes. He gave the mess an audible sniff, and then nonchalantly scooped it back up in his mouth, swallowed, and carried on.

Yet he was halted, when he happened to glance toward everyone else, and realize that they were all gathered together. Curious, he strolled over to them, completely unfazed by the locusts buzzing around his head as he clutched one more unfortunate bug between his teeth.

Well this was new. 

The humming had caught his attention first, and he'd been drawn toward it out of curiosity. He sniffed the air for any trace of a scent, but couldn't find anything that was very remarkable, and only began to regret his decision to wander toward the approaching sound when he saw the dark cloud moving this way and that way on the horizon- far too quickly for a cloud. This wasn't a cloud at all- it was alive, and it was heading for the Caldera. He paced, observing as the swarm came closer and closer, until he tucked his tail and ran, just as the locusts began to descend upon the land. 

They bounced off his shoulders and back as he ran, smacking into his shout and clinging to his fur. He let out an alarmed cry when one rebounded off his snout and into his eye, but he shook his head and it was gone. He made a beeling straight for the gathering area, hoping that others would be there as well, or taking cover, or that they would have some sort of explanation. 

Sure enough, the alpha of the pack was there, with two other adults and then his children as well. Shrike looked half frightened and half indignant as he approached, snapping at a locust that had grasped a chunk of his fur and crunching it in his teeth. It didn't taste great. Head and tail low, he approached, looking from one adult to the next, hoping one of them had some sort of idea as to what the heck was going on. All Shrike knew was that he did not like these insects- and he had a sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong.

Luckily his meatshield chosen adult leaned down, offering more protection as well as a few bonus comforting touches.  He whimpered, tail twitching anxiously as he stared at the mess around them.  The thrumming of insect wings continued to wear on his ears in an uncomfortable way and the crowding nature of the swarm was too much even for the cuddly pup.  These insects weren't pack.  They weren't for cuddling.

He would likely make walking somewhat challenging for Finley as they moved for the cave, mainly because he intended to stick like a burr as close to her legs as he could get, intent on keeping his shield in place for as long as the mass of locusts was there.

Peter hadn't feared bugs, until the day, when too many at the same time came, causing mayhem. Like his siblings he had been curious about the first few bugs that had landed on the ground and watched, how Ferret appeared to have great time pouncing and destroying each and every bug that came his way. He, however, didn't seem to share his brother's enthusiasm. Not even close...

He seated himself between Peregrine's forefeet, considering it the safest place for now, but the fear in him grew and spread like a disease, his eyes wide in terror and his body trembling, he began to hyperventilate and wail at the same time. Mournful sounds that escaped his lips, expressing his unease with the situation that was occurring before his eyes.

Panther sauntered through the bugs, not in his usual blind stupor but rather in addled attentiveness. He had never seen such a thing, and could not fathom its results. For all the curiosities and questions he had for the whole world, nothing could have prepared him for a plague of something normally harmless. His imagination substituted the grasshoppers for mice, and birds, and fish. Wolves. Any creature in mass like this was not healthy, and any creature, even if they had not experienced the likes of it before, could sense the danger in this abnormality. And then again, he thought, was this abnormal? He had hardly seen the world or been alive long enough to know; what if this was a common occurrence here in the Caldera. Why would they live here if it was...

The Crestwood came upon the crew quite haphazardly, and he hung back from the alpha male and the other wolves clearly superior to himself, but he knew Peregrine's identity strictly from a passing description from his sister of the father of her new boys. And sure enough, there were four of them bouncing around. He turned to snap at a couple locusts buffeting his side before addressing the clustered wolves he had paused a few feet from. "Bloody great day for introductions, right? I'm Panther... Crestwood, Fox's younger brother. Just joined up a day or so ago..." He thought he might save them the trouble of asking. "Is this a normal sort of thing here at the Caldera? A sort of.. million bug march, or something?" he asked in his lilting accent that made even stupid questions sound intelligently asked.

This wasn't normal. This was downright weird. Panic thrummed in Eljay's chest as he awoke, alone at the den, to find weird bugs everywhere. It was hard to breathe right away because he just didn't have a clue how to deal with this, and mommy and daddy were both gone. "Mommy?" he croaked and then he heard the howl. Eljay tried to control the tears and panic that were quickly rising up in his gut; it didn't help that the moment he opened his mouth to croak out his mother's name a bug flew in.

Then he started to run, hoping that the bugs wouldn't be over where uncle P was and maybe mommy and daddy too. The run felt like it took forever, and there were many moments where Eljay didn't want to go on; but he had nowhere else to go, and to give up meant that he would be even more surrounded by bugs and weirdness, so there wasn't a thing he could do but press on.

"Mommy!" Eljay squealed again when he reached the gathering of adults. He completely ignored everyone and glued himself to mommy's side immediately, sobbing quietly while he pressed his face against her shoulder and crawled against her. Occassionally he would make a startled squeaking sound when a bug would nearly pop into his ear or jump on a sensitive spot, but other than that Eljay remained firmly attached to his mother's side, face-to-fur so that at least his face was safe from the invasion of monster bugs.

The Beta pair readily agreed with him. Peregrine suddenly wondered (and worried) about the location of their son. He didn't imagine Eljay would take this much better than some of the young Firebirds. Speaking of which, the father looked down at little Peter between his forelegs and bent to kiss the top of the boy's head. He would whisk them away to safety soon enough, although he jokingly considered leaving Ferret to it. With all that energy, maybe he could somehow eat every last one of the locusts.

Before the Alpha could make the move to lead his pack mates underground, two new figures appeared. Under normal circumstances, Peregrine would have warned them away from the rendezvous site, despite their relationships with the Alphas, respectively. But this was dire and, now that they were here, everyone was accounted for except for Fox and Eljay. And then his nephew appeared, much to the Alpha's relief. That just left poor Fox out there somewhere. He trusted she could look after herself, though.

"No, definitely not normal," Peregrine distractedly replied to one of the new arrivals, who must be Panther. Although there was so much going on around him, it didn't stop the leader from doing a sudden double take. His single good eye raked over the face of Fox's brother, naked attraction clear on his face. But it came and went in a heartbeat before Peregrine's features screwed into a serious frown and he began shepherding Gannet, Whip, Peter and even Ferret downhill.

Of course, they instant they arrived at the cave mouth, the father had flashbacks to last year's fiasco. He had lost two of his kids in this very cavern. "Let's all keep an eye on the pups. I don't want a repeat of last year," Peregrine rumbled above the din of insects, exchanging a meaningful look with Finley and Elwood. Eljay wouldn't remember it and, of course, the rest of them hadn't been here for that. "That goes for all of you," he added, including Shrike and Panther by glancing at them briefly before favoring Eljay in particular with a smile. He knew his nephew would rise to the occasion, despite his own fears.

Nudging whichever pup was closest, Peregrine stepped into the cave. He wasn't a big fan himself, yet the sudden absence of buzzing and beating wings was an immediate relief.

Finley was standing to follow when she heard the swift footsteps and cries of her eldest - as she had now begun to think of him. She turned in time to watch him glom onto her side, sobbing noisily into her fur. Her ears flattened and she nosed him with pity, but the bump of her foreleg against Gannet shifted her mindset. She brushed her muzzle against his head soothingly, her gaze briefly flickering past the faces of the two new recruits that had joined them with a glare that dared them to even give her son a second glance over his unusual behavior.

"Shh... Jay, settle down, they're not hurting you," Fin said, attempting now to follow Peregrine and the others while trying not to trip over the pup at her feet or the pup-like adult that had glued himself to her, "Come on, the pups are scared too. Will you help me with them?" She motioned to Gannet as she asked, hoping that trying to comfort the little boy would serve as a good distraction for her son.

It took Finley a few seconds to remember what Peregrine was talking about when they arrived at the cave, but eventually she gave a nod and slipped inside. She had forgotten how Firebirds 1.0 had wandered off in here, and she nudged Eljay to shoot him an encouraging smile to try and boost his confidence.

With that, it was decided. The pack would seek shelter within the caldera itself, leaving the swarms of locusts to do their damage to the outside world. Elwood glanced around at the wolves that had gathered there -- two of whom were unfamiliar, but smelled enough like Peregrine and Fox to indicate that they were newer members -- and then his gaze landed on Eljay. The boy's late arrival was anything but subtle as he pressed himself against his mother, and Elwood reached out to give him a gentle nudge with his nose.

Finley handled the situation with surprising grace, however. She reassured the youth and then pinned him with a task: to help keep the firebirds together. He distinctly remembered the frantic search for Wildfire and Nightjar after the storm and would do everything he could to keep that from happening again. Surely Eljay would prove to be especially useful, what with his affinity for the four rambunctious boys.

The Beta male moved along with the rest of the group, heading dutifully into the cave that would become their home for the next few days.

Shrike did not like this bug situation one bit. His ears twitched this way and that as he listened to their drone, and he continued snapping at the bugs as they bounced off his muzzle and shoulders. Every chance he got, he'd step on them if they came too close to his feet, though the insects were tough and didn't squish nearly as easily as other bugs, especially not under as light a paw as his was. His silvery gaze flashed from wolf to wolf, not recognizing a few of them, but softening when he saw the way the pups reacted to the bugs. Three of them didn't seem to like the bugs at all, though one with curious markings didn't seem to dislike them much, snapping at them when they came close to his face.

Little trooper. 

Of course, this fact led Shrike to reconsider this thought, when he remembered that one of the bugs had broken Peregrine's leg. The thought was changed to possible psychopath but he would keep that thought to himself until the boy gave more or less signs of being one or the other as he grew up. So when he was included in the group that would guard the pups as they made their way into the cavern- an experience which had apparently been bad the year prior- he decided to just keep an eye on Ferret from a distance. Unfortunately, he'd be the first pup that would need a mentor. Gannet seemed to be sticking to Finley while Peter and Whip had chosen their father as their shield- leaving Ferret in need of a guardian.

This could be tricky. 

Having had little to no experience with pups, Shrike was at a loss as he moved closer to Ferret, hoping the boy would simply move along. He seemed quite distracted by the bugs, though, so Shrike took a different approach. Snapping a crunchy bug out of the air, he then placed it on the ground before the boy, and after lifting a paw just above it, struck out at it gently, causing it to skitter a few feet ahead of the boy, in the direction Shrike wanted him to go. He cast the pup an encouraging glance, and intended to shadow the pup's every move, should he either chase after the grasshopper football, or run off chasing bugs.

last for me!

While Finley's reassuring touches and presence helped, Gannet didn't calm down much until they got into the cavern.  Once the buzzing lessened and the air cleared, he slunk hesitantly from his hiding place, though he remained plastered to mother and son for the time being.  If they settled down he would cuddle between, setting in for a nap while they waited out the horde's passing.

Eljay sobbed into mommy's fur while he slowly calmed down again, feeling his heartrate slow. He barely registered uncle P's words, but he did register mommy's words as she softly told him that things were okay and that he wouldn't be hurt. Eljay's ears remained flattened as he was afraid to get bugs in any of his variety of holes, and he frowned as he looked around in mild panic, but calmer than before.

Mommy told him that the other pups were feeling scared too and then it hit Eljay that he needed to help them too, 'cause surely they were even more scared than he could possibly be. He would've been when he was little, at least. Eljay looked around, seeing Gannet calm at least a little and then he noticed poor little Peter. Eljay instantly knew what was wrong — he'd been around that block too many times himself. A whine of sympathy escaped his mouth and he quickly moved over to Peter and nuzzled his fur. "I know it's super scary, but I'll get you to safety," he reassured his little buddy, and he tried to stick close, hoping that he could ward off at least some of the bugs despite his own fear.

Eljay felt his own breathing quicken as they started moving towards the cave — if needed, Eljay would carry or protect Peter as much as he could — but the thought of needing to protect Peter gave him the strength not to pull through into a full-blown panic attack.

This will be my last post. I'll archive this in a couple'a days! :)

It was quieter down here underground, even with the echoes of their footsteps and voices. The air was certainly clearer of actual physical obstructions (read: locusts), though the tension and anxiety emanating from the gathered wolves was practically palpable. Peregrine himself was not a fan of small, dark, enclosed spaces and there was a thread of apprehension in his blood. He comforted himself by focusing on his family—all of the wolves present—and ushering them safely deeper into the chamber to escape the overwhelming wave of bugs.

He coaxed his children to settle down beside him, then did a head count to make sure everyone was still present. He chewed on his lip when he suddenly felt Fox's absence more than ever. He wasn't worried about her, exactly. He knew the feisty red she-wolf could take care of herself. And the locusts weren't a direct threat, in any case. But he would have strongly preferred she was here with him, of course. Peregrine sighed, just hoping she had found cover, as he slowly reposed against a cold stone wall and welcomed the boys to gather closer and snuggle if they liked. It was probably a good idea to get comfortable; he had a feeling they would be down here awhile.

Aside from the pups, now his primary focus, Eljay didn't even notice anyone else missing in the blur of the moment. Eljay stayed close to Peter in particular, but tried to herd the other pups wherever he could. Luckily other adults took care of them and eventually all of them arrived safely inside the cavern. Eljay didn't remember the storm at all, as he'd been very little at the time, but there was something reminiscent about being inside the cave, huddled together and just waiting it all out, nevertheless. "It'll be okay," he whispered softly at Peter and Gannet — and Whip and Bandit if they needed it, but in general so far they'd been less easily frightened — and stayed close to the pups, to ease both their unease as well as his own, while he waited out the bugstorm.