Coconut Grove dead by daylight

She arrived home after nightfall, the fragrance of coconuts and salt on the warm night air causing a sweet ache in her chest. It had only been a few weeks, yet Bat had really missed @Tristan and she couldn't wait to catch up with him and tell him the bittersweet news from her trip.

Surely he was asleep right now. Bat crept through the grove, hoping to find and curl up beside him. A light frown touched her face when she noticed the fading scents of the others who lived here. She saw no signs of anyone; the place had the distinct feel of a ghost town.

Feeling a little anxious, Bat hastened toward the beach, which was silvered with moonlight. She didn't see any sign of Tristan or anyone else and she intended to head back inland to scour through the palm trees. Instead, she found herself squinting at the surf. The tide was out... way out. The feeling of wrongness intensified.

An instinctive alarm bell started going off in the back of Bat's head. She pivoted, then froze at the sound of a dull roar in the distance.

tristan, too, had noticed the tide. 

of course, tristan was a city slicker who had only come in contact with the ocean in mere passing. now it was home, but he was still learning it -- how it moved, how it breathed, how it... oh, i forgot this was tristan. that is WAY to deep for tristan. ignore that. anyway. 

coincidentally, bat actually came down the shore where tristan was. what good luck!! homeboy had noticed the tide go in on one of his walks, and he was just padding alongside the water as it pulled in, finding funky lil cr  a b s and shells and other things he typically didn't get to see when the water was higher up! how fuckin sick, dude! unlike bat, tristan had no sense of wrongness. the ocean probably just, did this, right? i dunno! either way, when tristan spotted bat in the distance, his tail began to swing. hey!! you're back!! he called out, only to realize that he too heard the dull roar in the distance, and then he noted bats expression. 

oh. fuck. what the fuck was happening?

His shout startled Bat, causing her to jump slightly. She squinted through the darkness, trying to pinpoint Tristan's location. Luckily, the moon was still nearly full and she made out his pale silhouette moving closer. She unlocked her muscles and moved to meet him in the middle.

Halfway there, her legs began to tremble uncontrollably. Caught totally off guard, she stopped moving, only she didn't. Bat's mouth fell ajar with a muffled cry of alarm as she realized it wasn't her legs shaking inexplicably, it was the ground shuddering beneath her feet.

Face stricken, she looked up toward Tristan and yelled tremulously, "What the fuck is going on?"

as bat closed the distance, tristan made an effort to pad towards her... looking a little offset now. and as the ground began to FUCKIN SHAKE??? he realized he was literally vibrating as bat began to speak, and he could only shake his head violently. i don't know... but i think we need to run, he announced abruptly, teeth gritting as the shaking got worse, louder. and, without any more hesitation, tristan gave bat a hard shove to the shoulder forward and then took off, glancing behind him to make sure his friend was  following. she fucking better be following!

side note -- where the fuck was he running? he was pretty sure closer to shore, i guess, but like??? just? straight? i don't know.

"You right," Bat said, a little hysterically, and made to do just that. But what had begun as a queer shuddering was quickly escalating into something worse. Although she tried to dash after Tristan, she only got about ten feet before her legs buckled. She went down hard too, biting her tongue in the process. Her mouth filled with blood.

"Shit!" Bat spat, spraying blood that looked black on the moonlit sands. She swore the drops were wobbling. She tried to push herself upright, only to lose her footing again and slip. "Shit!" she said again, her voice edging into a scream as she felt the beginnings of panic.

tristan was struggling too, but somehow was managing to stay upright. when he heard bat call out, he could barely hear it, shit was escalating  quickly, and he was struggling to hear anything over the roaring sound of something... and all this shaking. he skidded to a halt, almost toppling over, before turning to see bat struggling to stand up. fuck!! absolutely fuck! what the hell was this?! panic was setting in quickly for tristan too, who made the decision to turn and run back to back, grabbing her scruff in an attempt to help her stand upright to move again. 

the sight of her mouth, shimmering, and the smell of blood was a bad sign to tristan, but they couldn't worry about that now. come on!! come on!!!

She tried to look for Tristan, yet everything was shaking, even the air, it seemed. Bat cursed under her breath and tried to leap to her feet, moving drunkenly now, and let out a breathy scream when she felt something warm press into her fur. Her friend's familiar scent filled her nose even as she felt the tug. Leaning into it, Bat finally found her balance and began to run.

The night was full of thunder now, ceaseless and deafening. Bat wanted to clap her paws over her ears but she had to keep moving. She nearly crashed into a crooked palm tree in her panicky haste, though fortunately Tristan steered her clear at the last second. Heart in her throat, the furs on the back of her neck began to stand on end as she sensed danger closing in behind them. She wanted to look, but...

Out of nowhere, the shaking subsided and stopped. It happened so suddenly that Bat once more fell flat on her damn face.

*invades*

Breccan didn't know the sea well enough to have noticed how far the tide was out. He had simply gone to bed once the sun went down, curling up beneath a particular coconut tree he had "claimed" as his own during his brief stay. He slept soundly, lulled by the soft thrumming of the ocean, unaware of the ominous rumbling in the distance. It wasn't until the ground began to tremble that he slowly woke up; he was blinking his eyes blearily, trying to make sense of what was happening when the darkness was pierced by screams.

The shrieks of his friends were enough to make him leap to his feet. He pitched to one side almost immediately, his sense of balance thrown off by the violent jolting of the earth. He had no idea what was going on, but panic propelled him through the grove in the direction of Bat's and Tristan's voices.

When he found them, Bat was sprawled on the ground and her mouth was bloody, but she and Tristan were clearly trying to get the hell out of here. "Come on," he said inanely, moving to try and help Tristan assist Bat to her feet even as the world seemed to be ending around them.

there was so much happening... it was absolutely chaotic. tristan had no fucking idea what the absolute fuck was going on. like what the fuck. he ran with bat, making out breccan in the distance -- ugh, way to be a fucking hero, guy... but at least he was maybe helping. UGH. approaching closer, bat fell right on her fuckin face again, leaving tristan to skid to a halt right by breccan...

but another tremor had caught him at a bad time. the snap! of his ankle was wildly overthundered by the boom of the earth, and tristan was left gasping for air at how fucking PAINFUL that way. holy shit. but no,  no time for that. tentatively, tristan tried to place pressure on it... to no avail. fuck it, we were tripodding this bitch. he glanced back to see breccan helping bat up, and called over, this bitch fuckin juuked me out, broke an ankle, i'm okay but i can't carry bat. his eyes were apologetic and regretful, but they probably couldn't really be seen in the darkness. besides that, they were fucking terrified. tristan was fucking terrified.

let's go!! he yelled again, and when breccan got bat moving, tristan started limping full speed away again.

The silence was almost deafening. Then came the shouts. And then the aftershocks. Bat struggled to her feet once again, feeling utterly bewildered by everything. Had she hit her head? Nothing made sense and she felt incredibly confused. There was blood in her mouth and someone was pressing close against her.

Still in shock, she nonetheless obeyed the command to "go." She ran rather blindly, not really comprehending where she was running to or from, just honing instinctively to the familiar sounds of Breccan's and Tristan's voices.

Somehow, amidst all the chaos, Tristan quickly and succinctly filled Breccan in on what was happening. Not only was Bat hurt, but so was he -- his broken ankle would prevent him from being much help with Bat. Despite the fear coursing through his veins, Breccan kept moving without hesitation; he helped Bat to her feet, although she managed to do most of it herself, and then the trio took off in tandem.

Even with their injuries, Tristan and Bat were moving quickly, and Breccan kept pace with them. He was less familiar with the seaside than his friends, so if they didn't know where they were heading, he really had no clue. But his instincts told him to keep forging ahead, and so he did, checking frequently over his shoulder to make sure he hadn't lost his companions.