Wheeling Gull Isle long in tooth and soul

for @Judah, can be set before or after the naming! :)

nights came and nights went, though each one felt like an eternity as he had only lived through a precious few.

the boy sat near the mouth of the den, his head turned up to the open sky. behind him, a mess of children congealed into uniform shadow. there was an undercurrent of unrest in wake-time. barely perceptible. a felt sense more than an understanding. maybe he had brought it with him when he came from the water. 

would it go on like this forever?

would it go on like this forever?
would it go on like this forever?


would it go on like this forever?






would it go on like this forever?

He stalks.

A picture of silver stealth, ink-paws unfolding silently to the earthy shale beneath. An unwaveringly pointed gaze holding over one soulful little fugitive boy. Who he admittedly might have chosen not to pester had he any wits at all. Fortunately for him, the puppling was so preoccupied in grappling with his quickly evolving world that Judah had gone mostly unnoticed…


“BOOOO!”


Judah roars and swiftly wraps his brother up in a giant puppy-hug.

LOLLLL I LOVE JUDAH

he is not a wolf. he is a rabbit in an open field with an eagle overhead. he freezes. his heart drops as the edges of his vision disentigrate into nothingness, then it pounds so hard he feels it in the base of his ears.

the darkness is all around him. he feels its talons wrap around him. he knows he's dead and he wishes he wasn't conscious to see it happen. he had already died once, before he'd been born again in the blood of christ. he —

he's fine, actually.

as the world comes back into focus, so does judah. he was beginning to put the older ones names to their faces, now that he had one of his own.

abel's eyes are as large and owlish as ju.. as he blinks in surprise.

“Abey!” He spouts, and it’s loud. And wet, a little spittle at the side of his mouth he smudges first with his shoulder before planting a sopping kiss on his brother’s head. There’s a tight squeeze before he releases the cub to crawl over to his front side. He likes looking at Abel. Abel is black and white and reminds him of Mal. He likes to trail the edge where the opposing colors meet with his eyes, and does so now. The complexity of his little brother’s plight entirely lost to Judah, who saw him only as a playmate at the moment.

“Abey wha do? Chase?” His head cocks, still for only a fleeting moment before diving into a stealthy crouch, “Guess wha! I gon be huntur! You bunny I be huntur.”

He growls and nips at the boy's paws, tugging on one little toe.

truly, abel is painfully young to be like this, but his writer is pretentious and doesn't have any proper adults available to take these urges out on he has been molded by circumstance. but these thoughts are easily left behind; he's still too young to understand what he's feeling or why he's feeling that way.

judah had not been as distant as the other ones had been. an image of his black and white stone conjures in his mind before it is whisked away by a flurry of questions. the meaning of judah's words comes slowly. before he has a moment to consider them he is supplied with an answer, and easygoing abel is so excited just to be considered that he would have agreed to anything if it meant that the older boy would play with him.

the only problem was that he didn't really understand what he was supposed to be doing. he cast judah a plaintive glance which washed away when the other boy grabbed at him.

something clicked. instinct took over. in a start, he jerked his paw back, then abel began to run.

In his mind he stalks through a twinkling field, a lush infinite valley of grass, his prey defined by tiny footprints heard only by being very still. He slips beneath the reeds and is blotted out, blending in with the undergrowth. He is camouflaged from the listening quarry, who might sense his nearness but could not be certain.

This is a thrill to for once be not the one cowering before the beast.
He is the beast.

And his huge eyes settle over a tiny half-and-half boy who is too slow to escape him.

“RAHHH!” He announces his might and the hunter rips forward. He snags ahold of one black ear and gobbles it.

soon, their age gap would not matter so much but now it meant everything. fear of consumption drives him to run faster and faster, but his legs were short and his coordination was poor. he found himself being digested.

judah isn't gentle per se when he gnaws on his brother's ear, but it doesn't hurt in the way that abel expected it to. still, he had worked himself up so much that he finds his vision clawing in at the edges, and before he can do anything to stop it the ground has come up to smother him too.

the last thing he sees are judah's eyes and the comet trail that followed.

he is only unconscious for three seconds. maybe five. blood trickles out from a small tear in his ear where judah's incisor split it as he fell, but abel is too dazed to feel any pain.

much like an infant that falls over than looks towards their parent, abel turns towards his older brother to see how he should react.

The red tears come. Hollowed eyes look up at him.

A tongue flicks along the points of his teeth. Had Judah done this?

He loved his little brother- honest he did! All his little siblings, they were his babies, like he was Simmy’s! But then how could he cause so much hurt? His eyes well in fear and shame, he stumbles back as if afraid one touch would shatter the littler boy who is looking up at him with so much question. He wanted to throw his arms around him and tell him everything would be alright, that he would get Ami and she would make it better, but...

Judah knew monsters. He was haunted by them. And now he was one.

He revolted against the idea- no he was good! He loved God! He tried, earnestly he did! His chest heaves, the tears roll.

“SWOP CWYING WED ABEY!” He commands. He didn't want to see it!

ugh this is so sad. i'm sorry!! we should try to have another some time

Suddenly, Judah is yelling. His ears fold to the sides, and that is when he notices that his dark ear stings when he moves it. Just then, a trickle of blood dripped into his eye, making it sting too. He tried to blink it away, but it just cast everything in shades of crimson.

What had he done wrong? He must have done something — it must have been whatever was coming out of him now. His tears, his blood. He scarcely remembered his birth mother, the way she despised the very things she had created, but he had the lingering impression that everything about him was wrong.

It wasn't something he had done. It was him. He is too distraught to care for his pain, and much too absorbed in his own despair to understand where Judah was coming from. Pathetically, he curled in on himself, wanting nothing more than to just drown already.

my heart D; absolutely would love another <3

His entire body shakes. It was just a game, why is Abel taking it so seriously? Why the red tears? Why is hiding from him?

“Nevah pway you AGAIN! No pway babies eva! You too SMALL! You a BWABY! I huntur!” Tears of frustration fuzz his own vision and stomps off. From now on he’ll only play with his big siblings! Dinah and Mal! Not these silly little cubs who couldn’t even stop crying all the time!

Fading here, I'm down whenever you are!

He was broken. The way he was meant nobody would love him ever again — not Judah, not Dinah, not Heda, not Everett, maybe even not Ava. And certainly not himself. Abel could never love himself for all the pain he wrought.

The following morning, when he caught sight of his reflection, he would find that his eye had begun to shift from blue to red. It was because of the blood, he knew it, because of the badness that coursed through his veins. It tainted his eye and it would keep spreading until all of him was red, marked by the Devil.

That evening, he would run to the coast and try to baptize himself of all his sin. Maybe then he could stop it — the badness would halt, and Judah would love him again.