Wheeling Gull Isle I've got crabs

Prompt: Crabs! Thousands of crabs!!
Any & all islanders welcome to spree! No posting order

Crackling and swarming and pushed in by a high tide, spindly legs scour the sands, shells that animate and scuttle about, over rocks and up trees and multiplying upon each other like a God-sent plague!

He is transfixed! This is a curse, or a miracle! This is god brushing their land! He pokes one pink shell with a paw and it clamps down on his toe. Another grabs at his ear, another his tail! He spins around in a circle, half terrified, half in hysterics!

He squeals for all his family to come witness this army from God!

crabs -- perhaps the oldest extant order on this planet. all things came from crab, all things descend to crab.

accipitra -- no, ava -- was too young to know of this universal truth. but what she did know was things that scuttled and lurked bore meat on their backs, their legs, their bones -- if they could be caught.

screams outside the den brought her to the den's threshold. she winced as the glittering glare from the sea assaulted her senses, but as her eyes adjusted she watched in transfixed awe as an army of decapods stormed the beach in rank-and-file segments.

chaos broke out among their ranks. ava's eyes fixed upon judah, who now bucked and whirled like a panicked pony as little bodies climbed up his frame.

Ava is the first to come, her eyes aflame with a shared wonder!

“Aba!” He calls to her between torrents of giggles. “Wash me Aba!! Wash!” He flops to the ground and is submerged in slithering fleshy shells.

“Tickols!” He barks and jockeys around until he’s free save for a clamp of his tail-tip.

“Cawful!” He instructs his little sister. She was much smaller so he’d keep an eye on her.  “Dey bie like dis, doesn huwt!” He explains and waggles his tail with the rodeo crab.

“I know I know! Les see who can ged more shell thingy bies!” He proposes and tumbles again into the clack of crabs.

ava macaroni watched in contemplative disbelief. the swarm moved as if under its own hidden imperial command — and a deep part of her felt compelled to give chase. 

judah did not seem scared; this buoyed the babe until she was abreast of them, eyeing them with a hunter’s mistrustful disdain. one scuttled over her paw and she lifted it instinctively above the swarm of bodies.

her brother rolled atop their carapaces. some disappeared into the sand, others squirmed and fought. ava took one step, then another — but the crabs seized her toes, then her flank, her hips, her ankles — she whipped from one side to the other in surprise, bright teeth snapping at each crab as pain from their pincers registered they’d laid siege to her puppy fat and were now spilling out of the trojan woodwork of the sand a thousand strong.

And there were thousands of them. Aiolos seemed to have come here to the island at the perfect timing and the islanders here had gone from the mated pair which had visited Moonglow months ago, to teeming with eight pups and a vast number of adults coming to their shores to join them. Aiolos could not have been happier for the Sweetharbor wolves. 

Grinning, Sunman watches the children at play, practicing their hunting techniques as they jumped, barked and snapped at the crabs. Aiolos' heart swelled to be on the island again, though as he came to watch the pups, he missed his own back at Moonglow. Aiolos did his best to move quickly- snatching a crab, crushing it's shell, tossing it in a pile and repeat. If one was found hanging on a pup's little rolls of fat, Aiolos would dispatch it.

cameo — edit because my reading comprehension is very poor

the cold left behind by ava's absence drew him from his slumber. light attacked him from the mouth of the den, but as long as he squinted his eyes would adjust.

he looked upon the sand and there he saw an uncountable mass of creatures that moved together like the birds in the sky. he didn't know what they were, but their legs sent shivers up his spine. they reminded him of spiders, but they were coming from the water.

they looked like they were having so much fun. he didn't even realize the danger present, didn't notice his sister pulled beneath the water. selfishly, he wanted to join in, but he cast another look at those freakish legs and

absolutely not. no thanks. he turned around and went back to sleep.

He springs down a tunnel of shells, they nip and spin and undulate with their slamon-hued forms, drawing together into a sea of their own. This was a fun game! Funner than pretend! A crab smacks at his hide and he whirls about to giggle with Ava.

But she is fastly disappearing beneath the waves, and in his childish imagination he’d forgotten how much smaller she was than him, how much more vulnerable her soft puppy pelt is.

“HEY!” With a furious panic and a plunk of his puppy paws he shoots towards her, snatching her up by the tail and attempting to tug her free. But he cannot lift her and his shakes are helpless beneath the creatures who are now piling up his legs too.

ava had never met a stranger. aiolos was taken at the same face value ava donated to others; adult, caretaker, food provider-thing. 

she might have noticed abel peer curiously from the den’s dark entrance, if she was not currently being swarmed under the thousand-strong click of pincers and sharp little legs. she nipped at one upon her paw with a yelp, turning around to snap at one caught upon her tail. 

judah came to pluck from her fur the offensive creatures, and aiolos crushed their carapaces after. ava could not be contained for long before she was running over the milling crabs, assuming angry hitchhikers as she sprinted down the beach to escape their pinching arms.

Though helpful for his sister, the strange red man is given a wide berth. Judah doesn’t really trust anyone outside his immediate family, having formed attachments so quickly and strongly to his Green Hills home and it’s inhabitants. There simply was no room in his heart for others.

It is also this deep love and affection for one little sister than bids him to call out for Ava and leap into the crab-mass.

“Aba!” He howls, sprinting after her but not before tumbling once or twice on the undulating shells. A decision has been made as brother, as protector, as child of God. He snatches her up by her scruff and begins dragging her little body towards home.

But he’s not all that bigger than her and to do so is quite an effort over claws and scuttling feet.

the horde overwhelmed her in short order. buried under the endless clatter of sharp pinching claws, ava went down swinging.

suddenly she was lifted mercifully from the swarm, dragged unceremoniously from their claws. several crustaceans were rudely bumped as she was dragged across them, and some even earned air time with well-timed kicks of her tiny legs. 

judah — not the red man — had dragged her to safety. ava turned from her brother with an insolent pup-roar. it was not enough to be safe! she had to kill them — they’d caused all manner of harm to her fur and she was boiling with righteous fury. 

ava pounced, crunching the carapace of one hapless crab between needle teeth.

“Aba!- don!”

There’s something in his little sister he cannot identify- is it a hunter’s hunger? No, this is different. It’s furious and cruel and cannot be contained. And even in her smaller stature Judah in that moment is scared of her.

The crunch of the shelled creature is painful!  Why is it so sickening?

Judah muffles his ears with his paws and squeezed his eyes.

“Aba!” It’s a cry of horror.

bits of carapace and fluid sluiced between ava’s gritted teeth. in this moment she was in her element; tearing and flinging and tearing and flinging and tearing until —

aba!

she was pulled from her rampage by the sound of terror. the source is distinctly familiar, distinctly judah. the darkling spirit in her eyes fade and she turned to her brother slowly, shocked to find him with his paws over his eyes and horror streaming off his body like unsavory echoes. 

she looked around them expecting a phantom or maybe some monster crab so impossibly huge that it would eat them all. but there was nothing and no one — just her, judah, and aiolos nearby. 

a crab scuttled over paw. she punched it instinctively underfoot. the noise it made against claw and stone was a satisfying crunch; the way its legs slackened and spittle gurgled from its mouth entranced ava more in that moment than judah’s fear had seized her seconds before.

There’s resistance then a split. A rupture of pink flesh spilling out. Spasms of stick-legs, a vie for life.

Ava is beguiled. Judah is nauseous. That game is up. This is not a hunt for meat- it is an act of killing.

Dinah and Malakai in his mind, how long they’ve preached it, and now a peek.

Is this evil?

ava peered down between her claws. a pale subcutaneous fluid seeped from crushed exoskeleton, matting the webbing between her paws. 

she looked up to see judah’s face transfixed in horror. 

too young then to recognize the severity of such emotions, ava offered a throaty giggle before pouncing on the crab and violently flinging her head back and forth. such a motion sent several of the limp limbs flying — one of which arced dangerously close to judah.

“Aba, don! Kill to eat, only! You hurted!” Helpless childish cries. In spite of everything she is still just a puppy- just a little sister. Maybe she needs patience and to be shown the right way that God intends for them. Judah can give her that.

He scoops her up by the ruff and attempts to drag her again, a feeble attempt at reeling this unbridled puff of fur into a teaching moment, like Ami had said is his role.

“Now listen me! I teesh. You bite it, you eat it.” He reaches for a halved crab and shoves it under her nose.

To be honest it didn’t smell all that bad, but there was plenty more appetizing.

judah pulled the unruly thing from her rampage; sat neatly upon her haunches now, ava peered into the concerned face of her brother.

a halved carapace was thrust into her vision. ava set upon it with a cackle, absorbing not one whit of judah’s instruction. 

the taste was sweet, with a slightly salty tang between brittle crunches — but it had nothing on the nectarine taste of vengeance ava had supped only moments before.

“Yes! Good!” Spirits pricked in celebration, he clasps a paw around his sister and cuddles her to his chest.

“You smart Aba! Now wemember we only kill eat, not fun. Killing not fun- eating is!”

And to prove a point he paws at one of the passing crabs, tugging off one little needle-leg and popping it between his teeth. It is far too salty for his taste but he continues to chew with a sour face.

the last splinter of shell in her mouth stuck to a tooth; ava thumbed it thoughtfully with her tongue as judah instructed her on the virtues of mercy.

she stiffened under his hug, her eyes upon a new target — a scuttling crab just behind him. ava stilled as he plucked a limb from its carapace, her pupils darkening as it writhed and then righted itself in the sand.

the crab took two sideways steps before ava pounced upon it, both front paws slamming into its back with a sickening noise that had her scream with delight.

Judah’s not sure if his lesson resonates with his sister. Ava is tiny baby, after all. She didn’t understand anything and it was really all up to her big brother to teach her all the important stuff. But as she desecrates another crab with a shatter of calcified shell, the young boy watches to see that she’s mindful of her actions- those that will be seen and judged by God.

Her shriek is not playful. It is a rabid, a shrill laughter in his ears that reverberates throughout his mind. He scrunches his nose in disgust.

“You better eat dat!”

ava grinned from ear to ear as she lifted a paw, the carapace crunching as it regained a somewhat defeated shape. she peered to judah to see if he approved; his reproachful expression chilled her.

the darkling frowned. it was a hard life for a godforsaken orphan child in god's brightly lit sweetharbour; it seemed everything around her was gold, but she was a rusty stain that darkened anything she touched.

the girl raised the crab to her mouth with a babble, eating in a manner that could be thoughtful were it not for a new crab that stole her attention. this one was larger than the rest, and it successfully fended her attempts of crushing it with heavy and raised pincers.

eventually ava tired of this play. if judah was going to be bossy, she was going to go elsewhere where his reproachful stare would not find her.

Ava does as instructed and chomps at the creature. Judah is overcome with pride- this is a breakthrough! She’s getting it! He’s actually managed to teach her something!

But then she is quick to turn away! She doesn’t want to play with him!

He blinks in utter confusion. He is used to being coddled by his siblings, not rejected, and he doesn’t know how to handle this sudden sinking sensation- except defensively.

“FINE. BE THAT WAY! SEE WHAT I CARE!” He sneers, poking his tongue out at Ava and quickly retreating up a bluff before it could snatched away by a crab. He stakes his claim, curling up in a low patch of beach grass, pretending not to care one bit about Ava anymore.

But through the reeds he continues to watch after her- just in case she ends up needing his help.

judah was stung by ava’s turn of interest. her ears pulled back to the small of her skull as his voice rang above them, sending several crabs scuttling. 

by now most of the intrepid decapods had scuttled to safer climes. little ava was left to her own means, unaware judah peered from the reeds above. 

she stood and shook the sand from her ruff. scooping up a shattered carapace, ava flung it and chased after, making her own play.

Everything she did was so childish, so mind-numbingly dull. Especially the way she tossed that broken bit of shell into the air then surged after it. Judah would never stoop to such a juvenile game, no! He was the big brother and he aught to be doing adult things, now anyway! His lips draw to a point, he flicks an aloof ear and tries to find somewhere else more interesting for his eyes to go.

It doesn’t work.

He cranes his neck through the reeds to see Ava tromping along the shore, singing a longing little whine. It looks fun.

Eventually he pulls himself back through the grasses and approaches Ava with flat ears, his tail dangling limply remorseful.

“C-can I play with you?” He asks, giant eyes tagging between the sand at his feet and Ava’s halved face.

there is a small delight in making one’s own play. a new world opened up before her, while the old world and its rigid constructs faded away.

each fling of the shell, her eyes watched its arc in the air and then she darted after it. behind her the reeds shivered with a longing whine — but by now ava was transfixed in her own magical realm of amusement.

suddenly a pair of sorrowful eyes descended her world, fixed upon her with longing.

ava took a step back, slowly meeting judah’s gaze. the rim of his eyes were unfathomable, tinted with streaking gold.

her expression was so woefully serious that for a moment it seemed she might turn him away — but at that second her coldness dissolved and she bashfully pushed the shell to his feet.

last from me thank you so much <33

He erupts into unbridled delight, bouncing in the sand with a furious wag of a tail that ripples through his whole body and out on the pant of a little pink tongue.

“Ok ok! Are you ready?!” He yips at his sister, snatching the shell in between his teeth and winding himself up in tight circles, spinning quicker and quicker until at last he flings the shell skyward with all of his might!

He squints, tracing its vast arc. For a moment the shell disappears somewhere behind God’s blinding sun and he closes his eyes, smiling.