Dragoncrest Cliffs they want my soul, they want the wave

for a while she sat on the notion of dragonspine, and then she found @Val and @Chacal to inform them that it seemed as if the rise was splitting into pieces that moved closer.
she was bored then; she wandered off to find a crab for torment, idle in her movements as she considered the changing world and how she had tasted it just briefly.

lafayette wandered, too.

it was strange to do so without his twin @Lucette. perhaps, she would follow, like the shadow she was. for now, though, he was alone, and he watched chani from a distance before coming closer, like fire creeping along a bed of hot coals.

and then appeared before her in all his adolescent lankiness, head raised and tilted, seafoam eyes trained upon her next motion.

hmmm? he queried, running his tongue along his lips. the nearness of the sea intrigued him; he yearned for the salt again, and it was only curiosity in this new woman that kept him from careening into the waves as he'd done in the past.

"hello, little cousin," chani murmured, nosing lafayette with the assured invasive self-confidence of a relative. "you be walkin' around already? goodness. i bet it will not be long before my siblin's do de same."
it really was fast, how quickly they grew up, chani mused to herself.
she pointed at the crab. "do you want to eat dat?"
the crustacean raised its pincers defiantly.

his cognition was catching up, but wasn't quite all there yet. he caught most of the words, though, and he gave chani a shy smile, burnished tail shaking behind him in pleasure. 'cousin' wasn't a concept he grasped yet, but the way she spoke meant family.

and then she asked a question.

he stared at the thing with brows knitted tight together, lips pursing to the side. non, he said firmly. this was a far cry from the sweetly-scented slurry he'd begun to eat upon weaning off milk; this creature was hard, and fierce, and. . .moved.

lafayette drew closer, nostrils flaring as he sought to investigate. step by step—and stopped suddenly short with a loud shriek as one set of pincers clutched his muzzle and held on tight.

it apparently was a rite of passage that a sapphique baby be nipped by a crab. chani's ears pinned at the strident cry; she inched forward, trying to hold him still with a forepaw while she grabbed the offending crustacean with her jaws.
a crack splintered the air sharply.
the pincer fell away with a limp jerk.
chani let the crab fall to the sand. "an' dat is why we eat dem, lafayette!"

his eyes watered with the stinging feel of those claws; he writhed and moaned until the loud crack reached his ears, and the pain suddenly abated. blinking away the tears, he barely caught chani's words—but did.

ooooff, lafayette remarked, trying to fight back further emotion. his nose really hurt!

but he wanted to put on a brave face for his cousin, and so he again approached the creature—now lying quite still, with a jagged break down the middle of its tough outer shell. he didn't trust it quite yet, but flared nostrils found that sweet scent. . .that sweet-meat-scent.

how eat? he asked chani, canting his head toward the older girl.