Ankyra Sound one if by land, two if by sea

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They waited until darkness had fallen, three days after emerging from their shells. Slowly, steadily, the hatchling turtles dug their way to the surface, powering through the damp, cool sand. More and more emerged; this nest was particularly prolific, the offspring of a seasoned and healthy mother. And around them, still more -- about eight or so nests dotted the Rusalka beach.

It was a beautiful sight, the youngsters making the journey toward the sea, bathed in moonlight. The near-distant waves thundered in their blood; this was their destiny and always had been, from the moment of conception. Only time and fate would tell how many made it to the water. The hatchlings were unaware of the threat posed by the lupine inhabitants of the beach, focused only on returning to the sea.

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Written by @Maegi

He had been basking in the warmth of the summer-warm sand when it began to move around him. The sensation was strange, but not entirely unpleasant. At least not until something jabbed at his belly and then his groin, each feeling more insistent than the last. As the boy shot to his paws he looked down at himself, thinking it was something wrong with him, and after a few seconds a soft looking rock popped out of the sand where he'd been settled.

Reyes was so focused on the shifting objects immediately beneath him that he failed to notice the plethora of others erupting from the earth, flapping their little fins in an attempt to creep closer to the water. He was perplexed by the presence of this weird rock and began to circle it, his eyes and ears trained down to where it sat while he moved around, around, around, sniffing and poking and then barking sharply, because what the hell???

He flipped the rock over, and it swatted at him, which was weird. He chuffed over it, licked it, nudged it with his nose again, and as soon as it was right-side-up the creature attempted to escape by veering towards the water too. It was during Reyes' attempted corralling of the weird rock that he nearly crushed another one shooting through the sand. The motion caught in his eyes and his attention diverted, only to shift again and again as more of the rocks became apparent. They were moving in droves across the dry sand towards the lower sections of the beach, where their fins scalloped at the wet surface. 

Reyes snorted and frowned, then charged after the horde of newborns — pointedly slamming his paws against them if they aligned beneath, or changing his trajectory to try and scoop them up and toss them this way, or that way, not understanding that it was nearly impossible for him to catch them all. What the heck was going on???

as of 7/27: i decided to just make this is a cameo post.

it's the sharp bark that comes from reyes that draws scarab's attention and lures him towards the moontouched beach. the sand is porcelain pale in the moonlight, sand dunes casting shadows and as he draws nearer — wondering what in the hell his fiery brother was doing tossing his head this way and that way — only to pause, paw hovering in a frozen mid-step as he takes in the erupting sand and the tiny beasts that flow from the shifting sands. abruptly curious and fascinated by the believed to be birth of these shelled creatures, scarab sinks to his belly in the sand, eyes of lapis lazuli nearly swallowed by the bottomless black of his pupils in muted awe.

what were these tiny creatures making their plight towards the beckoning waves? it was a risk ...especially beneath the stomping paws of his aggressive brother. they were seeing something magical and beautiful and he was ruining it. something swells within scarab's breast and he pulls himself to his full height as his gaze focuses on his bull-in-a-china-shop brother. reyes! he snaps.

you're killin' them! an injustice to ruin such magic. it doesn't settle well with scarab. stop ruinin' the magick! he orders, tone aggressive and petulant.

SNAP! SNAP SNAP
SNAP!

 

STOMP!

STOMP!

SNAP!

Reyes didn't heed the sharp voice that cut through the air, he was much too involved in his little game of catch all the moving things to care about the protests of his sibling. He didn't know it was his sibling that was doing all the complaining, not at first, but as he crunched through the still-soft shell of yet another baby turtle (a satisfying crunch lead to a mouth-full of curiously fishy blood that was delectable) he heard — stop ruinin' the magick!

The boy halted then, catching one flipper baby beneath a paw as he lurched and turned his head, still holding the twitching body of a tiny turtle, and spat it unceremoniously in to the sand. Wha magick? Don' be a dummy! He cajoled of Scarab, and then set out on another strafing run over the sand with his head ducked low, eager to scoop up more victims.

It seemed there was a season for something tremendous, magnificent even. As the young sea turtles exploded from their confines of the soft-shelled eggs, they clamored to the sea in a flood of tiny bodies that wished for the sweet escape from predators and into the somewhat safety of the salty depths. Gulls and other flying rats swarmed and swooped as they grabbed all they could, but the sheer numbers of turtles barely budged as they continued to flip and flop their way into the tide...

Unfortunately for some, Vengeance thought of them as a possible easy snack. With a swift crunch, he broke the soft newborn shell, unweathered by the harsh reality of life, leaving behind the tender meat of newborn turtles. He wasn't certain on how he felt about the taste, but if he ate enough it wouldn't matter anyway - so long as his belly was full, it didn't matter what he consumed. 

Deep in his desire to feed on as many as he could, he didn't notice the young pups that were coming up in the distance, slowly he closed the distance between himself and them, scooping up one turtle after another and spitting out the shells. So long as they didn't bother him, he wouldn't notice the pups as he continued along the beach; crunch... crunch... crunch!

It was an owl as stark white as the boy she followed that swept overhead first, quietly watching the wolves below. The commotion elicited a complaint from the grand bird, which was directed towards the boy just a little ways further up the shoreline. He’d been practising his fishing skills, eager to excel with the task, when the turtles had started to hatch. And although he’d heard the barks of another canine coming from that direction, the cause and the culprit were both unknown, and not enough to pull his attention away—his friend landing upon his withers and beginning to pluck clumps of fur from his nape, however, was enough to divert his attention. To put her at ease (and save himself from unnatural, premature balding), he assured her that he would check it out and then insisted that she return to the skies; carrying someone else around was not ideal, after all.

But, despite what he said he would do, Aningan got distracted upon seeing what was going on.

Small creature appeared to be dragging themselves across the sand and towards the sea, creatures that he lacked a word for in either language. What were they? He looked towards the youths, then, curious to see if they knew—but they seemed to each be doing their own things, with different reactions to the creatures. The one that stomped seemed more interesting than the one that shouted, and so Aningan mimicked his actions—well, not the stomping part. He did scoop up one of the tiny, smooth animals into his maw, however, and chomped down; the flesh was mushy but the shell had a hint of toughness to it, whilst the flavour itself was unlike anything he’d tasted before. Not sure whether or not he liked it, he repeated the act of catching, crushing, and tasting—and then repeated, repeated, repeated, and repeated yet again.