Seaside Moors wyvern lingo

@Valravn hello brother come play come play <333

Filled with the incessant need to cause trouble, Gin had poked around outside their family den for a good while before she had wandered into boredom and was left with a taste that coated her tongue – a taste she couldn’t quite remove. She’d buried her nose in the muck, she’d fished out a few crawdads from the marshland pools, but Regin was tired of keeping herself occupied and turned back to the den to seek out the dark figure of her brother.
 
Trotting back to the mouth of their home, the young siren peered into the darkness with a frown and a squint. She chuffed quietly into the shadows and did not hear a response. So, Regin took a few steps further into their home and tilted her head just slightly to the left with a sour expression. “Val! Come on let’s go,” she barked in that demanding way, and then waited to hear the tip tap of her brother’s claws.

while regin scoured the moors valravn slept, his little toes stirring in the cave’s loamy soil with each sleep-stride.

nose and muzzle twitching, valravn dreamed — until the commanding bark of his sister stole him from his sleep realm and transported him earthside; his sister’ stern face peering down at him.

he rose obediently, eyes sleepy as he stumbled after her chasing the last of his dreamworld away.

Valravn’s eyes were droopy with sleep as he stumbled from the den. There was still a happy little hop to his steps, something that Regin believed might never disappear. All of that was fine; it didn’t matter to her on any greater level than that was just how the boy was and always had been. She couldn’t remember a time when her dark sibling hadn’t been something of a chirping little songbird. Val certainly marched to the beat of his own small drum.
 
“We’re gonna go on an adventure, Val, okay? You are gonna come with me and we are gonna see if we can catch something to show moms,” she said to him. Gin’s tone of voice seemed to suggest that such an excursion was a holy journey, unlike anything either of the pups had really done before. This was because she had every intention of taking him close to the sea… if she could get them that far.

val rubbed the last of sleep from his eyes as he turned to his sister, who proclaimed in the voice of the just that they were to embark on a great adventure. an adventure? the boy's moss-green eyes lit up in interest, a little o forming in his mouth. "ooouuuh!! i wanna come!" he proclaimed, as if he had not just been invited.

he bumbled after her with his tail jaunty and steps light -- and never once did he think she was leading him to the lair of his worst fears: the great and inimitable lip of the sea.

You are gonna come, stupid. She didn’t say it out loud, but turned back and offered a sugary sweet smile to her brother as she continued to lead them away from the safety of their home and family den. Her intentions were pure enough; she did not know of Val’s deep fear of the water. She knew only that she desired to see the seaside and she wanted to have someone with her so that Rosalyn and Erzulie didn’t worry too much.
 
“Do you think there are other kinds of animals out there?” she asked him and gestured toward the great wide open space around them. It was a broad inquiry, one that was childish in its very nature, but she was curious what he believed might exist beyond the boundaries of Rusalka. “Like different ones from what we eat and other wolves like us.”

val followed along willingly enough. as they drew closer, however, his steps would gradually shorten and grow heavier. as if weighed down by a ton of bricks, or the unseen and strangling sensation of fear.

for now they were far enough away that his blood pressure was only slightly elevated. he blinked after regin's question, fumbling with the intent of it. sheepishly, he looked to the ground while rubbing his nose in timid thought. "mm.." he was certainly giving the question lengthy consideration, but val knew there were other lives out there. he had dreamed it, many thousand terrible times. lived it, too. "maybe. maybe they're on the other side of the ocean. or under it."

Something in her appreciated that he was willing to think on her question. His speculative statement seemed reasonable to her. The young girl turned her attention to their designated path with a hungry determination. Regin wanted only to know it the way she knew their home site and family den. Beyond that was her moodiness over living in the moors. It was all very ordinary, safe. She did not feel as though she knew anything about the world outside their home. 

Maybe. Do you think they come out? she then asked with a glance toward him. They were drawing near to their destination - shimmering tide pools that sat on the sand. Gin could smell the sharp tang of salt on the air. Her eyes squinted at it, but her heart beat quickened. Not much further and they'd be there.

no denying the increasing slowness of his steps. like cinderblocks had been tied to his feet.

nearby a splash had valravn shrinking -- the tide pool with its dark, splintered surface --

how many times had he dreamed of looking at that surface from the other side? of bubbles escaping his gaping mouth, of water seeping in through his nose and his eyes and --

gin's question brought him back. the boy frowned -- if they came out, he did not want to witness it. "maybe they're stuck there, like we're stuck on land." valravn wondered if they breathed water the way he and regin breathed the air. it sounded impossible to him.

Now, that was an interesting concept. Gin turned to her dark brother with a curious gleam in the yellow of her eyes. She gazed at him for several long seconds before she nodded in agreement. “I think you might be right, Val,” the siren remarked to him in a tone that was sweet and warm. She agreed with this train of thought entirely because her youthful mind saw it as the only thing that made sense. After all, their mothers had pulled food from the sea before. Did that not mean there were much larger and more vicious beasts dwelling within the sea?
 
The idea that they were stuck on land, though… well, that didn’t settle as easily in the dark-capped girl. She found the premise of being stuck anywhere to be a confusing and frustrating one, whether it had any truthful roots or not.
 
“Do you think I could get in there and see them?” Regin asked, hovering over a large tidepool at her paws.

being right did nothing to assauge val's fears of the water. he peered skeptically at the pool beneath regin's feet, performing a tight little inhale of worry as she leaned over and her reflection spilled along the dark water.

he had to think for a second about what she said. wait -- did she just -- ...

?!

his ears pinned instantly, followed by the firm whumph of his haunches hitting sand. "no!" the boy cried, tempering it with a quieter "i mean.. no. don't go in there. you don't know what's under there."

according to val's fears, which were based on murky dreams and half-lives as distant as any star, terrifying things lurked underwater and val had no intention of reacquainting himself with such nightmares.

The immediate response from her brother did not go unnoticed. 

Gin furrowed her brow and glanced to where Valravn had seated himself in the sand. He seemed like he was uncomfortable with the idea of her testing the pool of water. If she had been forced to be honest, she might have admitted that it seemed a little bit frightening to dive into the unknown. She didn't want to seem like a chicken in front of her brother, though. The young siren tilted her head to the side and frowned thoughtfully. 

If there was anything too bad in there, it would have come out and grabbed me already, Val, she chided him, thinking that her sound reasoning would likely clear up any confusion he had felt. She looked back to the dark surface of the water and touched her paw to the top of it. The water moved, rippling away from where she had touched. It was too dark for her to see anything beneath it.

val didn't know what was worse; his crippling fear of the water, or the blase way regin touched -- TOUCHED -- the surface with a paw. there was an audible intake of fearful air as he half-expected a thousand tentacled arms to wrap their suckers around her paw and drag her under.

he even watched the ripples mistrustfully, waiting for them to turn around and suck her in. so many of his dreams had included drowning or dying in the pelagic deep. he was not fuckin' going there.

he remained rooted to the sand, wishing for once that there was a tree or even a mother or two to hide behind. how could regin be so brave?! "be careful!" he croaked, unwilling to change his mind despite regin's assurance if there was something there it would have already gotten her. what if it wasn't hungry?! or what if it was asleep and she had woken it by touching the water?

oh fuck. val didn't like that thought. instantly, he turned tail and ran.

It didn't take long for the scene to crumble, leaving Regin standing over the tidepool with an expression of disbelief. The spot where her brother had been was empty - Val had gone streaking back to their home in search of comfort. The young siren could not help but feel sour at having been left in the sand by herself. She couldn't fathom where her brother's fear of the sea had come from or why it had struck him with such vigor in those moments. 

With a huff, Gin set a slow course back for their home. She scowled a majority of the way, wondering if she would bump into the inky figure of her frightened brother.