Wheeling Gull Isle take a backseat, or play pharaoh.

just outside the den shimmered an impossibly blue world.

it was all she saw now, in faces and shapes. a myriad of blues, indigos, incandescent cerulean —

in her eyes and in her toes, in every little thing she knows —

a navy shadow above causes her to stop at the den’s mouth. by scent and vibrations she recognizes it instinctively as @Judah. not quite other, but not quite sibling yet — but a shape she reached for all the same.

‘Teach!’ Ami says. Big brothers teach.

“Teesh,” he repeats and gives a little pounce. “Teesh,” he repeats with each subsequent bunny-hop, he bounces along the floor of their den.

But what to teach first, when there was so much to know? Judah knew a whole lot. Basically everything, actually. His siblings knew absolutely nothing because they were just babies! Not big like him.  So it had to be something important- very important. This would be his first lesson!

“Teesh beetul,” with a spark of an idea he roots around the den until he reappears by his sister’s side with the gold shell of a bug Dinny had given him. It was his most special possession! And today he would share it with his sister. Just today, though.

“Shwisswy!” He mumbles with his mouth full and gently places the delicate shell beside her. It glitteres brilliantly golden in the sunlight.

“Beetul,” he repeats. “Mine one. Um. You bowwow two-day. Is ok.”

judah’s eyes hung in the sky; one the glittering moon, another the molten sun — two dueling factions which left silvery ribbons and arcs of gold as they moved and bobbed, bunny hopped and turned away and back again.

accipitra slunk to the ground in awe.

the round discs returned, a dark arm materializing from the navy murk. a stunning shield of molten gold hunched in Judah’s outstretched paws.

a beetle’s sundered wing. accipitra marveled the elytra, leaning close with a squeal of delight.

she pulled away, peering inquisitively back at those peerless bright discs of her brother. hers? to have?

she sounded an infant’s hideous cackle and stuffed the incandescent thing in her mouth.

She is enchanted!

Wowed by the same sun-shimmer that had astonished him the day Dinny had gifted it! He shoots around in an excited little arc before spilling into an elated pile at his sister’s side.

“Is ‘beetul’!” he yaps, nosing it towards her.

But too swiftly she takes it up between her gums and it disappears into the chasm of her mouth!

“NOOOOO!” He shrieks!

“Mine one!” He grabs a mouthful of puppy lip with his milk teeth and jostles her head back and forth just as furiously as he can manage!

accipitra had little time to swallow. truth be told, gobbling and swallowing were two different, far reaching concepts. instinct only told her so much — a biological imperative commanded her to put anything exciting in her mouth. 

 the elytra rested on her tongue, a new delightfully smooth texture for her to remember. 

but all was not right in her world. the eyes darkened and swung towards her now, a trail of malevolent sparks streaming across her vision as pain — the first true pain she had ever tasted — snarled across her senses. 

she screamed and the elytra fluttered from her mouth to the den floor. a dribble of blood pooled at her lips, and for the first time in her young life, accipitra wailed.

A final tug frees his beetle!

“YOU!” He screeches at his sister before placing his paws delicately around his most precious keepsake, Dinny’s gift! Now ruined! In a broken heap of baby-spit on the ground! He felt his own tears form and his chest pound up into his ears.

He whirls for her in a pure anger!

“I NOT SHWARE YOU! NO BEETUL! EVAH!” He screams his head off, inky little fur tips and tail bristling for the sky!

She was crying. Good! BIG mistake messing with him!

But along her lip forms a crimson droplet. In shock- he freezes solid.

What is that? Had he made it?

accipitra’s wails rose to the ceiling of the den. around her a veritable stormcloud of pain and grief; the golden elytra entirely forgotten at her feet. 

she did not see her brother retract, nor the way his eyes widened. she wailed as she had never before, her spittle turning a frothy red.

Her screech is insufferable! Certainly louder than Judah ever has been! Batty ears collapse behind his little skull and he eyes her fearfully, at a complete loss for what to even think! She’d gobbled his treasure, she got what she deserves!

Juju cries! Not Ami or Papa or Simmy or Mal or Dinny or babies!
But Juju is big brother now. Teach.

Red milk trickles down from her lips and he watches as it slicks her gums. Hurt- he’d hurt her!

“Sissy?” he whines and shimmies forward, round eyes glazing in a new emotion- horrifying worry. He bathes her red lip with his tongue, and when that doesn’t work he carefully reaches for the remains of the golden beetle and presents it to her.

“Heeoh. Mine one. An yeouh one. Can be bwoth. Share.”

And if she ate it, well, he might not ever forgive her. But he’d still love her, he thinks.

hope u guys don't mind me throwing dinah in here!! can delete if need be <3

Dinah, at this point, could not remember the last time she had been in the den.

Most of her time was spent watching the waves crash, pull back, and crash again, a mindless fascination. Dinah Marina.

And she was currently basking on a rock as sun poured onto her shoulders from between spruce pines. Not on the beach, but she could hear it from where she was. It was the only thing she found comfort in, these days. The beach was hers. No one else's.

Until the sound of an eardrum-shattering holler broke through her peaceful wave watching. Instinctive panic rushes through her little body, and she hurtles herself off of the rock, nearly bruising her wrist; but there was no time for that. Someone was screeching. Up, up, up the trail that led to the den, rocketing into the mouth of it, and her brain could not catch up with her sight.

Juju's cicada shell. The one she'd given him.

And sitting there, wailing in front of its remains, was the culprit: the demon child.

Her little jaw falls slack, and she looks to Judah, then the puppy, then Judah again, and then from a quivering lip comes: Wha'did you do? and she wasn't even sure who she was asking. Just as fast as she'd come in, she runs back out, and her pitiful cries of anguish followed her. She hated these babies, she wanted them gone, gone, gone, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Helplessly, she escapes into a nearby thicket, collapses under the cover of tree roots, and lets the sobs overtake her. 

there is a moment when accipitra comes up for air; that moment happens to coincide with Judah’s offering of the golden shield, his subsequent lick, and Dinah’s perfunctory arrival. 

accipitra hushed, cowed into silence by the stormcloud that momentarily darkened their threshold before it took wing in a flurry of residual anger. she was young but recognized that dark emotion; it thrummed the air and ceased her crying. 

she looked upon judah, for now theirs was a bloodpact exchanged at the cost of her blood. iron tinted her tongue. 

aba? she ventured, her babble having no discernible meaning besides a question. her gaze followed the sultry smoke of brimstone that tailed dinah’s wake; dinah may have moved past her vision, but eddies of her presence swirled still where she had stood moments before.

The petulant storm that is Dinny rolls through, but too quickly she is gone away where Judah cannot follow.

“Inny!” He calls after her, his ears falling low and tears blurring his eyes. His paw hovers over the threshold of the den before he makes a fearful scurrying retreat back to his little sister.

He looks down at the crinkled bug shell then into her questioning eyes. “Inny don like you cause you lawud an cwy too mush an eat stoff an Ami alway wid you an nod Inny oh Mal oh Simmy. Oh Juju,” He explains simply.

“But I like you um cause I’m yeouh big bwuddah.”

skipping dinah w/ ooc permission <3

accipitra stuck out the tip of her tongue, marveling at the tincture of iron and how it smarted her senses. dinah had stormed through a moment before; accipitra fixed her gaze upon her receding backside, following judah as he bid for the den's threshold.

she considered tottering after the pair, but judah was already back. accipitra set her gaze upon the dark frame of his winsome features: his eyes mesmerized her.

a stream of words escaped his mouth, which moved too fast for the babe to understand. he was talking to her, which was delightful! with a squeal, accipitra kissed the tip of his nose and then fell upon his leg, unaware of the sling of words aimed at her person, or their sting.

the elytra was forgotten for now. accipitra felt tired, and let a little yawn escape her mouth. before long she collapsed into a puppy puddle at judah's feet, dreaming of golden wings and strangely dark skies.