Dragoncrest Cliffs Security!

BWP: A swarm of cicadas crashes your character's den!
Looking particularly for @Val, Mother dearest and siblings! <3

Nestled amid his siblings, the sun rose without the ruddy boy, who preferred to lounge and bask in the warmth provided by the many selections of exquisite furs he had in his den. He liked the feel of featherdown and even fur plucked and shed so that he might have a comfortable bed. In all things soft and sweet, Tousaint reveled. 

Something landed softly on his cheek, and tickled him lightly. He giggled and swatted it away, thinking perhaps it was mother's whiskers. He rolled over and stretched, holding his front paws up to invite her to groom his belly but something else that was light and prickly landed on him. He giggled again and swatted at it as it landed just below his armpit. Silly mother- he could withstand just about that much tickling before he turned sour, and he felt sure this time that she would soothe him with a bath-

but that didn't happen. 

it hadn't been his mother's whiskers against his cheek, or belly. 

It was when he was tickled again that he opened his eyes and rolled over, mouth open so he could protest to any further nuisance when he noticed that there were large, dark things on him! He kicked one off with a hind paw and with a shudder he dislodged the other- but with widening eyes he looked up to see that the den had begun to crawl with the dark, shiny insects- and he was too frightened to even make a sound, but continued to recoil in horror, pressing himself up against one of his siblings and prodding them with his foot, hoping they too would wake up and do something about this!

sobeille had laid low these last weeks. growing was hard work, and while sobeille would not mature into something lazy, she divested her energy sparingly. she took every opportunity to nap, answering to some hidden biological authority which told her to rest was good.

she was stirred awake by her brother. in the manner of a frog sobeille awoke; one eye groggily focusing, then the other -- her fat limbs propping her upright in lazily sprawled posture. she withstood his buffet of kicks with patent patience, her gaze focusing on movement before her.

thousands of movement; in an amphibian's lazy crawl sobeille marched towards them, snapping up whatever she could with salientian delight.

val hadn't known what to make of the cicadas as they woke him. he'd been sleeping outside the den, curled around an empty conch he planned to present to the puppies come mid-morning. the drone of bugs pulled him from a dreaming realm of sharp yellow eyes and the roar of an approaching wave -- when he came to it was to see a marvel.

thousands of insects stirring around the den. they were on everything; every branch hummed to life with their six-legged explorations; their broad eyes lit up against the darkening bark. he recognized them as largely harmless, but all the same pulled himself towards the den's mouth.

within, he saw two puppies were awake. tousaint was pressed against sobeille, a look of horror on his face. sobeille seemed half-awake, or really, gradually coming to.

its okay, tousaint. val called into the den, crawling through the horde with his nose to the boy to reassure him. beyond them, sobeille crunched through legions of exoskeletons like the hungry hippo. they don't bite, see? one landed near him and val crushed it between his paws. he lifted his arm up to show the cracked exoskeleton, with little limbs twitching.

Astera had been sleeping next to the pups, after a long and exhausting meadow exploration trek. She had made it her sole purpose to learn as much she could about Sapphique and the surrounding territories. Her paws twitched while resting, dreaming of open meadows, and crashing waves. 

The disturbance came. Thousands of winged creatures, crawling, and leaping about. Astera woke with a disgruntled sneeze as a cicada crawled on her nose. She batted it of with her paw, sending it flying. What are these?! She shouted to @Val, before frantically trying to lick the pups to calm them.

The insects were ugly. Greasy-looking and slick, with their wings that made a noisy rattling when they stirred. He didn't like the prickle of their feet, or the way they were difficult to shake off if they decided to climb up his side. He glanced toward Miette, who had begun the absolutely appalling task of eating the insects, though he'd allow it as it meant that with every bug she ate, there would be one less crawling all over him. 

Val offered reassurance but Tousaint wasn't convinced, and continued to pout, pushing himself further away from the bugs as they continued to crawl into the den. He looked up, horrified to see them clinging to thorns and creeping overhead. He heard a crunch and looked down just in time to see Val lift his paw, revealing a sickening clump of crushed exoskeleton and mushy insides. His eyes widened and his frown deepened. 

He didn't want the bugs on him, but he definitely didn't want bug guts on him either. 

Astera arrived, and rather than feeling comforted, Tousaint began to feel stifled inside the den now that it was full not only of cicadas but wolves as well. He didn't want to be touched, and flinched away from Astera's reassurances with an unhappy moan. He looked to the den't mouth, wondering if outside was any better- he was far too overwhelmed being cornered in the den like this.

around her insects buzzed and were snatched from the air by her hungry teeth. needly as her milk teeth were, they pierced expertly through exoskeleton and made quick work of their hapless victims. 

sobeille did not stop to check on either tousaint or astera. her sights were trained on her future meals; each she greedily pounced upon and ate with gusto. occasionally a victorious whoop accompanied these quick bouts of unusual violence; sobeille showed no signs of slowing.

the den crawled with billions of legs. a little sneeze sounded from the corner, followed by astera’s bright gaze coming to view. they are bugs — harmless.

he shook the entrails from his paw, noting that tousaint’s eyes had become round as dinner plates. it was as if val could feel the electricity churning from him in terrified bursts.

he moved slightly, sensing the boy’s need to go where things were not so confined. i bet your sister would eat all of them if she could. val whispered to tousaint with a grin, motioning for the trio to come play outside.

sobeille was given no choice; val picked her up nimbly mid-slaughter and placed her upon the roots outside their den.

Harmless, Val said, but to Astera, the bug climbing all over her long coat was enough reason for them to be classified as harmful. She gasped in shock as she observed Sobeille consume the foul invertebrates. Miette! That is not food! Aster quickly made her way out of the infested den as soon as Val took the greedy Sobeille outside. Playing out in the fresh air sounded more enjoyable, Astera dangled a feather in front of Sobeille's nose, before jumping a step back, teasing the young pup.

He watched, disgusted, as his sister chomped on one cicada after the next, and frowned deeply as their little legs fell from her mouth and their yucky guts squished in her jaws. He pressed himself backwards, trying to shrink away from the insects as they crawled around, rudely climbing up on him wherever they could before he brushed them off with a swipe of his paw. Val spoke and he looked to his sister again, before he gagged. She was actually eating them; and the crunchy, squelchy sound she was making as she did was absolutely appalling. 

Val carried her outside and feeling outnumbered, Tousaint followed. He made sure not to step on any of them on his way out, though it made walking very difficult. He had to side-step and weave in order to avoid them, but once he was clear of the den's mouth, there was more space and he bounded a few paces away, the soft fur of his ruff lifting slightly as he shuddered. 

"Ughhhh!" he groaned, trying to console himself by bathing his pelt, as though to rid it of the feeling of crawling insects.

miette! that is not food! sobeille jabba-the-hut cackled as she swung from val's jaws, little tongue running along her teeth to catch any crunchy bits. she didn't know what marvelous occasion this was, but the food was exquisite and the convenience of it being delivered right to her door was a treat beyond compare.

placed upon the ground, sobeille pounced clumsily atop the fat back of a particularly tanky cicada. the squelch it made between her paws and the subsequent ooze was delightful! she chewed it thoughtfully as a shadow crossed over her.

sobeille forgot about val and tousaint, her attention stolen by the feather dangling in front of her face. discarding the dry bits of scute and limbs, sobeille rose to her feet and attempted to snatch the feather from astera's grip.

one pup was having too much fun, one pup wasn't having it, and the other had already abandoned bug-hunting pursuits for a game of feather-keep-away.

val eyed this varied bunch with a grin. so many different personalities, so many little lives that would grow into strong sapphiquians. it was artful the way he hid the grin of amusement that threatened to break his features as he saw tousaint so delicately avoid what miette was stuffing blatantly to her mouth.

relieved that astera had distracted the gremlin, val pulled towards tousaint with an affectionate lick atop the boy's head. you missed a spot. he pointed cheekily to the boy's tail and supplanted another kiss to his flank. come here, you little stinkbug -- i'll give you a proper bath.

Miette abandoned the cicadas for the feather, Astera's plan had worked! She dangled the feather an inch away from the pup, before quickly snatching it away. In all the excitement, she joyfully tossed the swan feather into the air for the pup to catch, only to have it picked up by a large gust of wind. Away it went, up and far out of reach. Astera looked at Sobeille with a regretful expression. ...sorry...

He’d been trying to soothe the skin near his flank when something touched the top of his head, making him duck closer to the ground and bare his emerging teeth instinctively. He closed his lips when he realized it was only Val- who then insisted he be cleaned properly.

Bathtime was more his kind of activity, though he did not like being called stink bug. He wrinkled his nose in distaste, before he sat with his back to Val, between his paws and lowered his head as an invitation for his masseuse to begin.

sobeille’s hungry eyes tracked the downy feather. she was certain it would be hers to have soon, but in a twist of cruel humor the windgods twirled it into the air and sent it far away.

her eyes widened in dismay, then fell to her chaperone. he was busy grooming tousaint, who now had his back to val and his head propped neatly on his paws.

she rose shakily, marching towards astera with determination in every step. they were going to recover that feather, or else.

val pulled the boy close, making great exaggerations of wrinkling his muzzle as if tousaint were truly the stinkiest of the bunch. with the boy’s back to him, val began to preen his little shoulder blades.

he kept a sly eye on both of the miscreants not currently pinned beneath the attention of his tongue. where tousaint was a model and well-behaved boy, val thought of astera and miette as a rowdy — but endearing — dynamic duo. between the two of them, he was sure to go grey early.

Going to archive this so that it will count for the BWP <3

Leaving the obnoxious, buzzing insects to crawl around the den, Tousaint turned his little ears back and leaned into the massage treatment. He'd fortunately missed the scowling look Valravn had given him, otherwise he might have been either highly offended or greatly concerned that he had somehow let himself get stinky. He ignored the other pups while he was given what he believed to be preferential treatment, uttering a soft chuff whenever he felt like Valravn was getting distracted. 

Eventually, he would slump, softly, to the ground. His eyes would drift shut, and with the buzzing of bugs still in the background, he fell asleep.