Wheeling Gull Isle dance with me and shake your bones.

a trickle of sunlight spilled by the entryway. accipitra’s eyes trained to the streaking motes, the dozen blurring bugs. 

instinct bid her to chase, but upon the threshold a cloud obscured the sun’s hazing rays and accipitra was left in a pool of dim cold. 

she slyly turned her gaze back to the den. her new-mother was attentive, but with seven other children to lord over, her attention could sometimes be divided. several times now her attempts of jailbreak had been thwarted — but today no voice boomed from the dark bay bidding her back. 

accipitra took wing; or rather, she fell from the threshold itself and stumbled into a thicket of ferns. there she stopped stunned by this new world, her nose twitching as little molecules of scent told her someone — @Towhee — was near.

Towhee spent the morning combing the beach. She found a few scraps of fish which she delivered to Heda before retreating to catch a few winks in a thicket of ferns close to the den. Even with several adults to pitch in, tending to eight puppies and their nursing mother required a lot of effort.

The island’s foliage reminded her of the good days in Epoch, which was bittersweet. But it meant Towhee found sleep rather easily, cradled in green, at least until someone abruptly invaded her space.

With a snort, the sleepy wolf raised head and blinked down at a child whose palette was uncannily Redhawk. Towhee smacked her lips and stared groggily at the pup for a beat, then bent down and unleashed a huge—and particularly fishy—burp right in her face.

instinct told accipitra something largely ominous had just moved. she froze in the manner of a beetle, eyes lifted to the sudden shape that gave form to a giant. 

a rumble started from within, shivering the ferns and quaking the air. a rancid gust of wind curdled the very air she breathed, sending the girl tumbling back with a pinched expression of shock. 

RUDE!!

she rose shakily from the fronds, a new dusting of sand on her back. her nose twitched as the unpleasant odor assailed her senses, sending her into a fit of sneezes as she tried to rid herself of the rank miasma which now enveloped her form.

The child stumbled back and Towhee liked to think it was from the actual force of her belch. She scooted a paw across the sandy ground to steady the pup should she need it, though she managed to find all fours well enough on her own. But then she sneezed again… and again… and again…

-“I guess your parents—your makeshift parents—would want me to say ‘bless you’ right now but…”- Towhee leaned in closer to the puppy’s face, unconcerned about those tiny sneezes. -“I think all that God stuff is a little woo-woo, to be honest. Don’t tell on me.”-

a small battalion of sneezes moved across her throat. each one sent accipitra further back, until at last all occupied forces had vacated and she was left with snot hanging from her nose. 

the giant moved, its thunderous voice spilling over her in a series of drumming tremors. she understood nothing, but brightly parroted back: woo-woo!

she was mesmerized by the totality of black that this one’s fur possessed; streaks of rust and white made their home on her fur’s pitch patchwork, but it was towhee’s eyes and deft movement of her paws that captured accipitra the most. towhee’s eyes stared brightly out of a dark face like the fusion of a pair of incorrigibly smoldering stars; each leaving a comet streak in accipitra’s vision that confounded her more than towhee’s belch had.

The little girl’s lips formed a moue, though whatever noise she made, Towhee of course couldn’t hear it. She grinned all the same, chucking a paw under the pup’s chin and bringing the other forward to wipe her nose. Towhee admired the impressive glob of phlegm on her toe before wiping it off on the nearest fern frond.

-“I just realized you probably shouldn’t be out here. I mean, you’re safe with me but I don’t have anything to feed you, Harley. That’s short for Harlequin, if you’re wondering. ‘Cause hell if I know your actual name.”-

the signs came again! accipitra watched towhee’s great hands materialize into the space in front of her, moving in ways deft and beyond her understanding. every movement had its visual echo which stained the world, each fading one by one into trails of comet glitter. 

accipitra was stunned. the noise which came from towhee was indecipherable, the encoded message of some distant god. she had nothing to say in turn. she didn’t even know her own name! 

upon the ground, accipitra babbled to herself and mimicked towhee’s movements with a clumsy wave of one woefully short paw.

The sight of the tiny tot waving her forelegs was endearing, though it also served to remind Towhee that these babies were very young. She could keep little Harley warm but she couldn’t provide food or anything else she needed. Only Heda could.

Heaving onto all fours, Towhee thought about herding the child toward the den but decided to save time by plucking her up by her scruff. She walked the few steps toward the threshold and gently plopped her on the ground, then nosed her bottom toward the interior.

And just in case any of that wasn’t on the pup’s agenda, Towhee stretched out in the den’s mouth like a great, yawning lioness. There was no escape.

midwave the giant moved. accipitra tracked its progress as it streaked across a Byzantine blue sky; then she was lifted and HEY WAIT A MINUTE 

only a few times had accipitra’s autonomy been so rudely stolen; she squalled and kicked against the force around her neck, biting soundlessly against her hidden captor until she was deposited on the ground. 

AHA! freedom! her mighty kicks and show of fang had cowed the oppressor! accipitra bolted. or really, she did the four week old equivalent which was fumbolted; only to find her progress barricaded by a wall of shimmering black fur. 

she stumbled back, eyes wide as she measured the impassable wall.

 no matter. accipitra would climb, for hers were a dogged people.

She probably would’ve let the puppy scale her, if not for the aggravated skin on her back. Towhee expertly brought a hind leg up just like she would if she intended to scratch an itch behind her ear, only she used it to pry little Harley off her flank.

When she’d pulled the pup to the ground, she didn’t move her hind paw, letting it rest like a dead weight on the feisty tyke’s body. Towhee figured the child might have a field day attacking her foot, which was okay. That was the one she could hardly feel anyhow.

a limb loomed from the dark. accipitra measured its progress with watchful eyes as it came down upon her head and smooshed her. 

what?

this new sensation of being pinned — she fought against it, squirmed in the manner of a snake under thumb. release me! her little jaws parted and a throaty growl gurgled from between her teeth. 

when that didn’t work accipitra did what came naturally to her species for millennia: bite.

Despite the relative lack of sensation in her mildly atrophied foot, Towhee did feel those sharp little milk teeth pressing into the webbing between her toes. She winced but didn’t move it, letting Harley exact her revenge for a few moments.

When she grew tired of it, Towhee shook her off and then maneuvered herself so that all four limbs were tucked safely beneath her body. Make that five: she lifted her rump and slung her tail between her legs before settling down again, like a burnt and crusty loaf of bread lodged in the doorway.

victory! the enemy retreated forces, allowing accipitra a moment’s taste of triumph. 

she readied for secondary attack, rounding to her stumpy feat with a look of concentrated courage. only all forces had withdrawn, and accipitra was left wondering where all of towhee’s legs had gone. 

she stared agog. this was not the normal order of things. perhaps like the stick accipitra had lost the other day, she had misplaced them? her ears flapped as she turned her head around and began searching the limited threshold for towhee’s truant limbs.

Harley seemed pretty mystified by the sudden absence of Towhee’s appendages. She chortled to herself as the pup nosed around, searching for them. She eventually wandered toward the Redhawk’s rear, at which point she let out a massive fart (the seafood diet was giving her gas).

Only the joke was on Towhee because a) it was a shart and b) her tail was tucked, so rather than toot in poor Harley’s face, she full-on shat herself.

a rumble ceased accipitra’s investigation. she froze as the vibrations of the earth and the air washed over her like a wave, following something acrid and crude — a scent so profound she felt her nose recoil. 

accipitra bundled her legs underneath her, clumsily retracting each limb in the wounded manner of a spider smashed underfoot. this scent was foul, it was unpleasant! it woke in her a need to evacuate; not just from the giant, but from within. 

the odor was so powerful it caused her gut to quench. abruptly she threw up a strand of white milk mixed with bile, w followed by a doleful hiccup. there was no escape, but maybe she could back up until she hit the den wall.

The smell of fishy excrement was so foul that even Towhee retched. It didn’t help that she could feel it smearing her entire backside, all hot and sloppy.

Same, girl, same, Towhee said when Harley yacked, then raised her voice to call to whichever adult was inside with the pups, Someone had an accident in the foyer. I’m gonna go get some ferns to clean it up, even though the honest truth was that almost all of the mess was on her.

Glancing down at Harley, Towhee reached out to pat her on the head to say, Sorry about the smell. Don’t tell on me, okay? before scuttling away to wash her bottom.

accipitra was so aghast by the smell that when towhee rose to pat her, she recoiled. it was not enough to avoid the gentle touch, so instead accipitra scowled sulkily as towhee marched off to clean herself.  

enduring the odor was insult enough. accipitra’s expression was cross as she moved from the dark spot, watching towhee leave with another hack of spittle. 

the good news was once she was in the den she forgot all about it — though she might stay away from either end of towhee’s in the immediate future.