[Kukulkan]

f e a t h e r e d

p r i n c e

Everyone was asleep.

Or at least everyone had been asleep when the boy had slipped out, dusk looming in the distance, stretching across a land he'd only seen from the suffocating safety with his litter. 'Maybe tomorrow,' she had cooed to him two weeks ago, 'maybe tomorrow,' again last week. And three days ago. It was all the same.

After that, K had whispered secret, brilliant plans with Cian, fully aware that the only way they were ever going to burst forth into the world was by their own decision. Two nights of revisions to their scheme brought the two to tonight. Dad asleep, like most days. Mom, finally asleep. Most his siblings seemed to be resting, but if they weren't Cian had promised to distract them.

Kukulkan snuck out first, with his brother planning to follow as soon as the coast was clear. Wouldn't be long, now.

In the meantime, the boy prince ran as quickly as his puppy legs would carry him, mischief and excitement filled to the brim in that face capped with a wheezing grin. All around him he found wonder, he found awe, he found a world that was simply begging for him to explore and discover and take for himself! Little bugs that flickered with a golden light that caught him off guard, bringing him to a brisk stop as he stared. Mother had already begun to fill his head with dreams, but dreams could only flourish so much in the shadows of dens.

Out here, though, the child received his first taste of what it meant to be a part of this world. This world... this world that held a tremendous destiny owed to him.

Some nondescript noise caught his attention, but only enough to bring him out of his reverie, his attention still bound to the fireflies as they fluttered about. "Cian, s'thatchya?" He hadn't yet turned, only assuming that the only one who could find him here was his brother. "Wow would ya look at 'em! What makes 'em do that??" Was the rest of this world so confusing and incredible?

He'd yet to meet another, one from the pack he was borne to, yet did not know he was a part of. He only knew of where his Mother and Father had come from, the legacy they carried, and of his predestined future. Everything else was foreign, but as the boy-prince was discovering, the foreign was wonderful. With an eagerness that may have been misconstrued as reckless, Kukulkan leapt out towards one of the fireflies as it hovered close to the ground. It had no problem avoiding the youth, and joined its comrades higher in the air as they continued to slowly blink, blink, blink.

Softly glimmering and casting a warm glow into the dimming, whimsical air.

ooc: open to any and all. family is extra-welcome!

text speech: #a5300d

[Twitch]

"I'm not very good with stills.  I get all twitchy." - Saffron Burrows

Either her own parents were likewise inattentive, or Twitch had also somehow managed a marvelous escape.  She too, was out looking for the flashing bugs she had caught sight of before bed. A bit older than the little prince, the little hellion girl was already allowed day trips out into the world, and had already begun unlocking its mysteries.  She already had a best friend, a fellow bug enthusiast and overall ideal teammate.  But He wasn't here right now.  In truth, Twitch had only the foggiest knowledge about Embsay.  Except he liked bugs.  That was the important thing.  So while she would have loved to share in any particular discoveries with her bosom buddy, it would seem that this was going to be a solitary expedition.

Or so she thought.

She came back to the edge of the clearing she had been to this afternoon, rustling along in the undergrowth that fell across the trail.  She didn't really see a need to be quiet, she was big enough now not to be dinner for an owl.  It had never occurred to her that her noise might give herself away to other nightly prowlers.  It wasn't until she was almost upon the boy before she noticed him, to intent on looking for signs of her lovelies. His voice caught her by surprise, and an involuntary shiver twitched down her spine.  She flicked her tail in annoyance, whipping it like a cat's.  Despite her older age, she was small.  Where K would become a monstrous 4' beast as an adult, Twitch would never reach that height.  In fact, she was barely going to be half of that at 2' even.

"Cian, s'thatchya? Wow would ya look at 'em! What makes 'em do that??"

She was most certainly not Cian, but in her own excitement over the bugs, she didn't care.  Obviously the other pup's curiosity was reason enough to talk to him.  He liked bugs.

"Lightning."  Twitch said, matter-of-factly. "They're called lightning bugs."

She trotted towards him, stopping a polite distance away. Her coat showed her to be of the Spectre line, with skull-like holes around her eyes and nose, and a deep crimson covering her lower jaw and running down her throat, splashing across her chest.  The stark white of her coat was practically reflective, while her grey and black receded back into the darkness.  To top off the whole look, two ebony horns sprouted from her forehead and silver white eyes that reflected the light.   She might seem like a phantom coming out of the darkness, but Twitch had never met someone at night before, and in bright daylight she didn't look nearly as startling.  As soon as they got to talking about bugs, she wasn't going to be very scary anyway.

[Cian]

He watched attentively as his brother was finally able to slip out into the little known world.  He kept his head down, but ears and eyes were alert, watching, listening.  His mother stirred, but soon fell back into her deep, needed sleep. He waited a few moments more, listening to the snoring of his siblings, and the heavy, labored breathing of his father before he meandered out towards the entrance of the den.  He was moments from freedom, moments from seeing what the world outside this macabre den looked like when his fathers eye shot open suddenly, and he froze.  A few mumbled words fell out of the old man's mouth, but one stood out among the others, "Rai-kov.."  Cian narrowed his eyes, before replying to put his fathers troubled mind back at ease.  "No Da' it's me, Cian."  And with that Shark drfited back into his labored sleep.  Cian waited a few seconds, watching his father relax again, before bursting out of the den at a sprint.

The air hit him like a freight train, it was cold and humid, but it was literally a breath of fresh air.  His lungs filled up with the brisk evening air, and a smile broke across his face.  Finally, out.  Finally, away.  FINALLY.  

He ran as fast as his little legs could carry him, and it took him a while to meet up with his brother as A) They never discussed a place to meet, and B) Holy crap there was so much to see.  Cian stopped at every little thing he could, sniffing and playing until he remembered he had to find K.  Hearing his brothers voice from a ways off, he trotted happily in that direction, wagging his tail as fast as it would go, but the closer he got, the more he could tell it wasn't just K.  It was someone else.  A stranger.  

A potential threat.  

Laying his ears back to make him look as scary as puppily possible, Cian ran towards them, growling a puppy growl that was cut short as his eyes found the little flickering things in the sky.  Ears found their way back forward, and eyes crossed as one of the flickering bugs landed on the end of his nose, forcing him to stop altogether so he could get a better look at it.  "Oye, you said lightnin' bugs?"  He asked, forgetting about how potentially dangerous this stranger was, this bug was suddenly much more important.  "Wha' the hecks a lightnin'?"  He plopped his butt down on the ground, tail wagging behind him as the bug crawled around the tip of his nose.