Vasili and siblings —

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"Come on, ya little shits."

His father's voice was familiar as it echoed through the walls of their familial den. And if Heh knew his father, the summons would be quick. And the consequence of inaction would be far more bothersome than actually doing whatever the thing was that father wanted.

Ugh.

It was too hot to be summoned.

Heh, however unhurried, would ultimately choose to obey (he liked all his limbs attached). The boy's large frame lifted from the pile of monochrome and red siblings, the gold of his fur glittering as he crested the den into the open air of the jungle. His dual-toned gaze would squint gently against the sun, following the figure of his father toward the beach. The waves roared. The sun glittered. The volcano sighed in the distance.

The birds moved with the change of breeze. The smell of salt mingled with sulfur as the tide shifted lower.

And Heh observed.

"First one to find me the coolest shell or rock on the beach wins."

Heh would turn toward his father, slowing as his clumsy, large paws sank into the uneven sand. And with all the seriousness of a child's voice, he would muster a curious retaliation: Win what? It was important to know, afterall, for it would ultimately dictate how much effort Heh put into this activity.

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Kek's body hurt. As he grew, his rapid growth made his joints ache in a way most unpleasant. Walking hurt, jogging hurt, running hurt. Even sleeping hurt if she lay too long on one side. And, it was hot. Terribly hot, but too aimless to do anything about it, Kek just lay there until they were told otherwise. Vasili's call was enough for them to get onto protesting limbs. Kek might have whined about it to begin with, but there was a strange sort of resilience within the pup, and they just... got used to it.

He still hung back, however, content to let his siblings trail after their father more closely, stretching out his legs slowly at his own pace. The breeze was nice, and so was the shade, untethered to the stuffy den. Kek liked walks, even if it sort of hurt to move. It continued following its family contently, up until they broke the treeline and his paws hit sand.

A slight hesitation, a stutter in her gait, and a moment where she flattened her ears to her skull was the only indication she gave, before she continued onwards. The glittering blue of the ocean should be something that brought them joy, but instead, they refused to touch the circle of wet sand that surrounded the island, effectively trapped, even if they didn't realise it. They had told no one except Kauket about their run-in with Cairo, and it would likely stay that way.

Kek might have obeyed with no question, keen to obey, keen to impress, but Heh's inquiry made her pause, curious. What would they win?

Skill:

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An echo careened through the den, Come on ya little shit's, and he grumbled from his dark corner. The boy had grown quite a bit, now a pudgy 3 and a 1/2 month old he rose to his paws. He was bored of sitting in the den, he was bored of hiding in the shadows, he was just fucking bored.

Sekh didn't give a damn about where they were going, what they were doing, what they would win, he simply just wanted out of the fucking cavern that consumed him day in and day out. Though he didn't have the drive to leave himself, only when he was forced, summoned, he simply had no drive.

Mumbling as Heh questioned what they would win he grumbled and shouldered his way past both Kek and Heh, bumping shoulders with the quaking little red and onyx Kek as he slammed into them on his way by. He slipped eyes over to Heh and growled as he trotted by and continued on towards the wet waters that rushed on the sands.

His eyes were squinted, nearly closed, though he could still kinda see, at the outside world. He wasn't used to the sun like this, it hurt a bit, but he ignored the irritation of it and slammed a paw into the water to send it flying everywhere around him.

It splashed him in the face and he grumbled and did it again, trying to see what would happen if he continued to beat it. It repeated the action and he let out a snarl and a loud bark, his head bending low to bite at it as if it would stop doing what it had previuosly.

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Firethorn wasn't in the den when Vasili made his command. He had gotten into a habbit of stepping out of the den, partly to avoid the company of foxes (that is: everybody else), and partly because he was getting curious on what else was on this island. As he found out quickly, nothing terribly interesting. It was a small place enclosed by water on all sides, with plenty of prey and vegetation but nothing that would have interested the fox kit. What would interest the fox kit actually? Firethorn wasn't sure himself, he just knew that the first excitements of his life, of learning to walk, smell, bend rules, getting away with said rule bending and getting to know the various members of his wolf family were getting dull fast and he needed something new.

He was about to return to the den when he sniffed out a commotion on the beach. It turns out that some of the family had left the den and were doing...something. Something involving Vasili. What could he have missed?

The red fox sneaked in, his body low to the ground. While they were all grumbling at each other or looking for shells or doing water experiments he was going to show them all what he's capable of. The reason why he was here. They weren't going to just ignore him from now on, especially not after jumping high and letting out a vulpine war cry, that is: a yap into the air. "They definitely didn't see that coming!", he thought.

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The majority of his siblings came marching onto the scene, some more ... boisterously ... than others. Heh would watch, lips twisting upward in a near-invisible trace of childish annoyance. A few of them would wonder, but the majority of them would swing into fiery action. They seemed overall undeterred by the salty air and the hot wind, immediately willing to waste their energy on an imaginary prize.

Heh continued to watch his father.

"The right to rub victory in the noses of your siblings," he would start, and Heh continued to stare, so far unimpressed. "The undying pride that comes with winning." Heh's ear flicked. He already had an undying pride — wasn't that part of being a Saxe-Delonbraj? A dragon?

The heat pounded on Heh's back, and he was feeling less and less willing to move as time ticked on.

"First dibs on whatever toy I bring back for you mongrels, redeemable whenever you want it to be. Now go, go look for cool shit."

At least that was something tangible, and perhaps the ocean would cool him down a bit. Though there was a part of him that absentmindedly wondered if the ocean would grow hungry and sweep them all away with the tide.

He'd glance at Kek for a moment before shrugging. The boy toddled toward the shore, dual-toned eyes to the wet sands as he perused the salt-soaked shores for an appropriate prize. He landed on a murex shell, mostly because it reminded him of fish bones. But the shell was in pretty poor condition (2/10 dice roll), with pieces and bits broken, and the shell overall sun-bleached from it's time in the harsh jungle sun.

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