There was nothing that could keep Scylla tied down for long. She could get out of anything if she worked at it long enough and the lock on the wooden door of her mother's set of rooms was no different. Possessing such crafty little digits really came in handy. Flipping the lock was cake, though she had to do it quietly. Getting the box to the door so that she could reach the lock, that had been the difficult part.  Each little scuff and scrape sent the girl to gritting her teeth, setting her ears back and going stock still. Only when she was sure that the steady, sleeping breaths of her family hadn't change did she begin to move again. Eventually, the door bent to her will and out into the world went Scylla Tiberia Klein.

The night was dark, but that was nothing new, right? The night was always dark. That was why it was night and the bright time was day. Scylla much preferred moving about in the dark. The shadows hugged her tiny frame as she scuttled from dark pool to dark pool. What kind of mischief could she get into tonight? Though terribly young, Scylla already knew what slaves were. She knew where they were kept, too. Perhaps she would take a little visit to that side of the island. Or perhaps she would investigate the far side of the island where the tide pools and caves were. Or maybe she would just root through the various cabanas to see what was inside. The choices were endless. The world was her oyster. Or hermit crab. Or however the saying went.

As the slate and cream child crept along, she spied a brightly glowing creature up ahead. Glowing beasts had become the norm and so she thought nothing of the creature as she drew near. Ears tucked to her skull, Scylla stuck to the shadows, trying her best to be as quiet as possible while she stalked the creature. From this distance, she couldn't tell what it was, but she was definitely in a pounce and growl mood. Closer and closer she crept until she could finally make out just what the glowing animal was. It was rat. A huge, glowing rat! The rodent sat on its haunches, methodically cleaning its whiskers and face with delicate blue hands. The rat was a pretty good size and was a creature that Scylla was larger than. What was she going to do with a dead rat? Who knew? She'd find out once she caught it.

Crouching low, the girl kept to the shadows, using the overhanging fern leaves to her advantage. Her coat was made for moon spattered shadows. The child's small frame practically disappeared, expertly camouflaged. Step by step, she moved forward towards the illuminated vermin. The creature suddenly sat up straight, its nose moving while its whiskers twitched back and forth. It scented the air but it was too late. Scylla launched herself at the rodent, paws splaying wide to grab it as the animals connected. The rat squeaked as the girl bit into it, but it wasn't going down without a fight. The rodent kicked and bit at Scylla in turn, though it only got a mouthful of braid at first. Scylla kicked the rat away with a cry of indignation. It had bitten her braid! Now there was rat spit on it! With a growl, the girl bunched her muscles and sprang at the rat once more. Blue fireflies arrived in droves, hovering above as if watching the battle.

"Scylla Klein"

595/2500

Albion was a curious boy, keeping him from sticking his nose where it didn’t belong was a challenge. He wasn’t looking to get scolded but his icy blue eyes observed everything that he could. Mostly he was a quiet child unless he was around his siblings. He talked ot Scylla easily, and he was getting better when speaking to Cerberus, but the other boy was just as quiet as he was. He explored both night and day so he had a chance to watch all of the wolves in Fenmyre, from the unnamed slaves, to his father the king and all of their guests in between. When it came to preference Albion also preferred the night, there was no damage from the sun and the moon was plenty to light his path. Though he stood out like a ghost under the moon. His pale ivory fur nearly glowed beneath the massive celestial object.

A fact that would make him surprised that his sister had not seen him tailing her yet. By now it felt like she just expected him to be there at her side eventually, and Albion always did seem drawn to where she was. Glowing phenomena or not, this was the world he lived in, this was his life. Everything glowed and the moon was always full. There always felt like there was tension in the air and his parents and Dalila were always on edge. Another reason he was eager to get out, to follow Scylla and be away from the potential ire of his father.

For how massive his paws were Albion walked with a nearly silent gait as he slipped through the trees like the apparition he resembled. He caught sight of his littermate settling into a stalking position. His glassy eyes watched her as she stalked forward and slipped into the moon shadows like they were her home and her prey became apparent to the illuminated boy. He crouched in the foliage for a long moment as he waited, observing, and loathe to disturb Scylla. He watched as the blue lighted rat cleaned its whiskers carefully, none the wiser of the two pups that watched it carefully.

The boy didn’t move again until he watched Scylla spring from behind and overtake the rat. Then he too leapt forward. The girl squealed and kicked the rat away, sending blue streams of light through the air as it flew. Albion was on it like a cat to a mouse. Massive claws were unsheathed as he batted the animal with his paw like a feline would. He watched the blue markings, which made the rat all that much easier to track in the shadows of the foliage above. He didn’t hardly notice the fireflies that seemed to encircle the pups and their prey.

Albion Klein

466
1061/2500

Of course Albion would have to get in on the fun. He always followed her around, didn't he? When Scylla kicked the rat away, it flew right into her pale siblings grasp. His claws unsheathed and he smacked the glowing rodent. Ah, but Scylla wasn't going to let him have all the fun. She had revenge on her mind. As the rat was smacked away, the long tailed girl dove, landing hard upon it with all four feet. There was a loud snapping sound and the rodent stopped struggling. The blue glow gradually faded away until there was nothing left but an old dead rat. No glow. No fun.

With a huff, Scylla turned her mismatched gaze towards her hulking brother. "Now what are we going to do?" With the rat dead, her fun was gone. The girl just so happened to look upwards while searching for something else to kill time when she noticed an odd sight. The fireflies that had once been spinning around above them were all frozen. Not just still, but frozen. They didn't move. They didn't blink. Every single last blue dot simply stood there in time like far of stars. It was... unnerving. "Maybe we should go play on the beach again?" She asked her brother before slinking away down the path towards the white sand beach.

Once out on the sand, Scylla felt better. Wide open space, no creepy blue bugs. Or whatever they were. They weren't really bugs, were they? The pair had found that out when they went out to inspect the tree. One of the lights had disappeared when it touched her nose. The grown ups didn't seem to know what they were either. In fact, the grown ups seemed a little scared of the lights and the glowing things. To Scylla, they were just a thing. She was born into this glowing time and so it was normal for her. Still.. she hadn't liked the way that the lights froze when she killed the rat. That had been really weird.

The girl seated herself on the beach, looking out to sea much the same as she had the night that the specters had come out of the waves. "Now what do we do?" The island was boring. Maybe her brother had a better idea. If he just wanted to sit there and watch something though... Scylla was going to bail. Noticing a few rat scratches on her paw, the girl licked the wounds and pressed a bit of fallen palm leaf atop it to staunch the trickle of blood. She wasn't very good at this healing thing yet, but she would be eventually.

"Scylla Klein"

1462/2500

Sometimes he didn’t feel complete when Scylla went running off without him. He was almost compelled to follow after wherever she went like it was his destiny. Maybe she didn’t believe him about having special gifts, but there was no doubt to the strange occurrences going on around them. Like the glowing blue rat that was bounced towards him. Albion clumsily juggled the rodent in his paws, using his sharp feline claws experimentally. He wasn’t alone for long, as Scylla required her resilience and joined him in their plight. Rats were never good to have around, they were far too smart and spread fleas like it was their job.

Albion dropped the rat and before he could even react Scylla was upon it, all four paws beneath her as she aimed to crush the tiny pest. She killed it, and slowly the blue glow melted form the carcass. He was going to suggest they feed it to the dogs when Scylla huffed loudly, as if she wasn’t the wolf to have killed her own playtoy. Albi shrugged lightly, he was the one following her after all. He followed her attention as she looked into the canopy and at the same time the hulking boy noticed the frozen state the lights were in. He hadn’t seen them go still like this before. Scylla froze like he did, and his brow furrowed as he questioned again what he saw. Nothing was so surprising when everything was astounding.

Scylla let too much of her emotions shine through her voice, and she didn’t wait for his answer before she was headed in the direction of the ocean. Albion didn’t tease her, only quietly followed after her like the dutiful brother he was. Albion lowered his head and walked through the dark forest behind his sister, finding it obvious the way the girl relaxed when they were back out on the sand and in the full bathing light of the moon. It was much less unnerving than the blue lights that floated in and out of existence in the woods. They were here too, but not near as prominent or noticeable with the brilliant moonlight.

They didn’t get any answers from the adults, they could probably figure it all out just as well as their parents. Maybe even better with their young impressionable minds. He knew they had only been here about as long as they had been around. Perhaps the whole reason they existed was because he and Scylla were born. Their birth changed the world, and the whole of what they saw was entirely their fault. What if they could grow to control these strange things around them? It hadn’t seemed to react well when he told it what to do, but maybe he just needed to learn the right words.

He would have to think more about the possibilities in front of him, for now he’d joined Scylla on the beach. The boy walked up beside her, but hesitated in sitting himself beside her. Now what? He liked that Scylla looked to him to help keep her entertained, he was quiet and comparatively cautious compared to his sister but she still questioned his opinion. ”Do you think the seals are glowing?” He asked her in response, gesturing towards the northern beach where the sealions most preferred to laze in the sand. He didn’t know how they were reacting with the strange phenomenon around them. Especially the endless night.


Albion Klein

580
2042/2500

If Albion thought less of her for wanting to leave the jungle, he didn't show it. Like the good brother that he was, the boy dutifully followed his tiny sister out onto the beach. Things were better here. She could breathe easily and there weren't a million frozen fireflies hanging over their heads. Yes, the blue lights still ran rampant on the beach, but the brilliantly bright moonlight dulled them down and made them appear less... ominous. Scylla was no coward, but she was cautious. If a situation seemed like it had the potential to go south, she wasn't too proud to take advantage of her sense of self preservation and leave.

As her quiet brother stood beside her and she questioned him, he seemed to think about it for a moment before posing his own query. Were the sea lions glowing as well? "Everything else is, so I don't know why they wouldn't be." Sea lions were large and they were dangerous. The pair had been warned against bothering the giant creatures, but when did Scylla ever listen to anything that she was told? Never and today wouldn't be the start of it. "We should check," she suggested before picking herself out of the sand and moving down the beach. Of course Albi would follow.

The small fae could see the glow of the sea lions long before she could actually make out any solid shapes of them. "I guess that's our answer," she mumbled before her pace slowed. Just because she didn't listen didn't mean that she wasn't cautious. Tonight, she was extra cautious. Normally by now they'd hear the grunts, groans, the slap of bodies. The sea lions were completely silent. They didn't move a muscle. Scylla shot a sideways glance at Albion to gauge his reaction to this before looking back to the massive creatures. There were tons of them on the beach, but they all sat staring inland. Staring at them. Vividly glowing eyes were all turned towards the children as though they had been expecting the two pups. Their eyes were the same glow as the fireflies and Scylla once again wondered if they were all connected somehow.

"Do you think that the fireflies told the sea lions that we were coming?" She voiced her thought aloud and tentatively began moving forward towards the hulking wall of blubber and muscle. Still the sea lions didn't move. "Do you think that we'll eventually glow?" Scylla wouldn't mind if she glowed. Might be kind if fun. Although... it would make sneaking around a lot more difficult. Coming right up to one of the sea lions, Scylla gave it a sniff, her little pink nose quivering. They smelled salty and fishy and the girl's nose wrinkled a bit. Still, the sea lions didn't move. Reaching out one paw, she gave the nearest one a little push. They were... squishy and a little soft, but touching them didn't make the beasts move. With a hmmph, Scylla moved back over to where her brother stood. "I guess... they froze when the lights in the jungle froze?" Her head gave a little tilt, silently asking what he thought.

"Scylla Klein"

528
2570/2500- Word Count Met

Scylla & Albion

The world is eerily silent in it's frozen state, even the waves which seem to have escaped whatever is holding most everything else in it's grasp, is quieter than either young pup has ever known it to be. Then from somewhere on the island you hear an ear piercing squeal. Then another. And another. A chorus of high pitched shrieks take up in the air, and a moment later exactly what the sound is becomes clear. It's the sound of rats, and it's getting closer. For a moment of frantic searching there is nothing, and then... One of the formerly frozen sealions moves... Or rather something else moves it. It's jaw slowly opens, but still the creature otherwise remains frozen. A single blue glowing rat drops from it's mouth. Identical to the one that the pair of pups had just obliterated. A wave of identical rats suddenly roll over the beach, more falling from the now gaping mouths of the frozen sealions as other still crest over the blubbery beasts, a massive swarm of rats, more than should even be possible considering the pack that occupies the island, all come crashing down towards the pair. Just as the crush of rats is about to descend upon the pair they disappear without a trace, no sound, no smell, not even tiny footprints in the sand. But both pups can swear that they still felt the wave hit them for a second, felt the air grow thick with fur as all the light in the universe was snuffed out by the sheer weight of those bodies.

Probably just the hyperactive imagination of children...