The den was a mess. Imp stared, grossed out by the state of it. He was just a little guy but still! The others made such a mess. It was hard not to curl a lip. It even smelt bad. The animal parties that Ma had been eating were left around in the corner, making flies attracted to the pile and growing things. Gross things. He wrinkled his face before swiping at the location, sending a few insects buzzing. "Go away!" he snapped at them as a few buzzed a bit too close, growling "go bother someone else!" Ma wasn't even here. It was an abrupt departure at best. Pa was still here, somewhere, but outside.

He decided to do something. Sitting on his ass went against everything he told others he wouldn't do. Imp approached the pile and launched himself on top of the bones, crushing a few and making the others fly around. He grunted, feeling a particularly odd bone poking his little side. He turned his neck and gnawed at it fiercely, pulling it from under him in his jaws. Imp spotted his brother, Akuma, watching him. The little boy ruffled. "I'm cleaning," he said this rather proudly, puffing his chest out on the pile of bones "Ma will be back soon!" Maybe "and it'll be nice for her." Or so he assumed. It was a big pile and he was just a kid.

Maybe he should have asked for help...

"he speaks"
244 / 1500

He'd been wandering around the den for a bit since Mom had taken off all of a sudden. Eraithus was still around, probably chasing after his other siblings, but Akuma was interested in running off right now when he was too busy wondering where the hell mom had gone off to. He was very tempted to go after her, to try and follow her scent, but he probably wouldn't make it far before something distracted him, he was sure. Pacing back and forth, he lashed his little tail a few times before stopping to run at the nub on his forehead. It had been getting pretty itchy, and whatever he had there was slowly starting to peek out the older he got. He groaned as the itchiness eventually subsided, and he couldn't wait till this thing finally came through enough to where it wouldn't itch so dang bad.

He heard rustling in the den, followed by some other things as well as his brothers shouting for something to go away. Tilting his head, he was curious to know what his brother was doing in the den. So quietly, he made his way to sit at the entrance, watching in silent amusement as Imp took it out on the buzzing flies that plagued their den because of all the bones and uneaten food that had been left. He always found it a nuisance, but his other siblings were pigs. So he had given up trying to keep things clean. If that's how they liked to live, fine. He'd eventually find his own den when he was big enough to do so. Besides, he hated being butted up against so many bodies. It didn't matter how big mom and dad tried to make the den, it was still too crowded for him.

Imp spotted him finally, exclaiming that he was cleaning and that mom would be back soon. Akuma wondered..."Hope so. I wonder where she went, she left pretty fast, no?" Whatever it was, must've been important. "Do you want some help?" Might as well, right? It's not like he had anything better to do. He walked in, scraping together some bones with his talons into a smaller pile so that he could shove them out when he was done.

WC: 622

"Yes," Imp said, grateful his brother had the sense to ask and help. He paused a movement, dragging some bones to the entrance of the cave. Taking his sweet time before realizing with a jolt he didn't say the 'magic word' to Akuma. "Please." His little tail wagged excitably. He hadn't much time to spend with Akuma one on one these days. Seemed they were all together, all the time. He shared his brother's plea of wanting a den for himself.

"My mouth hurts" he sucked in a breath, sharp and painful. Imp didn't realize like Akuma, he too was growing. In other ways, mind. The fangs of a viper would be apparent by the time he was a yearling. Until then, he didn't know why his mouth hurt so much. "it kind of hurts... on and off" he glanced at his brother as Imp went back to the pile of trash "do you hurt anywhere?" He was no healer, but at least Imp could listen to his brother if so.

They could be comrades in arms in the hurt field! Or... was something wrong with him? That he hurt and no wounds showed up? Anywhere? Imp began to inwardly panic as he dragged more bones to the entrance. "If you want, you can push them outside" he suggested to Akuma "I dunno how far we'll have to go to, ah, dee-pose? Of them?" Dispose of them, Imp. Dispose of them. Did Habari have a huge trash can lying around? Maybe that's what they needed.

The den was gross and smelly. It needed to be cleaned way before this moment in time. By adults. Not kids. Sigh. "I hope Ma is okay," he added gloomily "wonder where she went..." Recluse never seemed to leave pack lands! This could be serious.

"he speaks"
922 / 1500

His brother seemed to want and appreciated his help. Akuma was happy to help when he felt like it. And he didn't really have anything better to do right now, anyway. He chuckled when his brother remembered to say please. Which was probably more than what Akuma would have done, to be honest. As Akuma kicked some bones out of the den and scraped together some more debris, Imp shared that his mouth hurt on and off sometimes. That alone caused Akuma to slow down in his work a bit, a quiet "Hmm" the only response he had for the moment. That is until Imp asked him if he hurt anywhere. He subconsciously touched his forehead with a gentle paw, the nub growing there getting itchy again. "Yeah...sometimes my head hurts. And I have this bump that won't go away. It's erm..." What's the word? "In bear a sing." He said firmly, believing that was the words for what he was looking for.

"Maybe the hurt will go away soon, I dunno." He hoped so because he didn't want to see a healer about it. He twitched his ears, settling his paw back down to the ground as he continued his work of helping to clear out the den. Imp said he could push them out, but then where would they throw them? Should they just leave them outside for someone else to clean up? Or would that stuff sit out there until it began to stink? What if that stink came back into the den!? He shuddered when he thought about it. "What if we...I dunno...climbed up the mountain and threw them into the big hole at the top? I ain't ever seen it but I've heard there's a big pool of blah blah up there that is super hot! Maybe it can melt the bones!"

And with Recluse gone...surely they'd be able to get away with it, right? But oh...that was a big climb. He wasn't even sure that they'd make it. "Ma will be fine! But uh. oh it's not night time huh? Maybe she just wanted to play with the sun today or something." He turned around, grabbed another bone, and tossed it outside before sweeping away some smaller bits with his paw.

1,299/1,500

Akuma would say he did hurt. Imp frowned, stopping what he was doing to see the boy rub at his head. "Maybe you got horns growing in?" the boy didn't know how close to the truth he had gotten until it was much later "lots of wolves got those, I heard!" How cool would that be? "mine's probably a toothache." He shrugged, not caring but also caring a lot. Widow said being different was bad, so he didn't want to be different. He liked looking like Recluse. He didn't want to be different than her! Ma was special, Da was special. Akuma and Nirah were special too.

At the mention of climbing up to the volcano, the boy scowled. "We doing all the work!" Imp proclaimed, kicking another stray bone to the entrance "whoever comes back first has to move this stuff" He didn't want to be roped into doing everything! Where were the adults? He was starting to get worried - Recluse wouldn't leave them for long. She practically sat on her children, protective as hell. "we'll just make it super obvious they gotta." Imp decided it was too much work to climb the mountain.

If Akuma wanted to, he could. Imp was not breaking his back over trash. He flung another bone pile to the entrance, puffing with pride. "There, we did it!" And that was good enough, right?

"he speaks"
1500 reached

Horns!? His eyes grew wide for a moment. Were horns good or bad? Wouldn't that make him a freak? Mom had some weird flippy fangs. Snake fangs if he remembered right...like the creepy snake that always hung around. He didn't like snakes. They looked slimy. He knew they weren't, but Lilith freaked him out too much so he made it a point to keep her away. Or tried to. It was hard when she was around mom all the time. "Are they good or bad though? What if they grow in weird or somethin'!? I don't want them!" He shook his head back and forth several times the way an anime character would in all its dramatic glory. Then when Imp said he had a toothache, he stopped. "What if you get teeth like mom!? Can that happen!? Snakes freak me out! I don't like Lilith at all! She's creepy!" He shuddered when he thought about that slimy-looking snake!

He shoved the last bit of bones outside the den, listening as Imp complained about them doing all the work. "Got that right! Our older brothers and sisters are so lazy, aren't they? Can't even help us clean! We're the ones helping mom! It's gross to eat where you sleep and leave it all dirty!" He plopped down on his butt, the idea of making someone else clear away the rest of the crap by making it super obvious was very appealing. "There, we did it!" His brother exclaimed, and Akuma's tail wagged as an idea popped into his head. "Why don't we leave them outside of someone else's den? That way it'll stink up their dens. We'll show those lazy butts!"