PESTILENCE AND PLAGUE — crab invasion

[EXODUS--]

≡ -- crabs were dangerous. crabs were a threat; despicable creatures with beady, stalk like eyes and a hide as red as the devil. she knew of their risk the monent those despictable creatures made way to harm her heavenly sister with fiendish pincers of crimson, and the resounding scream from the encounter could be heard from miles.  sent her running. it became clear from that moment that they were to be a force obliterated from the face of the earth. exodus would not hesitate to face them down with no small amount of bared teeth and wicked, impish fued fueled by pettiness and her alpha's seething urge for revenge.

it was an ironic thing for them to truly look upon crabs as a source of mortal danger. there were beasts that roamed this merciless earth; from gods that breathed their very, shared air down to predators who could lay ruin to them with a single swipe of blood thirsted claws. yet for all of the venandi's naivety, those monsters of unerring destruction were ignored and viewed through prideful eyes as little more than prey too big to be taken down for the time being. anyone who was not of their pack in their twisted little ideologies were to be sustenance for their bellies. sheep to be slaughtered another day.

this, however, was something else entirely.

they were like a carmine mass, rising and encroaching upon the shores of the home exodus coveted. they swarmed like a rising tide. a river of blood beating against the sandy beach and scuttling forth on cursed little legs. trespassers. intruders. invaders. absolutely and utterly frightening.

exodus was always a dauntless gal from birth. she knew of no fear-- not since her moderately coddled upbringing. she knew not of her limits, shielded from true danger and given room to grow and explore as she pleased. ultimately, her cockiness would be her downfall.

and yet exodus's tenacious, persistent stubborn pride was nowhere to be found today.

exodus, daughter of the god of void, took a single look upon the encroaching river of crabs, and all the grandiose promptly drained flush from her body in one cold, fell swoop.

all there was left now was to run.

muscles rippled underneath a body glossed in feathers as she made a prompt, speedy dash towards the closest place she would get to a safehaven.

lucifer's cave.

rolling thunder screamed overhead in a flash of bright light, illuminating the sky. the wind whipped at her tiny body-- sent her plumage whipping this way and that as talons sunk into the warm soil beneath of  now wet grains of sand with a squelch.

it was not far from baracudda's bay. the bunched muscles in her limbs sent a flurry of sust into the air, chest heaving and expanding as her lungs inflated. she could see the sharp, jagged outcrop of cliffs jutting into the sky near the coastline. once she was upon the cave, she ungracefully tumbled in. a mess of unpreened feathers and rustled bristling prunes that had inflated upon the threat's arrival.

she came just in time for supper it was. the charred scent of crab filled the air, and exodus quickly gained her composure, nostrila flexing with curiosity and hunger.

there was mother-- sable hide nearly indistinguishable from the inky darkness of the cave's belly. scampered forward until she pressed against a massive side, made sure she could feel the steady purr of a stirring chest and the familiar warmth and comfort of mother.

'mother,' she chittered quietly in the ancient tone known to her feral species. an inherited tongue. seeking solace in their guardian. mother was poerful. mother was stron. she would deal with the threat easily; exodus knew it, yet she worried for her siblings. would they fare againt the threat? or would they join her in fleeing from what seemed to be an apocalypse? 'they're everywhere...'