between the houses / family intro

[Eris]

if excitement could have replaced blood, eris's veins would have been thrumming with it. the first time he had learned there were other creatures out there besides his family, a spark of curiosity had sprung up within him. it had grown into a full-on fire and, finally, finally he got to see what was outside his sheltered world. he made a valiant attempt to listen to junji as he led eris and his siblings toward the beach, but it was hard. there was so much to stare at; other members of the typhoon, the scenic bay, the colorful huts... eris's head was whipping around so fast as his attention flicked from one thing to the next that it was a wonder he didn't pull a muscle in his neck. there were so many new smells, sights, and sounds. even the grainy warmth of the sand was new- of course, eris had been on sand before, but not this sand. he wanted to pause for a few minutes and just take everything in.

eris broke out of his awed daze when junji gently nudged him forward, with an instruction to introduce himself as well. right. he had only one chance to introduce himself for the first time with his family, but he now had all the chances in the world to go explore. he would not be the first to introduce himself; that prize went to stella, who proudly said her name and then faltered. next thing he knew, elijah was running toward the sea and tripping into the wet sand near it. then kaisa was dancing around the tide. priscilla introduced herself, worried about quicksand (it didn't look like elijah and kaisa were being sucked in... he decided it was safe), and went off to the ocean, and after watching this rapid succession of events, eris decided it was high time he introduced himself. he needed to get it over with and go see what was so great about the big, blue body of water that his siblings were gathered around.

"hey! i'm eris!" was his brief introduction. he followed it with a cheery "c'mon!" directed toward stella and priscilla, and shot off toward the ocean. he had never before seen so much water, and the size, coupled with the crashing of the waves, was pretty intimidating. he pattered over onto the wet sand anyway. it was a weird texture, like it was mud but grittier. he strode past elijah (there wasn't much he could do for him; it wasn't like he could make elijah's legs move on his own or pick him up) and kaisa and placed his front paws in the seawater, but skittered backward as soon as the tide rose. eris was a bold kid, but the ocean was so new and aggressive, and no way was he going to go in deeper until he knew it wasn't going to eat him.