DoA Survivalists: Pupteeth | Tatlitli, (Laugom)

Diving entry for Tatlitli aq696

Milestone 1 for Laugom if108

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Tatlitli looked at what she'd discovered, and hummed. "You are not a lobster."

 

The creature in question was white with blue spots and fins, but down in the deep darkness of this sea cave the more apparent features were the glowing green bulbs... stones? embedded in neat lines along the neck, flanks, and tail. The stubby limbs and blatant gawking suggested that this was a pup.

 

Tatlitli leaned down to give the pup another lookover, and wide green eyes became entranced by Tatlitli's own glowing orange angler bulb. "Well, you sure aren't one of my pups," she asserted. 

 

Turtli swirled around the pup. The curiosity was replaced with knowing wariness when the pup snapped at the turtle wisp, and Turtli retreated to a safe distance, behind Tatlitli.

 

The pup wriggled, slapping at the surrounding water with clumsy little flippers, until sheer stubbornness and luck brought them close enough to bump Tatlitli's fin. Tatlitli bumped back, and the pup squealed with joy.

 

"I don't know whether I should leave you where you are, or take you with me until I figure out where you go," Tatlitli told them. "How about you help me catch some lobster, and we'll see if any parents show up?"

 

Burbles and babbles seemed as close to a verbal agreement as Tatlitli was going to get, so Tatlitli returned to her task. She rustled the sea grass with her thick claws, and the pup rolled around in the stuff with unabashed delight. She poked and picked over nooks and crannies in the craggy rock walls and floor of the sea cave, and the pup scratched at the limestone with tiny hind paws. 

 

She discovered a strange, definitely deliberate arrangement of kelp fronds, with a tough, leathery sack tucked inside, like a hatched turtle egg - oh.

 

Tatlitli sized up the pup, who had declared war on the eggshell, and was valiantly wrestling it into submission with furious nibbles and fearsome waggles and truly terrifying squeaks for honor and glory. "Is that yours? You are a pup, brand-new. Guess this cave's taken."

 

Not wanting to incite the wrath of any territorial cave-dwellers, Tatlitli proceeded to leave. The pup followed. Tatlitli groaned. "Great. Got myself a squeaky barnacle."

 

Turtli did a loop-de-loop of amusement at Tatlitli's predicament, only to panic when the motion attracted the pup's toothsome attention. Turtli fled, and the pup chased, swimming skill increasing by leaps and bounds.

 

Well, there was nothing for it. Tatlitli had no desire to adopt a pup of some unknown species, so she'd have to wait here until someone came to collect the tiny terror. She drifted back down to the seafloor, venturing nearer to the mouth of the cave to sift more grass.

 

Turtli tried to lose the pup by diving between Tatlitli's fins. Tatlitli continued digging, unbothered, only lifting a spare fin to let the pup bounce off and ricochet back into open water. The pup was promptly distracted by a rock, and forgot all about Turtli in favor of thoroughly examining this brand new object with little baby teeth.

 

Turtli nudged up under Tatlitli's chin. "Yeah, pups are like that," Tatlitli said. Callous? Not at all - purely practical.

 

A lucky poke of the claw finally flushed a lobster out of hiding, and Tatlitli pounced. The pup also pounced. Tatlitli ended up with one forefin in a lobster's claw, and the other in a pup's teeth. "Ouch!"

 

Turtli barrel-rolled, unmistakably smug, before chasing after the fleeing lobster. Tatlitli side-eyed the pup chewing on her fin. "Would you stop that? No. No! Get - gerroff, go on." Peeling the pup off of her without injuring them on any of her many pointy bits was tedious, but eventually successful, though it was mostly because the pup got bored of Tatlitli's taste. 

 

Off the pup flurried, intent on finding the next new thing to squeak at, chase, and nom to death.

 

Tatlitli, meanwhile, finally managed to catch the lobster, with Turtli helpfully pointing out the nook where it had tried to hide. One deft strike, and Tatlitli finally had her first catch of the day. "Serves me right," she muttered to no one in particular. "All my traps and tools, and what do I do? Go hunt lobster by fin for the nostalgia. Why didn't you stop this nonsense, Turtli?"

 

The turtle wisp did another barrel roll, still smug. Tatlitli made sure to laugh when the pup ambushed the turtle wisp and sent Turtli wildly spiraling off. Then it was back to their game of tag, while Tatlitli abandoned her original plan and proceeded to painstakingly weave up a lobster trap with the available kelp fronds and a few bits of wooden debris.

 

"Someone had better come collect you soon," she muttered, pushing a blue mouthful of white teeth away from her trap-to-be for the eighth time. "I'm not cut out to be a parent."