[Gift] Beach Night Ritual...?

         A dusk sky, deep abyssal blues and haunting purples envelop the world from above silver lights dancing faintly throughout, all the while the sharp curve of a waning moon slices through all. Callio looks up at this crescent, her dark eyes transfixed on its silent beauty that grows brighter the further the light of day is chased away. Her eyes aren’t the only senses she’s using to absorb her surroundings. Around her she can smell the sharp scent of sea and salt, of washed up kelp and fish carcasses- not the most pleasant of smells and she can’t help but sneeze lightly on occasion. Meanwhile, her feathers rustle softly in the breeze and her toes wiggle as they sink further into the coarse sand. Here Callio rests, sitting comfortably in the open white expanse as she listens to the crashing of the waves, rustling of palm leaves… and the obnoxiously loud splashing and laughing of one Brego.
         “Callio, are you just going to sit there all night? C’mon the water feels great.” Brego calls from his elbow deep position in the inky waves, their ripples only highlighted by the light of the moon. Callio looks at him sharply, forcing her gaze away from the moon and shoving her ponderings to the back of her mind for later. “Some of us, dear Brego, like to enjoy our surroundings with simple relaxation.” Callio snorts, lifting her nose up as if to say ‘I’m better than your childish ways’.
         “Uh huh…” Brego says, clearly unconvinced. The styraco exits the water, feet getting coated with sand that becomes thicker and thicker the more he treks over to Callio who now eyes him suspiciously. “You know you can enjoy your surroundings even more but actually interacting with it?” He poses the words as a question but Callio knows better, he’s trying to bait her. Well she won’t take it. Her nose tilts up further and now away from Brego. “Yes I know that but you can also enjoy it safely from- what are you doing!?” Callio’s voice cracks as her words ascend into a startled yelp. Brego took advantage of Callio facing away from him and playful shoves her over, using his larger bulk to half push half roll her towards the water. “Getting you to have fun!” He laughs maniacally pushing her closer to the lapping shoreline. Callio flails and bats at him playfully, she isn’t truly resisting though and her angry growls turn into laughter as she’s shoved into the dark water with a loud splash.
         “Look what you did,” Callio says in mock annoyance.“I have wet sand stuck all in my feathers now.” She spats out salt water, scrunching her face and gagging at the taste, now that made her actually annoyed. Brego grins from his triumphant spot down at Callio, feet now submerged in the wake as Callio shakes herself to her own feet. “I’ll help you clean it out later,” Brego promises, he splashes her lightly with a quick thrust of his nasal horn through the water. Callio glowers before shoving him with her head, the unstable sand beneath him giving way as Brego wobbles. Quickly he spreads his legs in an effort to steady himself, missing the opportunity to strike back at Callio who uses that chance to bound away. Her short legs make it hard to stride through the water effortlessly but with clumsy effort and creating a loud ruckus she rushes away from Brego who shouts after her. Loud splashing now follows after her and Callio can’t help but smile as she attempts to get away from Brego.
         This, as no surprise, fails. Brego shoves her as he catches up, creating a large splash as he purposefully launches himself beside Callio, she shrieks as she becomes more drenched and shoves him back. They played like this for a long time, the moon reaching its pinnacle in the starry sky before the two of them tiredly pulled themselves all the way onto steadier sand. Callio huffs from the physical exertion, the waves while not strong and water not very deep it was still taxing physically to roughhouse in the ocean. Brego pants beside her, grinning all the while.
         “Someone enjoyed themselves a bit too much I think,” Callio says, a small cloud of sand following the breathy words. Brego just shrugs, stretching his legs out with a satisfied noise deep in his throat. “Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy that as much as I did.” Brego responds, Callio simply chooses not to answer. She pulls herself to her feet, shaking her legs in vain to rid them of loose sand before doing a full body shakedown sending droplets and sand flying. “Hey- Hey!” Brego cries out scrabbling to get out of the line of fire. Callio smiles smugly down at him. “Revenge.” The single word never tasted sweeter. Brego is now the one glowering at her, though there was no malice in his eyes, only good humor. Triumphantly Callio marches away from him, tail swaying behind her in pride. “C’mon, I’m starving. Let's see if we can find a coconut or… two…” Callio’s words die off as she pauses hesitantly in her march of pride. Her eyes lay transfixed on a peculiar sight. Silence follows before she hears Brego get up and follow after her slowly. “Something wrong Callio?” He asks before his eyes lay on what Callio now witnesses. He too pauses in bewilderment. 
         Before the pair are crabs, their shells are dark and the color hard to see in the pale light of the moon and their size moderately large. These crabs, instead of resting like most crabs do during the night, are walking in a circle. Side by side, each crab scuttles sideways as they walk in an almost perfect circle and in the middle of said circle is a glittering stone. Callio blinks in confusion as she counts the crabs. “Why are seven crabs circling a rock Brego?” Callio whispers softly, part of her not wanting to disturb the odd spectacle. “Did you seriously just count them?” Brego says not answering her question.
         “Yes? Why wouldn’t I?”
         “Out of everything we are seeing, your first action is to count?”
         “Ok I don’t see a problem in that I’m gathering all the evidence- anyway answer the question.”
         “How am I supposed to know? I’ve never seen crabs act like this… Wait, do you think they’re intelligent?”
         Callio resists the urge to groan in annoyance at Brego and instead focuses harder on the crabs. They don’t appear to pay any mind to the two styracosaurus as they stand nearby watching, in fact the creatures seem to be completely oblivious to their presence. Callio squints trying to decipher more from the scene. Could they be intelligent like them? She always thought they were just weird giant armored bugs who seemed rather stupid, could her assumption have been wrong? As Callio opens her mouth to whisper something, Brego beats her to it. “I’m going to go over there.” Brego declares and Callio does a double take. “I’m sorry what? What if it’s dangerous?” She demands and Brego just scoffs. “Callio, they’re crabs.” He says. “What if they’re more than just crabs Brego?” Callio hisses even quieter this time but to her absolute annoyance he just rolls his eyes. “Crabs my friend, crabs. Watch it’ll be fine.” Brego says confidently and approaches the crabs who still ignore him.
         Brego now looms over the odd gathering with Callio watching frozen in place where he left her. He eyes the crabs before clearing his throat. “See Callio, they aren’t even reacting to me, completely safe.” She didn’t fully trust it yet and continues to watch from a safe distance. Brego glances back at her before looking back at the crabs. He watches them for a minute and coming to some conclusion Callio can’t fathom; he leans over the crabs and plucks the shiny rock from the middle of the congregation, holding the pebble sized brightly colored thing between his beak. “Oh this thing is actually kind of pretty- AAAH” Brego’s sentence starts off fine until Callio watches in horror as all seven crabs stop their entranced circling and launch themselves at Brego. Pincers clamp hard on his snout, his crest, his feet, tails, and toes. Crying out Brego dances away from where the groups were bucking and shaking to rid himself of the nightmare crabs. Callio can’t help but burst out into laughter as she rushes over to help him.
         “Hold still you-” Callio tries to calm Brego down who frantically yells “ow, ow, ow, get them off!” all to Callio’s mix of amusement and worry. During the chaos Brego ends up tossing the shiny pebble away, the rock landing in the sand with a soft thump. The moment that rock is away from Brego the seven crabs take note and almost all at once let go of Brego, scuttling frantically to the rock. They cover it before one picks it up and sideways runs back into the devouring waves, its entourage following with the clacking of their pincers. Brego curses under his breath and Callio clucks over him, checking the sore marks left in his hide by the strong pincers. She wasn’t to expect those crabs actually hurting him, even if only minor.
         “What- what was that?” Brego demands eyeing the sea with apprehension, as if the crabs are going to return for revenge. “If I were to hazard a guess,” Callio says as she sniffs the scuff mark left behind on his elbow, “they didn’t like you stealing their rock.” Brego snorts looking at Callio. “I figured that but why were they fascinated with that rock?” Callio shrugs. “I dunno, they’re sea bugs, maybe they just like shiny things? I mean that rock was pretty but that’s beside the point. Did we learn our lesson?” Callio changes the topic, meeting Brego’s eyes as he gets back to his feet. “Lesson?” He questions. “About what just happened.” Callio presses and Brego’s eyes widen in recognition. “Oh, yes don’t steal from a bunch of crabs or if you do maybe launch them away first.” Callio glares at him and stomps her foot. “No Brego how about we don’t approach situations that we-” Brego obnoxiously yawns and stretches his legs as he hops from foot to foot, cutting off Callio’s lecture. “Anyway how about that food huh? I’m starving.” Brego begins walking off with Callio having to chase after him. “We aren’t done with this conversation Brego- Brego!” Callio shouts after him as he keeps walking back towards the treeline.