Cerulean Cape silver-spun and scintillating

Coelacanth hustled the seawater from her pelt with a vigorous shake, her feathery fur whittled into a confusion of sea urchin spines. She tipped her finely-sculpted head to the right, then the left, as she watched her twin sweep the shoreline with an obsessive air. Her tail whipped cheerfully against her hocks as she mirrored his steps, brimming with excitement, following him blindly though she had no way of knowing how to help him find what he sought. Instead of helping him, her inclination was to hamper and distract — she nibbled lovingly at his hip or his shoulder or his flank, whatever she could reach, whenever he wandered within reach; and when finally he stopped and beckoned her with a glance, she bounded forward with a glad toss of her head.

Oh…

Her movements were birdlike and quick as she cocked her head and peered more closely at the stone clutched with infinite care between her twin’s teeth. Over time, Seelie had developed a penchant for collecting things as a way of coping with her loss of Amoxtli — but with her imprisonment, she had lost everything. Tufted ears folded delicately against her head as she approached him, aware that the colors of the stone matched the pleochroic blue of her eyes almost perfectly. She had nothing to give him in return. Though she’d stored things almost obsessively in preparation for his return, the previous year’s spring thaw had washed all those beautiful mementos away. Feeling inadequate, she watched as he spun a light-footed circle.

Knowing that her delighting in his present would be gift enough to her twin, Coelacanth allowed all the joy and fondness she felt to crest up and over the heavy, immutable wall of shame and sorrow that had solidified within her over time. “It is so beautiful!” she thought, pirouetting upon her hind paws before leaping and whirling in place like a happy spinner dolphin. She reminded herself of all the things she had to be grateful for and pranced up to him on sprightly paws, pressing herself carefully into the crook of his throat with a contented coo and a purr. “Thank you.”