Stavanger Bay TiP TOE WiNG iN MY JAWWDiNZ

It was simply a matter of time until the den had it's first breakout, and at one month of age the little firehead had grown restless seeing the walls close around her. The next time mother left the den was only the perfect excuse for Julep to try her luck at climbing the wall once again, and without wasting time in stealthy maneuvers, the red girl took upon the challenge with determination. She was larger now, and had a whole new set of senses that made navigation impressively easier, she was hardly the same girl she was a couple weeks ago when she'd first tired this. And this time the was was nowhere near to being a challenge to the adventurous Cairn girl.

It took a while for her baby-blue eyes to adjust to the flood of new light, but when she was able to see around her she let out a squeal of excitement for she'd found out that there seemed to be no boundaries. She looked around with a smile painted across her childish features, but her eyes settled on the blue that seemed to stretch out infinitely to her right. It was beautiful, bewitching, and the sound it made guided where her flipper-like paws started carrying her with increasing speed.

On a whim, Doe turned to look back at the den before she made her way down to the shore. Yellow eyes popped open in surprise and delight as a red head poked its way out of the Stone Den. For a moment, she was torn between yelling in encouragement and yelling in anger - it was dangerous to go out alone, after all. In the end, though, she remained silent. She was here to make sure nothing happened, and she wanted to see what her curious little daughter was up to.

Hella wobbly as she still was, Julep did not break for a second to realize that she'd been caught. She was pure joy to have finally step outside the stone den, and despite the lack of brotherly company she was determined to make it to the great blue before she was dragged back inside. Doe would always be on the lookout, she knew, so for as long as she believed to be sneaky -no matter how much of a lie that was- she would make the most of her time.

But it was slippery, something she didn't foresee, and the cold stone met her face twice as she rolled down the remaining slope in a slip up. It hurt, sure, but it didn't stop the fiery beast-pooper. She got up right back and shook the dizziness out of her little red head so she could re-take her path.

Doe let out a sigh as she watch the young girl bounce down the side of the cliff, her tiny wolf body a prick of tang against a drab, grey background. And, true to the Cairn name, she was headed straight for the virulent blues waves. The red woman stood ready to intercept her daughter, but still, she did not interfere with her wandering. Perhaps it was reckless of her, but she had a strong desire to see what would happen when the little spark met with the salty sea.

And then there she was, feeling the strange crust of the sand beneath her paws for the first time, a rough sand, made of the littlest of stones and minerals, but warm to the touch until suddenly it wasn't. A shriek and a sudden jolt of energy sent her back a few paces the moment she was touched by the wet, cold blue. It was strange to feel it, strange to see, strange to smell, new in every way for the red-haired cairn, but somehow familiar enough for her to want to try touching it again.

And she did, this time with more of that bold nature that characterized the striped girl. First it was her paw, which was swallowed by the sea for a moment. Her still-blue eyes followed the current, up and down the shore as the waves waved, and the excitement grew by the second as she got used to the water's embrace. And then it occurred to her that perhaps the sea would be a better contestant than her brother and sister, so far it seemed to move a lot more, at least. She attacked, a snap of her yaws and a blow of her claws, but it defended itself, thrusting itself to her in a splash. She cried again, in distress for the frailest of moments before the playful rage came about once more. Back and forth she went, hitting the water with her red paws every time the tide reached out to her, and every time it came back to her with a wet splash.

Pride and fear warred in the shewolf, but she pushed each one down in turn. This was Szymon's daughter that played in the surf - a Cairn through blood and not marriage. If Doe could survive the brutality of the sea, then surely, Julep could as well. Still, worry plague the woman as she watched her red daughter battle the waves, and, unable to help herself, she finally drew near.

"It's called the Sea, Jule," she said quietly, letting the water lap at her paws as she came to stand near her daughter. "One day, you will swim in the Sea, just like Papa does."

She'd been caught, and the surprise sent her backwards to land on her bum splashing some more water around. But mom did not seem to be angry about her escape, and Julep's eyes grew wide with confusion for a moment. Head tilted to a side, Julep analyzed the sound mom had just made, and in a huge attempt to be more like Doe, the little Benthos made the first sound to ever resemble a word ever. "Seeee pa?" was what it sounded like, luckily it had been an easy word. The wiggling tail on Julep's end expressed her discomfort with speaking yet, for it was anxious more than joyful.

Oh. Doe stared blankly at her daughter. She'd forgotten that they would talk, one day. Qilaq almost never spoke, and although Szymon's stutter had all but disappeared, he was still a solemn and largely taciturn creature. That they would speak had been a distant truth, and she was unprepared now to hear words on her daughter's lips, almost so that she did not even hear them - but Sea. She spoke of the Sea.

"Sea," Doe repeated, tail wagging as reality settled in on her. Sea, she said. "That's right, Jule - Sea." The red woman pranced deeper into the waters, wiggling with pleasure and pride at this new turn of events. "This is the Sea."

She sure was her father's daughter. Doe couldn't wait to tell her husband about their girl's first word.

Doe's reaction brought Julep to tilt her head once more, as she recognized the sound again and again from her mother's lips. Her tail kept wagging behind her, but the discomfort was gradually becoming confidence, and Julep's big eyes turned joyful soon. "See!" she repeated, this time it felt more comfortable in her voice, "See!" she said again, splashing around with her flipper-paws, "See, see seeeeeee!" the Cairn girl chanted to her mother, for she knew she had been pleased by her daughter's voice. Julep hadn't quite yet made the connection between the sound she was making and the actual meaning of the word, but mom had driven her attention to the water again, and it had drifted off from the unilateral conversation towards the deeper sea. Julep splashed her way away from mom as she jumped into the water while chanting her new acquired talent (singing to the sea), feeling the confidence of mom's guard, but daring to reach out into the unknown depths of the tidal edges of the beach.

Doe waded into the waters after her daughter, tail waving goodnaturedly in the air. She was proud of her little girl, and there was a new fondness for her in the dark places of her heart. That sea would be among her first words, that she would be so much like her father - it brought a lump into the red mother's throat.

She spoke no more, but frolicked into the surf, encouraging Julep to come out further, if she wished. Doe would be there to pull her to the surface, if swimming did not prove to be instinctual.