Cerulean Cape Take off your top and let the sun hit your body

She waited a few days before setting out on another day trip. On this tropical July day, she stuck close to the coast, wandering southwest along the jagged shoreline. The sun beat against her back but the sea breeze ruffled her fur, keeping her from overheating. She occasionally dipped her toes in the surf too, though kept well back from the shore when she reached a sandy headland and saw small black fins cruising back and forth.

When she licked her lips, she tasted salt. Wildfire slowed to a stop then spun on her heel to face into the wind, closing her eyes as it caressed her face. The sun was directly overhead now, licking the tips of her ears and the blades of her shoulders like fire. Off in the distance behind her, a sparkling river glistened with the promise of fresh, cool waters. But she wasn't looking that way; her chestnut eyes roved over the choppy waves, head tilting when she saw a spout of mist erupt a few hundred yards offshore.

Hux had become a little stir crazy, so he set out midmorning. He itched to explore the rest of Drageda, but being limited by rank, he hoped to soothe his wanderlust by venturing outside of the territory, instead. He followed a set of pawprints leading down the shore, sometimes disappearing into the waves, but always reappearing. Soon the sunlight glinted red ahead of him, and, breaking into a run, he drew up to a fiery-furred wolf with a very unusual pelt pattern. It was odd; he had met two pack mates with striking coat patterns.

He had seen her around, and after Thuringwethil told him of her mate, he knew who the aptly-named Wildfire was. A rise of mist had her attention when he arrived, so he looked at it, interested. "Hey," he said, with a little smile. He wasn't sure how he felt about an outsider being the mate of a leader, but that wouldn't affect his gentle demeanor. At the end of tue day, it was none of his business.

The last place she expected to run into a pack mate was out here on the cape, so far from home. But when a vaguely familiar wolf approached, Wildfire turned to face him, squinting against the glare of the July sun off the nearby waves. "Hello... Hux?" she replied to his amiable greeting, returning his faint smile. Her black tail waved slowly. "What brings you all the way out here? Did Heda have you tail me?" She was mostly joking, though Wildfire knew the commander preferred she travel with a companion.

I'm sorry about this post :0

Her return greeting was friendly, and that pleased him. He let his tail wave in the breeze, nodding when she basically asked if she had the right name for him. She then asked if Heda had tasked him with trailing her. "Oh no," he smirked. Such a job as accompanying Heda's mate might come at a better rank, but certainly not at the one he had. This was what told him it was a joke -- that and her smile.

"I guess I got used to wandering on my journey here. Wanted to look around," Hux explained, canting his large head as he quietly returned the question. "How about you?"

Sorry for what? Happy to be threading with you! :D

He insisted Thuringwethil hadn't sent him and Wildfire accepted this at face value. Her ears tilted toward him as he explained that he had a touch of wanderlust. Her lips twitched into a broader smile and she bobbed her head in camaraderie. Her chestnut gaze shifted out to the open ocean again—the spout had disappeared into the depths—but only for a brief moment before tracking back to Hux's face.

"I'm a ranger by trade," she explained, "but I haven't gotten out much since the pups were born a few months back. It's been great, stretching my legs again. It doesn't hurt that it's so beautiful here." She gazed around again before her eyes flicked once more to Hux. He reminded her a bit if Dio: the pale fur, the menacing aura and the gentle demeanor of a guardian. "Had you ever seen the ocean before you came here? Remind me where you come from?"

Hux's mind lingered a moment on the spout they both had witnessed, but when he glanced towards the ocean again iy had gone. It was not the first time he had seen something like that, but the ocean still never ceased to amaze him.

She spoke of her pups, of how she had been fairly homebound since their birth, "i'm sure it does. Especially for a ranger." His lips twitched, keeping his smile in place. "I came from Trigeda, and Seageda before that. So I'm used to the ocean. Doesn't make it any less pretty, though." Hux had always thought himself fortunate for living by the ocean. There were few things less awe-inspiring than the sea.

He cleared his throat with a grunt. "Where are you from?" he asked, curious about Thuringwethil's fiery-colored mate.

She bobbed her head in agreement. "Now that I've lived by it for a while, I'm not sure I could live anywhere else." She could (and hopefully would) travel to landlocked destinations but she hoped to always come home to the seaside, where the crash of the surf not only soothed her but seemed to sync with her very pulse.

When Hux questioned her in turn, Wildfire said, "I was born in a pack far southwest of here, called Redhawk Caldera. I've lived with Drageda for a little over a year now." That was longer than she'd lived with any other pack, including her birth pack. "I—"

It was more than just a spout that interrupted her. A great black shape surged up from the water about a hundred yards offshore, rotating slowly in midair. It was a killer whale, its white belly shining with saltwater as it plunged back into the sea with a big splash. Wildfire stared, jaw slightly agape, even as the saltwater broiled where the orca had disappeared.