Stavanger Bay we follow the yellow lights
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All Welcome 
The morning was unusually warm, even before the sun rose - which meant summer was well underway. Gallows knew the warmer weather often brought fairer hunting and times of reprieve, but the season was not without its shadows. The heat could often make tepid tempers flare, or twist even the soundest mind careless. Every season was just as deadly as the next and, after a languid stretch, Gallows arose and struck toward the shoreline to begin his routine patrol.

With the promise of refreshment, the ocean ebbed like a temptress when the temperatures rose, and yet it was perhaps morbid to say he wasn’t surprised to see the bloated and water-clogged cadaver strewn amongst a tangle of seaweed and sand. The sea birds had already begun their way with her, and Gallows shooed them away with a snap and a growl before turning his attention to the once pretty lass who lay soiled on the ground. Poor thing, but he knew, from the state of her, there was nothing he or anyone could do.

He tipped back his head to draw @Rosalyn toward the spot, then buckled down and drew sharp eyes across the flesh that was left of her, trying to assess just what had killed the girl.
Fear is the heart of love
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She was grooming her pelt when she heard the call, paying special attention to her freshly scarred haunch.  She could only hope the fur grew back.  As her tongue smoothed over what little was left, she heard a summons, and pricked her ears.  Gallows.  Another of the newcomers, and another whose company she'd enjoyed rather a lot.

She left immediately, and hurried to the spot, but stopped short when she saw what he was looking at.  "Hexe," she said, low and under her breath.  She hadn't known her particularly well, nor had much use for her when they did encounter... but the bizarre wolf had been crew, and this wasn't a happy surprise.  

She stepped over next to Gallows, her eyes also running over, trying to assess what happened.  "Do you know?"  Rosalyn imagined he didn't see.... it didn't seem a recent death.  But he was a healer, yes?  Perhaps he knew something she did not.
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Despite the sore state of her swollen body, Gallows could still determine a fair number of things. One, that the once vibrant blend of colours identified her as a woman he had often seen from a distance, scavenging, as she would have it, and at one time depositing her finds in a peculiar stash of bones that Gallows had later investigated when she'd turned back to the shore. Two, that the generally intact state of her body suggested that she had succumbed to neither to shark nor whale. He imagined if she had been killed by either of those, there would be very little left of her to investigate now. And three, that the torn flesh of her forelegs wove with a pattern he had never seen birds deliver in any run-of-the-mill scavenging - and he leaned in to study this closer as Rosalyn arrived.

He cupped his ears to catch the low notes of her name, and his eyes softened. Hexe. The girl's name meant very little in the scheme of things now, but he appreciated having one to give her. Beyond the bond of crew, even a simple moniker was enough to remind him that this girl had a family, a history, a life, and reminded him that just as in life, his duty remained to her until the very end, when they would cast her corpse to the sea, or would lay her in the ground for her to reach her final rest.

He turned his head at the First Mate's inquiry. "Mhhm. I've ruled out the larger creatures of the sea, or any foul play." There was always poisoning, but he doubted that was the case with her. "The ultimate cause appears to be drowning, and in other cases, I would've suggested she might've simply slipped and struck her head unconscious in the sea. But then - here, come look at her legs,"  he shuffled aside to let Rosalyn take a closer view if she wished, and the medic directed his paw to the area of the greatest swelling. Open wounds interspersed her legs in a tangle - picked at by the seabirds, but to Gallows, he imagined they had been present before the scavengers had even made their descent. "These wounds weren't made by scavengers. I've seen lacerations like this before. Made by stingers, perhaps from a jellyfish. In any case, there's nothing we can do for her now."
Fear is the heart of love
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Drowning.  Rosalyn glanced at the wounds and nodded.  She hadn't seen the patchwork wolf in the water often; perhaps she'd simply swum out too far, or the stings had done the work.  Who could tell?

"You're right," she said, though it did little to stop the acrid taste that rose suddenly in the back of her throat.  Misfortune seemed to have targeted a lock on their shore lately.  First Awinita, then Sandpiper and Smokestep, now Hexe.  Slowly the ones who had been there at the start were vanishing.

"We should bury her at sea."  She said finally, glancing at Gallows.  "Can you help?"  They would give her body to the waves, and when the tide went out, so too would she.  Rosalyn's home hadn't done as such, but she knew it was Ironsea's custom.

Between the two of them, they were able to manage the sad task, and after she excused herself, not feeling much up to chatter.

wrapping these <3 if you have time later and wanna finish them fully lemme know, I can edit again and we can continue!)