Alone again.
How he had slaved away under that maddening foreign sun. Honed his body into a weapon of terrible, isolate destruction. Saved the life of a brother. Did all that was asked of him, and more. For what?
A man should not be so far from his home. This rang true for everyone but him. Daniil was a rootless vagrant, a cuckoo bird, a spore on the wind. He didn't even form an imprint on the bed after a night of sleep. He barely left footprints now as he walked to the beach, his path hugging a windbitten boulder.
Seagulls carved low, oblique paths in the overcast sky. Their nasal calls were loud but warped by the wind, which brought him a nose full of pack-scent. He paused, his face inscrutable, and braced his long body against the rock - aware of pack-wolves and their incessant patrolling.
Childlike, his face. Calm aside from a slight stiffness in the lower lip, briefly stubborn. She spat at him, her face and body coiled tight with rage. He didn't parse the words, but her tone and expression said everything. He was used to communicating in broad strokes, the pronunciation only an afterthought in their patchwork patois. A slap on the head, bared teeth, those were enough for you to remember anything.
He tensed in response, only to press himself against the ground, contorting so that his underbelly faced her knotted face, her sharp teeth. A whine flickered through his throat, the whites of his eyes visible as they rolled. Never say what you can show.
Exit Daniil!
No bite came. He watched her face through the thin spray of fur at his chest, his chin pressed against his collar.
Sweetharbor,
he repeated, his accent making the word viscous and dense, where hers had made it buoyant.
She did not look at him anymore. He was silently relieved to be rid of that pinpoint fury. It was what an ant felt under the concentrated sunlight of a magnifying glass. A prickling sensation that crossed over to a bright pain before you knew it, as inexplicable as flames that burned atop the ocean, along thin films of gasoline.
He took her dismissal literally, pulled himself to his feet, and began to trot in the direction traced by her gaze.