The locusts truly had ravaged even the scraps of greenery that had shaded the Teekon Wilds. Gluska had no doubt that their summer there would be nettlesome. If prey did not return to the territories around them, the coywolf feared that the wolves would turn against each other. While it would beget interest in the heart of the rusty-eared wolf, he was not certain that his own being would remain impervious to the famine. Already, his thin frame looked washed of muscle and fat. His tapered muzzle was grizzled and tired in appearance, and his sharp yellow gaze had softened. Gluskap appeared weary.
 
Trailing the tide pools, the coywolf peered curiously into the watery depths with a detached expression. He had been busy traveling to and fro from the Sleeping Dragon homeland to the water’s edge in search of herbs that he could use for healing purposes. This time, he also hoped to catch a bite to eat. It was unlikely, but he knew enough of hunting from the swell that he could find some favor there.  

Gluska’s sharp yellow eyes peered tentatively into the shallow pools. He could see the oysters beneath the water and his mind wandered to allow him to contemplate catching one to pry it open for the slimy meat inside. It would tide him over on his journey home, but he was also aware that he had not travelled to the ocean’s edge in search of food but instead for herbs. It was during his own internal debate that the ochre-tinged male caught sight of a quiet shadow searching him with forest-colored eyes. The coywolf tossed his ears forward and returned the stare with his own sharp canary stare.
 
“Afternoon,” he finally purred with a curling smile. The tip of his tail flagged once or twice before holding still. His coy expression remained locked on the handsome face of the dark stranger for only a moment before he glanced back into the water. “Wonderful day for oysters,” the rusty-tipped male snipped sarcastically.

The viridian gaze of the dark male was captivating for a moment. Gluskap’s ears were drawn forward at his like-minded response. In a few short breaths, his dark frame had closed some distance between the two of them, and the coywolf was able to catch a better look at the shadowy stranger. Not altogether unattractive to behold; a little older than Glu, but no less handsome for it. His inky fur seemed to transition from a rich obsidian to dapper coffee in places, all accented by his emerald eyes. The trickster wondered where the brute hailed from. The pack scent on his coat suggested that he did not live far from the sea; the brine that clung to him was evidence of that. Strange and yet wonderful.
 
The question that was offered to the ochre-tinged male caused him to chuckle softly. “You pull them out and pry them open with your teeth,” he then answered with a quick and fleeting smile, showing the tips of his ivory canines from beneath his lips. Then, in a demonstration, Gluskap plunged his head beneath the water and gripped tightly to the oyster below. Yanking it from the depths, he dropped the creature at his own feet pointedly before using his jaws to part the shellfish and darting his pink tongue inside for the meat. Darting his gaze towards the dark male, the coywolf’s eyes twinkled with humor. “Willing to try?”

The trickster watched as his dark comrade attempted to act on instruction and open the oyster with his jaws. He did so with little luck. His mouth parted as he hoped to latch onto an edge with his fangs. The clammy ocean-dwelling mollusk was seemingly immoveable. Glu continued to watch with a humorous glint in his gaze, but did not move to assist at all. It was a task that was best learned hands on. There was no harm in getting a laugh from this handsome stranger’s misfortune. “Practice makes perfect,” he remarked with a short laugh and a flick of his tail.
 
Dropping his head into the pool of water, Gluskap pulled an oyster for himself and expertly parted the shells with his teeth so that he could lick the meat from the center. Having Caiaphas as his sister meant that he knew enough of the ocean to survive there for eons. But this dark stranger should have been more equipped to last on the sea, for his own inky fur smelled of salt and brackish water.

Gluskap was a quick creature. His mind was sharper than his muscles, and he had a fine intelligence for the surroundings. When it came to other wolves, the coywolf could see their potential but was frequently disappointed by them. They were fun to toy with, but not much more than that. Nature, however… it could always surprise him and was – perhaps – the only thing to strike awe in his heart. Land and sea could change so quickly and without much warning. If he could apply his understanding of his fellow wolves to that of the mutation in the natural world around them, he would have found peace.
 
The dark brute seemed to lapse in his attempts to pry the shells apart. He looked to Gluskap with a sheepish expression and verbally admitted to his own foolish efforts. The canary-eyed coywolf held his gaze with a peculiar intensity. Blinking once, the slender man darted into the waters and emerged with a shell in his jaws. Placing it at his paws, Glu then glanced back to the older male and frowned softly. “Try only to separate them enough. You do not have to open it all the way,” he instructed quietly and lowered his skull. Gripping the oyster, the ochre wolf slipped his canines into the lip of the shell and worked his jaw so that it parted. His tongue snaked into the opening quickly and pushed the meat from the inside out. It splattered on the stones at his feet and he looked to the dark wolf pointedly.

The intensity of his gaze did not settle as he watched the dark-furred male attempt once more to feed himself on the meat inside of the oyster. This time, he managed. The coywolf’s lips curled lightly in a grin and he nodded his head to the other male. At the thankful words that followed, Glu merely breathed a sigh and lowered his skull a few inches.
 
“You smell of the sea…” the canary-eyed wolf remarked with a twinkle in his gaze. There was a pause as he glanced over the form of the other wolf, unsure of how he would receive the comments that were to follow. “You should be able to live off of it better.” There seemed to be a lack of malice to his words, and he peered at the other with genuine curiosity. Gluskap did not imagine he could find himself attempting to live on land he knew very little about.  

The cadaverous little coywolf listened with erect ears as the dark creature bowed his head and offered a few words in response to Glu. He remained intent even after the inky male had finished speaking. After a long silence, the smaller male frowned and heaved a short sigh. “I don’t believe you need courage,” he remarked carefully. While he may not receive approval for picking apart Lasher’s sentence, he did not seem to care. “What you’ve learned today required no courage.” With a pointed gesture, the coywolf peered at the oysters that sat in their small pools.
 
His demeanor changed in a quick blink of his citrine gaze. Quickly looking to the face of the older wolf, Gluska appeared ruffled and excited. “But the sea has many things for you to learn. Some require more than courage,” he spoke with a reverence that seemed unsettling at first. Even the toothy grin that painted his narrow muzzle suggested that his comment carried a distinctive weight.
 
It was not often that the skeletal figure found himself pouring words, but he did have a thought spark in the dark reaches of his mind. Turning his head a bit and offering a charming expression to his companion, the ochre-smattered hybrid flicked his tail. “You could help your pack. I could teach you more,” he lured with dark lips peeling to offer Lasher a pointed grin.

If Glu had known the way the dark male’s mind would have slithered to Caiaphas, he would have laughed to himself. All things returned to his inky-faced sister and her home on the sea. When he had arrived in the Wilds in his first year there, he visited the land she claimed to be her home. She had instructed that the pack would not have been fit for a creature of his nature. At that time, however, Kaliska had been present and when she had disappeared, he had felt it to be his duty to return her. His search had come up empty and he had returned to the Teekon Wilds with a mind to set his own course… all the while, never keeping his sisters from his mind. At the very least, Gluska would have been able to keep an eye on Caiaphas, even if he did not know of Kaliska’s whereabouts.
 
The handsome brute implored the skeletal coywolf to continue his lessons. The slender creature pointed his muzzle upwards and held his sharp little grin. “Not today,” he spoke quietly and allowed his gaze to linger just long enough to cause questions. “My pack will be expecting me to return. But I will need to restock on supplies soon enough. I will find you when I come back.” It was less of a question and more of a statement. After all, he was not the type to allow denial… and with the peculiar whimsy of his being, it was difficult for most to deny him at all.
 
The trickster shuffled his paws a bit, holding the gaze with his unnamed friend, and breathed a short sigh. Very gently, he extended his skull to touch his nose against the dark wolf’s shoulder. After doing so, he took a few steps in the direction of the Dragon’s homeland, and cast one last parting look to the inky brute. Kaliska had always had a way of being alluring to others, but even the ochre-spattered man had conjured a few plays of his own. His lingering citrine gaze remained for a few more moments before he turned his head and darted away from the oyster pools.