The horses were becoming more and more familiar to her, like members of a new family--a large, incredibly different-looking family, but a family nonetheless. She had studied them further, after her first excursion here with Reed, beginning to memorize their different coat colors. Some of them, Maegi had even named. Marigold, the mare with the flaxen mane, and Cedar, the imperious brown stallion. . .

Her eyes flashed as she saw movement nearby, and her gaze fixed on Driftwood, whose quivering was perceptible even from this distance. Giving him a small chuff so as not to alarm him further, Maegi crept from the long grass to sidle up beside him, sitting down and looking over at him with a mixture of amusement and comfort in her eyes.

"They're not going to hurt you," Maegi assured him, dipping her muzzle at the horses. "Not unless you hurt them first. I think they're more scared of us, anyway, even though we're smaller." After all, the elk feared the wolves, though the sizes differed. They were the predators, the hooved animals the prey.

"Really, it's okay," Maegi assured him as he cowered further, a small giggle bubbling in her throat. Yet she could empathize. She remembered how nervous the horses had made her, when Reed had first taken her to the herd. Their hooves were nearly as big as her head, their teeth flat but large, grinding away at the grass. But they were more skittish than anything; the wolves were the apex predators, on this island. They had nothing to fear unless they brought it upon themselves.

"You're Driftwood, right?" she asked, trying to distract the man from his quivering. "I'm Maegi. Dunno if we've actually met, yet." She cast her gaze over a few of the creatures before returning it to Driftwood, eyes narrowed in confusion. "If you're so scared, why did you come here?" she queried matter-of-factly, brows raised. "We can walk away, if you want." The horses wouldn't care. They'd probably welcome the chance to be left alone.

"Driftwood, it's fine," she insisted, voice sharper than she intended. Taking one final look at the horses, Maegi stood shoulder to shoulder with Driftwood and helped him back away--if he took the steps with her, that was. It was much like a toddler leading a Great Dane, but the humor in the situation was, as usual, lost on the solemn Maegi, focused as she was on the task at hand.

Once they were, hopefully, far enough away from the horses that the man calmed down, she fixed her gaze on him, allowing a small smile to bloom over her face. "There. Feeling better?" She could empathize, at least. She had been scared of the horses when Reed had first brought her here; how could you not, with hooves and great grinding teeth such as those? They could dash the wolves to bits, if they so chose.

But the thing about fear, she'd learned, is that if you let it rule you, you were doomed. Fear was a weapon, not a defense. Others would use your fear to their advantage; only bravery--but not necessarily foolhardiness--could act as a shield against your enemies, the ones you were afraid of.

"I haven't seen you around much," Maegi remarked, canting her head to one side. "What do you do here?"

To her relief, Driftwood calmed substantially once they were away from the horses, giving her a chance to see his true personality. Maegi smiled softly as he went into detail about his pastimes, ears perking as he mentioned collecting seashells. She shook her head as he cut himself off, presumably feeling abashed by how much he talked.

"That's cool," she said, eyes glowing. "The seashells. . . My brother used to collect interesting objects, too. And seashells are pretty. There's a lot to see here, isn't there?" Maegi asked, casting her gaze to the ocean. "Are you from the sea originally, or is this your first time here?"

So many of the born seawolves seemed so at ease, here. Maegi wasn't sure if she would ever grow to have that sort of familiarity with the waves. It was pretty enough on the island, but she missed the dark forest--the trees, the swamps, the mists. That was her element. Wheeling Gull Isle could not have been more different from her home.

His answer drew her brows together in confusion, but she let it slide--for now--letting him speak in his fractured, nervous way. How was one born from the sea? As far as she knew, you got too far down into the water, you drowned. That was the whole of it.

Then again, though. . .the injured boy had come to them directly from the sea. Had it been like that, for Driftwood, too?

Maegi would have been happy to answer his question about seashells before his follow-up query; her face darkened suddenly, and she turned away, her stomach churning. Euron. She heard his voice in her head, like he sat right there, whispering in her ear. As if he had never left her--as if she hadn't chosen to let him go, she amended bitterly, frowning.

"For the you, now."

And a shiny black feather, the feel of it silky under her paw.

"Not really," she answered succinctly, still looking out to sea. "I've been paying more attention to the things crawling around. Trying to make sure they don't, like, bite me, or whatever." His second question was left unanswered; he would receive no answers, and he would see the back of her tail receding quickly into the distance if he were to press the issue.

His remark caught her attention, and she turned, an amused smile growing over her maw without her volition. "Is that what they're called? Crabs? I've just been calling them pinchers." She waggled her right paw in illustration, feeling the sting anew. "They pinched me, once. I try to stay as far away from them as I can."

Maegi was grateful that he left the subject of her past far behind. There were few occasions that she wanted to talk about the Woods, even with her closest friends here. That would bring the trees alive once more, and it made the homesickness wash over her all over again. A pinch from a crab was superfluous compared to that ache in her heart.

"Do you, uh, wanna collect some shells?" she offered, cocking her head. "I'm sure you know more about them than I do." She wondered if they had any use, apart from being beautiful. Were they medicinal? Poisonous, even? These were questions that she'd have to lob his way; Maegi hoped he'd have answers for her.