Oystercatcher Tide Pools Book of nature

@Chanel 

With the recent and very rapid influx of Blackthorns and Towhee's family members, Wraen had not only lost track on, what was going on in the pack, but she suddenly felt left out as well. Sure - Phox was her cousin and Blackthorn family were her friends - but they had a shared history, which she was not part of and could not relate to. She observed them band together excitedly, form their little, cheerful, close-knit groups and suddenly wished to return to the time, when her home had been a handful of wolves and their children. 

Therefore she sought out the only person, who was just as new to the current group as her. Chanel had expressed interest in becoming a scout, the Sovereign had promissed her to show around and now, when the idea of getting out of the crowded and loud place the Sun Mote Copse had become was more appealing than ever, she found the young girl and offered to disappear for a while. The coast had seemed the best option to do so - especially, since Wraen had often scavenged there and they could get a different variety of sea-food than back home. 

"I met a wolf once here, who showed me, how to eat clams," she told Chanel, when they had arrived. "Then there were plenty of those in the pools."

Assumed some things. PM me, if you wish to change anything.

everything is fine : )

Wraen had seeked Chanel out to take their little beach vacation as planned. Chanel had eagerly followed her leader, looking forward to the sight of the glimmering waves. Well, it was not exactly as she had dreamed- rather dreary, actually. The grayness of winter had easily settled over the land, and the ocean seemed dark and untamed.

Nevertheless, even if it wasn't a sparkling paradise, it was new and interesting. Part of her wanted to go run among the waves that crashed on the shore, to wet her thick fur and submerge herself in the sea. But it was cold. She knew better. 

Wraen began a conversation once again, telling Chanel of how she was taught how to eat clams. Chanel's ears perk with curiosity. "Clams? I've heard of it, but I've never tried it. If you don't mind my wondering, how do you eat it?" She inquired, interest and eagerness dripping from each word like a little kid first learning about the world.

"Let's find one first," Wraen smiled at Chanel, glad for her company and feeling even happier for her eagerness to learn. This made her excited too and helped to forget the chaos back home. She searched the sand first, until she uncovered a half-shell left from an oyster or whatever those soft-fleshed beasts were called. "What you have to look for is something like this," she pushed the object towards the aspiring scout for closer inspection. "Except the good stuff is sandviched between two of these."

They were lucky that the tide was low at the moment - the five large, but shallow pools were filled with ice-cold water and tons of debris that needed to be sorted through. To test the depth of the pool, Wraen stepped inside one, shivered a little, but continued to walk, scanning the surface of the water carefully. At one point she dove and brought up a mesh of sea-weeds and pieces of wood. With this in tow she walked back to the sand and shook the prize vigilantly, then sniffed out the contents. Nothing. "So - basically - you can go and check any of the remaining pools," she instructed Chanel, "and see, if you can find those clam-things."

"If you do - we can figure out, how to open them up together," she said and returned to the pool she had inspected earlier.

Her leader suggested that they find some, before showing her an example of the shell of the little creature. Chocolate eyes observed it closely. It wasn't particularly gorgeous, and yet, it was like nothing she had ever seen before. Wraen told Chanel that the meat of the thing would be stuffed between two shell-pieces. The yearling nods at the new information. 

Wraen then demonstrated the safety of the pools by stepping into one, pulling out some mess and putting it back on the land. Chanel watched as she sniffed through it, but it seemed unfortunately she gained nothing. Nevertheless, the woman instructed her to check the other pools, and happily Chanel was on her way. Cream paws dipped themselves into freezing water, sending a shiver through Chanel's bones. Still she continued, submerging her body in the water. Focused eyes searched the water for debris that could contain the little things, all the while the lovely girl shivered with cold.

Wraen soon realized that not all pools were as shallow as hers - this realization came, when she checked in, how Chanel was doing and saw her aspiring scout, shivering in the ice-cold water and standing there way deeper than it was recommended. The Sovereign wondered briefly, if she should instruct the girl to do otherwise, but, perhaps, it was better to let her discover her own way.

Besides - her packmate did not have to freeze in the water for long, because Wraen happened to stumble upon a clam. She dove, grabbed it in her jaws and ran out. "Chanel, I got one," she called out to the girl, then shook her coat.

Just as Chanel glimpsed something shining from the bottom of the pool, Wraen called out to her, saying she had found one. Eyes flitted to her leader, then back to the water. Curiosity compelled the kitten to thrust her head into the water once more, being quick about gathering the shiny thing between glimmering fangs. She pulls herself out of the water, fur dripping with freezing water. The girl gives a little shake- sending droplets flying- before padding over to the older woman. 

"I fink I found one too?" she manages to reply, before dropping the thing out from her teeth and onto to the shore. Sure enough, it was a clam, although petite. "So how shall we open them?" she wonders aloud. There was a very obvious point at which the two halves of the clam met, but she was unsure whether to crack it open between teeth or some other method.

Come to think of it... Wraen did not exactly remember, how the wolf, who she had met on the shores, had opened the clam. There had been some quick and fluid motion and - voila! - the two halves had been pushed apart and she had had a glimpse of pale grey flesh inside. 

"Good job," she praised Chanel for her find as well, then turned her focus back at the clam before her. She poked it with her paw, then picked it gingerly with her incisors and threw it down again. "That's the tricky part now - I don't recall, how that wolf did it," she shrugged and smiled. "I could try to chew it open?" she mused out loud, fixed the clam between her forepaws, leaned down and gave an experimental bite to the shell. 

"Feels like chewing a rock," Wraen told, wincing. "Do you have any suggestions?"

Though Wraen congratulates her, she tells the girl that she's forgotten exactly how the things were opened. Chanel's tail droops with some disappointment as her leader attempts to chew it, only to wince and give up. "Feels like chewing a rock...Do you have any suggestions?" 

Chanel musters up what little intelligence hides behind that pretty face and glossy eyes. Thinking of the rocks now, she wonders, "Do you think we could crack it open on the rocks somehow instead?" , as chocolate eyes scanned the wreckage of the shore, with its stones and sticks scattered here and there.

This is such a cool video about changing tides and racoons seeking food - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE--OQyzTNs

"It's worth a try," Wraen replied, leaving the task for Chanel to fulfill, while she got up and went to explore, what goods were hiding in other tidepools. She slipped on the brownish-green mess that had been sea-weeds underwater few times and cut a pawpad on a rock, covered by numerous little mussels. They smelled something akin to food, but the rims of their shells were very sharp and Wraen did not want to risk getting another injury. 

In she plowed through a mesh of underwater plants and picked out a small fish. After feasting on such for weeks, it was not something her stomach desired much, but she ate it anyway. Then - suddenly - she became still and very alert. There, between rocks she had caught sight of slight movement and a moment later a little crab emerged. When Wraen leaned closer to sniff, it met her black nose with a menacing click with it's claws. Therefore the scavenger decided to utilize a different plan and hit it with a paw, turning it upside down and immobilizing it for a while.

She picked the little chap by one of it's claws and trotted back to show it to her pupil. Wraen dropped it in the sand and pinned it to the ground with one of her paws. "Ever met crabs?" she asked, her eyes alight with amusement. "Chanel - Mr.Crab. Mr.Crab - Chanel," she introduced them.

that video was so cool! and the little raccoons were so cute! on another note, I am immensely sorry for the wait on this. I've totally lost all my muse for Chanel and have trouble writing her lately :( 

Chanel tried her proposal, a little wary without the supervision of her leader but eager to eat all the same. Heading over to a boulder that emerged from the ground, she carefully positioned the clam between her teeth. Not very smart, that girl- so she kind of bangs the side of her face against the rock. She yelps in pain at the feeling of her skull hitting the rock, but a part of the clam fell to the ground. She had cracked it, with the price of a little pain. Grinning eagerly now, she picks the thing up gingerly in her mouth.

She almost intends to walk over to Wraen and show it off, but as soon as she turns, the woman was there. And- what was that hanging from her mouth? She drops the fiery looking thing on the ground, and it wriggles under her paw as she holds it in place. Humorously, she introduces Chanel to the creature, something called a crab. The yearling giggles at Wraen's words, before bending down to get a closer look at it. It's then that she notices it's claws, one bigger than the other. "Oh my goodness!" She exclaims as the thing snaps its hands together, dangerously close to her leathery nose. She brings her head back up then, not wanting to get pinched. A cute creature, but dangerous indeed.

We can wrap this up, if you wish.

"Yup - that's the way they greet people," Wraen told and swiftly removed her paw from the crab, when it shook an angry claw in her direction as well. "Technically they are edible too, except there is so little flesh there that it is no point bothering them, unless you are really, really, really desperate. And you manage not to get pinched in the process. It can be quite painful," she watched the little animal scramble away. 

Then her gaze focussed at two distinct, roundish heads peeking out from the surface of the water. "I think that we are being observed," she told Chanel. "See those two guys? Seals. They are the wolves of water."

They spent the rest of the afternoon together and then returned home.