Oystercatcher Tide Pools why do they ignore the little female one

all welcome, but possibly @The Listener can find her?

vesper sat at the edge of a tide pool, inspecting her reflection. she had never been truly on her own before, at least not for so long a stretch of time, and for the first time in her life she felt free. it was a relief, but also terrifying— fending for herself was as exhausting as it was illuminating. the darkling had spent her entire childhood being whatever she thought everyone else in her life needed her to be.

a kind of mother to blueberry. a loyal daughter to mou and maegi. the responsible older sibling that tried to make their new lives work, over and over again.

but who was vesper when left to her own devices?

though ingram is not quite sure what to make of their new landscape, lingering in a realm of uncertainty. there is a power in the sea that he appreciates, but the grit of sand between his teeth and the fact that the sea provided little nourishment beyond food that he questions ...he is left unable to make up his mind. but he supposed that like it or not it was trikova's mysterious 'where the land ends' and he would adapt.

the keeper practices walking on the sands of the shore; adjusting his weight and using how the sound swallows sound to his advantage. even if he stood out in this terrain like a sore thumb.

maybe the sand was useful for something after all, he considers.

it is only after a while that he notices the other — apparently enraptured by the tidepools — realizing when he sees some sort of movement that she was not a mound of wet sand as he'd initially assumed. ingram takes a breath and then lets out a low chuff to announce his presence.

she looked back at her fiery eyes the reflection as herself. the wolf that returned her gaze was older, sterner. their ears were large, but no longer in a way that was endearing— now in a way that emphasized how small the rest of their features were compared to other grown wolves. perhaps from a distance, their age could be mistaken for one younger, but their frame was muscular and features mature and angular. vesper wouldn't want to get on the bad side of the darkling that stared back at her; they looked mean, unforgiving.

was that truly what others saw?

vesper snapped their head away from the pool at the sound of another's chuff, looking up at him through their brows. they moved to stand after a moment, but otherwise did not attempt to close the distance, and offered a chuff of their own in return.

edited in a small sentence conclusion. i am more than happy to revive this in the future if you'd like! <3

the other yearling looked up then and returned his chuff.

for a small moment that felt like eternity to ingram, he is struck with a paralyzing sort of awkwardness. his social skills were — though improving bit by bit — rather abysmal. a stellar conversationalist he would never be. he was trying to work on not scaring off potential druid recruits by ...being what he desires to be about ninety percent of the time: skulking and surly.

a struggle, to be sure.

see anything interesting in the tide pool? he inquires then, thinking of the little multicolored and spectacularly weird sea creatures he'd seen days ago. i don't know if i'd trust eating any of sea creatures trapped in them, the vivid colors that paint their bodies warn something extremely primal in him to stay away; and he offers the advice despite that it hadn't been asked for. but they're interesting to look at. i think, anyway.

a few more words are exchanged before ingram takes his leave.