Cerulean Cape there ain't no second chance against the thing with forty eyes

@Caiaphas

The cacophony of gulls and other sea birds clamoring about the shoreline drew him to the coast. The tide was on its way out, and amid the debris left behind the beach were easily accessed edibles: crabs, clams, mussels, periwinkles, and the occasional dead fish. Even some kelp had its appeal. But it was not these things that caused the birds to concentrate. His purposeful gaze swept the beach, and he noted the corpulent form of a deceased seal, which the retreating ocean still lapped at.

He made his way to it. Gulls and terns took flight around him, hollering their displeasure that he should invade their dinner party. He paid them no heed. They knew his fangs awaited them if they harassed him too closely, and their raucous cries he could ignore without effort. He circled the seal, sniffing its body closely. His ears were perked, listening through the blare of the birds for the approach of other predators, and his eyes scanned the sprawl of sand even as he tore into a thick band of fat.

despite the beguiling sweep of summer warmth that bathed the shore, the nights were dark and told of a different story. at sun-fall the tides roared and the sands grew cold to the touch while the living world fell to hushed silence. the climate took no prisoners and many felt the slice of withering exposure when they dared endure the strand's nightfall.

caiaphas had spent another miserable night among the wreckage, and when she woke to the raucous calls of what bartok intoned as "winged rats" she was in a mood far more tumultuous the the crashing waves besides her. sourly she traced the offensive sound to a tidy inlet where a sarcous corpse lay bloated and brined by salt. she did not hurry towards this porcine form, for no sooner had she noticed the decaying flesh she also saw a shadow fall upon it. there was no mistaking the predatory swoop -- rather than risk injury by approaching she swung wide about him.

there was no hope of camouflage along the stark white of the strand, so caiaphas stuck out quite plainly for any to see.

He did not eat at leisure; as fast as he could rend chunks of fat from the seal he swallowed them. Barely a chance did his tongue have to even note the saltiness of his meal. He caught movement in the distance, and his dark eyes narrowed upon it as it drew nearer. He continued to feed as mere movement took a distinguishable shape. She afforded him a wide berth, but even so, his last few bites were hastened. He was not inclined to share while he was still hungry; but with his belly full he stepped away from the seal and reclined on his haunches. Birds immediately descended. His tongue swiped around his lips and fangs while he stared in her direction.

she watched as he ate, hanging back in the manner of some tame phantom. as he forced chunks of viscera down his cavernous glut she felt the dull pang of hunger -- an ache in the pit of her stomach she had become uncomfortably accustomed to.

however, she was not inclined to lower her head before a stranger, not even for the succulent taste of sealflesh. instead she studied him boldly, her sharp yellow gaze unremitting. this type of observation had in the past yielded several aggressive advances by the studied party - and yet, the dimwit had yet to learn.

He did the same to her as she did to him; his dark eyes appraised her, taking particular note of the sharpness of her ears and the slim profile of her muzzle. His eyes need not travel the lean construction of her body too long, for it was apparent in the latter two features that she was cut from the same fabric as he. She was exactly whom he sought, and he rose to his feet as he realized this, but he did not seek to approach yet. One corner of his mouth was pulled up and his tail drifted across his hocks as he waited.

he rose and she refrained from slinking back, half expecting to be struck for her insolent stare. yet his tail remained neutral, and his stance ambivalent. she was not certain if this was some deceptive maneuver on his part, yet all the same she (stupidly) stood her ground.

whether or not she was exactly what he was looking for was irrelevant -- all caiaphas was looking for was an easy target. he didn't really look the part of easy game, and caiaphas didn't often like to push her luck in front of strangers. opting instead to remain casual (though her mind still schemed ways in which she could somehow use this situation to her advantage) the she-wolf spoke. "who are you?"

She looked the part, and so far as he could tell in their brief encounter, she also acted the part. She was calculating. He could sense even at this distance that her mind worked to analyze the situation, to see what could be garnered from it. It was the same way that he looked upon her, and as he looked upon anything else. It was the way of the coywolf. To take, to use, to secure every advantage. It was the only way.

"I am Splinter," he replied. "You belong with me," he stated calmly, his silky words untouched by of any insidious tone. He inclined his muzzle, inviting her closer. "I belong with you."

the notion the sea-witch belonged to anything other than herself caused an incredulous snort to rift the smoothness of her muzzle -- she belonged to nothing but herself and the conviction of this belief showed clearly in the defiance of her gaze.

instead of outright spurning him she elected to play his game, though she made no attempt to sheath the dubious nature of her expression. "is that so?" she inquired, expecting this splinter-creature to elaborate on the nature of his outlandish claim.

She snorted at his words, and he twitched his tail as his eyes flicked to the creases that formed on her muzzle. But he was not nbothered by her doubt, for he expected no less. He remained quiet, patient, while she considered what had been said. She could have left, as he would have done should he decide someone was not worth talking to. But she remained, and though skeptical still, she provided room for explanation.

Since his invitation to draw nearer had not been taken, he rose to his paws and took only as many steps as was necessary to bring them to within a more comfortable, conversational range. "I believe coywolves should come together," he elaborated, his eyes ever watchful of her face. "That there should be more of us. I believe we are better than the wolf and the coyote, that we are the start of a new species, one more powerful, one more fit for the top of the food chain." He stopped, and waited.

the she-wolf's incredulity was slow to drain, despite her comrade's apt explanation. while she had spent the entire of her life covering her lineage, it seemed that the dark coywolf coveted it. her ears drew forward in a gesture of slight surprise, though the expression on her countenance had lost its fervor.

even stiill, it took her a minute to ponder his words. not for the absurdity of it, but for the potency of it. she had only small experiences with her kindred and none of them had been very pleasant -- as a whole coywolves were a thieving and tricky bunch, and she was not exactly a brilliant example of her subspecies. among other coywolves she fared poorly -- but among wolves, she flourished. "we're weaker and smaller than wolves." she intoned blandly, expecting some sort of defense from the male. she had never really given thought to a supreme rise, though the advent of chaos was enticing to her.

His words were not dismissed; she considered them. He was patient, reserved, and afforded all the time she wished to take to think on them. When she spoke, his eyes slightly narrowed. "Smaller, yes, but we are not weaker." He assumed her argument was the same he had heard time and time again, that the larger predator was stronger simply because of their size, that like the coyote who existed beneath them, the coywolf could not match them. Nonetheless, he asked for her reasoning. "Why do you believe we are weaker?" He settled to his haunches once more, his wild-furred tail curling around him.

she did not think. she knew. when the orders responsible for creation first breathed into the world scatters of life, they had deigned the structure of the coyote frail and incompetent -- perhaps to offset this bludgeon of fate they granted these canids extraordinary intelligence. but all the same, they were too slight of frame for combat and often easily overpowered by their lupine cousins. and while the comrade before her denied this notion, caiaphas knew it in her heart to be true.

this did not mean she thought herself inferior to them -- in that aspect, she found herself quite better. where brawn failed to flourish, intelligence prospered. there was little in the world more engaging to the she-wolf than outwitting her peers. "it's just the way things are." she rose to her haunches when splinter reclined on his -- with a smooth flick of her tail the coywolf moved fluidly towards the tree-line for food and shelter. if splinter followed she was sure the conversation would continue -- either way, she was hungry for anything that wasn't seal.

I said we could finish when you get back but let's change that to "we can have another" when you get back! ;)

He exhaled through his nose, not quite in a snort but in a manner that told of how he erroneous he believed her to be. If the standard she used to compare was size and physical strength (which he continued to assume), then he had but one unspoken comment: neither of those things mattered if one knew where to put their teeth and was nimble enough to put them there. There were ways to deal with raw power that did not require an equal or greater amount of your own.

She rose to leave and he did not follow. There was a part of him that wanted to share more of his logic, to change her mind and open her eyes to what he was saying and what he was offering, but he was selfish and that greater part of him did not care. He would not chase down his kin and spend much of his time convincing them; the offer was on the table and it was on them to accept it or seek more answers, or to continue walking alone.

The shadow turned and slipped further down the shoreline.