Gilded Bay Oceanside Reservation

Warm afternoon light slanted across the bay, turning the pale sands gold beneath Mitanni's paws. She'd come a long way today, and though her body was ready for rest her stomach was not. Within her belly, it grumbled, complaining at its empty state, and driven by hunger the mottled brown wolf traipsed further from the open shoreline and closer to the tide pools.

Her dark amber eyes glittered as they alighted on the pools of seawater, ears perking with interest as her tongue swiped at her lips. Mitanni was no fisher by any means--nor was she very familiar with catching and eating crustaceans--but the little movement she could see of the creatures that lived beneath the water's surface intrigued her. Maybe here in these shallow basins she could find an easy meal?

Cautiously, as if afraid her quarry might disappear somehow in its watery containment, the little wolf crept closer, even going so far as to sink into a stalking crouch as she approached the nearest of the tide pools and peered down her nose to see what was there.

Rather than heading straight towards Stavanger Bay, Floki veered wide around Donnelaith's borders, moving westward. This brought him to an inlet that, in some ways, resembled his former home. Of course, it had its differences, but he paused with the afternoon sun on his shoulders as he breathed deep the frigid air.

His attention was drawn by a tidepool at his feet, its depths brimming with sealife. The little crustaceans were not the only creatures in the vicinity, however -- he soon became aware of the presence of another wolf, similarly examining one of the curious puddles. Floki's gaze was drawn to her small, dark form, and he watched with the hint of a smile as she warily crept to the edge of a tidepool.

Another creeping step and another brought Mitanni close enough to see inside the tide pool before her, and her lips parted in a soft hum of curiosity. The water rippled, stilled, and beneath its surface she could make out odd but colorful plants, somehow gripping the bottom of the pool and swaying gently. Shells, broken and full, lay at the bottom, their patterns catching Mitanni's eye, but as one moved her attention became rapt.

It's alive? She'd never really spent much time along the coastline, and many of the shells that she'd noticed along her travels had only sat there looking pretty. But this one...it moved! Again her tongue swiped at her lips, and daring to step in closer she reached into the basin with one quick brown paw.

Scooping at the moving shell, the mottled wolf took a few tries but eventually pulled the shell--and whatever hid within it--up out of the tide pool, and she nosed and sniffed at it to investigate. Was there a way to get whatever lived inside of it? Could the shell even maybe be saved instead of being destroyed? She lifted her head, glancing about while wondering what the other tide pools might be hiding, but as her amber eyes zeroed in on another wolf, seemingly taller than her and lanky, Mitanni froze in place, stuck between fleeing and finishing her hungry investigation.

Floki remained in place for a short while, watching as the she-wolf pawed at the water and eventually fished something out. It was then that she noticed him, and her body language changed defensively. He supposed that he couldn't blame her -- he probably looked like a creep just watching her from afar.

He took a few steps towards her, his tail limp between his hind legs save for the friendly twitch of its tip. He tried to convey that he wasn't a threat as he paused a few feet away, his gaze straying down to the shell at her feet. "I think it's a crab," he explained, since she seemed to have been surprised by its movements. He had to remind himself that not everyone had grown up on a beach as he had.

The black and brown wolf was glued to her spot as the male she'd spotted began to stroll towards her. Though there was nothing apparent in his posture to suggest a threat, Mitanni was still nervous and took a cautious step back even before he reached her. Nice company or not, she wasn't much of a gambler and hated taking risks when they involved potential harm to her well-being.

Mitanni watched him warily and noticed how his brilliant blue eyes darted toward the shelled sea creature at her paws. Her own eyes fell to it too and she had to resist the sudden urge to draw it closer. It was her find, her meal if it even could be counted as one, and she was still very hungry.

Rather than make any advances toward the crustacean, however, he only offered a name to call it by, indicating that it was a crab. Some of her defensiveness relaxed out of her lithe frame as she let her amber eyes stare down at what she now knew to be called a crab, and again Mitanni raised a foreleg to paw at it and topple it onto its side. "Can I eat it?" she asked, lifting her eyes to search the grey wolf's face for an answer. Did he know how these crabs worked?

He watched as she at first hesitated to reply, though the relaxation of her stance was visible. Before speaking, she batted at the crab with her forepaw, sending it sprawling onto its back. She asked if the shelled creature was edible, and Floki simultaneously reclined onto his haunches and glanced at her prize thoughtfully.

"I think so, if you can get it out of its shell," he replied. He hadn't ever attempted to consume a crustacean himself, but he didn't see why not. If it was something poisonous or dangerous to a wolf's health, he felt fairly confident that his mother or Charon would have advised him to avoid them. As for how to extract it -- she would have to figure that out on her own.

Mitanni continued to watch the grey wolf as he reclined back on his haunches to sit and answer her question helpfully. Though he didn't offer any further advice for how she ought to go about extracting the crab from its shell, just knowing they were edible was good enough news for her. It meant easy meals here on the coastline, and that bolstered her mood considerably.

If only she could figure out how to get the crab out... A soft frown formed on her brow as she lowered her dark amber eyes to the crab again, which had by this time righted itself as was trying to sneak back into the tide pool. Parting her jaws, she lowered her head to try and bite at it, but even as she moved the crab did as well, brandishing its pincers defensively.

She quickly pulled her head back and snapped her teeth closed, eyeing the crab with irritation. Since when did it have those pincers? And why wasn't it just sitting there like it did when it was in the tide pool? Her eyes darted up and over at the blue-eyed wolf, feeling self-conscious that he was watching this happen, and again she licked at her lips. "Does it hurt if they...?" Mitanni asked, her words tapering off thinking he could fill the rest in. She figured it would be important to know whether she could possibly get hurt before she tried to claim her "easy" meal.

He smirked, though not in an unfriendly way, as the she-wolf attempted to use her teeth on the crab's shell. Before her fangs could get anywhere near its hard outer surface, however, it waved its claws. Floki had forgotten to warn her about the animal's pincers. This turn of events, of course, prompted a question that drew a nod from Floki.

"Yeah, sorry, I didn't think to mention those. It can pinch you if you're not careful," he said, though his advice was wholly unhelpful now that she had nearly experienced the crab's attack first-hand. He wrinkled his nose thoughtfully and eyed the crustacean, which was edging back towards the water. "What if you smash it with a rock?" he suggested. He shifted slightly, as though contemplating moving closer, but didn't get up just yet. He didn't want to intrude on her personal space, although the unspoken offer to try to help her hung in the air.

Hmm, seemed he'd forgotten to mention the pincers. Thankfully she'd pulled back before learning about them the hard way. Mitanni sighed, pursing her lips as she dropped her gaze to the crab again and, mindful of the pincers, nudged it back and away from the tide pool it was trying to escape into. How was she going to do this? Should just go hunt in the forest.

Her ears perked as the grey wolf suggested using a rock to crack the shell of the crustacean, and though the technique seemed a bit unorthodox it sounded considerably better than how she'd been going about it. "That might work," Mitanni commented thoughtfully.

Turning her head, she searched around for a rock that might be of a decent size for its purpose, and spotting one that she thought might work she very nearly turned to go grab it. At the last second, however, she remembered the crab, and sent a quick glance its way. It was currently where she left it, sort of huddled in place, but she didn't trust it to stay there while she got the rock.

Returning her dark amber eyes to the grey wolf, she hesitated before asking uncertainly, "Mind watching this for me?"

Although he wasn't sure that his tactic would really work, she seemed willing to try it. He watched as she glanced around to find an effective tool, but was soon given a more helpful role in the whole situation. She asked him to keep an eye on the crab to make sure it didn't get away.

"Sure," he replied, standing and moving towards her. It only took a few steps to close the gap. As he neared, the crab seemed to shrink into itself, perhaps worried now that it was being faced by not one, but two predators. This made Floki's job easy enough; for the first few seconds, the crustacean was completely still. Eventually, though, it seemed to become braver and started to inch back towards the tidepool.

He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Not so fast," he said, placing a paw directly in the crab's path. He was careful to keep some distance so that it couldn't snap at him with its claws. It stopped in its tracks, then tried a different route, scuttling across the rocky sand away from Floki. "Hey!" he cried, reaching out to clip it with a forepaw and send it sprawling on its back once more.

With the grey wolf agreed to watch the crab, Mitanni flashed him a quick, appreciative smile and darted off at a lope toward the rock she'd already scouted out. It wasn't too far away, thankfully, but all the while that she loped towards it her ears remained trained backward, listening to make sure that her prize from the tide pool didn't get away.

She managed to get over to the rock--which turned out to be slightly bigger than it had appeared from a distance--before she heard the blue-eyed crab-sitter address his charge. Uh oh. Was it getting away? Mitanni shot a glance over her shoulder, but the grey wolf didn't appear too perturbed. Good. They were sure going through a lot of trouble for this, but at this point it wasn't even really about her hunger anymore but stubbornness at its finest. She was going to have this crab for a meal--somehow.

After one failed attempt, Mitanni managed to get the rock between her teeth and picked it up, carefully hefting its weight as a startled statement from her assistant made it clear the crab was giving him a hard time. No, no, don't get away! At a trot, she hurried to return to the grey wolf and the escaping crab, doing her best to peer around the object she carried in order to see where the crab currently was.

The feeling of success was palpable as she spotted the crustacean sprawled upon its back, and though the expression was lost as she carried the rock her eyes brightened in a grin. It wasn't going to get away, not now. Mitanni wasted no time, and as soon as she was close enough she lifted her head and let the heavy rock fall atop the crab. Her full attention was fixed on the rock and, presumably, the crab beneath, and again she licked at her lips. "Think that did it?" she asked almost excitedly, leading with her nose as she lowered her head to try nudging the heavy rock out of the way.

It had worked alright. As she scooted the rock back, she revealed the crab below, partly crushed and imprinted awkwardly in the sand.

Once the crab was out of commission on its back, Floki was able to relax a little bit. The crustacean struggled, trying to right itself with its pincers, but it would take more time than was available to it; Floki glanced up to see his companion returning with a rock wedged between her jaws, meaning that their little beach-dwelling friend wouldn't be much longer for this world.

As soon as she was close enough, the mottled she-wolf unceremoniously dropped the stone onto the crab's shell. There was a thud and Floki thought he heard a crunch. He watched as she used her snout to push the rock out of the way and reveal the crab's cracked shell. "Nice!" he congratulated with a swish of his tail.

"Now pry it open and taste it," he encouraged. He didn't expect her to share -- after all, the crustacean was not very large -- but would perhaps catch one for himself if she confirmed that the meat was tasty and worth the trouble.

Staring at the crumpled crab pressed into the sand, Mitanni grinned outright with a delighted tail wag. It might have taken more effort than she'd originally meant to exert just to get it open, but it made her feel accomplished to have done it. No crab was going to be able to evade her from now on, not now that she knew how to get them.

She turned her proud smile over to the grey-hued male as he congratulated her, and only felt the slightest rise of defensiveness as she watched him look at her prize. He might have helped, but she still intended to keep it all for herself. Mitanni only hoped he wouldn't try to take it from her; she wasn't much of a fighter and would certainly end up losing her hard-earned crab quickly.

But he only encouraged her, prompting her to get back to her meal. Feeling emboldened and relaxed by his apparent interest only her reaction to the crab, the mottled black and brown wolf spared him one more glance and ducked her head to the crab again. She nosed the shell away, seeking the crab meat below, and carefully extracted a bite of it. It was definitely like nothing she'd tasted before, but being hungry and after going through so much effort she wasn't going to complain.

"It's not bad," she remarked as she swallowed the first bite, surprising herself to realize that it was true. It wasn't the best mini meal she'd tried, but it definitely hit the spot now. Curious, she licked at her lips again and asked, "Have you tried it before?" He'd been the one to tell her how to open it up, so she figured he had.

He watched and waited with anticipation as the she-wolf had her first bite of seafood. She seemed to turn the flavors over in her mouth, carefully considering them, before giving him her conclusion. She asked if he had eaten such a delicacy before, and he shook his head.

"No, I haven't, but I'm about to," Floki replied even as he reached into the tidepool. The shallow water was frigid, but it was easy to spot other crustaceans creeping around on the bottom. With a few awkward swipes of his paws, he managed to pull one out, plopping it onto the beach next to the half-eaten one. "Mind if I use this?" he asked, picking up the rock with his mouth without waiting for an answer.

Imitating the other wolf's technique, he dropped the stone onto the crab before it had a chance to get its bearings and try to escape back to the water. Then, he pulled back the shell with his teeth, a salty and fishy odor filling his nostrils. He glanced up at his companion before taking a small bite, finding it to be cold and a little chewy, but overall satisfactory.

Mitanni grinned and chuckled as the blue-eyed wolf showed every intention of catching and opening a crab for himself. Her tail wagged at her side as she watched, amber eyes curiously intent, as he fished out another crab and deposited it in the sand beside the first one. She nodded her head as he requested the use of the rock--"All yours,"--and perked her ears as it was hefted up and dropped atop the second crab.

She licked her lips but held back as he tasted the crab, smiling when he didn't seem immediately put off by it. "Takes some getting used to," she commented, still unsure if she outright liked it or not. It sure beat going hungry though, and because of that she peered back into the tide pool again and, finding it empty, moved to another nearby to check.

Her amber eyes spotted another of the creatures beneath the rippling surface of the water, and with a quick glance at the grey wolf she began to fish it out. "I'm Mitanni, by the way."

His ears twitched at the girl's comment, and he lifted his gaze as he chewed to watch her search for a second crab. Apparently he had taken the last one from that particular tidepool, so she moved to check another one. He swallowed the last bite of his small meal as she introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you, Mitanni. I'm Floki. Are you from around here?" he asked conversationally. She didn't smell strongly of other wolves, so he suspected she was a lone wolf. He licked his lips, finding that they tasted rather salty after consuming the ocean-dwelling creature.

She got the crab out of the tide pool, mindful now of its claws, and took a few careful tries to get the squirming crustacean on its back. Only then did she move away from it, feeling she had enough time to fetch the rock in order to crush its shell.

She didn't answer Floki right away, but as his words came back through her mind she offered a quick and simple, "No," before hefting the rock in her jaws. Mitanni carried it back over to her crab, which had nearly righted itself again, and dropped the rock unceremoniously atop it.

A little smile curved her lips as she pawed the stone away to reveal the crushed crab beneath. "I tend to move a lot. This is just where I am today," Mitanni explained, nosing away the cracked shell to help herself to the crab meat below. Its peculiar taste was just as jarring, but she ate it without complaint. Licking her lips, she paused to glance at Floki and turned the question back around on him. "You?"

Between her efforts to break open another crab shell, Mitanni answered him. His assumptions had been correct; she was a drifter and had found herself here by chance. Floki watched as she pried open her second helping, then answered her question.

"I actually used to live right down the beach there," he replied, gesturing towards the rocky cliff face in the distance that marked the edge of Stavanger Bay. Beyond it, the shoreline turned to soft sand and there would be no tidepools to be found. It was curious the way the landscape could change so abruptly. "I grew up there, but my pack recently moved inland to a mountain called Moonspear," he concluded.

"Oh yeah?" she questioned, intrigued when Floki spoke of once living on the beach. Mitanni turned her head, following the direction he gestured in, and tried to imagine life here along the coast. As cool as it seemed--literally given the breeze--she couldn't say it truly appealed to her.

Her attention returned to the tall, grey wolf, and she quietly noted that he'd moved somewhere inland recently with his pack. She smiled, guiltily admitting, "The mountain sounds better," when he'd finished. She enjoyed her land animals too much to give it all up for crustaceans and whatever else could be fished out of the ocean. "How much of a change was that?" Mitanni asked, considering the transition from shoreline abode to mountain retreat. She couldn't think of two more different locations, and couldn't imagine it was an easy move.

He smiled at her comment that the mountain would make a better home than the beach. It was hard to make a comparison, at least for Floki, because they were so different and he loved attributes of each. He certainly enjoyed the vantage points that Moonspear offered, but it had been a challenge to learn to navigate its slopes carefully. On the other hand, he had a soft spot for the shore simply because he had been raised there, but it had its own set of dangers; it had been the sea's mighty waves that had washed Jorunn away, and the pup hadn't stood a chance.

Shaking his head to rid his mind of thoughts of his twin, he answered, "It was a big change. The hardest part was learning to climb up and down the mountainside without falling." But in time, his sea legs had given way to the hardy paws of a peak dweller, and now he could scale the cliffs with ease.

Mitanni couldn't entirely help the sudden bout of chuckles that overcame her as Floki admitted to finding it difficult to traverse the mountainside. She hadn't grown up there or anything, but she was also a small and rather dainty creature so she knew a little bit of the challenge that came from navigating rocky, rugged terrain.

"I can imagine," she responded through a smile as she left the tide pool behind and walked back to the one beside the blue-eyed boy. Her eyes flickered toward the water, but she didn't try to fish out anymore crabs. The two that she'd eaten were enough to stave off the worst of her hunger for the time being. She was more interested now in the conversation. "I grew up on a prairie, so this"--she paused and gestured around them with a glance--"is completely outside my forte. It's a good thing I like learning. By the way, where did you learn the crab cracking thing?"

Thanks for the thread! :D

"It was just a guess," Floki replied with a laugh, glancing down at the rock and the crab shells strewn at their paws. Until today, he had never ventured to make a meal out of a crustacean before; since Stavanger Bay's territory had also encompassed a wooded inland area, he and his family had feasted on the  typical diet of wolves.

Shifting his weight slightly, he glanced up the coast. It wouldn't take much longer for him to reach his old packlands; little did he know the discovery he would make upon arriving there. "I should be on my way, but if you ever find yourself near Moonspear, stop and say hi," he said with a flash of his teeth in a smile. He gestured towards the peaks in the distance; it was difficult to discern Ouroboros Spine from Moonspear at length, but if Mitanni ever did come visit, she would be able to identify his scent along the borders.

With a friendly wave of his tail, he turned and began to trot away, following the path of the beach towards his former home.