Sea Lion Shores Excuse me while I kiss the sky

Chavi's paws sunk into the sand as she pranced across the beach. Coming upon a puddle, she leapt into the air and came down into the water with a splash. Her front end went down and her tail waved in the air as she went into a play bow. She had never experienced such a fine sensation before, and was living it up.

Her body plopped to the ground as she rolled onto her back into the wet sand. She let out little playful noises as she wriggled side to side for a few moments before uprighting herself once more. Her eyes darted side to side, seeing if anyone was there.

maya was certain nothing could be that stupid looking unless it was hiding something dangerous.

she stared unblinkingly at the rocks, where there were several beasts that resembled -- well, she didn't know what. they had faces that resembled a weasel's, and big whiskers and flippers instead of legs, and they stared back at her with absolutely no fear whatsoever. and she thought. maybe...they had really sharp teeth. or maybe they were faster than they looked, somehow -- she couldn't quite fathom how, but pretending -- and when she got close it would grab her around the ankle and tackle her into the sea and she would die a horrible (and embarassing) watery death.

she still really wanted to eat one, but she wasn't sure if it was worth the effort. maybe she'd just be better off with crabs. or spending another eternity dunking her head into the sea and getting gross saltwater all up her nose and ears. she still felt distinctly...sharp, where the water had dried out of her pelt and left only salt behind. her fur cracked when she moved her shoulders, which was just unnecessary.

still...she glared for a few moments more, letting the weird sea weasels know just what she thought of them. they did not seem impressed. she puffed up indignantly, tucking her chin down as her legs tensed, preparing to go after them for the rudeness alone -- she was a wolf! even if she was smaller than most, and they had the nerve to ignore her like they weren't prey! ...she assumed. if they were like weasels they would probably taste okay. anyways! she took her first step forwards, about to break into a sprint, and behind her something...squeaked?

maya stopped, huffing, and whirled around, sending up a spray of sand every which way. the fur on her neck was already spikey from salt air, no bristling required, but at first glance there was nothing. 

she shot one last look over her shoulder at the sea weasels, who were now not even doing her the courtesy of looking at her. "i'll be back!" she barked, to absolutely no effect whatsoever, and then bolted through the dune grass and, expecting whatever was making the noise to be significantly smaller than she was or significantly bigger, tripped directly over the fox in her path.

she face-planted ungracefully in the sand, paws flailing wildly as she attempted to regain her footing, and sprang back up as quickly as she could manage, the embarassment translating itself neatly into flustered aggression. "what the fuck!" she yelped, indignation bolstered by the fact that, for once, she wasn't the smaller participant in this encounter.

Her ears perked at the sound of a voice, and her head turned in the direction that it came. Could that be a new friend?! That would be awesome! First, this majestically wonderful beach, and then a friend! Chavi moved to rise, when all of a sudden, something hit her. She squealed and rolled several times before she was able to stop herself and right her body.

Her eyes were wide at the wolf who sprang up just as quickly. The fox froze for a moment, and then... Her whole body started to wiggle with excitement. Her new friend landed right on her! Hi! she said happily as she bounded over to the wolf. She stopped in front of her, and peered up at her. I'm Chavi! What's your name? she asked.

whatever maya was expecting from this particular meeting, it was not for the fox to bounce up perhaps more eagerly than she had and bolt directly towards her as though it had not just been tripped over, wiggling so furiously as it did so that maya was, quite frankly, bewildered. her ears flicked back, neck arching to lift her head as she blinked at the stranger. nobody was this thrilled to get...almost stepped on! hell, if their roles were reversed maya would have been giving her a good tongue lashing. certainly not asking her for her fucking name.

so this was perhaps a bit outside her area of expertise.

she probably looked a bit like a deer scenting a predator in the moment before it pounced as she squinted at the fox practically standing on her paws and staring up at her. this was...nobody was like this, right? why was today shaping up to be so weird?

"what the fuck," she said again, because her parents had told her to watch her language more than once but one, she did not care, and two, she thought it sort of bore repeating. "how old are you?" not that she really cared if it was a child she'd almost stepped on versus an adult but really? it was rare enough that she saw anyone younger than she was -- but this could have been it. in which case...did that mean she was supposed to pretend to be responsible? oh god. she wasn't ready for that.

Red eyes peered back at Chavi, and she was entranced by them. She had never met anyone with red eyes before! The wolf repeated her words, but Chavi didn't mind. She was hard to offend, after all. The wolf didn't offer up her name, but she did ask the fox how old she was.

She squirmed with glee. The wolf was asking something about her! I'm a year old! she expressed happily. I just left my home grounds to explore and find new friends! she explained. And here you are! she added, as if it was meant to be and her life's mission was accomplished. Do you want to roll in the sand with me? It feels so good! As if the wolf had already said yes, Chavi laid down once more and began wiggling on her back at the wolf's paws.

a year old. well, that explained...nothing. she had been expecting less than that, she was no expert in fox aging; she barely knew anything when it came to wolves in the first place. and leaving home to find new friends? probably wasn't any worse as a motivation than maya leaving just because she was certain she knew how to take care of herself (and would defend that point of view to the ends of the earth no matter what her actual actions said about it) but like hell she'd consider it anything other than dumb.

all that said, maya experienced a brief, terrifying moment of something akin to self-reflection as the fox started rolling around in the sand without a care in the world, as though there was not something with plenty of teeth standing right above her. was this how it felt dealing with her? of course, maya being maya, that thought was instantly discarded. she was much more fun. hypocrisy? don't know her.

the point was, then -- what was she supposed to do with this? maya was patently infuriating to be around at times and she knew it -- took pride in it, in fact. but that only worked when people were big grumps about it. or were trying to tell her what to do or something. this was just...if she tried to be sarcastic or snide she'd get ignored! the age thing had already flown over her head, after all. and that was the thing she was best at!

"i'm, uh...good on sand," maya said, bewildered, scooting away so she wouldn't end up with even more detritus to add to the salty mess that was her fur. she was currently cultivating a particular distaste for the beach. after a moment to collect her thoughts, she sighed, a touch dramatically. "my name's maya." god this was so... "is this actually fun for you?"

Her new friend declined to roll with her, but that didn't dampen Chavi's spirits at all. She righted herself, but remained on her stomach as she regarded the wolf. Her heart held no fear of her, as Chavi hadn't interacted with wolves, good or bad. Even if she had, Chavi took each creature as themselves, not what someone else might have done to her.

Maya! That's a pretty name, she said, excited she had finally gotten her name. She brought herself into a sitting position and her bobbed up and down. Oh yeah! I've never been here before and this sand is so soft! Her front paws turned into the sand as she spoke, as if to show her point. You don't like it? she questioned, her head cocked and her ears perked as she looked up to the wolf.

"uh...thank you?" that was how you were supposed to respond, right? it would probably be polite to, like...express the same sentiment back. but as far as she was concerned it was just a name (until she was trying to impress someone, perhaps) and even if maya had ever possessed a single shred of charm or grace in her entire existence, she was too distracted right now to make any use of it.

well. she supposed anyone would be impressed by seeing the coast for the first time. even she'd been a little astonished, you know...when she was like, a few months old. everything was astonishing when you were a kid. "no. the beach is awful," she informed chavi with the air of someone sharing a long-held secret, and craned her head around to lick at her shoulder, feeling the salt caked around her neck crack like ice on a pond as she did so. it was all so unpleasant. maya could deal with a lot of things but this was not one of them. 

"if you want to be around water," maya added, "there are better places to do it. like. without salt. and sharks." and weird weasel things with flippers that kept giving her infuriatingly blank looks. just thinking about them made her scruff bristle more. she was going to show them!! ...at some point.

You're welcome! she replied, her voice high and chipper. She didn't pick up on the fact that Maya seemed to be uncertain in this social situation. She also didn't see how odd it might be that a little fox was attempting to befriend something that could easily eat her.

Her eyes widened when Maya said the beach was awful. Why is it awful? she questioned. Her eyes darted around the area, trying to find something awful about it. Soft sand. Water. Oh, a little creature scurrying along! She refrained from chasing it, as Maya was talking again, and she turned her gaze back to her. Whatsa shark? she asked. Will you show me? she asked gleefully, standing in preparation to follow.

maya just kept squinting. everything this fox did made her want to squint at it, and since it didn't seem to mind, well...there was no reason not to.

"why is it awful?" maya repeated, as though she could not believe she'd been asked such a question. well, she could, she just liked being as theatrical as she possibly could about everything. she puffed up her chest and flicked her ears forward and...kept on squinting. again. "do you like the feeling of sand and salt getting all over your fur?" she shuddered, patting one paw against her opposite leg as though she could dust the gunk off her pelt. naturally, all she succeeded in doing was adding another fine layer of sand atop everything. "i feel like a fucking sea urchin." her fur should have been soft and fluffy...why was everything so goddamn sharp?

so absorbed was she by this problem she didn't notice when chavi's attention splintered away to follow a little crab scurrying through the sand. she did, however, refocus at the question. "oh, you don't want to see a shark." the fact that she had never seen a shark, only heard stories her cousins had told -- ones of dubious merit, at that -- did not deter her in the slightest. "they're like...bears, except way bigger, and they live underwater. and they have these huge mouths," she opened her jaws wide to illustrate, "full of horrible pointy teeth, and when they see you swimming they come up and," she snapped her mouth closed with a sharp noise, "bite you right in two."

she paused, thoughtfully, and abruptly the dramatic air she had been cultivating through her tale vanished as though it had never been. "anyways, i haven't seen any today." she cocked her head, ears flopping, and sprung to her paws. "but there are these big weasels with flippers, i'll show you!"