Stavanger Bay hurt, i can't shake

today while looking for pieces to her collection, dalia came across an ucommon find -- a starfish! except, it was not as she had always found them, dead and dried. no, this one was still living! and it's little feet stretched across the sand the best they could but... to no avail, the little ocean creature made no advances. it seemed it's little feet couldn't quite grasp onto anything. dalia, silently, wondered why. a nearby tide pool provided her the perfect opportunity to observe the creature.

afraid to harm the thing, the pale sylph didn't dare pick it up in her teeth. instead, she nosed it gently into the tide pool, watching as it settled to the bottom and then sat there. perfectly still. dalia did the same -- perfectly still.

Thought I'd hop in since I haven't had the honor of meeting Dalia yet :)
Also, unco adorable gif you got there.

Embry was making his usual rounds, determined to memorize the fresh patch of territory he now called home. His diurnal routine concluded near the shoreline, being his overall favorite location within the Rift. He was pleasantly surprised this day to spot the lissom figure of a fellow packmate along the strand, sentiments which were evident as he approached; large paws plodding in his amenable way across the compacted sand.

"Watch out - here comes an Embry!" He called, feeding on the buoyancy of the moment. He matched the female's frozen posture as he drew up beside her, training his own emerald gaze upon whatever it was she had found so mesmerizing. As if the day could not get any better, it suddenly dawned upon him that the subject under observation was a starfish - a freaking starfish for crying out loud! 

If you ever tried to hit Embry's flashback button, a starfish was the way to do it (among a plethora of oceanic paraphernalia). Imagine a scruffy, mocha-and-cream fledgling of a wolf staring in awe at the water. Now imagine that same wolf many moons older, and this is how the story stood thus far. And it replayed over and over in Embry's mind as he sat there, seemingly lost in time.

eeeep!! thank u for joining!!

quiet and lost in her observation, dalia almost completely missed the tan wolf than came sprinting at her. if he hadn't yelled, she might've yelped in surprise. 

but, luckily, he gave her a good warning. though her heart pounded in her chest and her head raised to stare at him with wide ocean eyes and ears standing entirely alert and upright -- she processed him in a short amount of time as not a thread. especially as he settled near the pool to stare at the starfish in the same manner that she had. heart still racing, dalia found herself relaxing -- and giggling. 

"do you like it?" she asked him, her dark nose twitching, "i saved it from the beach... but i wanted to study it."

how could I pass it up? :D

Embry gave the girl ample time to relax, watching in his peripherals as her posture pricked and then, as a ship upon a wave, settled. He slipped his viridescent gaze upwards; trained them on the dappled bridge of the she's snout. His eyes echoed a fraternal light.

He was pleased that yet another packmate was good-natured enough to feel comfortable with his odd - and, sometimes, spontaneous - introductions. 

"Are you kiddin' me?" He chuckled, lowering himself carefully to further inspect the creature. "The ocean rarely gives us its treasures. But when it does, I know that there is a purpose. It is always teaching us." Only the world was aware of the irony in this statement, for soon a magnificent beast would be upon that very shoreline.

Embry cast a sideways glance at Dalia; shrugging. "Who knows? Perhaps it is trying to point something out... Maybe you'll be a starfish someday." And he snickered, though there was something of a sober tune in what he said, and he soon cast his curious gaze back upon the maritime dweller. 

"What have you learned about it so far? Anything interesting?" 

JGKHSKS SORRY

she liked the way he spoke. it was clean and friendly, poised and magical. she felt he knew the beauty of the ocean and of the world around them, she liked to know more wolves like that -- she liked to think she was a wolf like that. though, truthfully, dalia was not so poetic. she loved the earth and spoke fondly of it, but embry seemed to tell a tale in his description. to it, she gave a gentle sigh. "the ocean knows much more than you and i do," she told him gaze falling again to the starfish. 

to his comment, she merely giggled, and then his question. "i haven't been studying long," she told him, gazing back up at him with a small smile, "but it moves slowly, with little... feet. lots of little feet."

lol it's all good!

Embry could tell that Dalia was growing accustomed to his presence. That was good, he realized. That was what he was looking for in a homestead; in a pack. 

He gazed back down at the starfish and watched it slowly sift through the tawny sand. It made him almost want to help it along, what with its rather sluggish call to action. Instead, however, he patiently awaited the moment in which, perhaps, this creature might be pacified.

"Indeed, he's got an excess of feet to help him along," Embry released a big sigh at that. "You'd think he'd actually start getting somewhere, poor little guy. What d'you think he's even trying to do?" 

another giggle. "back to the ocean, i suppose," she offered, eyes flashing as she reached a paw into the pool to touch the creature with a single fore claw, "that is it's home, after all." she felt a pang of guilt of she said the word home. to her, now, this was home. but it wasn't always, and she left a lot behind long ago. she tried to repress it, focusing on the kind yearling beside her. 

"should we help it?" she asked, looking at him with a pair of mismatched eyes, head tilting to one side.