Sequoia Coast i'll whisk away your heartsigh and bury it in mine

a vivid sunset lent a faint golden sheen to the pale wolf's coat; from a distance, yakone was only a gleaming silhouette darting among the froth and flurry of water and sand tossed up by her quick movements. beyond the beach she'd climbed and wriggled her way into, dark cliffs loomed like disapproving sentinels. no fun allowed, they seemed to creak out through the battering of wind against stone. she paid them no mind.

kona skidded to a halt in the water as another cold wave crashed over her, barking and whirling to bite at the wall of water as it fell and receded. she bolted through the water once again, racing down a path with no end. she couldn't outrun the waves, but that wasn't the point. the point was to have fun.

the weather had been gray and dreary for a stretch of days that had felt endless until tonight's sunset broke over the cliffs.  it pulled him from himself.  he felt awake again.  he sought a place he might survey the land and found where the cliffside came to an edge.

when he sees her, he thinks he should have stayed down there.  she was having the kind of fun he couldn't bring himself to; vicariously, he stands watching her from above.

unaware of her audience, the girl in ivory-and-scarlet lace frolicked and played without inhibition. she was a pale flash up and down the shoreline, panting and grinning and splashing until something stopped her short. yakone nearly fell over herself in her abrupt halt, snapping wildly at the unfortunate bird which had flown into her path. the poor creature floundered, disoriented by the veritable storm of sea and sand and wolf in its face.

kona snapped a wing between her teeth and yanked hard, tossing her head with the bird still attached. it shrieked, and she shook it harder, flinging it to and fro and into the water until it went limp.

and so her game continued, this time with a new toy to toss and chase to her heart's content.

the way she played reminded him of a child.  the longer he looked at her he realized that she must have been about his age, perhaps a little younger.  he couldn't be sure.

what he was certain of, she seemed not to care for the bird's plight.  he didn't particularly care either, but it befuddled him to see her treatment of the creature.  did she not care to preserve the meat, either?

he came as close to the edge as he could manage and reclined, content to watch her antics for the time being.