Sea Lion Shores What's the best distraction?

The raucous seals were much too territorial and large for the firebrand to catch by herself but it was no matter - she'd left Stavanger Bay with a full belly and some regained pounds she'd lost being washed ashore. 

Midday found the Islander wandering the sandy shore, down the coast from the seal hoardes where the barking was only a distant din. 

Ahe had taken a break in her travels to collect some of the seashells that could be found amidst the sand. Her fiery coat was crunchy with the grains that coated her, the vivid color a russet blur as she bounded to and fro across the coast. She could be seen furiously digging before returning to her starting point, dropping small white shells with each return. 

She looked like Ceara, and maybe that's why he was drawn to her: a firebrand against the overcast shade of the sea. He couldn't quite tell what she was doing, exactly, but he found that didn't matter. Her resemblance to his sister pulled him closer to where she blazed across the sand.

In his heart he knew this wasn't @Fire, but he convinced himself that maybe he just wasn't close enough to see the dark stripe that coursed her spine or the characteristic strikes of colour that defined his sister's cheeks. He couldn't help but see Ceara reflected in this phoenix on the shore, in the power of her strides, and the tenacity of her run.

He knew this wasn't her, but Tuathal found himself testing the air with the hesitance of her name, "Ceara?"

There were a number of differences between the two women, though Ahe could not know this nor could she know of whom he spoke. 

Still, the firebrand's head popped up at the call, crimson crown lifting to take him with sunshine eyes. Her gaze was not unfriendly but unfamiliar as she drunk him in - all dark, earthy tones like he was crafted of forests and shadows and life unlike her hellfire coat. 

"I'm afraid not," the Islander said, not unkindly. "I'm Ahe. I haven't come across anyone called Ceara...but if you like I could let her know you were searching for her if I do see her," she offered, tail wagging slightly. She knew what it was like to lose your family.

She wasn't Ceara, and of course, he'd known that, even before she lifted her head to meet him. Her eyes were not so unlike his own, aglow with the golden strike of the sun, and not with the turbulent grey of his sister's storm. They exuded a presence wholly separate from Ceara, and given how he'd left her, he realized that maybe it was for his best that this was someone else...

"That's... no, it's okay," he forced a crooked smile on his face, and his throat slipped with the absent breath of a laugh, "I wasn't really looking - she's probably still somewhere down south..." just where he'd left her. Tuathal found himself redirecting to the girl at hand, turning a glance to where she'd been digging to get the conversation somewhere else. "What, uh - what've you got there?" It was the first question that came to mind, and was about as good as any other.

"I see," she answered the shy, stammering boy. He must have missed his sister a lot to approach a stranger, she thought to herself. 

"Oh," she said suddenly, glancing at the pile of seashells she'd been gathering. It suddenly seemed silly to be running about, collecting shells that had no use when she couldn't even take them with her. 

"I was just playing with the shells," she admitted, with a sheepish twist of her lips. "I thought they were pretty and I was gathering them up."

He craned his neck and raised his brows, as if the motion could afford him a better look - but Tuathal could see little more than sand. The shells were hidden from him, and after a moment of strain he keeled back to settle on his haunches and let his gaze drift to Ahe again.

"I haven't seen many shells before," he found her sheepish look slipping across his face, "actually, never much been to the ocean..." as if she really cared. He rambled on anyway, his eyes once again returning to survey the hole where the phoenix dug her quarry. Tuathal tipped his snout toward the dip in the sand, "... so, um... what's your prettiest one?"

Her brows raised, trying to imagine life if she hadn't grown up on Pili Island. It was unfathomable; the Sea had her devotion, her life in Her palm. It was all she knew. 

"Wow," she said said with genuine surprise. "I've never really been anywhere but the ocean...that's how I got here." Her eyes flicked downwards, troubled as she recalled the storm that had washed her ashore and stolen her adopted siblings. Pain stabbed her as she recalled losing Keanu and she turned away, as if to physically shy away from her pain. 

She rifled through the sand in search of her favorite shell, the pain fading and giving way to an empty feeling she was becoming all too familiar with. 

"This one," she murmured. It was the smallest she'd found but amongst the white and grey shells, it was a rarity. Smooth and blue as the waves, she set the shell before the earthy male's paws. She smiled slightly, waiting to see if he liked it. 

His brows raised in response to her sentiment. "Really!" he pressed out a surprised yet thoughtful,  "Huh. I've never heard - " and he almost asked her how she had travelled through the ocean, but found his curiosity drowned in the downcast shift of her eyes. He hesitated then - something in her memory seemed to upset her - and shifted against the heaviness that filled the air, quiet now.

When she eventually pressed a shell toward him, he wasn't entirely sure she was okay. He wasn't entirely sure if he was okay, either. He wanted to help her, but knew too little of what upset her to know how - so he did what he could, and lowered his head to take in the tiny shell at his paws.

It was small and humble in size - but he had never seen anything like it, and the hush of his voice rushed out through the sideways tilt of a grin. "Wow. It's beautiful, Ahe." And he glanced up to meet her, to share her smile. "It looks like it holds the ocean."

She smiled genuinely at his excitement, something warm shining in the gold of her optics.

"Mayhaps it does," she murmured. "My brother...he once told me if you can find shells big enough to press your ear against, you'll hear the roar of the tides," the story spilled from her maw with a few rapid swishes of her fiery plume, stumbling over Keanu's memory. 

"The Sea," she murmured reverently, "Her spirit is in this one." Her paw brushed over the small shell fondly.

"You should keep it," Ahe interjected suddenly, optics raising to his once more. "To remind you of the Sea wherever you go." 

She enraptured him with the stories she shared, with the very way she spoke. There was something different about Ahe, something he simply couldn't place. Her words left him with more questions than answers, and he wanted more.

His gaze drifted to the shell while she spoke, his imagination stolen by the fantastical notion of a shell much bigger than this, containing the tide itself. So lost in his thoughts, her sudden prompt took him by surprise, and he jolted upright, face flustered when he registered just what she had said. What? He flicked his wide eyes back to the shell at his paws, feeling too insignificant to accept something like this - but he was already scooping the gift toward him in a gentle cradle, his first and only treasure. T-thank you... his face warmed with a smile.

After a moment he returned his eyes to her again. So, um, those shells you can hear the ocean through - can we find them here? His gaze held an excited glow, even as the splay of his ears tried to downplay the eagerness he felt in his question. Can we maybe look for them?

Her fiery crown cocked with curiosity at his distracted behavior, the sight of the earthen boy tenderly handling the shell warmed her heart. 

"There might be one, they wash ashore sometimes," Ahe answered eagerly, her russet plume wagging with excitement. "Let's look," she suggested, nimble pale paws beginning to lead her towards the dunes.