Shimmering Sands chugux ✴

@Koro Toro, whenever you have time <3

with a strangled sob, kukutux threw herself to the white sand and wept openly, cold winds threatening to sting the sight of the ocean from her eyes. "alagux iganakux," the girl whispered, her words carried to the current. it was the last thing her grandfather had choked, before he too followed their people to the dancing lights.

"latux!" she cried to the hovering gulls, to the lap of cold water upon the unfamilar beach. "ana, adax, unhgix." careful not to say their names, careful not to provoke their spirits, to disturb them, kukutux' broken sobbing echoed across the sand all the same.

"ugix."

it seemed the agony in her soul would never end.

koro toro, despite his ancestry, was not a wolf accustomed to the beach. he knew that the beach was noisy and cold, and full of angry gulls - and that was about the extent of his interest in the shore. but today, he was here at the beach strictly on business: finding the wailing woman that thus far, had managed to leave the shadewood undetected.

koro toro was not actually a wolf that enjoyed playing chaperone, usually it was the other way around -- but he had sensed a mounting despair in the woman and, nosy more than empathetic, had followed her troubled tracks until he came upon her hurtling some unknowable words at the sky.

he paused, his hind end listing in its usual fashion. just what had the skies done to her? glancing above, he saw no culprits: no angry stormcloud, no shrieking gull -- so what was it that drew out such a reaction in the woman? "you gonna be okay there?" he asked in his usual abrupt charm, eyeballing her doubtfully the way a fox might carefully eyeball a porcupine moving into their den.

if only the sea could swallow her, send some spirit from its depths to end her own. kukutux rose on shaking limbs, approaching first with one steps, and then another. the embrace of the cold water lay savior just beyond her reach, but soon she would be there, and soon the unending lacerations upon her soul would be felt no longer.

a man's voice unfurled behind her, halting the tearstained girl in her self-destructive tracks. kukutux drew a shuddering breath before turning halfway to glance at him: a spindly creature the colour of the forest floor. and while he asked after her well-being, the duck doubted he cared.

yet she lifted her chin all the same, blinked the bitter salt from her eyes with some rigid pride. "i will be all right."

a lie, if anything.

i will be alright.

there are lots of lies, if told convincingly, someone might believe. that they didn't eat the last cookie, or that they didn't sneak out last night while one was asleep - these white lies could be bought and sold with casual affair, provided the speaker delivered their untruths convincingly. but watching this woman, who still bore the path of tears on her delicate face -- koro toro knew her to be a liar.

but perhaps lying to yourself after a great loss was the only way to continue on - fake it 'til you make it. koro toro did not announce his dubious thoughts, electing instead to casually scan the sea and thus avoid the hard bite of her gaze. "hey, i say the same thing." he said with a blithe, almost too-chipper voice as he referenced the malady that would eventually end him, the faintest hint of a sardonic smile lingering on his sharply cut muzzle.

unappreciative of how this slight man seemed to mock her, kukutux wished to shout angry words back into his face, insult his bones, his skill as a hunter. but as soon as her rage had come, it was quelled. something about the set of the man's jaw, the flash of his pointed gaze, that revealed to the duck something beyond mockery.

bitterness.

the girl straightened. "i am kukutux." he was one of cry's also, was he not? but she did not know his name. perhaps in the understanding of it, she might be more inclined to understand why he spoke in such a way.

if kukutux had yelled, koro toro would probably have been reduced to a sniveling, urine soaked mess. he was spared such shameful designations, though he didnt miss the angry flash of her gaze.

whoa - was that look lancing. he almost reeled from the punch it delivered.

his ears swept back as the hot air from her glare passed by him, his expression looking like someone had twisted his arm back and he was trying (and failing) to still seem pleased as punch to be here. she gave a name, which was a bonus -- he had almost expected a tongue-lashing to follow. "oh -" he didn't have time for anything witty: "i'm koro toro."

"koro toro," the duck murmured, turning the unfamiliar syllables over in her mind. it was strange, but no stranger than her own. in that way, they were similar. the wolves of the shadewood had simple, pretty names, ones that did not twist her tongue. rather unwilling to reveal any more about herself, kukutux approached koro toro with a careful stride.

"have you hunted on the beach before?" she asked of him, watching the odd movements of his body. what spirit had cursed him so? perhaps his mother had not observed certain taboos when she was pregnant with him, and had cursed his limbs. whatever the reason, kukutux did not judge koro toro, accepting his differences as she awaited his answer.

if he had known she was thinking there were SPIRITS possessing him, he would have fired off a very snarky reply about sticking those spirits, right up your ass -- no motherfrickin demons possessed koro toro. he was his own gorram-indepedent-ass demon.

he huffed at the mention of the beach. everything on the beach was fast, swimming, or flying. he wasn't good at any of those things.

"ive been on the beach.." he grumbled, flicking a gaze to the crowd of seagulls not so far in the distance. "but nah, not hunted. why -- you gonna get us dinner?" a cheeky but hopeful grin spread across his features as he looked at the svelte woman - surely she was in the mood for providing old KT with a good meal, right?

kukutux frowned briefly. they lived so near the sea in the keep; how could cry's wolves not know to fend along the sand? today would not bring the sweet fat of the seal she so loved, for more bodies were necessary in such a hunt, but perhaps she could show koro toro something else.

not answering, the girl looked to the man a moment before setting a lope across the sand, toward the water. the cold scent of brine rose in her nostrils, steadying her somewhat. kukutux filled her lungs with the air that was at once both familiar and unfamiliar, before beginning to dig in the wet sand of the shallows.

<3 feel free to PP him for conclusion

koro toro didn't get much of an answer; no matter, he was a man used to stunning crowds into silence. he watched as the woman loped -- with such enviable grace too -- down the strand. what he wouldn't give to move so freely.

walking stilted and crab-legged after her, koro toro nosed in the ditches she had created, but remained silent. after a while he was tired and, grappling a quahog between his teeth, reclined in a sunny pool of light to worry the meat from its shell.

*snugs*

her own digging unearthed several clams, and when she raised her head again, koro toro rested prone in the sunlight, one in his grasp. ducking her head to hide a smile, kukutux carried two of her own findings up toward him, settling some feet away to do the same. the two wolves ate of the sea, and for a moment, the girl could almost forget that she was not upon the shores of the siqiniq aisle.