Ankyra Sound another soldier with little patience to see the dawn

She did not catch the stick. Luke watched as it fell to the earth without so much as a flinch on the part of the dark female. The wave of his tail stopped as his gaze studied her, convinced now that he had misread her body language somehow and that she was not at all interested in his offer of a game. But to his surprise, she hastily plucked the stick from the ground and in the same instant bolted away from him.

"Hey!" he barked as he launched into pursuit, but it was not a bark of indignation - he was grinning and his tail was beating back and forth as his feet kicked the sand into the air. Luke was a swift and agile sort, and she would find that he had no trouble gaining ground on her and was in fact happy to give chase. It took a few moments for him to catch up, as she did have a head start on him, but he was able to take the diagonal to further close the gap to within a few feet when she turned to run along the edge of the sea.

"You're supposed to throw it back, you know," he called to her between breaths, his silver eyes fixed on her. For now he maintained his pace and did not attempt to overtake her, remaining where he was slightly behind and off her flank, but he was itching to get his teeth back around that stick.