Oystercatcher Tide Pools do not look for my heart anymore, the beasts have eaten it

It is high tide and the waves cover the pools beneath. Ksenia can see the depths of them when the crashing falls just right and the sun filters through the white caps. The depth of the sand is unknown to her and she doesn’t try to wade him and find something to satisfy the hunger brewing in her stomach. It had been days, maybe longer, since she’d had anything to feed the growling in her belly. It reminds her frequently she hasn’t fed and nothing she does can satiate the feeling. Attempts to fill herself with water only placate it long enough to get by in her search and, if she’s desperate enough, she’ll chew on a few sticks to bide the time.

Ksenia runs her tongue across her muzzle, the familiarity of salt clinging to her fur. She hasn’t spent much time away from the coast if she can help it. Saltwater courses her veins instead of blood and if Skellige is truly one of their own, he wouldn’t have traveled too far from the ocean. She never had much of a trail to go on, trusting what little information Ishild had given her and the ocean to lead the way. It had been sometime since she realized she’d been flying blind for the last several weeks, perhaps a month or more, but she knew her journey would not be in vain.

She knows she’ll return home, one day, stained in blood.