Ocean's Breath Plateau Salt

It was only when he asked that Doctor remembered Shink. Her blood turned icy for a moment as thoughts of losing him passed through her mind, but even that didn't seem so terrible in light of finding Riverbone (Skellige, she reminded herself, rather more firm than she usually would be on such things). Still, she bounded off toward her den, dashing in a quick circle and yapping her happy abandon before leaving her alpha's sight. It was much quicker to get back to the den than it had been going there, as she wasn't tracking any scent or sneaking into warrens along the way.

Doctor reached her haunt in record time - not even a minute - and wriggled through the narrow opening. Shink was right where she'd left him - "What a good puppy!" - in the center of the den, and Doctor scooped him up without another thought.

It was on the way back - trotting more slowly to account for Shink's unwieldiness - that she realized she did not know much about blessing things and much less about the sea. She'd never even seen the ocean before today, though she'd heard stories about it since leaving her red-painted home. How would she live up to Skellige's expectations? Would he throw her away if she could not bless their home?

I'll just talk to him, and ask him really nicely, she thought, thinking about his friendly whisper, his pretty blue currents. He was so comforting when he spoke to me before - he surely doesn't want to see anything happen to me, now.

Thus convinced that it wouldn't be a problem, Doctor popped out of the brush once more where she'd left her alpha, and fell into obedient step just behind him. We're going home, she thought to herself, her whole body wiggling with the force of her joy. He's taking me to our home. But there would be time for celebration later on. For now, she schooled her posture into attention to show her readiness to depart. The sooner they got there, the better.