Sea Lion Shores your heart will fly on wings forever in never never land

Atoll’s Shadow watched with a weak flicker of her usual enthusiasm as the bright-eyed siren of Tara approached with an anxious cry. She had been beautiful by moonlight, ethereal in her cryptic murmurings and her elusive, flighty mannerisms — but by daylight, she glowed with a halo of vitality and purpose that was vividly, refreshingly real. Having grown up with storytellers and bards, Seelie walked a fine line between fantasy and reality — and there were days she wondered whether the encounter with the odd-eared wolf had truly happened or whether it was merely a figment of her active imagination. The inky ingénue craved the blessed solidity of the other female’s nearness to banish the sick, sick feelings of pain and loneliness — but her last sight of Marbas haunted her still, and she turned toward the river with a whine of indecision that died unsung in her throat.

She could not possibly deserve comfort, she thought, when he was sick and in pain.

Riverbone’s daughter pressed her nose to the ugly, seeping wound and Coelacanth gasped, tears springing to her eyes as her bruised and punctured flesh jumped and quivered involuntarily in response. Her lips twitched into a snarl she could not avoid, but her tufted ears flatted eloquently against her head as her feathered tail whisked a simultaneous apology. “Shade” sounded divine; even if the siren of Tara had no experience with healing, her Shadow ardently wished to escape the beating heat of the summer sun. She longed to trail her lips and fangs through the female’s fur as she had the night they’d met, but the metallic tang of blood was still sticky and bristling on her whiskers. Venturing toward the other girl, Seelie sought to brush the tip of her muzzle against the base of the Atoll’s upright ear with a soft sigh of gratitude, the clumsy shuffle of her paws proclaiming her willingness to follow.