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

Had she known the inky girl's thoughts, Atoll would have gladly given any and every name she had. Her trust in her Shadow was absolute, and she would not have minded revealing the madness that sometimes plagued her. If she'd asked, Atoll would have recounted their first meeting from her point of view, and explained that Shadow had not been a name, but a title.

But her Shadow could not ask, and so Atoll did not tell. She sang and hummed and groomed while her mind wandered from place to place. Shadow's attacker, Szymon's sweet eyes, the trouble with Donnelaith, what her future might hold... Errant worries mixed liberally with pleasant fantasies. Atoll, too, felt the sweet calm that enveloped their place in the shade. It was good, she decided, to relax under the trees with her dear friend.

"Maybe, when I've been Atoll for long enough, you could come and live with me," she murmured, raking her teeth through the satiny fur along the cat-wolf's spine. She would make sure that no one ever hurt her Shadow again, and she would never have to wonder where the girl had been, of ir she was okay, or whether she'd been eating enough. Because she'd be there, and they would be a family. "But not now. For now, I'll stay with you, and when I do have to go, I won't be far away. It's just straight down the coast from here - you can't miss it, if you follow the water. You can always know where to find me, now."