Stavanger Bay everyone, step aside; this is the last warning

Although she had always admired the giant, mythical lizards that grandpa Isawea had told tales of, Doe was proud that she'd been found worthy by the sea, and prouder still that she would be receiving a spirit guide alongside the rest of her packmates. The sea had been very vague in his descriptions of the ceremony, but Doe understood that she had some part to play in the giving of these totems. It made little sense to her - in her own pack, a wolf's mother was the one that gave animal guides, and they often ran through blood and bone. (Herd animals had been the chief protectors of her family, and both she and her brother had been named for them, just as her mother Hind had been.) Still, it made a sort of sense. Her packmates would not be receiving deer to guide them, but she supposed that she was the pack-mother in Blackrock, in the absence of an alpha female.

A soft hm came from her chest as she set aside such thoughts to listen carefully to Szymon's explanation of his turtle. It took a moment for the words to mesh with their meaning, and another for her to superimpose this new information on her mental picture of her love, but after that, it felt right.

"You are strong," she agreed, pushing herself closer to her bodyheat, despite the weather that already bore down on them outside. "I know - I can see it. And I can hear it in your voice, when you talk to me. Your words are my greatest treasure. I horde them all."

When she thought about it, there was a start contrast between the Szymon she'd first met and the one she laid with today. He'd hardly been able to say her name, back then, and now? Full sentences, complete thoughts - voice a dee and steady thrum that went through her like water in the tidepools. Even now, his current wore down the stones in her spirit, made soft the sharp edges that'd risen up in her heart. Every wave that crashed upon carved a new path for his healing waters to flow - Doe did not know if she had ever felt so complete.