Totoka River krebs cycle

I am so sorry for taking so long, Kae!

A soft sigh slipped from Coelacanth’s lips as the stranger’s dainty form drew up alongside her. Pleased by her nearness, the inky ingénue tilted her finely-sculpted head in a catlike gesture of affection, seeking to rub the bulb of one tufted ear against the coywolf’s graceful, smoke-gray shoulder as she passed. Perhaps Coelacanth ought to have exercised greater caution in her interactions with strangers — it was a lesson she certainly should have learned following her altercation with Marbas — but she was so hungry for affection and companionship, she couldn’t still the impulse. She had, quite literally, never been this alone in her life. Even the dreary days in the animal hospital had been peppered through with friends, though the fear and terror she experienced there had swept away any good memories she might have made.

The coywolf’s first question was a realization more than anything else, but Coelacanth was swift to confirm her suspicion with a firm shake of her head, her seablue eyes serene. A slow whisk of her ink-feathered tail sought to reassure Starbuck that she found the query inoffensive, and it picked up pace, tickling like a metronome when the girl — Starbuck, Seelie traced the syllables with a tongue that would never speak them — staunchly stated that she did not mind. Coelacanth could offer no reply to Starbuck’s second question save a flurry of motion that had made little sense to Marbas: a prolonged tilt of head; a shift of shoulders that had been whittled down to sharp, angular peaks; a patently nonchalant glance toward the other’s paws. Eventually a name for the atramentous girl would spring to Starbuck’s tongue, and Seelie would learn to answer to it. Until then, she would remain content.

The tuft-eared Groenendael cross listened with bright-eyed interest as Starbuck spoke of her own parentage, and nodded vigorously with a laughing “bark” that was a mere rush of sound and a clip of jaws. Her father, too, was a wolf. Their lives, it seemed, drew an interesting parallel — and tiny Seelie was delighted by it. Questions such as, “Where do you live? What would you like to do? What was your family like?” were impossible for the girl, who was at the mercy of each new acquaintance when it came to how much — or how little — she learned. Today she stepped forward, her hunger urging her to take the reins in this particular social situation, and offered a toneless whine of invitation, attempting to hold Starbuck’s gaze while pointing her muzzle in the direction she wished to explore. There were some blueberry bushes nearby, and Seelie had a sweet tooth.