Stavanger Bay when it’s just you and me and the english channel

Quick posts to get all of my threadlogs up to date. ♥ I am sorry for the lack of quality and length.

Chusi’s agreeable nature was a refreshing change from the huddled flaccidness of Sharkbait, but Szymon could not compare either cub to his own pack daughter. There was something special about Qilaq that tugged at him specifically — a different sort of ownership perhaps engendered by the haphazard way he’d come to call her his own. Still, he couldn’t deny that being exposed to so many puppies lately had changed something in his psychological and emotional makeup. “Z-Z-Zephyr was wrong to s-s-stop you,” he said quietly to the ochre-eyed girl, finding in her words a renewed sense of prophecy and urgency. “The Sea will t-t-take you, but She will g-give you b-b-back.” He felt Chusi’s safe return was a certainty, just as Qilaq’s was. Thinking of his grey-eyed daughter pulled some of the tension and urgency from him — and Doe was prompt, her reception of the trio a whirlwind of emotion that caused Szymon’s heart to flip-flop oddly.

Her first greeting was for the Vessel of the Sea; and that, Szymon felt, was fitting. Confusion flitted across his visage as she named the girl — “my Shadow!” she cried, barreling toward the waiflike creature in a maelstrom of whining ecstasy. Perhaps she was not a legendary creature of the Sea, but that did not lessen his feeling that he’d met her — and Chusi — for a reason. “Oh, Doe,” he groan-sighed, his guttural bass timbre filled with fondness and something else entirely as her scent filled his nostrils and her tongue darted across his cheek — and then across something else entirely that caused his body — and something else entirely — to stiffen as though he’d been jabbed with a hot poker. Abruptly he sat down, so hard the whump of his haunches was audible. He had expected her to be happy at the child he’d brought home — Grayday of Silvertip Mountain had said she might be impressed with cubs, and she’d been so happy to take Qilaq home — and when her reception of Chusi was wary and mildly distrustful he cocked his head to the side in Coelacanth-like bewilderment.

“The Sea led me to her,” he said simply, telling her of the sea lion sacrifice he’d made — unaware of the look of horror on the sheepdog cross’ face — and his journey to find Chusi. His stutter all but disappeared in Doe’s presence, but was slightly more pronounced than when they were completely alone: “The lady in g-g-gray is my mate,” he said, emphasis borne of his pride and affection placed on that final, fateful word. “She is w-wary,” he explained. “‘Wary’ means you are c-careful about your words and actions. And she is s-s-surprised. You look like our d-daughter.” He looked up at Doe to see whether she could weigh in further on the situation.