Wheeling Gull Isle the lonely sea and the sky

Takes place on May 30, 2017.

Coelacanth awoke in a fever.

Catlike paws flipped and paddled — the storm was inside her now, its whipping winds and rolling thunder gripping her lungs, heart, and belly and wreaking havoc. She jolted to all fours, bright cerulean eyes still heavy-lidded and gritty with sleep, and trembled where she stood as she attempted to get her bearings. The night had passed in a dizzying blur that she still couldn’t find her way out of. The feralized creature she had become held little trust for any of the wolves present, but avoided with particular care the two young females for reasons she couldn’t fully understand. It felt as though her mind was keeping secrets from itself, and the feeling only grew worse when she looked upon the collection of vagabonds around her.

The island had an owner — Marbas! — and something inside her insisted that this information was significant, but she couldn’t hold onto it. It was too heavy.

Why was Axolotl here? His name was heavy, too — heavier than the face of the green-eyed girl but not quite as heavy as Komodo’s voice murmuring, “Hey, big ears.”

What a funny thing to say! If she’d been able to, the little Groenendael would have laughed about it. It was funnier still that he’d said it as if it was something terribly important.

Was it important?

Something didn’t feel right about the green-eyed girl existing on the same island as the other two — there were too many timelines colliding together and tangling themselves up. Axolotl felt far away, and the green-eyed girl felt near — Komodo, on the other hand, wove in and out of time as easily as a thought. Limping and wobbling, the little stray abandoned the crevasse she’d crammed herself into and walked out the stiffness of her spindly limbs until she had achieved a modicum of her natural grace. It was pure coincidence that the first face she saw was the one presently on her mind, and she wondered whether she was awake or dreaming as she huffed her surprise through her nostrils: “boof!” Tufted ears swept forward upon her skull even as she took a step back, blinking raindrops from her lashes.