Wheeling Gull Isle can't touch it with your two hands, can't find it with your third eye

tagging for reference!

When Axolotl is not spending time with @Maera he is tending to duties that he feels befalls that of a leader. He does this without complaint and of his own free will but it is not to be mistaken that he does it for another — he does it for Undersea and he does it for himself just as much. For how much, or perhaps how little it is worth he believes he has as much claim to the yet undetermined title of Alpha as Komodo. Before, Axolotl had never thought that an Atlantian could even hold a title beyond that which They bestowed upon Their faithful servants. Atlantian was a title, it was a profession, it was a religion, a way of life. It was all of these things and yet Atlan does not grow angry or perturbed at his newfound desires — desires that he has confessed to Maera to explain his absence at the meeting. He has placed his mark upon the soil, the first to map out and mark the borders and thus he has placed his own claim upon Wheeling Gull Isle and it is not a claim that he will relent.

Thus the question hangs heavy in the air: what is to become of him and Earthstalker? Are they to duel to their deaths? That hardly seems appropriate of men as religious as they. Though, admittedly, his title as Shaman is succeeded by Warrior and for good reason. He thinks of Coelacanth and wonders how she would feel to see their blood spilled upon the sands. There exists, despite her changes, still a platonic love between them: granddaughter of Riptide Corten and the small boy that Riptide Corten (and Tarnish) has saved. “So you’ve come to aid me in claiming,” Axolotl offers Komodo in greeting as the man comes into his view, kicking up sand. “Sand shifts you know and when the tide rises high it will wash away all your work if the sands don’t shift and cover it before that,” He gestures with his muzzle. “It is better to mark upon solid soil, where earth and sand meld into one another.”

He lifts his own leg to leave his own mark though he chooses solid soil. His glacial gaze finds Komodo and decides that the best course of action is to be upfront about it. Atlan did not teach him to hide and hiding is not something The Leviathan has any intentions of doing. “You are not the only one who stands candidate for leadership, you know,” Axolotl speaks assuming it is better to get everything out in the open and lay it all upon the table. “I have worked just as hard, just as tirelessly as you to ensure that borders are made and marked, that these wolves have food. That they are safe. I have even recruited,” though Maera was, admittedly, a happy accident.

“And it is painfully obvious to me that we need a leader,” Or else this tension would never vanish. If it is not he and Komodo in competition it will be others. “or leaders.” Violence will not solve this issue but instead create more. The way that Axolotl sees it: they could lead together. Combine their forces as the reigning Alphas and unify. He offers an olive branch, with desire to see the tension between them fade. What Komodo does with it is wholly up to him, now.