Wheeling Gull Isle keep a weather eye on the horizon

Maera implores that he must do something, presumably about Komodo but Axolotl knows he is not Atlan and does not possess half of the power of the great sea. Preferably, the Atlantian does not wish to spill blood; he is a warrior but to protect not to instigate. “I can offer an olive branch, a solution that we lead together and share the throne,” Axolotl does not realize that it is not just Komodo and he in this game of thrones but that there are others as well. Perhaps his inattention and decision to go to the meeting simply affirms that he is not leadership material: for should a leader not know all of his competition? All of the discontent and concerns of loyal subjects? He thinks there is time for that but as this is all new to him, this desire and the entire concept after being so removed from constraints of hierarchy as “Atlantans” have always stood alone, powerful but outside of the formal rankings, but he feels the sense of duty, as he has since the very beginning when he led the washed up wolves to the safety of shelter he found before the storm had hit. Regardless, he (perhaps they [as in him and her]) would figure it out.

Everything came all at once: like the rush of high tide. Yet, unlike high tide his feelings (as strange and beautiful and sudden as they are!) have not receded. Instead, they reach higher and higher, greedy and grasping for the heart that beats within his chest with intent to drown it. And oh! How he wants to drown in her, to let his (perhaps confusion but wonderful) feelings blossom into what they crave to be. In what they were meant to be. Atlan had brought them together, surely, and thus it is surely fate. They say that the sea always loved the moon but Axolotl has begun to disagree: he believes that the sea was always destined to love the sun. The leviathan let out a tremble of ragged breath when Maera touches his cheek again and he revels in the cool touch of her nose where it presses against ticked fur that mark him as what he is: leviathan. Axolotl. Beast monster of the sea. “What should we do with it ...these feelings?” He inquires of her in softened voice, seeking her opinion. He knows what he wants to do with it but does not strive to push too far, too fast.