Redhawk Caldera Mistral Firefly

Her pause brought an opposite effect from Birk, one that surfaced the bark of a laugh. "If that was it, you could throw me into the sea," she teased, and amusement danced through her eyes. She shifted on her paws, and settled to continue. "No, rest assured, life went on for a very long time. But peace never lasts, and soon, a new beast came to the edge of the world, a beast called Ma'an, who rode the quiet waters and pillaged the sea.

"The surface cracked beneath their husks, and burst from the rigour of their claws. They struck the waters with such violence that even with dawn faded to day, the ocean ran red. Yet when they retired at the blink of light, the sea settled to the same stillness, and the fish grew fewer by the day. Smothered by water and bound to the deep, their cries fell silent, for in fear of Ma'an, bird and beast no longer graced the sea - all but one.

"When all the others fled, one drew near: Maiyun, the lowest of Wolf Kind. And, every day, he would slip into the inlet where the river fed the sea and listen to the cries from the ocean. And every night, he would follow the river back home, with their voices to carry alone. For as the lowest, none gave him ear to speak, and any words he uttered, they ignored, for he spoke of justice and vengeance - yet the fear of Ma'an drove them to cowardice.

"And so the burden grew every day Maiyun spent in the sea. And every day, his heavy shoulders sunk him lower to the depths, until water covered him. But he kept his snout angled to the sky, his mouth and nostrils free from the waters, and air still filled him, until a day came a so bloody to his ears that he couldn't carry his burden any longer. He struck the waters, but the weight slipped his face into the sea.

"The ocean swam into his mouth, and breath choked from his lungs. Where air once flowed, the waters filled him. But instead of taking life, they raged through him like the spring floods, and he surged from the inlet and tore the surface of the deep, to where the shadow of the husks and the blood of the fish ran thickest.

"Maiyun thrashed the husks and broke the claws of Ma'an. He swallowed the ones he could to the ocean's depths, and fought the ones above with the massive waves forged by his fury. The ocean frothed with, and when he finished, the husks lay in scattered across the surface of the sea, and those who escaped were retreating shadows as they tore back to their packs in the cliffs of the sea.

"Exhausted, Maiyun collapsed, and the fish swam about him, and whispered his name on their tongue. They carried him ashore - but the land would not receive him, for the Wolf in him had become the waters. From the seafoam, he watched as his pack emerged from the trees, eyes agape, with the rest of the forest creatures, but their mouths did not wonder after him. Instead, the voice of the waters filled him, and so he turned. The sea did not fall silent that night, nor any night that follow. And he remains in the waves, the vicious and the gentle, to warn Ma'an of his fury, lest they seek to destroy the ocean again."

Andalusia breathed, and a grin filled her face. Satisfied enough with the telling, she let herself slide to her stomach, and crossed her forepaws in the process. "And that's how wolf became the sea." She said - a slight tease, to let Birk know this was actually the end, and her eyes watched again for his reaction.