Blackbeak Bluff My mercury's in retrograde

She took a couple more dainty bites before stepping back, sitting on her haunches and watching the male as he ate. When he was finished, he rose himself and gave her his name. Ay-twal. It seemed almost anticlimactic, then, to give her name after the beauty of his.

"I don't really have a name," she said cryptically, giving him a mournful look. "But you can call me Snowe."

They sat in silence, the only sound the rushing of the sea and the calling of gulls on the shore. It was a beautifully empty gray and breezy day, and the big male's presence was a comfort against the loneliness that had been creeping up on her for most of her young life.