Oystercatcher Tide Pools place your bets

 

I may or may not be nursing a bottle wine, i’m sorry lol

Serein’s bark of admonition was almost enough to make Komodo jump. His entire form tensed, and then almost immediately broke its stiffness with a rumble of laughter and a shake of his head. Then, with a swat of the paw, the threatening urchin was removed from the vicinity and the man glanced towards the sandy fae, face writ with uncharacteristic bravado. “Ha!” he called out, puffing out the creamy chestnut hues of his chest. “Yah think ah’ couldn’t fix ol’ urchin-paw sin’drome? ” At this, Komodo narrowed his molten gaze and looked upon the mistral girl with a faux-critical demeanor. When did she become the nurse in their quartet? 

“Ah’ll tell yuh — peein’ on it shore aint th’answer. ” 

There was a glimmer in Komodo’s eye that hinted at his jest and general good-naturedness. He felt at ease with the Cortens; specifically these three, seeing as this was their… third [fourth?] expedition together. The brute found that their company nurtured him and he humored their playful natures, though singing along with their endless nursery rhymes was never on the barter table. It mostly manifested in harmless flirting and playing with the woman, really — they were receptive to it, and Bron didn’t mind, so no harm, no foul. “Uh’course, y’know…” he drawled, rolling his salmon-pink tongue against the roof of his mouth and throwing Serein a twist of a smile. “ Now tha’ ah’ think uh’it, there migh' be nothin' that ah can’t heal.” Komodo released a bark of laughter and trotted towards where Sirimiri and Brontide feasted, before he could be subjected to Serein’s backlash for such gasconade.

Komodo did not need to hear Bron and Siri’s conversation to know what they were talking about. Mating season was in full force, now that the winter was just beginning to break, and the change in the air weighed heavily upon his subconscious. The man had always been driven by his instincts, and such a philosophy did not allow for much self-restraint. He had his fair share of bitches in heat, and probably had children out there too, some where, but the earthstalker chose not to think about it too much. Rabbitholes such as that could drive a man loony.  Coming up upon the two siblings, who had since finished their feathered meal, he let his roughhewn tone weave into the conversation and interject. “Might nah’ be such uh bad thang —“ he began, drawing up beside them and making light of the concept of the entire lineage of Cortens dying off. “seein' as y’all are nothin’ but noise.” which was funny because those little sheepdogs were both mutes, and couldn’t make a single peep at all.