Wheeling Gull Isle resist

The faithful shepherd combed the buttersoft stretch of beach to the southwest with particular interest, having found several overripe coconuts for the taking over the past two weeks. She surmised that they must have washed up from the coconut grove on the Teekon Wilds’ western shore, and hoped they might make good gifts for Undersea’s new[ish] neighbors. The packs now inhabiting Ravensblood Forest and Stavanger Bay were new to the tiny Groenendael, and it was sometimes difficult for her to recalibrate her outdated mental map with the new names in place.

Coelacanth found herself particularly grateful for @Faeryn and @Stockholm, whose communication skills would prove instrumental in the months to come. She hoped to maintain a peaceful relationship with Doe and Szymon’s kin, and perhaps to see the tiger shark and the barracuda all grown up someday. She had let go of her petulant frustration with the Cairn children and hoped that wherever they were, they were as hale and hearty as the scrappy little witch doctor and her black-banded mate would have liked them to be. She wondered where Akantha had gone, the fierce, Amazonian siren who had spirited Julep away, and made a mental note to journey to the northeastern coast and scope out the sirens’ former haunts. There was so much she didn’t know!

A brief, questioning howl cut into the busy whir of the Groenendael’s thoughts. Oversized ears pricked sharply and she quickened her pace from an amble to a businesslike trot. Instinctively she howled back, but nobody would have been able to hear it — it was just a long, soft sigh.

At first, she did not recognize the girl who lingered uneasily in the sand. Finely tapered muzzle lifted as she tasted the air, but she did not muscle forward or tout her ownership of the place. It was simply not her way. Neptune eyes were alert and curious, and her hackles prickled with wariness, but she was not a dominant creature and did not harbor a Napoleon complex despite her diminutive stature. She “boofed” softly, her feathered tail fluttering in a display of shy friendliness.