Wheeling Gull Isle You Dream About Going Up There, But That is a Big Mistake

Driftwood watched in dismay as the stromclouds drifted across Maegi's face just before she turned it away. Butterflies awoke in his own stomach, and he shifted his feet uncomfortably as he opened his mouth and then uncertainly shut it again: would saying something, offering his lame apologies after the fact, holding out words of sympathy, in the end make things better, or worse? Driftwood didn't know, and in the end said nothing at all. In any case the moment slipped away as Maegi spoke again, though now she stared out at the ocean and seemed uninterested in regarding his face any longer. Driftwood wondered in an additional flash of swift discomfort if perhaps he bore some unfortunate resemblance to the brother in question. But Maegi seemed distinctly unwilling to pursue the subject and so Drift simply let it drop. He perked his ears anew and focused intently on her words, as if the intensity of that alone might be able to make up for his blunder.

Oh. Oh, yes, of course. Driftwood shivered his furry scruff in sympathy. Crawly, bitey things are no good. And did you know there are crabs around, too, that pinch?! That little factoid had come as an unhappy surprise to Driftwood, at least. He couldn't remember ever having seen the bizarre crustaceans before Undersea. It's good to stay alert for them, indeed! Driftwood cast a quick eye over the stretch of beach near them, and then across the meadows stirring in the breeze behind them, just in case maybe the crabs and the horses had formed some sort of unholy alliance, perhaps. Don't mess with the crabs. ...But you look unbitten, at least...? That was good, right? Or was the girl perhaps hiding some sort of less-obvious injury... besides the tender spot on her wounded heart that he had so carelessly stumbled onto a moment ago, that is. He shied his mind wide of that: not even touching that subject again with a ten-foot pole, nope!