Blackbeak Bluff All I desire... is silence and indifference...

For @Maegi! This turned into an essay, sorry! He has a lot to ponder and discover here.

His last few encounters in these wilds had been less than pleasant. Gundham realized he'd be better off just avoiding mortals, as none of them seemed capable of understanding him at all. Such encounters served no purpose but to exhaust and stress him. Clearly, he was better off on his own. Even worse, that mysterious prophet's words still rang in his skull, and how the man saw right through his persona rattled him to the core. He must have misinterpreted the prophecy, as there was no going back for the broken soul of Gundham Tanaka. He became this way because he had to; it was best that he shoved others away. He was... happy like this.

Alone.

Gundham came to a stop and sighed, staring at his feet. That was a lie and he knew it. He wasn't happy, but he couldn't change what he was: an outcast. Outcasts were destined to lead lonely lives, he supposed. The lone wolf picked up both his head and his feet, as brooding wouldn't get him anywhere. The salty scent of the sea was becoming stronger and stronger as he traveled. Never having been to the coast before, the ecologist was intrigued to see what creatures it had to offer. Engulfing himself in ecology was the only thing that kept him sane; it distracted him from these intrusive, pointless thoughts, and a distraction was what he really needed right now.

Soon, he could hear the crashing of waves against the coastline. Looking in its direction, Gundham drank in the sight of the ocean for the very first time. He stopped to fully take it in, and the sea breeze tousled his fur. The reach of this water was so incredibly vast, and he wondered where it ended. After a few moments absorbed in wonder, Gundham was on the move again, though he kept his gaze seaward.

Vibrant verdant grass gave way to grey, lifeless rock, and the land abruptly dropped off. Cautiously, he approached the edge and peered over it. A species of swallow he'd never seen before took residence on the cliffside. It must've been their breeding season, as the passerines occupied strange, tube-like nests with small openings, which their offspring poked their heads out of to be fed. He decided he'd call them cliff swallows; the name was self-explanatory.

Looking past them on the beaches below, he spotted creatures unlike any other he'd ever seen in his life. They were strangely rotund and gray in color, stubby forelimbs clearly unsuitable for movement on land. The creatures were mostly lazing about in great numbers on the sand. The ones that were moving around did so in a clumsy manner, dragging their bulbous bodies across the ground with their oddly flat legs. Gundham determined that they had to be primarily aquatic―even more so than beavers or otters. He'd love to see how they moved in their element.

The sky was starting to shift from cool to warm shades, signalling that the sun would set soon. The view was especially pleasant here, with nothing to obstruct the view of the sky and its reflection in the water. Gundham laid down with his belly on the cool stone, crossing his forelegs. He desired to experience what a sunset was like by the sea. Knowing now how serene the coast was, though, he suspected it was nothing short of magical.