Gilded Bay you pinned me with your black sphere eyes

his family. the word was familiar, appealing, to dalia, who felt a stab of guilt for leaving her own. portia, she bet, was devastated... and she hoped dacio would be fine, she knew how he clung to her and her mother. dio, she imagined, was putting up a tough face. opalia and sequoia probably too. her gaze fell as his drifted to the ocean, but raised again when his own returned.

"you're forming a pack then," she said, implying that it was this yearling who would head it-- but who was to say it wasn't? and then, dalia did something bold, that she almost didn't expect herself to say. the coast, after all, was familiar. "is it family only?" she asked him, nose dipping gently, "i have vast knowledge of the ocean and it's wildlife-- and of healing."