Wheeling Gull Isle just like you, like me, like everybody else

Awwrrr, thank you. Blossom is a sweetheart! I loved your post, Bryn!

The stranger’s voice is soft and low, blushing hues of seashell pink and citrine, and Koi warms to him immediately. “Hee,” she echoes him shyly. Her long, plumed tail begins to whip furiously against her hips, stirring up a miniature sandstorm. The firelaced tauhou may not have brought food or toys, but play, song, and stories are also acceptable currencies. Her muzzle rounds to cradle a beseeching, “Will you play with me?” —

— but a familiar — and much beloved! — voice at her back has her curling up tight, peeking expectantly over her shoulder with a giddy (and slightly guilty) expression. “Look what I found!” her expression blithely bespeaks, even as she shakes her head no at her protector’s query. Her legs are working perfectly, which she hastens to prove to him: “Driffwood,” she chirps in a lilting singsong, shimmying under his forelimb and flopping onto her side. She’s a soft tangle of spindly limbs, catlike paws, and adoring eyes, but she and her sister are tiny, fashioned after their finely-drawn mother, and it’s easy for her to fit under Driftwood’s long legs and pepper his wrists and paws with kisses.

“Blossom leave?” she echoes sadly, looking up at her protector as though to beg, oh, say this isn’t so! In case Driftwood is unaware, “Blossom, like Reed and Hemmy.”