Blackbeak Bluff andante

For my own reference, five month old Koi’s build, head shape, and size: i · ii. Coat length is slightly shorter; ears are a titch taller, and tellingly tufted.

The stretch of time between Aditya’s treachery and Thresher’s disappearance had been fraught with strife for the seawolves, but not even the lingering vestiges of that deep, immobilizing gloom could completely dampen Sixgill and Koi’s first trip to the mainland. Mur, Fern, and Grayling had returned bursting with stories that grew taller with each telling, and the gold cloud boy and his black pearl sister were eager to earn their own.

Presently, the trio was nestled several reassuring meters from the lip of a terrifying drop. Six had fallen asleep after gorging himself on the wing and thigh of a cookie who had been too slow and stupid to evade the sheepdog’s snakeswift jaws, and she was stretched out beside her growing guppy with a vigilant air. Sometimes he rolled or ran in his sleep, and she wasn’t about to let him fall to an untimely doom. Ŭmma’s tufted ears twisted like periscopes above the broad span of his piebald flank as Koi roused and begged permission to explore on her own with a wheedling whine and a beseeching stare.

“Rules,” the Athelas mouthed, and Koi nodded emphatically, oversized ears flopping cartoonishly. She knew. Stay close, don’t lose sight of the ocean, don’t eat buzzers…there were a lot of rules, but the little wolfdog was pretty sure she remembered all of them. She wandered off slowly, her ears turned back upon her skull lest ŭmma call her to heel.

When no summons came, she picked up her pace, though she turned frequently to pin down Six’s soft silhouette in the distance and make sure she didn’t stray too far. He was a pale blur with an inkdark outline when she caught an intriguing, utterly unfamiliar scent. Nose to the ground, she threaded her way into a moss-carpeted, hollow log.