Wheeling Gull Isle danseuses de delphes

She reminded him of a startled bird, wheeling about and seemingly ready to take flight in alarm. Driftwood lifted up a paw and leaned back, wondering if he ought to consider removing himself some distance from the situation instead. At least until this lady pulled herself together a little more and felt a little more comfortable with his approach—though his eyes still couldn't help but intently follow the precarious teetering of the rock as she came close to losing it in her startlement. He couldn't help but think of her like a panicky deer fawn: if he pressed forward even a little too much or too quickly she'd be gone in a flash. That ought to be his priority to concern himself with here; less so if that rock (oh, it was so shiny, just look at it sparkle in the weak winter sunlight!) and whether she might be about to drop it into the dust to disappear forevermore. But it was no wonder he hadn't seen her on his trekking out and about the island; Driftwood wasn't the stealthiest of wolves at the best of times, and this bitch had probably heard him coming from miles away and made herself scarce, every time.

The lady placed her treasure down more gently, and the assertiveness in her voice startled Driftwood in turn. Tahani, he repeated, much more tentatively. Ah...it's good to meet you? She seemed like such a bizarre contrast to Moorhen still, though. Even if like his crush she too struggled to find quite the words she was looking for, it seemed. Drift cocked his head and tried to decipher the deeper layers of meaning beneath her stilted and broken choice of simple words. Ah, yes...yes it is pretty. Tell me where I can find a clone, plleeeeassse. ...Um, yeah, in the sand...of course, of course... What ever on this island wasn't found at least halfway in the sand, after all? Unless it was, like...up a tree or something. But that would be a pretty ludicrous place to find a rock. ...Drift was pulled from his increasingly rambly reveries as Tahani asked him for his own idntity.

...Oh, uh, Driftwood. I'm Driftwood. A Seawolf around here. He blinked at the girl a little muzzily, still trying to tease the rest of his attention back to the here and now. He'd always been a little scatterbrained but it had definitely gotten worse ever since he had run across Moorhen more recently. Now he had the attention span of a day-old chick, quite frequently. It's uh, good to meet you, Tauhou Tahani, he blurted after half a beat too long a pause to insert it smoothly into the conversation.