Cedar Sweep If she can do it, why can't I?

drenched in mud up to her back, the smell of swamp mixed with the brine in her pelt to create a heady auroma that cling fast to the girl. she was very, very close to tears, and would by crying already if she hadn't already spent them all. Clementine was anything but brave, least of all now, but settled for a tight, worried expression and glassed-over gaze as she trod onward, driven by a sort of panic. 

the panic originated from the simple sound that she couldn't hear the gentle sound of the sea - whenever she stood in the sound, she could hear the gentle inhale, exhale, no matter how faint. but the background hum was gone, and there was only a silent void where even more panic gathered. 

the other pup seemed to appear out of nowhere. a stranger, and better off avoided. she wavered for a long moment, her desire for comfort warring with her fear of strangers. the former, helped by her even greater fear of remaining alone in the unknown, won out, and she lurched towards the pup as quickly as her stilt-like limbs would carry her, which was to say, not very quickly.