Sea Lion Shores and like the sky my soul is also turning

His silent battle with the girl kept his spirits high, which was in some vague way, pathetic. It was like a game between two petulant children. He would nose around in the sand, nudge rocks out of the way or pull at some netted seaweed, and sometimes lift his face out of his own errands in order to observe her pile, as if to compare their objects. Atlas did not find anything in the first half hour of scouring. He saw plenty of little crabs scurrying for cover when the rocks were overturned, but they were commonplace and worthless. Slowly he gathered shell fragments, swathes of kelp, and even a few gull feathers that were in particularly good condition - the size of his pile not really growing to the same immensity as the girl's, but the contents being of higher quality. When the consort decided to take a break, he paused and slumped his rear end against the sand and looked to her — smug and pleased with his work.