Gilded Bay and draws strength

the very first thing wintersbane notices about the girl on the beach; opal clasped lightly betwixt his jaws forgotten about as he blinks polar gaze at her: is that she looks uncannily like quellcrist. there were subtle differences, surely, but she looks too much like his known daughter ...and by proxy, too much like him. the same blueishly tinted in certain lights grey and the same light frosty grey markings. the same eyes. his eyes.

his steps slow to a halt as he does the mental math quickly in his head. he knows quellcrist is too young to have bore this girl across the way from him ...but she is about the right age to be one of the cubs to come from one of his several dalliances during last season. he doesn't even know for sure that she's his daughter but the physical similarities to him and the daughter he does know about are too close to ignore.

thawing, he blinks as if resurfacing from under icy water and he lowers his head to deposit the opal at his paws. hello, he calls to her in a low chuff. i'm wintersbane. he offers his name, unsure if it would mean anything to her. had he shared his name with any of the women he bed last season? he couldn't say he really remember — not to mention, he had a habit of withholding it anyway for no particular reason. what's your name? he asks, whisky steeped voice low, thick with some emotion he cannot place.

word count: 256