Gilded Bay Standing in the open light

borne by the sea, there was little graceless about the way bijou slipped underwater. her eyes burned when she opened them, but her target was acquired: pulling forward, bijou trawled along the seafloor and pushed hard with her hind end upwards once contact was made.

she burst from the water with a spray of sea and a grin, eyes fastened on the man who looked so startled he may as well been a quillback rockfish; so upright were his spiny masses of fur that bijou snickered as she coasted along around him.

rather than use her words, she encircled him -- waiting for any outcry or accusations to be flung her way.