Wheeling Gull Isle out of the corner of my eye

backdated to November 24 -- located at night in Rizhao's Cave

She had killed a girl here.

Maegi sat upon the edge of the stone walkway, looking out to the waves. They calmed with the shallows, pooling quietly into the cavern—but out there, they were wild. Formidable. Undulating black masses against the star-dotted sky.

How long had it taken for the sea to swallow her up? She had been so limp. Still warm, but surely not for long.

It had been an accident. A mixup of herbs. One flower mistaken for another; that was all it took to drag life down into death. Cicero might have been proud. Coelacanth would have banished her from the island, had she known.

She wondered if any of the seawolves living here now were killers, or if Maegi and Mou were total outliers. 

Spilling blood wasn't enough to damn them, she thought. Both wolves she'd killed, she hadn't laid tooth or claw upon them. She hadn't broken the skin. And Mou—

Maegi lay slowly down, forelegs outstretched, her paws dangling over the edge. She could feel the sea-spray on her toes.

One leg shorter than the other. The freak had returned to utopia.