Wheeling Gull Isle another roadblock in our way

He kept an eye on his wife when he was awake and attentive enough to do so, often prefering to hide among the groves dotting the island instead; but this time he was drawn from the cold shadows and towards the beach. Mou had thought to find her something like a gift: a warm meal, maybe a cluster of frosted flowers.

He was distracted as he investigated the fringe of the woods, then the gorse lining the sand, and finally he turned his attention to the sea as it undulated darkly on the horizon. Unfortunately the golden glimmer of Meerkat's body was stuck in the vantablack of his blind side; but the other eye, the intact one, watched as the white blot that was Maegi moved across the land bridge — then off of it.

What the hell are you doing? Mou thought. His short fur spiked, his tail raised. Maegi's twisted leg wouldn't be of much use in the vast sea, and with the weather so grim, the season so cold — was she trying to hurt herself? The man was launching himself in to a run, reaching with his long limbs and devouring the sand.

Maegi was reaching for something in the water. Mou tried to bark and get her attention but the sound came out a wheeze, easily dwarfed by the ocean's rumbling. The stranger's golden fur sank in to the dark ocean and Maegi went after it; so Mou was left to pace in the shallows, afraid to throw himself at the mercy of the ocean himself.