Sea Lion Shores we creatures of the sea

When Akhlut imagined seeing his younger siblings again, he could not, for some reason, erase the mental image of them as they were when he departed Echo Cove. It was illogical to assume that when next he saw them they would still be miniature-sized bundles of fur toddling around their mothers, with as-yet indistinct personalities and equally-capricious eye colors. And yet, he could not imagine them as adults or even as older pups, for he did not remember his own maturation and had paid too little attention to the growth of his many Echo Cove cousins and more distant relations.

And yet when he saw her, and her scent was carried to him on the sea breeze, he knew her. She was a creature of the Sea in heritage and in appearance, bearing the Kesuk blue eyes and a coat with the variegated hues of shifting sands that was their Nereides mother's. When he called to her from atop the nearest drift, interrupting her chorus of barks and howls, his words were Greek. All the best Nereides tales were told in Greek, and it was the tongue the Sea heard the loudest, and so it was appropriate. "Καλώς ορίσατε, αδελφή."

With that, Akhlut could no longer contain his pleasure nor keep his distance, when one of his own dear sisters was so near, and he rushed through the sand to meet her. A flock of gulls took flight in alarm, but he paid them no mind. Tail flashing through the air, heart swelling with pride as he looked at all of the changes several turns of the moon had wrought upon her, Akhlut's voice was warm with happiness. "Lysianassa," he murmured, a more personal greeting, as he licked her face.