Wheeling Gull Isle he can hold you, and shake you child.

around the monolith an aura shimmered; ava watched as it supped the last of the tunicate. it turned, and for a moment she felt a chill rake her spine as she was regarded with the flat edge of a half-lidded eye.

malakai strode between them, prompting ava to step back in surprise. his posture plainly threatened her, but it was not the large thing she wanted!

sourness stole across ava’s features. malakai was Other, belonging to a family ava would never neatly fit inside. she was a nest parasite, partitioning off resources the Other harbourlings coveted. he was aware of this, and she was aware that he — and the Others — did not truly love her or her siblings. 

ava fixed him with the turtle’s lidless stare. an unbidden emotion knifed within her breast. nearby, the great thing’s flippers shifted, heaving it to the glittering edge of another tide pool.

she strode past malakai’s bristling form, sniffing the empty spot the tunicate had left.