Coconut Grove Paradisal Loss

She reached the trees and paused, eyes cutting from side to side. She could see a sliver of beach through an alley of bent palm trunks off to her right, though Towhee had no interest in getting closer to the water with that biting wind.

She began to turn left, thoughts of small game floating into the forefront of her mind, then suddenly turned her head. She looked back toward the glimpse of beach again just in time to catch a flash of something pale against the washed-out backdrop of sand and whitecaps. It quickly sank out of sight.

Towhee squinted, then began moving in that direction after all. She didn’t notice the slight downward grade as the land sloped toward the beach, though soon enough the dunes opened up before her. And now she could more fully see the young wolf sprawled on the sands, visibly injured and barely moving.

Hey! Towhee shouted, hastening toward him. What the hell, she muttered to herself, eyes skipping over his wounds and wondering how he’d come by them. Hey, she repeated, gaze moving to his face now as she tried to look into his eyes, can you hear me?