Shimmering Sands good love, good love

the sun low on the horizon, the last of its light reflecting against the sand. earlier in the day, ying seperated from her sisters for a moment of relaxation. @Mei, searching for food to fill their caches, and @hua, scowering the tree line for herbs. 

the young huntress, while having enjoyed her solitude, decided at sunset to seek out the twins. she trotted steadily toward the water, waiting to cross one of their paths.

She had enjoyed the time of solitude. She loved her sisters, and yet- too much time in company was overwhelming. She couldn't handle spending the whole day with them, so the time in which she sniffed among the grasses for herbs was relaxing. 

As the sun set, she caught the sillhouette of another lean girl, and she knew it was one of her sisters. As she came closer, she caught the sight and scent of Ying. Huā approached the girl wordlessly, feeling no need for conversation unless her sister initiated.

finished with her duties for the day, mei sat & watched the sun descend, sinking down towards the watery horizon. the sound of sand shifting caught her attention, and with the flick of an ear, she turned to face it. it was ying, who appeared to have something on her mind. huā approached from the other direction, & mei turned to face them both, inquiry voicing itself only in her eyes.

ying felt.. surprisingly awkward. although she had anticipated having the spotlight, actually experiencing it made her feel somewhat uncomfortable. to sort of break the barrier between them, she settled into a momentary play bow before rising back onto all fours.

i have an idea, she announced, tail wagging steadily behind her, buuuut, youmightnotlikeit. ying waited for either sister to respond before continuing with her proposal.

Unsurprisingly, Mei arrived too. Seaglass eyes turn towards her, greeting her with only a look. Once the both of them are gathered, Ying bows playfully before announcing that she has an idea- one they may not like. Huā's brow furrowed in thought. 

好, 说出来. She responds curtly. Already a little nervous to hear the idea- if Ying said she wouldn't like it, she trusted her. She was already going into the conversation with a skeptical outlook.

mei was put slightly on edge at ying's assertion, & it showed in her suspicious expression. huā urged her to spit it out, so she remained silent & waited anxiously to listen to her proposal.

the sisters were impatient with ying's antics. well, she said, teetering on her paws, i think it would be smart to find a pack for winter. the huntress didn't want them to immediately shut her down, so she continued before giving them the chance to reply.

before you say no, think about it. they were all decent hunters, but even so, hunting later in the season would only become more difficult. fish was good for now, but they would need a consistent stream of food. 

that was pretty much the only good reason that ying had.

Eyes narrow as the girl suggests joining a pack. Packs were full of... strangers, men, foreign people... Yeah. None of that sounded appealing in the slightest. 

Of course she understood where Ying was coming from. They were three foreign southern girls against the cold winter of the North- all odds were against them. And yet, still, she wanted to protest. "不喜欢, 可是说多一点." She requests in a sort of huff.

out of their trio, mei dissented the most vehemently. 没有。太危险了，我们在这里不认识任何人。此外，海岸上没有背包... her gaze drifted out to sea. to be separated from the realm of her gods was unfathomable. she belonged on the coast — they all did.

obviously, they hadn't thought about it. if they had, surely the twins would have agreed. ying huffed as she listened to her sisters' objections. it's dangerous here, too. they were beside the ocean, and at the start of winter no less. the tide is going to keep rising, so we'll have to move inland anyway.

and, okay, so they didn't know anyone. the logical next step would be to meet people, would it not? we've only seen a little bit of the coast. maybe there is a pack further north. up near the tundra, though such an environment didn't sound so appealing. or a pack close to the shore that we can find.

ying looked expectantly between her sisters with the best begging expression she could muster.

Huā was not unreasonable. Her sister's reasons were good. And she wasn't going to fight with logic, but... she would be reluctant. Mei didn't take as easily as Huā, and she felt that she had good points too- how could they leave the coast? How could Huā leave the coast? It was her love, her life, her mother sea. If they ended up in a forest- well, she'd be a scout then. Never at home and always among the sands. 

Maybe change was easy for Ying, but she knew it would tear into Mei's and her own heart. She scowled a little at the yuegang, but spoke "好. 可是我也不会喜欢. 对你来说很容易, 对我们来说很难." She huffs in frustiration. Now maybe Mei wasn't convinced, but Huā wasn't going to bother and help convince her. She understood her sister's feelings.

she shook her head at ying's assertion that the coast would become a danger. 内陆不远。海岸没有森林那么危险, she retorted. 我不相信这里的狼。他们是外国人；我们不了解他们的生活方式，他们也不了解我们的生活方式。我想要的最后一件事是重复我们最初逃离这里的过程。 her gaze crystallized. 我不允许。 she wasn't listening, but she only wanted the best for them. they would survive — here, where they belonged. with the gods' blessings... they would!

ying couldn't help but roll her eyes. stop being so stubborn! she groaned, rolling her head back across her shoulders. so what if they're foreign? we're just as foreign to them, don't you think? there was nothing that made their culture any better than another. maybe the religion, but that was a whole quarrel within itself.

mei brought up the thing. ying's gaze fell onto hua then to see if her expression had changed. it won't happen like that again. her gaze hardened, baby blues staring hard through slitted eyes. we're all together. i won't let it happen. that would be her last word on the subject.

Mei and Ying continued to quarrel. Mei being stubborn, bringing up the incident- leading shivers down Huā's spine as memories flashed in her mind. Probably why she didn't take kindly to men and foreigners. 

Ying's final words were comforting, though. She was their brawn, and she trusted that her sister could protect. Then Huā gave a curt nod to both before pacing away. She didn't want to stay and listen to further tense arguments.

her irritation brewed, but she maintained her composure far better than ying. 我们知道我们可以互相信任。我们不知道我们是否可以信任他们。 that was the core of her argument, & she stood by it in the absence of anything to refute it. but even if a valid point were raised, she'd still fight it with every fiber of her being, unable to move on from their scarred past with the same ease ying did.

huā began to walk away as she often did when they butted heads, but mei dragged her back into it. 你们俩我都知道我们将一事无成。让我们投票吧。华，您觉得哪个最好？靠海边自居，还是加入一堆内陆外国人？ heart pounding, she anxiously awaited huā's final verdict with bated breath.

ying was fully prepared to let hua walk away, having assumed that it meant they were on the same side. mei was so stubborn, so hard-headed! why couldn't she just see things the way the huntress did? if you insist on being so difficult, she muttered, then sure. what do you think hua?

Her attempts to avoid the conflict were in vain. Suddenly the pressure was on her as each sister asked her about her opinions on the matter. God, she could understand each of their perspectives! Both of them had a point. On one hand, Huā could never trust strangers, or wolves of the common language- they had used her and her sisters, ripped them apart, confined them. Of course their cousin was the head of it all- but the wolves who had been willing to break them were just as evil. She had met a few nice people since coming here, but... still. She had no idea that she could really build trust with this people. 

And then on the other hand, matters of survival. The freezing winter of the North and the famine- leading to more hungry wolves scavenging for whatever meat they could find. Huā hated the thought of being forced into a world where she would have to meet new people and conform to their ways. But a pack meant security, and they would need that for the winter. Hopefully by next winter they would be better adjusted and could provide entirely for themselves. 

But between a choice of trust and survival- she would lean on the side of whatever kept them alive for now. Live now and comfort later. 

"美, 我爱你, 可是现在我们需要生活. 我们将来会很高兴. 我也不喜欢新人. 小心一点儿." She sighed, as if defeated. That was all she wanted to say on the matter and she only hoped that they wouldn't press her for further input. And she hoped Mei wouldn't be pissed off, because if it were not for her practical side, her heart would tug her to take Mei's stance as well.

ying's hypocrisy ground her gears, but her comment on it remained locked behind ground teeth. huā gave her answer, & while perfectly sound, it left mei crestfallen; but to keep fighting would be an act of futility. she sat in silence for several heartbeats before finding her words. ... 很好。我们明天早上离开。

curtly, she stood & walked away along the shore, eyes fixed on the sea. she couldn't bear to be with her sisters anymore right now. all she wanted was to lie in the brine as if to soak it up and bring it with her. she would pray to the gods tonight, desperate for their guidance.