Cerulean Cape cor sagnant

hoping for @Lestan and/or @Swordfish !! @Bonario also welcome ofc

when ellie opens her eyes, the first thing she notices are the yelping squawks of gulls, little white birds surrounding her and staring at her with open suspicion. she also notices that her head feels as if it is being split in two with blunt force, and that she is alone.
this beach is unfamiliar, although it looks much like any other, with its sprawling sand and rocky shore. she grunts as she hoists herself up onto her limbs, squinting out at the horizon before looking back down at her feet. had she fallen asleep here? she could not remember.
when was the last time she had eaten? or drank anything? she decides this must be the reason for her headache as she begins to hobble toward the waves, glaring expectantly as if the sea would spit out a fish for her to eat.
ai, déu meu.

Just beyond the river was a beautiful cape with crystalline blue waters and sunlight that made the waves glitter as they crashed into the shore. Out in the great depths, the water broke and a dolphin leapt skyward before landing back in the sea. From the sand, Swordfish watched the lazy pull of the waves on the shore, tracing the line where land met water until he fixed his gaze on the shape of another stranger.

The young wolf slowed, warily watching the woman who stood on the beach. There had been enough madness to last the boy. Lestan was a handful on his own. They did not need another sun-scorched loon to tote across the Teekons toward Swiftcurrent.

Swordfish chuffed, announcing himself to the unknown figure.

cameo for now >D

lestan dug in the sand beside the riverbank, having not looked up as his companion decided to explore the nearby cove. he was heedless of the sun which burnt down upon his nape, his crown, his shoulders.
once upon a time, there had been flowers near the river, a series of wild blooms which ran cape to river to bay. it was for their bulbs he searched now, muttering as the sand turned cool beneath his paws, and then muddy water welled between his claws. "she'll w-want flowers when i s-see her again. sorry for losing y-you. best f-father." he chuckled darkly and then his face went stone-rigid. lestan continued his fruitless search.

a dolphin! thinking herself to be alone, ellie gasps and exclaims in wonder as she watches its lithe form rise and fall off in the distance. a good omen, she thought, and, coincidentally, a sandy boy of about her age seemed to appear just as the dolphin crashed down into the seafoam.
oh, hi there, she smiles at him as to not seem impolite. come here often?
past the rocks was another figure which caught her eye — another strange man, looking as though he was... digging, maybe. she pretends as if she does not notice him, not wanting to assume the two were a pair.

Yeah, yeah, we’ll get her a whole mouthful of flowers, Lestan.

Swordfish’s monotonous voice was quick to answer the father’s suggestion. His eyes rolled but he had no intention of diverting the good-natured desire of the man seeking his daughter. If he wanted to collect flowers for his missing child, they could find some wild blooms along the way to the mountains.

The girl piped up, bright and cheery in her voice. She did not speak with the same rambling madness as Lestan. This was enough to ease Swordfish closer to her, close enough to inspect the scents she carried on her coat. She did not appear to be from the cliffs.

No. Not often. We’re lookin’ fer a girl. Maybe ya seen her? Name’s Blossom, he offered. When Lestan moved out of his line of sight, Swordfish craned his neck to make sure the forlorn father had not fallen to his knees to cry out for his missing child again.

so they were traveling together, and the other man had a name; lestan. is he apologizing to a lady friend? i take it you are ze wingman, ellie jests, a half-smile curling the corner of her lip.
the pale man comes closer, giving a cursory sniff, to which ellie discreetly mirrors with a casual wave of her tail. i don't zink i know a blossom. i am not from here, so... i don't zink i know anyone, really.
my name is ellie, short for elodie, she squints as the wind cuts sharply across her face, sniffling with the gust of strangely frigid air. i would be 'appy to 'elp you look, maybe? not as if i 'ave anywhere better to be.

I ain’t a wingman, Swordfish interjected in his lazy brogue.

And he’s not- It’s-

The young man’s eyes rolled, trying to find the right words to dispel this woman’s assumptions. A frustrated huff of breath passed between his lips.

She’s his kid, alright? He’s lookin’ fer his kid.

The girl offered a name - Ellie. Swordfish nodded, letting her chatter for a bit. He was surprised that she offered to assist in their search. She didn’t know what she might be signing up for. They’d only met moments ago. What did she have to gain from helping two strange men search for a stranger? Suspicion creeped into his mind.

Lestan, he nodded toward the bumbling father. I’m Shardik. And I s’pose yer welcome to join, if yer so inclined.

his kid. ellie immediately softens, teasing expression wiped from her face and turned to one more somber. ah, i see.
well, shardik, she turns to step toward him, taking note of his guarded stance and the knit to his brow. we are no longer strangers, are we?
if ellie were any other person, the man would surely have a right to be suspicious. the simple fact of the matter was that ellie saw gain in travelling, learning the lay of the land she now found herself in — and if things went wrong, she could always leave, right?
and so she decides now that she would join them, confirmed by the way she waddles confidently in the direction of the dark man known now as lestan. what does ze girl look like? how old? would she be wit' her motter, maybe?

I s’pose we’re not.

The young man’s tone, while drab, had taken on a sarcastic lilt. Swordfish’s hooded gaze lingered on her face for a moment before he fixed his sights on where Lestan had gone and what he might be doing. The boy wondered if the feeling he had was anything akin to what parents felt toward new babies. Since meeting the man, he’d been on a constant state of high alert. It was as though he was waiting for the moment Lestan might do something truly crazy.

When Ellie inquired about Blossom, the bear-hunter gazed expectantly at his companion. They were good questions. He felt sheepish for never having inquired for himself. Out there hunting down a girl he couldn’t identify and he hadn’t thought to ask for basic information.

How old is she anyway? Lil’ pup or…

And where was the mother in this picture?

"it's been almost a year since i saw her," lestan said at last, eyes fixed upon the sea and voice steadied from its stutter by the deadening sensation. 
he had inched back among them long enough to drop in the sand beside the woman, of which he had only noticed her eyes. "i was still teaching her to speak when we all disappeared."

almost a year—! surprise wrote itself across ellie's face, and suddenly a frigid wash of something like guilt followed it. she blows a puff of air from her nose, turning her gaze from shardik to lestan and back over again as a lonesome silence created a gap between the three.
a yearling very well might have simply dispersed by now, but that was far from one of the more comforting things she could say. she 'as to be somewhere, senyor, she whispers to the dark man, awkwardly shuffling closer as if to make an attempt at comforting him. it will be okay.

Ellie was quick to offer words of comfort. Swordfish looked at the ground sheepishly. He hadn’t even thought to try to soothe Lestan with words, with encouragement. The only things that had been flipping through his mind were the worst of the possibilities - Blossom was dead, Lestan was crazy and there was no Blossom, they were going to be lured out to sea and lost to the blue depths.

Hearing that the girl had been lost just as she was learning to speak had made the bear-hunter’s stomach churn with discomfort. What were the odds then, that she was alive and well? Swordfish didn’t want to fixate on what they might find. Dead or alive, at least Lestan would have answers.

comfort was offered, and lestan looked in a mild surprise at the woman. still addled by his own grasping sorrow, he noted that her gaze was reminiscent of a sunrise. or a sunset. or perhaps the zinnias which clustered the edge of seaside cliffs.
shardik's own stare — shardik! surprising! — was a churning sea beneath a salted fall of silver rain. seastorm and flowerpetal looked solemnly back at him.
"somewhere," lestan turned, his eyes closing at the warmth of elodie's nearness. "we can't stay here forever." slowly he rose.

lestan looked at her as if he were a starving, feral man, and an undiscernable feeling churns in the girl's gut. not sadness, nor pity; melancholy, perhaps, as she stays near him.
what has she gotten herself into?
she remains quiet, breath shuddering in her chest and her throat as she avoids the contact of lestan's gaze. shardik seems as if a headache is beginning to take hold of him.
but we can for now, she finally says, pulling rather stiffly away from lestan. we need food. and a place to sleep, if we are going to be a team, sí?

Ellie seemed the type to take on a motherly role. Swordfish didn’t like it. It carried memories of his own mom and the softness of her gaze and the warmth of her love. It made his chest feel tight with hurt. The girl suggested that they eat and rest if they were to be a proper team. The young bear-hunter regarded her with his heavy-lidded stare.

He spat up what I tried to feed ‘im. Didn’t sleep too good either.

It wasn’t likely that Ellie would have more luck persuading Lestan to take care of himself. Swordfish wasn’t going to stop her from trying.

the zinnia-eyes avoided his, and eventually lestan looked at neither of them. he whispered blossom's name once more; the wind ripped the word out from between his teeth, dragging it to sea.
he would be guided where led, despondent and silent for the next hours as he tried to avoid the secondary sense of shame: the growing awareness of his own burdensome existence.