Sea Lion Shores Don't believe in stars

Larkspur located Horizon Ridge easily enough and took some time to rest there for a bit before answering the siren call of the sea. She approached the surf quite tentatively, enthralled but made anxious by its noise and movement. For a time, she simply stood back from the ebbing and flowing breakers, watching and drawing the bracing air into her lungs. She eventually worked up the courage to slink forward and allow the shallow seawater to wash up and over her toes. Spur gasped, wiggling them in the sand, a small smile breaking onto her face at the refreshing sensation.

After that, she began to wander southwest, parallel to the water and often drifting in and out of the surf. She came to a river with many forks and hesitated a while before finally fording it. She did love swimming, though the unfamiliarity of everything naturally distressed her. Luckily, she crossed without incident. She paused on the far shore to shake out her sopping tawny pelt, then continued her trek in the direction of Donnelaith and, more importantly, Deirdre.

Larkpur's still damp limbs locked when a strange noise met her ears over the sound of the waves. She stilled, ears cupping forward as she tried to pinpoint it and guess at its origins. It almost sounded like barking. Perhaps she was closer than she'd thought and she was overhearing members of her best friend's pack? Swallowing her apprehension, Spur darted forward, cresting a sand dune only to dig her heels into the loose scree underfoot and freeze, gaping at the strange and horrifying shapes all over the beach below.

It was some strange form of luck that he would find this place upon one of his scouting ventures, he reckoned. As he had come over the ridge of dunes and had first witnessed what lay below, he had stood there and stared in awe. Then he had proceeded down the sandy dunes to come closer; yet never too close. They were marvelous creatures, unlike any he had seen before, and Cicero could not help but wonder what other creatures inhabited the world that he did not know the existence of. A feeling of wanderlust grabbed him, tempered only by the thought of coming home to Damien later that day.

It was when he turned back towards the dune ridge that he saw another come across the hill, moving forward and halting suddenly at the sight of the sea lions. Cicero smiled at her reaction, wondering if he had once looked the same, and chuffed to announce his presence and see if she was interested in engaging in social interaction.

popping in with kat's permission! :D *could not resist adventures*

He had followed in her wake the best he could, though admittedly there were times when he ultimately lost her trail. Harlyn had imparted to him a piece of knowledge of where she could have possibly been going and that had made things easier, at least to a certain extent. Though Mordecai had travelled along the coast before, the time that had passed since then only left him with a familiarity that wavered. The view had changed since he had passed through, leaving only certain landmarks—if you could call them that—as beacons that sent him on his way to the next.

When he finally spotted Larkspur, it was as she had crested a sandy dune that rose above the one that Mordecai was currently trekking. He held his breath for a moment, genuinely torn between the paternal urge to call out after her and simply the fact that he had caught up with her, finally. It passed and he breathed out to call to her: "Lark!" From there, his journey after her seemed much easier as he started to make his way to her with a joyful wave of his tail. He wasn't angry with her going; at that point he'd take whatever help they could get, provided that was her intention of having come so far.

And just maybe, maybe by some grace of some lesser god they'd even find what they were looking for out there.

Larkspur had led a very sheltered life up until leaving the hollow. Even now, she usually stuck close to her family and didn't do much venturing, even within the confines of the Keep. Only occasionally did she wander out of her comfort zones. This was obviously just such an occasion, yet the appearance of these beasts threw her for a loop. She had never seen nor heard anything like them and she began shrinking back in fear, overwhelmed by their size and numbers...

A soft noise behind her caused Spur to yelp quietly and whirl. She found herself facing a strangely colored wolf and her blue eyes flew wide in fear. Then a much more familiar face materialized a few feet away and the youth, though surprised, flung herself toward her father automatically with a shout of, "Daddy!" She hadn't expected him to follow her, yet between those hideous beasts and the peculiar stranger, she was immensely relieved for Mordecai's presence.

After smothering her face into the thick, warm fur on the side of his neck, Spur backed off just far enough to peek at the stranger still lurking nearby. "I don't know who that is," she whispered to her father, head tilted back to peer up at him. "I came to find Deirdre. She found you. She can find Pip too," she added in a quiet murmur, hoping Mordecai wasn't angry with her for acting independently.

Cicero watched, his expression neutral and body equally neutral as he watched and saw the fear in her eyes. He did not move, standing almost as though a statue, making no move to either depart or come closer. She looked young, he realised, and not long after they shared a stare, another appeared. Ragged ears cupped forward with interest. He understood why she thought him frightening — apart from her youth, he knew that he looked terrible in the famine's wake, almost like a walking skeleton.

He lingered a moment longer as he watched the two of them interact, though if neither of them would address him and return his chuff, Cicero would eventually return to gazing upon the sea lions and, eventually, slink off towards the shadows once more, returning where he had come from to explore other nearby lands and return home.

my last post if neither of them engage :)

i don't know if this counts as engaging or not, so what you do is up to you, iris! :X

As he met Larkspur along the rise, his gaze was stolen away for the briefest of moments to the creatures that lounge along the coast. They were bizarre creatures indeed, their unnerving presence and distant apathy to the wolves that were there left him wondering if they cared for anything at all. His gaze returned to his daughter as she spoke, only to dart off to spy out the stranger that she had evidently encountered.

The two-toned coat stood out from the natural palette of the coast and curiously, Mordecai canted his head in open wonder at him. He hadn't approached, hadn't spoken a word otherwise in the brief moment they had been there. It left him uncertain whether or not to take the initiative and so, Mordecai waited to see what he would do. But he didn't leave Larkspur hanging either, so he found his voice to answer her. She hadn't had that much pep in her since before they had left the Hollow; he couldn't have been angry with that.

"Do you know where she is from here?" He didn't doubt that the sylph that had sought him out would be of some help. If not for her, he would have never known that Harlyn had made the necessary decision to take their family up on Warbone's offer. But as far as he knew, Larkspur's meetings with her had been much closer to the territory they were living in and already, they were miles and miles out from the Keep altogether.

Spur kept one eye on the stranger even as she peered beseechingly at Mordecai. He did not seem in the least angry with her, which caused a small knot in her chest to loosen. He asked after directions and she looked around a moment, nibbling at her lower lip, then turned back to him with a slow nod. "That way," she said, pointing her snout southwest along the coastline after pinpointing the ridge and recollecting the direction Deirdre had come and gone during their previous rendezvous.

Unfortunately, that put those horrible beasts right in their path. Larkspur looked directly at the strange wolf as she asked, "What are those things?" She was actually asking Mordecai but she wondered if the stranger might know and answer, especially in case her father didn't.

i'll just go with leaving, then - my last post :)

Cicero's gaze lingered on the duo for a moment longer, but they did not take initiative. The youth seemed to have forgotten about him almost entirely. He nodded to the adult of the pair who was staring in his direction, almost as though waiting for Cicero to do something. Unwanting to frighten the child further, Cicero turned away from the pair of them and decided on the lonely choice, casting the sea lions one last glance before he turned away, further inland, to explore more of the surrounding territories.

somehow i failed to realize it was my turn in this fml; sorry for the massive delay, kat

Seconds ticked off slowly in regards to their silent company; he hadn't entirely been able to focus his attention on which way it was they were supposed to go from there, but he trusted his daughter's pathfinding skills. As the two-toned stranger turned tail to them, Mordecai's gaze left him for the creatures that Larkspur asked after. He couldn't quite decide what to make of them himself, though the noises they lazily made were... interesting, at best.

"I'm not sure," he said, his brow furrowing. "I've never seen anything like them." And that of course, left the question of whether or not they were of the friendly sort, as he had the feeling that they would in fact have to go meandering right through their stretch of beach. Tentatively, he took the lead from there, finding his opportunity to make up for his divided attention.

"You said we have to go this way, right? I guess we'll just have to find out about these things," he went on to say.

No worries, m'dear!

If the stranger knew, he didn't share his knowledge. He departed without ever having said a word. Larkspur blinked at his back, though Mordecai's voice soon drew her attention to him. Then she looked beyond, toward the strange creatures, and shook her head. They should find another route somehow. Spur didn't want to go anywhere near those things.

"Can we go around?" she asked, trying not to sound like she was begging. "I don't like them," she added, ears falling backward. Spur never took easily to new or strange things and these monstrous creatures were no exception.