Cerulean Cape Vacation Spot

It was simply the sandstorm, and the waves.
The woman had grown used to her sandy coat after spending some time on the cape. She didn't mind, not being especially vain, and the fact that the sand blended in with her coat quite well. The ocean, she had noted, had a distinct, salty taste that was almost overpowering. No stories could have quite prepared her for the ocean, and even now, with the sun dipping over the horizon, the sky bloodless and gray, she was sprawled out, sphinx-like by the shore.

The waves crashed onto the surf only a couple of meters from where she lay. Crashed was perhaps not the best word- they threw themselves with violence against the rocks further up the shore, but here they merely lapped at the sand, slipping toward her paws before vanishing back into the colossal being that was the ocean again. The moon was bright, a perfect crescent, and the stars over the water made for a stunning sight. Zephyr and Chusi were...somewhere, but she did not worry for their whereabouts.

Her stormy gaze was fastened on the horizon, at the endless expanse of blue, her form still except for the steady rise and fall of breaths that were hers.

As the sun had began to set, Zephyr had searched for a den, a place for him to bustle Chusi into and keep her safe, and he found it in a tangle of bushes just off the coast, digging down into the soft earth and clearing a spot big enough for all three of them. It was visible from the ocean, but well hidden to any who didn't know about it, and so after he'd watched his little girl slip into sleep, the ebony man set out to find Aglaeca. He wasn't sure what to expect, how to treat her: it seemed she didn't want the treatment he usually gave to woman; while he did not see them lesser in any way, the gentleman was simply prone to treating females better than he would a man. 
She wasn't far, but his apple colored eyes sought for her perhaps a little more than he should've: her golden coat melded with the warm sand, even with her silvery undercoat and stormy eyes. When he did find her, well, maybe now his eyes lingered a little bit too much on her frame, sweeping across it before shaking himself-literally- and chuffing a soft greeting as he drew close. His position was neutral, as usual, but the usual bounce was back in his step once again, and he was happy. Even if Aglaeca wasn't so sure about him yet, Zephyr had Chusi to care for and raise right. Who knows: maybe in his travels, he'll come across Rana, Emory, Lyric, or Rain....

Zephyr. His chuff caused her to flick her ears toward him in acknowledgement, though she did not look away from the waves for a moment longer. She didn't know what to think of the male yet. He was entirely different from what she knew- goofy, enthusiastic and quite happy, much of the time, it seemed. He was loyal, had been a true help to her, but she couldn't quite understand him completely. Unknowingly to her, he may have had a not-so-small crush on her, which would perhaps explain some of the actions she thought odd. 

It was in her nature to not warm up to someone, trust someone, very quickly, and Zephyr had yet to change that. She stood, gracefully, flexing her form as she stretched a moment. She settled back on her haunches a moment, hoping that Zephyr would not sit to close to her should he chose to do so, and fixed him with her stormy gaze. She nodded a greeting, rolling her shoulders a moment in a final stretch, before saying. "I suppose I should thank you for guiding me here. It's...beautiful." she paused a moment, gaze flicking briefly to the sea before settling back on him. "Is she asleep?"

Aglaeca wasn't all that happy to see him, and somewhere inside Zephyr knew he understood why. He was new, of course, strange, and as it was he knew little about her.... About as much as she knew of the brute. It was those facts that drove him closer, seeking to bond and maybe get her a little more comfortable with him in general. 
His grassy eyes swept again across her frame as she stretched, he couldn't stop them, but when she sat he, too, sat where he was. The obsidian man knew better than to crowd anyone, let alone someone he knew wasn't sure about him yet. Her words, though, her thanks, was a surprise. The expresion wrought itself across his face, brow furrowing in confusion, and he barely heard the woman ask about Chusi, giving but a nod before addressing her first words. 
                "Thank? I mean, it's nice, but I didn't do it for thanks. I did it to gain a companion, a reason... Daresay, a friend."

Her expression was fixed on him as he spoke, collected and cool. He had not done what he had out of any other reason than to gain a companion. A motive that was odd to the independent female, but remembering her childhood and early adulthood in her tribe, she remembered the bonds that existed between them, the socialization, friends and companions. That was, until they were all killed. Well, mostly. 

She hesitated a moment before replying, thinking over his words and the best way to reply. "You are a good companion, Zephyr. But friendship is a...tender bond, one that takes longer to create." She didn't know how exactly to express herself, and this was the closest she got. She fixed him with her gaze a moment before looking back to the sea. Shooting him an inviting glance, she rose and stepped forward, into the waves. Strides took her farther still, until the crashing waves reached her underbelly. She shot a glance at her companion, to see if he were following her.

The striking woman gave him a look that was neither hostile or friendly, but somehow a mix of the both. She was wild, he could tell that: she didn't need others to survive, to even be happy. Zephyr was a social creature, raised in the most familial pack he'd ever come across. He'd always been a happy-go-lucky gentleman, and always let others have the benefit of the doubt. At her words, face a sullen mask of faint hope and epic tiredness, he nodded. 
                  "I never expected you to become my best friend the day we met or anything. Chusi is my first friend in... Well, months. My last grown friend, Rana, she vanished just a month or two ago. Before that, it was just me and her. Spent almost 5 months of my life dedicated to Sen, and when we leave, she tells me I'm nothing more than a servant. After she leaves me to defend her borders from an entire pack...."
He looks away from the sudden flow of words, and hasn't even realized that she'd gotten up and started walking; even more surprising that he, too, had stood and padded after her, not until the cool, salty water of the ocean covered his snowy paws. 
                                    "My apologies. I don't mean to say such things to someone who isn't a friend and therefor shouldn't worry: but I'm just very used to being abandoned, when I do nothing wrong. Even if we aren't friends, at least don't just leave?"
He quieted as they slipped further into the water, not entirely expecting an answer from Aglaeca. There was no need, really, for it's not like everyone didn't say they'd stay too. Words were just a comfort, not any real promise.

She looked away from him, back at the distant blue, as words filled the silence. A steady torrent rained from her companion's maw, but not from hers, she was completely and utterly quiet. When he finished, when he spoke his final words and set his final cards on the table, there was only silence. Stretching, boundless silence, except for the sea sounds that she had come accustomed to. She was still completely still, as her gaze fell, glazed, on the horizon. Finally, she begun to speak, adding her words to the others, long faded. 

"You want to know why I do not form bonds like you?" motionless, staring, looking away. "Because all my friends are dead. Hunted." hundreds of more words went unsaid. How she would not feel that horrible loss and helplessness again, how she would distant herself so that she wouldn't feel that, not anymore. Silence reigned again, moments ticking by until she looked back to Zephyr. "Don't you dare comfort me" her gaze screamed a moment. She had found closure in her own way, her own deeds. It was the past, dead and gone. She need not reassurance, nothing. Zephyr's story echoed some of her own past, and it was a moment later that she said, "I will not leave you and Chusi. I am not open, that does not mean that I am not loyal, does not mean I am cruel."

Zephyr could easily understand the pain she felt. He, too, had watched his family hunted down one by one... He couldn't tell if she was doing it to make a point, or to make it a contest: either way, his responce was the same. Each word got harder, but he felt like this might be the way to somehow start their friendship. It was something they connected on, gorey and morbid as it was.
                 "You aren't alone, my birth pack was picked off one by one by cougars. But that doesn't mean you should close yourself off from others. In fact, I see it as quite the opposite, that we should go out and live life to the fullest and never hold things back. Make as many friends as possible, because even if it's not going to last at least you have the experience and the memories."
It was worth it, for the Maverick. That's the life he knew, and in his words he heard the singsong voice of his mentor, Syon. She'd taught him well.... But with that thought his grassy eyes glazed over with tears. He was glad to hear she wouldn't leave, understanding exactly what she meant, but was too choked up in guilt for the moment to answer her properly. It wasn't at all his fault: the cougars had killed his pack, and they'd voted to stay or go. It was on all of the Shadowfax wolves that they'd been picked off, and there was nothing to say that the very, very few that had escaped weren't still alive and hadn't rebuilt the pack already.

This meeting was making her uncomfortable. She was a stubborn creature, one set in her ways, and a few words by Zephyr were not going to change her. She would not simply smile and change, nor would she ver, truly. It was her nature, at her core, though the years had hardened her she was at heart a fiercely independent creature. It did not mean that she did not seek a pack, followers, ones loyal to her and perhaps friends, one day, as Zephyr spoke of. No, it meant it took a lot more than words and stories and thoughts to move this woman. It took actions, and time, and much, much more. 

Zephyr;s words angered her, inexplicably, and she turned from him, expression steeled and already regretting her slip. Any mention of her past, no matter how vague, was strictly forbidden by her. His words, demanding her mind to listen, her thought turning to his ideas of change and his own beliefs, and she tensed, annoyed and irritated. But she struggled not to show this, saying only. "I think it's best you leave me know. Check on Chusi." she slipped deeper into the waves, until she was almost fully submerged, her upper back and head above water. She did not look back at Zephyr, but at the waves before her, conflicted. Inside, she sought to rage and yell, what business did he have telling her how to live her own life? But she withheld, but knew worst would come should he attempt to lengthen their meeting.

Zephyr's intentions had been only to console her, not to make her upset: but clearly he had, and he froze in place with sorrow slapped across his maw. He could understand why she was cold, why she'd built walls, it just wasn't his way of life. When Aglaeca turned from him, the brute knew it best to stay silent, and when she suggested he leave, Zephyr took it. With but a soft sigh, he nodded to her back, turning and slipping soundlessly back to shore with the next gentle wave. He stopped only once, when the sand turned to grass, to shake water clear and to clean the salt and sand from his obsidian fur. His back was to her the entire time, and he did not look back, only crawled into the den and curled around Chusi.