Sea Lion Shores i can not boast

in a slow lope the tawny firebrand cut through the wet shore, her shoulders low and muzzle hunkered down as she zeroed in on a bevy of milling gulls. as of yet they were unaware of her imminent presence, and they fluttered their sharp wings and called loudly into the skies.

like a wind-devil she was upon them, a flash of fur and fierce fangs. with screams, feathers and many indignant cries the swarm expanded, parted and rose into the air like a smokeborn cloud reamed by the wind. in seconds the entire flock was dissipated, and sandpiper was a lone figure on the beach once more with nothing in her jaws save the bitter taste of failure.

Of course he followed her. She had a nice— lass. She was a lass; and she was looking for something to eat. The sable pirate never needed a reason for anything but those two things were fairly dependable at getting him on his feet and moving, instead of lounging around with his balls bared to the sky.

Raptor shoved his snout through a tuck of tall beachgrass just as the gulls were mocking his companion with their raucous cries. In but a moment any hopes for a meal he could snatch they could share were gone, spread out over the sea and made flecks before disappearing entirely.

From where he stood he had but one thing to say and he said it loudly with shit-eating grin and dancing tail.

"You suck!"

of course raptor had seen her admirable display of great hunting dexterity - sandpiper turned her muzzle to the sky for a moment to watch her fleeing quarry until they were minute specks against a humbling array of blue. her attention pulled from the horizon when raptor's taunt hit her; indignant and immediately fluffed up, sandpiper fastened her attention on the soot-faced little shit.

she pulled towards him with slow, coy steps. her golden gaze set to him with a seductive flutter of her eyelids. he was so swarthy - so handsome - she made it a point to allow her gaze to linger appreciatively across his sable form. "would you like to see if i swallow too?" she purled, placing one long and slender leg in front of the other until the warmth of his breath spilled across her muzzle.

He drank it all in: her teasing lashes, that coy look she appraised him with, and those siren steps with which she drew nearer. He supped greedily of the show she served him and never once, being either too dense or too brazen or both, considered that letting her fangs so near to his face was a bad idea. One of these days, as sure as the sun would rise, Raptor would meet his end at the teeth of a temptress.

"Hah! Why not, eh!" The pirate laughed. He winked and cocked his head with a cluck, supplying her with more innuendo — his preferred form of communication. "I always got a bone to share with a hungry lass." He leaned forward on his toes then. The burnt umber of his lascivious eyes, staring out from the gloom of his distinguishing masked, locked to the brighter gold of her own as he baited her with a daring flick of his tongue across the edge of her slender muzzle.

LMFAOo god

with a few seductive steps she was upon him, inhaling the rankness of his fishbreath and being all too intimately aware of the curve of his snaggle tooth. she expected some sort of clever quip and she got one; inwardly she nearly gagged at the idea of imbibing on his bone - she'd sooner prefer eating seal shit -- but she stayed true to her character's form, her roguish grin widening and amber eyes wide and soft. she tried to emulate the star-struck expression she knew guys went tail over chest for; you know, the expression all men hoped their paramors would expression when they first unsheathed their mighty sword.

only, sandpiper didn't find raptor's sword so mighty. she stifled a wince as he licked her - ew, contact. expertly she fended off any further unwelcoming probes of the deviant's tongue by casting her slender muzzle downwards to inspect the goods under the hood. "oh," she said dejectedly, pulling her head up to gaze forlornly into raptor's darkly masked face. "doesn't look like a very big one."

Raptor certainly acted like the sort of hot-blooded young male that would take great offense to her disappointing estimation of his goods, and he did momentarily suggest to her — with the dissipation of his grin and the eye-widening lifting of his brows — that she would receive such a response... but no. The sable seawolf was (overly) confident of himself. Cocky, it might otherwise be described. His expression quickly took the form of a knowing smirk and he paired it with a suggestive wiggle of his hips.

"It's a grower not a shower." He replied smoothly. "It's all about the element of surprise." He paused and then fixed her with a narrowed gaze and an even more impish smile. "Clearly yer virgin ass ain't speakin' from any experience. Ye don't judge the goods before they're out of the package."

LOL these two

raptor was right about one thing - sandpaper lacked the experience to know what growing vs showing did for one's member. she wasn't exactly interested in purveying the discovery on which raptor was -- but as luck would have it, her smart mouth got her into a corner she could not back from.

her ears pulled back in umbrage at his accusation, though she tried her best to keep her eyes doe-like and soft as she studied the aforementioned 'package'. "maybe you could show me?" she questioned, canting her bony hip in his direction in a gesture she mistakenly assumed was sexy. it wasn't. no man liked a skeleton with smelly salty fur and flat hips, and that's exactly what she was at present.

she stepped closer, though she immediately wished she hadn't. "are you speaking from experience?"

Match made in heaven rofl

He could game as much as he could be gamed. The teasing lass who was out of reach, who dared him to quest for what he wanted, was now a celibate fawn provocatively asking him to show her what he was talking about. From where he was standing there had been a shift in control from her paws to his and he was always the sort to take the inch given and drag it off not for one mile but ten, until it was nothing but scraps and rags.

"Hah, ye think I whip it out for just anyone?" He pretty much would, but she need not be aware of that. Raptor was buzzed on the idea that, at least in the world he was constructing for himself, he was the prize to be had now instead of her. "I've been plunderin' booties since before I was weaned off me mother's tit. Maybe I'll show ye sometime..." he rocked back onto his arse and rolled his shoulders in a cool and conceited fashion, smirking again as he continued.

"An' maybe I won't."

sandpiper  was aware she had lost control, but she was not ready to relinquish just yet - she would fight and claw her way back on top, figuratively speaking -- you know, in case raptor got any ideas about that turn of phrase.

he refused. sandpiper was not disappointed, and her lips pursed in a seemingly 'i-thought-so' expression. as he sat down she followed suit, curling her tail around her hips with a satisfied smirk.

"that's something someone with a small pecker would say." she refuted, casting her slender muzzle in the air in a gesture of knowing superiority. "and until you deliver the said goods, that's what you are -- ugly brown .. with. a. tiny. pecker."

Too bad for him, that inch he started running off with pulled taut and snapped before he made ten paces, let alone ten miles. She plucked him down from his pedestal and took a seat on it herself. She just about had him. It was apparent in his blank stare and swishing tail that he had fully unfurled his sails in the anticipation of a strong wind, only to find himself dead in the water. But the swarthy corsair was nothing if not stubborn. He grabbed a paddle and took another go at it.

"Aye," he exhaled deeply. "I understand." Raptor bobbed his head in slow and tender way one does when expressing sympathy. "When I know I can't have something, I always try to convince myself it's not that great, too. Makes it easier t'deal with." Smirk smirk smirk. "It's ok, lass. One of these days you'll have more lads around yer arse than flies and ye won't be so desperate for a glimpse of the kraken."

SMIRKETY SMIRK SMIRK SMIRK.

sandpiper found his mock sympathy infuriating, and leveled with him a mightily cold stare. she knew he was faking it - what other reason would someone have to not show them their mighty lance?

all the same she wasn't disappointed, mostly because she had no earthly idea what would be under there. a worm? a snake? some grotesque and thorny thing? she didn't wish to imagine, and instead focused on heatedly spurning his riposte with her own brand of wit: "are you one of those flies?" she asked with a hot huff to her tone. smokestep had taken this stranger in and she had been reluctant to warm up to him, though his parrying wit and quick tongue was slowly growing on her.

not by much, she reminded herself sharply.

He was satisfied with his position. He did not feel he had made it back on to the pedestal but he did feel that he had brought her down to stand on his dirty little level and that was good enough for him. Raptor was often slow to warm to others but he found himself respecting her wit and the fire in her belly, though he did not reveal that to her. He retained his mien as an insufferable pest — a title he enjoyed wearing. So, to answer her question,

"BZZZZZzzzzzzzzz."

insufferable pest -- sandpiper would have liked to know what was his self-perceived title, as she would have agreed it suited him insufferably well. she gave him the bitchiest of side-eye as she waited for him to answer, fully expecting the worst -- yup.

as he launched a careening 'bzzzzzzz' towards her in the exact manner of a winged pestilence, sandpiper rose to all fours and spun around - her tail singing out behind her not unlike a raptor-swatter. while collision was unlikely given the slight distance she had put between the two of them, she kept herself prepared for the expected retaliation.

It seemed, as she whirled about and lashed at him with her tail, that Raptor had succeeded in burrowing under her skin. She missed without him having to move, the wispiest of hairs at the tip of her tail just grazing the dark leather of his nose. He took the chance that was given to him to openly stare at her ass. He had been born and raised an opportunist, after all.

"Just stay where yer to for a while, eh?" The sable wolf let his long tongue loll from the side of his muzzle, and he cocked his head and widened his unblinking, staring eyes. This exaggerated expression was not at all necessary for him to indulge in his activity, he simply wanted to give Sandpiper something worth seeing if she turned around again to look at him.

She may not have had much for an ass, but Raptor did not have much for preferences either. He was a precocious yearling with nothing to lose and who had a particular and sometime aggravating knack for having his fun in almost any situation. Unfortunately, it was often at someone else's expense.

she whipped her head around as she registered what he had said, her ears pulled back in stark umbrage. how dare! with a grunt she started to crab walk away from him, angling her spine so her backside was facing away from his roving eyes. god save any onlooker who witnessed her, who likely would assume she was either possessed, or plain rabid.

there was a third option, which was stupid, but sandpiper would never admit such a flaw.

she kept her muzzle contorted in a deep scowl as she scuttled away from him, stopping at the edge of a small tide pool. in the water she saw all manner of things - kelp, shrimp, thousands of small invertebrate she knew not the name or taxon of. "hey!" she yelled, looking up at raptor with her jaws parted in a pant: "there's some grub here."

He let her go, shifting not a single strand of fur to follow her. Until she said something about grub. His attention from her had started to wane and drift out across the shoreline until she said that word. Then it snapped back like she had cast her line and hooked him in the ear.

"Grub?" He echoed, but he needed no confirmation. The insatiable Raptor was already bounding forward across the rocks and sand to her position, where he slid right up beside her shoulder to shoulder and peered into the pool she was looking into. He saw them too: the critters and plants. Raptor was not a fussy eater; the only thing he preferred was that he did not have to work hard for his food. Except when he stole it. But thievery her saw more as a game; entertainment.

The dark wolf swiped his long tongue along his lips and then splash! he drove his face in. He snapped and slurped and stirred the water into a soup of floating dirt and seaweed and any critter too small to fight the eddies he made. By all accounts, his actions seemed to be accomplishing nothing more than the creation of a noisy mess and the ruining of all chances for a snack. But then — plop! clack! and other such noises! — so-called grub started landing on the rock that embraced the pool.

Kelp fronds, periwinkles, a scuttling crab. The pirate kept flinging these things ashore until he had amassed a small but appreciable pile. He might have kept going, but he had found an urchin. This spiky, seemingly inedible thing was a prize. One he held delicately, skillfully, between his fangs in such a way as to spare his tongue from the spines. He grinned however much he could in Sandpiper's direction, his face dripping with water, and his tail sweeping the stone as he eagerly wondered if she knew how to eat these things.

He did...

sandpiper had a ruse all crafted; when he got close, stuck his mug into the water, she was going to shove him as hard as her thin little frame could. and somehow, raptor foiled it without even trying. she watched incredulously as he plucked all manner of fauna and flora from the sparkling water -- rather than join him she stalked over to his clutch, rifling through it with a disinterested look painting her muzzle.

disinterested, until she saw what was in raptor's mouth.

it was dark, spiky, and oddly attracting. sandpiper pulled close, her gaze rapt on that thing in raptor's mouth. something about how dangerous it looked enticed her -- surely it was protecting some succulent meat underneath those fearsome quills?

"what is that?" she asked innocently, stopping a few inches from him as she stared at the prickly thing. she hoped he would drop the urchin on the ground to tell her -- and if he did, she would nimbly pluck it from the sand and take off at warp speed cackling down the beach.

Raptor did not share food with just anyone. He was not altruistic by any stretch of the definition and drew a rather distinct line in the sand when it came to that: he shared food with his crew and that was it. Presently, that meant Sandpiper and her brother. They were his wolves. He had aligned himself to them — they were the only wolves that mattered besides himself. Therefore this was not a gesture of kindness. It was not flirting. It was camaraderie. It was honor among thieves. The rationing of goods among pirates.

The bandit-masked wolf unwittingly did exactly what his companion hoped he would do. He served her a chance to swipe his prize on a golden platter. He dropped the echinoderm on the rock and answered, "it's a tasty sea urchin," and then waited, grinning knowingly and devilishly, for her to ask him how to eat it.

if there was any mischief on sandpiper's mind, she hid it well. she peered at him with feigned fascination, her eyes wide and doe-like as she awaited the master to impart wisdom on its ragged pupil. it was all a masterfully crafted masquerade -- no sooner did he loosen his grip on the urchin did sandpiper make her move.

in a flurry of sand, the girl lunged for the thing -- it was an artful maneuver, truly -- for the urchin was hardly airborne before she made her bid for its spiky surface. if she was successful, she would grab the thing and make a positively headlong gallop down the strand -- cackling all the while and looking like a cocaine-hopped corgi doing the puppy zoomies.

Sandpiper had pinched the urchin and took off quicker than he could process what was happening. He stared after as she ran off cackling, his jaw hanging loose and his expression blank. Then he grinned and slowly shook his head. She was as much a thief as Smoke and he.

He wondered momentarily if she did know how to reach the delicate flesh inside the urchin... but remembered she did not even know what the thing was. No matter. She had left with the gold but all the silver was still here, and it totalled in excess of what was beneath those spines. Feeling smug, and certain that she'd be back, Raptor turned to the pile and scoffed down a share of the periwinkles before he sucked back a mussel and then went for a gnaw on a kelp frond.

She'd be back. Smarting because she got a spine in the lip or frustrated because she did not know the way cool trick that he knew to getting the things open — and more.

victoriously the leggy female cavorted in a wild canter around raptor, holding her neck stiff and head aloft as she fielded the spiny thing in her mouth. it was very prickly and as she canted her head back a small trickle of saltwater slid into her nose. she stopped and dropped the thing on the ground, pawing it carefully.

raptor was right -- she would be back. she eyed his hunched form as he bent over his assorted meal. "OI!" she hollered, casting him a scowl. "your food is useless."

Raptor stretched himself out on the stone like a sphinx to wait.

Then there she was.

For a long time he just grinned toothily at her in silence save for the sound of the ocean around them, and the swish of his tail against the rock. He crossed his forelegs, whistled casually, and then broke the silence only when he thought he had let her stew in her folly long enough and only when he had basked to his satisfaction. Then he rose to his paws and winked smugly at her.

"Nah. It just requires a bit of know how and skill. Come, lass, and watch the master. Hah!"

Raptor brushed past her and reclaimed the urchin before he strolled away, in that loose-limbed swagger that was his. He assumed she would follow and did not look to see if she had. Instead, his eyes combed the rocks looking for something specific. Fortunately he did not have to look too far to find it. He stopped at a wide flat boulder and inspected a number of pale, brittle crab shells and broken urchins.

Overhead, a few gulls circled.

"See these?" He glanced behind him then, expecting Sandpiper to be there, eager to be taught (ha).

sandpiper did not miss the male stretched out luxuriously like some fat domestic; she scowled, but approached him all the same. it would do no favors to her stomach to snub him, but she loathed the idea of encouraging his ego to grow any larger.

she lashed her tail as he just stared at her -- rude -- there was a lady starving here! she huffed a few times to announce her displeasure, and was just about to turn and leave when he finally broke the silence.

she muttered under her breath about him being some sort of master of pain-in-the-assery, but if he caught it, or he turned around to face her, she would simply issue her most innocent and brilliant smile.  sandpiper hung behind him as he roused around the pools, searching for only gods know what. sandpiper's stomach rumbled, insensate and impatient.

she looked at the stone and the assortment of crab husks, and then looked at raptor balefully. "yes." she grudgingly admitted, still fully aware of her folly. overhead the chatter of gulls might have clued someone in to what might happen next, but sandpiper was too absorbed nursing her stinging ego to connect the two.

Raptor chose an open spot to drop the urchin. Turning back to Sandpiper — whose contemptuous expression and bearing was not missed — he raised his brows and tsked as he slowly shook his head. "I'm about t'show ye how to have a fine meal and yer bein' a sour ass." If she was not crew he would not have had even a drop as much patience. But it could not be said that he was not getting off on the wind up to the big reveal of his awesome trick.

"Back off and act casual. Don't stare at the birds." He instructed his surly companion as he moved to do the same. Raptor did not go far — he prostrated himself near a rock a couple wolf lengths from the urchin and feigned complete indifference by licking his paws. Overhead, the gulls tightened their wheels as one noticed the urchin, and he watched them carefully without turning his head to them or making it obvious that his attention was on their every move.

if her mood was dark before, it was positively pitch when she was called a sour ass. she made it a point to look at her ass -- she even swung her tail a bit in the air -- it was definitely not sour.

she stalked after raptor, her shoulders rolling smoothly as she followed him. he settled near the rise of a rock, and sandpiper slid onto her belly besides the slab. she situated herself directly behind him, and did as he said -- only she focused her attention on feinting nibbles at his tail. she lipped at the longer wisps, trying to pluck his tail the way a bird might.

if she was gun' have some lernin' today, she was gonna do it the sandpiper way: ultimate pain-in-the-ass style.