Oystercatcher Tide Pools place your bets

Nonsense! Mixposts are bestposts.

Serein greeted Komodo’s encouraging nudges with a few hearty thumps of her tail — and when Brontide let go of her leg with an affronted, “You got sand in my eyes!” it was just an added bonus, really. She bounded lithely to her paws with a dismissive sniff, bored with the game, and flashed the Earthstalker a warm smile before sidling past him to join her twin. Brontide rolled more slowly to his feet, shaking the sand out of his fur and snorting to clear his nostrils. “How far to the island, Komodo?” he asked curiously, making his own way toward the tide pools with a companionable shoulder-to-shoulder nudge. He began to graze through them but found himself unimpressed with the sporadic rhythm of their foraging:

Walk. Stop. Snap. Swallow. Rinse and repeat.

He kept his eye on a flock of oystercatchers engaged in a disagreement over — whatever birds got into disagreements about. The moment the opportunity presented itself, Brontide lunged, and although his teeth merely clipped the wing of one of the birds who’d fluttered too close, he was quick to lunge a second time, snapping its neck and ending its suffering. Unceremoniously, he flopped down to eat, spitting feathers but supremely pleased.