Wheeling Gull Isle awake my soul

He had not considered that the island would be visible from the mainland; he had no memory of ever noticing it before, but maybe he had in passing and merely ignored it, deemed it inconsequential to whatever drama had been drummed up at the time. The stranger took notice of him and seemed to be elated, or dismayed, it was hard for Firefly to read them properly. They spoke openly about their quest and the guardian could appreciate the honesty at the very least.

His brow did quirk at the term, island thing. However, Firefly kept any comments about the erratic nature of this nerve-wrack creature to himself. When he did speak it was with some veiled sense of authority, as if the island belonged to him.

It is, he quipped first. I live there along with some women. Which made him sound like the owner of a harem or something—the furthest thing from the truth—but it wasn't a terrible image in Firefly's mind, so he didn't clarify beyond that. Instead he continued to scrutinize the stranger and to interrogate him: We could use some more healthy young men in our ranks, if you're interested—but you would be forsaking the mainland. The sea is fickle and does not allow us passage too often.

The strangers upon the isle might not have been family, but they were living together under the common goal of survival; that was enough for Firefly to assume that establishing a pack was the next step—so he would help Strand out, at least a little, to repay her for saving him from the shoreline.