Wheeling Gull Isle taught me how to build a fire and to spread the word

optionally for @Phox @Seal and/or @Towhee but open to others! i ask that we limit this to maybe 5 people max though! <3 can also be backdated if needed

The Isle has visitors, visitors who were practically strangers to Dinah, but known inexplicably nonetheless. One of which was, presumably, a fabled cousin that existed only within her mind's eye up until now.
These were strange folk, she thought, who smell of pine needles and hickory and have foreign tongues. One was cloaked in neat shades of soot like Gramma, the other a gray-mottled youngling with an accent Dinah had never heard before.
Up until this point, she had only watched them from afar; listened to conversations and studied how they move. She was, as she'd come to learn, suspicious of those who tracked their mud along the Isle — but this was family! Gramma brought them, she assumed, and frankly she was relieved to fret over something that was not her several missing and injured siblings. Instead, she fretted over gifts.
The little redhead coasts the lavender field until she lumbers into the thicket, eyes bright and wide in search of the perfect blooms to bring to her guests. There were not many left now that autumn had begun to descend upon the land in a grave snarl of chill and bright color; but nonetheless, she is determined.

At some point, Seal spirited away from the main group to investigate the island. Originally, she thought the only thing she’d want to do would be to spend time with family. However, the island's unique biome was too fascinating to ignore

The hum of crashing waves could be heard no matter where you were. Gulls cried and the salty air touched every plant. Even the dirt was sandy and strange.

Seal picked her way around the Greenhills until she found a forested area. Islands had forests too? There, she spies a young redhead.

“Hi! Dinah?” Seal called, her intonation posing a question. Before arriving, Towhee had provided a run-down of the names and appearances of all eight relatives. Dinah was probably the easiest to remember - a red-furred girl who was nearly identical to Caracal. “S’Dinah right?” she asked, dark eyes sparkling with excitement. Maybe, with a little luck, they would come to be more like sisters than cousins.

If there was a word to describe Dinah, it, perhaps, would be sheltered. Never before had she really held an actual conversation with a girl her own age that was not entirely one-sided. The shout earns a little swivel of her ears, and she whips her head around in search of the source, weeds still in her teeth.
Promptly setting down her slim pickings, she stands still for a moment before a smile breaks out across her cheeks. Yeah, hi, twitch go her ears, tail whirring. you're, um, you're Seal, right? Gramma told me a little about you.
I was just looking for, um, gifts for you and Gruncle Phox, bashfully, her paw scrapes at the silt below. I'm trying to become a botanist. I wanted to get you flowers, but there aren't many sprouting right now. At least not out here. she was rambling, and she knew this, and yet she could not seem to get her tongue to stop moving.

Seal nodded in affirmation with a bright and plucky expression. Her gaze studied Dinah’s characteristics before trailing down her orange legs to spy the delicate plants at her cousin’s feet. Then, it snapped back up.

“Same,” Seal said with a breathy laugh. “I only ken a wee bit about you, but I’m verrae excited tae be here and meet you all! I wish my sister, Orca, was here, too. Maybe, someday, you can come visit Moonspear?” she proposed.

Then, her ears perked up. Gifts! “That’s so nice of you, I love flowers,” she said emphatically. “I love all plants, really.” Maybe botany was in Seal’s future, as well? “One of the wolves at Moonspear tends a grand garden. But… I dinnae recognize any of the plants on this island. Could you teach me about them?” she asked, interested in bonding over their common interest.

Moonspear; a place she had no mental vision of, and yet it seemed to course through her veins. So much of her family resides there, and it made her wonder why her parents had chosen their secluded land so far away. My mama says we're gonna go to the mainland in the winter, the redhead's smile brightens. maybe I'll get to meet her then! You'll have to show me around. I don't really know what mountains are like.
For all she knew was her Isle. She had caught only a glimpse of the mainland; to her understanding, it was one big, giant island with swaths of white sand and evergreens tucked in the center; she can envision it now, how vast the flower fields must be, how cool the waters along the opposite coast! 
And it was at the mention of flowers that Dinah's ears cupped forward in intrigue, haunches wriggling excitedly. Poor Seal did not yet know the flora of the Wheeling Gull, and that was a downright tragedy.
Widened sapphire eyes gleam as she points to the plants she had just been plucking; head bobbing in a firm nod. These are just boring weeds. I think they're clovers, she noses at the downy leaflets, the spikes of alabaster that press softly against the tip. we have all kinds'a flowers, though. C'mon, I'll give you a tour!
She waves for her mottled companion to follow her; perhaps they'd have better luck in the field near the tidepools!

Dinah shared her family plans which made Seal perk up. She pictured all of her cousins at Moonspear running around the mountain crags and having the time of their lives. Then, she imagined summer vacation on the beaches of Sweetharbor’s island. She felt her heart grow two sizes bigger. Moonglow and Moontide were sister villages to Moonspear. Perhaps Sweetharbor would become one as well?

“Oh, I’d love tae!” the mountain girl exclaimed. “It’s so…. opposite of here,” voice was full of wonder and admiration. It was the only way she could describe it. Every feature of the island directly contrasted with the mountain.

But when the conversation turned to plants, Seal watched Dinah’s eyes grow big with excitement.

“Clover,” Seal repeated as she stooped down to inspect the tiny white blooms and dark rounded leaves. Moonspear’s high elevation wasn’t hospitable to a lowland plant like this. Then, Dinah invited Seal on a tour. “Okay!” she exclaimed, ready to follow wherever Dinah should lead.

Unbeknownst to little Dinah but known very much so to her writer, she would be going to Moonspear much sooner than she thought. But presently, she gives a warm nod to her cousin; naively, curiously, and a little hum whistles from her throat. I like it here. I think it's cool! But I've always wanted to explore the mainland. One time I went out there and a big scary man approached me. But I don't think he was from Moonspear. at least she hoped not.
She proceeds forth with a swing to her tail as it rests above her hips, lanky limbs stretched in a wide-set trot. The trees grow sparse and turn to simple patches of wildgrass, and among them are late-blooms; fireweeds and cottongrass, which she points out with the tip of her claw. I like these ones, she chirps. the white ones I like to call cotton-tails, 'cuz they look like a bunny's tail!
Further toward the shoreline, the hazy cerulean crash of the sea grows visible. Hidden between rocks lie little succulents, warm-tinted and jagged; and Dinah points at these too. I think these are lanceleaf. Aren't they funny looking?

just a cameo!

A pair of voices trickled near, and Phox perked up at the sound of them, pushing himself clumsily into a lopsided sit. One of the voices he recognized as Seal's, but the other had to have been one of Caracal's daughters. It took him a moment to locate them visually, but soon enough he zeroed in on the two of them chatting away and seeming to enjoy each other's company. It was a blessing, considering all that had happened on this island the last time he had been here. He watched for a little while longer before settling back down, chin resting on his front paws, and drifting back to sleep with the sound of waves crashing in his ears.

Dinah’s story about the big scary man reminded Seal of the hellcat she encountered in Bramblepoint… but, thinking the story would scare Dinah, she kept her mouth shut.

She followed Dinah across the island scrim and enjoyed the beautiful and unique biome of a place so detached from the mainland. Her cousin pointed out the cottongrass. “It does!” Seal agreed as she tickled her nose with it.

Then, they continue down closer to the sea where succulents grow among the cracks in the rock. “Lanceleaf? Wow, doesnae look like anything I’ve seen before,” Seal commented with her voice full of wonder. “It dosnae look like a plant at all.”

“Can any of these plants be used in medicine?” Seal asked.

fading + archiving here!

I think so, Dinah chirps. In truth, she'd never really considered it — if she ate it while injured or sick, would it hurt her or help her? Decidedly, she did not want to find out the hard way.
Dinah continues her tour of the island; from the thicket to the shoreline, to the tidepools and over to Psalm, who she greets with a soft tap to verdant shell. To the lavender field, where the bite of mid-autumn is heavy, and to the greenhills — she points out everything she recognizes along the way. Ragweed, asters, lupines, all now disappointingly wilted and frozen, but luckily, she kept a few in her family's den where no one else could find them. And to Seal she bestows them to, with an offer to keep them and take them back to Moonspear; to show her family there the life of the isle, the life that God created.
But she doesn't mention that last part, and even she is not quite sure why.